Survivor: Nicaragua Review: "Fabio" Edges Chase 5-4 To Win

Jud "Fabio" Birza (left) and Chase Rice

After happily finishing all my grading for the Fall 2010 semester I was able to relax las night by watching the finale of Survivor: Nicaragua, where 21-year-old "surfer dude" Fabio went up against "dumb but pretty" Chase and "sexually ambiguous strategic mastermind" Sash. The last member of the final four was the last remaining woman, Holly, who became the last member of the 9-person Jury who would decide which of the Final 3 would win $1 million and the title of Sole Survivor.

I was actually pretty happy with any of the final three winning but would have been happier if Chase had won (mostly because he was the hottest guy on the show!) As soon it was revealed that Fabio (whose actual name was Jud but because of his persona he was renamed on Day 1 and it stuck) had won the million dollars by a  vote of 5-4 he immediately demonstrated himself to be a spacey, anti-intellectual dreamer. My immediate reaction was "This is the guy you all wanted to win a million bucks?" Chase is attempting to have a country music career and has a decent voice. He should be a success since he is now a household name already.

I was disappointed Sash did not get any votes from the 9 person jury. He was the person in control of the game for the longest period of time, which means that he was the person responsible for the most people getting kicked off. This should demonstrate his ability to outwit the most people, but it is human nature to resent and want to punish the person who was responsible for their inability to win the million dollars and they will use their remaining power to make sure you don't. What people don't realize is that EVERYONE but the final three have to be kicked out at some point, the problem is that every person on the jury thinks that THEY should have been in that final 3, which is simply self-delusional.

Fabio was considered too dumb to be a threat for the majority of the game. As Sash pointed out, there were many many Tribal Councils where Fabio had no idea who was going to be voted out and thus was in the minority or joined the majority  at  the last moment. (One could make the argument that this strengthen's Fabio's case for winning since because he was not responsible for anyone's departure, more people would view him positively). What people over-looked was that he was very young and in reasonable shape so as the numbers got smaller and smaller (around 6 or 5) he was able to win three Individual Immunity challenges in a row (the last three) which cemented his position to appear before the Jury and plead his case for the Million Dollars.

Chase was in the "in-group" for the entire game but because the in-group (the majority which decides who gets voted out) is very flexible and generally changes from week to week. However, instead of managing this dynamic nature in a calm, unflappable fashion (like Sash) Chase repeatedly is shown agonizing over decision and constantly talking to members of the tribe, trying to find out if he himself was on the chopping block. Multiple people called him "paranoid." I do think Chase had the better back story (his father had died recently and he announced he would donate $100,000 towards cancer research if he won) and used his southern roots to connect with the most popular member of the Survivor: Nicaragua cast, Jane and small-town denizen Holly.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia the deciding vote was cast by the "villain" of this season's cast, NaOnka, who actually gave Chase her immunity idol when she controversially decided to quit the show.
Somehow she changed her mind and decided Fabio (who she despised throughout the entire season) deserved the million dollars. I think it is more likely the table below here is incorrect and Naonka's and Alina's votes are switched.

Jury Vote[citation needed]
Finalist:	Sash 0/9 votes	Chase 4/9 votes	Fabio 5/9 votes
Juror	Vote
Holly		Chase
Dan			Fabio
Jane		Chase
Benry			Fabio
Kelly S.			Fabio
NaOnka			Fabio
Brenda		Chase
Marty			Fabio
Alina		Chase

I thought the Reunion show was atrocious. It didn't get into the specifics of the vote when it was a ONE vote decision! If anyone changed their mind it could have altered the final winner. Jeff Probst was short and scattered and didn't provide a context in which more information about the Survivor Cast could be revealed. The one interesting question was the reveal that Brenda had turned on Sash (Brenda and Sash had controlled the game together for at least half the game when she was blindsided and became the third member of the jury). Sash had had an immunity idol at the time and it was always curios that when he knew Brenda was about to go that he had not given her the idol to save her. Instead time in the reunion was used to let Holly give millionaire businessman Dan (who because he was so physically feeble he was kept to the final 5 because everyone knew they would win $1 million if he was in the Final 3) some expensive shoes since she had ruined his shoes on the show.

The next Survivor will also be in Nicaragua and will fundamentally alter the game, now when people are voted off they will be able to come back to the game if they win a challenge between rejects. I think this is a really bad idea.

I do like that the producers announced that if people quit the show they will no longer be guaranteed to be on the Jury. If they quit the show, they should be immediately removed from all aspects of the show, regardless of how telegenic and entertaining they are (see Naonka).

All-in-all this was one of the better seasons of Survivor even if there were no openly gay castmembers, there was substantial eye candy (Chase) and Fabio was consistently amusing as well.