Yul Kwon, a 31 year-old Management Consultant, won Survivor: Cook Islands last night. The million dollar prize was a two way toss-up between Yul and Ozzy Lusth, the waiter and athletic freak from Southern California. While Becky Lee was also involved in the final jury vote (this season Survivor opted, for the first time, to go with a 9 member jury/3 potential winners system), she didn't have much of a chance and received zero votes. Yul barely edged out Ozzy, winning 5-4 on jury votes. This was at least a little surprising. Things seemed to be leaning towards Ozzy all night, so much so that I thought the final vote might end up being a blowout. However, Yul's victory was completely deserved, seeing as he acted as the leader and was unwavering, smart, decent, and subtly manipulative when he absolutely had to be. Jeff Probst claimed that Yul strategically dominated Survivor unlike any other contestant to ever play the game.
Yul made a couple of major, game-changing decisions early on in the season, the most important being showing Jonathan the hidden immunity idol and, in turn, bringing him over to his alliance. Finding that hidden idol, especially that early in he game, was a major coup and had a direct effect on the rest of the game. We'll be back later today with a full recap of the entire season. Congratulations, Yul. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer