Fiji Reunion: It All Comes Back to Dreamz
Surviving the Fiji Reunion: It All Comes Back to Dreamz by David Bloomberg -- 05/13/2007 The finale is over, the winner has been chosen. Now it’s time to answer some questions. Well, at least Jeff Probst will try to get some answers, especially from Dreamz. Indeed, it seems like quite a lot of this season revolved around him. What does he have to say for himself? And what about Yau-Man, Earl, and everybody else? Survivor: Fiji has ended with a great finale, even though my choice for a winner (Yau-Man) didn’t get the win. Now it’s time to move immediately to the live reunion! We begin with several clips of Earl in the game, talking about how he was going to keep his friends close and enemies closer, how everything would go through him, how he would not again let people convince him to do things he knew were wrong, and him chopping a snake in half on Exile Island because he just couldn’t take the chance – how appropriate. Back in New York City, host Jeff Probst says Earl never once had his name written down until it mattered, when it was written down by all of the jurors. Not bad for a guy who never won an individual immunity challenge and didn’t even know he was coming on the show until two days before flying to Fiji! Earl says he remembers the call to come on the show and he didn’t know what he was getting himself into, but he figured it out when he got there. He says it was on-the-job training. He’d seen the first season and some of the show since then, but he’s a busy guy and doesn’t watch a lot of TV. Now he’s a big fan! Probst says it seems his relationship with Yau-Man seemed to be the hub of everything. When did that relationship form? Earl says they formed an alliance on day one. Did they have an agreement to get to a certain point in the game? Earl says they were supposed to go all the way to the end together. But the closer they got, strategy changed, and they said top five or four, every man for himself. What was it about Earl that made Yau-Man trust him? Yau-Man says they were stuck in the horrible conditions on Ravu and Earl had the best work ethic and became much closer to him than anybody else. What’s the status of the friendship today? Earl says they will be friends for life, and Yau-Man shakes his hand. Was there one key moment for Earl to win? He says it was unfortunately when he had to vote out Yau-Man. He was the biggest competitor at that point. Probst points out that for that to happen, it goes back to Dreamz not giving up immunity. Earl says he was shocked – he was already thinking about what he would say to the jury when he was up against Yau-Man in the finals! Earl says when Dreamz reneged on the deal, he was like, “Wow, I just won a million dollars.” Heh. Probst asks if Earl really knew it then. Earl says it came down to basic thinking and he knew the jury would be mad. What if Dreamz had kept his word? How many jury votes would he have gotten? At least six jurors (Boo, Lisi, Rocky, Mookie, Alex, and Stacy) raise their hands, which would have been enough to give him the win. Ouch. You know, that really has to hurt Yau-Man a little. I mean, Dreamz screwed him over when he had no chance of winning himself, and because of it, he took a million dollars from Yau-Man. Probst is thinking along the same lines I am. He says Dreamz affected three lives. He cost himself and Yau-Man a million bucks, and he gave it to Earl. Earl thanks him while Dreamz jokes about how he’s a good guy. I bet Yau-Man would disagree. After a commercial break and a few Dreamz scenes from the show, Probst has some questions for Dreamz. But first, Probst asks him to give some perspective on how the way he grew up changes him coming into this game. Dreamz says it actually helped out a lot because he never thought of stopping because of the conditions. He was more affected by falling in and out of humanity – making friends vs. playing the game. Probst wondered if he was going to be socially overwhelmed. Was he ever unsure how to act, or did he have a plan the second he got there? Dreamz planned before he got there. When he got there, the plans changed according to who was there. But the first day he got there, he talked to Earl and said they should make it to the final five. But then they were separated. Dreamz stuck with Cassandra but the other two were eliminated. So, Probst asks, from day one he knew what he was doing? Dreamz says no. New question: Was he making it up or did he know what he was doing? Was he in charge of the decisions? Dreamz says he was never in charge of anything. He had to slither his way through. But his decisions were unpredictable because if he saw somebody’s plans were going through and they’re competing for a million dollars, only one plan could go through. Yeah, I replayed that