John Corcoran, who insisted from his first stint on “Survivor” to be called only by his last name, like James Bond or one of his earlier show heroes, lived up to his name Sunday and won the $1 million prize on the finale of “Survivor: Caramoan – Fans vs. Favorites.”
Cochran was a favorite from the start, with his thoughtful commentary throughout the season and ability to not only stay alive as Phillip led and flamed out, but to start winning challenges and to make decisive attacks as the number of castaways narrowed.
Defending his case before the jury alongside Dawn and Sherri, how was the Harvard educated student of the game (who wrote a dissertation on the “Survivor” jury system) going to possibly lose? Especially when he was honest and unemotional in his plea, contrasting mightily with Dawn, who was getting on everyone’s last nerve for crying all the time, and Sherri, the one member of the “fans” who got to the end just because everyone was pretty sure nobody was going to vote for her.
Dawn’s case was undercut also by her blindsiding Brenda last week, after she had promised Brenda her undying support for diving to pluck out some false teeth that had popped out. Brenda was so hurt, she had the single most shocking request of Dawn that anybody might have made of a final three contestant: Take out your teeth now.
Dawn eventually did.
Cochran solidified his dominance for winning a card-stacking reward challenge that gave him a big advantage in the final immunity challenge that he also won. Before that Erik was the second player of the season to be taken out of the game for medical reasons — he collapsed on the way back from last week’s tribal council. Eddie was removed from the final four because, well, he was Eddie, a guy they’d been meaning to vote out for weeks and they finally got around to doing it.
He hadn’t done much in the game, but nor did he vote out any of the jury except one.
The $100,000 award for fan favorite, voted by viewers, went to Malcom, losing his second straight “Survivor” despite a nervy move in the game that saved he and Eddie for a week.
In the reunion segment, nobody mentioned the most troubling aspect of the season: the violent actions of the addled Brandon (who was not present for the reunion). But Boston Rob was there to congratulate Phillip for his (unsuccessful) game playing and presented him with the first copy of a book he said the Alleged Special Agent inspired: The Boston Rob Rules.
Forget that book, I want to see Cochran’s thesis.
They only teased what next season’s “Survivor” will be: “Blood vs. Water,” which I think will mean teams of relatives against teams of unrelated people. It featured a Chinese junk and swords in the logo, so it might also take place in China. But maybe not.