Did you know that Survivor had a season based out in Guatemala? And that it featured the first two returning players since All-Stars, one of whom was the most popular player since Rupert Boneham? I ask because of all 34 seasons, there are only a few that barely receive mention since they’ve aired and among them, Survivor: Guatemala is the one I find to be the most unfairly underrated.

After Survivor: Palau and the disaster that was the Ulong tribe, the show felt like it owed Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard, Ulong’s last two surviving players, a second chance at the game. Since they were going to be split up, one per tribe, it was impossible for both of them to experience losing like they had in Palau. By default, at least one of them was going to have to finally win an immunity challenge.

I believe that many of the reasons that Guatemala isn’t overly mentioned nowadays is because production hated its time spent filming it. The weather was horrible. It was muggy, extremely warm and a hot spot for all sorts of bugs. Jeff Probst has gone on record multiple times as hating his time out in Guatemala and that a lot of the crew members ended up quitting after filming wrapped up. Being on location was brutal which made it difficult for the people who made the show to actually enjoy the season. Sitting at home in a comfortably air conditioned room, I had no such difficulties.

Before even beginning the season, I have to say: the location is so beautiful. It may have come with terrible weather but the Mayan pyramids, the fact that the challenges go to great lengths to showcase some of their traditions and everything about the locale is amazing. I understand why they never went back to Guatemala but it’s also a shame for our eyes that we don’t get to see this in HD. It’s also cool that throughout the season, the players eat corn instead of rice because that is how the Mayans lived way back as well. We see them preparing corn the old fashioned way multiple times over the course of the season and it’s a nice touch.

Guatemala starts off with a bang. After the two tribes come in to meet Jeff, he introduces Stephenie and Bobby Jon who both emerge from a Mayan pyramid. As if to really drive home the point that they are not regular players, they come in from a position of power by coming out of the pyramid and looking down at their new tribes.

At least one of us is going to finally not suck!

Once both sides have their veteran, Jeff sends them on their way to their new camp. In a new twist that they proceeded to never do again because they nearly killed everybody, the first challenge will be an 11 mile trek through the jungles of Guatemala. The winner will receive the better of the two camps which is at the base of another Mayan pyramid. The loser will get nothing except dehydration and bad mojo.

The trek is memorable for how perilous it ends up being. Blake Towsley has a tree fall onto him and stab his shoulder with its spiky edges. Bobby Jon, Judd Segreant and Blake all experience dehydration to varying degrees. Bobby Jon gets the worst of it because as he is known to do, he works far too hard by carrying extra weight during the walk and ends up wearing his body out. It’s the first of many signs that despite being a returning player, Bobby Jon is not looking to play any differently. He’s going to be a workhorse. He’s going to get crazy at challenges and he isn’t a very strategic person.

Starting out the season like they did with Guatemala is a great way to get to meet the cast. While some seasons may be known for their signature moves or big moments, Guatemala relies on its cast to carry the story. This is not a season where there are a lot of big game players who make cutthroat moves. This is a season filled to the brim with large personalities and watching them interact is what makes watching it worthwhile.

Much of the early season is spent focusing on Stephenie who appears to be once again on the losing tribe. Though she wins her first ever immunity challenge in the season’s premiere, it is the only challenge that pre-tribe swap Nakum ends up taking. Up until the tribes switch up at the “reward” challenge in episode four, Stephenie has lost five of a possible six challenges in Guatemala. As James Clement would tell her later using less kind words in Heroes vs Villains, at some point you have to start looking at yourself as the problem.

In my opinion, Guatemala only really becomes Guatemala after the first tribe swap. The boots prior to the swap; Jim Lynch, Morgan McDevitt and Brianna Varela end up not contributing much to the season. That isn’t overly surprising for early boots who are generally not cut out for the game. Even the first boot after the tribe swap, Brooke Struck, does not add much of anything to the season. Those four players would definitely fall below the Ashby line in terms of memorability.

The dynamics on the new Nakum and Yaxha tribes sort of dominate the season from then on. Unlike most seasons where people will stick with their original tribes on a swap, Guatemala features both sides sort of abandoning their original allegiances and forming new alliances post-swap. It’s a refreshing scene when you consider how many times people end up swapping to a new tribe only to be voted out for simply not being part of an old majority.

The not quite-Malcolm Freberg

New-Yaxha remains one of my favorite tribes ever to this day. They have a great blend of personality that all seem to mesh well together and despite having players with a lot of emotions, never really get into any sort of huge arguments. Amy O’Hara dubbing Blake as the “Golden Boy” for his ability to somehow come out on top of whatever situation he finds himself in is funny. Blake is a memorable character despite his short time on the screen for his lack of self-awareness with his bro-ey stories and thin skin for the elements of Guatemala. He swaps onto Yaxha in a majority position but still ends up being the first one voted out when they lose an immunity challenge. That shows the fluidity of the bonds made on the tribe and also how annoying Blake was being to the rest of his tribe.

As for the rest of Yaxha, they are all fantastic characters. Brandon Bellinger steps in as one of the tribe’s primary narrators and he is one of the best confessional givers Survivor has been able to find. It’s an interesting contrast in that Brandon as a social player is quiet, reserved and does not really look to make friends and would rather work hard at camp and destroy challenges like they were a rope and he was the rock. In confessionals, he’s insightful, biting and extremely funny; a side of him that he does not seem to care to show his tribe.

Brandon is part of the former Nakum members coming over to Yaxha with Bobby Jon and Danni Boatwright. I have said it earlier in this article and many times in real life, Bobby Jon is never going to change how he plays Survivor. To me that is perfectly fine. I would watch Bobby Jon lose his shit in challenges every season instead of being forced to watch invisible non-entities who get cast as early boot fodder in almost every season. As for Danni, she is a quiet but intelligence force who really knows how to use her social skills to her benefit. Danni’s ability to read the room and understand her position within a tribe makes her an incredibly dangerous player that we see gain some steam as the season goes on.

Blended in with the former Nakum on new-Yaxha are Amy, Brian Corridan and Gary “Gary Hawkins” Hogeboom. Brian was cast as the Survivor superfan who was ready to go out there and make big strategic plays. He had a lot of potential as a player and on any other season, he may have had his chance to shine. On Guatemala, he falls behind for not being a bombastic personality and without anyone there to really talk strategy with, Brian feels almost like a fish out of water. He is a great pre-merger but had he lasted any longer, his inability to really fit into the season’s narrative might have made him stick out. In a way, going out early was beneficial for Brian because a lot of the online fan base has adopted him as the poster boy for pre-merge boots who deserve a second chance at the game.

The other two, Amy and Gary, have a great dynamic. Gary is the first real stunt casting attempt by Survivor and it lands in a major way. Having been a starting quarterback for multiple teams in the NFL, including the Dallas Cowboys, Gary comes into the game not wanting people to know who he is. His new identity? Gary Hawkins, a landscaper from Michigan who happens to have attended Central Michigan at the same time as Gary Hogeboom but definitely did not play football there. It’s only fitting that along with casting a former professional football player, production threw in a sports radio host on there as well. With her deep knowledge of sports, Danni is able to quickly identify and out Gary to both her original Nakum tribe and her new-Yaxha tribe. Despite the evidence mounting against him, Gary flat out denies being Gary Hogeboom and for the most part, no one seems to care whether he is a former professional athlete or not.