It’s the finale of Survivor: Integrity Island, and we have five players remaining. Joe and Eva controlled the game up front as an inspiring old school duo, Kyle and Kamilla controlled the game from the shadows as a deceptive hidden alliance, and Mitch… is also on this season, I guess.
With Shauhin gone, Kyle and Kamilla scored a big blindside while maintaining Joe and Eva’s trust, giving them multiple options at five. Joe debates whether they just got duped hard, but Eva quells his fears. She’s got an idol, so she can protect Joe if need be. All the while, Kamilla finally feels some power as her Emmy-quality acting puts her in a great spot for a come-from-behind victory at Final Tribal.
The next morning, Joe takes a moment to celebrate making it so far for all the dads out there, but the game waits for nobody on Day 24, and a challenge advantage is up for grabs. It’s the same puzzle locks from the pre-merge with updated puzzle clues, and it’s a mad dash for one last taste of power. Despite Kyle finding all his letters first, Eva finds the correct word, netting yet another advantage for her arsenal of weapons she doesn’t even need.
But even with Eva’s advantage and everyone but Kamilla breezing through the physical portion of the challenge, the puzzle proves to be the great equalizer. As Joe, Kyle, Eva, and Mitch struggle in vain, Kamilla shoots up from behind to pass everyone in a huge comeback, taking her second win at the perfect time with her puzzle prowess. With a pasta reward at the Sanctuary in her hands and a guest spot available, she takes Eva, once again keeping the secret alliance hidden in plain sight.
When the men return to camp to wash up, Mitch is finally ready to make a move against Joe, but Kyle sees the benefits of voting Mitch out instead. Joe’s a threat in his own right, but Mitch has zero blood on his hands and a great personal story, even if he hasn’t played an impressive game. Meanwhile, at the Sanctuary, Eva’s set on Mitch going home, but Kamilla has decisions to make with the necklace giving her safety. Like others have said, Joe is a huge threat… but if she wants to scoop up all the Civa votes at the end after setting up Joe and Eva to look like fools, she might want to take Mitch out now and Kyle out next.
Breaking the bad news to Mitch brings him to tears, reminding him that he should’ve made a move several episodes ago when he had the chance. But this isn’t too sad an exit for Mitch as he spins this elimination into an inspirational moment. While it sucks to be voted out this way after putting all his eggs in Kyle and Kamilla’s basket, he proved that his disability wasn’t a liability and that he was accepted as himself on a human level by genuine friends on the island. Heartwarming exit aside, he definitely should’ve made the move. Hundred percent, even if Star was getting on his nerves and put his name down before. Oh, and Eva finally plays her idol, which is just as useful as all the other advantages she found, as it has zero impact on the outcome.
And with that, we have our final four: two day one duos who never turned on each other to get here. If Eva and Joe win today, they take each other. She’s not afraid of Joe at the end because she’s confident in her story and knows how to sell it. On the flip side, Kamilla breaks some more bad news to someone’s face: she doesn’t want to take Kyle to the end, or else they might split votes and risk the third person winning. Kyle understands and admits he was thinking the same thing himself, so now it’s Kyle vs Kamilla for what could be a sneaky victory.
Simmotion is back after a much-needed time out for the final immunity challenge. Eva drops first, followed by Kamilla, leaving Kyle going for his second necklace and Joe going for a record-tying fifth. And with a fumble from Joe, it’s Kyle’s to take, and with it comes a big choice to make: stay loyal to Kamilla in the end… or try to knock her out and roll the dice against Joe and Eva?
Well, he’s going after Kamilla tonight, so he’s taking Joe as he promised. Not just to put Kamilla in the firing line but to deny Joe another chance to impress the jury after setting him up to fall on his face in front of them last week. So it’s Eva against Kamilla for the third spot, and while Kamilla is confident in her abilities, Eva cracks under pressure and breaks down in frustration again. Hearing her crying, Kyle has second thoughts about his choice. Eva’s frustrations go beyond the game, and it might be fairer to put himself into the fire against Kamilla than force her into a situation where she’s not comfortable.
While Kyle debates his move, Joe reaches out and comforts Eva, begging her to let him take her place in the challenge instead. Eva shuts it down, though. This is her battle, her moment, her responsibility. It’s her time to show herself and the world that she can do this. But Joe can help her prepare, and bit by bit he teaches her the ropes and builds that confidence up, like a supportive father. Meanwhile, across the jungle, Kamilla’s confidence starts to fade as her techniques aren’t working, but the new Day 25 Kamilla analyzes and figures out the problem just in time for a fiery showdown at Tribal.
Oh boy, this challenge is nowhere near “tumultuous” like we were promised in the press this week. Kamilla cramps up and can’t catch a single flame, while Eva’s fire flames out and sparks another breakdown. It’s just two people yelling at their fire supplies after a while. Still, even with the wind trying to stop Eva the entire time, some fire is better than no fire at all, and Eva comfortably earns the final slot as Kamilla joins the jury without even getting final words for some reason. I guess the editors gave up on this boring season, too.
