This will probably be an angry article, so viewer discretion.

This article will talk about Ben winning. I will not be happy about it. I am writing this article almost entirely about how unsatisfying it is. I am using my own arguments, as well as arguments I have read by complete strangers as well as people I know to keep out the whataboutisms and well-actuallies and making concrete points. If you don’t like that, I understand, but that’s what it is.

Last finale I didn’t cover because a) I had barely covered any episodes post-merge before then, and b) Advantagegeddon drained any desire I had to. (Okay, and c) personal shit that I will not bore or depress you by getting into). That made a mockery of Survivor, I think- that everyone had an idol and someone went home for not having an idol. Yet, at its core, I felt that could be fixed. Just have less idols available. Two at a time, maybe, no legacy advantage. It could be solved just by chilling on the idols.

This finale I think was just as much if not more bullshit, because while it’s debated (and in my mind, pretty easy to argue) that the winner was decided by Advantagegeddon, at least Sarah put effort into protecting herself by conning Sierra out of the Legacy Advantage that logically should have gone to Brad. Here… what did Ben do? What did Ben do to get from four to three? No, I am genuinely curious. In fact, I have a whole questionnaire for anyone who doubts that Ben was helped out by production.

What odds did Ben have to make the end after Chrissy won the FIC?

What odds did Ben have to make the end after Chrissy read the advantage?

What did Ben do to earn the change of odds?

What odds did Devon have to make the end after Chrissy won the FIC?

What odds did Devon have to make the end after Chrissy read the advantage?

What did Devon do to earn the change of odds?

I think the answers are inarguable. They’re just fact. Neither you or I can argue them.

Answer 1: 0% (Everyone was talking about voting out Ben after he lost.)

Answer 2: 50% (Higher- These are the technical odds of winning firemaking.)

Answer 3: Nothing.

Answer 4: 100% (Devon was absolutely making FTC because Ben was not.)

Answer 5: 50% (Lower because he was thrown into firemaking.)

Answer 6: Nothing.

That’s the tall and short of it. Ben went from 0%, and Devon from 100%, to meet at 50%, through no action of their own. Not only that, but this was found out at the very last second. There was no ability to plan ahead. No one said “Okay, Ben has a chance to make the end if he gets an idol at five, so we have to be vigilant”. They probably acted carelessly because they thought Chrissy would beat Ben at FIC and Ben would have no options, which should have been the case.

Rarely has the winner been handed the end of the game in such a manner. When the F3 was introduced, Yul’s idol guaranteed him the end. Bullshit, but Yul at least had to dig for it and not lose it. Parvati got arguably a big usurper of her jury votes removed without her effort at F3 in direct contrast to the last three seasons, but at least she was going to make FTC regardless. The hypothetical for her to win, no matter how small it is to you, exists. What exactly did Ben do to increase his odds from a literal zero?

Some have said that Ben was not handed the win via that twist, and it was not rigged. While I have feelings about it being introduced to help Ben, I can play along and say it was not introduced out of anything more than production trying to shove twists up our asses. Still, does that change anything? Ben still did nothing to make his odds go up. If Ben won immunity, any of the three set to go home would suddenly have a higher chance of staying. It could have happened to Devon, Chrissy, or Ryan, and benefited them without their effort. However, it landed on Ben, who had the most to gain from it. That is inarguable.

At the very least, as has been pointed out by others smarter than I, the twist was introduced to help people like Ben who usually fall at F4 without outright making FTC a four person affair. David and Wentworth were big fourth placers we were sad to lose as we earned middling characters by default- something Devon would have been as he likely wins otherwise. So even if it wasn’t set up specifically for Ben, it was set up to help those in his position. Much like the excuse that the F3 was set up for “more intense” outcomes before fan favorites were just voted out earlier, this twist is going for the same.

As for those arguing that we can’t dislike that twist because we didn’t complain about twists before, the answer is clear. First, I was like ten when the Outcast Twist aired so I am very sorry that I did not call BS live. Bad fan, I am. Second, those same people have created a culture of shame when you talk about how unfair some elements of the show are. Now that we are vocally calling so, those same people are still trying to shame us. They created the vicious cycle and are yelling at those for falling into it.

The F4 twist is obviously egregious enough to justify why Ben did not deserve to win. I can’t believe I am saying that about a winner, but this is really hard to argue as to why he deserved to win. He was fourth, he should have been fourth, but he was not because of a twist he put no effort into. I have a lot of quibbles with playing three idols in a row as I will get to, but at least he had to dig for at least one before the others.

There is, in my opinion, no justifying this twist. Sure, there have been unfair twists before, some which the person have not been able to recover from, but few have directly smacked the outcome of the season in the teeth like this. Even if Devon got lazy in practice, that does not change the fact that Ben was given a chance without doing anything. I am repeating myself, but this needs to be drilled in- Ben did nothing to give himself a chance to survive. He convinced no one. He didn’t win immunity. He was given a twist.

This is a lot, but in my opinion doesn’t cover why Ben was a dissatisfying winner. In part, it’s because of the three idols (and how they are more powerful than immunity necklaces), how abrupt a destruction it brings to the storyline, and how pungent and harmful the fan reaction is. There’s a lot at play about why his win is disappointing in addition to unfair.

