The Towering Inferno

Analysis of the final episode of "Survivor: Palau" by CBSNews.com's Ellen Crean.

Tom Westman (aka Fireman Tom, aka Apollo God of the Sun) virtually guaranteed his victory when he took Katie Gallagher to the final two. She may have been the favorite of Tom and Ian Rosenberger (aka Dolphin Boy), but she was far from the favorite of anyone else on the jury. She may have dodged a few bullets during the course of the game, but there was no ducking the slings and arrows that were flung at her at the final Tribal Council.

But how did she wind up in the final two? That appeared to be the result of a moral drama that cropped up in the final episode, thanks to Ian.

The final four consisted of Tom, Ian, Katie, and Jenn Lyon. Three of them (Ian, Katie and Jenn) decided very quickly that Tom would have to go if any of them were to have a chance to win the game. All that had to happen, they agreed, was that one of them, and not Tom, would have to win the next immunity challenge.

Well, of course, that challenge turned out to be a doozy (involving hooks and ladders and climbing and even swimming), and guess who won?

If you said Ian, or Katie, or Jenn, you are either trying to be funny or you haven't been paying attention to the game.

So then Tom, once again demonstrating that strain of "honor" that has served him well throughout the game, told Jenn straightforwardly that he would be honoring his alliance with Ian and Katie, and therefore, Jenn would be the one to go that night.

He even managed to end that conversation with hugs all around.

The problems began with Ian's big mouth, which had gotten him into trouble previously during the game. In a conversation with Tom that should have been uneventful, Tom told Ian that he felt badly about having to boot Jenn. And instead of saying something like "I know how you feel" or "Me, too," Ian told Tom that he was glad that he, Ian, had not been faced with that decision.

Now Tom did not come this far in the game by not weighing every word that was spoken, and he immediately picked up on the fact that, for Ian, it would not have been a "no-brainer." For Ian, he realized, there would have been a question of who to boot, and he rightly smelled a rat.

It wasn't long before Jenn informed Tom of the plan that had been in place to oust him, and when Tom confronted Ian, he stammered and stalled but in the end, he had to admit that he had, at least, said the words that spelled betrayal, although he claimed that he had just been playing the game and his heart wasn't in it.

Of course, none of this carried much weight with Tom, whose point was that Ian had been playing fast and loose with an alliance that he, Tom, had fully intended to honor.So, with Ian in the doghouse, everyone trooped off to Tribal Council, which host Jeff Probst noted started much later than usual. After revealing Ian's perfidy, the tribe variously displayed their emotions as angry (Tom), stunned (Ian), hurt (Katie) and delighted (Jenn).

The votes came down to a tie, as Tom switched his vote to Ian, while Katie remained loyal to their errant ally. The tie breaker, as it had been for Stephenie and Bobby Jon, was a fire-building contest, which Ian won handily, sending Jenn down the path to the jury.

The shame of it all was this: When Tom, Ian and Katie returned to camp that night, it should have been a great celebration. After all, they had made their alliance together on the very first night, and they managed to see it through to fruition.

Instead, it was a dark night of the soul for Ian, who had to face the music, not only from Tom but also from Katie (of all people), who knew better than anyone how Ian had attempted to betray Tom.

How Katie always seemed to skate by during this game as an innocent party is a mystery of the universe that might never be fully explained to anyone's satisfaction (like crop circles).

In any case, it was a grim trio that made a farewell boat trip, paddling along with the snuffed torches of their fallen comrades, and burying them at sea. When they came upon the torches of those who were not in favor with Katie, she either drowned the torches with no comment, with meaningless commentary ("Coby, Coby, Coby"), or with curt witchery ("Goodbye, Janu").

The final challenge, traditionally, is one that involves endurance. In this game, the three finalists had to hang onto a buoy in the water with their bare feet on a small metal disk. Katie lasted more than four hours, but Ian and Tom were there for nearly 12 hours, and they might be there even now if Ian had not given up.

Why did Ian give up? To win back Tom's respect. How did he arrange that? By making the following deal with Tom: He, Ian, would step off the buoy only if Tom would agree to take Katie to the final two.

The best guess here is that Ian's deal was intended not only as an atonement for his sin of betrayal, but also an acknowledgement of Tom's morally superior approach to playing the game.

So, having patched things up, Tom and Ian were immediately separated, one to return to camp with Katie and the other to be escorted by host Probst to join the jury.After the usual "we-can't-believe-we're-the-final-two" scene, Tom and Katie made a bonfire (for which the Koror picnic table provided the primary fuel) and headed off to face the jury. This part of the game turned into the Katie Roast, as it became clear that most of the people on the jury had taken note of Katie's lack of kindness and her lack of talent in winning any challenges for herself or contributing to the team victories.

Especially brutal were the statements by Caryn, who best articulated the general feeling that Katie had hitchhiked to the final two on the coattails of Tom and Ian, and that in the process she had revealed herself to be lazy and mean.

Katie basically clammed up on Caryn and also on Janu, explaining that she was sure she would not be able to win those votes, no matter what she said.

As it turned out, Katie didn't get any votes except for Coby's, and even he admitted that it was less a vote FOR Katie than it was meant as a vote AGAINST Tom.

On the reunion show, where Tom's victory was announced, some other news was revealed as well:

• Coby has adopted a baby girl and named her Janu.
• Gregg 'n' Jenn are Just Friends.
• Jeff and Kim (remember them?) are Just Friends.
• James, the self-described "redneck," is unemployed but has gained a new appreciation for his wife and kids.
• Stephenie is getting a lot of fan mail.
• Wanda wrote a new song (to the tune of "O Susanna!") which she obligingly performed, at the request of Jeff Probst.

As for his plans for the money, they fit in pretty well with what we know of the latest "Survivor" winner: He'll use it to put his three children through college and to fix up the home he shares with them and with wife Bernadette.
By Ellen Crean