If you were ever stuck on an actual deserted island, one like any of the beach themed seasons of Survivor, and had to pick one Survivor alumni to be deserted with you, who would you choose? I am willing to bet that a large majority of you immediately thought to Ozzy Lusth, the jungle boy who seems like he grew up, much like Mogli, in a jungle along with the animals. It’s a great pick because with Ozzy on your side, you would never go hungry and he would build you a solid shelter. The only drawback is that you might not get to socialize all that much.

That’s the complexity that is Ozzy Lusth. On the surface, he was born to play Survivor. Nobody has ever been a provider to the levels that Ozzy has been on four different occasions (cut to Rupert Boneham crying in a corner). Nobody is so agile and light on his feet that he can climb trees like he was walking down the sidewalk. Out in the water, he has no comparison over the course of 34 seasons, his grace and speed is a demonic combination that makes him untouchable. He is strong for his weight which makes him tough to beat in endurance competitions and he is smart enough to hold his own against the puzzles Survivor likes to throw at him. Upon a quick overview, if you could clone the perfect Survivor player, you would want their physique and survival abilities to match Ozzy’s.

Then you consider the social element of the game. An element which many people would argue is by far the biggest component to winning Survivor. That’s where Ozzy lacks a lot of grace and ability. It isn’t to say that Ozzy is anti-social or weird. He just doesn’t fit in with a lot of people because Ozzy can only be himself. He’s a nature loving, chill individual who is not really built for the lying and deceiving that the game asks of you. Ozzy wants to go out on the island, spend hours fishing and climbing trees for coconuts. He wants to have a solid alliance and stick with that group until the end.

Who can blame him? That sort of strategy nearly won him a million dollars the first time around. Had Cook Islands not been the first even final three, Ozzy is the odds on favorite to win the final immunity challenge, cut Yul Kwon and take Becky Lee to final tribal council where Ozzy wins in a landslide. That whole game, all Ozzy had to do was side with the Aitu 4, help his team win immunities and when it came to the individual portion, Ozzy won all but one immunity challenge.

They don’t call him dolphin boy for nothing.

What’s easy to forget is how Ozzy ended up as a member of the Aitu 4. As part of the original Aitus, Ozzy was the main believer that the tribe should throw a challenge to get rid of Billy Garcia. Ozzy saw him as dead weight who was also a shoe-in to flop on their tribe as soon as he had a chance. It’s one of Ozzy’s few strategic decisions over the course of four seasons but I believe it to be a correct decision. It was clear that Billy was an outcast on that tribe and he did not feel any kinship with them. Within that Aitu tribe, Ozzy was a key player for both his challenge acumen and willingness to step up as a vocal leader. It also rubbed some people the wrong way.

After the Billy boot, the racial twist was abolished by producers. Probably to avoid a cancellation mid-season. Ozzy remained a member of Aitutonga along with original member Cecilia Mansilla. They were joined by Cao Bui Bui, Flicka Smith, Candice Woodcock, Jonathan Penner, Sundra Oakley, Becky and Yul. He was suddenly in the minority. Aitu lost the first challenge post-swap and the tribe voted off Cecilia despite Ozzy’s best efforts to swing the vote his way. That’s when Aitu really became split with Flicka and Cao Bui joining Ozzy as the sort of free-spirited members of the tribe while a majority alliance of Yul, Becky, Penner and Candice took control at camp. They picked off Cao Bui and Flicka the next two times they went to tribal council and Ozzy was undoubtedly next on their list.

…and then Penner and Candice mutinied away from Aitu back to Raro to join Adam Gentry and Parvati Shallow with whom Candice had made tight bonds originally. Suddenly the tribes went from six on each side to eight Raro members and the Aitu 4. Through no move of his own, Ozzy went from the next person to go straight into a nearly unbreakable, tight alliance with Yul, Becky and Sundra. In a turn of good luck, Ozzy was suddenly allied with the person who possessed the most powerful idol in Survivor history and the four became so close because of the mutiny that it was unthinkable that any of them would turn on each other. All of a sudden the Aitus started winning, found a way to get the numbers at the merge and Ozzy found himself in a spot where he was guaranteed a high placement without needing to do any socializing outside of his circle.

