my favorite part about Wendell's story is that they sang "Happy Birthday" to his gf Nicole on the island and they actually aired it.

by the time it aired, they had broken up. I guess he broke that off as soon as he got home

True, but Russell won't ever win (and FWIW, neither will Tony ever repeat) because once people have seen them play, their game play won't work.

Russell got to the end in HvV because nobody had seen him play, no way he gets that far if his initial season had already aired.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. maybe he left out the word "catcher".

Agreed. I don't hate the result, but Dom had a bigger target on his back way more than Wendell.

Credit to Wendell for winning challenges late when he knew Dom would get him out if he didn't.

I just think Dom's F6 bluff was masterful. Too bad he didn't give up the necklace and try to get Wendell out in the fire challenge.

That would've been great TV, even if that would've been a -EV play.

He does this he's either GOAT or goat.

Expected Probst to ask jury who they vote for in Dom/Yanny/Angela f3. Guess he didnt because obv 100% Dom.

Decent season. Another great finale. Gotta be one of the most dominant seasons of all time by the Dom/Wendell duo.

Sea Bass not using his extra vote has to be one of the dumbest individual decisions in the history of the show, even if it ended up being inconsequential.

Dom should have won, he played great. I like Wendall tho so whatever. Props to Chris not being butthurt and voting for Wendall. All the other characters this season were weak as hell

Not a good season strategy wise

I thought Donathon would vote for Dom

proves again he is an idiot

how does it prove that at all? and you’re ignoring jury management here, because Wendell did a lot more to earn donathan’s vote than Dom did (or rather, Dom did more to lose it)

I guess, I just figured military members would be more likely to have such a basic survival skill of knowing how to make fire

Does anybody here just take Wendall along so as to not give him the additional kudos of winning fire making and earning his way in?

I think you could easily make a case for either Dom or Wendell in terms of who the better player was, or what style you prefer. Clearly they were both deserving. But I can’t understand people thinking it was so lopsided that this was some unjust jury result. Going into the final tribal, I was pretty ready to say that whoever wins is the person who deserved to win, and I still feel that way after seeing the results.

Stephen Fishbach tweeted this quote - the jury does not reward the person who played the best game; the jury determines who played the best game. So I think that’s important to remember. Wendell deserved to win over Dom because he got 6 out of 11 votes (counting laurel’s), and that’s that.

no the jury determines who they like the most and then fit that into their most coherent narrative of why that dude "played better"

Sebastian was the most honest juror, when he said "Wendell was my boy, Im sticking with Wendell" that's all he has to say

while Kellyn justifies her vote by saying "Domenick was more the brawn, but I think Wendell was the brains behind the operation"
when in essence, she is saying "I think Domenick is a bit rough and abrasive for my liking. Wendell is nicer. I vote Wendell"

Meh, we go through this every season. The jury gets to decide the criteria that they base their vote on. If they decide to vote for Wendell because they like his hair, that's how it goes. We can totally disrespect them for that but it's still up to the finalists to try to gauge as best they can how different members will vote, and act accordingly.

I never understand these arguments. Every player knows there is a jury. So if someone isn't factoring that into their gameplay they aren't "crushing things strategically." They are making a strategic flaw.

They dont choose who they like better at random.

I don't know why this is so hard for some people to grasp, because it's one of the things that make Survivor great.

i dont get why jury votes are different than any other decision made throughout the game. the whole point is that its being played by humans. anyone on the jury could just as easily make an illogical vote during the game while they are still in it. so why should it suddenly be invalid just because its a part of the jury now?

like to be good at survivor, you have to be able to influence these people from start to finish. i dont get why that should change just because they are on the jury

Yes. 100% yes.

My point is that if the jury was sequestered the contestants would only have to factor into their game the knowledge that person had when they got eliminated. Rather than having a group of people who all share knowledge who hold your fate in their hands.

I'm sure jury votes change once they hear about other things certain people have done, especially after the 6th, 5th and 4th people enter Ponderosa and they all know who is in the final 3.

Has Angela given the logic for telling Dom the plan anywhere? So stupid.....

she was on a deserted island without food for over a month

I'm not sure why people are that miffed about Wendell beating Dom. Clearly it was a partnership and Wendell did enough to show his individual strengths and attack Dom on his weaknesses. They both played very dominant strong games and either would have been a good winner.

To me last season Ben winning was about a thousand times more egregious because he played a terrible social and strategic game.

This. People ITT don't seem to grasp how much of an impact extended starvation and sleep deprivation have on people's thinking.