So it was down to the glam four - Grant, Lorette, Amanda and Mandla. They were all feeling wary and sluggish.
Grant rubbed his bearded chin, while Lorette mused that men were probably more affected by hunger than are women. When they realised that the last challenge involved a standing marathon, she felt her experience of hours standing in the heat of a police passing-out parade (in which, indeed, several people do seem to learn to pass out) would stand her in good stead.
Advertisement
The Zen of pole dancing
It was simple and torturous - they stood on a narrow poles in the sea, until they fell off. The last one would win immunity and select who would join them in the final two. Mark lolled on a chaise in the shade, quaffing orange juice. Lorette sensibly faced away from the others, focused very calmly and specifically on a rock on the beach and visualised her two children sitting next to it. This rather Zen approach paid off.
Life's a beach
After an hour Mandla wobbled and fell. That put him out of the game altogether, though of course he had a place on the jury.
He sat and wept bitterly on the beach.
After two hours, the tide is came in. At two hours 50 minutes, they had to switch to standing on only one leg, and this rapidly ended the game.
Grant fell off, then Amanda and so Lorette was the last one wobbling and won. Grant was literally unable to stand or walk and had to be helped away.
'My yoga teacher will be so disappointed'
Lorette then needed to chose which of the pair she would take to the last two.
Amanda had the advantage that she may have had less support on the jury and could thus be a good choice to take to the penultimate stage. But in her nervousness she started babbling, "My yoga teacher will be so disappointed - that's all we do!"
Grant, in contrast, resolved that Lorette would have a hard enough time deciding, and left her alone to think it through, without pestering or distracting her. A very wise choice.
"She doesn't like to be pushed or guilt-tripped", he said, "And she's a very nice person. My strategy is not to canvass - she won't need or want my pressure."
This was a reminder that Grant was outstanding at observing and understanding other contestants.
Meanwhile, Amanda was gushing again. Grant was confident that he understood Lorette well, though he also recognised that a million bucks could sway even very sensible people in unpredictable ways.
Robocop at tribal council
Later as they rested, Lorette, who was still working, turned up bearing an enormous lump of fire-wood and Grant christened her "Robocop".
At tribal council they were asked to argue for their place in the last pair. Amanda said she had to combat mental strife and emotional issues and had to work harder than Grant to get that far.
Grant calmly said he has played the game hard from day one, "the hardest and best I could. Obviously fortune smiled on me, but I deserve it".
Lorette commented that they were both "excellent, awesome friends and each covered my back more than once".
But when it came to her vote Amanda was out.
The final moments
And so to the final, night time tribal council, to face the jury. Most of its members declared that they would vote on the basis of the honesty of the answers they received to their questions and they seemed also to be concerned about the extent to which the players took autonomous actions rather than simply reacting to events.
Dyke asked Grant why Lorette should not win. He mused that it'd be so easy to be seated "next to Hannibal Lector or George Bush", but it was hard with Lorette. He reminded them that they were there to play a game and that he probably played it harder than her - outplayed and outwitted.
The weirdo strikes again
Angie was just plain weird, once again. She asked Grant about "our relationship - how much of it was real?"
He replied several times, fairly and clearly, but it was not what she wanted whatever that was. She seemed to be alluding to some mystic personal relationship which in reality they never had. Reluctantly, she stopped, without ever revealing what on earth she was talking about, but added that he played the game "damn well".
To Mandla, Grant clarified that he had planned to be as effective as he could be within challenges, without becoming a target for performing either too well or too badly.
Amanda was also pushing a more personal agenda and asked Lorette about "charades" - and an episode when Lorette had told her that she was "going after Mandla" when this didn't happen - and asked her whether, having made so much of moral and honourable intentions, parts of her life were charades too.
But Lorette insisted that she would indeed have gone after Mandla if that had been practical as he was such a great competitor but that it hadn’t been practical.
As they make their final pitches they both sounded sincere and appealing. Grant, tellingly, reminded them they're not supposed to support buddies or the people they most liked, but the one who played the game harder and better. And so they voted.
(Professor M.A. Simpson, aka CyberShrink, November 2007)
Bookmark with:
What are social bookmarks?