The Morning After: Brazilian Whacks

Brief spoilers for the Survivor: Tocantins finale last night after the jump: 

In the end, what had the potential to be a dramatic final-four showdown ended up a blowout, as J.T. ran away with the Survivor prize. Though he did well in the jury pleading, with his canny "Well, I never went to an Ivy-League school..." country-lawyer pleading—pounding away at Steven's case with a smile—what cinched it for him was winning two more immunity challenges, which (1) made it impossible for the rest (especially Steven) to eliminate him as a threat and (2) pretty much sealed the argument that he did everything Steven did, but was a stronger player to boot. 

I'm not sure Steven had a chance to sway the jury to his side in any case, but if he was going to do it, it would have had to have been with a steady, aggressive argument that he and not J.T. was the mastermind of the winning alliance. Steven either wouldn't or couldn't do this, which left him wavering between saying that J.T. and he "shared a brain" and complaining that his ally was "slandering" him to the jury. All of which may or may not have been true, but none of which made him seem like a winner. 

Still, the partners were all smiles at the reunion, J.T. was a charming winner people could feel good for, and some polygraph-administrator got one hell of a national endorsement from Coach. It would have been nice to have a little more drama in the end, though. Were you satisfied?