Right after Tribal Council, Erik gets really dizzy and has to lie down. The medics come out and say that his blood pressure is dangerously low and he's in a starvation state. They try giving him IVs but they're worried that he's crashing so they pull him from the game. Yikes!
After about five seconds of lamenting Erik's tough luck, Cochran starts scheming again, hoping to get Eddie on his side. The morning, they head to a Reward Challenge that we've seen before; they have to hold an overhead rope while building a card house with the other hand. First to reach a certain height wins and gets an advantage in the Immunity Challenge. There is a ton of back and forth with people building their towers way up and then losing them, but ultimately Cochran wins.
As the final four try to figure out which of the other two they'd like to be up against in front of the jury, everyone is sick of Dawn's whining and crying, but they also fear that she may be sympathetic to a jury. Even Cochran is like, "Ugh, enough with Dawn."
Then they do the Parade of Dead Survivors. At least they have people from each of the original tribes, so there's no point where "None of us know this person so what can we say?" but I still really hate this segment.
The final immunity challenge involves racing up three flights of stairs, untying bags of puzzle pieces, and then sliding down and assembling the 3D puzzle. Cochran's advantage is that he doesn't need to untie his bags of puzzle pieces, and it leads to him getting all three bags first. He has all three bags down while his closest competitors are just retrieving their second bags. It doesn't seem to help him with his puzzle, but once he gets going, he gets going and he ends up winning immunity. Dawn is celebrating like she just won too, which is annoying.
At the final Tribal Council, Cochran starts making his case to the jury by painting himself as the underdog. Then Dawn and Eddie make the case for why they can be beaten in the final, which is a weird case to make in front of the jury; they're basically saying, "Cochran, you can beat me and here's why the jury won't vote for me (but jury don't listen)." Anyway, Cochran decides that he has a better chance against Dawn than Eddie, and he's probably right since Eddie has a lot of friends on the jury.
So then it's time for the jury, which I really hate. It always makes me so uncomfortable to watch. This one is no better than most, really. Everyone tells Sherri that she's useless, and it's the first time Sherri is hearing this news, so it's awkward. She totally gets in a fight with Erik about it. Malcolm advises Dawn to really fight for herself, but she kind of only has one key word: relationships. Dawn does make one really good point, thanks to Michael – that she's bearing the brunt of the criticism, even though Cochran did everything she did, and that's because she went out and made friendships with people just to suck out information with which the two of them made voting decisions. Cochran just kind of sat back and enjoyed the fruit of her conversations. The case could be made, though, that it was a great strategy decision on Cochran's part, since he got to go just as far in the game and not get blood on his hands.
I'm interested to see who the bro-lliance votes for, since they all seem to be adopting Cochran as their mascot, but also they all urge Dawn to find her inner killer and admit that she's enjoying kicking people's asses. And then Brenda gets up and accuses Dawn of wanting to quit the game without her teeth, and forces Dawn to take out her teeth to prove that she would have continued even without them. Wow, any sympathy I had for Brenda is gone. That was…super ridiculous.
So what I took away from the question and answer period is that no one is voting for Sherri, most people are probably voting for Cochran, but Dawn may have earned a few votes, maybe from Andrea and Michael. I don't really think Dawn deserves to win but I think she got screwed by some really sexist thinking by the jurors. If a dude had played her game, he'd be celebrated, but because she was a woman and emotional, everyone hated her. Let's see what happens.
Cochran wins in what may be a unanimous vote. We don't see any votes for anyone else.
We open with the producers' attempt to reframe the season we just saw the way that they wished we had seen it. For example, Phillip was not just a super annoying guy, but one of the biggest characters to ever play the game! Malcolm was not a fratty bro, but a hero! Brandon wasn't mentally ill and deserving of our compassion and/or assistance - he's a villain! And the Fans tribe weren't just a bunch of aspiring models and actors cast for their ability to look good in skimpy swimwear - they're superfans with great knowledge of the game! Come on, guys.
