One of the
biggest unwritten rules of Survivor
is to have the numbers in an alliance, if a player is on the wrong side of
numbers, they are usually on the outside of the tribe, and picked off without
remorse or regret. Usually, winners of
the season were a part of the bigger alliance.
They had the numbers that got them the win. All they had to do was micromanage their
alliance in order to be seen as the leader, in order to take credit for their
alliance’s success and gain jury votes from the departed outsiders or other
members that had to go due to liability issues. It’s an all too common strategy seen but what
most viewers don't realize is that usually there is other people outside of the
main alliance. Maybe it was an immunity
win, or a social move, or both, but suddenly that person is a huge threat to
win it all. Suddenly, an a contestant
with no real alliance left is in the finals and the jury looks to them more
favorably because that was their old alliance that was picked off, all on the
jury. People generality praise the gameplay
of the dominant leaders of the alliance that ruled the game, winners like
Richard, Brian, Tom, Parvati, and Kim, and not look at the winners that spent a
long time on the bottom rung, like Vecepia, Sandra, Danni, Fabio, Denise, and
Natalie plus a few others.
The first winner that won while
entering a merge down in numbers is Vecepia who won the fourth season Survivor: Marquesas. While she was on the Rotu tribe which had the
numbers, she was on that tribe as a result of a tribe swap, and the only people
that was on the old Maraamu tribe with her were known trouble makers Rob and
Sean, two people that would get voted out before her in almost every situation. At the merge, the old Rotu tribe had seven
people still in the game out of the eight people originally on the tribe, Gabe
being the only one not to make the merge.
However, infighting with Kathy and the Rotu four caused a major power
shift and John, the leader of said alliance was out the door as soon as they
managed to pick off Rob. With only Sean
and a good bond with Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal, the shattered remains of the
Rotu Four left right with John. Vecepia
then wins Immunity at the final four right before Kathy stuck with the old Rotu
lines and helping to vote off Sean, and the tiebreaker sent Paschal home. Vecepia then ensured her place in the finals
by getting Neleh to make a deal with her that ended up backstabbing her
original ally Kathy, and winning the game due to Neleh’s horrid jury
performance. Even though she came from a
tribe that only won one Immunity challenge, she has yet to really get the
respect that she deserves.
Why doesn't she get the respect? A lot of
people today call her an “invisible” winner, even though she wasn’t that
invisible at all, especially in comparison to later seasons, and later
winners. I have a theory that they
editors just didn't know what to do with her.
They made her a character, but not to the extent of Kathy or Sean, or
even Neleh and John. She was someone
that faded to the background, but I've noticed over all of the seasons for the
most part, the winners do have a period of hiding. It’s a myth that every winner is up and front
every episode. Now we do have the
exceptions, Boston Rob is the best example, but take Brian Heidik for example,
he wasn't big in the beginning of the season.
Vecepia was there, dropping the all important “winner’s quotes” that
people like me look for on rewatches. It
would be that quote that should get used whenever people talk about that
winner. It puts them in a relatable
light. Vecepia gets the backlash that
she did even though if you look at the numbers, she should have been voted out
7th or 8th. Back
then, the basic rules of Survivor is to "Pagong", to pick off. Yet she defied the law, opening the door for
another possibility.
Another
winner three seasons later took up that strategy that Vecepia had. Vecepia started the “anyone but me” outlook
to Survivor, yet this winner is the most associated with that term. It’s Sandra.
Many people call her the queen of Survivor, as she is the shows first
and only two-time winner. She competed
on both the seventh season of Pearl Islands and the twentieth season of Heroes
Vs Villains and has won both seasons.
However before she became known as the queen of Survivor, a lot of
viewers, including Jeff Probst himself, didn't really give her the praise that
she probably deserved back then even though she did come out alive as the only
person not to get voted out from her season and the fact that she never even
received a vote against her in Pearl Islands.
After Rupert’s blindside she had to stay on her toes and watch her back
as the one of the biggest villains in Survivor history, Jonny Fairplay, was
looming over her. She became this free
vote and pretty much sunk Fairplay’s game by getting Darrah and Lill to vote
for Burton. While Survivor tends to
celebrate the challenge dominators, Sandra has never won a single individual
challenge. Statistically the greatest
Survivor player ever and she has a track record of zero individual challenge
wins. However, Sandra laid low on both
seasons. She took Vecepia's game,
stirring up drama and making moves that benefited her and her only, and made it
her own. She was louder that Vecepia but
the frameworks of their wins are the same.
Even
though Sandra got the respect now, she still has those people that call the
luck card. They discredit her win due to
the luck she had with pre-merge challenge wins, alliance infighting, and other
people winning challenges that took her to the end, however Survivor is mostly
luck. The game of Survivor is never truly
in ones hands the entire time. Silas in
Africa thought he had it, and then the first tribe swap happened. All it takes is a twist, a challenge loss or
win, a medical evacuation, anything that happens in the game can either help or
hinder anyone. Every winner was
lucky. They had the right tribe
dynamics, the right twists that helped them out, anything that happens in the
game can change it. Sandra is lucky to
win twice. However she managed to make
her own luck when blindsiding Burton and putting herself in that position that
Lill took her over Fairplay. She made
the moves, it’s not all luck.
To
wrap up this part, I want to remind people reading this that this is not an
“under the radar” game play essay, this is a down in numbers game play essay,
meaning that I'm not going to cover the lower visibility winners unless they
had a huge disadvantage at the merge.
The next part I'm going to cover two winners that had very similar
situations, but are both edited differently and took different paths to the
million dollars. They both cracked alliances
that let them walk into FTC and win it all.
Yes. The Next Chapter is about Chris and Danni.
