Survivor: Cambodia started off with a fan vote to determine which of our favorite players deserved second chances to win the game. But only one of the final six, Jeremy, Keith, Kelley, Kimmi, Spencer or Tasha will have a successful second chance. Let’s unpack this extra long season finale to find out who will win the million dollars on Season 31.
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Keith Nale doesn’t go as far as to understand why Spencer and Jeremy wanted to get rid of Abi. Why not take the goat to the end? Spencer points out that the fact that Keith wanted to take Abi to the end instead of him laid out perfectly why it was the best move to get rid of Abi. Oh, Keith Nale. Never change.
After the last vote, Kelley and Keith understand that they’re on the bottom. But Kimmi wants to use that to her advantage. She came out to win it and she doesn’t think she can make it to the finals with the Spencer, Jeremy and Tasha alliance, and she doesn’t want her fate left in anyone else’s hands. So she tells Kelley that she wants to target Spencer or Jeremy next.
Climbing the Way to Safety
For the first challenge, the Survivors have to collect puzzle steps and place them in order from the bottom to the top. They have to build it one step at a time and it will get more difficult the higher they go. At the top, there is a slide puzzle and the first person to finish, wins a spot in the final five. Jeff also mentions that from now on, all of the challenges will be fresh, so the “second chancers” will have the same opportunities to create their own legacies.
Spencer leads the way building the pieces, not making any mistakes. As much energy as Jeremy has, he makes a few errors with the step pieces. Kelley is right behind Spencer at getting to the slide puzzle. But Spencer is just too good at puzzles (or at least he’s had more practice) and he finishes before Kelley to win immunity.
Splitting the Votes
Kelley is counting on Kimmi to do what she said she’d do and make a big move. Kelley knows that if they let Jeremy get to the end, he’ll be the hands-down winner.
Tasha is happy to see her boy Spencer winning challenges. That means they can send Keith or Kelley home, and it doesn’t really matter to her which one goes as long as neither one of them makes it to the finale.
Kimmi and Keith go to get water. She tells him to vote for Jeremy and she’ll get Tasha, Spencer and Jeremy to split the votes with her for Keith and Kelley and then she’ll flip. Got all that? I’m not sure Keith does, but he gets the gist that all he has to do is vote for Jeremy and not spill the beans at Tribal. And knowing Keith, that could actually prove to be difficult.
Tasha and Spencer notice Kimmi going off with Keith and it immediately sets off their alarm bells. Spencer knows that she’ll flip over if she feels like she’s on the bottom. And he detects that her plan to split the votes is just trying to take advantage of them so she can flip.
Jeremy thinks that they’re being too paranoid about Kimmi, and she does a good job convincing him of that. She even squeezes out a few tears. But Spencer insists that they can’t leave themselves vulnerable by splitting the votes. Anyway, he’s positive that Kelley doesn’t have an idol. In the words of Sandra Diaz Twine, “I don’t know about thaaaaaaaaaat.”
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Survivor History
Jeremy says now the decisions they’ve made earlier in the game about voting blocs are magnified and it’s better to be an alliance. Kelley says she knows that it’s her and Keith on the bottom, and Jeremy, Spencer, Tasha and Keith on the top.
But Spencer disagrees. He says the original plan was to split the vote. But because of the things that have happened in the last 24 hours, he, Jeremy, and Tasha are no longer going to do that. They’re putting their votes on one person and he warns everyone else to jump on board or get ready to draw rocks.
Wow, that was a cocky move. He completely and publicly alienated Kimmi from the alliance. Kimmi says she feels like she’s being threatened, but it’s helped her to make up her mind on what she’s going to do.
Now Kelley is a little put off because it doesn’t look like her plan with Keith and Kimmi is going to happen. But Spencer looks her in the face and says, “you’re good.” She doesn’t know if she can trust Spencer though because he told her they were good last week too, and that didn’t work out well for her either.
Well, all that commotion was enough to tip off Kelley to play her idol. Which in turn tips Jeremy off to play his. And what do you know, there are three votes for each Kelley and Jeremy. Which means, for the first time in 31 seasons of Survivor, there are no valid votes cast for anyone.
