Survivor 42

 originally aired March 3, 2022 to May 25, 2022

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

• Jackson (Taku) Transgender player medically evacuated when producers realized they were in the midst of transitioning .
• Zach (Ika) Sorry, don't really remember him...
• Marya (Taku) Vaguely remember the edit trying to make her memorable due to the death of her brother during the early pandemic.
• Jenny (Vati) Mostly memorable in the crazy tribal council in which she was voted out.
• Swati (Ika) Gosh, I don't even remember her name at this point, but she played a very desperate "we're good buddies!!!" (with everyone!!!) strategy that absolutely deserved to backfire.
• Daniel (Vati) If this had been a traditional season I would've loved to see the live reunion and hopefully producers acknowledging him as an audience favorite, since I liked him, anyway, although he clearly didn't know how to make alliances.  He was, if nothing else, really easy to root for, especially after rallying from dislocating his shoulder almost instantly.
• Lydia (Vati) A casualty of Omar's late-edit turn into a would-be evil genius.
• Chanelle (Vati) Tried single-handedly to turn untrustworthiness into a selling point.  Somehow did not work.
• Rocksroy (Ika) Another player I found very easy to root for, but didn't have the numbers to help him along.
• Tori (Ika) She went home solely because Drea and/or Maryanne freaked out when they saw the first two members of the jury were black.  A somewhat understandable moment given the season taped in the relative shadow of the BLM matters protests of 2020, and the previous season had a far bigger fallout.  Given producers attempting to look for relevance, this was probably to be expected in some fashion.
• Hai (Vati) Never quite put his eggs in the same basket.
• Drea (Ika) Gosh, understandable though it may be, her freakout was still a shocking turn for a player I thought was pretty rational before that tribal council.  She tossed all thought of gameplay immediately out the window in that moment, and she'd been playing so well!  And, I don't know, as someone watching a game, I'd been rooting for her.  Then I just couldn't.
• Omar (Taku) His late-stage evolution into a would-be evil genius was baffling, either something the edit completely left out of his previous gameplay or something that spontaneously generated when the numbers shrank.  I don't have a clue.  Clearly it didn't work out the way he thought it would.  Sort of emblematic of the season, though, which chugged along without a lot of overtly idiotic strategists (who have a penchant for ruining seasons when they clump together) and instead with what was for much of it a fairly pleasant experience.
• Lindsay (Taku) Her competitiveness and/or possible inferiority complex eventually got the best of her, so that she made enemies where she didn't need to, and I just couldn't root for that.
• Jonathan (Taku) The nature boy who almost went all the way!  Fans have been waiting for a player like that, who had a dependable ally (Mike) an' everything!  But the edit suggested the women didn't like him despite his bending over backwards to run the camp.  A true challenge beast.
• Romeo (Ika) The edit tried really hard to rationalize why anyone should root for him in the finals, but he was almost complete dead weight all season.  Although fortunately skinny dead weight!
• Mike (Vati) A rational jury would've had no trouble giving Mike his due.  There's no question how he got to the finals.
• Maryanne (Taku) I can be happy with Maryanne as winner, I really can.  Usually when I see an obvious winner end up losing I can be kind of bitter about whoever beat them in jury votes, but Maryanne was obviously likable and somehow didn't actually turn everyone off with that personality, and handled the jury well, never had to be defensive, and even explained a few things (including the immunity no one knew about) to make her a stronger candidate than she probably was.  The edit might have missed a few things about this one.