So here are our final three. Kyle against Joe and Eva, the two power players everyone was begging for this cast to make a move against for seven episodes straight. But with so many Civas on the jury and multiple players probably angry at Joe’s hypocritical betrayals, Kyle’s got a real shot here. As the jury says in their pre-Tribal briefing, Kyle played strategically and used relationships as a weapon, but he needs to own his cutthroat gameplay instead of riding on the honor and integrity high horse.
With Eva, she’s had an inspiring, emotional journey that showed off her extreme trust and courage, but she didn’t really play strategically, so the jury needs to see her brains on display tonight. And then there’s Joe, the king of honor and loyalty who still believes he played that way. But this jury isn’t buying it. He’s a stand-up competitor who beasted challenges like a guy half his age, but he broke promises left and right and doesn’t want to own that at all.
Eva’s argument is pretty straightforward. Her autism presented her with unique challenges, but she turned it into a strength by opening up and building trust with people like Joe who never turned on her as she won challenges and found advantages she never needed. And that alliance with Joe went beyond the game and gave her a rock to rely on when she needed help.
Chrissy (who is honestly the star of this finale with her commentary) calls Eva and Joe out for their loyalty being a disservice to their games, as only one of them can win at the end despite playing the same game. Joe comes to Eva’s defense and makes the case that they can battle it out respectfully without tearing the other down. When it comes to secrets, Eva didn’t even need to use her Safety Without Power, and her reveal as a brilliant engineer is an impressive twist that nobody sees coming. Eva knows people assumed she would be Joe’s plus one, but she had input on their moves and wasn’t just a follower. She rolled with the big dogs and barked loud, and now she’s here to cash that check.
While Joe came into this finale as a top contender, his performance here is just not bringing anything to the table. At all. His argument is still all about trust and loyalty. Sure, he built alliances by being upfront and honest with people. Sure, he won a ton of immunity challenges and almost tied the record. Sure, he kicked ass despite his age. But he still doesn’t own his betrayals, and the jury almost ignores him the entire time as the others pitch better arguments. Somehow the most passionate he gets is when he’s defending Eva from criticism rather than himself, and he just gives the appearance of thinking he had it in the bag and sat on his hands as others talked over him.
Then there’s Kyle, who whips out his lawyer skills and talks up a big game backed up with receipts. He made mistakes early in the season and looked foolish, but he turned his game around immediately by building strong relationships and used that social capital to his advantage later on. He worked with the Strong Five at the merge while keeping Kamilla as his true number one, and it’s Kamilla who comes to his defense and gives him credit for the Shauhin blindside, something they set up days in advance to be their secret weapon in the endgame. While Eva tries taking credit for the move at six, she can’t claim a single bit of it. That was all Kyle and Kamilla, and Eva’s one strategic argument is shot down without a chance to bounce back.
Even against a dominant force like Joe, Kyle owns his game and outplayed the guy when it mattered. Joe and Eva might’ve seemed unbeatable, but in the end, they’re nothing but shields and puppets Kyle and Kamilla used for their own benefit. They essentially took the power couple and turned them into clueless goats, and that’s the game-winning move.
When the jury casts their votes, it’s actually a split decision, with all three finalists getting a little love for the first time since HvHvH. Joe gets Cedrek’s vote on account of them both being older fathers, Eva gets Mary and Star, who appreciate her fierceness and honesty, and Kyle takes Shauhin and the four Civas to win 5-2-1. A clean victory, no questions asked… except for why we spent half the season hearing Joe was going to sweep the votes, only for him to be a complete footnote in the finale!
Was Joe a goat the entire time and this hype was all a smokescreen? Some commercial for a future return a la Russell in Samoa? Were they afraid to make Joe look bad when he was such easy fan favorite material? I don’t get it. This season makes no sense sometimes. I actually did see Joe’s loss coming by the end when his jury management was called out left and right, but the story they told around it was just nonsense. Instead, we had to sit and watch people get clowned on for doing what ended up being a winning choice: keeping Joe and Eva around against their alleged best interest.
Editing woes aside, congrats to Kyle on a win so many people doubted could happen with how he was playing. In an old school feeling season, the right mix of old school and new era strategy paid off. He saw Joe and Eva’s inability to own any moves, set them up to fail alongside Kamilla, then cut her for the win when she was by far the bigger threat of the two. It’s shades of Sophie beating Coach or Natalie beating Russell. In the end, the jury votes for who they respect and like the most, and here, that was the person who made the best relationships AND played a strategic game in the background.
All three finalists tried to claim honesty and loyalty, but Kyle had the most sound argument there. Sure, he betrayed people, but he owned it. He was loyal to Kamilla, and then he wasn’t when he had to cut her as she would do to him. Fair play. He played loyal with the likes of Joe and Eva, and he owned that too. Not because he was afraid to make a move against them but because he saw a real path to the win as boring and frustrating as it was to watch.
