Within the Survivor community, we have seen many players return. We live in a world where Candice Woodcock/Cody has played on three separate occasions. Danielle DiLorenzo was somehow villainous enough on Survivor: Panama to merit a second opportunity. Hell, Jeff Varner has gotten three chances and missed the jury each time though something tells me he isn’t going to be back on the show anytime soon.

Think of all the players that have been brought back that make you question the producers. There are many of them. Now think about the fact that despite so many weird returning player choices, Ace Gordon of Survivor: Gabon has never gotten the chance to play for a second time. That’s criminal!

Look, I understand the argument for not going back to Ace. He played on Survivor: Gabon and immediately after his season, Coach Wade made his debut in Survivor: Tocantins. In terms of bigger picture, Ace and Coach share a character arc in that they are both over-the-top and weirdly cocky. Given the choice between Coach and Ace, of course you bring back Coach first.

Once Coach has played a few times, why not look at Ace as a viable returnee? It’s not like the show has avoided casting similar players before. Colby Donaldson was the first Survivor golden boy and the show has been trying to put on Colby clones ever since. As far back as the Australian Outback, the show was trying to mimic its past. Jeff Varner was put on the cast with the hope that he would become Richard Hatch 2.0.

Besides once you get past the initial comparison, Ace and Coach can exist as two separate entities in the same universe. First of all, how many Survivor players have gone onto a season and talked in a fake British accent that seems to come and go depending how hungry that player is? Only Ace would ever attempt a weird move like that. That alone makes him a Game Changer TM.

Know what else makes him a Game Changer? His horribly awkward audition tape that completely betrays anything Ace pretends to portray himself as on Gabon. Look at this thing and tell me this guy is the cultured, rich, and suave person Ace likes to think that he is. It actually adds to Ace’s character that he comes off as completely inauthentic because it sort of becomes his brand throughout Gabon.

The appeal to Ace is his superiority complex. Whereas Coach claimed to want to compete with players of his skill level, there are no players on Ace’s level. Even when he’s been voted out, Ace refuses to accept he could be on these people’s level. During the Rites of Passage, he claims to have been booted because he simply couldn’t relate to the simpleton he was playing with who were not as well-traveled as he was. That’s some gold right there. You’re telling me production couldn’t use more of that?

While his time on the season was cut pretty short, Ace dominated the episodes he was in. He acted like a supervillain on his tribe, quickly taking the reins while everyone around him expressed distrust. He actually reminds me a lot of a Lex Luthor type. Not overly brawny but looking to take over the world using his cunning. Being bald also helped me think of him as Lex Luthor.

Even in his “Meet Ace Gordon” video, Ace can’t avoid coming off as a smarmy douchebag. I mean that in the most positive way possible.

Not only does he act like a villain, he employs a ditzy, blonde sidekick to help do his bidding. Sugar Kiper is a classic villain sidekick who needs to have plans explained to her because she keeps forgetting the ultimate goal. In Ace’s story, the sidekick is ultimately converted to the other side and causes the supervillain’s demise. That could have totally been written into a Superman or Batman movie.

The beauty of Ace’s character is that he is never taken all that seriously. He sees himself as the leader of Kota but in reality, the Onion alliance has already formed behind his back and he would have actually been in the minority. When he swaps over to Fang, he’s instantly outside of the numbers and never really treated as having much power. Sugar has the idol, which Ace thinks he will have the ability to use for himself, but Sugar clues in that she is being used and does not save him when the time comes. On top of that, Ace regularly gets hurt in challenges in comedic fashion. Particularly when he takes a melon to the face.

Now that’s what I call melon-choly.

The truth is that without Ace in the mix, the pre-merge could have gotten really boring. Fang was such an inept tribe and they were bound to lose a bunch. That tribe had some fun characters but no one to rally around. Having Ace as the villain that people wanted out worked perfectly for that. He is also the one that really sets up the entire season’s story being about Sugar because he becomes her first victim. I suppose if you are one of the Sugar-haters out there, that gives you a reason to dislike Ace. I love Gabon’s storyline so much that I am willing to forgive the amount of Sugar it requires to watch it and let it give me diabetes.

Within the confines of Gabon’s Garden of Eden storyline, Ace is given a very clearly defined role. Multiple times, Sugar identifies him as the snake and Ace plays his part to a T. When you have people who are willing to buy into their roles and commit to playing a certain way, the season comes out better in the end. He may not have ever had a chance to win Gabon but Ace does everything in his power to help make it a better season during his time in the game.

It’s also crazy to consider that Ace was only 27 while filming Gabon. Think about how Ace presents himself; rich, cultured, well-traveled, and then consider how young he actually was. That made him younger than Marcus Lehman and Matty Whitmore. Put them side by side and nobody would ever pick Ace as the youngest of that trio. The bald, Bond parody villain? Forget about it. A decade later, Ace might have gained a bit on introspection and could play a pretty good game with time on his side. This is much like Coach in South Pacific when he suddenly turned into a capable strategic player on his third time out.

Word on the street is that Ace was cast on Heroes vs Villains only to be cut less than a week from filming. That villains tribe, especially on the male side, was stacked. If they had to choose between Randy and Ace from the same season, it made sense to go with Randy. He had a longer lasting impact. Still, within the context of that tribe, Ace may have had a better chance at surviving longer. Still, given that production has considered him as a returning player before means maybe we shouldn’t complete shut the door on his chances.

Whether he ever gets a second chance or not, Ace will always go down as one of my favorite pre-mergers of all-time. It takes a special kind of character to carry a part of a season and Ace does that with Gabon’s pre-merge. Give him another shot and you’ll see that he could do the same for any modern season too.