Survivor 41

 originally aired September 22, 2021 to December 15, 2021

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

• Eric/Abraham (Yase) I don't remember him.  I've got scores of seasons on this blog where I simply don't remember players.  He's one of them.
• Sara (Ua) Ua was such a stupid tribe.  Every time someone got voted out early from this tribe, it's safe to assume it was because of how stupid this tribe was.
• David/Voce (Yase) I don't remember Eric as Eric or Abraham, but I know David was consistently identified as Voce by the show.  I wasn't a huge fan of the season early on because not just Ua was busy being stupid.  Yase merely benefited from Ua being even more stupid.  Voce was someone who got sacrificed by short-sightedness.
• Brad (Ua) Stupid Ua being stupid.
• JD (Ua) Stupid Ua being stupid.
• Genie (Ua) Stupid Ua being stupid.  Seriously.  Just look at how often they went to tribal council, out of three possible tribes.
• Sydney (Luvu) The big victim in Erika's big move, the move that almost handed victory straight to the Core Four, when she "turned back time."
• Tiffany (Yase) Someone who if she'd been interested in making good decisions could easily have changed the outcome of the game.
• Naseer (Luvu) Lovable character and yet not a particularly great player.  Too often a pawn in someone else's game.
• Evvie (Yase) Like Tiffany someone with great potential to make things happen who just could never bring herself to do so.
• Shan (Ua) Every week I text my sister and her friend during the show.  I always referred to Shan as "Evil Preacher Lady."  The originator of the Core Four, an all-black alliance meant to try and capitalize on the unrest of summer 2020, who stooped to any level to get herself ahead.  Including basically ditching any real allegiance to the Four with a secret alliance to Ricard.
• Liana (Yase) Until she got snookered into the Core Four by Shan I was a big fan of Liana, who ditched any semblance of strategic integrity and thus a shot at winning.
• Danny (Luvu) For most of the game I just thought of him as Deshawn's plus one, even if he was technically the celebrity player of the season, having played in the NFL.  I just think he never really considered playing the actual game.
• Ricard (Ua) Obviously you know my opinion of Ua as a whole, which included Shan and Ricard.  Apparently viewed as the most obvious potential winner, and thus his ability to actually make it to the final four was itself impressive, having outlasted his closest ally.  But I just never cared for him, especially how he became a bitter jurist.
• Heather (Luvu) Absent from about half the season's editing, she rallied in a big way to become an unlikely major strategic threat late in the game.
• Xander (Yase) The internet seems to agree with me that this guy was the one true highlight of the season and deserving winner, but the jury couldn't bring itself to recognize his brilliant gameplay, not just with advantages but maneuvering around players.  To dismantle the major alliance, its allies, and those who kept letting it happen, he had no choice but to play the game he did.  And he got no votes at all.  This was a terrible jury.
• Deshawn (Luvu) Dismantling the Core Four was the most brilliant thing he did, his own alliance, knowing it wasn't actually to his advantage, and clearly he was right, as he ended up in the final three and was at least acknowledged with a vote.
• Erika (Luvu) One of my least favorite winners, not particularly because she was so unlikable but because she seemed to go out of her way to do everything the hard way, the total opposite of Xander.  All three finalists had the same basic strategy, eventually, and needed to do a ton of maneuvering to get to the end, but Erika did it in the least graceful way possible.  And the jury clearly didn't want to give the win the player who did it best.  When she "turned back time" it turned the whole season around.  And then Deshawn dismantled a cynical alliance, and Xander kept pulling off miracles.  But a bad ending rubs the charm off the season, unfortunately, plus too few players really worth rooting for.

