#Survivor
I didn't blog this season due to being really busy with school work...actually I don't pay a ton of attention to Tengaged anymore in general. But anyway, this season was actually surprisingly good, way better than any of us expected. It could have had a bit more oomph without Redemption Island eating up screentime but at the same time, this is also the best that Redemption Island has been (Granted that doesn't say much, especially given its competition). But setting that critique aside, the season had a really strong cast where nearly everyone delivered at at least one major point. Let's talk about them, shall we?
(Had to repost because it cut off the last part)
20. Rachel (18th) - I don't dislike Rachel, yet she's 20th...that right there states how strong this cast is. Anyway, Rachel is the only one who didn't seem to bring anything to the table. Granted, this may be because she was the first new person out that she got so little screen time and no chance to develop so it's not necessarily her fault. It's just how it worked out. I guess I can credit her being part of Tyson's storyline as a motivation for his game. That's all I got.
19. Colton (19th) - Colton ranks low for being annoying in Episode 2 and quitting in Episode 3. However, I have to consider the fact that this was a very solid storyline for Colton. He comes back seeking redemption from his awful persona in Episode One and I'm thinking "Well...he seems nice in this episode but we'll see what happens later" and of course, he goes back to OW Colton the next episode. Unfortunately unlike last time, no one was going to take that crap this time around and he knows it so he quits. And at least he quit before becoming a blight on the whole season unlike in OW where he was medevacced (Why would Colton quit OW if he was so confident he was in control, Jeff?).
18. Aras (11th) - Didn't care for Aras back then, don't care about him much now. It's a shame because he started off great. Calling Colton a gay Russell Hantz? One of my favorite lines. His match against Vytas in the sumo challenge? One of my favorite challenge moments ever. But then he just kind of fizzled out...he led the charge in voting out Laura M and then thought he had a big alliance but then it just became a storyline revolving around booting Aras and his relationship with Vytas, which unlike other relationships started to feel forced. And Jeff bringing up It was good for Aras to get a downfall but he just wound up being bland during it, just like in Exile Island.
17. Marissa (17th) - I feel bad for Marissa because she was voted out for Gervase's actions regardless of her own (a drawback to the twist). And she had some small moments in Redemption Island that made her a little awesome. But she just didn't last long enough to make a major impression. She's cool but kind of overrated.
16. Kat (14th) - A bit disappointing for her return because she didn't have a lot of moments like she did in OW due to her brief stay. So they made her bland and a little irritating, and that paranoid irritation actually came around and bit her butt out of the game. But then she did have her cute 'What if I embarrass all his friends? No on wants to date someone who doesn't make the merge :(' breakdown and had a good Redemption Island episode with sweetness with Hayden and refusing to cheat by looking at the puzzle (a nice reference to OW events where the women were looking at the guys' puzzle and would also raise a point later on in the season). If only there was more from Kat other than that last episode...
15. Rupert (20th) - I thought it was really touching when Rupert took his wife's spot so that she could have a chance to play the game. In hindsight, I appreciate that we saw the exact contrast for the twist: will you sacrifice yourself to further your loved one (Rupert) or will you vote them out to get yourself further (Ciera). It was also nice to see him be a prick in Redemption Island by changing his game and letting Candice do all the work because it's nice to see other sides of fan-favorite Rupert. Of course he only lasted two episodes so he can't go much higher.
14. John (13th) - John also had an interesting storyline for a while. Unlike Rupert, he made the decision to play the game and leave Candice and immediately regretted it. I think one good thing about the Blood vs Water twist is that it brought out more emotion due to the relationships between the players like it did here. Of course, after Candice leaves he becomes a non-entity until he loses and makes his pair the first one eliminated from the game.
13. Laura B (12th) - I think it's great that Laura had a chance to come out or Rupert's shadow (and having had a bit of experience playing in two challenges before). Sadly, she didn't get a ton of chance to shine after Rupert left and floated in the back...up until her last few episodes. Her attempts in the Laura M first boot episode were pretty poor but she became part of the legacy of 'Two people on the same tribe can't have the same name curse.' And especially in her boot episode when she had to deal with the morality of lying to or being honest to Vytas and I liked that humanizing of her character. She had pretty solid moments.