Let’s talk about idols. I mean, we kind of have to, since there were nine, and three of them were Ben’s. First off, in my opinion there were too many idols, period. They take up a good chunk of the episode- my main problem with RI- and change the game so much that it becomes weighted in favor of dodge the idol and not a decent portion of what Survivor is about.

But okay. Let’s argue that Ben found those idols fair and square. Due to the clue’s location just by the places production had Ben interview at, that is fishy, but my standards are low enough for fishy. I am not one of those who think that the entire cast should have followed around Ben 24/7 or they don’t deserve to take my spot, but come on, not really stopping him at all while outright saying he’s on the bottom is ridiculous.

People have also said “well it’s the rules so it’s okay”. That’s what I have a problem with. Sure, it’s the rules. I am not saying it’s breaking the rules. I am saying that the rules need to change, to the point where you cannot find the same idol over and over to the very end. It’s excessive at best, and that viewpoint should at least be tolerated. Just because something is a rule doesn’t mean it’s okay. If we followed every law indefinitely without question because it’s the law, then all the American viewers would need to give up their alcohol.

Even then, people’s next defense is “what is the difference between winning immunity and getting idols, psyche there is none, shut up there isn’t” when there absolutely is.

Everyone knows who wins immunity. No one knows right when an idol is found, or by whom. There is an immunity challenge every round. You know it’s there. Idols are an unknown factor. The effort needed to win a challenge is known, and is generally pretty high. The difficulty of idols varies and is unknown- from digging at the same spot in two camps, to it being directly under the tribe flag. You can plan around who wins immunity. Hypothetically, anyone can find an idol. After someone wins immunity, you have a few hours to plan. With idols, you can withhold them until the second they are played, giving you a higher level of control over the vote. The jury can see you play an idol. They cannot see you win immunity. Idols cancel votes from existence. The necklace does not.

Inherently, idols are significantly superior to the immunity necklace. This is another thing I find inarguable. While the end result is the same with people being immune, if someone said you could have the necklace or the idol for a round, what would you pick?

Most unfortunately, idols circumvent the original premise of the game. Slowly, it’s been pushed back to matter less and less but it still matters. Here, however, you did not need control of your fate as production could literally control how you progress every round- sometimes with no effort of your own. Relying on the complexity of the human nature under duress and guided by selfishness doesn’t matter as much as digging for idols until you can’t anymore, after which you are guaranteed a 50/50 shot at the end. After which, you rely on the jury being impressed, but the fact of the matter is, getting there is a large part of the story. Without production, Ben would not get there. That’s just not what Survivor is about, and not what I thought this season was about for around eleven episodes.

At this point, I’ve covered my dislike of production’s guiding-to-carrying hand for Ben. However, no matter how Ben got there, Ben was just not a fitting winner in my opinion, because socially we saw the problems Ben has had with others. I can hear people saying “See, Cam didn’t like Ben, therefore that is the only reason she is mad!” That is not the case. The fact that there’s so much breathing down my neck that I have to justify this is sad. I simply think this is not the way the story we were presented was set to end.

His arguments with Joe, his guilting of Cole, his own alliance thinking he’s a dictator, playing double agent and then doing awful damage control after it, his showing off to the point where his castmates called it off. Not only that, but there was very little we saw of Ben circumventing that. Sure, there was his Statler/Waldorf routine with Lauren, him playing double agent, and other tiny things, but you kind of have to look between the lines.

The theme of the season was pettiness. As I’ve said before, there was a lot of animosity between players and sides- the lines were drawn in concrete. With a select few excepted, the dislike many had went above and beyond what was expected. Ben had it, Chrissy had it, Ryan had it. That’s a F3 that does not fit, because not only should Ben not have been in it, we were essentially given the dichotomy of “whose pettiness was more acceptable?” Not my cup of tea for a story, but barebones could have worked.

However, the same problem I had last episode was the one I had in the finale- in many ways this sugarcoated Ben’s legitimate flaws with very superficial, insulting reasons. He was still petty and childish, same as Chrissy. On TV, we saw them fight with each other and have approximately the same level of being negative towards others. And yet, the edit towards the end smoothed over and erased Ben’s pettiness, or even treated it as charming.

It’s disappointing to know that Ben being petty is seen as better than Chrissy being petty by the editors. They did not have to suddenly smooth over his flaws. They didn’t for eleven episodes- they showed the good with the bad. The last two episodes, they seemed to have forgotten that. Worse even, they seem to think it’s okay to be that way if you are Ben.

Yes, I will go into demographics, because Chrissy , while not perfect, played pretty well in a traditional sense. Ben made it to the end because of scavenger hunts and production interference. Both were portrayed at the same levels of arrogance and entitlement. Maybe Chrissy displayed more undesirable qualities, who’s to say. However, it sends out a bad message that they both are just as bad, but with Ben it’s okay and with Chrissy it’s not.

The show has had a problem with how older women are portrayed as strategically dominant but lose because of often superficial social flaws, or the fact that they were older women while doing it. This is the most extreme example I can think of.

