So here we are, yet another finale. Granted, I haven't been with you in print start-to-finish this time, but I've watched every episode ... and I've got to agree with several critics I've read this week: This go-round is the best, the tightest, the most Machiavellian since the first one.

People like Puppetmaster Rob, Bugman Matt, Dominatin' Deena and Whining Jenna have kept this one amusing when it wasn't enthralling; and infuriating when it wasn't exuberant.

Just before the show began here in the Central time zone, Matt was leading the CBS online "who should win" poll with a dominating 66.05 percent tally. The next closest was Principal Butch, with a lowly 15.21 percent.

SURVEY Now we all know that Jenna won the million bucks -- do you agree? Or who -- from the final four -- should have won? Jenna Matthew Butch Rob None -- someone else should have. Results  |  Disclaimer

So, coming into the finale, we had sickly Jenna, below-the-radar Butch, manipulator Rob and madman and physical freak Matt. My money's on Matt. However, if Rob wins either immunity challenge, look for the Bugman to be on his way to jury duty.

Naturally, once the crisis passed, Jenna made a miraculous recovery. She was perky and exchanging quips and joking about her impending departure.

Butch appeared to have lost what was left of his mind, doing odd little dances and capering about in a way that reminded me of old guys at wedding receptions once the free champagne has started to flow.

The first immunity challenge was a blindfolded maze walk in the rain. The contestants had to feel their ways through a maze, collecting and identifying symbols by touch.

Rob, Matt and Jenna each got their first necklaces quickly, with Butch still wandering. Rob and Matt were first to their second necklaces, followed a bit later by Jenna again.

Butch and Matt tried to team up briefly, but it seemed much like the blind leading the stupid ... until Matt got his third necklace. Jenna, obviously feeling much recovered, seized her third necklace soon after, then the fourth while Matt still searched.

And, probably spelling doom for Rob, the poor, sickly, wanting-to-just-go-home Jenna made it back to the center of the maze with her four necklaces first.

What would the Puppetmaster do now? The person he'd designated as next to go wore the still-smoldering immunity necklace. The person who'd reamed him in front of the entire tribe could not be voted off. I got up and did a little happydance around my desk chair during the commercial break, disconcerting the cat to no end.

Matt revealed that the elemental sign necklace he had trouble locating in the maze was earth. I'm sure that wasn't the first time Matt's had trouble finding the planet.

Butch immediately bonded with Jenna, and they decided to vote Rob out. Rob, meanwhile, was working on Matt to vote for Butch and force a tie. Would Matt stay true or take the easy pass to the final three?

When Matt sat down to talk with Jenna, he proposed a last-minute alliance. She agreed, and also agreed to change her vote and send Butch packing.

I started to regret that happydance.

Memo to Jenna: Butch hasn't "done anything?" Who kept the fire going? Who kept the fish coming in? Once again, the clueless reign supreme.

Tribal council was fairly plain vanilla, with everyone laying out their particulars and no real fireworks. Butch had no idea the axe was about to descend, thinking that Rob was destined for the jury.

And the axe fell, and Butch took the long walk down washout lane and onto the jury. No doubt his negative feelings, if any, were toward Jenna, who had vowed to support him then left him neatly filleted.

At this point, I had to be true to my foodie soul and go with Matt for the big winner. Anyone who graduated with honors from L'Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise Ritz-Escoffier in Paris gets my respect. That's no McDonald's training course there.

Like the souls of those they'd betrayed, (is that goth enough for you?) moths attacked the three finalists back at camp Jacaré. This final insult from Mother Nature just capped off their joy.

Treemail arrived, but it wasn't anything in the way of a challenge: it was a scale. Matt had lost about 28 pounds, Rob had dropped about 40, and Jenna had shed 19. The implants hadn't shrunk any, of course.

After the weighing, Jeff arrived to take the happy three for a seaplane ride and final look at their camp. This was their final goodbye to camp, as after the plane ride they were dropped off at a new, smaller canoe with directions to a new location.

At that new spot, they found a small hut and three barebones (supposedly) Amazonian headdresses and all the beads and whistles to decorate them for the "battle" that Jeff portended.

With gusto, the three remaining Jacarians set about turning themselves into an anthropologist's nightmare, festooning feathers, beads and finger paints all over. By the time they were done, they looked like a first-grade crafts class had projectile vomited on them.

The last challege was the always-evil endurance test. The contestants had to balance on slim wooden perches while holding their headdresses with both hands.

Jenna began to waver almost immediately, but then, in a shocker, Matt's right leg buckled and he went off his perch.

Rob immediately began trying to cut a deal with Jenna, but she vowed to fight it out to the last. Jenna's ankles were trembling, and Rob's legs were seemingly turning to Jello.

Then, the sickly, weak, always-on-the-verge-of-collapse Jenna found some sort of Zen point and seemed to grow very still and calm. Rob continued to shake and stepped off his perch, leaving the final immunity victory in the swimsuit model's hands.