So when he was asked back a few seasons later for Micronesia, it makes sense that he did not consider changing up his strategy. He made an alliance of four people, one of whom was Parvati, someone he had a pre-existing relationship with. He went to Exile Island, found an idol and figured he was in a good spot. He had seen Yul in that same situation: an alliance of four with the idol in his pocket, and it had won him the game. Ozzy was confident, many would say cocky, that he was set to make a deep run into the game.

He was also devilishly handsome in Micronesia.

A lot of what we see in Ozzy 2.0 we saw in the original Ozzy. He’s a challenge monster, particularly in a water challenge where tribes have to bring back balls to the beach. Ozzy spends what seems like a good five minutes under water bringing all of his tribe’s balls right to the beginning and the favorites proceed to trample the fans. He is also once again the tribe’s main provider. The interesting new angle with Ozzy is that he now sees himself as his alliance’s leader. In Cook Islands, there was no debate that Yul was the Aitu 4’s leader when it came to the decision making. In Micronesia, Ozzy sees himself assuming that role and the rest of his alliance allow it but secretly Parvati is really calling all the important shots.

The biggest problem for Ozzy in Micronesia was that Cirie Fields was part of the cast. As the goddess of perception, Cirie could spot from a mile away that Ozzy was far too comfortable in his position. She was able to get into Parvati’s ear and convince her that it was a good idea to eventually blindside him as soon as they could. That’s in fact what happens early in the merge and Ozzy ends up going home with an idol in his pocket.

Micronesia should have been confirmation for Ozzy that the game had changed since his time on Cook Islands. It was no longer best practice to simply make a single alliance and target people outside of that group. Ozzy didn’t try to connect with people he wasn’t talking game to, save for maybe Erik Reichenbach, and the fact that he didn’t have those bonds made it a lot easier for people to feel ok with targeting him. Ozzy also came off as pretty bitter during his jury speech and it left a lot of people feeling a little sour on him as a character coming out of the season.

For a long time, Ozzy was then left on the Survivor bench until the time came for Survivor: South Pacific. This is my favorite iteration of Ozzy for how perfect his storyline seems to be. First of all, it’s an interesting comparison that much of the season hinges so much on the deep catholic bonds that are formed on Upolu while Ozzy is all alone on Redemption Island, practicing his own religion which is the love and respect of nature. We know pretty well that Ozzy is not a religious person but like he says in the finale, being out in the wild with only himself to count on, that is religion to Ozzy and he thrives on Redemption Island where he does not have to really play the game.

More of a used car salesman look in South Pacific.

To kick off South Pacific, Ozzy once again makes a majority alliance and hopes to rely on his challenge strength and providing abilities to stay alive in the game. To credit him, Ozzy also does extend his bonding to people outside of his main alliance because he makes a good bond with Dawn Meehan and he even tries to connect with John Cochran, someone who might be seen as the anti-Ozzy for his complete lack of survival abilities but great mind for the game.

Ozzy experiences a slight bump in the road when his alliance suddenly blindsides Elyse Umemoto, who Ozzy had been getting too close to in the eyes of his side. It causes Ozzy to go on a rampage where he declares himself as a free agent. After a couple of days, he calms down, apologizes to his tribe and they can move on from it. Besides, I can understand Ozzy’s outrage in blindsiding a member of their own alliance so early in the game without telling the entire alliance save for that person. From Ozzy’s point of view, that is not how you play Survivor.

If any twist had ever been tailored for a single person, Redemption Island was basically Ozzy’s wet dream. A place where you can live free from the prospects of strategizing and numbers but have to survive on your own abilities and through winning challenges? Sign Ozzy up! All that was missing was a weed smoking competition and Ozzy is basically in heaven. That’s why I have always respected Ozzy’s initial demand to be sent to Redemption Island by his tribe to try and gain the numbers on Upolu. Ozzy knew that he was going to beat whoever they could throw at him and it gave Cochran a chance to infiltrate Upolu. I have never thought of Ozzy as a master strategist but you have to admit that if the move pans out, Savaii gains control of the game and Ozzy is almost a shoe-in to win a million dollars. It was a ballsy gambit on Ozzy’s part and he upheld his end of the deal by coming back into the game. It just happened that Cochran put a knife into his back.

