Ask anybody who has seen most of the Survivor seasons, Survivor: Gabon is sort of an odd duck. Its cast is stock full of weird personalities. Most of whom don’t really think the game in any strategic way. Because of how different Gabon is compared to the seasons that surround it, it’s very appropriate that its winner ended up being one of the most unlikely sole survivors the show has ever produced.

If you were to walk up to a random person on the street with a picture of the Gabon cast and asked them to pick a winner, odds are they would never pick Bob Crowley. Don’t be the weirdo that walks up to people on the street and asks people that by the way. Just on looks alone, Bob immediately stands out. He remains the oldest Survivor winner and unless a miracle happens and we get a re-incarnation of Gabon, he will likely always be the oldest winner.

Over the years, people have picked Bob’s game apart and anointed him as one of the worst winners of all-time. I am not hear today to scorch you with a take that Bob should be seen as a legendary player but I would like to elaborate on what Bob did during his time in Gabon that got him the win in the end. Because Gabon isn’t really Bob’s story even though he is the winner, he gets brushed aside a lot as an afterthought and ask Natalie White; that is a terrible spot for a winner to be put in.

Almost right away, Bob gets singled out for being one of the two oldest people in the cast. He and Gillian Larson kick off the season’s schoolyard pick because of their age. Unlike Gilllian, Bob’s Kota ends up with a roster that looks fairly dominant on paper. Later on, it would prove to be dominant in practice too.

Who knew not drafting all the old women was the best strategy?

The first thing I think Bob deserves more credit for is having the self-awareness to understand the perception of him at camp. That’s a skill that can’t be taught but almost all winners need to have. If you can’t see how people think of you, you only have your own thoughts as a reference and that will almost always cost you the game. Bob knew that he was the oldest member of his tribe and he compensated by working harder than everyone else combined. Bob was a beast at camp life down to making furniture for Kota to sit on in his spare time. That kind of work ethic made him indispensable to his team.

It also makes him seem very trustworthy and likable to the tribe. So much so that when Charlie Herschel and Marcus Lehman plan their onion alliance, Bob ends up on the perimeter of the alliance without moving a muscle. They see him as a down to earth, honest guy and decide he is the best player to have as their 5th in the alliance to guarantee a majority within the tribe. Bob simply being a decent human being giving him multiple chances in the game is a common theme that emerges out of Survivor: Gabon.

In the early days of Gabon, Kota absolutely dominates. Bob is mostly invisible on the TV show but provides for his team both in challenges and at camp. Even through a tribe switch, Bob remains with his original tribe and continues to be a part of steamroll that eventually leaves Fang down in numbers heading into what looks like a merge. Instead, the cast goes through a very late second tribe mix-up that leaves Bob on Kota with a 3–2 majority over old Fang members.

Just going to silently work away while the crazies take each other out.

During the immunity challenge that may as well be an individual challenge, Bob, not Marcus, is the one that goes toe to toe with Matty to try and win immunity for Kota. He eventually loses but it’s a close match-up that gives a hint of what is to come in the post-merge when it comes to immunity challenges. Even with the loss, Kota holds a 3–2 advantage in the tribe against Fang. Unfortunately for Bob, Susie Smith flips on Marcus Lehman and Bob to join the two Fang players and leaves Bob as the odd man out should the tribe lose a second immunity challenge.

Thankfully for Bob, the merge finally happens at 9. Unfortunately for Bob, his tribe is now definitely down in numbers and he appears to be waiting for his execution. Charlie goes first because Kenny Hoang has it out for him. Then common sense dictates that Bob should go next. Matty Whitemore vocalizes as such because Bob has proven to be kind of a competition monster. Because Gabon wouldn’t be Gabon without sketchy decisions, Sugar Kiper and Crystal Cox both want Randy Bailey out instead because they don’t like him.

Randy’s vote-out is also the point where it should be flagged up that Bob is an absolute master artist when it comes to fake immunity idols. The one he fashions at Exile Island and ultimately gives to Randy and Sugar’s insistence is beautiful. He makes a second one for Corinne the following round that is just as impressive. It’s that kind of ingenuity and resourcefulness to just accumulate random trinkets to eventually turn into a convincing idol that Bob should get more credit for. Maybe he wasn’t always thinking strategically but he did think of a few moves that might help him out when his ass was on the line and that kind of fight is necessary for any Survivor winner.

Better than a coconut with II in it or a fucking stick,

After Randy goes, Bob definitely has to be next in Fang’s eyes. Unfortunately for them, the oldest player in the game gets in touch with his inner-Ozzy Lusth and rattles off three straight immunity wins. Counting the reward challenges in between, Bob wins five challenges in a row and keeps himself safe for three consecutive votes. These aren’t just endurance or brain puzzles either. Bob beats his competition blindfolded and in mazes too, he is just locked in and refuses to go home. It’s genuinely impressive to watch a 57 year old man dust people like Matty in challenges that frankly, should strongly advantage a strong, young man instead.

During his immunity run, Bob also has an encounter with a wild Kenny Hoang. Bob and Corinne try to flip Crystal and Ken by showing them Bob’s second fake idol. Kenny agrees to join up with them but tells Corinne to still play her idol to vote out Matty because while Ken is going to vote with Bob and Corinne, Crystal isn’t. It’s a weird move that leaves Kenny completely high and dry through his own decisions but Kenny doesn’t see it that way.

