Survivor: Blood vs Water thoughts
Survivor: Blood vs Water was one of the most entertaining seasons of Survivor I’ve seen. The theme really gave the season a totally fresh dynamic.
Tyson was the clear leader from about midway through the season. Gervase, as his right hand man, never had a chance. Tyson ran the show, finding both hidden idols, winning immunity challenges when it most mattered, and threading the needle with his social game. I felt he had a bit of fortune in that his alliance never had the imagination or skill to make a big move and turn on him as it became clearer and clearer he would win a final tribal council. But credit to him for managing to gather the right group together.
I was really impressed with Ciera in her last few episodes – she went from being this young, wet-behind-the-ears player to someone who final “got it” when she flipped over and tried to make a move. She even won an individual challenge at a key moment. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out, but she converted a near-certain immediate demise into a 1 in 3 shot, forcing Tyson into a rock-draw that would have put her in pole position to win. She did and said all the right things with Hayden in the couple episodes afterwards, but they just couldn’t sway Monica, who is this season’s resident #3. The emotional, unpredictable, irrational player who doesn’t know they simply don’t have a chance in the final vote. Had Monica flipped a few episodes earlier, it would have blown the game wide open again.
But as things stood, there was nothing surprising about the final outcome, except that the vote was 7-1-0 instead of the 8-0-0 I was expecting.