several times and still don’t know what the heck he just said. Probst is apparently in the same boat, and so he asks: “Did you know exactly what you were doing from day one?” Dreamz says he doesn’t know what Probst is saying, and Probst says he knows exactly what he’s saying, and then turns to the audience to say this is exactly what it was like for 39 days. Ha! Trying again, Probst asks Cassandra if Dreamz was flying by the seat of his pants or playing the part of a guy flying by the seat of his pants. She says he was playing the part. He knew exactly what he was doing and he had thought it out. He’s a smart guy. She trusted him because they communicated well, and he knew what people were thinking and how they would act in different situations and different scenarios. He would run them through his head and then would come back and tell her how he thought it would go down. The thing that amazed her was the way he got back in the good graces of people after having made some difficult decisions. We get some clips reminding us how the truck deal went down. One thing I had forgotten was that when Dreamz agreed to the deal, he said, “I promise to God.” We hear some very audible moans from the live studio audience at that comment. Then we once again see Dreamz in a confessional telling us he will give it to Yau-Man because he is a man of his word and wouldn’t want his son to see him any other way. More moans from the audience. Cut back live and the audience boos heartily. Boo, the contestant, jokingly takes this as them calling out his name and acknowledges them. Heh. Probst says Dreamz was clearly all over the place on the show about the deal. So here’s his chance to be completely candid: When he made the deal, did he intend to keep his word or was he playing Yau-Man from the get-go? Dreamz gives a non-answer answer, saying he first tried to get rid of Yau-Man so he wouldn’t have to worry about it, but then when he made it, he had to renege. Probst says it’s a yes-or-no question, and answers like this were what kept Dreamz around so long, because people didn’t know whether to trust him – they were confused! But Probst has to know – the whole end of the season centered around this for him. When Dreamz made the deal, was he planning to keep it or not? Dreamz claims it was never his intent to keep the deal. He came to play the game and he never told the truth, so why start then? He flat-out says he never intended to keep the deal and then says, “We all friends, right?” The audience makes it clear that, no, we aren’t. Did he have any second thoughts that maybe he should give the truck back? Dreamz says the more time they spent together and talked, they grew to be friends. As that occurred, good thoughts started creeping in and he wanted to give the truck back. But then he’d kick back into game mode. Probst says he will say this about Dreamz: His charm took him a long way, because he set up many deals, went back on them, and still was able to be a likeable guy. Cut back to Earl. When Yau-Man was asking Earl and Cassandra if Dreamz would keep his word, and they assured him that Dreamz would, did he really think that? Earl says he totally thought Dreamz would keep his word. Back to Dreamz – did he tell his son that it’s only a game? Yes. We go to scenes of Yau-Man, with Probst noting that he suffered the most from Dreamz’ actions and was also the most popular player of the season. Probst asks if Yau-Man believed Dreamz was going to keep his word. Yes, all the way until the last minute when Probst officially asked Dreamz what he was doing with the immunity necklace. What’s his take on Dreamz? Was he disappointed or impressed? Yau-Man says he was actually quite impressed by Dreamz. He’s basically a very smart guy, just totally undisciplined in his thinking. He has splashes of genius but doesn’t know what to do with it. He hopes Dreamz gets some education and can make use of it. He can do anything he wants. Probst says what confused him about Yau-Man was that he played the game strategically for 36 or 37 days, and then at the last moment, he didn’t do anything to try to persuade Dreamz to live up to his word. Yau-Man says that’s his stubborn streak. He was convinced he was right and would live up to the deal. But he was wrong. The audience, clearly on Yau-Man’s side, gives a loud groan. What’s the reaction been on the streets? Yau-Man says he’s been recognized quite often and it’s a nice feeling. Now it’s time for another controversial player from this season: Rocky. What is the reaction from people to him? He says they come up and take his picture. How does he describe the experience? Pretty rough, he got to meet Jeff Probst, and all in all a good time. Probst points out that one guy he didn’t have a good time with is Anthony. They clearly didn’t get