It was a moment of poetic justice, if ever there was one on Israeli television.
After half a year, an entire period of life in terms of reality, "VIP Survival" came to an end, when the finish line reached in many ways exactly who they were supposed to reach.
On the one hand, Jackie Azoulay - the most prominent of this season's contestants, the character around whom a whole plot revolves.
Dan Mano on Speeds, if you will.
In a video interview with Guy Zo-Aretz last week, the host of the show - Perpetually Neutral - said she was a great contender and suggested that critics calm down with her criticism.
But this country is a good presenter mainly because it refuses to express its true positions, aligns with the considerations of the system and measures the contestants on television parameters.
And on TV parameters, yes, Jackie was an interesting character, but not sure that's the kind of thing we were looking for this season.
This has been said before, but Jackie's loss in the "Survival" finale is a kind of correction for many viewers, who are happy to find that not necessarily the strongest or most powerful is the one who survives last.
It was clear to everyone from very early stages in the season that Azoulay would reach the final.
She carried on her back some survivors and survivors who would hardly have been able to get that far in the game if she had not been there for Jackie to organize, mock, squander and trick the rest.
But in "Survival" as in "Survival," the scoundrel did not always win.
And that is exactly what happened this time as well.
At the end of a long season at absurd levels, it is painfully predictable and often quite dull.
Quite strangely, the end of this boring season was one of the thrillers the format knew in Israel.
Not least because of whoever stood in front of Jackie, after all she is the audience favorite Ella Eibinder.
This is not a question that played the game better than others.
In fact, there were episodes she was barely present in, and in quite a few moments she felt like nothing more than a comedic pause, reminding us of the days of "Race to the Million."
Zohar Strauss, for example, deserved to reach the final before her.
But sometimes letting others do the dirty work for you is a good tactic.
In reality shows, as in reality, in most cases the heart plays a bigger role than the head.
And as far as the heart is concerned - well, Ella touched him most of all this season, with one of the most hurtful and sad monologues that commercial television in the country has known.
In the final episode of The Elimination, in a rare moment of frankness, Ebinder recounts her story as the outgoing "Race to the Million."
An instant celebrity who thought that hence the road to success and economic consolidation is short.
Instead she discovered the big lie of this genre, which has been ruining quite a few plots for two decades.
The exploitation of the contestants, the lack of control over the casting process, their presentation in a way that is sinful to their character in reality for the purpose of creating a narrative, etc.
In a few minutes of screen time these removed the clown mask and revealed a painful, almost broken man, who works long hours just to finish the month, and who finds himself crushed in the face of false promises of glory and glory.
This monologue made her the ultimate favorite.
At one point in the final episode she aired her mother in a video from Ukraine, encouraging her daughter from the war-torn area.
For these jurors there was no obvious choice, but the crowd at home encouraged Eibinder, even if he knew Jackie was the real general of this grueling season.
The moment of the draw between the two in the jury vote was a TV drama at its best.
It was followed by the fire test and it too - contrary to the way the season went in the six months it aired - provoked tension, even anxiety.
For a few moments Jackie seemed to win this test as well, but it did not happen, and Ella, who for a moment looked like she was going to faint, was declared the undisputed winner of "Survival."
Jackie, on the other hand, radiated unreliable nonchalance, hugged and smiled, but in the end took care to declare that while she did not win the money, she is "the winner of this season."
"I'm very sorry, Ella," she added, "but this season is signed in my name."
And that's probably true.
Many will remember the season that ended as Jackie's season.
But it is not certain that this will be the way she would like to be remembered, having modeled aggression and behavior that dismisses others, sometimes to the point of trampling them.
For Jackie Azoulay, watching the episodes of the season should be the beginning of a mental reckoning.
For Ella Eibinder, "VIP Survival" was truly, painfully, short and genuine - "The Race for a Million".
Were we wrong?
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