WARNING: This post contains spoilers from “The Last Stand,” the season 47 finale of “Survivor,” which aired Wednesday, Dec. 18 on CBS.
“Survivor” 47 came to a decent end Wednesday night — if a bit predictable for anyone who has been watching each week.
First came the final immunity challenge for Rachel LaMont, Sam Phalen, Sue Smey and Teeny Chirichillo, the final four. Despite taking an early lead, Sam failed to take home his first immunity win and Rachel once again earned the chain. In doing so, she became one of now five women in total over 46 seasons to have won four individual immunities in one season. Although she had the honor of joining Jenna Morasca, Chrissy Hofbeck, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe and Kelly Wiglesworth, Rachel noted that she was well aware that Kelly and Chrissy made it to the finals and did not win.
Rachel immediately revealed that she would be taking Sue to the final three, which meant Sam and Teeny would be forced to build a fire. For some reason, Sam didn’t practice making fire at all all season, while Teeny was fine at it. Additionally, Rachel coached Teeny to build her self-confidence.
Before the fire-making challenge, Teeny admitted that she had “a bit of a one-sided rivalry” with Sam throughout the season, which was due to her struggles with her own identity. She said that because of Sam’s appearance, she assumed he had undergone some treatment his entire life and that “because of my identity and my gender, so to speak, that’s not always the experience that I’ve had.” After adding that Teeny is “still dealing with things,” she said, “I projected insecurities onto him.”
In the most exciting fire-making challenges in years, Teeny got a big lead early and built a giant fire before Sam could even get a spark. However, Sam’s unwillingness to give up, combined with the quite literally How the wind blew, Sam’s final spark built quickly and his fire burned through the rope before Teeny’s. Devastated, she was sent to the jury.
During the final chat with the judges, Sue revealed it was her 59th birthday – no, she’s not in her 40s, which she kept telling the group. However, Sam and Rachel (understandably) dominated the rest of the conversations.
In the end, Rachel dominated, just like in the second half of the season, and took home the win!