The fact that Ozzy even thought of a plan like that for Savaii showed that he had been thinking back on his previous experiences. He saw the game in a different sense than he had the first two times out and realized that he could take advantage of a twist production had thrown at them. That kind of adaptability and forward thinking was a major evolution from Micronesia Ozzy’s “I have my alliance so fuck you” kind of gameplay.

As well, Ozzy deserves a lot of credit for his handling of Cochran post-betrayal. While the rest of Savaii basically wants to beat him up, Ozzy is upset but still treats Cochran like a human being. They have a conversation where Ozzy tells Cochran his piece and they leave it at that. No yelling, no threats, just an explanation as to why Cochran screwed up, and Cochran had definitely screwed up.

Part of Ozzy’s serene calm was probably because of Redemption Island. He gets voted off as the first Savaii member post Cochran betrayal and goes to Redemption Island. From there, he becomes an unbeatable monster. His first two opponents are Jim Rice and Keith Tollefson, likely the toughest people he would face but Ozzy makes short work of them. He then gets Whitney Duncan and Dawn Meehan as a pairing and takes both of them out too. Then he gets his revenge on Cochran by beating him in a close duel on Redemption Island. All that is left is Edna Ma and then a tough endurance challenge against Brandon Hantz but Ozzy pulls it off and brings himself back into the game for a second time. Ozzy believed he had the skills to get the best out of Redemption Island and he proved it.

He almost looks bored beating people at Redemption Island.

Back into the game at final five, Ozzy gets an automatic win if he can make it to the final three. He gets so close by winning the final five immunity and being so close in the last challenge but ultimately losing to Sophie Clarke and being sent out at final four. There had been some evolution in Ozzy’s game during South Pacific but his game had once again relied on challenge strength and survival instincts. While some people say that Ozzy is too arrogant in South Pacific, I see it more as someone who is completely comfortable with his skillset and someone who is not afraid of the Survivor death. He submits himself to Redemption Island, lives comfortable on its sands and is not afraid of being out of the game because he’s already lost two seasons anyways.

Ozzy’s arc should have finished with South Pacific as the legend who gets oh so close but does not have the tools to finish the job. Unfortunately, he is brought back for Game Changers and while it certainly does not hurt his legacy, it’s more of a re-hash of something we have already seen without the new wrinkles Ozzy 2.0 and 3.0 provided. He’s once again the provider and challenge slayer. His tribe stays out of trouble for a long time and when they do go to tribal council, he is spared because of his ability to win things for his tribe. He is a Zeke Smith supporter in the Varner tribal council, as is the rest of his tribe, and outside of that Ozzy goes home for once again being too strong in the challenges. At final tribal council, he supports Brad Culpepper for his ability to go on an immunity run. Ozzy probably sees a lot of himself in Brad’s game and it would have been surprising had he not supported him to win.

It’s also crazy to see Ozzy age over four seasons spread decently far apart.

People criticize Ozzy for his inability to really change his game over four seasons of Survivor. I think that is really the beauty of his character. Ozzy can’t help but being Ozzy. He wants to go fish and hunt for coconuts. He doesn’t want to sit on the beach, strategize and go over numbers with his alliance. Ozzy knows that this is an essential part of winning Survivor but he can’t bring himself to do it. Despite all that, he has come close to winning twice and is probably the best-rounded losing finalist of all-time. Ozzy is flawed but Ozzy is great because of those flaws and this is especially true if you can forget Game Changers ever happened and see Ozzy’s storyline as a trilogy. Cook Islands is where he finds success and starts to believe in his own abilities. Micronesia is his downfall because he buys too much into those abilities and South Pacific, Ozzy perfectly understands his strengths, uses them to maximize his chances but still falls a bit short, realizing that maybe he is not destined to win this game.