12. Katie (8th) - Katie didn't bring much to the season...in fact I'm not entirely sure why I can say I like her. She was pretty cool overall and like Ciera, managed to evade some bullets and lasted a pretty long way in spite of being at the bottom of pretty much the entire game so that's impressive. She also became the second rock victim in Survivor history so thank you Katie for being part of that. Her relationship with her mom also came through, making her part of Tina's storyline and furthering it so thanks for that as well.
11. Candice (16th) - Candice was pretty cool. She got voted out first since she was only a last minute addition to the cast and was sent to Redemption Island where she became a surprising dominator until John and Brad showed up. She got to pull out some drama against Brad and was able to spend some time with John before she left. Overall, there was some awesomeness there but not enough to bring her to the top ten.
10. Gervase (3rd) - Gervase was obnoxious and an ass, let's get that out of the way. This led to Marissa getting booted and guaranteed that he would have no way to win the game. But this ties into the fact that he vowed revenge on the newbies for voting out Marissa and he got it. Then he had a pretty cool relationship with Tyson and became a big character, even if it was a bully. He brought life to the season and thankfully didn't win so there ya go.
9. Vytas (10th) - I'm cool with Vytas in general. He was well characterized early on with his background and his relationship with Aras. Also a very subtle player in that he was able to get all the women on Galang to trust him enough to keep him over Kat and Laura B. Sadly, he was too much of a threat due to his relationship with Aras Now is where I criticize a bit. He blamed Aras for not being as secure as he thought and for being cocky when he was just as confident and complacent (Maybe they were joking because they were brothers but still...). And he was pretty bitter about the Laura helping Tina survive incident, which I get until he claimed it wasn't strategy. Which it was because Laura felt more confident about beating Tina than she did Vytas so she helped Tina. And like I said with Aras, the brothers relationship felt the most forced out of all the relationships so that drags him down and he relied on his background a little too much to get sympathy. I'm just nitpicking here, Vytas is still pretty cool but he is lowered for these things.
8. Brad (15th) - Had Brad lasted longer, he would be a lot lower. He was a screenhog and came off as a bit overbearing. But he was involved in a lot of drama for his actions, he was called out a lot, he was made to look like a buffoon, and he went out with class. Overall, a solid short-term villain who helped make the season better instead of worse. But he still can't rank too highly because of who he was and his potential to make things worse.
7. Caleb (9th) - Caleb seems like a genuinely nice guy. I mean, he has to have a lot of patience, compassion and understanding if he's dating someone like Colton. That shows how big of a person he is. And I love him for causing the crazy Tribal Council where Brad got voted off. And I like in the end that he considered making a move and tried to switch things up, trying to prevent a Pagonging. But he still had a lot of irrelevance at times so he can't go much higher but he seems really cool.
6. Hayden (7th) - Let's get this out of the way. Survivor Hayden >>>>>> Big Brother Hayden. Like Caleb, Hayden was a dud at times but he also brought a lot near the end. I found I like him a lot more on the bottom like in here than at the top like with the Brigade. But even before that, he had some small moments that I liked and there was also his sweet romance on Kat's departure episode (come to think of it...what ever happened to Kristen? She cheat on Hayden too?). He was a big role in getting our second rock drawing and he fought and clawed hard to survive afterward. Too bad it didn't pan out but he was pretty coo. Just not amazing.
5. Ciera (5th) - Yes I get it, I'm a blasphemer for not having Ciera as number one. Let me just explain that it took me a long time to get on the Ciera bandwagon. She was not nearly as great as anyone says she is pre-merge. Yeah she dodged bullets like Katie but for both of them, it was more because of what other people were doing and not because of them. Rachel and John boots? That was Brad changing the target by his own will. Brad's boot? That was Caleb's move and since he announced it out loud, the girls would have been stupid to not join Caleb. And then the swap happened, allowing Ciera to coast to the merge, being part of an alliance she was roped into. So pre-merge, no problem with Ciera but not nearly as amazing as people made her out to be. But then the post-merge came...