Survivor: Winners At War

 originally aired February 12, 2020 to May 13, 2020

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

• Natalie (Sele/San Juan del Sur) A victim of the early voting strategies targeting existing relationships (Jeremy), only to make it back in the game later and prove quite adept at maneuvering 
• Amber (Dakal/All-Stars) Same as Natalie; wife of Boston Rob.
• Danni (Sele/Guatemala) Even among winners it's apparently bad form to appear too desperate.
• Ethan (Sele/Africa) The battle lines between old school and new school players quickly found an early victim in a very classic old school player.
• Tyson (Dakal/Blood vs. Water) Brilliant as he was in his winning season, he didn't have the leverage to get far this time, and too many schemers around him.
• Boston Rob (Sele/Redemption Island) Even one of the undisputed best players ever couldn't overcome the numbers.
• Parvati (Sele/Micronesia) Another brilliant player who couldn't overcome the numbers this time.
• Sandra (Dakal/Pearl Islands, Heroes vs. Villains) A two-time winner became a huge target, and brilliant tribal council strategy made sure she was taken out.
• Yul (Dakal/Cook Islands) A classic old school player too good for his own good in this setting.
• Wendell (Dakal/Ghost Island) Never found the solid allies his game depends on.
• Adam (Sele/Millennials vs. Gen X) Minus the absolute perfect mix of tribemates around him, Adam looked like a much different player.
• Sophie (Dakal/South Pacific) You can go back and look at what I thought of her originally, but this was the most pleasant turnaround of the season for me.  She was a much easier player to root for this time!
• Kim (Dakal/One World) In her original season pretty easy to project as winner or very close.  This time there was no such guarantee.
• Jeremy (Sele/Campodia) Always worth rooting for!  Just a hugely underrated player of this game.
• Nick (Dakal/David vs. Goliath) Generally proved he knew how to play the game regardless of what's happening around him.
• Denise (Sele/Philippines) Honestly, since I'm doing this recap well after the season, a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its many disruptions, I don't remember what Denise did.
• Ben (Sele/Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers) What made me like him so much his previous season was that he basically accomplished a huge turnaround from the kind of player he basically is, because scrambling made him look good.  He had no such redemptive arc this time.
• Sarah (Dakal/Game Changers) Loved her the first time, didn't love her the second time, when she won, and now I can say I love her again.  So on average, I think she's a great member of the Survivor legacy.
• Michele (Sele/Kaoh Rong) Clearly knows how to play this game despite being an under the radar player (or perhaps because of it), making it to the finals in her second attempt (and of course winning the first one).
• Natalie (Sele/San Juan del Sur) Something of reality TV competition royalty at this point, I guess.
• Tony Vlachos (Dakal/Cagayan) Such a favorite even before this, becoming the second-ever two-time winner, in typically brilliant fashion.  I don't know how a guy with such well-known tactics (see what happened the second time he played) can pull this off, but that just goes to show.  As deserving a win as there's ever been in this game.  A true legend.

