- With the title of Sole Survivor on the line and $1 million within arm's reach, one castaway falls victim to a heartbreaking medical emergency.
- Previously on 'Survivor': A bunch of players started this game 10 Favorites and 10 Fans and five are left. Phillip put together Stealth R Us an alliance that ran the game. Eddie and Reynold started the "cool kids" alliance, but that was broken up by Sherri and five others. Brandon, meanwhile, melted down and was voted out in an impromptu Tribal Council. After the merge, Stealth R Us followed Phillip's "Boston Rob Rules," but Malcolm busted things up with one of the biggest Tribal Council surprises ever when he gave an immunity idol to Eddie, kept one for himself and Reynold had the individual immunity. Phillip was voted. Cochran and Dawn then took over and voted out their biggest threats. Dawn went so far as to vote off Brenda, with whom she'd had what seemed to be a genuine connection and friendship. Now Erik, Sherri, Eddie, Cochran and Dawn remain.
After Tribal Council: Moments after Tribal Council, Erik is having a serious headache. He says "everything's spinning." Cochran says Erik looked dazed and disoriented. A doctor comes in, saying he's concerned Erik is "in a starvation state" where his body can't compensate anymore. He worries Erik doesn't have enough blood going to his head. The doctor says he needs to put an IV line into his arm and Eddie (an EMT) provides the explanation of how it's going to work. Erik says he wishes he could go back to camp. The doctor tells Erik he can't go back to camp. He says Erik is going down and won't get better, and pulls Erik from the game.
Cochran tells Jeff that he has no idea what the next day will bring. He says he's just worried about Erik now and will wait and see what comes next. The players all say their goodbyes and Erik is taken away in a van. Eddie tells he now thinks he could have a real shot at winning this whole thing.
Back at camp: Everyone is stunned that Erik is gone and Dawn tells us "it's a reminder of how unpredictable the game is." Cochran admits to us he's now already thinking about game. He says he needs to get to Eddie. They start to chat and Eddie suggests a final three of him, Cochran and Sherri. Cochran shakes on it.
Tree mail brings news of a reward challenge and the players are giddy. Dawn tells us she's pretty proud of herself for getting to the final four.
Reward challenge: The players will each have to steady a balancing board with one hand on a pulley while simultaneously building a house of cards with the other hand. The reward is an advantage in the final immunity challenge.
Cochran has a stack going when it all comes tumbling down. The same soon happens to Sherri. They both have to start over. Dawn looks like she's about to win it all she's just one card away when her stack falls down. Eddie is suddenly in position to take it, but his stack falls. Stacks keep rising and falling until Sherri finds herself getting close to the top, with Cochran getting close. Sherri's stack falls and opens the door for Cochran. A shaky hand doesn't prevent Cochran from placing a final card to reach the line and winning reward. Dawn gives him a big hug.
Dawn is happy but tells us she's trying to keep perspective and realizes nothing is guaranteed. "If you don't win immunity," she says, "you're on the chopping block."
Back at camp: Cochran is glad that his winning streak which had gone away for a while is back and he once again proclaims, tongue in cheek, that he is "the challenge king." He's glad the advantage is in "the right hands."
Sherri pulls Eddie aside and tells him she'd rather be standing next to him than Dawn, whom she says is "too powerful."
Dawn and Cochran talk and he tells her he's "locked," and she says she's locked with him. She's nervous that Sherri is off alone with Eddie, but Cochran tries to convince her Sherri might just be trying to curry favor with Eddie in case he wins immunity. Cochran tells us about the different types of breakdowns he's had to hear about from Dawn. Dawn tells us she knows that every day she's had some "baby" kind of moment. Cochran says "every day is a roller coaster with her and it's not fun, it's not funny. On Day 37, she should be paranoid, because I am considering ditching her.
The players head out for the "Rites of Passage" and work to say something nice about everyone.
Immunity challenge: The players will be tested physically and mentally. They will race up a three-story tower to untie a bag of puzzle pieces, come down a slide, drop the bag and go back up to get another bag. Three bags later, they will use the pieces to build a fire puzzle. The winner gets immunity and an automatic spot in the final.
Cochran opens his note and learns that he will not have to untie his bags of puzzle pieces. His bags will be waiting for him at the top of the tower, already untied. This should save him significant time.
Cochran has his third and final bag before any of the other players have untied their second bag. He gets started on the puzzle before Dawn and Eddie head back up the tower to get their third bags. He's unloading puzzle pieces while others are still retrieving them.
Eddie and Dawn finally get down to their puzzles and Cochran doesn't have any pieces places yet. Dawn starts placing pieces and is suddenly in the lead. Sherri is now in the mix with her first piece placed. Cochran finally gets one piece placed. Cochran is starting to figure it out. He has five pieces and catches up to Dawn. Sherri is in the mix, still, but Cochran starts to jump out to the lead. Eddie is completely frustrated and haven't placed any pieces. Cochran, meanwhile is pulling ahead again and has just five pieces left. Dawn and Sherri start to fall out of it. Cochran places his last piece and Dawn seems more excited than him. She cries, "Oh my gosh!" She gives Cochran a huge hug and starts to cry. He's guaranteed a spot in the final Tribal Council. Dawn gives Cochran another huge hug after the big speech from Jeff.