The most obvious comparison that Ben has received has been to Mike Holloway. Both were blue collar socially ignorant people who left majority through volition or mistake, and then used immunity devices to get their way to the end and a sure win. There are differences, sure, but as characters the two I can think of are a) Mike is less condescending than Ben, and b) Mike had no story that production used to cover up his boo-boos, or that Mike himself used to make himself look better.

He could have, too- he suffered sexual abuse as a child which is why he refers to his pastor as his father, and was able to sympathize with Shirin due to her similar story. Yet, he didn’t, and more importantly, production didn’t.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, like crystal clear. Like, I could bold this clear. Ben does not deserve shit for talking about PTSD. Ben does not deserve shit for talking about PTSD. BEN DOES NOT DESERVE SHIT FOR TALKING ABOUT PTSD. There are some instances where negative things in your life take over. They can be consuming and life defining. They can take over years, decades of your life, and nothing can be the same afterward.

This criticism is one that I am very sensitive to, dealing with cancer for the past two years. It is a painful experience that has left a negative, far-reaching impact, and the constant mockery and irritation with others daring to share their story has had a draining mental impact on me, and honestly makes my health worse. That’s how I feel about mocking Ben for talking about PTSD- how am I to feel sorry for you for having to hear about it sometimes when others have to, you know, actually fucking deal with it? Are they to apologize to you for sharing it?

However, to some point, I think Ben used that to his advantage. I don’t think Adam used his mother having fatal cancer to his advantage, and I don’t think Jeremy used his pregnancy to gain votes. However, in FTC there were many times where Ben tried to erase bad things he did by redirecting the conversation to his PTSD. Which, hey, more power to him. Do what you have to do to win whether I approve or not, I’m just watching the show and bitching about it. I doubt it changed any votes, and I do not think Ben should have been banned from using it.

What really disappoints me is how production used it as the biggest reason to excuse how Ben acted. Especially in the finale, production leaned hard on Ben providing for his family and serving in the military as reasons that he could act how he wanted, when others have families and struggles that don’t deserve to be wiped over. Ben does not deserve a military discount on Survivor, by production or editors, but if it was rigged- which is not out of the question- it was because people would want to see a marine win Survivor no matter what.

Sadly, people have proven that true. Let’s be real, in these political times, people are going to want to see a bearded cowboy Marine win Survivor more than they want it to be fair. I’ve seen it all- plenty have used it as ammunition for the “stand for the flag” campaign against Kaepernick, I’ve seen plenty of people say the twists were okay because he was a veteran. I’ve seen far too many downplay the others as if the only reason Ben deserved to win was because he was a Marine, which is flat out patronizing.

Again, Ben does not deserve a military discount for Survivor. Ben deserves to have it as hard as everyone else does. Heroes do not deserve advantages by default. Ben has earned that right and doesn’t need to be coddled. Ben can do it. Why was he not allowed to do it, and why are others okay that the stars and stripes are an excuse for him not proving himself?

That being said, it is weird and I think unnecessary to get mad at Ben for the twists production used to get him ahead. He shouldn’t have to sacrifice his game for the integrity of it all when a million dollars is right there- I guarantee that you wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t either. I hate what production did to his edit and his chances, but it isn’t an intentional act of sabotage on his behalf.

It’s sad that a winner has given me so much layered frustration to their win, rather than just a buzzer gone off about one thing or a bunch of small little wounds I don’t realize until later. Here I am, in the light of the day after, with numerous large gripes about his win from the undeniable to the personal opinions.

However, in the light of day I cannot say this finale was irredeemable. Maybe I’m being petty myself but I quite like how Ryan was dragged at Final Tribal Council. Not just that he was, but what he was dragged about. People said he was not strong nor attempted to be, his social game had many flaws, and he overinflated his gameplay. Having seen superfans talk about their hypothetical games, this is exactly what I needed to hear.

When fans of Survivor say they want a shot, and would be good on Survivor, they say it’s because they would be really strategic and cutthroat, or would “play the game”, or otherwise give the Driebergen bio of overcompensation. However, while other superfans have chipped away at that argument, Ryan flat out destroyed it. The “nerdy” superfan types don’t consider that they will have to learn to provide help despite physical discomfort. They don’t take in that they will have to associate with people they don’t relate to or understand. As we saw, that will cost them.

We saw Ryan take measures to “other” himself in the negative when people wanted him to fit in. He constantly made jokes about never being in a relationship when it was unnecessary. His first confessional about how he was weak and nerdy. He gave a confessional about how JP had a poor social game entirely because he talked about stuff Ryan did not know. That intentional downplaying and refusal to change came back at FTC when the others believed he really was inferior. Even when Ryan tried to argue he wasn’t, he spent 38 days arguing that he was.

Next Time on… Survivor?

I’m just deflated, y’all. I guess the motivation will come over time to cover Ghost Island, but right now, it all feels pointless. I just had a bunch of recaps where my praise of the season was undercut by production and editing acting like they all didn’t exist. I don’t want to waste my breath, but I also love it here and want to contribute.

So… I guess we’ll see how things turn out.

-Cam

P.S. Only about seven months until Australian Survivor!