I'm getting so tired of Probst and the other producers' treating viewers like idiots with no other sources of information than what they tell us. After this many seasons and in the age of Twitter and Facebook, that's inexcusable. People know how the show is cast now. People know the conceit of season, and some people even know the cast already - check the spoiler thread if our forums if you want to know. People know how the reunion was bullshit (I'll get to that in the recap in more detail). So for them to act like they hold all of the information in an airtight vault - it's just insulting. It's time for them to start interacting with the fans instead of insulting us. Gah.
The part that the producers do portray accurately is how the Stealth R Us alliance dominated the game in the early going, although they make it out like Phillip was calling all of the shots when we know it was more like Andrea and Cochran convincing Phillip that he was calling all of the shots. But I guess that doesn't fit in with their storyline of Cochran as underdog. Most of the rest of this you already know if you watched the season, and if you're reading this I'm going to assume you did. Basically, it was really boring until Malcolm started stirring things up with the Hidden Immunity Idols, and then Malcolm left and the blindsides began.
So, to set up tonight's episode, Erik is losing it due to lack of food and just mental anguish. Eddie is the only one left from his alliance, and probably going to leave soon. Dawn lost her dentures and threatened to quit the game, and Brenda got them for her, and then Dawn voted her out. THAT BITCH! Just kidding. I still don't really get why Dawn owed Brenda anything. Also, Sherri and Cochran are left but Sherri's a non-entity, and Cochran...well, you'll see.
Right after Tribal Council, Erik kind of collapses as they leave. Everyone gathers around him as he explains that his head is spinning. Probst shows up. Cochran interviews that Erik looked dazed and dizzy, and Erik says that everything is spinning and he needs to lie down. The medics show up and take his blood pressure. One of them tells Probst that he's worried Erik is in "a starvation state" and his body has been pushed to the limit. He's also worried, due to the dizziness, that there's not enough blood getting to Erik's head. Are we sure this guy is a doctor? Because that seems like something any yahoo could figure out. Also, why are the medics always Australian? I just picture Crocodile Dundee wearing scrubs.
The doctor decides to get an IV in Erik right away, and Erik wants to know what it's for. Is this part of his dizziness or does he really not know what an IV is all about? Eddie (who's an EMT, don't forget) explains that Erik is really dehydrated and they're giving him fluids, including saline. That's the most coherent Eddie has sounded all season. Who knew Eddie had a brain in there? Anyway, Erik's blood pressure is 100/70, which isn't terrible in and of itself, but it keeps dropping while he's lying there, which isn't good. Erik says that he doesn't even think he could get up and go back to camp. Probst asks the doctor for his opinion so he says that he's going to pull Erik from the game, because it's too dangerous.
Probst tells Erik the news and Erik has barely registered the news before Probst tells the others that the game has been rocked again, and they're now the final four. You couldn't wait for him to leave before giving that speech? Everyone is either genuinely concerned or fake concerned about Erik and say their goodbyes. Aw, poor Erik. He kind of slid under the radar. I don't know if he could have made a case for winning in the finals, but I also don't think he pissed anyone off, so maybe the jury would have voted for him. Who knows?
Once Erik is gone, Probst addresses the final four again, which is what he should have waited for in the first place. He basically tells them to stay strong and eat something. Thanks, dude! Eddie interviews that he didn't think he had a chance at the finals, but maybe now he does! His chance is exactly the same: he needs to win immunity or he's gone.
The tribe returns to camp, all kind of dazed and stunned at what just happened. Eddie points out that Erik was starving, and he went on every reward! I still think Erik's leg infection (that he only found out about after he left the game) had more to do with his dizziness than the starvation, but what do I know? Cochran interviews that his thoughts immediately turned to gameplay, and while he's psyched to be in the final four, he also realizes that he wants to be the first one to get to Eddie. They don't have a close relationship, but Eddie is likely to win the final immunity and thus have all the power in determining who stays and who goes.
Cochran and Eddie are left alone in the shelter (dumb move, Dawn and Sherri). They talk about the final three, and Eddie says that he thinks that he and Cochran should bring Sherri, because they can beat her. Cochran agrees and they shake on it. Eddie interviews that he thinks if he takes Sherri and Cochran to the final three, he will probably win. I don't know that he's wrong. Cochran played a better game, but the people on the jury just LIKE Eddie better, and I think they would be tickled that he made it to the finals against such huge odds.
