Survivor: Tocantins Season Finale

The 2009 season of Survivor Tocantins: The Brazilian Highlands has been full of ups and downs. Nearly every week, the person who heard the fateful words, "The tribe has spoken", was completely blindsided. The amazing thing is that through all the lying and scheming, J.T., the likeable farm-boy from Alabama didn't have to lie (too much).

Once "Coach" was voted off last week, J.T. was pretty much a shoe-in. In fact, even if Coach had not gone home, the only person who might have beat him in jury votes would have been Taj. Consequently, J.T. only had to keep Taj from winnin immunity and predictably she was voted off early last night so that the final three would be Erinn, Stephen and J.T.

Naturally, J.T. won the final immunity challenge though Stephen did give him a run for his money (almost). Erinn had no chance as she had been the odd one out from day one. J.T. was true to his alliance with Stephen, taking him to the jury vote.

Even though almost everyone was blindsided in being voted off, there was surprisingly little anger and ugliness during the jury questioning. Previous seasons have been much more heated and occasionally explosive.
There was one tense moment when Stephen was asked by Debbie, had he won immunity would he have taken J. T. or Erinn since he obviously had a better chance of beating Erinn in a vote. Stephen answered honestly that he "hoped" he would have chosen J.T. but he could not be sure.

In a play for sympathy, J.T. affected "hurt feelings" and betrayal, though he later said that he was just acting and his feelings weren't really hurt. He admitted that he clearly understood that Stephen would have had a much harder choice to make as even J.T. recognized himself as the likely winner.

When the final votes were counted, James "J.T" Thomas wins a million dollars beating Stephen by a vote of 7 to 0. The only surprise of the entire evening came when J.T. also won the $100,000 "people's choice" prize beating out Taj and Sierra and then stating that he was planning to start some sort of business venture with Stephen who is now a life-long friend.

Fans will be again awaiting anxiously for the next Survivor which will take place in the South Pacific on a Samoan island to be aired in the fall of 2009.

Source:
Survivor Tocantins: Brazilian Highlands Season Finale, CBS