along and Anthony had a tough go of it. We see Anthony telling us he’s a nerd, a geek, etc. More clips of him vs. Rocky, etc. Probst says he doesn’t want to start another fight, but he had told Anthony that in his own twisted way, Rocky was actually trying to nudge Anthony to fight back a little more. When he watched it, did Anthony see anything again or was it just hard to watch? Anthony says it was hard to watch, but Rocky was hungry and crazy and not fighting back was part of Anthony’s strategy. He didn’t want to be confrontational. Is Anthony any different because of this experience? He says he knows he can put up with a lot more than he ever thought he could, which is funny because he works with lawyers. Probst takes this opportunity to point out that Alex was in full lawyer mode in final Tribal Council, and imitates him a bit. Alex says he had to do it. He also has a question for Alex. Why did they trust Dreamz? Alex says you develop personal relationships and you have to go with your gut. Dreamz was their best bet given the situation. It was Dreamz or Lisi, and Lisi wanted to go home. Which leads to a question for Lisi from Probst: Is that her? She was funny, mean, sad, happy, etc. Does she live her life with her emotions on her sleeve? Yeah. It’s too much work to cover up. Quick switch to Boo, who Probst says took a lot of hard knocks. How is his knee? Boo says he has a torn ACL. He says he might take some of his Survivor money to get it fixed, but probably not. Now to Michelle. Probst points out that if it weren’t for her, Ravu would still be trying to make fire. She did something that virtually nobody else has done. As one of the youngest people to be on the show, what does it do for her? She says it proves it doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you have the right attitude and know what your goal is. So what was her goal coming in? “To win a million dollars.” Edgardo got blindsided – Probst notes that it’s funny how everything always points back to Dreamz. In his last episode, he said this gave him a new appreciation for family back home. He explains that he realizes that you can’t trust anybody there, which made him homesick for his family. It reminds you that there are certain people you can trust. Probst says the finale was the 200th episode of Survivor. Wow. I didn’t realize that. That’s pretty impressive. Anyway, he says he’s still asked by people if it’s all real, if they’re really starving, etc. Who better to speak to that than Gary, who was evacuated for medical reasons? Gary says the fire ants got to him the worst, and Probst says there were “thousands” of fire ant bites. Gary says that many people have their lives changed by Survivor but his life was already good. However, he did get a Survivor: Fiji logo tattooed on his arm, which he shows us. What was the worst part for Mookie? He says going to almost every single Tribal Council, always wondering if he’d be next. Thanks to Dreamz, he finally had the chance to be voted out. Probst recalls the reward challenge when Stacy took a lot of hits when she was the most-picked answer on many negative questions. Was that hard to watch? Stacy says that whole challenge changed her and her perspective. It turned into a positive. Quick switch to Liliana, who gained 20 pounds in preparation to come on the show. What prompted that? She says she probably exaggerated a little bit, but she wanted a reserve for starving for 39 days. Some quick questions for others because he’s running out of time. Rita: How proud are her kids of her? She thinks they are very proud. Sylvia: Give us a quick update. She says a house they designed has been selected to be on Extreme Building on HDTV. Erica: How frustrating was it to not get to play very long? Very. She thought she was able to do it. Jessica: Did you make any friends after only three days? She did because after being voted out, she was with amazing people and bonded for life. Next season, Survivor will head to a completely different setting: China. This is the first time a major American TV show will shoot an entire season on location in the heart of China. The adventure will play out in the shadows of a sacred mountain, on the shores of a remote lake in a land known for tigers, giant pandas, snow leopards, and ancient traditions. A new group of contestants will battle each other and the elements to outwit, outplay, and outlast. It will be Survivor: China. Probst tells us that Monday morning on The Early Show, Earl will receive his check for one million dollars from some clueless idiots who haven’t even bothered to watch the show. OK, I added that last part, but it’s true. Before signing off, Earl wishes his mother a happy Mother’s Day and says he’s giving her a gift of half the money! Wow, that’s quite a present! A nice way to end a great season.
