Survivor Episode Recap: "I Trust You But I Trust Me More"
Jeff Probst
In Survivor's season finale, we find out whether the partnership that brought Stephen and J.T. to the final four can survive until the end, and who wins it all. As an added bonus, we find out whether Coach passed a lie detector test about being captured by Amazonian natives before the game.
We start the episode with a recap of the season that reminds us how crucial it was that Stephen, J.T., and Taj — the survivors of the Jalapao tribe — formed an alliance with the Timbira tribe's Erinn once the two tribes merged. Though Timbira went into the merge with six members to Jalapao's three, Jalapao was able to eliminate every single member of Timbira, except for Erinn. And now of course only Stephen, J.T., Taj and Erinn remain.
Who are these people? Taj is a smart and athletic former R&B singer. J.T. is a charming Southerner from humble roots. Stephen, with whom he partnered at the start of the game, is a smooth-talking New Yorker. Erinn, a hairstylist, coasted in under the radar as Stephen and J.T. blindsided a series of more threatening challengers.
The action begins with Stephen and J.T. talking immediately after the Tribal Council that ousted Coach. J.T. seems a bit irritated that J.T. voted to cut Erinn instead of voting with Stephen, Taj, and Erinn. "Ultimately I think it'll hurt me," Stephen says. "I need to think about who do I want to be there at the end with — who can I beat at the end?" In other words, the Stephen-J.T. alliance may be at its end.
Next we find Taj and Stephen saying you can't discount anyone in the final four. "The biggest threat of course is J," Taj says. Stephen agrees, but isn't sure he could vote out his ally: "I don't know. ... I don't think I can do that." Taj isn't sure either.
Our host, Jeff Probst, arrives to present the latest immunity challenge: Race through a tarantula-shaped obstacle course collecting pieces, and use them to solve a web-shaped puzzle. Whoever designs the challenges has done an admirable job: The course consists of tubes made of web-like rope that the contestants have to climb through. "You'll lose some skin in this challenge," Jeff says.
Stephen and J.T finish first, and find themselves standing side-by-side as they try to solve their puzzles. Erinn quickly catches up, however, and nearly passes him. But J.T. wins in a squeaker. Only Taj, Stephen, and Erinn are eligible to go home, and Erinn, the last remaining Timbira member is particularly concerned.
Taj believes Stephen and J.T. are loyal to her and that "the plan" is for the three of them to vote out Erinn. Appealing to J.T. and Stephen in the water, Erinn makes what J.T. concedes is a good point: Taj has played an excellent social game, befriending everyone. If she makes it to the end, she could win a jury vote.
Stephen also decides Taj is a bigger threat than Erinn, but feels bad about betraying her. He also knows it may cost him jury votes. Still, Stephen and J.T. meet with Taj to assure her that the plan is still to vote out Erinn. The three assure one another that they remain loyal. But are they?
An aside: As the final vote nears, all the contestants are very nice to each other. It's a tough thing to vote someone out and then hope they'll vote for you to win.
We see this especially in the Tribal Council, where Taj writes "Sorry!" on the card on which she writes Erinn's name. But Stephen and J.T. don't go along with the plan: They vote out Taj.
The next morning, Erinn says she's decided that if she wins immunity, she'll vote to keep Stephen. The two of them have a conversation in which they hint that they might take each other to the final two — without saying so outright. This conversation will be important later.
J.T., meanwhile, gives "my word and my life" to Stephen that he'll vote out Erinn. Stephen makes the same promise to J.T., but looks apprehensive — he keeps rubbing his face and looking down. Can J.T. trust Stephen? He's not sure.
The final three are instructed to follow a map and stop at a series of torches, collecting idols representing their defeated opponents. At each torch, they say a few kind words about everyone who's left the game.
At Taj's torch, J.T. says Taj will be a friend for life. In a voiceover, she doesn't sound bitter at either of them, just a bit critical of herself: "I totally underestimated and lost focus on the million dollars as well as underestimated Stephen and J.T.'s will to win that million dollars."
The last immunity challenge is perhaps the most mentally taxing to date. And as Jeff reminds us, it could be worth a million dollars. The winner is guaranteed a spot in the final two, and gets the deciding vote about who the other finalist will be. The challenge: To drop a series of balls down a winding chute, with multiple openings. The contestants have to keep track of where the balls will come out, and keep them from hitting the ground. And everyone will have one hand tied between his or her back.
Erinn drops a ball first. If J.T. and Stephen are each true to their word, they'll be the final two. But are they? Stephen drops a ball. J.T. gets final immunity and Stephen can't congratulate him fast enough. Erinn congratulates him as well.
"Stephen and I had a promise," J.T. says, using the perhaps ominous-for-Stephen past tense. "I got a big decision ahead of me."
Erinn tells J.T. that Stephen told her he would take her to the final two. She's apparently referring to her earlier conversation with Stephen, the one I mentioned would be important later. She then makes another savvy argument: Stephen is so much more eloquent than she is that he might be able to persuade jurors to make him the winner over J.T. Erinn must feel simultaneously elated and insulted when J.T. agrees she's the more logical choice to take to the final two. She later adds in a voiceover that of the remaining contestants, J.T. seems to need the money the most, and that if he wants it he should bring her to the end. (An aside: Who ever thought Erinn would get this far? Props to her on a well-played game, whatever happens.)