Day 37 dawns. They get treemail inviting them to a Reward Challenge, and they're psyched since they didn't think there would be any more rewards. Well, there wouldn't have been if Erik had stayed; this would have been the five to four Immunity Challenge instead. Dawn interviews that she's so happy to have made it to the final four, and she's proud of herself for having made strategic decisions, since she didn't do that last time around.
The four players show up for their Reward challenge. Probst explains that they will hold a balancing board with one hand and build a house of cards with the other. Another repeat challenge. The first one to get their house high enough to reach a certain mark wins, and the winner gets an advantage in the final Immunity Challenge. That seems...unfair. I don't think there should be an advantage in the final challenge.
So they all start building houses with varying strategies. From what I remember of this the last time they ran it, you have to compromise between using a lot of cards to make a really steady base and making sure you have enough cards to get high enough to hit the mark. This is the one where Sophie tried to convince Albert to drop his stack. Anyway, each of them builds a decent stack and then loses all or part of it at some point, which means that each of them has the lead at some point. Eddie gets pretty close but he didn't have enough cards left anyway, so it was a moot point. Sherri's hands are shaking like crazy, but she and Cochran are neck-and-neck. Then Sherri loses her entire stack and Cochran remains a cool customer and wins the challenge. Dawn is immediately hugging him like stop making it all about you Dawn. She also hugs Sherri and Eddie. Ugh. Probst gives Cochran a paper with an advantage and tells him not to open it until they report to the final immunity challenge. Dawn interviews that even with Cochran's advantage, she can't take anything for granted and remember that without winning immunity herself, she could be gone.
As they return to camp, Cochran interviews, probably mostly tongue-in-cheek, that he's a "challenge beast" but says more seriously that he's happy to have an advantage in the challenge, but he's even more happy that the advantage didn't go to Eddie or even Dawn, since he's still not sure who he wants to take with him to the finals if he gets the opportunity.
Eddie and Sherri go into the jungle and talk strategy. Sherri says that she'd rather go to the finals with Eddie and he agrees. They both know that they don't want to sit to Dawn because they think she played on the jury's emotions and they will vote for her. What these two dummies aren't seeing is that she played on the jury's emotions and then voted them all out, which is viewed as a worse betrayal than being collegial around camp and voting them out, which was Cochran's strategy.
Dawn and Cochran talk strategy and agree that they are locked with one another. And Sherri is locked in with them too. And yet, Dawn is paranoid that Sherri and Eddie are alone together right now. Look, you can only control so much. Sherri and Eddie are going to talk. When this few people are left, you can't prevent people from getting together without being totally obvious, and is that what you want to do? Cochran interviews that Dawn has a new freakout every day, and it usually involves sobbing, but today's breakdown was more catatonic worry about Eddie and Sherri taking her out. Cochran reminds her that they're only two votes, so they can't completely take her out - at best, it would be a tie. Dawn interviews that every day has featured at least one point where she threw a huge tantrum. I didn't really think about how exhausting that must have been for her tribemates, but can you imagine? You know that person at work or in your family who overreacts to everything? And is totally a doomsday predictor about everything? And how you have to talk that person off the ledge constantly? Now imagine living with that person, but you're not REALLY tied to them as you would be with a family member. Ugh. I would want to murder her in her sleep.
Cochran assures Dawn that there's no scenario where he would vote her out, and Dawn says that she feels the same way. They both vow that they're locked together, and Dawn says that she was hoping Cochran would take twenty minutes reassuring her. So she knows she's like this and she continues to be that way? Man, I started this episode neutral to slightly positive on Dawn, but she's rubbing me the wrong way. I don't know if this is editing showing us why the jury ended up voting the way they did, or if she's really been this awful all along. Cochran interviews that he doesn't get why Dawn thinks she deserves a Fast Pass to the finals and he shows off his Howard Stern fandom by saying, "It's not fun. It's not funny." Ba ba Booey! Anyway, Cochran admits in his interview that Dawn should be paranoid because he is thinking about ditching her.
Dawn and Cochran retrieve the last tree mail which announces their Journey of the Fallen Survivors. As I say every season, I'm sure that this is very meaningful to the people playing the game, but it's just a waste of time. At least this season, for once, they have people who started out on each tribe in the finals, so there's no fallen Survivors who were also complete unknowns.
