18 replies to this topic

[jsm1125]

I don't know if there is a thread for this yet, but I thought it would be a good idea for everyone to list their favorite players from Survivor who were "screwed," whatever that word may mean to you, in one way or another.

Rewatching the Micronesia season and seeing Tracy again reminded me of how she seemed to be the only fan, with the exception of Natalie, who knew what she was doing strategically, and was in sort of an awful position from the get-go because her tribe decided that the older people were useless for no apparent reason. I truly believe that, had she been on practically any other season, she would have made it to at least the merge.

However, I believe that Michelle from Fiji is someone who could legitimately argue that she was the most "screwed" by a twist. It's one thing to not have a back-up plan, or not be able to sway other people to the other side, but she never had the opportunity to even TALK to anybody before that ridiculously random tribal council. It was just bizarre.

I would love to see those two return for another season. What do you guys think?

Edited by jsm1125, Nov 17, 2012 @ 7:34 PM.

[lori5424]

Interesting idea. I am watching China again and Aaron falls into the "robbed" category too. Through no fault of his own, he got stolen by the other tribe, who then threw the immunity challenge! For the sole purpose of eliminating him. He was in a decent alliance on his old tribe but there was nothing he could do to save himself. Not sure how interesting he would be if given another chance, but he certainly fits the robbed category.

[enlightenedbum]

Michelle is the main example here, but Penner (and by extension his main ally Eliza) were totally screwed by the show in Micronesia. That was such a badly designed season that became awesome totally by accident.

[KimberStormer]

You mean because of the Challenge of Doom?

[enlightenedbum]

Indeed.

[jsm1125]

This might be unpopular, but I nominate Jacquie from Gabon. I did not like that season or the rest of her alliance, but she was one of the few people who was not only competitive in challenges but also seemed like a decent person and strategist. She also had a second alliance going with Sugar and Ace, which never came to fruition as the rest of nuFang (except Ace and Sugar, the latter of whom was on Exile and thus was not at TC that night) wanted her out.

[Oholibamah]

This might be unpopular, but I nominate Jacquie from Gabon.

I'd agree with that - she was also the only Onion member I could tolerate.

I have no trouble admitting the Onions got screwed by the constant swaps, but they were just so awful that I file it under schadenfreude instead of "robbed". But Jacquie gets an exception.

[Isuzu]

One of the things that killed Jacquie though was how Kelly immediately jumped ship and spilled the beans to Fang about everything on camp Kota, and that was solely because the onions had been asses to Paloma and her, going so far as to seemingly throwing a challenge to get rid of Paloma (or at least throwing a round of the IC). Otherwise, they would have probably voted Kelly out for being too weak or Ace for being too strong. The fact of the matter is, and I admit Jacquie's seemed nice so her involvment in all this reamains dubious, the onions made themselves so insular and their alliance so well-known that everybody wanted to take them down. It's similar to what happened in the second swap: Marcus had the majority on NuNuKota but he screwed up royally by feeding info to Crystal for no reason and then being a pathetic liar to Susie. And then at the merge, since they treated Sugar like crap, the onions couldn't bring her back to them. Really, aside from Silas and Sarah, I think nobody in a switch has been screwed, since by the 17th season, swaps had got to be accounted for.

So by my counts, the only people who have been robbed in Survivor are those who have been taken out by twists they couldn't possibly have taken into account: Silas (S3), Sarah (S4), Shii Ann (S5), Jonathan and Wanda (S10), Jenny (S13), Michelle (S14) and Aaron (S15). There are also the endgames of Cook Islands and Fiji were the introduction of the F3 possibly screwed someone out of the win (most likely Ozzy and Cassandra, though everything is possible of course), the F4 IC producer fiasco in S3 that potentially screwed Big Tom and/or Lex of the win (though it's very likely things would have played exactly the same as they did) and the outcast twist in S7 that potentially screwed Osten, Shawn and Andrew (although Osten and Shawn seemed to have dug their grave long before that twist).

