In a season that pitted a no collar tribe vs a blue collar tribe vs a white collar tribe, the 30th season of Survivor ended last night when  Mike Halloway won Survivor: Worlds Apart.

There was a lot about the survivor finale that I really enjoyed and there were other parts that I got pretty angry about. Let’s get right into some of the highlights of the show.

Highlights

1) Mike Wins & I Was Wrong! – Cmon give me some credit, it takes a big man to not only admit he was wrong but to highlight it. I was very happy that Mike Halloway walked away with a victory.  If you read my last post about whether or not they ruined the survivor finale with the second chance vote, you know that I assumed that this meant that Mike or Mama C was not going to win Survivor.  This was because they made it clear that the show would be comprised of contestants who had only been on Survivor one time and who hadn’t won the show.  Well, I was glad to hear Jeff say that Mike had been a top vote getter but that he wasn’t going to be on Second Chance now because he won.  I felt that in hindsight, the announcement made Mike’s win that much more exciting. The win was obviously deserved as well as in both Survivor or Big brother there is always a contestant that goes on a run and wins a bunch of HOH’s or immunities but they never seem to make it all the way.  Mike seemed to be the first one to do that and his run made the finale that much more enjoyable.  I mean remember I watched the finale from 1AM-4AM on a day in which I had work, was exhausted and had work the next day, and it never once lost my interest.  I’ll admit it though, there was definitely a moment on the finale where Mike infuriated me and that was when he helped Mama C make it to the end.  To me Mama C played hard but was also annoying and obviously against Mike right up until she was completely desperate in the final four.  How Mike decided to take her and help her learn how to make fire had me rooting for him to then lose, at least for about a half an hour.

 Rodney Lavolle Jr.- I really wonder if Rodney was asked to be on the ballad for Second Chance and turned it down because to me he was one of the more enjoyable characters in quite some time and would a far better choice than Max.  Over the last few weeks I think he came off as a lot more than the rough around the edges Boston kid who was lazy and bad at challenges.  It turned out that he graduated college, played football and basketball and absolutely loves his family.  The moment when his father showed up and they embraced until Rodney broke down crying saying he was at peace with his sister( who he mentioned in past interviews that she died due to drugs and Rodney actually found her dead in her home) was such a sad moment that even Jeff Probst did all he could to fight back the tears.  I hope in the end, Rodney is able to come back on the show as he’s one of the realest contestants of all time and alost pulled off a win.  I’d also add that, I may be in the minority, but I was a big fan of him getting upset about feeling slighted on his birthday.  You don’t disrespect a man on his birthday.

The Reunion Special– This was probably one of my favorite reunion specials even though they didn’t even acknowledge half of the cast that was on the stage.  I really feel that they should introduce the cast of the next season at every survivor reunion (though I feel they could have even extended the reunion a half hour so that it wasn’t as rushed) as it made the reunion must see and kept me enthralled until the final moments of the season.  It was particularly great that they then had all of the new contestants get on the bus heading to the new season right there on the spot. Aside from that I love the Jeff called to task some of the terrible things that Dan and Will said. When these things were aired during the show, I immediately wondered why they would show such terrible things being said about women on the show, especially after the nightmare from Big Brother and their racist contestants years ago.  Thus, it was great to see both men called to task and I liked how Jeff even showed the raw footage of Dan calling Rodney’s mom a derogatory name as it made him look even worse.

 Closing Thoughts

In the end I really enjoyed this season of survivor and found this to be one of the more enjoyable finales.  One thing that did infuriate me, however, was when Jeff gave Carolyn a second flint.  This ended up being a contributing factor to Rodney going home and I was so surprised to see Jeff do this.  Since when is Jeff willing and able to help contestants out during challenges in the history of Sruvivor? This made me feel like the producers would have preferred Carolyn to be in the finale because she’s a better story being that she’s older and a “mama”.  Thankfully in the end it seemed that it wouldn’t have mattered as Mike would have won either way but I do believe Rodney is a good enough h talker he could have changed a few opinions during the Q and A.  Speaking of said Q and A, was there a more annoying contestant in survivor history than Dan during that q and a and also while a member of the jury?  He was absolutely grating. On the contrary, I thought the best final speech was Shirin because she was so hurt by Will’s comments that at least she got an opportunity to get him back here.

Well that’s going to do it for me on here but keep your eyes peeled for spotlight on survivor second chance the male contestants and women contestants coming up this weekend and then more of my survivor coverage all of next season.  Until then, grab your torches, head back to camp, goodnight!