Here is a one-sentence summary of what was remembered about each player. Francesca made history as being voted out first twice, but this time it was because she was a huge threat. Allie was a random blonde who associated herself with Reynold. Hope was Eddie's first sweetheart, and another random blonde. Shemar was misunderstood, according to Sherri. Laura...none of them have a thing to say about her. Ouch. Brandon's "personal life got too difficult to manage," according to Dawn. Matt...nothing for him either. Julia...nothing. Well, at least we'll get to hear from these people at the reunion, right? Ha ha ha. Corinne was charismatic and energetic. Michael...nothing. Phillip was a powerhouse despite being eccentric and slightly abrasive. Malcolm was a challenge beast and a huge threat to win the game. Reynold was Eddie's best friend. Andrea is charming, beautiful, and smart. Brenda was one of the strongest players on all levels. Erik probably should have been final three.
Then they get to burn down a giant structure, which would be fun. Eddie promises us that, despite Cochran's advantage, if it's a physical competition, he will win this final challenge. Well, it depends on how big the advantage is, doesn't it?
It's the Final Immunity Challenge, which will probably have the biggest impact on who goes to the finals. Dawn interviews that she hopes Cochran, with his advantage, remembers their bond. Probst explains the challenge: they have to race up a three-story tower, untie a bag of puzzle pieces, slide down, and do it two more times. Then they open the bags and solve a puzzle. Cochran's advantage is that his bags will be untied beforehand. Cochran's advantage actually is useful; he gets down with his third bag while the others are still working on untying their second bags. Sherri is useless as usual, while Dawn and Eddie are tied in the middle somewhere.
So Cochran has a huge lead on solving the puzzle, which is one of those 3D deals, similar to the one from last season's finale. He has a hard time getting started, and the others are back and solving the puzzle before Cochran even gets his first piece in place. Dawn takes a lead on the puzzle, but once Cochran gets started, he gets on a roll. They are all more than halfway done before Eddie even gets his first piece in. Oh, Eddie. So dumb. Finally, Cochran gets to getting and solves the puzzle. Dawn reacts like she just won immunity. It just seems so insincere. I'm sure she is happy that Cochran won instead of Eddie or Sherri, but isn't she even a little disappointed that she didn't win it herself? As they walk off, Cochran calls himself a challenge monster again (calm down there, Mr. Advantage) and then interviews that he's still thinking about getting rid of Dawn.
The final four return to camp as Cochran interviews that he's definitely taking Sherri to the finals because she's not going to get any votes from the jury, but he has to decide between Dawn and Eddie. Then Cochran goes on a rant about how "it's lonely at the top" but I think (I hope?) he's kidding. He does start laughing.
Hey, Dawn's crying again! Because she and Cochran made it so far. And he has to reassure her again that he's locked in. Like he's going to tell her if he's not? Does she really expect that, given her mental instability, Cochran would be honest wit her about any doubts? Anyway, Cochran and Eddie have a chat in the jungle where Eddie tries to assure Cochran that he won't beat Dawn but he would beat Eddie, because Dawn will cry and play the mother card. Cochran isn't sure the jury will fall for her bullshit, but Eddie thinks they will. Eddie points out that he's an idiot who had no strategy, so no one will reward him. At least he's self-aware, although he doesn't actually believe that, so not that self-aware.
Then comes the greatest moment of the episode where Eddie explains what he would do if he won the million. He wants to open a kennel/doggie daycare that is also a bar. So you can drop off your dog and go drink? That might actually work. Although they would have the problem of people getting drunk and going home without their dogs, but I guess then you get to charge them the kennel fee. Anyway, Eddie loves dogs and bars, so that's his dream. He is a simple guy.
They head to Tribal Council and Erik joins the jury. I guess he's alive? We don't really get an update but he looks much better. Probst asks Cochran to recap what happened to Erik, so he does. Probst wants to know if it opened a door for Eddie, and Eddie says that it did because he thinks Erik, Dawn, and Sherri probably would have been final three otherwise. Dawn doesn't deny this. Cochran says that on the one hand, Erik leaving helps his chances, but on the other hand, no one wanted Erik to go out like that.
