It's Not Whether You Win or Lose

I'm Brooks MacLachlan, someone who for some reason thinks his obsession with Survivor in recent years makes him qualified enough to judge those who are actually playing the game. I analyze everything I can: the episodes, secret scenes, interviews with eliminated players, social media activity of the players, and more to come up with the motivations behind what each player has done. I decide what should have happened, because I obviously know best, and I predict what should and what will happen in each player’s future in the game. And I’ll probably get it right every time because that’s just how I am.

And with that, the first Blood versus Water season is in the books. I say "first" because it was such a great season that the twist will surely be used again. 

Before I get into the finale, I'm gonna give you an idea of what my past few days have been like, because I think it's kinda interesting. Since 8 O'clock on Sunday night, I've watched the 3 hour season finale twice, listened to an hour long podcast about it, watched about 2 hours of secret scenes, watched the hour long after show, and listened to about an hour and a half of exit interviews... maybe a couple-month-long break from Survivor won't be such a bad thing. (Except it'll probably be more like a week-long break because I'll surely start watching old seasons and following Rob Cesternino's off-season Survivor coverage).

So the finale was pretty predictable. The only big surprise happened early on, when Tina beat Laura and re-entered the game. Besides that, everything I guessed in my last blog came true: Ciera went home first, followed by the redemption island returner, Gervase had no chance of winning, Monica had only a small chance (as shown by the vote Vytas gave her), and Tyson rose up as our winner. Just to be clear, just because it was predictable doesn't mean it wasn't good. I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the entire episode and reunion. However, it means there's not a whole lot to analyze. Since Tyson won both immunities, Monica and Gervase didn't even get the chance to make a move and possibly overthrow him. So there isn't a whole lot to talk about in terms of analysis (or maybe I just don't feel like putting in the work to analyse), so I'm just going to give some of my thoughts on some of the things that happened during the finale and reunion.

Tyson is definitely a worthy winner. I think he can be placed in the top tier of winners, with others who controlled the entire game with very few mistakes, like Boston Rob and Kim Spradlin. I'm still not a fan of his decision to go to rocks but obviously it worked out for him so I can't really call it a flaw in his game. 

I like Hayden almost as much as I like Tyson. Having a new player who isn't afraid to fight to stay in the game is so refreshing. I love how he doesn't give up, and how he hates to lose. He kinda reminds me of myself, actually. You know, just with muscles and social skills that I only dream I will magically obtain when I go on Survivor... actually maybe our only similarity is our drive to win.

What was with those jury questions to Monica!? Was it just me, or did Caleb, Laura, and Hayden all ask her the exact same question? I felt bad for her because I also didn't really understand what they wanted her to do. I think it reflected bad on her when she kind of broke and gave her "Haven't y'all ever met a nice person before?" speech, but I really couldn't blame her. The jury wasn't making a lot of sense and I would be frustrated too.

I'd like to discuss Vytas' vote for Monica. He has said on twitter that he did it because he knew Tyson was winning and wanted to make sure Monica got her deserved second place all to herself, which I can respect. It's unfortunate that it ended up being the one vote that kept Tyson from a perfect game (getting every vote at the end and no votes during the game (Tyson didn't get any votes during the game, did he?)), but I don't hate Vytas for doing it. Anyways, I think he may have another reason for doing it. Is it possible that Vytas voted for Monica so that, if he were to play Survivor again, he can use the threat that he used on Tyson and people would know he was telling the truth? That he really would not give them his vote in the end if they voted him out? Because he has probably just become the only Survivor player who can now use that threat and actually have a chance of having it successfully save him.

I liked the reunion show better than last year. It was great having everyone on stage again, and Jeff gave nearly everyone a chance to talk. We didn't need to hear from this random "Missy" girl in the audience, and we didn't have to talk to Cochran, although that clip of him was pretty great (and reminded me of the clip with Parvati and Jeff Probst from TV Guide channel's preview show). That time could've been used talking to Tyson a little longer and giving Marissa the chance to say something. Besides that, it was a good reunion show. I was glad Jeff finally admitted Colton didn't quit the first time. I was surprised Jeff was being as nice to him as he was. I don't even know what to think about Kat's comments, but I can say this. Usually if someone isn't very smart, I can't help but not like them. But Kat, while clearly not the brightest, is impossible not to like. Her moment didn't make a lot of sense, but it was possibly the most memorable moment of the reunion show. I was happy to see Jeff ask Vytas and Hayden if they would come back, because I'd love to see both of them again.

I'd also love to see Ciera play again. Jeff said something I really liked when he was discussing her gameplay: "Playing is what matters. It's not where you finish, it's giving the effort" which is a phrase pretty much synonymous with the phrase the title of my blog is based on "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game." These are the sorts of things that should be on every Survivor players mind while they play the game. Jeff said it best when he told the audience, about Ciera, "This is how you play the game!"

At first I wasn't a big fan of next season's brawns vs brains vs beauty twist, because I figured we'd have two whole tribes of worthless players (the brawns and beauty). The beauty tribe will probably be full of recruits who may or may not have ever seen the show before, and that;s disappointing. But then when I started to think about it I realized it's not so bad, for a couple of reasons.

First, I'm assuming the brain's tribe will be full of big fans of the show, and if that's true that means we'll have at least 6 potentially great players. The problem is they're all on one tribe, so if they ever lose immunity a potentially good player will be going home for sure (although there will have to be one or two of those really annoying nerdy people who will look down on everyone else and will have a worse social game than even I would, and they could easily be the first to go from that tribe).

Second, the physical strength of the brawns tribe and mental strength of the brains tribe will give both of those tribes advantages in the challenges. But being beautiful has no benefits in the challenge aspect of the game (unless the other tribes are too distracted by the beauty to focus on the challenge!), so I'm predicting that the beauty tribe will be decimated. This, coupled with the fact that we have had good-looking, smart players before (ex. Parvati, Malcolm), means that the beginning of the season could set up the rest of the season to be great. If there are one or two smart players on the beauty tribe, they can take control and vote out all of the dumb ones as they lose challenge after challenge. Then we'd be left with the brains tribe, which should be mostly full of smart players, the survivors of the beauty tribe, who should also be good players, and a brawns tribe, which will probably also have one or two players with some good game understanding, at a point relatively early in the game. With so many potentially great players, the remainder of the season could be amazing. So my hopes are high.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to express your thoughts about the finale and next season with a comment!