Some people are just naturally crafted for Survivor. It could be that they have been nature lovers from an early age and have all the necessary skills to provide and survive on the island or it could be that their jobs have given them the social skills needed to maneuver the social gameplay with ease. Not every player is created equally and on any given season, a select few will go out with built in advantages that will help them in the game. It was exactly what happened with Denise Stapley and it helped her win the game.

From the very beginning of Survivor: Philippines, Denise had a compelling story. Placed on the Matsing tribe, she was set to endure life on the worst challenge tribe in the history of Survivor. Four immunity challenges, four straight losses. No matter what the tribe tried to do, they found a way to lose and end up with Jeff Probst at tribal council.

As a 41 year old woman who was also very short of stature, Denise still somehow avoided the axe ever falling on her head. Despite being on a tribe with a bunch of younger women and some strong men, Denise displayed great challenge acumen and proved her worth in camp. While Matsing performed badly at the challenges, it was never Denise’s fault and along with Malcolm Freberg, Denise became Matsing’s Co-MVP, which is not the highest award one should aspire to.

Along with her physical abilities, Denise quickly proved to be an amazing social player. This is where her built in abilities come into play. As a sex therapist in everyday life, Denise developed very keen listening skills. She knew how to make people feel comfortable around her and how to get them to open up. Denise was able to identify some depth to Zane Knight’s character based on his tattoos. Zane was an interesting player who did not last long but in the short time that he spent on Matsing, Denise formed a real bond with him. Through the countless losses, Denise and Malcolm eventually found solace within each other. Realizing that they had a lot in common despite the physical differences, they formed an alliance that helped keep Denise safe throughout all of Matsing’s tribal councils. When it came down to three people, Malcolm, Denise and Russell Swan, she was able to get Russell to open up about his past and reached him on a personal level that few players ever could.

With Matsing all but decimated, Malcolm and Denise were separated to the other two tribes by the merciful Survivor gods called production. Malcom went to Tandang, the dysfunctional but successful tribe and Denise went to Kalabaw. On Kalabaw, instead of becoming public enemy number one for being new, Denise became a highly sought commodity. With the tribe split evenly by gender, three women and three men, the women wanted to build an all-women’s alliance to counter the trio of Jeff Kent, Carter Williams and Jonathan Penner that they had seen form over Kalabaw’s continued streak of avoiding tribal councils. The men, for their part, saw Denise as a hard working contributor to camp life and wanted her on their side as opposed to the younger women who did work nearly as hard as Denise did.

The all-women’s alliance quickly failed after Dana Lambert quit because of stomach problems that rendered her unable to do much of anything. Even so, Denise was not in any kind of trouble over being voted out because of her work ethic and willingness to do whatever was asked of her in camp, a valuable skill that not every player seems to have despite being integral to having a good social game.

A new tribe did not mean new luck for Denise because even after escaping the clutches of Masting, she found herself at the end of an immunity loss. While Malcolm got to enjoy the thrills of victory for the first time all season, Denise and her Kalabaw tribe would be voting someone out for the first time. That was immediately followed up by yet another loss for Denise and a second straight Kalabaw tribal council.

I’ve often said that every winner needs luck in order to be good at Survivor and this is no different for Denise. With both Sarah Dawson and Katie Hanson being voted off Kalabaw, Denise suddenly became very vulnerable if the tribe had to go to another tribal council. Thankfully for her, after Katie’s boot, the merge followed and suddenly Denise had made it to the individual part of the game somehow unscathed.

At the merge, Malcom and Denise were reunited and had a lot of wiggle room in terms of where to place their trust. Early on, Penner found himself on the outs and had to play an idol and win immunity to save himself two weeks in a row. At that point, Denise and Malcolm were on the periphery for Lisa Welchel and Michael Skupin, who knew Malcolm had a hidden immunity idol and wanted to vote him out because of it.