Probst recaps how Cochran won the advantage at the Immunity Challenge. Cochran continues to start his jury speech by saying that he always knew he could outwit, but not outplay or outlast, so he's happy to be succeeding at the challenges, and he couldn't have done so a few years ago, due to lack of confidence in himself and anxiety during challenges.
Probst asks Dawn to explain why she'd be a great person to take to the finals. In other words, Dawn, why does the jury hate you? Dawn says that she's had a hand in all of their eliminations, and Eddie hasn't. Why does Eddie suck? Eddie says that he really didn't have much strategy out there, and he had loyalty and honesty but not deception. That was actually a really good "What is your biggest weakness?" job interview answer: "I'm just too loyal and honest and I can't lie to people like Dawn can." Heh. Cochran says that they both make good arguments, and he has to figure out what the jury will be using to decide their votes.
Probst asks Sherri how it feels to be sitting there and not even part of the conversation. In other words, Sherri, how does it feel to be useless? Sherri says that she's made alliances and made moves and she's still in the game, which is worth something. Cochran agrees that Sherri's probably done more than most people realize. The jury members are kind of like, "Um."
Eddie assures Cochran that his best chance is going with him and Sherri, and Sherri says she just wants to be in the finals. Probst asks Dawn if she' scared and Dawn says she's always scared. No duh.
They vote. Everyone votes for Eddie except for Eddie, obviously, who votes for Dawn. Dawn gives him a huge hug and says she's going to miss him. For one day? And he'll be on the jury. She's just so annoying with this over-the-top bullshit. Once Eddie's gone, Probst reminds them all that the power now shifts to the jury, and they have one more night to spend at camp before facing the jury and trying to convince them to vote for her. In Eddie's exit interview, he says that he thinks he would have won if he'd made it to the finals. I don't think so. Reynold would have voted for him, but I think the rest of the people on the jury respect strategy and gameplay, and Cochran has that all over Eddie.
The day, Cochran explains to Sherri what a pawn is. She is just learning this? Anyway, she explains to us how she's so happy to make it to the finals, and she really thinks that she earned it. She does? Does she understand the concept of the goat at all? Has she watched this show before? She's kind of like Phillip - the goat who thinks she's earned the finals.
Dawn, meanwhile, is a semi-goat herself. Dawn explains that she's been playing this game for her family, which is why it didn't bother her to sever ties and betray friends - because ultimately her only alliance was with her family. Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night. I think she should just own it. At least she acknowledges that she made the decisions to get her where she is, but she still has to make up this little justification in her mind for those decisions. Just say, "I want to win, and I was willing to do whatever it took to get here. And you might hate me for it, and you might be bitter, but what I did worked, because here I am in the finals."
Cochran sits in the woods and thinks about facing the jury. He interviews that law school hasn't prepared him for this, and he feels like he's played a great game, but the doubt seeps in and he feels like a nerdy loser who hasn't done anything.
Finally, it's time for the final Tribal Council. The finalists enter and then the jury joins them. Probst gives them a little speech about how crazy this season has been and then says the thing he LOVES saying about final Tribal Council: "the power SHIFTS!" Man, he loves saying that. So let's get to the opening statements.
Dawn goes first. Her thrust is that she played hard, which was difficult for her, and that's why she was so emotional. She says that her goals were to make a strong ally, to play her own game, and give herself permission to play her own game and remember that it is just a game. She thinks that's why she was able to make hard decisions even when it involved people she had come to consider friends.
Sherri's statement is THE WORST. She acts like she's springing this huge shocker on them, because not only is she a mom, she's a successful businesswoman! Who has a lot of employees! And she intended to come on the show and treat everyone like her employees! Then she pauses for a long time and giggles because she's nervous. And then the rest of her statement makes little to no sense other than she says that she had to integrate herself with different groups. Did she practice this in her head or out loud ahead of time?