But I will shade someone here. And that’s Jeff Probst. Because him trying to pretend this was some crazy season full of blindsides and advantages and iconic episodes is so off base it made my head spin. You mean the season where nothing actually happened most weeks? The season where one alliance just steamrolled after the merge and only turned on each other twice, and only to cull a “disloyal” member or two? THAT season? Maybe Jeff is just hyped to see Joe and Eva make it to the end after they made him cry tears of joy. Maybe he thinks he’s guaranteed an Emmy for the first time in eons. But regardless, he’s so wrong. Sooooooo wrong. This season was a big nothingburger, mixing all the worst new era traits (broken twists and lost votes, boring repetitive challenges) with some forgotten staples of bad seasons past (steamrolls where nothing remotely interesting happened and hopeless underdogs were picked off one by one).
Before we send this season off, let’s also address another issue this slog of a season brought up: what we actually mean when we ask for old school Survivor. Because I’ve seen so many people swearing this is what we asked for and therefore deserved: a boring Pagonging, alliances that stay together until the end, non-superfans running the game and shoving nerds in lockers, etc. No, what we meant is any mix of seasons that change locations and focus on the culture, complex storytelling that doesn’t feel like the show insists upon itself every five minutes, fun challenges that aren’t just stale reheated nachos from the last few years, and less broken twists that steal your vote for flopping at Yahtzee.
Sure, we got a season focused on emotional relationships where different perspectives on the game got time to shine again. I’m not opposed to that in theory. Most early seasons were relatively straightforward but remain classics because they were well-crafted, compelling TV products with huge characters and gripping drama. But we didn’t really find any all-time great characters or players this season to make up for a boring game. Sai and David were big-ish stars, but they were gone too soon to salvage the rest of the show. Thomas could’ve been an amazing villain but got idoled out after the swap. Even first boot Stephanie brought more energy to the season than most did. Then some of the more fun people who did make it far were underedited to make room for annoying red herrings and failed strategy talks, which is just unthinkable for a 90-minute episode season.
Plus, key relationships never really evolved and never faced serious tests. From the premiere to the finale, so little changed in the storylines we watched, so there was no twist or turn in the plot to keep us on our toes. Not even a true power shift to make you feel like anything was developing beyond what you’d already seen weeks ago. You could honestly watch the premiere and skip to the finale. Just watch a Sai highlight reel, Joe and Eva’s moment in Episode 5, and that clip of David standing up like a goober at Tribal, and that’s all you really missed in those 11 middle episodes. Because let’s be honest, all the story we did get ultimately didn’t matter as the core conflict of the post-merge (nobody voting out Joe week after week) didn’t even matter when he’s a third-place finalist with only one vote in his favor.
So, while the 90-minute format was a huge blessing for three good seasons and elevated them into modern classics that felt fresh, the fourth attempt fell flat on its face as one of the most boring seasons this show has produced in 25 years. Cut this mess down to 60-minute episodes, and it wouldn’t be good, but at least it’d be mercifully shorter. I suppose that’s the double-edged sword with 90 minutes though. Good seasons become great with extended runtime, while weak seasons can become downright terrible. High risk, but high reward. Still, I appreciate the 90-minute format despite this season failing on almost every level. Survivor 49 can hopefully pull us back in, and of course, Season 50 is coming next year with an official cast reveal dropping in a week’s time, probably as an apology for how this mess turned out.
But this season should still be a learning opportunity for the show moving forward. Don’t write off negative fandom response as a sign that we need advantages and idols galore and broken twists every week, more superfans playing the most meta games possible, or less unique casting choices who bring different philosophies to the game. We just want the show to be more engaging and to feel less cheap than it did this time. Because it’s hard to see a flop season get heavy praise from Jeff and NOT feel a little disheartened about the show’s future, you know? Don’t let future seasons take after this one’s worst qualities. But also don’t over-correct and create a whole new monster in the process where you try so hard to spice up the game that nobody can even play.
Balance is key. Focus on relationships of course because that’s the core of the show, but make sure there’s actual conflict and humor abound too so it’s not all a sappy, inspirational love tribe with toothless strategy every week. Cast villains who don’t care about the social media backlash, people who desperately need the money and aren’t there to live a dream on their paid time off, heroes who resonate with fans because of their lovable personalities rather than their out-of-game personal stories. Some twists are fine, but stop stealing everyone’s votes, for crying out loud! Build new challenges, have fun rewards again that aren’t a low-budget picnic in the jungle, and be creative whenever possible. Just do something that doesn’t feel like a cookie-cutter rehash of past material that you hope we don’t notice. Because we do notice it, especially when a season this boring gives us nothing else to talk about for so long.
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I am so happy this season is FINALLY over. Agree with all of your points.
Summed it up really well. I too was gobsmacked when Jeff was going on about how good the season was and you’re right, it’s concerning. He says he makes this show for the fans but yet I haven’t met one fan that loves the new era. It’s so frustrating and I don’t know how much longer this show is going to go on if they keep up with this new era bull.