Survivor 41 Finale "One Thing Left to Do...Win" Gameplay Analysis

"No comment." 

-Heather Aldret

Another Survivor season has come and gone.  I have mixed feelings on 41.  The cast was excellent and there was some truly fun and interesting gameplay from most of them.  I'd like to see the majority of the cast play again.  On the flip side, there were way too many twists and the editing was sloppy in regards to the winner.  I have a lot of questions about this season and I'm anxious to hear more from the cast.  In the meantime, let's look at who played well and who sucked.

We'll be doing this by round of play, so we'll start with the Final 5.

Who Played Well:

Let's start with Deshawn.  I highly doubt that he was on the chopping block as much as the episode tried to make it seem.  No one in their right mind should have voted out Deshawn over Ricard here.  That said, I liked his attempts to patch things up with Erika, even if they didn't work out.  He survived the vote and got rid of Ricard.

Erika may have been last to solve the word scramble, but she still managed to find the Advantage, which helped her win Immunity.  I loved her choice of Heather to bring on Reward.  That way she isn't feeding any of the guys and it gave her an opportunity to patch things up with Heather.  Then they both got rid of Ricard.

As for Xander, he played his Idol for himself instead of Ricard.  It may seem obvious, but sometimes the obvious move is the right one.

Who Sucked:

I don't think any of the Final 4 played poorly here.

As for Ricard, it was a bummer to see him go out here.  I was really starting to like the guy.  Still, it was so obviously the right move that you can't be too upset about it.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Final 5 goes to Erika Casupanan for finding the Advantage, winning Immunity, taking Heather on Reward, and eliminating Ricard.

I'm not giving out a Worst Player of the Final 5.

Let's move on to the Final 4!

Who Played Well:

I only have Deshawn in this section because he won the fire-making challenge.

Who Sucked:

Starting with Erika, although I don't think it mattered at all, I don't think it's ever a good look to be the person who is taken to the end.  

While Xander did win Immunity, he needed to pull a Chris Underwood and take on Erika in the fire-making himself.  He also seemed to have a poor read on the Jury's view of Erika's game.

As for Heather, it was a very admirable effort.  I really thought she was going to pull it off.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Final 4 goes to Deshawn Radden for winning fire-making.

Worst Player of the Final 4 goes to Xander Hastings for not taking on Erika himself and his poor performance at Tribal Council.

Final Three

Overall, I though the Final Tribal Council was unspectacular.  While the stuff with Deshawn was good and Erika gave the best performance of the three, it still left me with more questions than answers.  Erika was incredibly under-edited and Xander was given far too positive an edit.  It left me feeling very disconnected from the results.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Season goes to Ricard Foyé and I don't think it was close.  He was an absolute triple threat, excelled at every aspect of the game, and did it all with a disability.  Extremely impressive.

Worst Player of the Season goes to Liana Wallace.  And before anyone gets upset, I only look at the players who make the merge for this award.  I don't want to make it too easy.  She was just so willing to tank her own game to save Shan.  You've known her for like 2 weeks!  Be friends after you win the million dollars.  Plus she let herself get too focused on her feud with Xander.

And that's it.  Hopefully 42 will have some severe tweaking and dialing back of the twists.  I doubt it, but I can hope.