Survivor: Island of the Idols

originally aired September 25, 2019 to December 18, 2019

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

• Ronnie (Lairo) First voted out, a victim of the original core alliance that would come to dominate the season.
• Molly (Vokai) In hindsight the first victim of the Dan fiasco.
• Vince (Lairo) A victim of the nonsensical gimmick of the season, bringing back Boston Rob and Sandra for a secluded island visit to give somewhat helpful insight into the game and opportunities that more often than not were fairly pointless and only served to mislead their hapless visitors.
• Chelsea (Lairo) Breaking up a potential threat to the greater alliance.  This idiotic tribe didn't seem to realize it kept losing challenges regardless of their voting.  But don't worry, they'd definitely realize it later!
• Tom (Lairo) A victim of a tribal swap.  At this point Dean's ability to survive ought to have become apparent to someone.  
• Jason (Vokai) Left out of the convoluted voting strategies that dominated the season.
• Jack (Vokai) For a guy who idolized Greg from the first season, I wanted the edit to give him a chance to bring that kind of spirit back to Survivor, but his big moment ended up being a complicated racial moment with Jamal that they both learned from, which ended up being overshadowed by a far more complex and less easily-resolved fiasco.  But more on that in a moment...
• Kellee (Vokai) Yeah, so plenty has already been made of how and why she left the season.  Survivor became more talked about this season than it has in ages, thanks to how this situation played out, both during the course of the season itself and how fans reacted to it.  I almost quit watching Survivor after the Jeff Varner incident (believing, as I still do, that Jeff deserved a better response, which in hindsight could've easily played out the way the Jack/Jamal incident did, but would never have the way this fiasco did), but on the whole, this thing resolved itself the only way it could.  Eventually, the producers pulled Dan from the game.  But what Kellee, and those around her really proved, was that the game can sometimes get out of control.  Players can forget that there are real people and real experiences happening around them that have nothing to do with the game.  But more on that later. 
• Jamal (Vokai) I think this guy was one of the rare cool heads of reason in a game that often doesn't really have one.  Unfortunately, this was a season that played more to Lairo numbers than strategy or logic, so he had to settle for that teachable moment with Jack.
• Aaron (Lairo) I honestly thought much better of this guy after seeing his response to the Dan fiasco, but as a player, he was easily manipulating the vast Lairo numbers for no conceivable reason except this was just not a good strategic season, as evidenced by a mastermind who only wished he was cleverly operating behind the scenes being easily eliminated well before the end of the season.
• Missy (Lairo) I was back and forth on her all season, but eventually her basic character was revealed by the Dan fiasco as she willingly attempted to use it to her advantage with no thought about how it affected people not voting with her.  I'm not a fan of players who will do anything to have their best chance at winning.  Too often it means they end up with no chance at winning, and the only one who doesn't realize that is them.
• Elizabeth (Lairo) The Olympic swimmer and other "benefactor" of the Dan fiasco.  Given that Missy was more obviously constantly maneuvering, I'll give Elizabeth the benefit of the doubt and assume she didn't realize what she was doing.  But in hindsight, she probably feels like an idiot, and she should.
• Karishma (Lairo) Nobody scrambled like she did this season, and the only reason she couldn't go further is because at least as of this experience she doesn't really that she really only stands in her own way.  A textbook example of talking more to the camera than her tribemates.
• Elaine (Lairo) I liked her a lot more than I ended up by the time she left, because her scrambling looked a lot less decent, a product of an insecurity she tries to overcompensate for when she's really moved well past it.  A would-be Rupert.
• Dan (Vokai) A prime example of the kind of support a bad alliance will willingly take, just because he adds to the numbers.  But as long as his behavior didn't bother them.  Ejected, first ever in twenty years.  Deserves the dubious distinction, especially after having been warned since the first episode.  Highly unlikely he's any better in real life.  Highly likely he won't be able to get away with it anymore.
• Janet (Vokai) A perfect example of that good person that sometimes appears in the game who ends up sacrificing their future prospects on general principle.  Fans like to complain about some of the "oily" early winners like Brian or even Rich, but this was a season that put them to shame.
• Lauren (Vokai) It's difficult to separate her from the worst aspects of the season, as she was perfectly willing to go along with a bad numbers alliance, and survived as an act of attrition because none of them was actually worth anything.
• Noura (Vokai) A person who lacks any real sense of reality except apparently when she has her sister around.  All her ideas of empowerment are actually the things standing in her way.  Literally made it to the finals because she had no shot at winning.
• Dean (Lairo) The real winner of the season, survived an awful original tribe and kept finding advantages and even using them (which is theoretically the new game play the season was meant to highlight), and came up short because, I assume, he was too aggressive in promoting himself at the final tribal council.  There were players in past seasons (like Amanda! twice!) who would've earned a lot more votes if they'd been half as aggressive as Dean was in defending his record.  But what he failed to emphasize was that it wasn't just the advantages he had to tout, but his ability to exist at the bottom of a tribe and an alliance that dominated the entire season and make it to the end anyway, not because no one thought he could beat them, but because no one saw what a threat he really was.  I have to assume there were a lot of jurors kicking themselves, watching this season play back. 
• Tommy (Vokai) Won basically because he joined the big idiot alliance and they voted for him just because he had been a part of it. 

