The second season of BigBen Survivor made its way to the volcanoes of Iceland. After a strong inaugural season, the series finally had a standard. Especially, with a strong cast on paper there was a lot of anticipation this season would at least be at the same level as Hawaii if not better.
PreMerge
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Arguably, this could be considered one of the worst premerges in the entire series. There were tribal councilâs that consisted of two ??-0 votes (Pearl & Will), a medical evacuation (Jacob), and a quit (Pekoe). However, the episodes that consisted of nobody self-voting were still relatively dull as JB seemed ousted from his tribe and Bobby struggled being a strategic powerhouse and mental giant. RJ was proving to be one of the upcoming characters with his antics and his outspoken gameplay.
Also, this was the first season that consisted of hidden immunity idols.
Merge --> Final Ten
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Dalvik entered the merge with a 6-4 majority which consisted of Jared, Juice, Nicole, RJ, Ryan, and Tony. My brief analysis on this group was that it was relatively fractured. The core alliance consisted of Jared, Nicole, Ryan, and Tony leaving Juice and RJ on the outs but also the best position come merge as they were potential swings.
Akureyri found themselves in the minority between FireDragon, Luis, Nick, and Rhys. Luis and Rhys found themselves in an alright spot as the focus was on FireDragon and Nick. Luis also found the merge idol while Tony had the Dalvik Idol.
Entering the first individual immunity the allianceâs eyes were set upon Nick. He was viewed as the biggest threat and was seemingly deemed as the strongest all-around player like Connor in Hawaii. Luckily, he won individual immunity and eyes were set upon FireDragon. RJ who had been playing the middle decided to stick with Dalvik as he viewed FireDragon as too big a threat to keep around and flip the following round. On the other side of it Juice was on board to jump shift immediately and formed a strong bond with Rhys from the minority alliance. This relationship proved to be quite valuable as this alliance helped create their final two pact.
At tribal council, Juice made the conscious effort to gun for RJ as he wanted to be deemed as the only swing vote. Ultimately, the first big move of the season happened where RJ was blindsided by a vote of 6-4 with original tribal lines staying intact except for Juice and Nicole (Rhys convinced at the last moment) to vote out RJ.
Final Nine
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After the blindside of RJ, the Dalvik majority simply disintegrated. However, while the Dalvik majority was in the ashes the duo of Jared and Luis out of nowhere became a duo. I think something just clicked between the them on a game-level. This relationship proved to be valuable as it got both deep into the game.
Nick remained the top priority for targets even by Luis who was originally deemed to be in the minority at the time. At the challenge, Nicole won immunity and there was plenty of chaos to be havocked. A new alliance of Jared, Nicole, Luis, and Tony was formed to vote out Ryan? The main reason Ryan was the target instead of someone like Nick was that Ryan was banned at the time and it was believed Ryan flipped on the RJ vote as opposed to Nicole. On the other side of it FireDragon, Juice, Nick, and Rhys all wanted Tony out as he was deemed likely to have an idol and was arguably playing the best game on Dalvik.
At tribal council, Tony played his idol negating four votes and Ryan received the majority from the new alliance of Jared, Luis, Nicole, and Tony. Tony wouldâve been voted out on the revote had he not played his idol and Ryan was the lone vote for Nick.
Final Eight
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After the assumed wildcard Ryan was voted out. It became a classic stalemate of 4-4 between two sides with FireDragon, Juice, Nick, and Rhys versus Luis, Jared, Nicole, and Tony. The immunity challenge happens and Nicole wins immunity gaining an advantage to the Luis, Jared, Nicole, and Tony alliance. Nicole at this point has played a quiet game and a lot of people are underestimating her connections with the Rhys side of things.
This proved to be a battle of loyalty with Nick and Tony becoming the main targets between the two sides. However, the power proved to be really in the hands of Juice and Nicole. They ultimately decided that Nick was the bigger threat and was taken out 5-3 leaving FireDragon and Rhys on the outs.
Final Seven
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The first ever âSurvivor Auctionâ takes place where notably:
⢠Jared received a ânot so hidden immunity idolâ
⢠Rhys was sent to Exile
⢠Tony received a double vote
⢠Juice received individual immunity
Nicole seemed to take a realish dictator stance in attempting to break-up Jared/Luis dynamic after having a final four with them. Luis was the main target for her, and Tonyâs double vote created at least three votes. Jared thought about saving his idol for six, but Luis attempted to convince him to use it on him even though he had his own idol.
FireDragon was alone and while he seemed all alone at first and an easy boot. However, Luis finding out Nicole was targeting him switched his thought process into working with FireDragon and bringing in Jared. That made Juice the swing vote.
At tribal council, Juice decided that Nicole was his best move and it also flushed out Jaredâs idol for playing it on Luis. Rhysâs sanity died on Exile.
Final Six
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With the game nearly reaching its conclusion. The game looked to be pretty fluid with Jared & Luis being the biggest strategic pair, FireDragon & Rhys who have been on the bottom, and then there was Juice and Tony who have been complete opposite of one another.