Cochran tells us the "devil on (his) shoulder is saying, 'Man, I just want to get rid of Dawn.'"
Back at camp: Cochran tells us he's now convinced he's going to win the $1 million and now it's a matter of figuring out who should come in second for the $100,000 prize. He doesn't think Sherri would get more than one vote and it's down to Dawn "a constant emotional outburst" or Eddie, "a chauvinistic, 23-year-old idiot."
Cochran jokes, "It's so lonely at the top," and then laughs and add, "This is horrible stuff for me to be saying when I, of course, lose."
Dawn pulls Cochran aside and, shockingly, cries and starts talking about how emotional it all is. Cochran puts a hand on her back and says, "We've done it together. That's the best part." Dawn tells us she fully trusts Cochran but that there is a part of her that feels like she doesn't deserve to do good.
Cochran and Eddie talk, and Cochran admits he doesn't think he can beat Dawn. Eddie tries to convince him that the jury will go for Dawn. Eddie tries to show Cochran that it's in his interest to bring him (Eddie) to the final. Eddie calls himself an idiot and says he doesn't talk about strategy and was only responsible for voting one person out.
Tribal Council: Erik's sudden departure is the first order of business. Eddie says it stirred things up a bit and he says he thinks it was Erik, Dawn and Sherri who were "the planned final three." Cochran admits that is probably right, but he didn't want to celebrate Erik's exit. Cochran says he's feeling more confident now.
Cochran says that winning the final immunity was the most incredible moment by far, saying that he "wouldn't have been capable of doing this a couple of years ago."
Dawn tries to say she's "maligned" herself with most everyone on the jury. She says Eddie is so likable, he would be hard to beat. Eddie says he'd say the same things and then admits that he didn't do much strategically. Sherri says everyone has played thinking that she hasn't been a threat, but she's still there. Cochran admits that Sherri has probably done more to this point than the others. Eddie tells Cochran that his best chance is to beat him and Sherri. Dawn says those words don't put any more fear in her than she's had during the last 36 days.
The vote: Edie writes down Dawn's name, saying, "Sorry, Dawn. Me or you." Dawn writes down Eddie's name and says, "Please go home."
We don't see the name Cochran writes down, but he says, "I think you're the only person out there that can beat me, so you've gotta go."
Jeff reads the votes: Dawn, Eddie, Eddie, and the 17th person voted out is Eddie. Dawn breathes a huge sigh of relief and puts a hand on Cochran's leg. Jeff congratulates Dawn, Cochran and Sherri for making it this far. The next night, they'll face the jury.
Eddie's last words: "I think Sherri has zero chance of winning, which is why I think she is going to the final three. I feel like if I would've gotten to the final three, first place was mine for the final taking. So, you know, as much as it sucks I feel like I'm pretty happy with how I ended up. The fact that's a 'Fans vs. Favorites' season and I made it to fourth really speaks a large volume to how I played. And I really wish I was going to be there in the morning, but I'm out tonight. That's how it went today."
The next morning: Sherri is asking Cochran for his definition of a pawn and he tells her it's ultimately someone who has no contribution and is expendable. Sherri tells us her husband will be proud of her. She tells us her argument will be that she didn't come in knowing the skills needed to survive and she ran an alliance that got her to the final.
Dawn can't believe that it's her and Cochran at the end. She says it's a storybook ending. They've played 67 days of "Survivor" together.
Cochran, meanwhile, says this is the most scattered he's been. He talks about a prize-winning paper he wrote at Harvard about the "Survivor" voting system, but writing a paper is different than addressing the jury.
The jury: Michael, Phillip, Malcolm, Reynold, Andrea, Brenda, Erik and Eddie take their places.
Dawn says in her opening statement that she's humbled by looking at the group. She says they all know it was hard for her to be duplicitous. She says she wanted to have one ally and that was Cochran. She also wanted to be part of her own game. And she had to give herself permission to play the game and be willing to exploit trust and friendship. "This is football, I have to be willing to tackle," she says. She adds that she made the hard decisions when she had to, "and that got us both to where we are today."
Sherri says she's a successful businesswoman in addition to being a mother of three children. She says she was going to run her game the way she runs her business. She stumbles over her nervousness but says she had to integrate with each one of them and was successful because she is still sitting there.
Cochran says "this is the culmination of 13 years" of fandom about the show. He says he didn't see himself becoming a winner of challenges. He says he is normally socially awkward and overcame that anxiety. He says he wants to make the case for why he played the best game.
Malcolm is up first. He says he doesn't have a question for Sherri. He says his vote is "up in the air" and both Dawn and Cochran played great games. He tells Dawn he has no question but is going to be her "best friend." He says she played "cold-blooded" but she "can't have (her) cake and eat it too." He tells her that if she fights for it, he'll vote for him. Malcolm asks Cochran what he has that Malcolm doesn't have that got him to the end. Cochran says, noting that he's serious even if it sounds like a joke, a "heightened sense of insecurity." He explains that he wanted to surround himself with people who were like minded and would go along with his plan and he got insecure when he heard about plans that he wasn't involved in. He says he can't imagine Malcolm being insecure.