Hurt by Bob’s deceit, Ken tries to guilt Bob into ending his own game. Bob tells Ken that if he wins the next immunity challenge, which spoiler: he will, Bob will give Ken his necklace. Kenny then gets to work on devising a plan to Erik Reichenbach old man Bob out of the game. Sugar sniffs this out and makes sure to let her Gabon Daddy know what Kenny is planning to do. Since Bob is a lot less innocent than young Erik, he does not let Ken guilt him into giving up immunity at tribal by giving him the caveat: “if it’s you, I’ll give it up” but it won’t be because they just pick off Crystal instead.

Even still, Bob should not have been able to get into final tribal council. He loses the final four immunity challenge to Susie. Between them, the 57 year old Bob and 47 year old Susie win all but one immunity challenge in the post-merge. Gabon, everybody! As soon as Bob loses the challenge, he should have been an easy vote-out. His resume had the most challenge wins and his entire alliance was sitting on the jury. Still, Sugar has already proven throughout the season that she is just going to do what her heart tells her to do. This is where Bob just simply being nice pays off in a huge way.

Bob knows how to be nice to the ladies.

Early on in the season, Sugar informs the audience in a confessional that she has recently lost her father and is doing the show to help her move on from her grief. In Gabon, Bob eventually becomes Sugar’s father figure. Right down to him scolding her for being so harsh to Randy after he is blindsided with a fake idol. Bob and Sugar bond throughout the entire post-merge and Sugar is the reason Bob doesn’t go home at the final eight. Now down to the final four, she decides that she can’t be the cause of her “second father’s” death and decides to vote with him against Matty and force a fire starting tie-breaker. Bob wins this tie-breaker easily and suddenly gets into the final three by virtue of being himself.

In a way, getting into the final tribal by having to make fire seems perfect for Bob. Nobody did more back at camp than Bob and this includes tending to the fire. It becomes obvious almost right away that he is going to beat Matty in this tie-breaker and it won’t take the eternity that was Cook Islands’ “showdown” that was between Becky Lee and Sundra Oakley.

Gabon’s final tribal council is dismal. Of the three, Bob does the least damage to his game simply by just answering everything he can truthfully. Bob admits to not having much strategic agency in the game but proposes he deserves to win because he was a hard-worker, dominated the challenges and was a nice person around camp. When Randy asks him why Bob had to give him a fake idol when he was already on his way out, Bob apologizes about as earnestly as he can. Kenny is still being a bitter Betty about the immunity deal but Bob shuts him down as firmly as he can without getting too angry. Between Susie using as many synonyms for “I tried” as she can and Sugar basically taking her minute chances and lighting them on fire juror by juror, Bob emerges as the top contender by default.

The two best words in the English language.

In the end, Bob’s allegiance to the onions is enough to swing the game his way. He gets all four of Marcus, Corinne, Charlie and Randy’s votes even though Randy begrudgingly votes for him after the fake idol ordeal. It isn’t the prettiest win in the world but a win is a win. Bob ends up doing what the Ozzys, Terry Deitzs and Brad Culpeppers of the world couldn’t. He wins the season after being the main challenge dominator.

Bob also walks away with the money because he didn’t put on false pretenses. If Brian Heidik deserves props for his almost sociopathic abilities to hide his true-self, Bob deserves just as much credit for not being anybody but himself. He knew that he was never going to dominant the game strategically but he managed to align himself with people that would and made bonds that made contestants want to keep him around. When they realized they should probably get Bob out, it was already too late because he was already started his string of immunity wins.

There are huge issues with Bob’s game that prevent him from being anywhere close to the best winner. He voted correctly only 56% of the time he went to tribal council. That is a horrendous number that number is within 10% of, Michelle Fitzgerald is second at 67% on only six votes. This does not speak well to Bob’s strategic awareness. There is also the fact that Bob was also apparently quite perverted with the women on his tribe and the edit did a great job of hiding that part of his personality.

Still, I don’t think everything falls down to luck as people say it did. Bob saw that Sugar seemed to be deciding who was going home every time they went to tribal council. In fact she always voted correctly in Gabon. Bob took that information, considered it and got close to her in a genuine way. It was very easy to see that Sugar played very emotionally and being friends with Sugar made your life a lot easier. Sure, Bob needs Sugar to swing his way in order to stay alive at final four but the work he put in to forge that relationship came into play and helped save him. Sugar doesn’t swing away from Matty unless she loves the other person more and other than Bob, there isn’t anybody else in Gabon that Sugar would have loved more than Matty. That has to count for something.

What Bob’s way showed us was that even if somebody was lacking strategically, being able to make nice with people still had a part in Survivor. Too often, modern fans simply see numbers on a board and can’t understand why people don’t make the most logical decisions. Bob’s win proves why: because sometimes players just like somebody too much to send them home. The social game sometimes gets tossed aside in favor or the strategic masterminds but for the people who spend 24/7 for 39 days together, being socially liked usually ends up being more important to the players than being able to split a vote.