Cochran talks about how he's always been a huge fan of the game. He used to wear a buff while watching the show. He's the ONE! Who buys the buffs from the online store! I never could figure out who buys that bullshit. Oh, Cochran. I knew you were nerdy but it's so much worse than I ever imagined. Anyway, he's honored to be in the finals because he somehow won a bunch of challenges, and he served as therapist to help his social games. Cochran pumps up the jury members' egos when he says that he's never seen a collection of threats like this, and he knew he couldn't beat them in most ways, so he chose to beat them in timing, but taking out threats quickly at the moment they became threats to him. Cochran admits that he's lied and deceived, and he's proud of it and will own it, because he thinks he played the best game there. Wow. That was a really great statement. He was honest, he was humble, and he managed to compliment the jury.
Malcolm's question comes first. He congratulates them, and then says he doesn't have a question for Sherri. Ouch. Malcolm says his vote is up in the air between Dawn and Cochran. He tells Dawn that she played cold-blooded, which is what she wanted, but she has to own her actions tonight. He tells her that she can't be warm mother of six who stabs people in the back. On first viewing, I was really annoyed by this line of thought - why can't she be both? Does Malcolm have some sort of Madonna/whore thing but it's mom/gamer? But after a close viewing, I realized that Dawn was so fake and insincere with her "I will miss you" and hugs and whatnot that it rubbed people the wrong way. THAT'S what Malcolm is talking about here. Malcolm asks Cochran what quality Cochran has that Malcolm doesn't. Cochran says that he has a heightened level of insecurity, because he didn't like hearing that other people had their own plans, so he took out anyone that did. Like Malcolm.
Eddie looks like a castmember of Jersey Shore with his hair cut. Eddie asks Sherri if she can admit that she got carried to the final three. Sherri says that she doesn't think that's true, and everyone laughs at her. Whoa. The Sherri disrespect goes way deeper than I imagined. Sure, she's useless but no one is even considering voting for her, obviously. I think she ruined her last chance with her terrible opening statement. She should have told the story of her journey, and how she engineered taking out Eddie and Reynold's first alliance, how she befriended and controlled Shamar, how she managed to join up with the Favorites after the merge, and how she convinced Dawn and Cochran to take her along. She still probably wouldn't win, but she wouldn't be a joke.
Eddie tells Dawn that she claims to have played a strong game, but every time he saw her, she was crying or having a mental breakdown in the woods. Dawn says that playing the game so hard really wore on her, but she did exploit friendships and make decisions to vote people out regardless of how it affected her mentally. Eddie asks Cochran where he's going to take his newfound confidence. What kind of question is that? He actually wants to know if Cochran would hang out with the three amigos at a bar. Why is this relevant? Cochran says that he'll be hanging with them, which is a new confidence for him. He adds that he'll have two women on each side. Gross.
Phillip tells Sherri that she's no longer a member of Stealth R Us. Sherri looks heartbroken. How she doesn't laugh in his face, I do not know. Phillip tells Dawn that she was super annoying with her constant, "Oh my God! They're going to vote for me!" hissy fits, and it was disruptive in camp. Says the guy who was voted out for being annoying in camp. Phillip tells Cochran that he is a class act who played a great strategic game with no malice. So...was there a question in there?
Erik says that he and Dawn had something special, or so he thought, but after she voted Brenda out, he realized that their bond was fake, so he wants to know if she's aware of the damage she caused with her gameplay. Dawn says that she admits that she used her relationships to further herself in the game. Erik asks Sherri if she understands why she's there, and Sherri says that she played the game hard, and she's not sure why no one wants to ask about her strategy. Erik basically tells her that she's useless, and calls her "a seashell on the beach." Then Sherri gets PISSED and starts yelling at Erik to sit down. What was Erik's point? Did he want to humiliate Sherri further? She's obviously upset because this is NOT going the way that she thought it would. Just ignore her if you have nothing to say. It's not like she voted Erik out, so he's bitter at her. Anyway, Sherri ends up yelling at Erik to sit down, and it seems like he does, but according to his post-show interviews, he actually asked Cochran a question after that, so not so much.
Michael gets up and says that he knew Dawn and Cochran were working as a team, and he doesn't think it's quite fair that Dawn is getting the brunt of the attacks when she and Cochran made all the same moves. Dawn says that she developed the relationships that got them the information they needed to take people out at the right time. Michael prompts her, "So he doesn't have as much blood on his hands?" Dawn agrees and adds that she doesn't know if Cochran would be there if she hadn't done the work of getting people to tell her things.
