Day 13: Survivor You’d be Best Friends With
Survivor 39-Day Challenge
I tend to be charmed by flirty women who are better looking than I am. Platonically, I mean. So, choosing for that one Survivor I think I’d be BFFs with, I think of those three things: flirty, charming, and beautiful. In one of those parallel universes, I always hangout and do yoga with Parvati Shallow.
There’s nothing much to say here besides I love that lady. Her charming personality oozes and emanates through the television sets whenever I watch her, and it solidifies even more when she returned for Winners at War after a decade. I just wanna be able to play Survivor with her and see all the fuzz myself; or probably be wrapped around Parvati’s spell and just follow her through. Uhh…
If we’re talking about her Survivor career, I’m not the one to say she’s the best player ever and go on debates about that topic. She definitely made her mark on Survivor and the community that she’s universally regarded as one of the four faces of “Survivor Mt. Rushmore”.
She finished in sixth place on Cook Islands (2006) where she was characterized as the flirty bombshell and would use that as a weapon. It’s hard to predict what would have happened had the god idol and Penner flip not happen. Entering the merge, their tribe was up by one in numbers against the Aitu 4. Potentially, that would have been an easy Final 5.
Parvati returned as a Favorite three seasons later in Micronesia (2008) where she made all the way to the end and sealed the title of Sole Survivor. Determined to smash her previous character of just the flirty charmer, Parvati entered the season with a vision which she executed to perfection. She was able to gather an all-women alliance and obliterated either dummies (Jason) or big threats (Ozzy) along the way. The Black Widow Brigade™ is truly iconic; newer players are shaking even at just the thought of having an all-women alliance.
Ironically, though she won, I don’t believe Micronesia was her best game across her four seasons. If it were not for the surprise Final 2, I don’t think Parvati would’ve easily won Micronesia. Cirie would have given her a serious run for her money.
Parvati’s best game is Heroes vs. Villains (2010) which she lost to Sandra by three votes. So much debates are going on almost every. single. day, especially on Reddit, whether Parvati should have won Season 20, or any iterative version of that topic.
Despite being a huge target coming into the season, Parvati was able to dodge the bullets early on and make a good move of aligning with Russell. She read it spot-on that Russell would just be abrasive through and through and was able to make him her goat without Russell knowing. This proved to be a double-edged sword and hurt Parvati as well as she could not disassociate herself from Russell anymore when she needed to.
While the Tyson blindside was another iconic moment under Parvati’s belt (alright, it was more Russell’s), I think the most iconic of them all was her double-idol play at the merge or Final 10 vote.
This was a highlight of Parvati’s strategic chops, among many other things, of course. This move started when the Heroes and the Villains merged and were in a deadlock 5–5. She tried to determine who could or would flip and talked to Amanda, her confidant from Micronesia who she beat for the million dollars, this whole cycle. She revealed to her former ride-or-die that she has an idol. Parvati and Amanda played similarly in a sense that they were loyal to the people they made an alliance with early on in the game. Unfortunately, Amanda did not realize that Parvati’s revelation was more calculated than she let on. Parvati knew Amanda’s loyalty was with the Heroes, as hers was with the Villains, and Amanda would tell this information to her alliance.
Another brilliant calculation from Parvati was throwing the individual immunity challenge, letting her ride-or-die villainess Danielle to take the win. Throwing it made sure that she’d be able to maneuver the strategy idol-wise. The Heroes were also probably wary about Russell’s idol, which JT gave to him from the previous cycle, which Sandra warned them. They would not believe Sandra though. But on the off-chance that Sandra was right and Russell was trying to double-cross the Heroes, they shifted their target to the perceived idol-less. Parvati confirmed the vote with Amanda, telling her to use the idol for herself and the Heroes want to get her out. Of course, Parvati knew she was lying because, let’s face it, poor, sweet Amanda couldn’t lie to save her life.
At that point, Parvati knew the Heroes block vote wasn’t going to her or to Russell; while holding two immunity idols, one she found herself, and one Russell gave her. Dude didn’t know home girl already had one, so consequently, he wasn’t in the loop about the double-idol play. He was not in the loop about the Heroes’ Jerri vote either and thought the target was still Parvati. Dummy. Anyway, the Heroes could not vote for Danielle, she’s immune. So that left them just two possible options: Sandra or Jerri.
At tribal council, the double-idol play happened. Parvati gave Sandra and Jerri each an idol. This move, I believe, has a number of folds to it:
- The move made sure that a Hero would be eliminated, getting the Villains a numbers advantage 5–4.
- By giving Jerri an idol, it ensured to negate all the votes against her, essentially breaking the tie.
- By giving Sandra an idol, it ensured Sandra’s loyalty to the Villains despite being on the outs of the alliance (proven by the events that happened the next tribal council), and wouldn’t flip on situations like the next item.
- If she’s read the dynamics incorrectly, and the votes were indeed going against her, the revote would result from a deadlock (assuming no one flips, and by no one I mean Sandra) and would force a rock draw from the non-immunes. Danielle was immune due to winning individual immunity, Sandra and Jerri were immune due to the double-idol play, and Parvati and JT would be immune as per Survivor rules regarding rock-draw tiebreaker. That would’ve left Amanda, Candice, Colby and Rupert from the Heroes, and just Russell from the Villains eligible to draw rock. That’s a measly 20% vulnerability for the Villains.
- Whether it’s calculated or not, that’s pretty much a fairly good jury management (Jerri voted for her in the end and Sandra would’ve voted for Parvati if she was on the jury) and a good show for the jury itself.
My take? Heroes vs. Villains is Parvati’s best game, but Sandra equally deserved to win that season. I would have voted for Parvati if I was on the jury though.
Jeff Probst likened Parvati’s then-three appearances to a university advancement: Cook Islands was Parvati’s undergraduate degree, Micronesia her master’s degree, and Heroes vs. Villains her doctorate. I do not disagree.
The villainess returned for the fourth time on Winners at War (2020) but was such a gigantic billboard target that her early exit was inevitable and not surprising at all. The funny thing though, the debate of who the true queen of Survivor is was still not settled by this season as Sandra and Parvati went out on the same night.
Regardless, Parvati was a joy to watch still and was able to give us truly Parvati-esque confessionals. Plus, her and Rob being an alliance this time around, ahh, dream come true.
Going back to the main topic, I’d love to be best friends with Parvati, are you kidding me? On Survivor, she would either be my ride-or-die thru the finals or she’d blindside me which I’d find to be a satisfying exit. In real life, we’d just hangout, talk about life over drinks once in a while, post our boomerangs on our Instagram stories, or even just meditate together. That would be glorious and awesome.
Runner-up: Hali Ford, 11th Placer, Survivor: Worlds Apart
