This season of Survivor definitely did not disappoint. The finale only added to the craziness of the season. Beginning with Natalie’s return from the Edge of Extinction and ending with the ultimate Survivor champion, this episode was full of shocks and surprises. 

Even though Natalie began the challenge to return from the Edge with three advantages, I still did not think that she would be the one to win the challenge. When she did win, I wasn’t that worried about her causing chaos in the game, until I remembered her immunity idol. Her cleverness on the Edge allowed her to wreak havoc between the five others in the game. However, she did not succeed in the first tribal council at breaking Tony, Sarah, and Ben’s alliance, as Denise got voted off. 

Before the second tribal council of the episode, I found it very interesting that Ben decided to let Sarah vote him off to save Sarah from being voted off. On one hand, it was a very sweet gesture for him to show that their friendship means more to him than winning the game. On the other hand, I saw the action as a means of giving up. He made it to the final five; why should he have given up now? Nevertheless, he was voted off, breaking up the strong alliance between him, Tony, and Sarah. However, Tony and Sarah still had their strong cop bond, which Natalie was determined to destroy. 

Natalie and Michelle were so lucky that Natalie won the last challenge to guarantee her a spot in the final three, for if Sarah or Tony were to win it, they would no doubt take each other. Now, Natalie was so close to achieving her goal: break up the cop alliance and ultimately have Tony lose through the fire-making challenge. I was devastated that Tony and Sarah had to face off at fire, but they were so nice to each other about it that I knew their face-off wouldn’t affect their friendship. Ultimately, Tony won, and by this point, there was little doubt in my mind that he would lose Survivor. I was a bit skeptical because I realized that Natalie could potentially steal votes that would have gone to Tony since a lot of the people voting had witnessed Natalie’s strengths for most of the game on the Edge. 

Nevertheless, Tony did win and is now officially the winner of the winners. I believe that Tony definitely deserved to win: he had a great resume and was clearly the leader of the players for a large portion of the game. Even Boston Rob said that he only would’ve voted for Natalie if she got out Tony; otherwise, there was no doubt in his mind where his vote would go. All in all, this was an incredible season with great players.