'Survivor: Kaoh Rong' recap: 'Sole survivor' title goes to Michele Fitzgerald; 'Survivor' fan Sia hands finalist Tai Trang $100K

After the seemingly unending 39 days of challenge in Cambodia, "Survivor: Kaoh Rong" ultimately brought its four finalists down the wire in their last showdown to outfox each other. Michele Fitzgerald emerged the winner while finalist Tai Trang received $100K from singer Sia.

At the start of the evening of the finale episode there were four finalists — Cydney Gillon, Tai Trang, Aubry Bracco, and Michele Fitzgerald. The night ended with Fitzgerald's winning over the three other finalists and over the rest of the original 18 contenders at that. But in the game of endurance, cunning and survival, she did not win $1M in a walk. Up to the last minute, the competition proved to be difficult in an over-the-head manner.

Later on, the votes during the first tribal council ended up with a tie which had to be broken through a fire-starting challenge. Bracco easily lit a fire contrary to Gillon who could not build and sustain a consistent flame.

Next is the reward challenge wherein Fitzgerald managed to claim the chance to vote out a jury member. She chose to oust Neal Gottlieb who was the first to sit in the jury after he had to leave the competition on day 19 because of an injury. Gottlieb did not lightly take being ejected out of the jury and wound up bitter about it leaving spiteful parting remarks to Fitzgerald. Host Jeff Probst later on divulged that this was a twist which the "Survivor" production has been considering to execute for the past seven years.

Meanwhile, third placer Trang was a winner himself in a rather unique way. Pop star Sia crashed the "Survivor" set to give Trang $100,000, half of which for himself and the other half to be donated to the finalist's choice of animal charity.

Throughout the season, Trang had been vocal about his love of animals, even saving the now famous "Mark the Chicken" from being slaughtered at some point during the show. This made an impression on the vegan chanteuse who admitted to being a "Survivor" fan.

After the airing of "Survivor: Kaoh Rong" finale episode on Wednesday, May 18, "People" blogger Stephen Fishbach, the runner-up on "Survivor: Tocantins," wrote about Fitzgerald's victory saying, "Michele got the right hands, at the right moment, and played her cards perfectly," in a game that according to him is "filled with luck, with vendettas, with the vagaries of human emotion."