‘Survivor: Worlds Apart’ finale review: Did Mike Holloway, Carolyn Rivera, or Will Sims II win?

The finale of “Survivor: Worlds Apart” at first to us seemed to be all about one subject: Whether or not Mike Holloway could end up winning his way to the end. After he secured his fifth immunity necklace, he did that!

However, we wondered once we got to the final four if he started to get a little too cute for his own game. Nobody would have blamed him for wanting to take Rodney and Will to the end. Dan would have probably voted for Rodney to win, and that would be it. Who else was going to give the guy love? But in forcing him to make a fire, the standard tiebreaker rule in the final four, Mike basically lost his jury vote, and he kept someone in Carolyn who probably would have voted for him to win. It was a super-risky move to keep Carolyn, given that she actually played a good move. We didn’t think that it was a Woo-level mistake going into the final tribal council, but who could say for sure?

Before we continue, let’s give a quick shout-out to Mike’s mom. How cool was she when we saw her after the final five reward?

Now, let’s get to the jury. Going in, it was clear that Will would probably get Rodney’s vote. There was some serious bitterness on the jury for the most part, in particular with Dan and Rodney. Still, we felt going out of this that Carolyn was going to get the title. The fact that she had Shirin’s vote surprised us, especially since he stood up for her in such a human way. Jury was almost a microcosm of the whole game: Mike was passionate but reckless, Will did and said little, and Carolyn was shrewd and calculated.

The funny thing is that all the people who claimed that they were going to vote for Carolyn didn’t really vote for Carolyn. Even Shirin seemed to vote for him after rallying for Carolyn! What happened there?

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