And it was a glorious trainwreck of events. It all started with her mom's second boot episode where she has to make the decision to vote her mom off. She tried to save her mom but in the end couldn't do it and voted her off. Ciera really was just so awesome in that episode because of how humanized she became and suddenly Ciera was actually an important character not just because of things happening around her. She screwed the newbies over by telling Tyson what was going on which while it was bad for her and the other newbies, it was good for Tyson so cool. Then she flips on the next round to actually TRY and improve her position, forcing the second rock draw in Survivor history (Of course, it'd be amiss if we didn't criticize her for not flipping the week before to go to the final four and either vote off Katie or force a 2-2 tie siding with her). And from that point, Ciera actually scrapped, winning a surprising immunity and making calculated pleas to Monica before her demise. So yeah Ciera was an amazing character post merge even though she made some mistakes. But sorry guys, I just can't justify ranking her number 1 due to the pre-merge.
4. Tina (4th) - Maybe there's a bit of bias here but I was rooting for Tina for a long time. I wanted to see how she would do now that she wouldn't be targeted just because minor All Stars were butthurt about her winner status. Anyway, although Tina was slightly ignored, she was still being a very subtle player getting herself into a good alliance, being surprisingly helpful in challenges save for the fish trap incident, and keeping herself off the radar. Granted, she unfortunately made the mistake of telling Monica she was number 5, giving Monica the leverage she needed to flip. Tina was eventually sent to Redemption Island where she dominated (admittedly as a survivor but not a winner). Her relationship with Katie was explored and she brought out the twist's dynamic again when having to choose between sacrificing herself for her daughter or eliminating her. She also got help from Laura and made it blow up when she won the final duel. She then tried to change things even though it was too little too late at that point but she came so close to becoming the second two-time winner in Survivor history (even if it was off a Redemption Island win. I don't know how I'd feel if she won off of that). Tina was a good presence in this season.
3. Monica (2nd) - Monica receives a lot of hate and I get it because Survivor fans hate emotional women. But I'm actually pretty cool with Monica because it was solid redemption from her previous time around. She's unsure of Colton because he blindsided her last time and she knows who he is. After he leaves, Monica is still paranoid and it bothers other people. She makes her move at the merge and flips on the original Galang alliance. From that point on, she becomes an emotional character that the other players try to play off of and it was perfect for the season since it added to the morality theme of not only family but friendships that the season had which humanized the season even more. For people complaining that she should have flipped...come on. She was never going to win either way and her best chances were against Tyson and Gervase who jury members could be bitter against. She was a sweetheart and a pretty awesome one at that.
2. Laura M (6th) - Probably the most shocking returnee ranking for me in Laura ranking high. In Samoa, I really didn't care for her at all. She was just really bland and a bit fake. So coming into this season, I didn't expect much. And I was right at first. She stayed in the background until she got voted off. But then she managed to dominate and beat out the others to come back into the game and reunite with her daughter. She got even with Aras but then her second boot episode came and she was so lovable in that episode because she was so proud of her daughter even though she was voting her out. I can love this twist for what it got out of the players like it did here. Laura went back to Redemption Island and dominated again until the finale where her helping Tina backfired on her. But her moments with Ciera were so awesome and made her so much better of a character here than in Samoa and I'm grateful for that.
1. Tyson (Winner) - I don't get the hate. I'm sorry. People say they hate Tyson now because he's arrogant and mean...but he's always been that way. And he's a solid character for it. And seriously, we've had waaay worse than Tyson (*cough* Russell *cough*). Tyson definitely deserved his win from an objective point, being able to keep control of his alliance and knowing when to turn on other people. And I appreciate that they let him have moments beyond strategy such as his relationship with Rachel which also became his drive and also his shoulder injury. And they also let him keep some of his lines and funny moments ('I don't have any beliefs...except for magic because magic is awesome', 'Hang on...I have the idol in here somewhere...that's not it, hold onto that', 'Ruffle feathers. Rustle is a name'). Overall, I'm very satisfied with Tyson as a winner.