So what does it all mean? It means it’s time for a re-vote, only now Spencer, Jeremy and Kelley are all immune. So only Kimmi, Tasha and Keith can get votes.
And lookie here, it’s yet another tie between Kimmi and Tasha! Jeff doesn’t force yet another vote because everyone says they’re sticking to their votes. What would usually happen is that the people with the deadlocked votes would become immune and the remainders would draw rocks to break the tie. The only problem is, there’s only one remaining player and that’s Keith.
Jeff says that the only way for someone else besides Keith to go home is if one of the other voters decides to change their vote. So either Spencer, Jeremy, Kelley or Keith have to change their votes. Kimmi pleads her case to the others about how long she’s waited to be here. Keith tries to give up his spot for Kimmi, but Kelley won’t let him do that. She changes her vote to Kimmi to save Keith.
Goodbye Kimmi. You were the last old school player standing and you didn’t even have to kill any chickens to make it there.
Kelley’s glad to have survived another Tribal after playing an idol, but obviously things did not go the way she wanted them to. She knows the other three are solid so it’s going to be her or Keith next.
Obstacles Toward the Finish
For the next challenge, the final five have to race through a giant obstacle course to six stations to grab six bags of puzzle pieces. The first to solve their final puzzle wins a spot in the final four.
Jeremy is in the lead for a while, but he’s quickly passed by Kelley Wentworth, who chose to do the harder parts of the obstacle course first. She gets to her puzzle first and she’s followed shortly by Jeremy, Keith and Spencer. But it’s Kelley and Keith going head-to-head to finish their puzzle, and this time, Kelley pulls through.
Fake Idols Aplenty
Keith knows he’s on the chopping block, but he says the nails (or Nales? Get it?) aren’t in his coffin just yet.
But just because Kelley’s safe tonight doesn’t mean she’s giving up on Keith. She makes him a fake idol to sew paranoia among the tight three.
Well it works. Jeremy tells Tasha that he feels funny about the vote and he’s worried that one idol could screw everything up. He tries to get Keith’s attention, and when he finally does, he tells him he’ll vote Spencer with him.
Keith brings that back to Kelley. Their only move is to vote for Spencer and hope Jeremy is paranoid enough to vote with them.
Stick to the Plan
Tasha confirms that it’s the same old story: Tasha, Spencer and Jeremy against Kelley and Keith on the bottom. Kelley knew she had to win tonight or be the next member of the jury.
Keith says it does seem all very cut and dry, that is unless he has a trick up his sleeve. Unfortunately the only thing he has up his sleeve was made by Kelley Wentworth. And the majority alliance was too smart to fall for it.
They stick to the plan and send Keith to the “big house.” It was a good move by Jeremy. He managed to take the target off his back, just in case, but without flipping.
Final Immunity
For the final challenge of the season, the final four will have one hand tied behind their backs. Then they have to drop balls down a chute where they have to catch them. At regular intervals, the Survivors have to add more and more balls. If at any point you drop a ball, you’re out. Last man standing wins a spot in the finals.
Everyone gets in a rhythm. It gets trickier after each player is working with three balls. Then it’s more about timing when you catch and when you add balls.
In a heartbreaking moment, Kelley is the first person to let her ball drop. Poor Kelley. That’s probably it for her.
Tasha is out next, so it’s a fight between Spencer and Jeremy. And Spencer slips up and his ball falls. Jeremy wins the final immunity and he’s overcome with emotion. All he can think of is his family and how he’s finally made it all the way for them.
Kelley’s Final Pitch
It’s pretty much locked down that it’s curtains for Kelley Wentworth. But Jeremy knows he needs to make the decision that’s right for him to pick who he can win against.
Both Tasha and Spencer know they’re in tight with Jeremy, but they’re still uncomfortable that their fates are in his hands.
Spencer starts to get cocky toward Kelley. He tells her that he thinks he’s going to win and he likes his chances in the final three.
Kelley doesn’t like that attitude, so she pitches to Jeremy to get rid of Spencer instead of her. She says that he has a pretty good argument of the jury, is very articulate, and is so cocky that he thinks he’s got this thing locked up.
