Coach version 3.0 played almost as good a game as he possibly could. He was assured of an easy passage to the final three, but fell short of winning, as he only received three votes to Sophie's six. That was unfortunate for him as he was the one controlling the game, while Sophie played perfectly safe, did nothing unorthodox, and won by having left the least negative impression of nothing worse than a poor social game.
It was virtually inevitable that Cochran would be seventh, Edna sixth, and the final five those who had aligned themselves from day 1. Coach did everything in his power to ensure this. Albert did not quite fancy the idea, but his attempts to avert this scenario were thwarted by not being able to find enough of the right kind of allies. Brandon, Sophie, Rick, and Coach after all believed they were going to the end with Coach, and were not bothered if he was likely to win. Had Albert and Edna joined the former Savaii early enough, the big move would have been possible, and it was too late when they tried to pull it off.
At the final five, Brandon was due to be voted out, but when he won immunity, Albert was in trouble. Despite a heated argument with everyone, Albert managed to calm Brandon down, and avoid his vote. Even better, Brandon insanely felt the right action was to give Albert the immunity necklace. That was an amazing coup from Albert. He preserved his place in the game, and joined Brandon in voting out Sophie. Rick and Coach would not be persuaded that Sophie was a bigger threat than Brandon, and voted him out. Coach used the excuse that he prayed about who to vote for, and the answer turned out to be Brandon. God must have been a fan of Sophie, and He made a brilliant move. Coach had caused Brandon to feel betrayed, bearing in mind the kind of "Christian" relationship they had built up, and that cost him Brandon's vote in the end.
Brandon was subsequently replaced by Ozzy, who won the next immunity challenge. At this stage, Albert had ceased to be a threat, and it was either Rick and Sophie to go. Why they felt Rick was a bigger threat than Sophie must be a mystery. Rick received Coach's, Albert's, and Sophie's votes, while Ozzy expressed his dislike for Sophie, causing her to break down, and voted with Rick. Still, she had survived yet again.
The final challenge was won by Sophie, and clearly she and Albert were going to vote for Ozzy. Coach must have realised that he had made a mistake long ago at that fateful occasion when Ozzy invited him, Brandon, and Albert to join him at Redemption Island. Coach foolishly pledged "as a Christian" to take Ozzy with him to the final three. Perhaps this was seen then as some kind of insurance policy, just in case Ozzy won the final immunity challenge and people could vote him out. Unfortunately, whichever way he voted, he would antagonise someone. He correctly chose to vote out Ozzy to prevent him from winning the game.
We can now examine how people were thinking when they voted, and note where Coach made his mistakes. His passage to the final three was perfectly smooth, since with Ozzy around there was someone else to be voted out at the final four. While he had done his best to honour his agreements - ensuring Cochran was seventh and Edna sixth - he had made far too many contradictory promises to people than he could keep.
Cochran the theoretician voted for Coach for being the most strategic player, even though he had felt embarrassed by having to settle for seventh. At least he got that far, after all, and was the last of his former tribe to be voted out. Edna, having been Coach's extra person, rebuked the jury for feeling betrayed, since betrayal was all part of the game, and they just had to accept that this would happen. She too voted for Coach on merit. Rick also voted for Coach, but for no apparent compelling reason.
Six people, however, chose to give the million dollars to Sophie instead. Jim, Keith, Dawn, and Whitney had no strong reason to vote either way. Perhaps they had something against Coach. However, Brandon apparently voted for Sophie just to spite Coach for voting him out despite his promises. Perhaps Sophie's revelation that Coach had found the immunity idol but let Brandon go on a pointless hunt for it might have added further insult. And Ozzy felt Coach should have admitted he had played well rather than honourably. He had clearly not liked Sophie's behaviour, and would have been fine with voting for Coach if not for the broken promise that they would be in the final three together. Christianity and Survivor surely do not mix. Coach "prayed" about who to vote for, and promised "as a Christian" to take people with him to the final three, but Brandon and Ozzy must have taken exception to his votes that eliminated them.
Coach had complete control of the game, preventing Albert from rebelling and spoiling the fun. He could have had anyone from his alliance voted out at any time once there were no others to vote out, but made the mistake of eliminating Brandon when he could have got rid of Sophie. Albert received no votes for the victory, perhaps not surprisingly due to his failure in his attempts to support the former Savaii tribe to vote against his alliance. Brandon would have provided entertainment by cracking under the pressure of being severely questioned by the jury, and probably received hardly any votes due to his bizarre behaviour. Rick, though, might perhaps have done well due to having done nothing to annoy people, and perhaps he was more likeable than Sophie and thus seen as a bigger threat. So Coach versus Albert versus Brandon would surely have been a comfortable win for Coach.
I am disappointed by the voting results. Unfortunately, only Cochran and Edna preferred to lose to a good player. Others almost certainly voted against Coach for making them look like mugs rather than in favour of Sophie for skilful play. It appears that Coach's only mistake was to get himself into situations in which he would upset whoever he voted out. He had been doing all the hard work in getting his alliance to the end, but Sophie won by basically going with the flow and hoping for the best. Perhaps there's an art to winning Survivor by staying in control of the game all the way to ensure you get to the end, and yet persuade those you have voted out to choose you as the winner. Too often this does not happen, and a passive player wins by default.
wow, this was an essay, but i actually like survivor essays. I really don't think Sophie went with the flow. At the very least, the players in the game seemed to perceive that Sophie was the one who DECIDED the strategic flow, and then coach made it happen by keeping the alliance tight.
I also think that the person who took down Ozzy in the challenge would really gain the respect of the jury.
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