Surviving the Fiji Reunion: It All Comes Back to Dreamz by David Bloomberg -- 05/13/2007 The finale is over, the winner has been chosen. Now it’s time to answer some questions. Well, at least Jeff Probst will try to get some answers, especially from Dreamz. Indeed, it seems like quite a lot of this season revolved around him. What does he have to say for himself? And what about Yau-Man, Earl, and everybody else? Survivor: Fiji has ended with a great finale, even though my choice for a winner (Yau-Man) didn’t get the win. Now it’s time to move immediately to the live reunion! We begin with several clips of Earl in the game, talking about how he was going to keep his friends close and enemies closer, how everything would go through him, how he would not again let people convince him to do things he knew were wrong, and him chopping a snake in half on Exile Island because he just couldn’t take the chance – how appropriate. Back in New York City, host Jeff Probst says Earl never once had his name written down until it mattered, when it was written down by all of the jurors. Not bad for a guy who never won an individual immunity challenge and didn’t even know he was coming on the show until two days before flying to Fiji! Earl says he remembers the call to come on the show and he didn’t know what he was getting himself into, but he figured it out when he got there. He says it was on-the-job training. He’d seen the first season and some of the show since then, but he’s a busy guy and doesn’t watch a lot of TV. Now he’s a big fan! Probst says it seems his relationship with Yau-Man seemed to be the hub of everything. When did that relationship form? Earl says they formed an alliance on day one. Did they have an agreement to get to a certain point in the game? Earl says they were supposed to go all the way to the end together. But the closer they got, strategy changed, and they said top five or four, every man for himself. What was it about Earl that made Yau-Man trust him? Yau-Man says they were stuck in the horrible conditions on Ravu and Earl had the best work ethic and became much closer to him than anybody else. What’s the status of the friendship today? Earl says they will be friends for life, and Yau-Man shakes his hand. Was there one key moment for Earl to win? He says it was unfortunately when he had to vote out Yau-Man. He was the biggest competitor at that point. Probst points out that for that to happen, it goes back to Dreamz not giving up immunity. Earl says he was shocked – he was already thinking about what he would say to the jury when he was up against Yau-Man in the finals! Earl says when Dreamz reneged on the deal, he was like, “Wow, I just won a million dollars.” Heh. Probst asks if Earl really knew it then. Earl says it came down to basic thinking and he knew the jury would be mad. What if Dreamz had kept his word? How many jury votes would he have gotten? At least six jurors (Boo, Lisi, Rocky, Mookie, Alex, and Stacy) raise their hands, which would have been enough to give him the win. Ouch. You know, that really has to hurt Yau-Man a little. I mean, Dreamz screwed him over when he had no chance of winning himself, and because of it, he took a million dollars from Yau-Man. Probst is thinking along the same lines I am. He says Dreamz affected three lives. He cost himself and Yau-Man a million bucks, and he gave it to Earl. Earl thanks him while Dreamz jokes about how he’s a good guy. I bet Yau-Man would disagree. After a commercial break and a few Dreamz scenes from the show, Probst has some questions for Dreamz. But first, Probst asks him to give some perspective on how the way he grew up changes him coming into this game. Dreamz says it actually helped out a lot because he never thought of stopping because of the conditions. He was more affected by falling in and out of humanity – making friends vs. playing the game. Probst wondered if he was going to be socially overwhelmed. Was he ever unsure how to act, or did he have a plan the second he got there? Dreamz planned before he got there. When he got there, the plans changed according to who was there. But the first day he got there, he talked to Earl and said they should make it to the final five. But then they were separated. Dreamz stuck with Cassandra but the other two were eliminated. So, Probst asks, from day one he knew what he was doing? Dreamz says no. New question: Was he making it up or did he know what he was doing? Was he in charge of the decisions? Dreamz says he was never in charge of anything. He had to slither his way through. But his decisions were unpredictable because if he saw somebody’s plans were going through and they’re competing for a million dollars, only one plan could go through. Yeah, I replayed that several times and still