Survivor: Edge of Extinction

originally aired February 20, 2019 to May 15, 2019

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

• Reem (Manu) First voted out, first to embrace Edge of Extinction, and stuck with it to the very end.  She becomes almost by definition the best example of a first vote loser ever in the game.
• Keith (Manu) The surprisingly impactful Manu tribe sort of crystalized over this particular tribal council.  Keith ended up being one of two players to quit Edge of Extinction.
• Aubry (Kama) The fifth voted out (Devens and Chris ended up back in the game thanks to Edge of Extinction) was one of the returning players, who never really figured out how to contend with the new players.
• Wendy (Manu) A standout personality in a season almost devoid of them, Wendy unfortunately couldn't compete in the actual game, and was the other one to quit Edge of Extinction.
• Joe (Kama) Another returning player, a hugely popular one among fans, but who just doesn't have the killer instinct to compete in the actual game.
• Eric (Kama) A key member of the overly ambitious Kama alliance that was quickly dismantled.  Take that for what you will.
• Julia (Kama) One of the more anonymous members of the edit and/or overly ambitious Kama alliance.
• David (Manu) Not as much the strategic powerhouse as the last time he played, David still proved a considerable threat and one of the main reasons the game played out the way it did, spurring Devens along to near-victory.
• Kelley Wentworth (Manu) Her appearance this season justified her reputation as a strong player, always scrambling for power.  Spurred her ally Lauren deeper in the game than she would've gone otherwise.
• Wardog (Manu) One of those would-be master strategists who've dominated the game in recent years despite a rank inability to win (although this really goes all the way back to Boston Rob in the fourth season).  Love the nickname, but he didn't have the personality to match.  Where o where art thou, Coach??? 
• Ron (Kama) Hugely cocky de facto leader of the overly ambitious Kama alliance that took on basically a whole tribe and thus epitomized why that's a horrible idea.  Also epitomized the charisma void in much of the cast this season.
• Aurora (Kama) Somehow made her name by performing well in challenges while complaining she had no allies despite being in the general Kama alliance.  Basically had no interest in strategizing.  That's a terrible way to play this game!
• Victoria (Kama) Sort of made an effort to strategize, but coasted too long on the Kama numbers.
• Lauren (Manu) Made it surprisingly far despite being the weaker player of an alliance with Kelley Wentworth that ended well before she was voted out.  A second chance could prove how good she can really be.
• Rick Devens (Manu) Originally eliminated ironically because Lauren and Kelley realized he was a huge threat, and then seized the Edge of Extinction opportunity to in fact become a huge threat, and by far the biggest and best personality of the season.  His late showdown with Chris in a fire-making challenge probably goes down as an all-time great moment in Survivor lore.
• Julie (Kama) The fact that she got no votes from the jury despite arguably looking best at the final tribal council ought to tell you pretty much everything you need to know.
• Gavin (Kama) A great story but...absolutely no!...personality!  And that's what sucked so much about the Kama alliance, that it only worked at all because of the ridiculous numbers that were thrown at it, not because any of them were particularly good players, and the fate of the alliance proved that beyond any doubt, and the fact that none of them ended up winning.  Again, this is exactly why you don't just assume numbers are all you need in this game.
• Chris (Manu) The greatest beneficiary, obviously, of the Edge of Extinction gimmick, which itself was basically a combination of Exile Island and the Pearl Islands outcast concept, which ended up backfiring spectacularly with an unlikable player ending up back in the game.  This time not only did we get Devens back, but Chris, who swooped in at literally the last minute and actually gave up protection at the last tribal council before the vote so he could prove his worth in the game, in an epic showdown with Devens in a fire-making challenge.  I'm so glad the season ended the way it did.  We've had too many seasons, recently, where it was players who thought they were master strategists basically cancelling each other out because they couldn't figure out how to actually maneuver this game.  It's always possible to be outmaneuvered, but the trend has more been players who weren't good at strategy thinking they were, just because they were aware of the general way the game is played.  They end up more like a Jerri than a Rich, which is why it's better when a Tina wins, someone who maybe didn't have the best game but still put in the effort to get to the end, no matter how it was accomplished, and won with honor.  That's where Chris stands.

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.