Michael asks if he thinks Dawn is getting a fair shake, and Cochran says he's honestly being happy that people have venom towards Dawn and everyone laughs. Cochran says that he and Dawn had a symbiotic relationship; she needed him to act as therapist or she would've flamed out much earlier. It's true - if he hadn't talked her down multiple times, she would've made some dumb moves out of panic. I do think that Dawn's skillset is downplayed, but it was just as necessary, and I'm glad that Michael brought it up, though.
Reynold gets up and tells Dawn that he never liked her because she was "disingenuine." Aw, it's so cute that Reynold tried to use a big word and almost got it right. Dawn says that she's not aware that people think she's phony. Reynold asks to hear Dawn's honest opinion of him in three adjectives. And she can't do it! She can't get herself to honestly assess Reynold. He adds that he knows what she told other people, so she might as well. She finally says that he's kind of chauvinistic, he has a great sense of humor, and he's vulgar. Reynold believes her compliment because he told her the truth with the other parts. Dawn tries to make it out like she appreciates his honesty, when she should just tell him to sit down and stop talking. Anyway, he makes her says that she kicked all of their asses and she liked it a little bit. Dawn, don't give in to his jackassery.
Andrea tells them all that she's not bitter and she thought their blindside of her was awesome. She asks Cochran to name what animal he played the game most like, and he says "a chameleon." Great answer. He explains how he adapted to different situations at the right time. Andrea is proud of Dawn, and thinks they played a similar game, using their connections to get further.
Brenda starts by telling Cochran that they bonded over the family visit and then he voted her out, so she wonders why she should vote for him now. Cochran says that he's kind of a sociopath with his ability to separate friendship and gameplay, and it worries him, but that's what he did. He was very grateful for her sacrifice, and yet he also knew that she was a huge threat to his game and had to be taken out.
Ugh. My least favorite part of my least favorite section of the finale. I always hate the jury questions; they are never really useful other than giving you a preview of how people are going to vote. I almost wish they would just reveal the votes without the jury section, and then question the jury at the reunion, which would also make the reunion useful. Anyway, Brenda wants Dawn to rehash what happened when she lost her teeth, and how Brenda saved her, and how Dawn claimed she would leave the game if Brenda couldn't help her out. Dawn says that she wouldn't have left the game, no matter what she said. Brenda asks Dawn to prove it by taking out her false teeth now, as she would have had to play the rest of the game that way. Dawn refuses a few times but finally agrees and flashes her missing teeth. It's creepy and horrible. I mean, Brenda's actions, not Dawn's missing teeth. I don't know why Dawn gave in. She wasn't going to get Brenda's vote. All she had to say was that she was upset that day, and said things that she didn't mean, and she gets that Brenda is upset about her blindside, but she doesn't have anything to prove to Brenda anymore. And then stop talking. Eventually Probst would call it off. I mean, I don't know if Dawn gets at this point that she's not getting many votes. I wouldn't have given Brenda the satisfaction. That was really, really awful and uncomfortable to watch.
And that's it. So now it's time to vote for who gets the million dollars. We see Phillip vote for Cochran, and Malcolm says that he's not voting for the person he thought he would heading into this tribal council. Since we don't see anyone vote for Dawn or Sherri, it's pretty obvious that they didn't get any votes. They always show one vote for each person if they have them. Probst gathers the votes and heads out. Remember when they used to pretend like Probst had to personally carry the voting urn back to the States? By jet ski? Good times.
And now we're on the lot at CBS Studio, and Probst walks in with the votes (and a new dye job). Sherri looks much better off the island. So does Cochran. Dawn looks a lot worse. Her new hairstyle is not cute. Probst asks them for their odds at winning. Sherri laughs that hers are not good, and she's a long shot. Cochran says he feels pretty confident, but there have been a lot of blindsides of confident people this season. Dawn doesn't think she's going to win, but she thinks she'll be able to buy new teeth. Everyone laughs. Dawn and Cochran are holding hands. Probst is filling like crazy. Just read the votes!
All of the votes that Probst reads are for Cochran, because Cochran won unanimously. He hugs Dawn and then heads into the audience and hugs his mom and dad (and maybe brother and grandma?). So that's it for the finale. On to the super lame reunion !