Survivor: Heroes v. Healers
v. Hustlers Final Thoughts
(This article
contains spoilers for the final episode of Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v.
Hustlers!)
Well, another season of Survivor has come and gone, and with
that it’s time for me to give my final thoughts on the whole thing. So, let’s
get right into it.
This was…a weird season, to say the
least. It was nowhere near as snooze-inducing as Game Changers was with Sarah’s obvious winner’s edit, but nor was
it as exciting and fun to watch as Millennials
vs. Gen X was. There weren’t too many truly standout cast members I’d like
to see again (aside from Devon, Joe, Dr. Mike and Lauren), and the game didn’t
really kick into high gear until the last third, when the Alliance of 7 came
crashing down upon itself. Plus, considering how divisive the finale and winner
seem to be on social media right now, I think this season is gonna be similar
to Star Wars: The Last Jedi as a sort
of “love it or loathe it” thing.
Let’s kick things off by talking about
the winner: Ben. I gotta say, I’m completely happy with his win. He was easily
the most deserving player out there, especially since he spent the entire
run-up to Final Tribal as an alliance of one, kept alive purely by finding
idols and playing them correctly. He’s also become the first person in Survivor history to use an idol to
eliminate someone with only one vote, as he took down Lauren.
Yes, it’s a little weird that the anti-Ben
squad didn’t tail him constantly to make sure he couldn’t find another idol
(like Andrea did to beat Malcolm in Caramoan),
but it’s really impressive that not only was he able to find the thing three
consecutive times, but he was able to play it correctly and stay in the game
three consecutive times. How often have we seen idols be thrown away because of
a misjudgement or a red herring? Because he knew he was Public Enemy #1, there
was no doubt in his mind that he needed idols to make it to the end and win the
game, and that’s exactly what he did. In my mind he is easily the most
deserving player on the whole season to win the million.
I feel Chrissy is getting a bit of
undeserved love online purely because of her four challenge wins. Yes, it’s
impressive she tied the record for most challenge wins by a woman in a single
season (alongside 3 other ladies, but that’s beside the point). Despite this
admittedly impressive feat, her social game was still sorely lacking. Maybe
this was a result of the edit, but to me Chrissy always seemed cocky,
overconfident and a bit of a braggart the whole time she was out there. Because
she managed to give Katrina the boot at the first Tribal and then save her game
by allying with Ben early on, she seemed to size herself up as a master player
in the game, which, let’s be honest, she really wasn’t.
As for Ryan, he’s become the latest
victim of post-merge invisibility. He was clearly in control of his tribes early
on, taking control and removing his biggest threats, like Ali and Roark. But
once the merge happened, he kinda disappeared into the alliance of 7, and when
that all went away he just sorta sat back and did what Chrissy told him to do.
The jury laid into him for this at Final Tribal, saying that he was basically a
non-entity in the late game, and that he was just a tool in furthering Devon
and Chrissy’s games. Not a great look for my Day 1 pick to win.
Dr. Mike and Devon proved to be the
losers of the night, as they both wound up as victims of Hurricane Ben. Mike
wound up on the losing end after an extremely clever play by Devon, as he
anticipated Ben having a third idol and threw an extra vote his way to keep
himself in the game. On the revote Mike went home, but Devon’s success didn’t
last much longer.
So I guess it’s time to address the
elephant in the room: the final 4 “advantage”. Whoever won Final Immunity would
choose one person they wanted with them on the Final 3. The other two would
have to battle it out for the final spot on the bench. Chrissy won the
challenge, choosing Ryan to take with her to the end and telling Devon he was
gonna have to make fire.
Now, there are pros and cons to this
shake-up. The pro is that this gives some of the more entertaining players a
chance to stay alive, as well as create some extra drama in the game. Ben had
no hope after losing the final challenge, so this was his last chance to make
it to the end. If you’re on the bottom and have no idols to save yourself and
you don’t win immunity, this is a final chance to get yourself to the end and
prove to the jury you deserve the million dollars.
But there are a few cons as well. As
we’ve seen many times in many fire-making challenges, getting a flame going isn’t
exactly the easiest thing in the world. Look at Devon here. Despite being the
tribe’s chief fire-guy this season, he couldn’t get anything going. There’s a
distinct possibility that an undeserving player could get to the end through
this challenge, taking out someone that truly should’ve gotten the million on
the way (and I’m sure Devon fans will agree). There’s also the concern that
there’s one-too-many advantages in the game nowadays, and this is just an extra
thing that undermines the social and strategic parts of Survivor. Who needs relationships and a strong stance on the social
pyramid when you can just find idols and win hidden advantages to keep playing?
At the end of the day, I stand sort of
in the middle. While I like any chance to keep ourselves from having another
dud winner (*cough*Kaoh Rong*cough*),
there’s a definite problem that this is a little unfair to players who played
an excellent strategic game. The jury definitely favours spectacle and show
over a slow-building game with a strong core, and winning a surprise final
advantage definitely gives you that.
Overall, I enjoyed Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers. It was definitely
one of the more bizarre seasons, as Ben’s win was enabled by a lot of poor
gameplay by his tribemates. I’ll never know why they thought not following him
around after he pulled off successful idol plays twice in a row was a good idea.
But the contestants all had great character and personality (especially JP, am
I right?), the challenges were great, and last third with constant idol plays
was a ton of fun to watch. While not a banner season by any means, it was definitely
one I thoroughly enjoyed.
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