Survivor: David vs. Goliath

originally aired September 26, 2018 to December 19, 2018

The order in which players left the game and the impact they left behind:

• Pat (David) A medical evacuation, but probably didn't greatly impact how early he was going to exit.
• Jessica (David) Her ouster was probably an early indication of the tone of the whole season.
• Jeremy (Goliath) Ironically, probably about as abrasive and socially clueless about this fact as Natalie, whom he tried to coach away from such tendencies.
• Bi (David) A rare player who values their life outside of the game more than the game, withdrawing after becoming aware that she'd damaged her MCL.
• Natalia (Goliath) A victim of David/Goliath cooperation led by Alec, an early indication that despite the Goliath bluster the Davids had a real fighting chance.
• Natalie (Goliath) Jeremy was right about Natalie; in her real life she's shielded herself from any real responsibility for her personality, so she thinks it doesn't matter.  But outside of that bubble?  It does.
• Lyrsa (David) I don't know why all the "strong women" this season were such poor examples of strong women, but Lyrsa, at least as far as this season goes, was the worst example.
• Elizabeth (David) The sort of player I could root for a little more if she had the gameplay to go with her personality.
• John (Goliath) In the interests of full disclosure, I've been a fan of John Hennigan/Johnny Nitro/John Morrison/Johnny Mundo/Johnny Impact since he first made a name (any name!) for himself in wrestling.  His Survivor experience probably helps explain why he never excelled in WWE, despite his considerable talent, because he has trouble asserting himself, as anyone who watched this season can attest.  He's content to sit back and try and let his work show itself.  Thankfully he has good social instincts.  He made a lot of good decisions with fellow players, and had better game instincts than his results suggest, but then he also voted for the winner, which is always a huge plus.  In the end he knew what was worth rewarding.
• Dan (Goliath) The recipient of a needless alliance split at the hands of would-be lover Kara.
• Alec (Goliath) A crafty player who signaled the way forward that didn't leave numbers as the only deciding factor, but played hard and smart for as long as he could, and didn't even get burned by his decision not to remain loyal to Goliath, but rather by how the season played out.
• Carl (David) There are a lot of players in Survivor history who think they're better than they actually are, and Carl is one of them.
• Gabby (David) The second of our three "strong women" who maybe ought to dial it back a little.  Obviously, her low point was backstabbing Christian basically because she discovered he had a committed relationship outside of the game.
• Christian (David) One of the most unique and lovable players in Survivor history (if there had been some kind of audience favorite reward this season, you can bet he'd've gotten it), in the end undone by the tangled knots of strategic would-be loyalties he himself eagerly, unwisely embraced when he decided to vote out John (which, in all fairness, John had intended to do, too; just imagine a scenario where the bonds any of these players made along the way actually stuck).
• Davie (David) I nicknamed him "Ninja Dave" early in the season, a remarkably nimble utilizer of advantages who was a highlight by any standard, and who managed to stay out of trouble for far longer than he was actually a threat.
• Alison (Goliath) The kind of player easy to root for...if only she had ever decided to make an actual, y'know, decision...
• Kara (Goliath) Made the baffling decision to vote out her own strongest ally, Dan.  See where that got her?
• Angelina (Goliath) One of the more idiotic and socially clueless players to ever play the game, this "strong woman" is even more ignorant of her effect on those around her than Natalie.
• Mike (Goliath) In the end, he couldn't divorce himself from the idea of the game rather than the reality of actually playing it.  If he'd managed to do that, he might have actually deserved to be in the final, and maybe even win.
• Nick (David) And sometimes the good guys really do win.  Nick did what a lot of these players only tried to do, and by securing the final three immunity necklaces, he was able to win the season, too.  He forged bonds easily, even if he didn't seem to know what to do with them, but he was as a result fun to watch and thus easy to root for.  If it couldn't be Christian or Davie (my top two choices), it really, really had to be Nick.  And I think the jury members were ideally selected to recognize that fact.  This isn't always the case, so it's great when it is.

Reconsidering Sandra

As of Survivor: Ghost Island, the thirty-sixth season, I have Sandra Diaz-Twine listed twenty-ninth out of all thirty-five winners.  She's, ah, the winner who won twice (Pearls Islands, Heroes vs. Villains), you'll recall.  Winning twice really ought to secure her a better slot, even on an entirely subjective list such as mine.  I mean, no one else has done that.  But I never liked her, and I never saw her as particularly earning those wins.  Even though she did it twice!

But here we are today.  I'm ready to offer a significant caveat.  It's possible that my opinion of Sandra is mostly reflective of the third layer of Survivor.  The first is the players themselves.  (Well, I suppose casting directors would be one if the results always matched what they thought they were casting.)  The second is Jeff Probst, who's always adding instant reaction as host.  The third is the infamous editing process.

Survivor lives and breathes in search of interesting personalities.  Players who have no shot at all of winning can dominate the edit for as long as they're still in the game, if for no other reason than they're compelling to watch, and thus easy calls to base episodes around.  Big personalities have existed from the start.  It just so happened that the biggest personality from the first season (Rich Hatch) also won, and that was one of the few times I personally was able to call the winner from the very first episode.  But it's not always that easy.

