Between the three who made it to the finals of Survivor: Cambodia—Jeremy, Spencer, and Tasha—the right person won.
When Stephen was blindsided into 9th place, I thought that was going to be the result of Spencer, who orchestrated it, getting together with Abi-Maria, Joe, Keith, and Kelley for a Final Five from which Spencer and Abi-Maria and Kelley would be the Final Three.
The fact that Spencer went back to trusting Jeremy and Tasha was the wrong move for him. Yes, he got to end of the game but, against Kelley, he would have received jury votes. Against Jeremy, he received none. He received zero votes because, in part, he contributed to having made Joe, Abi-Maria, Kimmy, Keith, and Kelley lose out. The Joe loss was a consensus vote. But, it came right after he backed Joe over Stephen. Then Spencer came down overly aggressively with Kimmy. And then, with Final Four, and right in front of the jury, Spencer was ridiculously threatening—basically saying he would influence (really, instruct) the jury to vote for Kelley—had Jeremy opted to put Spencer in fourth place. (Never mind, by the way, that Tasha was going into the Final Three…and that meant Spencer would also make a statement to his fellow jurors that they must vote for Kelley to win over Tasha.)
It's good that, on the Reunion special, there was a brief moment in which Spencer admitted his end-of-the-game mistakes. (That his decision on which group to trust was wrong.) But, given he was observant of Kimmy and Kelley, there was no excuse for him not to also be observant of Jeremy.
The No. 1 reason why Jeremy won Survivor: Cambodia was because he did the best job of handling himself. With exception of Kimmy, and then he explained himself effectively when questioned by Kimmy, Jeremy was solid. And he wasn't about to put Spencer in fourth place, in part due to the consistency of his voting from each Tribal Council, because he knew he would win over Spencer. There was no panic from Jeremy.
When reflecting on the episode in which Stephen was blindsided in an excellent move by Spencer, it was mentioned by Spencer that he was realizing Stephen and Jeremy and Tasha and Kimmy were tight—and he wasn't a part of their end-of-the-game goal. Well, all Spencer ended up doing was, despite also saying he needed to create a new situation, was work to replace Stephen and, eventually, Kimmy. He didn't go after finishing the game as No. 1. Spencer pursued winning a Final Three slot.
A big part of this makes me want to make a vulgar comparison. The ridiculous obsession Stephen felt for Joe. The envy Spencer felt for Stephen. And then there was Tasha, who made moves in the game only when her ass could be on the line (in the realigned tribe that had her and Andrew as Bayon originals joined with the four Ta Keo originals of Abi-Maria, Jeff, Peih-Gee, and Woo), and then she did nothing to spearhead any meaningful moves after the merge. (Did anyone believe that, when responding to Joe's question, Tasha lead the charge to eliminate Joe?) All during this time, Stephen, Tasha and, as it cost him the game, Spencer had one thing in common: doing all they could to keep sucking off Jeremy.
Had Spencer, after setting up Stephen's blindside, gone with Abi-Maria and Kelley for a Final Three while having also aligned with Keith, as No. 4, and Joe, as No. 5 (and maybe getting Joe out at No. 7 by putting Kimmy and Tasha into slot Nos. 4 and 5 instead)…he would have received jury votes and, perhaps, won this game. And, frankly, if Kelley was too intimidating…maybe Spencer would have won that last challenge and been in a Final Three with Abi-Maria and Keith.
Spencer fucked himself.
The thing that is most appealing about Jeremy having won Survivor: Cambodia, over Tasha and Spencer, is that neither Tasha or Spencer received a single juror's vote.