Next, as they sit by the water, J.T. tells Stephen that Erinn has made a good case, and that she "told me you would have took her" to the final two.
Stephen: That's not true. You know that.
J.T.: I hope so.
J.T. also says he's guaranteed the million dollars if he chooses Erinn. "You're still gonna win a million dollars," Stephen says. "And you'll do the right thing."
Stephen tells J.T. the remaining panelists will most respect a decision to take Stephen to the end. "You have to know that you're going to win this," he says. He also tells J.T. he's scared. J.T. responds, in the most sympathetic — or most cold — line of the game: "I'd be scared if I were you." Yow!
At council, J.T. says the decision comes down to whether the money or keeping his word is most important. He says it also comes down, in part, to whether he believes Stephen would have kept his word to him.
Jeff asks if he thinks he would have. "I don't know," J.T. says.
Stephen interjects that he and J.T. have talked since Day Two about having breakfast together on Day 39, and Jeff kiiiiind of abandons his neutrality. "I've got to admit — when you weigh a million dollars versus a breakfast with your 39-day friend, you're right, that's a tough one," he says.
Jeff, ever the provocateur, asks Stephen if he and J.T. will still be friends if J.T. votes him out. "I think we would be friends. I don't think it would be the same kind of friendship," Stephen says. "The swears that he has made to me, like, defy all swears that I've ever been made." He also concedes that he's broken plenty of promises himself. But J.T. still votes to keep his 39-day friend. Goodbye, Erinn.
"You and I are going to be friends for life," Stephen tells J.T. the next day. Then they have that breakfast: eggs, bread, avocados and champagne. "Tastes like victory," Stephen says.
J.T. says he's going to do whatever he has to at the council to win the million. Stephen says he'll fight too.
The jurors take their seats at the final council. Stephen argues that he's made the greater journey, noting, "I've never been camping before." He says he owes his transformation, in part, to the other players.
J.T. says he can't make a speech like his Yale graduate friend — "I'm actually the first person in my family to ever graduate, but don't think I want a pity vote," he says. He notes that no one has voted against him in the entire game and says it was very hard to vote everyone out, but that he and Stephen voted for the competitors they thought would have ousted them.
Next the jurors get to question Stephen and J.T. Brendan asks if Stephen can name a single game in which players win by growing the most. He says Survivor may be the only one.
Erinn is next. She asks why the people in the alliances Stephen has broken shouldn't vote for J.T. Stephen says he was just playing the game — and playing it well. Debbie says honesty is the most important thing to her, and that J.T. lied to her. J.T. says no less than his mother told him lying was part of the game. Under tough questioning from Debbie, Stephen concedes that he likely would have taken Erinn to the final two.
Coach says he's proud to see "the warrior and wizard" from his warrior alliance in the final two. J.T. makes the point that he — and only he — didn't vote Coach out, even when Coach's fate was sealed. "I risked a million dollars to keep my word to you and to keep my word to Stephen," he says.
Stephen says he deserves points for voting everyone out instead of taking "the weasel way out."
Sierra says J.T., despite claiming to have taken the strongest players to the end, eliminated Taj instead of Erinn. She says she doesn't respect the decision and that it might cost him the million. Under questioning from Tyson, J.T. says he might have made it to the end without Stephen. Stephen says J.T. is "devaluing" their partnership.
Taj describes herself as "crushed, betrayed, extremely disappointed." She asks why it seemed easier for J.T. to vote her out than Coach. Stephen says J.T. was the one who wanted to vote her out first, and that he just went along with it. J.T. says that wasn't the case. Stephen says "let's air our laundry," and tells Taj that he repeatedly talked J.T. out of voting her out.
"Is this the same guy I brought with me?" J.T. asks.
"Oh come on now," Stephen responds. "You have been slandering me all night and this is the first time I ever took a shot at you." He later adds: "Our friendship means more to me than winning does."
"But you'd have brought Erinn," J.T. says. "I just feel like a fool, man."
The show moves to New York City for the final count. Jeff enters with the ballots and we see J.T. and Stephen, sitting side-by-side.
The first vote for the winner goes to J.T. The crowd goes wild. The second also goes to J.T. The crowd goes wilder. J.T. gets a third vote, then a fourth — enough to win Survivor's 18th season. Jeff later informs us that the vote was unanimous.
J.T., in tears, describes Stephen as "one of the best friends I'll probably ever have."
Later, Coach hits Jeff with his own blindside. He gives him a sealed envelope with what he says are the results of a lie detector test. It shows that Coach truthfully answered "yes" when asked if he was once captured by Amazon natives.
Oh, and in case J.T. hasn't won enough, he also wins the public vote for favorite player, adding $100,000 to his cool million. He says he plans to use his winnings to try to earn more money... perhaps by working with Stephen, a corporate consultant.
One final note: Jeff announces that the next season will take place in Samoa.
What do you think? Are you glad J.T. won?