Sandra won, arguably, by competing in two seasons dominated by wars of attrition, not because there was any one player strong enough to bend everyone else to their will, but because a lot of good players kept getting in each other's way.  In these later seasons there've been a lot of self-styled master strategists, but I'm not really talking about those players.  I'm talking, maybe, about a lot of big personalities that just plain cancelled each other out.

Sandra was never a big personality.  She was just one of those players that was able to make the most of other people screwing themselves over, and being able to take advantage of that.  Most of the time that's good enough to get you in the finals, but it almost never gets you the win.  But it got Sandra the win.  Twice.

So what was different? 

The other day my sister actually met Sandra.  My sister's also met Rudy, by the way, not because she goes out of her way to track down Survivor players (Bob hosts his challenges not far from where I've lived in Maine, by the way, but I haven't had a chance to go watch those yet) but, I guess she's just lucky.  (Actually, don't tell Sandra, but this time it wasn't entirely luck.)

And she met an incredibly nice person.  According to my sister's account, Sandra was about as normal a person as you can possibly get, especially if you've been on two seasons of Survivor, and won them both.  She was taken aback by my sister even knowing her name without an introduction!  And she seemed completely honest about being happy to talk with my sister, and offered Facebook friendship on the spot, and even her phone number! 

So I suspect that the Sandra who competed in two winning efforts, who didn't exist in the edit, was someone who proved on a daily basis that she was just plain good to have around, normalizing in extreme circumstances, a down-to-earth type.  If she'd competed in one of these later themed seasons, she'd be on the Good People Tribe.

And that's how she won.  Twice.  So now I get it.  There's always going to be plenty left out of the edit, but it seems a terrible shame that two whole seasons of gameplay were lost in translation.  So maybe when I get around to watching her seasons again, I'll try and see if the hidden Sandra Good People Vibe was actually easier to see than I previously thought, and maybe bump her way up in my ranking.  I mean, she won twice.  Sometimes the nice ones really do win.

Survivor: Ghost Island

originally aired February 28, 2018 to May 23, 2018

The order in which players left the game and the impact they left behind:

• Stephanie Gonzalez (Malolo) This was a season where players tried playing hard right out of the gate.  This is ridiculous strategy. 
• Jacob (Malolo) If you're going to become obsessive about advantages, you might consider having a solid position without them. 
• Morgan (Naviti) The early tribe switch-up caused a lot of drama. One of Domenick's early allies.
• Brendan (Malolo) The victim in the season's first great moment, one of the more dramatic tribal councils in the early part of a season.
• Stephanie Johnson (Malolo) At this point Malolo had become easy pickings.
• James (Malolo) After another tribe swap, the surprisingly crucial Angela in the middle part of the season was responsible for his ouster.
• Bradley (Naviti) One of the stronger strategists in the season, a victim of the multiple tribe swaps, eventually.
• Chris (Naviti) Immediately made himself Domenick's target by volunteering as leader in the first challenge.  Biggest mistake was refusing to show his vulnerable side to anyone.  Otherwise a strong player.
• Libby (Malolo) One of several generic young lady, at least from the edit, basically a number.
• Desiree (Naviti) Decided way too late and too clumsily to try and compete.
• Jenna (Malolo) Another generic young lady, at least from the edit.
• Michael (Malolo) Great player, ultimately on the wrong side of the numbers, and the insane Naviti plan to stay strong from the original tribe even though most of them were always going to be cannon fodder.
• Chelsea (Naviti) Another generic young lady, at least from the edit.
• Kellyn (Naviti) The season cast two women who were proud of reclaiming their independence through divorce this season; Kellyn was by far the more obnoxious and smug of them.
• Sebastian (Naviti) Seemingly cast for the Ozzy role, for which he was hugely unqualified.
• Donathan (Malolo) The dude cast to be both a Deep Accent Person and gay, and clearly not at all prepared to play this game.
• Angela (Naviti) The other proud divorcee, and ex-military; her edit heavily emphasized this while she was still a threat, but eventually she faded into the background.  But still a notable player in the season.
• Laurel (Malolo) Part of the strongest finals I can think of, all three of them totally deserving to be there.  Always knew how to keep her position strong in the game.
• Domenick (Naviti) The would-be alpha male, just this side of another Russell, with an ego raging out of control.  Clearly a very strong player, but took for granted the strong players working around him.  Acknowledged for his season dominance as part of the first-ever tie in final tribal history.
• Wendell (Naviti) As good as Domenick was, he never seemed to realize or care how crucial his relationship with Wendell really was, or how hard Wendell had to work to keep it from dooming their chances.  Domenick and Wendell dominated the season as few players ever have, and were noticeably cocky about it, thanks to the Naviti pact to stay strong, with them always at the top.  But Wendell was better and totally deserved to win, thanks to that crucial tie-breaking vote from Laurel, who was always Wendell's secret weapon.  Had Domenick actually decided to do the fire challenge with Wendell, it would've been the first time since Tom and Ian in Palau that great competitors and allies had such a dramatic showdown.  That choice at least preserved the strong final three, and led to the best of them winning.