Episode Report Card Kim: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Boys Rule, Girls Drool
By Kim | Season 23 | Episode 15 | Aired on 12.18.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Sophie won! She explains that she tried to play within the framework of the game, and laid back and waited to see what motivated others before acting. Probst asks her if she's learned from how other people viewed her, as selfish and bratty, and Sophie says that she's always been confident but now she's trying to be more like Dawn. Nothing against Dawn, but gross.
Then they move on to Coach, who says that he learned a lot from his last season, and tried to be more likable. Coach admits that his praying might have seemed over the top, but says it grounded him. Probst does his favorite straw poll thing and discovers that if Coach had taken Albert and Rick, he would've won it.
Ozzy says that he keeps playing because he loves nature and communing with nature and nature is his God. Also, nature. Ozzy gives props to Sophie for being smart and physically powerful. But Probst can't let Sophie get the credit so he basically fellates Ozzy about how awesome he is, and then Ozzy talks for like twenty minutes about how great he is. It's so gross.
And hey, why talk more to Sophie, the winner? Let's talk to useless ol' Cochran. He admits that his experience in watching the show did not help him at all and only made him defensive, which was detrimental. And he's single, ladies!
Brandon says that he tried very hard on the season to do the right thing and restore the Hantz family name. But his family didn't like how he played and they don't support him. So then Russell stands up and says that he is great and Brandon did everything wrong and Probst is like, "We should have another season with these two duking it out" and everyone at home is like, "PLEASE GOD NO."
Ozzy wins Fan Favorite. Gross. I mean, if it were Best at Challenges, fine. But he's such an asshole.
Checking in quickly with a few others. Dawn learned to challenge herself. Whitney and Keith are a couple. Edna's pregnant. Christine and Stacy are BFF. Brandon gets to talk again about how his family hates him, but he's proud of how he played. Jim's big advice is to figure out if people are playing to last longer (like Cochran) or to win (like he was) and act accordingly.
Then Probst gives Sophie her check, and announces that next season, the tribes will compete against one another but live together. That could… actually be interesting. And hopefully no returnees.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Sophie won! So first, we are treated to a Sophie montage. She just graduated from college! She won challenges! She had an emotional breakdown when she found out people thought she was condescending! You know, let's compare Sophie and Jim. Did anyone think Jim was condescending? He was pretty blunt. But people were like, "Oh, that Jim! What a rascal!" But when Sophie told it like it was, she was considered condescending. Maybe I overly value bluntness. Sophie can come hang out with me, anytime.
Probst had on his normal blue button down before the commercial, but during the break, he changed into a blue sweater. What a dweeb. Like he has to be "casual Probst" to host the reunion, so we don't confuse him with "island Probst." The fact that he actually thought about whether to change, and what to change into, makes me kind of sad. And giggly. Probst starts out by asking Sophie if she had any inkling that she won, and Sophie says that she hoped she did, because Coach got "demolished in the Final Tribal." Albert didn't get any votes, and obviously no one thought he would, because they don't even discuss him as a contender.
Probst asks Sophie what the key was to her win. Sophie says that she tried to suss people out right away and figure out their motivations, and when the whole thing turned into "a religious framework" and all about honesty and loyalty, she worked within that instead of fighting it. That's a really nice way of saying that she kind of thought the religion stuff was bullshit, but she knew saying that would be signing her death warrant. Probst asks if she is like that in real life, trying to figure out where she fits in. What is this bullshit question? He would NEVER ask a male winner that question. Because she's a chick, she has emotions and shit. Tell us about your emotions, Sophie! Anyway, Sophie agrees that she's usually more of an observer and waits to speak up in meetings and other groups. Then Sophie starts giggling with excitement.
Probst asks her about the reaction back home. Well, they all hate her. Obviously, they're excited! Waste of a question. Probst asks if she told her family how she was doing. Isn't she not allowed to do that? Sophie says that she didn't tell them. Probst asks how she describes the experience to others, and Sophie says that it was a life-changing experience, and she knows it sounds dumb to say that about reality television, but it's true. And she adds that she tells people that she was always hungry, because she was.