I don't get how that episode was bad? It was fun seeing things get shaken up and the Tribal Council challenge was good but they really should have said outright that it was a two-parter instead of whatever this ending was.
Some even assert that the Australian version is much better than US Survivor, with the latter being boring/having unlikeable people, which I find really confusing.
Well after Redemption Island/One World/Caramoan/Worlds Apart/South Pacific/Fiji I would certainly understand.
This season does feel dragged on, but I would still rank it in my Top 15 were I to include it in all Survivor seasons I've seen purely because the premerge was magical and the equivalent of a full US season.
Sure, I agree that the pre-merge was remarkable. And it's very precise to say it was equivalent to a full US season, because it was already very long with 11 eliminations and 14 episodes - exactly the amount of an American season. If it wasn't so good I'd probably have given up by now.
But the bad thing about it was the second swap, which while presenting interesting dynamics and great gameplay at Vavau, made it seem like there was no other tribe. The post-merge of Survivor: Palau was extremely boring to me, and this season is a great comparison, because the reasons are the same. Saanapu and the players in it weren't really tested after that swap.
In ended up providing us with an extremely boring bunch of people post-merge who were unwilling to play the game. Yeah, there were red herrings and people trying to stir **** up their boot episode, but it all amounted to nothing and yielded underwhelming results.
With the latest episode (Brooke's elimination) being very enjoyable and a break from the usual boring vote-offs, the game really picked back up, so I was just really looking forward to it all unfolding. And then they throw in a redundant reward challenge??? Like what's the purpose of that. It was all so confusing - why have Matt compete in the second part, why host it at tribal council, why do this 2 days after the last tribal? It would've worked perfectly if the following day after Brooke's elimination they had those 2 challenges (though just 1 with Matt picking two people to join him would have been perfectly fine for me...) and then have an immunity challenge + tribal the next day. Again I felt like the episode led absolutely nowhere, and that's what I found very disappointing. What was the point of this episode, really?
And the comparisons with US Survivor were made in regards to the current season AFAIR.