I think I’ve made it clear what I think about this season going in. I think it’s also clear to me what sort of season it’s going to be. I’ve already focused heavily on the main characters of the season (seriously, Sierra and Sarah got a bigger edit than half the women on 36) but, so far, my thoughts aren’t on the advantages, or season, or the fact that Domenick “Cam’s Personal Hate-bitch” Abbate continues to exist. It’s really focused on the devil in the details

More than anything, Ghost Island has layers- like an onion, or an ogre. Getting to the knitty gritty of the season exposes Survivor as a whole for what it is- how it thinks, how it operates, and how it sets up shop. It’s a goddamn psychiatric study in here. Last season was Humanities class, this season is Psych 101. I look forward to being able to see what we can learn- and what I can teach- about Survivor going forward, because what goes unsaid is far more interesting than what is said.

To start with, there’s a thing one of RTVWarriors’ finest Benjamin Powell brought up, and was supported by another one of our best, Spencer Wilson, so I can’t take complete credit. In fact, I will be referencing Benjamin a lot here, enough that I really should give him a co-author credit. However, with the theme of this season, it’s really out of the forefront- Survivor as an entity is very mean towards its players, and Ghost Island is a byproduct of that.

Think about it for a second. The whole concept is that people fucked up with their advantages so badly, that they need a whole new cast to “redeem” those idols. An idea of a historic throwback to any reality TV show is not new, but rarely is it to exclusively look back on the mistakes they have made. As much as I love a good throwback (though I would question labeling anything about Caramoan and Game Changers “good”) it really does reflect what Survivor’s meta has become where the thing most notable about it is its propensity to trash the living hell out of its players.

Think back, for a second, on Shirin and Max. Now, to be honest, I can get how that would be annoying to live with someone so wrapped up in the game and being on the game and wanting to be a wacky game character. However, let’s not act like annoying is all that unique in Reality TV. I’m sure even now you could name annoying characters legendary on other shows. Delusional, self-unaware villains that are frankly baffling in their warped understanding of the world to the point where it’s funny.

Even if you only have circumstantial experience with RTV, you have to remember Jade Cole, Elise Wims, half the people on Big Brother. However, even they have moments where you can sort of understand where they’re coming from- and if you’re not deliberately obtuse, you can see them.

Going back to Max and Shirin, the important thing to remember is that while they are annoying, they were superfans. While that word is played to death so much I immediately vomited after typing it, the fact is that they loved Survivor, and were so giddy and happy to be on there that it verged on cringeworthy. This was all out of extreme love and reverence to Survivor, and they got buried for it. They were mocked as nerds being too awkward and obsessed about the season that they were humiliated for it

While Shirin was redeemed later in the season, Max’s Survivor journey ended there. Remember, he was a professor who taught an involved college class on Survivor, and now he’s on ATF talking negatively on the show with aspirations to show how fucked up it is. To some extent, that transition can be traced to the fact that his Survivor experience ended in embarrassment for being a Survivor fan, and having fellow Survivor fans attack him not knowing that if they were on Survivor, 95% of them would end up like Max- or end up like Jacob Derwin.

Jacob is hard to talk about because it is extraordinary how much he fucked up this season. More than the average amount of fuckups. Like, I’d need a third hand to count them all on my fingers. But that’s because Survivor is fucking hard and can mess with your fucking mind. What I think draws these type of people in- these superfans *vomit* who have aspirations to be mastermind strategists think they can be that because despite the bluster of it being an insanely difficult social game, they do not act like it in production.

Survivor has presented itself as something anyone can do- and one that can be done with a very basic, easily formula. They make it seem like if you blindside a lot and make big moves with idols, you can win. A lot of seasons, they edit as if no one is looking for idols except a protagonist- making everyone look dumb. There’s a lot of people with sidekick edits and purple edits classified as not playing the game like our protagonists- like in Cagayan, I bet they all were playing the game, but from Final 10 on, only three or four were labeled as game-players- with the others being lambasted as non-players.

The point is, Survivor is often attributed as something 75% of its players refuse to fully do- so if you believe you are one of the 25%, you also believe you can do well. Problem is, everyone thinks they are, and everyone is closer to that 25% than they are the mythical 75% that does nothing. And that will lead to 75% of that 25% being edited as idiots.

