GRAND MUSIC! (Sorry, I just felt like they worked so hard for it that I should acknowledge it.)

And now, the final three enter tribal council and are seated. Jeff brings in the complete jury. He welcomes everyone. Now, he explains, the power is all with the jury. Nine votes available. First, each person will make an "opening statement." Then each jury member can ask questions, then the final vote.

Earl's opening statement is first. He says he thinks he "played an honest and clean game," and he tried to "make the right moves" and be in the right place at the right time. He says he "didn't have to sacrifice a lot of integrity," which I kind of wish he hadn't said, but I think it's probably true that he fucked over a surprisingly small number of people and broke promises to a surprisingly small number of people. He says that he never got a vote and he never won individual immunity. He thinks this speaks to the "intelligent" game he played. He says rather than a "sympathy vote" or "underdog vote," he wants the "respect vote." Cassandra's opening statement is about how she tried to be nice to everyone and befriend everyone. She stayed with her alliance, and...uh, that's about all she has. And she wants everyone to stay friends. I think she's like the "Have a great summer!" vote. "Dreamz" starts by referencing his "life story." Sigh. He says people "know [his] heart," and he hopes their vote will help him and help his life. So...basically no argument as to why he should win, except that he would really, really like to have the money. I guess he's taking that "sympathy vote" business to heart.

After a set of commercials, it's time for the jury to ask questions. This, of course, is always the part where you learn a little about humanity.

Jeff explains that the jurors can address any or all of the final three with their questions, and we're going to start with Michelle. She happily chirps that she wants to know what the toughest hardship each of them faced was, because she thinks it's appropriate to "work pretty hard for a million bucks." Heh. She mentions sleeping in the dirt and not having food, so of course, "Dreamz" explains immediately that this was no big deal to him, because in case you haven't heard, he used to be homeless. Being thirsty, however, was very unpleasant. Because if you're homeless, which it turns out he was, you can always get a drink somewhere, but here, that wasn't the case. Also: homeless! Cassandra says her biggest obstacle was that she couldn't swim. Hmm. Is that a hardship? "Do you think your fear of water earns you a million dollars?" Michelle asks, as nicely as that question can probably be asked. Cassandra says, in one of the weirdest answers ever, that it's a combination of her fear of water and the fact that she formed an alliance. Wow. She is not very good at question-answering. Michelle grins extra-wide as she directs the question to Earl. Earl says that this is an easy one, because he was on original Ravu -- he's the only one who was. So he's the only one of these three who went through the original, actual, no-food no-water no-anything conditions that prevailed there. Plus, he spent all that time on Exile Island. I think he does have the edge on this question, which, come to think of it, his buddy Michelle just might have realized.