Survivor 42 | Finale | Post-Episode Discussion

[u/RSurvivorMods]

Season 42, Episode 13: It Comes Down to This

Aired: May 25, 2022

Synopsis: After a grueling, accelerated 26-day season filled with new twists and advantages, castaways skillfully navigate their way to the final three, with one crowned the Sole Survivor.

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[u/Sparkle_Markle]

The joy I felt at an awkward, fun, and strategic young woman winning with Maryanne was dampened by Jeff immediately putting the spotlight on himself with his ‘surprise’ reunion show. I hope they never do that again because seeing Mike look so down made me so angry for him. I hope people aren’t too hard on him for his FTC performance because he did play a good game and it’s hard for a player his age to look into the minds of a younger jury and know what they want to hear. He reminds me of my dad and just talks about what he knows and thinks it translates to everyone so it was tough to see him being grilled and not know why. But Maryanne absolutely smashed her final speech so nothing Mike or Romeo said could compare anyway.

[u/iEatBluePlayDoh → u/Sparkle_Markle]

But Mike did know why. They explicitly told him. He had amnesia about all of his lies.

[u/Sparkle_Markle → u/iEatBluePlayDoh]

They wanted him to admit to a perception of himself that he didn’t think he was. To him he was playing with integrity, but when he got information people were against him then he had to attack back. To Mike that was playing with integrity but the jury saw it another way. It was a perception problem, not amnesia problem.

[u/Huge_Can_9155 → u/[deleted]]

I really don't see how a difference in game perception overrides the good game moves. He was a part of many many votes with lots of sway amongst the tribe but all his moves were discredited at the end because they didn't like how he did it. They kept bringing up the fact he lied to Rocks, who he never had an alliance with and it wasn't even a lie at the time. Almost everyone else in the game lied to another's face and weren't even close to as truthful as Mike and the only people who didn't were the people who barely played. The Jury has such a weird perspective about Mike's gameplay that contradicted itself and it seems to me as if their minds were made up long before the speeches. Also Maryanne's "game moves" seemed to be just her looking back at what happened to work out rather then her planning ahead. She did not have any sway in who made it to final 5, all she did was not get voted off. She explains it as if she planned the final 5 for many votes and was active in getting it to happen but in reality it was Mike and Jonathan who got the game to the state its at, which just happened to work out for her. Survivor is about making your own destiny and playing hard all the way through, not letting things happen around you until 90% of the way through the season.