When Maryanne showed that she had the unplayed idol was when anyone still voting Mike was pushed over to her side.  Until then I thought it may go 5-3 or 6-2. 

Has there been a winner who did not win a challenge?  I bet not. 

 

 

Contrast all the supportive and positive comments this tribal with the very original. 

"I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with you.  With no regrets." 

 

 

6 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

I have watched every Survivor season. As I think about Mike's play this season, it ranks as one of the best played seasons ever for me. He was very gracious in losing. Personally I think he got hung by the jury because he couldn't explain how he played with honesty and integrity.  I think if you have played the game like Mike did and get asked about honesty and integrity by the jury, you have to say something like ..... "there is a difference between honesty and integrity in the game of survivor versus honesty and integrity outside the game. I played with as much honesty and integrity as I could while trying to win the game. There were times I made misleading statements but I did my best to avoid lying, as best you can while trying to win."

I think you're better off throughout the season not preaching about honesty and integrity because then you never have to atone for it at the Final Tribal. Because the jury will always think you played with far less honesty and integrity than you did.

2 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

I think you're better off throughout the season not preaching about honesty and integrity because then you never have to atone for it at the Final Tribal. Because the jury will always think you played with far less honesty and integrity than you did.

I hate the hypocrisy of every jury when it gets to the final three. Everyone outright lies or at the very least misleads or gives incomplete information during their stay. Then try to hold the finalist to some morale standards that they themselves broke repeatedly. 

That said, everyone coming into the game has to know that they can't be 100% honest to everyone. So saying your game is based on truth and integrity is setting yourself up to fail.

35 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

I hate the hypocrisy of every jury when it gets to the final three. Everyone outright lies or at the very least misleads or gives incomplete information during their stay. Then try to hold the finalist to some morale standards that they themselves broke repeatedly. 

That said, everyone coming into the game has to know that they can't be 100% honest to everyone. So saying your game is based on truth and integrity is setting yourself up to fail.

And you would think that after over 20 years, and 40+ season's the contestants would have figured this out. It's not like it hasn't played out this way before. You have to mislead and be dishonest with someone at some point in time.

I thought going into Final Tribal that Mike was going to win, but his performance combined with Maryanne describing her game so well to the jury I knew Mike had no chance. I agree with some of the previous posts that Mike should have owned his game more, he came off too apologetic and I’m not even sure he realizes he played a great game. 
 

I did still think he had 2 votes, Jonathan and Rocksroy but it doesn’t really matter at this point. 

4 hours ago, AirYardGo said:

I thought going into Final Tribal that Mike was going to win, but his performance combined with Maryanne describing her game so well to the jury I knew Mike had no chance. I agree with some of the previous posts that Mike should have owned his game more, he came off too apologetic and I’m not even sure he realizes he played a great game. 
 

I did still think he had 2 votes, Jonathan and Rocksroy but it doesn’t really matter at this point. 

Wiki shows just Jonathan's. 

3 hours ago, Bluegrasscard said:

Wiki shows just Jonathan's. 

Sorry I meant I thought he would still get those two votes even with the bad final tribal performance. 

Still thinking about that final tribal. Am I remembering this right? Maryanne's biggest move in the game was she kept quiet about her idol and never used it? So it had zero impact on any vote and did nothing to help her win. And the jury was wowed by that.

9 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Still thinking about that final tribal. Am I remembering this right? Maryanne's biggest move in the game was she kept quiet about her idol and never used it? So it had zero impact on any vote and did nothing to help her win. And the jury was wowed by that.

She orchestrated the Omar vote pretty well by using her extra vote and getting Romeo to vote with her. You could say it was Jonathan and Mike's idea at first but they wussed out and wanted to go the easy way instead.

Taking Omar out there was huge and it doesn't happen unless Maryanne makes it happen.

I will say though, I don't understand the huge reaction, even though it was presented well.

5 hours ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

She orchestrated the Omar vote pretty well by using her extra vote and getting Romeo to vote with her. You could say it was Jonathan and Mike's idea at first but they wussed out and wanted to go the easy way instead.

Taking Omar out there was huge and it doesn't happen unless Maryanne makes it happen.

I will say though, I don't understand the huge reaction, even though it was presented well.

She certainly gets credit there, but as you say it is partial credit along with Mike. Mike played and worked the entire game, and strategized on almost every vote he was involved in. Maryanne was slightly more than another Romeo until the Omar vote. At the merge, if you asked all the players left who are the two people they felt confident they would beat in the final 3, Romeo and Maryanne would have been the top 2 choices.

Honestly, I got a little caught up in the Maryanne story at the end and felt she had a chance to win. Looking back, Mike deserved it and the vote should have been lopsided in his favor.

6 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

Honestly, I got a little caught up in the Maryanne story at the end and felt she had a chance to win. Looking back, Mike deserved it and the vote should have been lopsided in his favor.

I think Mike definitely should have won as well.  But with how the last couple of episodes were being portrayed, it felt like Maryanne had it in the bag.