Day 38: Best Final Tribal Speech

Survivor 39-Day Challenge

Nothing else comes close to Susan Hawk’s “Rats and Snakes” speech at the Final Tribal Council of Borneo (2000), the first season.

Let’s dive into the speech, shall we?

I have no questions. I just have statements. Rich, you’re a very openly arrogant, pompous, human being. But I admire your frankness with it. You have worked hard to get where you’re at and you started working hard way before you come to the island. So with my work ethic background, I give that credit to you. But on the other hand, your inability to admit your failures without going into a whiny speech makes you a bit of a loser in life.

Kelly, the rafting persona queen. You did get stomped on, on national TV, by a city boy that never swam, let alone been in the woods or jungle or rowed a boat in his life. You sucked on that game. Anyways, I was your friend at the beginning of this, really thinking that you were a true friend. I was willing to be sittin’ there and put you next to me. At that time you were sweeter than me. I’m not a very openly nice person. I’m just frank, forward, and tell you the way it is. To have you sit there next to me, and me lose $900,000 just to stomp on somebody like this.

Susan addressed the two finalists right away, making sure to state what she wanted to say in the most bitter way possible. She smacked Rich’s arrogance, then stated her appreciation about his work ethic, only to close it out with another jab. On the other hand, her opening about Kelly narrated their humble beginnings in the game.

But as the game went along and the two tribes merged, you lied to me, which showed me the true person that you are. You’re very two-faced and manipulative to get where you’re at anywhere in life. That’s why you fail all the time. So at that point of the game, I decided then just to go out with my alliance to my family and just to hold my dignity and values in check and hoping that I hadn’t lost too many of them and play the game just as long as possible and hang in there as long as possible.

But Kelly, go back to a couple of times Jeff said to you, ‘What goes around, comes around.’ It’s here. You will not get my vote. My vote will go to Richard. And I hope that is the one vote that makes you lose the money. If it’s not, so be it. I’ll shake your hand and I’ll go on from here.

Kelly’s game was unraveled by the next part of her speech which were like punches to the gut, ended with Susan bringing up her family and her dignity which to her are the most important anyway. The next part of the speech was tough to hear, what more if it’s directed at you. It was probably the lowest point for Kelly in the game, especially when Susan uttered these words:

But if I were to ever pass you along in life again and you were laying there dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with you, with no ill regrets.

My goodness, that was rough. I know Kelly had done some brutal betrayal but I’m not sure if this Sue comment was even called for.

I plead to the jury tonight to think a little bit about the island that we have been on. This island is pretty much full of only two things: snakes and rats. And in the end of Mother Nature, we have Richard the snake, who knowingly went after prey, and Kelly, who turned into the rat that ran around like the rats do on this island, trying to run from the snake.

This is the penultimate part of the speech, comparing the finalists to snakes (Rich) and rats (Kelly). Susan went up a notch in this with her bitterness toward Kelly, making sure Kelly, the whole jury, even Probst and the production knew she’s never ever going to vote for her. She ended her speech with the most iconic line of any Final Tribal Council speeches ever:

I feel we owe it to the island’s spirits that we have learned to come to know to let it be in the end the way that Mother Nature intended it to be. For the snake to eat the rat.

This is the line that closed out the very first season of Survivor, a very strong one. It metaphorically showed the perception of the finalists and, at the same time, paying homage to the island that’s been their home for more than a month. Sweet tragedy.

I’m not sure though if this helped Rich because rumor has it that Colleen, Gervase, and/or Jenna was swayed to vote for Kelly after the speech because they felt so bad for her. If that was true, without this rather nasty, bitter speech, Rich would have swept the votes? I don’t know. In the end, Rich won by one vote against Kelly. Susan’s vote turned out to be the deciding vote.

It was instantly an icon back then, encapsulating the cutthroat nature of the game of Survivor. It’s amazing that this speech is still the best of them all after twenty years of the series. Truly a Survivor classic.

Runner-up: Reed’s “Fairy Tale Stepmother” speech, Survivor: San Juan del Sur (2014)