Once upon a time, there was a jungle rat on the beaches of Samoa who couldn’t be exterminated, no matter how hard people tried. Even after receiving almost thirty votes, the jungle rat continued. Weeks passed, and multiple plans to eliminate the jungle rat turned to shreds. With friends turned enemies and enemies turned allies, no matter how hard anyone tried, the jungle rat successfully played four idols. As his Postgraduates alliance secured the final four, the jungle rat again found themselves at the bottom of the barrel. Nevertheless, the jungle rat endured, and this recap is of how Myles, aka the jungle rat, aka the Rat King, won Brains vs. Brawn II against all odds.
Without further ado, the episode starts with Myles and Kaelan congratulating each other for making it this far. They each question the other about their purpose in playing Survivor. Kaelan replies that he came to win, whereas Myles honestly answers that he wanted to make the merge as it was an opportunity to make flashy moves. Then, they wish each other luck at the upcoming final individual immunity challenge.
A couple of sentimental montages begin: Kaelan states that Myles and AJ are his best friends, but AJ has his ultimate allegiance. AJ declares that the OG Brains tribe was victorious in getting the final four seats due to him and his tactical gameplay, and as the fantastic poker player he is, AJ bets on Kaelan to win immunity and take him to the final two. Lastly, Myles voices that he has to win the next challenge; otherwise, he will be the final jury member.
The final three arrive at the immunity challenge arena and greet an enthusiastic JLP who announces the last person to stand after enduring the painful challenge ahead will win a coveted final two seat, plus the crucial choice of deciding who to take with them to the end. As usual, JLP brings in some emotional support for the final three: Myles’ best friend, Ollie; AJ’s best friend, Nabil; and Kaelan’s mum, Lydia. With their family and friends supporting them, Kaelan, Myles, and AJ battle for their last chance at security.
In a challenge out of a Saw film, all three guys endure tremendous pain to outlast the others. During the challenge, Kaelan focuses only on lasting another second more, while AJ butters up Kaelan’s mum by telling her how much everyone loves Kaelan. On the other hand, Myles uses those pole muscles in weird and awkward positions that somehow work for him not to drop out. However, the jungle rat cannot continue after two hours and twenty-five minutes, leaving the other two holding on for dear life.
As a dejected Myles hangs at the bench clutching his best friend, AJ goes to work on Kaelan and reiterates their final two deal. Kaelan doesn’t respond, and both precede to the last part of the challenge by stepping onto the tiniest and most uncomfortable-looking pegs for a showdown. After three hours, AJ suddenly slips and is carried to the bench by Aquaman, I mean, Kaelan. Kaelan then goes to JLP for his seventh immunity necklace, breaking his own Survivor record. As Kaelan tears, he says he couldn’t have done it without AJ and Myles as his ride-or-dies.
The final three go to tribal council, where they jubilantly greet the jury. However, a serious-looking Zara erases their smiles, especially Kaelan’s, making him seem almost like a meme. Though ecstatic to have won the challenge, Kaelan is hesitant about his upcoming decision to choose either Myles or AJ to go with him to the end, as Kaelan previously promised both the same thing.
Myles’ pitch towards Kaelan is that although he played a flashy game, he still got 26 votes against him, which makes him a “weak” adversary. AJ tells Kaelan that Myles is dangerous as the jungle rat broke six records during the season: most idols found with four, most idols played correctly, most votes cancelled by an idol, having the most votes cast against him, most amount of game played from the bottom, and though AJ doesn’t mention the sixth, he states he knows the jungle rat will go down in Australian Survivor history as a historic character, and states Myles would slaughter Kaelan at the final tribal council.
AJ surmises that he and Myles could banter for hours about which of the two played the better game, but it comes down to Kaelan deciding with his heart which of the two strategists to take with him. From the jury, Laura and Karin peg AJ’s heart argument as sneaky, as AJ tries to manipulate Kaelan again. Kaelan apologises to JLP as he takes Myles and AJ away to talk privately without the jury overhearing them. Without explicitly saying it, Kaelan asks them to help him decide what to do, as Kaelan knows he will break his word no matter his decision. Myles and AJ tell Kaelan that neither will hold this choice against him. After continuing to struggle, Kaelan seals his future by finally picking Myles over AJ, sending the latter to the jury as its final member.
On day 47, Myles and Kaelan celebrate outlasting all the other 22 players. Myles recognises he will have to convince the jury he was aware his social game was lacking at times, especially after concentrating on flashiness over anything else. For his part, Kaelan wants to demonstrate that his covert and social gameplay was superior to Myles’s and that he was underestimated the whole time. With these thoughts, the final two finally face the jury.
At the final tribal council, Kaelan’s pitch focuses on highlighting his superb physical game and underrated yet solid social game. Kaelan states he survived 21 tribal councils and only had one vote against him, as he was constantly overlooked but still had all the game’s information. Kaelan adds that he used Myles and AJ as strategic shields and took out AJ, who was considered the most significant strategic threat in the game. Kaelan finishes his initial speech by saying his social and physical gameplay was better than Myles’.
Myles’ pitch consists of pointing out it shouldn’t be physical/social gameplay vs. strategic one, but instead, of considering the numerous opportunities he took to improve his game. Myles recognises he had some mishaps and has personality flaws he should work on, but his love for the game and his devil-may-care attitude should also be recognised as the biggest tools in his arsenal. He also pinpoints that he made himself a helpful ally everyone wanted to keep as he took the heat of his alliances’ decisions and that the jury should consider his record-breaking number of votes against him as another way to look at his persistence and resourcefulness. Lastly, Myles also denotes how he used his advantages and idols to the best of their ability, how he used AJ and Kaelan against each other, and how he used them to burn down all of the jury members’ games in the process.
Kristen asks them who played the three pillars of Survivor better. Myles says he did when it came to the social and strategic, while Kaelan did the physical. Kaelan protests and says Myles only excelled in the strategic aspect, as Myles tended to say the wrong things at the worst times. Paulie then asks what they were most proud of about their game. Myles says he was resilient throughout his days in Samoa, whereas Kaelan responds that his mental toughness got him to the end.
Kate asks Kaelan if how he behaved in the game was a strategy or his genuine self, and Kaelan states that every social conversation without strategy is how he is in real life. Karin wonders what they regret the most, to which Kaelan says voting out his friends, whereas Myles recognises he didn’t play his best while being on the top and got too cocky for his own good. Karin then asks Myles if he thinks he would’ve managed in the game as well as he did without advantages, and Myles replies he wouldn’t have, as luck was an integral part of his game. Kaelan then makes a crucial error by saying luck wasn’t involved in his gameplay at all.
Myles and Kaelan then go on for a while with poker analogies by arguing who would get to the end again out of the two of them: the person with the consistently better hand each time or the person who made the best outcome out of any hand. AJ lambasts both guys for being delusional. Myles manages to defend himself reasonably well, whereas Kaelan isn’t able to protect his argument for bringing Myles and AJ to an end, as opposed to someone he could beat. Kaelan also fails to answer Logan’s question, as he contradicts himself when he says he doesn’t have regrets nor would change anything he did on the island. Myles says he would work on his social game if he could and appreciates the feedback he got from people, which greatly helped him ultimately get to the final two.
In the end, the jury cast their vote, and after a 7-1 majority and an excellent performance at tribal council, Myles becomes the winner of the season. Congratulations, Myles, and may the jungle rat forevermore thrive in the jungles of Samoa!
As this season wraps up, the next one is, thankfully, right around the corner. Stay tuned for Australian Survivor’s next epic adventure: Australia vs The World, which is coming up later this year.
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