Survivor Fiji The Winner gets all Nine Votes from the Jury

The Survivor: Fiji finale continues, and we’re down to a semi-shocking final three of Earl, Cassandra and Dreamz.

Back at camp, Dreamz apologizes for breaking his word. He’s apologizing to the wrong person. Earl rightly notes that the jury is going to rip him up for turning on Yau.

The final three get a clue that says gifts are going to fall from the sky. A plane drops a box, but it lands kind of far out in the water. Earl heads out to get it, and it’s food, I assume so they can be coherent in the final tribal council.

They set fire to the camp, getting rid of all the old palm fronds and so on that is littering the camp, before setting out to face the jury.

Jeff makes his usual speech about the power shifting to the jury. As usual, the final folks will make opening statements and then take questions.

* Earl says he tried to make the right moves and avoid the “rats and snakes” part of the game. Yau doesn’t look real thrilled about that. He says he wants the respect vote, not the sympathy vote or underdog vote.
* Cassandra says she started out really slow, but she wanted to make sure she made everyone feel comfortable at camp, and she stayed with her alliance the whole game.
* Dreamz says he knows everyone knows his life story because he’s talked to everyone about it. He says he hopes everyone’s vote helps him and “helps my life,” because CLEARLY, as he said before, he is NOT going for the sympathy vote.

Now, it’s the jury’s turn.

* Michelle starts, asking what the biggest hardship or obstacle each person faced in the game. Dreamz says starving wasn’t anything new, but the thirst was new. Cassandra says overcoming her inability to swim. Michelle asks if her fear of water earns her a million dollars. She says that forming an alliance was an obstacle for her, too, and she succeeded at that. Earl says the original Ravu knows about suffering, and that the addition of his multiple times at Exile Island, he thinks he suffered more than anyone in the game.
* Edgardo asks Earl how he found out who had the immunity idol in the other alliance. Earl truthfully says that Dreamz told him.
* Mookie is next, and he congratulates them all. Mookie, having not cooperated with Edgardo, asks Dreamz whether he told anyone about who had the immunity idol. Dreamz says he told Earl, and Mookie asks whether he considers that betrayal, and Dreamz says he thinks it is just “lying.” “Telling the biggest secret of the alliance isn’t betrayal?” Dreamz says maybe to him.
* Alex the attorney asks Cassandra to describe a moment in which she grappled the most with maintaining her integrity. She says when she wandered into a conversation between Alex and Boo about whether she should be eliminated and she had to struggle with whether to stay and listen. Alex, doing his best audition for Law & Order, says either she is lying now, or that she didn’t care at all about Stacy. When she tries to say that he misunderstood the situation, he berates her to stop and says it’s his turn to talk. He asks Dreamz about his goals to help kids and then he lied and betrayed. Dreamz says this is a game, not the real world, and he did what he had to do within the game. Alex is definitely the sanctimonious jerk of the jury thus far. Yeesh. Feels like mock trial up in here.
* Lisi says, “Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a liar by its toe,” and then asks Cassandra about her water shoes. Lisi says they are the ugliest water shoes she’s ever seen and it shows she was completely unprepared for the game. Cassandra says since she’s still IN the game, she disagrees. Lisi says she must still be in the game because of greed. Cassandra says she isn’t surprised to hear that from Lisi. So Lisi asks what did propel her, “your love of the outdoors?” She says of course, like everyone, winning the million, and Lisi tells her to shut up. Lisi asks Dreamz how many zeroes are in a million. He says six. She says good, and he asks if she thinks he’s stupid. She asks Earl about his “show for the jury” during the vote off of Yau. Earl says he was shocked that Dreamz kept immunity, and he was shocked that they are in that part of the game. I hope the holier-than-thou attitudes chill out shortly.
* Stacy says the only difference she sees between Earl and Dreamz is that Earl is a “little more sophisticated.” She says this could change Dreamz’s life, and whether she should vote based on need. Earl says they all need a million dollars, and is he supposed to feel bad because he has a job and a car? He says they have all been through stuff in their lives.
* Rocky wants to know how they “manipulated” the best. Cassandra says she listened to someone who needed to be listened to. He interrupts her, and she doesn’t answer to his liking, so he moves on. Dreamz says he manipulated his way off the chopping block every time his name came up. He also says he manipulated Yau to stay in the game. Earl says he manipulated everyone in the game because none of them thought he was even playing.
* Boo tells them to lose the smiles. Boo says Yau was the greatest player in the game. He asks Dreamz if, as a Christian, whether he was playing Yau when he made the deal or afterward. Dreamz says he sat in the chair and thought about whatever everyone else would have done. Boo lectures him about being an “immature Christian” and says he believes in him.
* Yau-Man says what went down the day before was “entirely my fault.” He tells Dreamz to enjoy the truck and not feel guilty about it. He asks if he “has the gonads” to stand up and say why he changed his mind. Dreamz says he didn’t change his mind. Yau asks if he was playing him when he accepted the truck in the first place. Yau asks whether he will admit he changed his mind. He says he didn’t. He asks Earl why he didn’t bring him along. Earl says “because I would not win” because Yau has played the best game.

Jeff reminds the jury that their votes are now being cast for a winner. (And apparently, the final three don’t get closing statements.)

The votes are cast, and we don’t see a single one this time. Jeff leaves with the votes, and we regroup in New York City, live.

The final three are sitting in the same order, but look cleaned up and happy.

The votes are: Earl, Earl, Earl, Earl and Earl. So it’s looking unanimous — and it is, Jeff reveals later.

And there it is: Earl Cole of Kansas City, Kan., is the winner of Survivor: Fiji.

Earl Cole, a 36-year-old senior advertising executive and musician from California outwitted, outplayed and outlasted 18 other castaways to take the $1 million (U.S.) prize on Sunday night’s finale of Survivor Fiji.

The final three also included Andria “Dre” Herd and Cassandra Franklin.

Cole received all nine final votes, a first in the history of the show.

In the first half of the two-hour finale, Yau-Man Chan held immunity and campaigned successfully to have 34-year-old construction worker/bar manager Kenward “Boo” Bernis voted off. But Chan was the next to go, after Herd broke a promise he made earlier to give him immunity if he won it. Chan was voted off unanimously.

Survivor Fiji