There's also a case to be made about Jonathan in S16 and Kourtney in S24 since both were taken out by injuries sustained during a challenge. And I will add to all of those Silvia in Fiji. She wasn't exactly screwed out of the game, but I never liked the fact that she was basically forced on the have nots by no fault of her own. Indeed, she was sent to exile while the two new tribes competed IC: the losing team is sent to the have-not camp and loses someone at TC, who Silvia would then replace, ensuring she'd get in the have-not camp no matter what. I hated that.

Edited by Isuzu, Jan 20, 2013 @ 10:04 AM.

[Destrid]

Jonathan and Wanda from Palau.

[Oholibamah]

Jenny (S13)

They still had enough players left by the time Jenny got the boot that there were inevitably more pre-merge boots to be had. So, while Jenny didn't have the benefit of an additional Immunity Challenge or time to scramble to save herself, the game she had played up til that point dictated that she was the next to go: it was clearly a consensus, regardless of whether Raro made the vote that night, or 3 days from then.

Amber is damn lucky Rob is so slimy, because I think the way the ASS switch shook out is statistically mindblowing. In most cases, being the sole person plucked from another tribe is a death sentence. (Although you could argue being one person to swap is safer than two or three, because you appear less threatening as a single unit. See: Denise, Malcolm. Even Steph lasted a few extra rounds). Regardless, I remember thinking how crazy it was that it happened that way. I was sure she was finished, and was pissed because I liked her!

[Isuzu]

They still had enough players left by the time Jenny got the boot that there were inevitably more pre-merge boots to be had. So, while Jenny didn't have the benefit of an additional Immunity Challenge or time to scramble to save herself, the game she had played up til that point dictated that she was the next to go: it was clearly a consensus, regardless of whether Raro made the vote that night, or 3 days from then.

They didn't have that much players left actually. They merged at 9, and Gabon is the only other season where they did so. It's mostly because they hadn't figure out how to work the 20 people/F3 into a season's structure like they do now, but who's to say that they wouldn't have made the merge at 10? It's not unprecedented, in fact, it happened in a lot of seasons. Even if they have still a pre merge boot, Jenny was completely allied with Parvati, Nate and Adam, and Nate didn't vote for her, so perhaps they could have brought Parv and Adam (+ Candice I guess) back with them to vote out Jonathan. Jenny was crafty, and Jonathan was starting to wear thin. 3 days is more than enough to save one's ass (see Jonathan in this most recent season). And that's if they lose the IC. If they win, all of a sudden it's 6 against 3 at the merge AND they have the numbers to split to deal with the Idol. Even if Yul plays it, they'd still be up 5 to 3. And let's not forget Jenny was originally with Yul and Becky, so she had that angle to work as well.

[Oholibamah]

They merged at 9

Apparently I have a bad memory and can't count! For some reason, this makes Aitu's post-merge comeback slightly less impressive, and definitely is an odd twist to throw out there.

I take it back, Jenny! Maybe that explains that awful lemon face she made for the rest of the season from the jury box.

[lozzie]

I definitely think Aaron was robbed, but that had the potential to happen to any of the 4 people switched. They were put in a bad position, and Zhan Hu especially would not be wanting any more of their players to go, so there was very little chance of integration into the new tribe at that point in time. Then the girls decided to throw the challenge, which was probably more unfair since Aaron then had no control over his fate in the game at that point in time.

[DegenrateMU]

I think we can safely add Brenda and her screwed-either-way type reward deal that was handed to her by Jeff on Caramoan. Apparently S26's version of rewarding a player for winning a challenge would be to insure that the winning player is either completely spited for being "selfish" or resulted in her drawing her own target on her back for being too likeable, especially as whatever decision she made she was in the boat against the majority. Also, Dawn begging her to throw an immunity challenge she would have easily won before slitting her neck that same episode was disturbing for me to watch.

