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Survivor 11 Guatemala Now Up and Running

This blog, Survivor 10 Palau, will no longer be updated. I have moved on to Survivor 11 Guatemala which is now up and running. I invite you to join me for the latest Survivor news along with my thoughts and observations. Please update your bookmarks and news readers.

Of course you are welcome to stay here and read all about Survivor Palau - that's what it's here for. Perhaps you'd also like to read about Survivor 9 Vanuatu .

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Episode 14, Tom Wins!

Tom wins the final two Immunity challenges. He chooses to take Katie to the final two with him and has a relatively easy appearance before the Jury. Final votes shown: 4 for Tom and 1 for Katie (that's enough, but I suspect he got six of the seven votes).

The final two hour episode of Survivor Palau started with the final four (Tom, Ian, Katie and Jennifer) talking about the last Tribal Council where Caryn snapped.

There wasn't a Reward challenge. Instead the four of them had a memorial ceremony where they took the extinguished torches of the other Survivors and 'buried them at sea.' As each torch was dropped into the ocean they said a few kind words about their former competitor. It was a nice remembrance of all of the Survivors. Also there were some good looking underwater shots of the torches slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

The first Immunity involved intelligence and a little luck. There was a tower and grappling hooks were used to retrieve ropes. Pieces to a puzzle revealed a combination to a lock. Tom won this Immunity.

Back at camp, it is decided that Jennifer will be voted off. This is all done out in the open and Jennifer is reluctantly resigned to her fate. She even hugs everybody. Then Ian says to Tom something like "I don't know if I would have been able to make that decision," (deciding that Jennifer would leave).

This for some reason makes Tom suspicious of Ian. Tom thinks that he was plotting to vote him off. Jennifer smells blood and throws fuel on the fire. "He was plotting against you Tom!" The three of them gang up on poor Ian and accuse him of 'dishonesty.' Ian says that it was just the game and that he was just exploring all options but that he was always loyal to the three of them (him, Tom and Katie). Didn't they also do similar things? (yes) Despite vehement protests and being on the verge of tears, they don't seem to believe Ian.

First Tribal Council
The voting is a tie, two votes for Ian and two for Jennifer. The tie is broken with a fire building challenge. Ian wins, so Jennifer is removed from competition.

Back at camp, Tom lays into Ian again. He tells Ian to be a man and admit that he made a mistake. (I don't think Ian did anything wrong.)

Final Immunity Challenge
This is traditionally an endurance competition and Palau would not break with that custom. Each Survivor was to stand on a tiny platform on top of a buoy in the water. The last one down wins Immunity.

After about five hours or so Katie was the first one to give up. (Who said women usually do better in the endurance challenges?) At around the seventh hour Tom offered Ian a deal: Ian steps down and Tom will take him in the final two with him. Ian doesn't trust him (I wonder why?) and makes the same offer to Tom. Tom also declines the deal.

At just before the twelve hour mark, Ian tells Tom he will give up if the three of them can be friends again and Tom takes Katie to the final two. Yes, you read that correctly. Ian was just giving up and he didn't even want to be in the final two; he just wanted to be friends again!

They then had an impromptu Final Tribal Council. Tom asked Ian again if he wanted him to take Katie to the final two with him. Ian said 'Yes', he just wants to be friends. Tom then said that they would have been friends anyway but now he also respects Ian. (See, all of the senseless brow beating that Tom heaped on Ian earlier really paid off in the final Immunity Challenge.)

Ian is voted off, leaving the Jury to decide whether Tom or Katie wins the one million dollars.

The Jury Questions Tom and Katie.
This was pretty uneventful. Tom played the 'I'm Just an Average Guy Lucky to be Here' role, and he played it well. Katie was a bit stand off-ish. This was really on display when Janu wanted to ask her a question and she refused. Katie said that Janu had already made up her mind to vote for Tom, so why should she bother to answer her question. I think this hurt Katie in the eyes of the rest of the Jury. Some of them looked on in disbelief as Katie declined to respond to Janu. Anyway, Gregg seemed to blame Tom for his demise and Cory was very angry with both of them. Of course when it was Ian's turn it was a love fest. The rest of the jurists asked the standard questions.

Time for the final vote.

The Survivor Reunion
(Held at the Sullivan Theater in New York City.)
Here the votes were revealed in front of a live audience. Four votes for Tom were shown to just one for Katie. That's enough to give the one million dollars to him. I suspect Tom got six of the seven votes. Tom then ran over to hug his wife and family. Tom, a New York City fireman, really had the audience on his side throughout the evening.

The remainder of the reunion was the usual feel good session. Past bad blood was forgotten as everybody reminisced about their time together on the island. Janu admitted that she had already made up her mind to vote for Tom before Katie refused to answer her question. Jeff Probst asked everyone if they thought that he coerced Janu into quitting at Tribal Council. They all agreed that he hadn't done so. Coby revealed that he has adopted a baby girl. As if that wasn't sweet enough, he then said that he's named her Janu after Janu. Coby and Janu then hugged while everyone let out a collective "Ahhh!" I may have missed it, but I don't think that James' stripper wife tried to kick Stephenie's ass, as James stated she would on several occasions.

So ends Survivor Palau. I hope that you enjoyed my little blog. The next Survivor will air in September and it will be set in Guatemala. The Survivors will live amongst ancient Mayan ruins.

I plan on blogging again. My blog for Survivor Guatemala is already started but it is a little sparse right now and I will change the template and its look before the next edition starts.

The URL is: http://survivor11.blogspot.com .

Have a nice summer and I hope to see you in the fall!

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Tom Westman Wins 'Survivor: Palau'

By Derrik J. Lang, Associated Press Writer

At 41, New York City firefighter Tom Westman scorched his competition on "Survivor: Palau" to become the oldest winner of the competitive reality show.

"I played with intensity," the gray-haired Westman told The Associated Press in an interview following his win Sunday at the Ed Sullivan Theater. "I didn't hold back and fly under the radar. I thought I might be able to do that, but they got the real Tom Westman out there."

In a season of "Survivor" firsts, Westman stuck to his day-one alliance with dolphin trainer Ian Rosenberger and advertising executive Katie Gallagher and led the Koror tribe to win every immunity challenge, a feat that's never happened in the past nine seasons of "Survivor."

"Somebody told me recently they stopped coloring their hair after I did so well on the challenges," Westman joked.

Westman, a father of three who lives in Sayville, N.Y., made no secret of his prowess, winning seven individual immunity challenges and staying out of hot water when it came time for players to vote each other off the island. He never received a vote against him.

"When I saw how young the cast was, I thought, `This is gonna be perfect,'" Westman told the AP. "They're not going to know I'm a physical threat until it's too late for them. I didn't get to play that game. I played it hard. I played it as myself. While some people think that may not be too bright strategically, it did work out for me."

Westman is now $1 million richer and the owner of a new car. He said he plans to use the money toward college for his children and fixing up his house.

"I'm going to take care of my family," he said. "We've now got that cushion that most middle-class families don't have. Everything is going to be a little easier, a little sweeter."

The finale wasn't sweet for the three losers. Nanny Jenn Lyon lost during a tiebreaker challenge after Westman learned Rosenberger planned to double-cross him. Then, Rosenberger gave up during the final endurance immunity challenge, insisting Westman take Gallagher to the final two in a show of respect. During the final tribal council, runner-up Gallagher was called "mean" and "lazy."

Following Westman's win, host Jeff Probst announced the next location and title for the eleventh edition of the reality show: "Survivor: Guatemala — The Maya Empire." Probst said the latest batch of survivors will live among Mayan ruins.

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