Eddie goes next and asks Sherri if she's willing to admit she was carried to the final three. She doesn't, and several jury members laugh. Eddie tells Dawn she was "the weakest, most fragile player" in the game. He says it was a daily routine. She says she was strong but he saw "the wear of this game" take its toll on her. Eddie asks Cochran how winning this game will take him forward and asks where he'd be if he and the Three Amigos were hanging out at a bar. Cochran says he'd be there and jokes that he'll have two women on either side of him, but seriously notes that the game has helped him overcome social anxiety and that was evident in his improved play this season.
Phillip tells Sherri that she made a big strategic move to join the Favorites, but he rescinds her membership in Stealth R Us. Malcolm laughs. Phillip tells Dawn has "total intolerance" for someone who is as emotional as her. He says he'd find it difficult to to vote for her. He calls Cochran a real class act and adds that he enjoyed playing the game with him.
Erik tells Dawn that he thought they shared something powerful but after the vote against Brenda, she "crushed" that. It was no longer special or powerful. Dawn says she had to be more loyal to Cochran and evaluate who was a strategic threat to her and had to get rid of that threat. He asks Sherri what she did to get there, and she again says she was strategic. Erik tells her she was nothing special in the game and was "a seashell on the beach" the whole time. She tells him she doesn't care and tells him to sit down. He does.
Michael says he watched Dawn and Cochran strategize together but he feels like Dawn is getting punched more. He asks her to explain why Cochran is getting let off the hook. Dawn says she developed the relationships with people that got them the information they needed to make the votes that would take people out. She says Cochran doesn't have as much blood on his hands and doesn't have as much responsibility for how things unfolded. She says she doesn't think Cochran would necessarily be there if she hadn't develop those relationships. Malcolm smiles at this. She goes on to say, "there were a lot of decisions in the game where Cochran didn't have to do anything but kind of show up and say, 'How do I vote?'" Cochran says he's happy Dawn is receiving these reactions, but he disagrees with Dawn's assessment. He says the paranoia that ran rampant with Dawn was "crippling" to the alliance. She says it was "difficult to have that responsibility." He admits she was a huge asset in terms of getting information, but "if I hadn't become your therapist, I don't think you would be still in this game."
Reynold steps up and says he didn't like Dawn from Day 1. He thought she was a fraud and disingenuous. He asks what she thinks about him, asking for three adjectives. She struggles and laughs about it, but finally says she thinks he's "kind of chauvinistic" and has a great sense of humor and is sometimes vulgar. He says he can appreciate the "sense of humor" compliment because she was honest about the other two things. He wants her to tell the other players she kicked their asses and kind of liked it.
Andrea says she's not bitter and says her blindside was "awesome." She asks Cochran for an animal that she played the game most like. He says a "chameleon." He says he changed his colors when he needed to, and the timing was crucial. She tells Dawn she's "really proud" of her. She says she would have played a similar game. She made connections with people and was prepared to cut them.
Brenda says, "Let's do this," and gets up to take her spot. She first addresses Cochran and says they bonded at the family visit. She asks him to sell her on why she should give him something now. He says he's almost scared of the ability he's developed to separate the game from emotion. He says that outside of the game, he's more than happy to prove his gratitude because he considers what she gave him to be an emotional gift, "not a game-play gift." He tells her that she was a threat to his game and he took out that threat to his game, which is "the core of 'Survivor' take out somebody before they can take you out." She starts to cry when she talks about the pain Dawn caused her with that vote. She takes Dawn back to her outburst when she lost her retainer in the water and Dawn was so grateful and said, "I owe you everything." She asks Dawn if she would really have quit the game and Dawn say, "No, I wouldn't have." She asks Dawn to go beyond her words and asks her to take out her teeth so everyone else can see her the way Brenda saw her that day. Dawn says she's not going to do that, saying, "I'm not understanding how that relates." Dawn says she understands if Brenda wants her to humiliate herself, and Brenda says it's about going beyond talking and proving herself. Dawn takes the retainer out and displays a wide gap of missing lower teeth. Brenda says, "Thank you," and adds, "I did not want you to minimize what I did. That's why I did that right now. I wanted you to feel like because it's kind of what I felt a little bit of heartbreak." Dawn says, "I understand that."
The final vote: This time, the jury votes for who they want to see win.
Phillip writes down Cochran's name and thanks him for joking Stealth R Us.
Malcolm's vote isn't shown, but he says, "This is not the name I thought I'd be writing down tonight."
At CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Calif., Jeff walks in with the votes.
Sherri admits she has basically no chance of winning.
Cochran says he's feeling confident, but this season has shown that once you get too confident you get screwed over. Dawn says, "I don't think I'm going to win but I think I'm going to be able to buy some new teeth.
Jeff reads the votes: Cochran, Cochran, Cochran, Cochran, and the winner is Cochran.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content