As soon as Denise decided to vote off PG, I knew Todd would win. It was all wrapped up by then. I was seriously hoping Amanda would grow a set and get rid of Todd, which would have been a brilliant move, but she screwed herself, and for what? Did she think she would lose Todd's vote for making a strategic play? Come on! Then she made it even worse in the final tribal council with her weak answers. I really thought Amanda had potential, but she was such a let-down.
Courtney certainly did not deserve to win and I really don't like her, BUT I have to give her props for how she handled that final tribal council. She didn't let any of the questions get to her and her answers, as tactless as they may have been, were respectable. Did she play the best game? No. And she admitted as much. But she played well enough to get to the final three, which was a lot better than anyone on the jury.
Todd played that jury like a baby grand, which put him over the top. Especially his reply to Jean *gag* Ro-Bear. He knew exactly what to say and how to say it to get his vote, but then JR pretty much fed him exactly what to say. It's really a wonder how that man wins anything as a professional poker player when he could barely bluff his way onto the jury. He was a total Survivor Tool.
I had Todd as the front-runner pretty early on, but I didn't think people were stupid enough to let him get to the final four. It was as if they all agreed ahead of time to just hand Todd the million dollars.
And what was with Jaime's speech at tribal council? God, that went on FOREVER! And it was so pointless! She kept smugly asking Amanda, Todd and Courtney why Todd and Courtney deserve NOT to win and it just kept going on and on and on even after Todd and Courtney pretty openly aired all their dirty laundry themselves. At no point did she ask ANYONE why Amanda did not deserve to win or what dirty deeds she performed. It was a total vanity move on her part that did nothing but take up everyone's time. I hate that crap. If you're not going to have a Susan snake/rat meltdown or ask intelligent informative questions, then just wave and sit down. We already know you're an idiot, but at this point, it's just redundant.
I don't know about the whole Denise janitor/custodian/lunch lady thing. It's just too weird. She seemed nice enough, but you never know. And I'm not sure why the producers would label her as "lunch lady" from the beginning unless they decided not to verify her employment before starting the show, which is just stupid on their part, so hey, give her the $50k. They are a bit responsible for the information they provide themselves and it's pretty clear they made no effort to clarify the job title with Denise at any time during shooting even if they had been privy to the correct information. Denise sure doesn't look good in all this, but CBS comes off as having a bit of egg on their faces as well. Wouldn't be the first time. I still think there's more to the story. I mean, it just doesn't make sense that Denise would so blatantly lie (and with such a specific story) on NATIONAL TELEVISION about something so easy to uncover as her primary occupation. Nothing about any of this makes sense.
Anyway, good for Todd. He played the best strategic game and deserved to win, though I would have loved to have seen PG break through and watch that go down. All in all, it wasn't a bad season nor was it great. It had potential of being awesome, but the abundance of stupid stupid stupid decisions alleviated the tension.
I don't get the big deal about James other than he has muscles, which proved ultimately meaningless in the game. He didn't make any real strategic plays. He was handed TWO immunity idols for free and wasted them. He was all cocky and ironically dug his own grave. I could care less about seeing him again. He was yet another Survivor Tool. Bring back Cherie, Angie and Yau Man!! Or Stefanie! I would love to see her for a third season. She is one of my favorite players.
Honestly, why bring back Gary? He was dull as dirt. "I'm not an ex-quarterback! What on earth gave you that idea? You're not going to believe someone who actually watched me play, are you? She's totally lying!" Seriously, did he think people just looked at him an assumed he used to play professional football?? Actually, that's probably exactly what he thought. Who else but a sports journalist (Dani) would even make that kind of connection about him? Two words (go ahead...say them with me): Survivor Tool.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian