Sophie Clarke Wins Survivor 2011

    The headlines blurred "Survivor South Pacific Winner Revealed and it's a Big Upset!"

    "For two veteran "Survivor" contestants, season 23 was their third attempt at winning the million-dollar prize. But Benjamin "Coach" Wade and Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth were unable to pull off the victory."

    "Instead, the top prize went to a dark horse named Sophie Clarke. The young medical student from Willsboro, N.Y., captured the title of sole survivor tonight on "Survivor South Pacific."

     http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2011/12/survivor_season_23_winner_reve.html

     Yet I daresay, if you read Diary of a Repubican Hater, or at least read it on Friday, you are not surprised. As you heard it hear first!

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2011/12/survivor-sophies-most-likely-to-be.html

      I thought she was most likely to succeed and she did. She also thought she was and listen to what she said before the season. As she said she was on Survivor:

     "To win money! I have been bragging to friends for way too long about how easy “Survivor” is and how good I would be. I would like to have the freedom in Med. School to choose my specialty based on passion and not money and the potential to more quickly pay my debts."

     "I am tough, smart and driven. People will trust and like me even though they should not. I will piss people off, yet be convincing and heartfelt enough at the end to make them give me the money. I will mess with their minds and beat their bodies! I think it might actually be easy. "
     She describes herself as: "Purposeful, resilient and shrewd." She might seem a bit arrogant, but clearly her arrogance was realistic.

     I thought she would too. Albert with his botched attempt to sandbag her was on the right track but he bit off more than he could chew in targeting her. As she gloated on Twitter, "Survivor Albert and I got in a brawl and I won."

    I'm happy for her. Some will say she didn't deserve it. But this is Survivor. If you win, you deserve it. I saw it coming a mile a way, because it is typical for guys like Coach and Ozzie to end up second banana to those who were their second banana during the season.

    It goes right back to Lex and Ethan. Ultimately Ethan rode Lex's coat tails until the end. Then Ethan won. Incidentally thank you to "anonymous" in the comments section who pointed out to me that I wrongly said that Lex finished second to Ethan-in other words he lost the vote. In fact he finished third, I guess. Kim Johnson was second-I forgot that. So it was even worse for Lex who got nothing not even the runner up prize.

    This is typical Survivor which is why I say it's besides the point to say Sophie didn't deserve it. What happened to Coach and Ozzie is typical for the show's Alpha male. These guys are very strong but in the end the show is not only about strength, it's about popularity. Ultimately it's a popularity contest. Sophie won because she's very smart-she is a medical student-and she knew how to play it. For the record she did win a number of challenges too so her game really was two dimensional.

    It seems to me that this show is more efficacious for girls than a show like Road Rules. On Road Rules there is a vote every show but there the vote usually is about who is the strongest player. On Survivor other considerations come in than just physical strength so smart girls often do well. Remember Paravati who had a guys carrying her around in bed and manipulated and schemed the game and blindsided people and they still voted for her?

   In some ways Survivor is like high school where the most popular person wins. Girls of course excel at this sort of thing in high school, getting themselves voted homecoming queen, yearbook editor, or student body president. Obviously guys win Survivor sometimes too-though about 60% of the winners have been female.

  But even then the guy is often like Ethan-a follower, who follows the leader till he is finally voted out-no matter how many challenges the alpha wins eventually he has to face a vote.

   Last season, Boston Rob (Mariana) finally won, so for once the alpha guy won. I'll always remember the time Amber made him fall in love with her and she won the game-it wasn't so bad as they ended up married.

   For the record I still haven't watched last night's show, I didn't want to know for sure that she won-I wanted a surprise but was frustrated that they hadn't put up the video yet. Now they have. Again the only surprise for me is if she hadn't won. Congratulations Sophie! We're very happy for you. Don't let anyone tell you that you don't deserve it!