So you’re Jacob. You apply and get in, and as a s**erfan you believe you’re gonna be the only smart one. Then you hit the beach, and all the things you thought you were good at, are not nearly enough. Jacob looked for idols. People were smart enough to notice. Jacob deliberately got himself sent to Ghost Island in a way that made Naviti think he was a taunting douchebag. Jacob came back with a fake idol and it was scrutinized to a T. Jacob talked to Stephanie Rae “Goddamn MVP” Johnson about everything, she took that in and voted his ass out with a giggle and wave.

That’s not to say Jacob couldn’t have been as arrogant as Spencer above. There were some signs of him thinking that he was separate from the other players because he wasn’t fit- and also because he felt more intelligent than them. In truth, it was those players- including and especially Stephanie- that sniffed his lies out and voted him out.

As it turns out, Stephanie is in that 25%. She said it herself, she was a (expletive deleted) fan. She may be a super fit yoga mama that’s the cool mom that giggles a lot and people think is an airhead, but Stephanie has found it in her to watch the show quite often. More than likely, Stephanie came in thinking she was part of the 25% that had natural success for Survivor.

What that 25% can do, however, is only 25% of the game. On Survivor, you are cold. On Survivor, you are lonely. On Survivor, everything feels so fake and any signs of love and friendship you can find feel superficial because you know they are in it to use you for their own success. On Survivor, your mind will be so screwed up by the elements and manipulation that when you see a family member, one who you love and trust, you will break down crying because it’s someone, anyone, who you know isn’t lying to you about how good of a person they think you are. On Survivor, you will have to deal with a jury that is genuinely hurt by how you used and betrayed them to advance yourself in a game over their bodies, even if they know that’s what they signed up for. On Survivor, everyone except one person will fail.

When Ghost Island plays back the mistakes, on the most superficial level I think “Legitimately on what level did Sierra think it was a good idea to tell Sarah about the advantage?” Then I think again: “Sierra had been blindsided and on the bottom, and was just tricked into voting against her minority alliance. She probably needed someone, anyone, she could trust. Sarah was good to her, Sarah praised her, and even despite her flip Sierra found comfort in Sarah. That Sarah used that against Sierra was less Sierra being an idiot- as bad a move as it was- and more Sarah doing some incredibly crafty work.” Even in ORGs it’s easy to slip up and get emotionally wrecked. On actual Survivor, it must be overwhelming. Only the absolute strongest players and Ben can survive to the end.

Ultimately, that’s how I feel on the mistakes- while they were surface level bad, all of them are in some way defensible. James didn’t play his two idols because he felt comfort that his alliance would take care of him and relied too much on that. Fishbach played his advantage poorly because Joe reminded him of J.T. so much that Fishbach had to win as though for his own moral success. Even Jason Siska, who thought a stick was an idol, I would chalk up to being torn up by the elements. I mean, even if the moves are bad, they’re understandable, and Survivor in the US acts like the moves are just bad.

I say US Survivor because, as Ben (Powell) pointed out, contrasting it is Australian Survivor. Take a look at this.

I mean, they’re flat out saying that Ben (Morgan) has no allies. I doubt that was true because on Survivor by that far in everyone has allies. Even friggin’ Odette had allies. But since they knew on the show Ben had zero content at that point, then it would make sense to poke fun at it. That’s the thing- they jabbed at him for it, but that was really the only mention of it- a joke. With American Survivor, you probably would get Jeff taking some time to lambast him for not playing the game- as if Ben (Morgan) was committing a serious offense by not being shown to play the game.

Also, you have strategic leader Henry go home with an idol in his pocket because he was massively blindsided, despite his bromance of the week telling him to play it, in a move that would surely be on Ghost Island. However, the show never mocked him for it like he was an ultimate dumbass who didn’t play the game. Contrast that to Jon, another strategic leader who went home with an idol, and he was treated as a naive fool who couldn’t see basic logic as Natalie evil laughed in the background.

The worst SAU2 ever got was when at the reunion host Jonathan LaPaglia dissing Ziggy’s game, and that was largely because it was so out of character for the show! By US Survivor standards, teasing her at the reunion is tame. She’d probably get a segment dedicated to her failures and dramatizing her regret across the sea.

The embarrassment and wrath isn’t really even reserved for bad players. Sometimes, the culture is against even good players. Hell, even winners! Winners! Holy shit, that is how low we’ve sunk. I clearly remember Dalton Ross’ bitch-ass whining rant over Natalie winning over Russell, as shown here.