don’t know what the heck he just said. Probst is apparently in the same boat, and so he asks: “Did you know exactly what you were doing from day one?” Dreamz says he doesn’t know what Probst is saying, and Probst says he knows exactly what he’s saying, and then turns to the audience to say this is exactly what it was like for 39 days. Ha! Trying again, Probst asks Cassandra if Dreamz was flying by the seat of his pants or playing the part of a guy flying by the seat of his pants. She says he was playing the part. He knew exactly what he was doing and he had thought it out. He’s a smart guy. She trusted him because they communicated well, and he knew what people were thinking and how they would act in different situations and different scenarios. He would run them through his head and then would come back and tell her how he thought it would go down. The thing that amazed her was the way he got back in the good graces of people after having made some difficult decisions. We get some clips reminding us how the truck deal went down. One thing I had forgotten was that when Dreamz agreed to the deal, he said, “I promise to God.” We hear some very audible moans from the live studio audience at that comment. Then we once again see Dreamz in a confessional telling us he will give it to Yau-Man because he is a man of his word and wouldn’t want his son to see him any other way. More moans from the audience. Cut back live and the audience boos heartily. Boo, the contestant, jokingly takes this as them calling out his name and acknowledges them. Heh. Probst says Dreamz was clearly all over the place on the show about the deal. So here’s his chance to be completely candid: When he made the deal, did he intend to keep his word or was he playing Yau-Man from the get-go? Dreamz gives a non-answer answer, saying he first tried to get rid of Yau-Man so he wouldn’t have to worry about it, but then when he made it, he had to renege. Probst says it’s a yes-or-no question, and answers like this were what kept Dreamz around so long, because people didn’t know whether to trust him – they were confused! But Probst has to know – the whole end of the season centered around this for him. When Dreamz made the deal, was he planning to keep it or not? Dreamz claims it was never his intent to keep the deal. He came to play the game and he never told the truth, so why start then? He flat-out says he never intended to keep the deal and then says, “We all friends, right?” The audience makes it clear that, no, we aren’t. Did he have any second thoughts that maybe he should give the truck back? Dreamz says the more time they spent together and talked, they grew to be friends. As that occurred, good thoughts started creeping in and he wanted to give the truck back. But then he’d kick back into game mode. Probst says he will say this about Dreamz: His charm took him a long way, because he set up many deals, went back on them, and still was able to be a likeable guy. Cut back to Earl. When Yau-Man was asking Earl and Cassandra if Dreamz would keep his word, and they assured him that Dreamz would, did he really think that? Earl says he totally thought Dreamz would keep his word. Back to Dreamz – did he tell his son that it’s only a game? Yes. We go to scenes of Yau-Man, with Probst noting that he suffered the most from Dreamz’ actions and was also the most popular player of the season. Probst asks if Yau-Man believed Dreamz was going to keep his word. Yes, all the way until the last minute when Probst officially asked Dreamz what he was doing with the immunity necklace. What’s his take on Dreamz? Was he disappointed or impressed? Yau-Man says he was actually quite impressed by Dreamz. He’s basically a very smart guy, just totally undisciplined in his thinking. He has splashes of genius but doesn’t know what to do with it. He hopes Dreamz gets some education and can make use of it. He can do anything he wants. Probst says what confused him about Yau-Man was that he played the game strategically for 36 or 37 days, and then at the last moment, he didn’t do anything to try to persuade Dreamz to live up to his word. Yau-Man says that’s his stubborn streak. He was convinced he was right and would live up to the deal. But he was wrong. The audience, clearly on Yau-Man’s side, gives a loud groan. What’s the reaction been on the streets? Yau-Man says he’s been recognized quite often and it’s a nice feeling. Now it’s time for another controversial player from this season: Rocky. What is the reaction from people to him? He says they come up and take his picture. How does he describe the experience? Pretty rough, he got to meet Jeff Probst, and all in all a good time. Probst points out that one guy he didn’t have a good time with is Anthony. They clearly didn’t get along and Anthony had