Imagine an island filled with squirmy parasites that suck up to you only to sting you later. And that's just the contestants on the seventh and nastiest season of Survivor, which comes to a climax on Dec. 14. Not that there weren't the usual indignities too: "We brushed our teeth with bamboo sticks," gripes former competitor Tijuana Bradley, 27. "And we didn't have toilet paper. I know I wasn't the only one as far as chafing goes." Led by beady-eyed Jon "Fairplay" Dalton—who pretended his grandmother died to elicit sympathy and win a challenge—the Final Five set a new standard for duplicity. "Is it crossing the line or are there really no rules?" Bradley says of Dalton's grandma gambit. "That's what I'm struggling with." That, and the chafing.

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The Final Five (from Left)
BURTON ROBERTS VEGAS ODDS: 2-1 "Too big of a head for his own good," says cast-off Christa Hastie. "He's single, and there's a reason for that."

DARRAH JOHNSON VEGAS ODDS: 7-2 "She flossed her teeth with grass all day," says Hastie. She also won two immunity challenges.

JGN DALTON VEGAS ODDS: 5-1 "One of the greatest villains of all time," says host Jeff Probst.

SANDRA DIAZ-TWINE VEGAS ODDS: 3-1 "She was a weasel," says exile Ryan Opray. "But she was a funny weasel."

LILLIAN MORRIS VEGAS ODDS: 6-1 Doddering or devious? "Strategically, she's playing a great game," says Opray.