Day 35: Dumbest Move
Survivor 39-Day Challenge
There are a lot of moves on Survivor that can be considered dumb or plain stupid. But it’s so easy to judge these critical moves on the comforts of our couch.
Take Erik giving up immunity in Micronesia (2008) for example. Many people call it the dumbest move in Survivor history, but it certainly is not. Not even close. Just because Parvati said in her voting confessional that Erik “officially go[es] down as the dumbest Survivor ever… in the history of Survivor. Ever.” does not mean he’s indeed the dumbest, or even the move was. That iconic moment should be attributed more to Cirie’s strategic mind than to Erik’s youth and naivete.
Tyson switching his vote from Russell to Parvati in one of the most shocking tribal councils in Heroes vs. Villains (2010) is not a dumb move either. If you asked me back in 2010 though, I might have said it’s the dumbest move. But getting a light shine on that confusing turn of events made me realize it’s not as straight forward as it was presented. I am not going into the details.
JT giving a hidden immunity idol to a castaway from the opposing tribe, not knowing a single thing about him, is a dumb move, but it’s definitely not the dumbest. Colby taking Tina or Woo taking Tony to the finals instead of universally perceived goats of the season probably are risky moves but not dumb. It should be attributed more to Tony’s and Tina’s persuasion skills rather than Colby and Woo’s poor decision-making. After all, they were able to convince their respective jury to vote for them to win, were not they?
These are just some of the well-known dumb moves around the Survivor community which I not only beg to disagree with but also just see in a different angle as explained. Which brings me to the topic thesis of this category: dumbest move. That dishonor goes to the Manono tribe in One World (2012), who collectively gave up tribal immunity.
This all-male tribe was dominating the early days of Season 24, making and witnessing the women suffer more and more in the first week out on the island. This group of men looked indestructible winning challenge after challenge, with or without Probst to facilitate.
It all turned around when Colton, one of the most abhorrent people ever cast on the show, asked everyone on the tribe to give up immunity to the Salani tribe to straighten up a personal vendetta at tribal council.
Not everyone was on board, of course and thank goodness. Jay was even “bum-puzzled” at one point. But even their resistance was not enough to stop Colton in wreaking havoc, and wreak havoc he did at tribal.
It was a first. And not a good one. It was so disgusting at tribal council how Colton just went full-on class warfare against Bill. He went on to attack Bill’s job as a struggling stand-up comedian. He had his subtle racial slur even saying the African-American people in his life is his housekeeper, finishing up with a grin that was so icky I wanted to punch my television set.
Twenty four seasons, some 400 Tribal Councils — never had a tribe arrive at Tribal Council after winning immunity.
Even more mind-boggling was the fact that Colton got out of that tribal unscathed. Not a single vote against him. Nada. Not even from Bill. I mean, it’s the dumbest giving up immunity as a tribe, it’s really just mind-numbingly dumber to keep a vindictive fellow around.
Why not make lemonade out of this lemon? The more strategic move, I think, would’ve been to vote out Colton, especially by his misfits alliance. After which, the alliance of Troyzan, Tarzan, Leif, and Jonas still would’ve had a 4–3 advantage over the people on the outs namely Jay, Michael, and Bill.
Or maybe all of them just didn’t like Bill and was okay to vote him out, Colton just made the whole thing happened quicker than it should have. No one was supposed to go home that night from the men’s tribe, but giving up immunity was the dumbest right there and then and even in hindsight.
After that tribal, the men and the women were evened up 7–7, then a tribe switch happened. At the merge, it was even 6–6. Had the men not give up immunity, they’d be up in numbers 8–6, and if the post-swap still would happen after, the merge would be 7–5 in favor of the men. Kim could’ve had a tougher time gathering her Salani troop to dominate One World. That’s how crucial that one immunity challenge win was for the Manono tribe, which, for some godforsaken reason, they had to give up.
The single dumbest move in the show’s history ironically is done by a group of people, an entire tribe. Now that is bum-puzzling.
Runner-up: Lisa and Michael voting out Abi-Maria, Survivor: Philippines (2012)
