Survivor 44 Finale "Absolute Banger Season" Gameplay Analysis

 "It's a piece of wood, guys"

-Yam Yam Arocho 

Now, that is more like it.  Season 44 is my favorite of the post-Covid seasons.  While there was a little bit of garbage from production around the merge, most of the post-merge was nice and clean, as was the finale, with the exception being the fire-making challenge.  But I think the same person would have gone had it been fire or a vote.  Plus we ended up with an excellent winner who was not only a great character, but his edit showed me why he won.  That's what I want from Survivor and it's good to have it again.  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked and we'll start with the Final 5!

Who Played Well:

The vote against Lauren was a good move for both Carson and Yam Yam.  Carson also won Immunity and I liked that Yam Yam played the defensive vote against Heidi in case of an Idol.  Plus Yam Yam survived the vote when it should have been him going home.

Who Sucked:

Carolyn and Heidi missed a huge opportunity here.  They needed to join up with Lauren to take out Yam Yam.  That's their only shot of winning at this point.  I also don't like how much Carolyn was stirring things up at camp.  Saying that there should be some Tika on the Jury is not something that needed to be said out loud, even if it was true.

As for Lauren, she did pretty much everything she could have done at this point in the game.  She needed to convince Carolyn and Heidi to go with her against Yam Yam and I don't know if that was possible.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Final 5 goes to Carson Garrett for winning Immunity and getting rid of Lauren, the person he wanted out.

Worst Player of the Final 5 goes to Carolyn Wider for taking out Lauren instead of Yam Yam and stirring up trouble at camp for no good reason.

Let's move onto the Final 4!

Who Played Well:

Heidi won the Immunity Challenge and decided to take down Carson in fire herself.  I hate the fire-making challenge, but I recognize this was a good move for Heidi.  She hadn't done much at all the entire game, so this was a flashy move for the Jury.  I think it at least got her 2nd place.

You could criticize Yam Yam for helping Carson with his fire-making technique, but I think that also guaranteed Yam Yam would get Carson's Jury vote, so I see it as a wash.

As for Carson, he was simply too much of threat and unfortunately he needed to get some more fire practice under his belt.  The other three were all wizards with fire.  Carson could have done that too.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Final 4 goes to Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt for winning Immunity and taking down Carson in fire-making.

I'm not giving out a Worst Player of the Final 4.

Final Tribal Council:

Yam Yam gave what could be a Top 5 Final Tribal Council performance.  He owned his game, had great answers, and made the Jury laugh.  That's about all you can do.

Heidi tried, but she didn't have a ton to talk about.  I think it speaks volumes that the entire Tika 3 made it to Final 4 and Heidi ended up being the person they didn't eliminate.  I don't think she had a chance and that's been the case for a while.

I feel like I didn't see a ton of fight from Carolyn.  I don't think she did enough to distinguish herself from Yam Yam.  They played similar games, but Yam Yam showed some key differences.  Carolyn should have brought up to Brandon and Danny that she felt disrespected by how they treated her on that Reward and that's why she took them out.  She could have talked more about how everyone underestimated her.  I wish we had gotten more from her here.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Season goes to Carson Garrett for his consistently quiet game with great social bonds and solid physical and strategic play.  I think he's by far the least flawed of everyone on the season.

Worst Player of the Season goes to Josh Wilder for his terrible social game and his inability to lie.

And that's Survivor 44!  What a fun season.  It had flaws, for sure, but we continue to improve since season 41, so hopefully we can keep heading the right direction next season.  I'm very happy Bruce is getting another chance!  I can't wait to watch!