Parvati Shallow celebrating her second win.
Photo: Network Ten
Parvati Shallow has once again devoured her prey. The player, who was already on the Mount Rushmore of Survivor history before this year, won Survivor: Australia v the World on September 7, making her the franchise’s third two-time winner and cementing her status as the greatest Survivor player of all time. Sadly, the season is unavailable to legally stream in the United States (David Ellison, new owner of Paramount, has work to do), but those who have seen it, whether because they live Down Under or watched it illicitly, know that this game was Parvati’s best yet. Even she, in the finale, called it her “best game ever,” beating out dominant previous performances on 2008’s Survivor: Micronesia and 2010’s Heroes vs. Villains.
“This is my final time playing Survivor, so to have been awarded the win from the jury is the sweetest moment,” the iconic headband-wearer said in her last confessional, revealing her retirement. “I’m so grateful to have been a part of this incredible experience of Australia v the World. There’s something about this game that just gets in my blood, I feel like I was born to play Survivor.” She entered the game as one of the biggest targets due to her previous legacy, played the entire season without getting a single vote cast against her, then ended her career on top, receiving all but one of the jury’s votes. Now that’s world domination.
The season began with two tribes: One side was all legends from Australian Survivor, including David Genat, whom Parvati played with on Deal or No Deal Island earlier this year and Parvati’s eventual co-finalists, Luke Toki and Jeanine Allis. The opposing tribe was made up of notable Survivor players from around the globe: the other Americans joining Parvati, her former Micronesia ally Cirie Fields and Survivor two-time winner Tony Vlachos; Survivor: New Zealand’s Lisa Holmes; Quebec’s Kass Bastarache; Finland’s Tommi Manninen; and South Africa’s Rob Bentele. Notably, Parvati was the only one of the massive threats (as the only former winner other than the little-known Lisa) who made it through the early days of the game. David went out first on the Australian tribe, while Rob and Tony attempted to target Parvati and were promptly sent home as well, with Tony in his final words promising that Parvati was next on the chopping block given her threat level.
Unfortunately for Tony, Parvati was not going to be so easily chopped. She and Cirie worked together throughout the game, making allies with their fellow World tribemates, and then, once the merge hit, with Aussies as well. In the middle game, Parvati also found a hidden immunity idol and a steal-an-idol advantage, making her difficult to beat. She only voted against the majority once all season — at the final four, when she wanted her “Survivor soulmate,” Cirie to join her at the final tribal council, instead of seeing her go out just before the finals for a third time.
Parvati’s best-remembered move this season will likely be from episode seven, when Kass, who was Parvati’s biggest immunity-challenge threat, attempted to play her own idol on herself, and Parvati lied about the power of her steal-an-idol advantage, pretending she had the ability to steal Kass’s idol after the votes were cast. She did not, but it was enough to sway Kass against using her immunity, and ultimately Kass was sent back to Quebec. “Kass whips out her idol, and I was like, ‘Gulp, wasn’t expecting that,’” Parvati says in her final tribal-council speech. “But then I remembered I had the advantage — you’ve gotta be on your toes out here — so I pulled it out my advantage, read the first two lines, which say, ‘This is knowledge is power, you can steal someone’s immunity,’ but I don’t read the third line, which says, ‘You have to present this to Jonathan [LaPaglia, the host] before he says it’s time to vote.’” That kind of in-the-moment bluff is what makes Parvati Shallow a scary, all-time great player.
The next all-star season, Survivor 50, arrives this spring after Survivor 49 premieres September 24. That winner has some big shoes immunity necklaces to fill.
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