"Them giving it to Kim in One World is basically the equivalent of the Boran tribe "giving" it to Ethan in Africa."

Hey, thanks for bringing up one of my favorite seasons of all-time: S3 Africa.

From my perspective I always felt that season was more set up for a Lex win as opposed to an Ethan win. Lex owned that season and had Lex not been riddled with parasites and all other kinds of funky crap he would have outlasted Kim in the final IC, taken her to the Finals, and won going away.

Of course this was back in the time when "Survivor" TRULY lived up to its name...when adverse conditions, malnutrition, dehydration, and exposure were factors in a season not to be confused with the coddled version, shell of a game we all watch today.

Ethan made it to the end because Lex, Ethan, and Big Tom formed an alliance on Day One. A couple days later, feeling the need to include a female in their alliance, they brought in Kim. Sure, when in the F4, things fell in place for Ethan to emerge as the winner. But more so than a "gift," he gets to the F4 because of his loyalty and dedication to his early alliance.

"Also, assuming that the goats are self-aware and know they probably can't win, they usually just end up going with the alliance they started the game with."

Yes, when a player approaching the end game realizes they have little chance to win, some will revert to their original alliance. But several others have not. Shambo (S19) and Sugar (S17) are two who come to mind realized in the end their chances of winning were remote, so instead of reverting back to their original groups/alliances, they threw their support to the player who deserved to win the game.