a tough go of it. We see Anthony telling us he’s a nerd, a geek, etc. More clips of him vs. Rocky, etc. Probst says he doesn’t want to start another fight, but he had told Anthony that in his own twisted way, Rocky was actually trying to nudge Anthony to fight back a little more. When he watched it, did Anthony see anything again or was it just hard to watch? Anthony says it was hard to watch, but Rocky was hungry and crazy and not fighting back was part of Anthony’s strategy. He didn’t want to be confrontational. Is Anthony any different because of this experience? He says he knows he can put up with a lot more than he ever thought he could, which is funny because he works with lawyers. Probst takes this opportunity to point out that Alex was in full lawyer mode in final Tribal Council, and imitates him a bit. Alex says he had to do it. He also has a question for Alex. Why did they trust Dreamz? Alex says you develop personal relationships and you have to go with your gut. Dreamz was their best bet given the situation. It was Dreamz or Lisi, and Lisi wanted to go home. Which leads to a question for Lisi from Probst: Is that her? She was funny, mean, sad, happy, etc. Does she live her life with her emotions on her sleeve? Yeah. It’s too much work to cover up. Quick switch to Boo, who Probst says took a lot of hard knocks. How is his knee? Boo says he has a torn ACL. He says he might take some of his Survivor money to get it fixed, but probably not. Now to Michelle. Probst points out that if it weren’t for her, Ravu would still be trying to make fire. She did something that virtually nobody else has done. As one of the youngest people to be on the show, what does it do for her? She says it proves it doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you have the right attitude and know what your goal is. So what was her goal coming in? “To win a million dollars.” Edgardo got blindsided – Probst notes that it’s funny how everything always points back to Dreamz. In his last episode, he said this gave him a new appreciation for family back home. He explains that he realizes that you can’t trust anybody there, which made him homesick for his family. It reminds you that there are certain people you can trust. Probst says the finale was the 200th episode of Survivor. Wow. I didn’t realize that. That’s pretty impressive. Anyway, he says he’s still asked by people if it’s all real, if they’re really starving, etc. Who better to speak to that than Gary, who was evacuated for medical reasons? Gary says the fire ants got to him the worst, and Probst says there were “thousands” of fire ant bites. Gary says that many people have their lives changed by Survivor but his life was already good. However, he did get a Survivor: Fiji logo tattooed on his arm, which he shows us. What was the worst part for Mookie? He says going to almost every single Tribal Council, always wondering if he’d be next. Thanks to Dreamz, he finally had the chance to be voted out. Probst recalls the reward challenge when Stacy took a lot of hits when she was the most-picked answer on many negative questions. Was that hard to watch? Stacy says that whole challenge changed her and her perspective. It turned into a positive. Quick switch to Liliana, who gained 20 pounds in preparation to come on the show. What prompted that? She says she probably exaggerated a little bit, but she wanted a reserve for starving for 39 days. Some quick questions for others because he’s running out of time. Rita: How proud are her kids of her? She thinks they are very proud. Sylvia: Give us a quick update. She says a house they designed has been selected to be on Extreme Building on HDTV. Erica: How frustrating was it to not get to play very long? Very. She thought she was able to do it. Jessica: Did you make any friends after only three days? She did because after being voted out, she was with amazing people and bonded for life. Next season, Survivor will head to a completely different setting: China. This is the first time a major American TV show will shoot an entire season on location in the heart of China. The adventure will play out in the shadows of a sacred mountain, on the shores of a remote lake in a land known for tigers, giant pandas, snow leopards, and ancient traditions. A new group of contestants will battle each other and the elements to outwit, outplay, and outlast. It will be Survivor: China. Probst tells us that Monday morning on The Early Show, Earl will receive his check for one million dollars from some clueless idiots who haven’t even bothered to watch the show. OK, I added that last part, but it’s true. Before signing off, Earl wishes his mother a happy Mother’s Day and says he’s giving her a gift of half the money! Wow, that’s quite a present! A nice way to end a great season.