During the tribal portion of the season, J.T. was never going to be in danger. That would be true for any season that J.T. features on (provided he doesn’t make any patented J.T. flashy moves but we’ll get there). Jalapao is not as competitive as Timbira and J.T. is by far the tribe’s best performer. Not only that, he works tirelessly around camp to provide food and shelter for his team. That is how he endeared himself to pretty much everybody from day one, by applying the work ethic he had back home into the game. That is something that everybody looking to go on the show could learn, if you work hard, people are going to like you more. It’s just common sense.

Going into the merge, Jalapao’s hopes look dim because they are down in numbers to Timbira, 6–4 and before they can really even start trying to change their odds, Joe Dowdle gets pulled from the game and suddenly J.T. only has Stephen and Taj around him. It should have been an easy Pagonging for Timbira. Tyson Apostol is winning immunity challenges, keeping J.T. from taking them and they have a huge majority. This should have been an easy win for somebody from Timbira.

…but J.T. had other plans. He saw Coach Wade and how he operated and immediately saw an in for his alliance. Coach, especially Coach 1.0, went hard on his “iron sharpens iron” philosophy and made sure to let people know about his honor and integrity. He wanted the best of the best to remain at the end and he was absolutely smitten by J.T. and his southern charm. Timbira was already a dysfunctional group by the time J.T. and his golden boy aura got to their camp and Coach was looking to jump ship but he wasn’t the only one offering his loyalty to J.T.

“J.T. is a warrior, I’m a warrior”.

While Coach and his assistant coach Tyson were planning to overthrow Brendan, the latter was also in the midst of a full blown man crush on J.T. After winning a reward to go to a white water rafting trip together, Brendan realized that he actually liked hanging out with J.T. and that he did not want to vote him out simply for being outside of the numbers. He even went further and declared that if J.T. won the game, it would be like if Brendan won the game. All of a sudden, Brendan was talking about J.T. like he was Amber and Brendan was Boston Rob. J.T. didn’t even talk game with Brendan, the simple fact of being around him made Brendan want to give J.T. a win. That’s otherworldly.

That’s where things really get crazy for Tocantins because it starts a string of J.T. backstabbing Coach tribals but every time, Coach comes back and thanks J.T. for doing what he did. First J.T. allies with Sierra Reed and blindsides Tyson, Coach’s closest ally in the game, for being too big of a challenge threat. This is the only time Coach grumbles at all about being backstabbed by J.T. but eventually he turns back to him because Coach hates Sierra more than he would like a million dollars. Then J.T. and company blindside Debbie Beebe after debating between Coach and her. They tell Coach she was planning on turning on him, which is true but would have needed J.T.’s numbers to do so, Coach doesn’t realize the second part and is thankful to J.T. for “saving his life”.

After that, they blindside Coach out of the game because his usefulness has run its course with Jalapao somehow regaining the numbers advantage. The beauty of that vote is that J.T. does want to get rid of Coach but does not vote against him. Instead he forces Stephen to be the deciding vote which makes Stephen the traitor in Coach’s eyes. Because of his “iron sharpens iron” and integrity crap that Coach spewed in Tocantins, that basically clinches Coach’s vote for J.T. at final tribal council because Coach would not vote for Benedict Arnold.

In the late game, J.T. pulls off some extremely savvy move. The most impressive to me is the final four decision to vote out Taj, who was J.T. closest ally outside of Stephen. They decide to cut her because she is a jury threat for how lovable she was and Erinn Lobdell has no hope in hell to win a jury vote against either of them. The reason it’s so brilliant to cut her at four, for J.T.’s sake, is that in doing so, he forces half of the blame onto Stephen. Had they waited at final three to cut her, J.T. has the sole responsibility of sending her home by virtue of being immune and he probably loses her vote because of it. By making Stephen part of the vote, both are equally guilty and Taj will revert back to who she feels “deserves” it more which was always J.T.

From there he wins the final three immunity to ensure he can’t be backstabbed by Stephen, still takes Stephen to the final two, knowing he’s winning either way and he looks more honorable by taking the “hardest road” as Kevin Durant would say. J.T. sweeps the jury votes, caps off Survivor’s perfect game and immediately is included on the shortlist of best Survivor players ever. That’s where his story ends right?

Well not quite… because two seasons later, J.T. is back at it again for Heroes vs Villains. This time around J.T. once again starts off the game well. It’s a testament to his social game that he is the most revered winner in the show’s history and no one is really looking to go after him early. Think back to Survivor All-Stars and how that cast dealt with the winners on their season. Now look at J.T. and his resume and yet somehow he survives multiple tribal councils and makes jury. That takes some real ability and game savviness and proves that J.T. was not simply a “bi-product of Stephen” as some of his detractors might argue.

Everybody loves J.T.

Of course, J.T. is best remembered in Heroes vs Villains for his idol blunder. Seeing the men Villains go down one by one, J.T. assumes that there has to be a woman’s alliance on that side. It’s a fair assumption simply based on the fact that Parvati Shallow is on the Villains tribe and she was the kingpin for the most famous women’s alliance in Survivor history. With Russell Hantz as the only man left on the Villains, J.T. decides he is going to smuggle his hidden immunity idol to him as a way to flip him over to the Heroes side. Come the merge, that very idol is used against him and he is suddenly idol’ed out of the game by something that was in his possession merely three days earlier.

