Survivor Fans Vs. Favorites: Parvati Shallow Takes Home the Grand Prize

I went into this week's Survivor: Micronesia really hoping the lesser of four evils would win, that being Amanda. My last true favorite was Erik and as all the girls laughed at his gullibility; I really wanted none of them to win this season.

But, someone had to win. After all, Survivor is a game of outwit, outlast, and outplay, and that is exactly what the four remaining girls did this season. Well, for the most part. Natalie, the last fan standing, managed to worm her way into an alliance with Parvati that almost paid off for her. We found out at the reunion show that there was some flirtation going on between these two, but apparently, Parvati was just trying to schmooze with Natalie just in case. When Amanda won what they thought was the last immunity challenge, she, Parvati, and Cirie decided to stick with their original alliance and vote out Natalie.

However, Survivor had a surprise for them, but not necessarily a welcomed one. Rather than the usual scenario of the three remaining Survivors feasting and laughing before the final tribal, the girls got treemail saying there would be one more immunity challenge, which would break up their alliance. Amanda won again and had a hard choice to make. And, from my point of view, she made a stupid decision. She felt closer to Parvati, but hated to get rid of Cirie. Her reasoning was that Parvati had made a lot of people on the jury angry, but Cirie could talk her way into anything. She chose to take Parvati with her to the finale and in that decision, gave away a million dollars. Even Parvati said Cirie couldn't win if she went to the final tribal council against Amanda.

I thought Ozzy's statement was damaging to Parvati as well. He accused her of putting money over their friendship (hate to break it to you Oz, that is the name of the game) and said it hurt him deep in his heart. She just sat there looking stupefied.

However, it seems that his little speech carried little or no weight with the other jurors. We know Ozzy voted for Amanda (his ladylove) and we know Erik voted for her (he seemed to do a switcheroo after his speech), but who was the third vote? I am sure it was fellow China tribe mate James, who was also a love interest of Parvati's until he realized she would (and did) do anything to win.

All in all, Amanda played almost the same game she lost in Survivor: China. She remained too loyal and it cost her. Parvati on the other hand pulled off what I think was the biggest blindside in Survivor history when she ousted Ozzy while he sat on the hidden immunity idol. Learning nothing, the girls pulled the same trick on Jason. However, you have to give kudos to Cirie for coming up with the harebrained "make Erik give up the immunity necklace" and for Natalie for actually pulling it off.

All in all, with the crazy blindsides and medical evacuations, it made for one of the most exciting Survivor seasons ever!