Tribal council was immediately convened in front of the jury, and as usual the immunity holder cast the only vote.

Jenna decided to face the jury alongside Matt, casting her vote against Rob and getting her final revenge.

Interesting to note: Matt claimed that he threw the final immunity challenge, which makes no sense whatsoever. When a million bucks is on the line, you do NOT get cute.

Then, in a true "MAN" moment, Matt found the old, large tribe canoe, filled it with wood and fronds, topped it with the treemail "dude," and set it alight. Like Arthur's funeral barge, it sailed into the river and out of sight.

Actually, no, it was like a big, flaming Long Island garbage barge ... but I'm nothing if not picturesque.

The commentary from the freshly scrubbed jury members seemed to be leaning Matt's way a bit, but as we've seen, nothing is certain until the jury questioning is done.

In Jenna's opening statement to the jury, she claimed to have played the game morally and didn't say much else. Matt pointed to his yeoman work around the camp and his competitive spirit and honorable play. Neither speech was Churchillian in its impact.

Butch stepped up first, and after dodging a tree branch he asked both to state yes or no whether they'd been deceitful. Jenna admitted that she'd betrayed Deena (but not Butch), but claimed that it was revenge. Matt admitted lying to Roger and Alex and owned up to having done so to save his own skin.

Rob stirred the pot, asking each Matt and Jenna to poke holes in each other and lay out why the other should not win. Matt pointed to Jenna's lack of work around camp and backstabbing. Jenna took the low road, claiming Matt didn't need the money and hadn't really played the game.

Alex asked about biggest regrets. Jenna said hers was putting too much trust in people she shouldn't have, which was weaselwording. Matt claimed his was his naivete at the outset, then his support of Brian.

Heidi, looking much improved and well hair-conditioned, asked Matt and Jenna if any jury members were more deserving than they of their spots in the final two. Not surprisingly, Matt picked Rob. Jenna followed along and did likewise. Both praised his game play. Heidi, not hearing her own name, didn't seem happy.

Deena jumped on Jenna's comment about Matt not needing the money, professing disbelief that she'd think need had anything to do with the final verdict. Jenna stuck to her guns. Deena jumped on Matt's statement two weeks back about "may the best man win," with a tenuous accusation of sexism. Matt apologized, but seemed a bit confused at the charge.

Then it was Christy's turn. My initial favorite wanted to know how Matt felt about competing with a deaf person, and wanted Jenna to explain her comment about having a "handicap" because she was beautiful. Matt was straightforward, saying he'd just thought she had a "funky accent," and hadn't treated her or thought of her differently. Jenna crawfished, wiggled on the hook, and ended with just about the lamest apology in the history of the game.

Rocket scientist Dave, going last, brought things back into the intellectual arena, asking each finalist to compare themselves to a modern-day leader. Matt compared himself to Colin Powell, for his versatility. Jenna, poleaxed by the question, answered that she compared herself to her mother, playing the illness card one last time.

Matt made his closing speech first, and humbled himself to a small extent, owning up to his loss of integrity over the course of the game. It was a fairly well-crafted mea culpa, but the jury was unreadable.

Jenna followed Matt's course initially, then pointed to her winning the last two immunity challenges as evidence that she deserved to win the million.

Butch was shown casting his vote for Matt, and expressing appreciation for his honesty in admitting who he'd stabbed in the back. Heidi cast her vote for her fellow Barbie twin, keeping true to their initial alliance.

Rob cast his vote for what appeared to be Jenna, if I was reading the shadow of the writing on the ballot correctly.

Jeff then took off on a Jet-Ski, riding like the biggest dork in the universe. BEND a little, son!

No points for the egregious "stop the Jet Ski in front of the Statue of Liberty and look reflective" shot.

That said, this was one of the more engaging "taking the votes to the studio" montages, with Probst arriving in New York Harbor on his Jet Ski, taking the subway with the common folk, and ending up in the Ed Sullivan Theater, home of "The Late Show," to reveal the winner.

They'd better get Dave's stage fixed up before tomorrow night, or he's gonna be hacked.

I wonder if the bonfire on the stage did anything to improve the usually frigid conditions in the theater.

Matt predicted that he'd lose 2-5, and Jenna wasn't much more optimistic.

From the way Jenna was snuggling with Matt, a contest of a different sort may have already been decided.

Matt took the first vote, and Jenna the second. The third and fourth tallys were Jenna's.

Matt must truly be clairvoyant, as the fifth and deciding vote went for Jenna, leaving her the Sole Survivor and winner of a Saturn Ion and $1 million.

It turned out to be a blowout, the biggest in "Survivor" history, as the ONLY vote Matt got was the one shown being cast by Butch.

So, as ever, what a long, strange trip it's been. Any parting shots? Drop 'em here.