I am still befuddled by the way Vecepia slunk her way through the last season of Survivor to win it all.
I have still to figure out how Lisa beat out the master player of Big Brother 3, Danielle, to walk away with the prize.
And let's not even talk about how one of the worst reality contestants of all time, Flo, ended up winning the big bucks in the third edition of The Amazing Race.
I was beginning to despair that a person that really played these games would never win again. I was afraid that flying under the radar would become the norm for winners, and that the genre would slowly fade into the sunset.
Then redemption occurs in Survivor Thailand. Brian Heidik, the used car salesman, plays a masterful game that goes back to the roots of Survivor and the win by Richard Hatch.
Brian took control of his tribe at a very early stage, forging an alliance that dominated the inevitable early banishments. Keeping the alliance strong, even in the face of the "sex" scandal, removing those that weren't on board or were weak, and bonding it into a surprising force to be reckoned with. His physical strength, his work ethic, his ability to almost single-handedly win challenges ensured him a strong leadership place in the tribe. And his manipulation even broadened into the other tribe, making even strong alliances such as Jake/Penny disintegrate in the end.
The truly amazing thing is that he was able to do all of this, and still have enough votes on the final jury to win. It was apparent in the questioning that most of the jury knew what he had been doing, and many were put off with it. But Brian had played the game masterfully, and had managed to bring the one person with him to the final two that people disliked even more - Clay. If anything, Brian's only mistake was his belief that Ted, Helen, and Jan were conspiring against him, not Clay, and this didn't seem to matter in the end.
Brian played a game that I think even outshines Hatch's. More subtle, more controlled, more physical. Handicapped by what most thought was a losing team, he was still able to prevail and become the Sole Survivor.
My faith in reality tv has been restored. A person who plays the game as it was originally envisioned and originally played can still win. My hat is off to Brian Heidik and Mark Burnett for a wonderful ending to another season of Survivor.
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