At the immunity challenge with things up in-the-air⌠Tony won immunity securing his spot in the final five. At tribal council, the focus was on where Juice and Tony were going to vote. Juice and Rhysâs bond proved to be very important as it made Juice feel more inclined to join their side. Funny enough, FireDragon had literally zero trust in Juice and Rhys for the longest time. Tony despite having zero trust with anybody left made the decision to vote with Jared and Luis.
At tribal council, the vote tied between Juice and Jared. On the revote, Tony flipped for whatever reason even though he had zero reason to flip as he had immunity. Maybe, he thought losing the rock draw puts him in a bad spot.
Final Five
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With the FireDragon, Juice, and Rhys side now in power. This left Luis and Tony firmly on the outs with Tony likely the prime target. Luckily, Tony won his second consecutive immunity and secured his spot into finale night. Now, with Luis having the merge idol he is also guaranteed a spot in the final four. Except, it didnât seem to register to the other three that Luis had an idol after trying to play at the final six but didnât read the rules properly.
At tribal, Luis played his idol and negated three votes from the majority alliance. This left him and Tony as the deciding factors in the vote and they decided to go for FireDragon instead of Rhys as they trusted him more. Now, once again we have a season where two members from each original tribe are in the final four.
Finale
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Rhys secured his first challenge win at the final four. At first, the vote tied 2-2 with Rhys & Juice voting the physical powerhouse in Tony whereas Luis & Tony voted Juice. In the end, Luis flipped as he knew Tony was too big a threat to keep around and his best bet of winning the game was sitting next to Juice. At the final immunity, Rhys blew out the competition against inefficient Juice and computer less Luis. At the end, Luis who played arguably one of the best strategic games in the series was eliminated.
Final Tribal
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This was NOT an open vote. Rhys had this game in the bag as a lot of this jury hated Juice. They believed Juice was a mindless goat who just took orders despite that not necessarily being the case. Ultimately, Rhys was commended for his social game and his ability to get people to trust him consistently after being viewed as a group game deity. He had zero votes cast against him and found himself in the minority on multiple occasions. Juice played a way that pissed off the jury but was a necessary game as he was a white level and had to make his mark. Ultimately, Rhys won in a vote of 6-1 and was a jury vote away from playing a perfect game.
Jury Votes
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Ryan â Rhys
Nick â Rhys
Nicole â Juice
Jared â Rhys
FireDragon â Rhys
Tony â Rhys
Luis â Rhys
Final Synopsis
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This season falls in the same tier as Hawaii. While, I believe this season has one of the above average post-merges in the series. That doesnât excuse the god awful premerge where virtually six episodes were wasted. Also, the quit and medical evacuation just didnât sit well with me on the rewatch. There was plenty of great characters just like Hawaii and a decent portion of the cast ended up returning (FireDragon and JB ended up winning future seasons). Now, Rhysâs game wasnât perfect, and his game was a lot more subtle than his usual trend. However, he played well from the bottom and consistently evaluated his options while causing some key flips in people like Nicole and winning the last couple challenges to take out potential winner threats. His greatest strength was getting individuals to not target him over people like FireDragon and Nick who were not as cunning.
DVD Cover
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Juice - Rhys - Luis
Tony - Nick - Jared
Season Ranking
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1. Hawaii
2. Iceland
Winner Ranking
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1. Rhys (AndThenThereWasOne)
2. Cole (Cole91)
Season Overview
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16th: Pearl ( Yaxha) [Dalvik] (8-0)
15th: Jacob (@iamcoole) [Akureyri] (Medically Evacuated)
14th: Will ( Cyanide) [Akureyri] (7-0)
13th: Bobby ( bklimas) [Akureyri] (5-1)
12th: JB ( _JB_) [Dalvik] (5-1)
11th: Pekoe ( Gardenia) [Akureyri] (Quit)
**Merge**
10th: RJ ( Realchance) [Dalvik/Hjonaband] (6-4)
**Jury**
9th: Ryan ( Tundra) [Dalvik/Hjonaband] (4(0)-4-1) *1st Member of the Jury*
8th: Nick ( Esquiff) [Akureyri/Hjonaband] (5-3) *2nd Member of the Jury*
7th: Nicole ( Nicole16) [Dalvik/Hjonaband] (4-3(0)) *3rd Member of the Jury*
6th: Jared ( NewNightmare7) [Dalvik/Hjonaband] (3-3/3-1) *4th Member of the Jury*
5th: FireDragon ( AlaskanFiredragon) [Akureyri/Hjonaband] (3(0)-2) *5th Member of the Jury*
4th: Tony ( tonyiptony) [Dalvik/Hjonaband] (2-2/2-0) *6th Member of the Jury*
3rd: Luis ( _Adidas_) [Akureyri/Hjonaband] (1-0) *7th Member of the Jury*
**Final Tribal Council**
Runner-Up: Juice ( JuiceBxx) [Dalvik/Hjonaband] (Received 1 vote to win)
Winner: Rhys ( AndThenThereWasOne) [Akureyri/Hjonaband] (Received 6 votes to win)
