Board Thread:Fourty-Two Iconic Moments/@comment-7785749-20150625172945

From twenty-one seasons of our ORG, forty-two of the most iconic moments in its history have been brought together and ranked. Starting at #42, another entry will be posted each day until completion. "Moments" is a loose term to include any individual moment, overarching storyline, or any other source of notoriety, infamy, or notice.

42 - Côte Can't Merge (Various Seasons)

41 - Andrei's Immunity Run (Papua New Guinea, Episodes 8-11)

40 - Savanes Sucks (Côte d'Ivoire, Episodes 1-7)

39 - Ashes to Ashes (All-Stars, Episode 6)

38 - Beyoncé's Divine Intervention (Madagascar, Episodes 12-13)

37 - A Random Idol Play (Cuba, Episode 7)

36 - An Anarchic Advent (Anarchy, Episode 2)

35 - Uspekh (Kamchatka)

34 - An InZane Tribal Council (Sardinia, Episode 12)

33 - The Askja Cockroach (Salvation, Episodes 3-9)

32 - Put a Nail In That Coffin (Peru, Episode 8)

31 - Uli Quits (Heroes vs. Villains, Episode 9)

30 - A Feminine Touch (Indonesia, Finale)

29 - Isis Really Sucks (Mikey's Disappointing Saga) (Egypt)

28 - Charlie Beats Dallas (Nepal, Episode 13)

There have been a lot of Final Tribal Councils. There's a lot of memorability in the twenty-six arenas where a winner has emerged victorious. Hell, even the next moment on this little countdown comes from a Final Tribal Council. But there is one that sticks out to me more than most of the others for a pretty interesting reason: Voting for the winner was a lose-lose. In the Nepal Final Tribal Council, nobody was really walking out of there a winner.



Let's set the scene. We've got Charlie - who the jury sees as arrogant - and we have Dallas - who the jury sees as having a lackluster social game and presence - with both of them playing very confusingly similar games. Both liked to stay under the radar, both flip-flopped their way through allegiances and alliances, and both of them got a considerable amount of blood on their hands.

And the jury was not happy with either one of them.

No matter what was going to happen, the jury was going to make a decision and that they would not be happy with. It was one of those "lesser of two evil" moments that you don't see too often in this ORG. More often then not, there's at least one person that a juror would be inclined to vote for. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single other season where the jurors really didn't want to vote for either finalist.

The Nepal jury wasn't going to be satisfied no matter which way they ended up voting, which for starters makes this vote memorable and up to debate for contention. There really was no respect towards either one of the finalists going into the vote because of the polarizing way they chose to play the game.

And, as we all know, Charlie ends up winning the game over Dallas.

Charlie was able to rise from his position as Wes' sidekick to become a true power player, getting blood on his hands and cutting throats all the way as the game went through. Dallas, on the other hand, while always in a power position due to his Three Fates alliance earned ire for his quiet social game and recklessly reneging on his allies. The jury was pissed with both of them for their own reasons, which I'll say again and again is what makes the Nepal Final Tribal Council so interesting and entertaining to learn and write about.

But what makes this even better is that, years later, I've heard this debate reignited several different times; Nepal jurors regretting voting for Charlie over Dallas and feeling that Dallas deserved the win instead. This might just be hindsight bias speaking, but it fascinates me to no end that the jury hates having to award one of these people as the winner, later on ends up voting for who they believe to be the lesser of two evils..... and then, looking back on it later, regretting the decision they made and viewing the other evil as the "correct" one. It's so layered and so ironic that the intricacies fascinate me for days.

tl;dr: The jury hates the two finalists and doesn't want to vote for either one of them, makes their decision to vote for the lesser of two evils, but in retrospect debates that they may have regrettably ended up voting for the actual evil as opposed to the lesser one. Maybe nobody else will find this fascinating, but the occurrence of a no-win Final Tribal Council, and the irony of accidentally voting for the wrong evil, made the end of Nepal so contentious and memorable that I can't help but rank it on this countdown.



P.S. - Sorry for being gone for so long!!! And sorry that we couldn't come back to a more exciting entry. This is just such an interesting case that I couldn't help but write about it.

P.P.S. - The next moment, as I mentioned, stems from a Final Tribal Council too. To give you a further hint, it doesn't involve a jury vote, it doesn't involve a winner, and it came from a post-Heroes vs. Villains season. And it was delicious. 