Now, is that a dumb move? In hindsight, of course it is. You have to keep in mind that Russell was a complete blank slate for everybody out there. He was pulled onto Heroes vs Villains immediately after Survivor: Russell Hantz also known as Survivor: Samoa. Yes, he was designated as a villain but the Heroes had no way of knowing to what extent that meant. Sandra Diaz-Twine and Danielle DiLorenzo were Villains but really had never backstabbed anyone so it’s possible Russell was on the tribe for his temper.

If the idol move works out, the Heroes are in complete control of the game. J.T. is solid with most of his tribe, especially Amanda Kimmel, who sees him as the only normal person left, and Rupert Boneham who is totally buying into the hero role and sees J.T. as an ultimate hero. There is a very solid chance that he can get into the end-game and win his way to the end, considering Colby Donaldson was wearing his Superman fat suit, Rupert had a broken toe and no one else was really on J.T.’s level in challenges. If that gambit works out for J.T., it’s entirely possible that he is Survivor’s only two-time winner instead of Sandra.

Besides, J.T. has beautiful handwriting.

In Game Changers, J.T. is trying to redeem himself from his Heroes vs Villains blunder. For the first two votes, he’s in a great spot because Nuku is head and shoulders better at challenges than Mana and they are in no danger of going to tribal. It also allows for J.T. to establish bonds with people and Brad Culpepper in particular. When the tribe swap happens, J.T. gets an incredibly bad draw by being the only Nuku member to remain part of Nuku and having five Mana members come over to his camp.

Despite having the odds stacked against him, J.T. does his best to save his ass. He has that hilarious moment when he leaves the entire tribe out on a raft to go look for an idol on land. Even though they realize what he is doing, they all laugh it off because J.T. gets away with things like that. J.T. also starts to make inroads with Malcolm Freberg and Aubry Bracco and might have a chance to survive by virtue of Mana still being the physically weakest tribe.

That’s when the double tribal council happens and J.T. once again does something he shouldn’t have. Wanting badly to get Sandra out of the game, J.T. tries to rope in his former ally Brad by telling him who he wants to vote for and where Nuku is going to be putting their votes. Instead of following along with the plan, Brad sees an opportunity to take out a strong contender and blindsides J.T. and Nuku by voting out Malcolm. It’s not literally the end of J.T.’s game but it may as well be. Nuku loses the next tribal council and that’s lights out for J.T.

… damn it.

The thing is that for J.T. and J.T. only, this wasn’t a bad move. If it works out, Sandra is knocked out of the game and J.T. has close bonds with Malcolm and Aubry. Michaela Bradshaw and Jeff Varner are on the outs, J.T. suddenly has the numbers again and it’s possible that with Malcom and J.T., nu-Nuku doesn’t lose the next challenge that ultimately sends J.T. home. That’s thing about these failed moves, they are never bad in practice for J.T. if they work out.

Here’s what I believe is happening with J.T. on his two seasons post-victory: he has bought into the “big moves” narrative. J.T. has already won and proven his Survivor skills. He’s got a perfect game and only one other person can brag about that. In terms of playing the game, I think J.T. feels like he doesn’t have to show anyone he understands how to win. Instead, J.T. is going out there and looking to make flashy and gigantic moves. If either of those two failed attempts work out for him, J.T. is sitting pretty and has an incredible resume. As it turns out, they don’t work out for him but because of his previous win, J.T. doesn’t lose sleep over it.

What’s frustrating for people watching the show is that when these moves fail, J.T. isn’t just screwing himself. Yes, he can be okay with losing the game but in Heroes vs Villains, he spells certain doom for Amanda, Colby, and Rupert (and Candice Woodcock but no one is out there cheering for her to win Heroes vs Villains). He also completely hands over the numbers to Russell who spends the rest of the season talking about how amazing he is for this move that was handed over to him. As a viewer, it gets frustrating. Same goes for Game Changers where his failed attempt knocks out Malcolm, a perennial fan favorite, and is the reason players like Sandra and Aubry go forth without any real numbers.

On Rob Has a Podcast, Tyson has also said that he believes that returning players who won on their first try are at a disadvantage. The reason why is that they have never failed at Survivor and thus don’t really think they have any flaws. This would be especially true for the man who played the first ever perfect game. Of course you’re going to think every decision you make is the correct one when nothing has ever gone wrong for you before.

In a sense, Tocantins was a perfect storm of random things gelling together for J.T. He found Stephen who became the perfect sounding board for J.T.’s ideas. Who knows how many crazy gambits Stephen talked J.T. out of. He had Brendan looking to hand over the game to him. Coach was similarly enchanted by his charm and was going around telling every little piece of information he heard right back to J.T. Taj blindly trusted her alliance with both J.T. and Stephen. Nobody was really trying to come for him.

At the same time, J.T. is not an inactive part of his success in Tocantins or he wouldn’t have gotten the credit for it. He specifically sought out Stephen because he saw that Stephen was a smart and level headed guy. When J.T. heard about the idol and alliance between Stephen and Taj, he didn’t freak out and try to blindside her. Instead he brought her in, made her feel comfortable and won her over to his side. Coach and Brendan didn’t just fall in love with J.T. out of the blue, J.T. saw what would appeal to them and brought them over to his side. J.T. earned that million dollars and maybe he’s not as perfect as Tocantins would have us believe but he’s also certainly not the terrible player some parts of the internet now see him as.