Survivior 10/31/02

Cafe Society
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My take on past players being mentioned here:

Rich - I didn’t watch the first series (if anyone has it on tape I’d gladly pay postage for a copy) but from what I’ve heard Rich had the advantage of playing the game against a number of opponents who didn’t realize there was a game. In all subsequent series, everyone played with the awareness that Rich had inspired. I think it’s an open question whether Rich would have done as well against the higher level of competiveness in the following years.

Ethan - He seems like a genuinely nice guy but in my opinion, he’s the least deserving winner the show’s ever had. He was simply a follower who got lucky. The real movers on his tribe were Tom, Lex, and at the end, Kim. The rivalry between these three led them to eliminate each other. But Ethan could have gone at any point and apparently never made any plans to protect himself.

Brandon - Perhaps the gayest man ever seen on network television. As I recall, he never even bothered to announce he was gay, because he correctly assumed everyone knew it. In fact, when the tabloids “outed” him they did it by announcing that he had once had a relationship with a woman.

And finally, two players who I think should have won: Mike from season two and Kathey from season four. Mike was the dominant player on a dominant tribe and he appeared to be going all the way with ease until his accident. He would have cracked the Tina-Colby-Keith alliance like an egg. Kathey, on the other hand, was the perpetual outsider who never quit. Without ever being at the heart of any alliance, she hung on week after week and worked her way into the final three. Then she lost it with a single second’s distraction at the pole. I have no doubt she would have otherwise easily beaten either Vecepia or Sweet Pea in the final vote.

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Rich did have the advantage of setting up an alliance and playing against many players who were a bit clueless. He also barely survived a couple of votes. If Rudy had not slipped up at the pole. . . .

Ethan was dominant at the challenges when he needed to be (the most dominant since Colby) yet did not make a target of himself. He was the strongest player, yet did not make enemies and had a strong alliance around him.

If we are saying the strongest player-- Colby, by far. He ran the table and had the million at his call (vote out Tina, face Keith in a landslide victory). Instead he got snookered by the much weaker Tina. Velocipia was the least deserving winner. After the all religious final, that strategy is dead, thank goodness.

IMHO, Rich was clever, but very very lucky. Ethan and Colby were much stronger players. Subsequent Rich’s (Jerry or Rob or Sean) did not do so well. Neither would Rich.

Brandon’s shriek when the arrow hit the ground near his feet was once of the funniest things I have seen on Survivor. :smiley:

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Valid point, but the thing is, nobody really seems to have learned to play the game by the model Rich set. People have tried, but they’ve done it stupidly. Both John and Lex tried the same general strategy, but they made the critical mistake of letting everyone know they were in charge. They used Rich’s general strategy, but they had none of his subtlety.

Really, Rich’s manipulations were a thing of beauty. Each member of the alliance was basically loyal to him—he was the center of the web. But he always, always made it seem that decisions were made by the group. Even though he steered them to those decisions with “humble suggestions”.

And he tailored his strategy to each member, too. Only with Rudy, the military man, did he give direct instructions. Rudy seems to have decided early on that Rich was the “officer”, and so, career enlisted man that he was, he signed up. Rich handled strategy, and Rudy would vote the way he wanted, and in exchange Rich would always protect Rudy. A promise Rich kept, by the way—it was Kelly who booted Rudy in the end.

But Kelly and Sue, he played like a master violinist. And when they got too close to each other towards the end, he engineered, or at least encouraged, a falling out between them.

Most importantly, he kept his big fat mouth shut about it in front of everybody else. (True, maybe it would be more obvious to today’s “educated” players, but I’m not sure. A lot of them exhibited a remarkable degree of cluelessness, except when alliances were blatantly thrown in their faces.)

And in the end, Kelly took him to the final two with her, because she thought nobody liked him, and she’d have a better chance. Which might have been true, except that nobody liked her either. And finally, when Rich said, in effect, “Come on guys, I just played the game better than all of you.”, they had to admit that, yeah, he had.

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Vecepia was no player. She was nothing more than the beneficiary of Kathy, Paschal, and Neleh’s realization that they needed to take on the Gang of Four. K-P-N (especially K) were the players in that game. Vecepia hardly played the game at all, she just got carried along by others and bad luck until she accidentally ended up in the finals.

I didn’t watch S1 until the last couple episodes, but Rich certainly wrote the Survivor handbook. However, while he was the master alliance-builder and manipulator, Rich rubbed a whole lot of people the wrong way. Every winner since S1 has been a nice guy. There haven’t even been any thoroughly disliked contestants in the final two since the first series (though Neleh came close, since the Gang of Four bitterly resented their boot). Winning the game now absolutely requires flying under the radar, not just for plotting and scheming, but also simply in terms of personality.

Ethan was pretty good at that, though I have to tell you, Brian from this series may be the perfect post-Richard Hatch player. He’s in a power position, he’s subtly manipulating his alliance mates, and yet he’s well still well liked by everyone. Assuming Chewing Gum maintains the upper hand, I think he will manage the personalities quite well and make his way to the million.

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Sigh…here I go again.

While Richard Hatch pulled off a spectacular inaugural win, he was every bit as damn lucky as Tina Wesson or Ethan Zohn (he survived at least two tight votes, don’t forget)…and his strategy worked because no one saw it coming. Note that EVERYONE who tried to follow in his footsteps has gone down in flames, most notably John from #3 (and he was probably the strongest of the Richard wannabes). I don’t buy the subtlety argument either…although he might not have spelled it out, everything he did practically screamed the fact that he was playing to win and didn’t give a damn about anybody. How this million-to-one champ has gotten elevated to demigod status baffles me.

And for the last freaking time, Colby didn’t care who won! His reaction to Tina’s victory alone made that extremely clear. They had a deal at the end and simply stuck to it. “But the rules clearly state that the winner can’t cut a deal to split the money with anyone!” So? There are still plenty of ways to repay the man’s kindness. Gifts. Favors. Plenty of kind words to receptive media outlets. A lifetime of friendship. Tina may have made out like a bandit, but she wasn’t the only one.

Huh…no Amazing Race this week, can’t wait 'till Thursday.

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Hit a nerve there, DKW?:smiley:

shrug I’d hardly call him a demigod, but I still think he was a brilliant player (and I never said luck didn’t play a part as well). But I can agree to disagree.