 

The anti-reward twist was only half what bothered me, it seemed that Jeff just came up with it out of the blue as an opportunity to mess with Dawn. Sure, Dawn was annoying all-season long but that was just cruel giving her hope and then whisking it away, and the producers were probably hoping for just that scenario to happen so they can cram in another "Super MEGA Meltdown ™" to take away from the already condensed strategy we're shown. You can bet your left ass cheek that had it been Cochran, Reynold, or Malcolm to have won that RC then Jeff wouldn't even have mentioned the option of death to them.

[Isuzu]

That Dawn was denied the reward as well seemed mean, but other than that, Brenda is hardly the first Survivor who had the opportunity to give up the loved ones reward for the benefit of others.

[KimberStormer]

I honestly think that was by far the most fucked-up Loved Ones Reward Twist of all, and definitely should put Brenda in this thread.  First of all, it wasn't the usual reward where they go off and have fun with their loved ones while the non-rewarded hang out at camp; they were in a raft just offshore, so the losers' faces were rubbed in it.  This makes it even more impossible than usual to take the reward; it's a total fuck-you to the rest of the tribe.  Second, waiting until after she had picked one person to share the reward before offering the choice, and including that person in the choice, which as far as I know has never been done.  This means that the person she chose, presumably exactly the person she was trying to improve her standing with, is turned into a victim who resents her.  When you're the person forced to decide, you at least feel the power of choosing, even if it's an obvious/forced choice.  But Dawn didn't get any kind of agency at all in this process of getting jerked around, which combined with the in-your-face reward, makes the perfect circumstance to create an angry, bitter enemy.  She can't vote out Probst or the production crew.  She can only vote out Brenda as revenge.

 

Now a reasonable person, a Kim or a Denise or a Malcolm or a Yul, would not get angry at Brenda.  But again the whole idea of choosing who goes on reward with you is to sway people who can be swayed by rewards.  In other words, someone relatively unreasonable.  So I think in any season, in any situation, the person you choose first is going to be exactly the person you don't want to have "teased", as Jeff put it (putting agency, again, in Brenda's hands only, instead of acknowledging that all this bullshit was his responsibility), with the reward.

 

So I think Brenda got screwed, definitely.  Not as bad as some of the people in this thread; she still had plenty to work with and was too confident, partly I think on the high of having seen her dad, and winning the challenge with him, and, I even think, of having made that choice.

Edited by KimberStormer, May 29, 2013 @ 8:46 PM.

[Isuzu]

But on the other hand, Brenda has seen (and been in) the show before. She damn well knows that you never, under any circumstances, win the loved ones challenge because the winner will always be a target afterward, either  because s/he denied the others their loved ones or because s/he gave them the reward. She had the definite possibility of throwing the challenge, but she didn't. Secondly, I don't even think that's why she got booted. it seems clear to me that Dawn was still in her corner until Brenda, foolisly, brought up Cochran's name as a potential boot. It was the correct person to boot, but she shouldn't have pitched it to Dawn.

 

So since she wasn't booted as a direct consequence of an unexpected twist, to me, she wasn't robbed.

Edited by Isuzu, May 30, 2013 @ 2:47 AM.

[KimberStormer]

Yeah, that's what I mean when I say "not as bad as some".  It was a second-tier screwing-over.  But it still counts to me.  I honestly disagree that there's never a good choice for the winner of the loved ones challenge.  (Heck, there have been times when winning is completely meaningless because everyone gets to see their loved ones anyway, like in Gabon when Bob won.)  This is the only one I can think of where the winner was completely fucked no matter what they did.

 

I can't wait for the savvy contestants of the future all listlessly throwing every reward challenge, competing to be in last place, because it's the rational choice.  Almost as fun to watch as people throwing badminton games at the Olympics and getting disqualified.

[TV Anonymous]

Yau-Man by Dreamz, hands down.