Day 15: Survivor You Want to See Play Again
Survivor 39-Day Challenge
My first two choices for this category are my most favorite Survivor castaways, of course: Ian from Palau and Brian from Thailand. But given that Ian has stated recently that he wouldn’t be back unless it’s the ultimate final season, and Brian won’t even have the courtesy from production to be invited back for a second shot, I’ll have to make a much realistic choice.
So, I’ll go all the way back to Pulau Tiga/Borneo, because it’s been long overdue for a return of Survivor’s first nerdy goofball Greg Buis.
Rumor has it that Greg was invited back for Blood vs. Water and Cambodia, when he recently came out of wherever he’s hiding for the past 15 years after Borneo. However, he declined both seasons because of prior work commitments. My takeaway from such rumor: it’s great to hear that after a long hiatus from the Survivor community, Greg is trying to reintegrate himself and is open for a return.
A paradoxical sexy nerd, Greg was straight-up goofball then. He was the nerdy Ivy League grad who’s in his early 20s and was not taking anything seriously. A good drive, typical, I thought. I wonder how he’d be on modern Survivor.
He wasn’t taking anything to heart on Borneo, or at least that’s what he was trying to show. He’s making jokes about his tribemates, the production, the tribal council mood, and even Jeff Probst. Who would ever forget about his voting confessional for Jenna Lewis?
There’s even a story about the Pagong tribe’s first tribal council where everyone wrote Jeff’s name down upon voting as a prank. I wouldn’t be surprised if Greg was the one who brought up the idea.
Everything he did on the very first season was to mock the situation they’re in. Basically, the game’s a joke to him. No one had that much idea what they were doing anyway. The coconut phone is a concrete example of this. I’m not particularly sure why he’s got that. He said it’s to connect with the spirits of the islands of Borneo? Uhh, why? (Side note: was that even a theme on Borneo? The spirits? Susan mentioned it as well in her speech, but more on that later.) While this makes him peculiar at worst, it makes him, at best, one of the most original and unique characters Survivor has ever seen.
Moreover, his reaction to his vote-out is one of, if not the funniest exit in history. It encapsulated how he truly felt about the whole experience: fun, borderline derisive. (However, if you examine closely, before the deciding vote was read, he was pretty much sad.)
It won’t take away the fact, though, that he’s the very first person in history to win an individual immunity challenge, and be the very first juror. Lots of firsts for my namesake.
When everyone’s emotions were running high, tension could be cut with a knife, Greg stood up and asked Kelly and Richard to pick a number between 1 and 10, and whoever picked the closest to his would have his vote. Richard was the closest guess and eventually Greg voted for him to win. Being perceived as the swing vote, he received some backlash because they said “the game came down to just a guessing game.” He later explained that it was another mockery to the seriousness of the set, and had all the intentions of voting for Richard anyway. Of course, Greg had to mock the whole thing one last time.
The reason I’m interested to see Greg play again is because of the impression he made on his first season. When, not if, he returns, will he be the same just-fooling-around guy from Borneo or will he be a smarter and more strategic player who’s truly in it to win it? I pretty much like to see if he can pull off the latter and win it all on a second shot.
Runners-up: Boo Bernis, Fifth Placer, Survivor: Fiji & Julia Sokolowski, Seventh Placer, Survivor: Kaôh Rōng
