It’s a story worthy of a Hollywood movie. The neglected candidate of Survivor Quebec, the one his teammates underestimated and who was rejected by all alliances, was elected Sunday evening the ultimate survivor of Noovo reality TV, cashing a juicy check for $ 100,000, which will allow him to buy something other than white rice for supper.
And a few minutes before his resounding victory, the loner Nicolas Brunette, 25, passed out, a few centimeters from a big fire. This last tribal council will therefore have been dramatic until the very end, medic, medic!
Nicolas, a communication and marketing agent from Gatineau, sold his salad very well to the eight members of the jury. Quite a lot more than poor Christophe, who struggled and missed his chance to praise his career, more impressive than that of Nico, it must be said.
Yes, Nicolas excelled at Redemption Island, where he won all four encounters, before returning to Pag-Asa. It was brilliant. But before the merger of Tiyaga and Kalooban, the King of Redemption, as dubbed by Patrice Bélanger, was erased, ineffectual and handcuffed. His atypical CV did not shine so much.
On the other hand, the jury swallowed everything and believed the way Nicolas says he pulled the strings of the Kalooban duos, so that they turned against each other. It was, how to say, too subtle and hidden to be true. He played Nico well, but not to that extent.
The capital of sympathy he has accumulated by maneuvering at the bottom of the pyramid has tipped the scales in his favor.
On paper, it was Christophe Tiffet, Boisbriand’s blue collar worker, who deserved to win. First, he couldn’t rest on Redemption Island for two weeks. Then, on the first day of the adventure, Chris Tie Dye, 40, formed a powerful alliance with podiatrist Kimberly Fortin, 25, and aluminum smelter operator Jean-Junior Morin, 41, an alliance that lasted 44 days. Quite a feat.
In addition to his sharp social contest, Christophe won physical ordeals and he had the flair to protect his accomplice Kimberly, even if it meant sacrificing his cosmic twin JJ to progress to the final.
Chris’ problem? He often seemed lost in the backstage negotiations, he understood nothing.
As for the discreet Kimberly, who lives in Mascouche, it was she who orchestrated the spectacular ousting of JJ, the most threatening and formidable candidate of this first season.
However, it took until day 41 – out of a total of 44 – for Kim to reveal his strategic side. It was too little, too late.
We also saw on Sunday that Karine Lavigne-Fortin, the 37-year-old karate teacher, was shaken by her elimination at the start of the episode. She refused to ask the three finalists any questions and didn’t speak for the rest of the evening.
Kim, Nico and Chris did well to expel Karine, because she would have been crowned by the jury if she had taken the last step. Focused and fighter, Karine was the strongest of the 20 participants of Survivor Quebec. Not only did she triumph in the challenges and she put on the immunity collars, but she encouraged and coached the weakest, including Justine, the 25-year-old Gatineau civil servant.
After the merger, the athletic Karine managed to gain the trust of the two dominant players, JJ and Chris, from the Chris & JJ Show, to create the Three Musketeers, who controlled the second half of the season. Her “big shot” in front of the jury, where she unsheathed her expired immunity, was fatal for her.
Nobody understood the meaning of the maneuver and Karine, very, very intense, sank to the bottom at that moment.
For several weeks, JJ was criticized for his role as a guru in the tribe. It is true that his crushing reign has stifled any possibility of a reversal. At the same time, if a guru like JJ imposes his vision on an island, it is because indoctrinated people follow him blindly. JJ would have been nono not to exploit his hypnotic power.
Unpopular opinion, here: for a competitor who was removed from the game so quickly, Joël Dandurand, 30, took up far too much space at the last tribal council. He could have removed a few logs from the stove from his fiery speech.
This first season of Survivor Quebec did not peak in comparison with the American version. It sparkled in our TVs. Also, the animator Patrice Bélanger was particularly skilful, especially during the full-bodied tribal councils, where he fired small arrows at the members of the tribes who tried to put him to sleep.
In anticipation of the second season, it is absolutely necessary that the production stops self-disclosure, it is not serious. Working that hard to self-sabotage your own secrets is worth two slaps and a pow.