It All Boils Down to This

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It All Boils Down to This
Episode Information
Version	United States
Season	Winners at War
Episode Number	14/14 (597)
Original Release	May 13, 2020
Episode Chronology
Previous	"The Penultimate Step of the War"
Next	"A New Era" (next season)
Subpages

It All Boils Down to This is the season finale of Survivor: Winners at War.

Story

Day 38

At Tribal Council, Sophie Clarke was not present in the jury due to her illness. Natalie Anderson chose Michele Fitzgerald to come to the final three with her, leaving Sarah Lacina and Tony Vlachos to compete in a fire making tiebreaker challenge for a spot in the final three. Tony Vlachos won, leaving Sarah to fall one day short of the Final Tribal Council.

Reunion

Jeff hosted the final reading of the votes from his garage. The final three appeared in a Zoom press conference where they each had their respective loved ones with them. Tony with his wife, Marisa, and their two children including Anastasia, Michele with her sister, and Natalie with her boyfriend. Tony was crowned the Sole Survivor  for a second time in 12-4-0 vote against Natalie and Michele. The four remaining votes for Natalie came from Ethan Zohn, Jeremy Collins, Parvati Shallow, and Tyson Apostol.

Challenges

• Reentry Duel
• Immunity (Day 36)
• Immunity (Day 37)
• Immunity (Day 38)

Challenge: Don't Call It a Comeback
Tethered to a rope, castaways must make their way through a fence obstacle, then maneuver around a post to untether themselves. They will then dig up a rope rung, use that to build a rope bridge. Finally, castaways will need to navigate two balls through a table maze. The first castaway to get both balls into the indents in the table maze wins.
Additional Stipulation: Natalie Anderson purchased three advantages for 6 Fire Tokens, allowing her to skip the fence obstacle, her rung already dug up, and 1/3 of the rope bridge completed. Parvati Shallow, Wendell Holland, and Yul Kwon each purchased an advantage for 2 Fire Tokens, and would skip the fence obstacle.

Winner: Natalie Anderson

Challenge: Slide On
Castaways will race through a series of obstacles to grab a set of bags. Once they grab a bag, they must race to the top of a tower. They will then slide down the tower, and repeat the same obstacles twice more to retrieve two more bags. Once they have all three bags, the castaways will need to solve a three-tier puzzle. The first castaway to finish their puzzle wins.

Winner: Michele Fitzgerald

Challenge: 5 on 5
Castaways will first run over a series of elevated balance beams to retrieve a key, then crawl under a net. They will then use the key to retrieve a pair of sandbags. The first castaway to get both of their sandbags on a narrow disc wins.

Winner: Tony Vlachos

Challenge: Simmotion
Each castaway must drop a ball into a metal chute. The ball will travel down a spiraling metal track and exits out of one of two points (a turnstile gate in the middle of the track causes the balls to come out at alternate exits). The contestant must catch the ball and drop it back into the chute at the top. At designated intervals, an additional ball is added to the track until eight balls are simultaneously in play. If a ball exits the track and is not caught at any time, the castaway is eliminated from the challenge. The last person standing wins.

Winner: Natalie Anderson

Edge of Extinction

Edge of Extinction Inhabitants
Adam, Amber, Danni, Ethan, Jeremy, Kim, Natalie, Nick, Parvati, Rob, Sophie, Tyson, Wendell, Yul
ELIMINATED: Adam Klein, Amber Mariano, Danni Boatwright, Ethan Zohn, Jeremy Collins, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, Nick Wilson, Parvati Shallow, Rob Mariano, Sophie Clarke, Tyson Apostol, Wendell Holland, and Yul Kwon
RETURNS TO GAME: Natalie Anderson

Tribal Council

Day 36

• First Vote
• Vote Restart

Tribal Council 17: Koru
Voted Against	Voter
Natalie (used Hidden Immunity Idol)	Ben, Denise, Sarah, Tony (votes not counted)
Ben (used Hidden Immunity Idol)	Michele, Natalie (votes not counted)
Tony (used Hidden Immunity Idol)	None
Vote Rendered Null

Revote (Denise and Sarah ineligible to vote)
Voted Against	Voter
Denise (4 votes)	Ben, Michele, Natalie, Tony
Sarah (0 votes)	None
VOTED OUT: Denise Stapley

Voting Confessionals

No confessionals aired in this episode.