Jeremy asks Kelley if she’d go to fire if she needed to, and of course she says she would. If it’s fire or go home, of course she’d build a fire.
Jeremy’s Decision
Of course Jeremy is happy to be sitting where he’s sitting. He’s carried a lot of pent up emotion and he couldn’t help but let it all out after winning that last challenge.
Losing the challenge was disheartening for Spencer, but he feels confident that Jeremy will take him.
Kelly makes her pitch to vote out Spencer because he’s a threat to win. Spencer goes a little crazy after hearing that. He says that Kelley’s the pot calling the kettle black. He says she’s played the best game out here, and if Jeremy decides to vote him out tonight instead of her, not only will he vote for her to win the million dollars, he’ll use all of his energy to make sure everyone else on the jury votes for her too. He tells Jeremy that if he takes Kelley, he will lose. Way to threaten your way to the final three, Spencer.
And his insane talk is all for nothing. The tight three stick together and vote out Kelley Wentworth. Kelley played hard, and Spencer was probably right, but all he succeeded in doing was make himself look like a tool in front of the jury.
Day 39 Breakfast
Tasha gets emotional thinking about being in the finals. She didn’t win any challenges this time around and didn’t find any idols, but completely relied on her social game to get herself here. Between the conditions, the paranoia and the lies, it’s been the most difficult thing she’s done in her life.
Spencer is feeling great, but he can’t just enjoy the company of his friends because his job isn’t over. He’s emotionally grown a lot and he’s worked his way from the bottom to the top and now he has to bring it all to the ultimate conclusion. He says it’s the most important night of his life.
Jeremy’s second chance has always been about his family . He wants them to be proud of him and he wants to take care of them. He didn’t leave them this long to lose this now.
Final Tribal Council
No time for opening statements anymore apparently, and all of the jury’s questions are pretty good, but I’ll try to sum up the most important things.
Andrew thinks that both Spencer and Jeremy had moments of arrogance and he asks them if they regret how they behaved. Spencer regrets his level of arrogance, and said it was a way to mask insecurities, but he doesn’t resent the sentiment behind his opinions, just his expression. Jeremy says he acted arrogant around Kimmi because he was hurt that she turned on him and voted for him. He was upset and that was just his honest reaction.
Stephen has a question for Tasha. He asks her to prove that she wasn’t just there to do Jeremy’s dirty work. She tells him not to get it twisted. She’s a strong, independent woman who doesn’t let anyone is Survivor or real life, dictated her actions.
Ciera wants to know why being a flipper should be rewarded in this season. Tasha says she had to flip to survive on all three tribes she’s was on in all the pre-merge swap craziness. Jeremy said that Ciera herself were encouraging people to “make big moves” which usually translates into making a flip. Spencer says he had to take advantage of the blurred lines between alliances, and oftentimes that meant blindsiding someone.
Kimmi does not have kind words for Spencer. She tells him that she will use his behavior as an example to her children of how not to act. She also accuses Jeremy for replacing her with Spencer in the pecking order of their original alliance. Jeremy says he wasn’t the one who flipped, she was, and he still felt they were tight.
Kass points out to Spencer that in Cagayan, he famously said she had “zero percent chance of winning the game” after flipping so much, so how can he expect to get her vote after he played the same way. Spencer says he’s not the same Spencer he was in Cagayan, and he hopes she can recognize the changes he’s made.
But surprisingly enough, it’s Kelly Wiglesworth that has the most dramatic question. She says 15 years ago she was in that same seat and she lost the first season by one vote; by one question. And the question was, “pick a number between one and ten.” So Jeremy, Tasha and Spencer pick the numbers two, three and four respectively. It’s hands down Kelly’s finest moment of the season.
To the Final Vote!
We don’t get to see any of the votes before Jeff reads the votes. And that’s because it’s a clean sweep. All ten members of the jury voted for Jeremy.
So congratulations to Jeremy (and Val too) for being the person to make the most of his second chance.
See you for another Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty season in February!
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
