Another reality first. This wasn't The Bachelor, but the finale included an accepted marriage proposal. Boston Rob was mostly the puppet master, but in the process of reaching the finals he pissed off too many of the jury members and lost out on the money 4-3. Who cares though because he got the girl and they obviously are going to share the loot anyway.

What preceded this was one of the more memorable interrogations from the jury. It started with Lex ripping them both and asking no questions and closed with Big Tom pretending to claim no hard feelings with Rob only to take it back.

It was a good finish, but overall the players were not the strongest that could have been assembled and most of the strong contenders were taken out too early for them to have an impact.

Now for how we got to this point...

All of your favorite Survivors (well, most of mine to be sure) are back for more and in the opener a former winner was quickly shown the door. Tina Wesson, who was carried to victory by Colby Donaldson in Australia (season 2) ultimately couldn't get the support of anyone other than fellow winner Ethan Zohn (Africa, season 3) and was voted out 4-2.

Jenna Lewis (season 1) and super b*tch Jerri Manthey (season 2) were targeting the former winner and got Rupert Boneham (season 7) and Rudy Boesch (season 1) to go along. What the girls don't realize is that now the target will zoom in on them because Ethan already has a bond with Rupert, who is attached himself to Rudy.

The dynamic of this game is very different, however, because with three tribes of six the groups are likely to have longer breaks between tribal councils and more time for alliances to be formed or broken.

The strongest group has to be Mogo Mogo, with a pair of former winners in Richard Hatch (season 1) and Jenna Morasca (season 6) joined by runner-up Colby Donaldson (season 2) and third place finishers Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien (season 5) and Lex Van Den Berghe (season 2). Their only non-top 3 finisher is Shii Ann Huang (season 4) who is mysteriously the only representative from Thailand, a season won by Hayward's own Vecepia Towery, a local Norcal resident.