Final Words

	Denise	“	I may not have won the game, but I get to be known as the queen slayer. Nobody else did that move with me. I got more than I needed and more than I wanted out of my second time out here and I'm incredibly grateful for that, but Momma D is out.	”

Day 37

Tribal Council 18: Koru
Voted Against	Voter
Ben (3 votes)	Michele, Natalie, Sarah
Michele (2 votes)	Ben, Tony
Natalie (used Hidden Immunity Idol)	None
VOTED OUT: Ben Driebergen

Voting Confessionals

No confessionals aired in this episode.

Final Words

	Ben	“	This has been a humbling and a fantastic learning experience for myself. I got what I needed out of this season: a lot of self-growth. I left it all out there. I'm proud of my game and grateful for the experience that Survivor has given me and my children and my wife. Very much appreciative and blessed.	”

Day 38

Tribal Council 19: Koru
Fire-Making Challenge
Participant	Result
Sarah	Lost
Tony	Won
ELIMINATED: Sarah Lacina

Final Words

	Sarah	“	Tony was my partner in crime for life. If I'm gonna have to end my Survivor career, how else would I want it to end it than like this? I'm emotional right now but because I'm happy. I'm happy with the way that I played, I'm happy that the experiences that Survivor has given me, the friendships they've given me. I don't have any regrets and I would've wanted it any other way.	”

Final Tribal Council

Tribal Council 20: Jury Vote
Voted for Winner	Voter
Tony (12 votes)	Adam, Amber, Ben, Danni, Denise, Kim, Nick, Rob, Sarah, Sophie, Wendell, Yul
Natalie (4 votes)	Ethan, Jeremy, Parvati, Tyson
Michele (0 votes)	None
SECOND RUNNER-UP: Michele Fitzgerald
RUNNER-UP: Natalie Anderson
SOLE SURVIVOR: Tony Vlachos

Voting Confessionals

Tyson was shown writing Natalie's name on the parchment. Nick did not show his vote.

	Rob	“	(voting for Tony) (to Natalie) You're right. I said if you got back, you have to play perfect. You almost did. (reveals his vote) You should've taken this guy out.	”

	Parvati	“	(voting for Natalie) This is the second time that I'm writing your name down in the game, the first time that I vote you out, and now I am voting for you to win. I'm so proud of you and what you've accomplished. So, you're awesome.	”

	Nick	“	(voting for Tony) I know how hard it is to be just on the outs the whole time.	”

	Ben	“	(voting for Tony) Proud of you, brother.	”

Final Results

Amber 20th	Danni 19th	Ethan 18th	Rob 17th	Sandra 16th	Parvati 15th	Yul 14th	Wendell 13th	Adam 12th	Tyson 11th
Sophie 10th	Kim 9th	Jeremy 8th	Nick 7th	Denise 6th	Ben 5th	Sarah 4th	Michele 3rd	Natalie 2nd	Tony Winner

Trivia

Other

• This episode breaks the previous record for most contestants still in during a season finale, with nineteen (five who are still active in the game, and another fourteen who are living on the Edge of Extinction). As a result, this episode also breaks the record for most castaways eliminated in one episode, with sixteen.
• This episode is the first three-hour episode of Survivor, and thus breaks the previous record of longest runtime of any episode, which was previously held by "Million Dollar Night".
• This is the first time that Rob Mariano and Ethan Zohn, as well as many second-time players, have served on the jury.
  • Rob was voted out pre-jury in Marquesas and Heroes vs. Villains, while Ethan was voted out pre-jury in All-Stars.
• Tony broke the record for the most jury votes received in one season with 12, and in a career with 20.