The crux of the game eventually became decided after the Jeff Kent vote. When a team of Carter, Penner, Denise and Malcolm won a reward, they formed a bond that would become a tight alliance and agreed to work on wooing over Lisa. During this time, Abi-Maria Gomes, the fiery Brazilian who was known for her outbursts, was left back at camp with Lisa. Abi ripped into Lisa for being too nice and naïve and generally made Lisa feel uncomfortable within her own alliance. Despite all this, she was set to stay loyal to her core of Abi, Pete Yurkowski, Artis Silverster and Mike. In the end, Mike would be the flipper, deciding to vote with the newly formed alliance and blindside Artis.

From that point on, Denise was firmly in the numbers. Her relationship with everybody minus Abi made it so that her name would never really come up. She was never seen as leading the alliance but also made sure to be involved in discussions so that everyone knew she was playing. At tribal, she was vocally against Abi’s way of “playing” the game on multiple occasions and it made an enemy out of her. Denise did not hold back her feelings on Abi out of fear of losing a vote or being targeted because she was not willing to set aside her strong beliefs about character simply for the game.

The glaring flaw in Denise’s game was her willingness to be loyal to Malcom. Down to the final four with Mike, Lisa and Malcolm, Denise asked him if he was willing to force a tie vote against Lisa and give Denise a chance to make fire. The only reason Denise would later decide to turn on Malcolm was because he hesitated to give her an answer. Up until that point, she was willing to take Malcolm to the final three where she would have likely lost to him.

Once again, you have to have some luck to be good and Denise got some from Malcom’s hesitation. It set her mind straight that she was in a cutthroat game and despite her real affinity for Malcom, she could not go to the final three with him. Appealing to Lisa’s beliefs that Malcolm would be unbeatable in the final three, Denise was able to rally the votes needed to avoid being the last jury member. In Lisa and Mike’s eyes, she was seen as less deserving than them and an easy goat at final tribal council.

Wrong Skupin.

As it turns out, the duo was in hot water no matter who they picked. Denise had fought her way to hell and back to get to where she was. She became the first player to ever attend every single tribal council during her season. In a game where the ability to socialize is key, Denise is one of the few people to ever play with every single contestant on her season. She is also a very smart person who uses communication every day at her job and final tribal is all about talking.

At final tribal, Denise made it clear from the get-go that she would not be apologizing for her moves. As she said, “I’ve outwit many of you, I outplayed many of you, and ultimately, I outlasted all of you”. I am not always a fan of contestants using the show’s slogan in their opening speeches but this one was pretty good because it was leaving the door open for those with big egos to think they were not part of the “many” that Denise mentioned. The one person that Denise would apologize to is Abi, knowing that Abi is all about herself and hearing that apology would make everything better. Denise was right because in the end, Abi would end up voting for Denise. So would five other people as she would win it all 6–1–1.

Over the years, a lot of people have disregarded Denise’s win. Malcom was the season’s breakout star for plenty of good reasons. He’s personable, funny, great on camera and attractive to boot. Malcom has earned his retuning appearances by giving producers exactly the type of footage they want. That shouldn’t take away from what Denise was able to do. We always hear that Survivor is a social game and that how well you do depends on your bonds with people. If that’s the case, Denise is one of the all-time greats. She faced tribal council every single time on Survivor: Philippines and made it out the other side every time. She was able to get people to trust her even when she was the new girl on campus with a bunch of people who had built bonds over two weeks. Like no other Survivor before, Denise earned her win. Was it the most exciting gameplay? Maybe not but we’ve learned over the years that being exciting isn’t always good. Denise was always in tune with what was going in camp, kept her name out of people’s mouths and was nice enough to convince people to vote for her in the end. She played Survivor exactly how it should be played and that should be commended.

Philippines is often cited as a renaissance season for Survivor after a string of less than popular seasons. It had great characters, a lot of compelling storylines and emotional moments. Matsing as a tribe was a huge part of that. Seeing them struggle with the reality of losing over and over was almost a throwback to Survivor: Palau and watching Ulong fall apart. Denise was a big part of that and a big part of a season that will always be close to many fans’ hearts. We can only hope that one of these days, production will see it like we do and give us a second shot for Denise to see if she can replicate the kind of social mastery she had out in the Philippines. One thing’s for sure, her tribe can’t lose as much as her first one did.