Last Push

Last Push is the season finale of.

Night 36
As the Enil Edam tribe walk their way back to camp from Tribal Council, Erik Reichenbach tells his tribe he is very dizzy. Jeff Probst comes in with the Survivor Medical Team to check Erik's condition, where Dr. Joe deduces that Erik's body could no longer cope with malnourishment and dehydration. As the medics put an intravenous drip on Erik, Eddie, an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) by profession, explains Erik his health status. Dr. Joe then declares that due to Erik's health being dangerously debilitating, he does not allow him to continue on the competition. "eniledam"

- As Brenda left Tribal Council, I looked at Erik and it looked to me he's stunned by the vote because he wasn't aware of it.

"eniledam"

- When I looked at Erik, I saw somebody that was very dazed and looked disoriented and was kind of out of it.

With no other choice other than accept his fate, Erik says his goodbyes to his tribemates and vice versa. Jeff reminds the four remaining castaways that despite Erik's evacuation, the game continues on. The final four castaways then continue to walk back to camp. "eniledam"

- Erik's gone. There's four of us now. This opens the door hugely for me to kind of sneak myself in there and make a major play.

Returning to camp, the final four discuss the evacuation, expressing sadness about Erik's sudden elimination. Cochran realizes the game is back on, and starts strategizing once again. After several Tribal Councils trying to oust Eddie, if it weren't for bigger [strategic] threats Andrea and Brenda, the Harvard law graduate finally flirts with the idea of working with him because he is the most likely to win the remaining challenges, ostensibly having a big say as to who goes at the Final Tribal Council. While Dawn and Sherri are already asleep, Cochran makes his move on Eddie, where Eddie agrees to make a Final Three deal with him, stating that Dawn is a bigger threat than Sherri. "eniledam"

- We kind of exchanged a few sad pleasantries about the sad state of affairs, and I'm already thinking about the game. My first thought is I have to be the first person to get to Eddie. Eddie is somebody who I haven't bonded that closely but I have to be in his good graces because he is most likely to win the next Immunity Challenges and to be in the position of power to determine who goes at the Final Three.

"eniledam"

- We vote out Dawn next. Sherri comes in third. Cochran comes in second, and I come in first and I win the million dollar prize.

Day 37
Still not getting over the fact that Erik was pulled from the game, the remaining contestants try to get a better understanding of where they stand and who they want in the final 3. Eddie and Sherri talk about voting off Dawn while Dawn comes up to Cochran since she is worried but Cochran, once again, reassures her. However, he does consider voting off Dawn. At the challenge, it is revealed to be a reward challenge as anticipated but the reward is an advantage to the next challenge (the final immunity challenge). Eddie was hoping the reward would be food related but he is happy with this reward because he really need to win final immunity otherwise he is likely the top target. The challenge proved interesting as the leaders continued to fall back behind but ultimately Cochran managed to win the challenge and the advantage. Since Cochran has the advantage, the others try harder to ensure that Cochran is willing to go to the final 3 with them. Eddie pitches his plan to vote off Dawn which Cochran neither confirms nor denies.

Reward
Challenge: Teeter Tower

The castaways would use one hand to hold on to a rope to steady a balancing board. With the other hand, they would build a house of cards with wooden tiles on one end of the balancing board. The first castaway to build a tall enough house of cards to reach the finish mark would win. Reward: An advantage in the next Immunity Challenge. Winner: John Cochran

Immunity
Challenge: Vertically Challenged

The castaways would race up a three-story tower to retrieve a bag of puzzle pieces tied to a post and then slide down a water slide. Two more puzzle piece bags would need to be retrieved before the castaways could start on their puzzle. The first castaway to assemble their puzzle would win. Cochran had the advantage of having his puzzle bags already untied.

Winner: John Cochran

Voting Confessionals
"eniledam"

- Sorry Dawn, me or you.

"eniledam"

- Please go home.

"eniledam"

- I think you're the only person out there that could beat me, so you gotta go.

Final Words
"eniledam"

- I think Sherri has a 0% chance of winning, which is why she is going to the final three. I feel like if I would've gone to the final three, first place was mine for the final taking. So, to be honest as much as it sucks, I'm pretty happy with how I ended up. The fact that it's a Fans vs. Favorites season and that I made it to 4th really speaks a large volume to how I played, and I really wish I was gonna be there in the morning, but I'm out tonight, that's how it went today.

Voting Confessionals
"eniledam"

- Cochran, my Intelligentsia Attaché, you did a wonderful job. I'm very proud of you, and thanks for joining Stealth R Us and doing a right of Fans and the Favorites.

"eniledam"

- This is not the name I thought I would be writing down tonight.

Reunion
During the Survivor Reunion, the pre-Jury members were seated alongside the audience than onstage, which was a first in Survivor history. The only castaways who were featured on stage were the Final Three and the Jury. The only Jury member who was not present was Brenda Lowe, who could not attend because she was in the advanced stages of her pregnancy, and was instead contacted via satellite in Florida. Brandon Hantz, who was also absent during the show, was banned from attending the reunion, to prevent any in-show altercation, given his explosive elimination several weeks prior. Jeff Probst explained that the reason why the pre-jury evictees were not given a seat onstage was because, the new set cannot accommodate them all, but in a Facebook post, and  contestant Michael Skupin revealed that the studio for the finale was the same set used last season, and it was able to accommodate all 18 contestants, the same number of contestants present at the Caramoan reunion show.

The Reunion show was universally panned by fans and contestants alike, with many fans showed their distaste at the pre-jury contestants being left out and Jeff Probst addressing only six of the ten contestants allowed on stage. Erik Reichenbach, who was not acknowledged at the show, called the reunion "a farce", criticizing how the show left many questions on the season unanswered and how the pre jury contestants were left out in favor of Rob Mariano and Rudy Boesch during the show. Corinne Kaplan and Allie Pohevitz posted rants on Twitter and Facebook respectively, expressing their disappointments about their being informed by their exclusion in such short notice, and wasting their families' time since the pre-merge evictees won't be able to seat onstage, much less speak (in the said post, Pohevitz revealed that each contestant was entitled to bring six family members at the live show).

Other

 * This episode aired on Mother's Day.
 * The Teeter Totter challenge was a throwback of the penultimate challenge in, which was Dawn and Cochran's original season. However, Dawn and Cochran were already eliminated from the game when the challenge was administered in that season.
 * In this episode, Erik Reichenbach becomes the first person to be medically evacuated in the finale episode of a season.
 * His evacuation is the latest evacuation in Survivor history, occurring on Night 36.
 * This is the only episode post-Merge to have someone be voted out unanimously.
 * Cochran became the twenty-sixth Sole Survivor.
 * This is the second consecutive finale episode to have someone be tied for runner-up after  (first were Lisa Whelchel & Michael Skupin who both received one Jury vote, then Dawn Meehan & Sherri Biethman who received no votes).
 * The very first season to have someone be tied for runner up was in when Cassandra Franklin and Dreamz Herd tied with 0 Jury votes.
 * This is the second consecutive finale episode to have a Reward Challenge at Day 37.
 * Same as the Reward Challenge from last season's finale, the reward for winning the challenge is an advantage at the Final Immunity Challenge.
 * However, had Erik Reichenbach not being pulled from the game on Night 36, it would've been an immunity challenge.
 * The Final Immunity Challenge used this season is the first Final Immunity Challenge since Fiji to not be a recurring challenge.
 * This episode is currently the last finale episode to feature the Rites of Passage.