‘Survivor: Philippines’ finale rankings: Is it Malcolm and Denise’s game to lose?
With the season finale for “Survivor: Philippines” airing on Sunday night, it’s almost time for us to answer the questions of who will win and who should win. (We’ll have more on that tomorrow morning.) Before we dive too deeply into that, though, we have to take on another important issue in ranking all of the contenders still in the game.
So who is likeliest to win the million bucks? It’s complicated, since there is no one left that is a guaranteed jury goat. We’re going to base this first on who is the most likely to win in the end, but we are also going to factor in here how likely they even are of making it to the final three.
4. Lisa Whelchel (last week: 3)- Let’s try to make this pretty clear: we believe that Lisa probably has the best chance of making the final three, but the worst chance to actually win. As much as she may say now that she’s in the game to win, her constant flip-flopping and her poor challenge performances are not likely to be respected by the jury, even if she is a fairly nice person. The only hope she really has is that she ends up making it to the end with Skupin, and then makes a good argument that Skupin was always one bad move away from injuring himself off the island.
3. Michael Skupin (2) – Skupin is in a strange position himself. He’s a returning player and that could work against him in the jury, but he really has not angered too many people save for possibly Jeff Kent and Jonathan Penner. He’s also a motivational speaker, so you have to think that the guy is going to be perfectly capable of creating a great final speech that will actually get him the million dollars in the end.
2. Denise Stapley (4) – This is where things get a little tricky to us. We think that either Malcolm or Denise will win this season, and it all depends on who manages to make it there (since it’s more likely one of them will miss out than with Lisa or Skupin). The only reason Denise is #2 here is because Malcolm said last week that he would have no problem getting rid of her in this spot, and she hasn’t said the same thing about him. Plus, we think Denise’s enemies (Penner, Abi-Maria) will make it harder for her to win against Malcolm if they both make it. With that being said, she’s far more deserving than either Tandang member.
1. Malcolm Freberg (1) – There’s no way around it: Malcolm is just a beast in this game. He’s a strong competitor, a nice guy, and a solid strategist. He also has no enemies on the jury, and will win if a landslide if he makes it there. All he has to do is either win the final immunity challenge (which seems likely), or hope that Denise forces a tiebreaker (and we have no indication that she would vote him out).
Who do you think will win? Be sure to vote in the poll below, and you can check out a peek at one of the challenges from the finale by clicking the link here.
Photo: CBS
Malcolm all the way!
December 16, 2012 @ 11:35 am
Malcolm has been amazing at all parts needed in this game : physical, mental, and emotional. He hasn’t pissed anyone off and he deserves the million dollars most of all. Lisa hasn’t done anything to amount to the game and well lets be honest, there is no honest game of survivor. Lisa hasn’t even played a honest game! Lisa sucks so she has no chance what so ever. Skupin can’t do anything with out hurting himself and he is pretty useless. Skupin and Lisa have no chance to win since they decided to bring Malcolm and Denise into the final four. All their chance of winning went out the window. Denise has a good chance of winning since she has been to every tribal council in the whole entire game. Denise has been hard core in all of the challenges but she is not very good at the strategic game. Therefore, Malcolm has all of the aspects of the game. He is very good at the game and deserves to win.
Skupin
December 16, 2012 @ 10:11 am
Denise is so going to et rid of Malcolm! So malcolm won the last 2 challenges don’t forget that Denise has gone on nearly every reward and was winning the imminity challenge with carter! She’s not stupid enough to keep Malcolm eother
UnicornOnFire
December 15, 2012 @ 7:07 pm
This is Malcolm’s game to win. No joke. What they have said was all true. If you ever watched his videos, he isn’t just this bartender that gets along with everyone. Matter in fact he is hiding A LOT of major secrets that would have gotten him voted out. He is a well rounded player. There is an 80% chance that he is going to get into the final three. Denise seems to be holding onto him and it will be very shocking to see her turn on him and beat him in the final challenge. But who knows XD This is survivor after all isn’t it?
JK
December 15, 2012 @ 5:52 pm
I actually think Lisa will win. She has enough Tandang members on the jury. They may not love her to death but they don’t have any affection for Malcom and Denise. I’m not sure that Skupin is much more liked and respected than Lisa either. Malcom screwed up a huge opportunity to use that hidden immunity Idol to either get Lisa out or at least build goodwill with a potential jury member. He did neither and I believe it will be his undoing. I think he gets screwed at the final 4. Either with a tiebreaker or Denise reluctantly voting him out thinking she can play the “I’m the only competitor left” card. If Malcom had given her the immunity Idol, even though she was safe, could have bought him a little more loyalty. But we’ll see how it shakes out but Malcom does not win.