That’s the treatment the Survivor fanbase gives its winners. Countered in the impeccable article by the otherwise general pill Miss Alli/Linda Holmes titled majestically “Survivor Crowns A Winner, Offending Many Who Do Not Understand Survivor” Holmes shuts down the frankly insipid claims people like Dalton made. Those people genuinely, pathetically, believed that the jurors should act as employees to give the fanbase their way. While not said as much, that’s the barely hidden jist. “I think a winner should be like this, so if you give me a winner who is not like this, you are reprehensible”. As Erik Cardona said in his famous jury speech, it’s delusional entitlement.

If anything, the era of discrediting players for no reason escalated quickly right then and there. Sure, there were signs of growth with the All-Stars outcome and the treatment of the first Fans tribe, but it skyrocketed here. Russell talked heavily about the inferiority of the other players, how others didn’t play the game, and how he was better than them all. He then is denied the win by the jurors for displaying the same attitude, and the jurors are crucified largely because people put themselves in his shoes- but we’ll get to that.

So what does Jeff do?

Yeah. Go eat a dick.

No more egregious has it ever gotten than the ongoing shit fit he is throwing over Michele winning the game. It’s so abhorrent and such a destruction to the show over one quiet woman using the social game to win that it almost turns around and becomes impressive. It hasn’t been outright said by him but the victim noises are clear if you read between the lines. He’s pumped it up with advantages so pervasive that last season there was one played for literally nine of the fourteen episodes, and has made controversial changes to the show to deliberately prevent a Michele type winner and make a surely unconvincing stab at trying to get many more Terry winners.

I should highlight, by the way, another thing Ben said- no other show really plays favorites like Survivor or tries to change or discredit continuity points they don’t like. Sure, they might say who their favorites are, but never extensively, and never to discredit others. However, ever since Jeff moved up to a more active role, eventually to EP, he’s used that to insult players.

His notoriously bad Previously ons during Gabon, where he showed a hate-on for the Fang tribe that was almost universally mocked, should have been a warning sign. That got more blatantly actualized when during Philippines, he kept going hard in the paint to insult Katie Hanson for not being great at challenges. Jeff has very frequently been that way on-show, and while sometimes it can be used for good (a good wisecrack here and there, and it being used against awful people like in Worlds Apart) more often than not it has sinister purposes.

Survivor as a show is more meanspirited than most other shows out there. Even when others highlight their drama, there’s a general sense of fun about it. Those in charge do not play favorites without a hint of subtlety. Those who make mistakes or don’t have skill are not pointed at by the powers that be as the problem with the show, and certainly no one with skills to win is continually treated like a mistake of the show that is so hated by the EPs that they’ll never happen again.

A lot of fans are surprised when the fanbase comes down hard on a contestant. There was an underground movement to get people to stop being mean to Ryan, and there’s one to stop laughing at Jacob. To be fair, my problems with Ryan are his inauthenticity giving way to meanness and unsavory behavior (especially to my much revered JPg.od). Still, it’s not like I don’t understand the concept of surprise to such extreme negativity… but let’s be real.

Ryan and Jacob are avatars of other people who watch the show so obsessively. The fact that the negativity for them is so hated is because they’re so much like their defenders- and that makes them realize that they could be laughed at just as easily. And that should scare people. The people you laugh at for little reason, others are like. Others look up to them. If you’re gonna mock them so relentlessly, you better have a goddamn good reason. Otherwise, that’s the real Surviving Shame.

There’s a difference between being angry that Max Dawson did not play Survivor well while being a noted fan, and between, say, Will Sims losing his goddamn mind on Shirin because she was vaguely connected to two other people who lied about him. Such extreme negativity should be towards moments that we think are problems in society, not just problems in Survivor. I know I’ve had to reexamine what I actually think is a big deal in Survivor- to treat Will Wahl flipping the majority back into power with less anger than Varner outing someone.

I would wager Jacob Derwin never plays Survivor again. However, for all I can see, he is doing just fine at being a functioning, relatively harmless member of society.

As a show, Survivor has an air of merciless negativity often obscured as the right choice. It’s a “friend” who pulls “I was just joking bro” after they’re caught talking shit about you behind your back. No wonder the fanbase it’s bred is extremely toxic, negative, and hateful over very little. No wonder there’s still weekly discussion over whether or not Michele was a bad player for winning while subtle- that’s what the show has prompted. While there are many who act above it all, like they’re smarter than the show or its fans, they play into that same overexaggerated negativity just as the show has painted. If the show stopped capping its maximum at negative, would the fanbase be slower to negativity?

I don’t know. But it’s a damn good place to start.

-Cam

P.S. The things I like are not necessarily the idols or the big plays that the show tells me to like. For me, my heart flutters when Wendell talks about his father getting him into furniture building.