Spoiler Alert: The following reveals the winner of Sunday night's Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains finale.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains came down to the final five finalists in competition for the Sole Survivor title and the $1 million prize.
After 37 days and the return of 20 of the game's most memorable players, it was four against one as lone remaining Hero Colby Donaldson (The Australian Outback) battled four Villains: Jerri Manthey (The Australian Outback), Sandra Diaz-Twine (Pearl Islands) , Parvati Shallow ( Cook Islands) and Russell Hantz ( Samoa).
Check out photos from Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Colby was arguably one of the series' original heroes after his honorable game play in Season 2. Unfortunately, almost ten years after his rise to reality TV fame, Colby proved a lackluster physical competitor, and ultimately one of the biggest surprises of the season. After his poor performances in challenges throughout the season, Colby needed an immunity challenge win to stay in the game against the Villains' strong alliance.
Given those facts, it was perhaps unsurprising that Colby was the first eliminated. Despite his best efforts to sway Russell, only Villains remained in the running for the $1 million prize.
Survivor's Rupert: "The Heroes had no hope"
The final physical challenge, in which the players were forced to make their way through a maze blindfolded, was based on luck rather than will and determination. Russell beat Parvati and Jerri by a hair to claim a spot on his second final tribal council.
Sandra convinced Russell to take her to the final three with the argument that the jury would never vote for her since she already won the million dollars. The past winners argument is a strong one — who really wants to give someone else another million bucks? — and made Parvati a logical choice for the final three as well. But at camp, Russell sounded intent on taking Jerri with him to the end.
At the penultimate tribal council, Parvati seemed truly nervous she would fall short of the final council, despite her close (but complicated) alliance with Russell. But Russell surprised viewers and took Parvati to the end, pitting two previous winners against one of Survivor's most notorious villains.
At the final tribal council in front of the jury (consisting of five Heroes and five Villains), Russell, Parvati and Sandra each made similar arguments that they played the best game. Sandra said she had no alliances to rely on and was truly a sole survivor. Russell acknowledged his betrayals, but also argued he made it to the end solely on his big game and not on luck (pretty much his argument last season). Finally, Parvati said she was the best because of her physical prowess and because she was able to use Russell as her "pet" from Day One.
Even though he's never won the prize, most of the jury was still out for Russell's blood, especially since he played a role in most of their exits. The jury members argued Parvati was a strong player, but Candice and Rupert, among others, condemned her for her alliance with Russell. In the eyes of the jury, Sandra sometimes did not give 100 percent in the challenges, but proved herself to be very loyal, and, as Candice said, more of a Hero than most of this season's contestants.
And so the winner of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains is: Sandra! She beat out runner-up Parvati and Russell to become the first person to ever win Survivor twice.
Do you think the right person won?
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