Ianic Roy Richard
Jul 10, 2017 · 10 min read

Survivor bills itself as the “ultimate social experiment”. Bring in a bunch of random people that would likely never cross paths in real life, put them together and watch the results of their interactions. Add in the fact that everyone is playing for a million dollars on a nationally televised program that could lead to some media attention after the game and you ensure to have everyone looking to make some fireworks happen.

For my money, Survivor was never more of an intriguing social experiment than in Survivor: Fiji with Dreamz Herd, Yau-Man Chan and what is infamously known most as “Truckgate”. Most people remember the outline of what happened. After the car reward, Yau-Man, who had just won a 2008 Ford Super Duty, offered to give his new car to Dreamz in exchange for immunity at final four should they both still be there and Dreamz won it over Yau. Having stated how badly he needed a car, Dreamz accepted the deal.

Come time for the final four immunity challenge, Dreamz and Yau are both still standing. Dreamz had tried to engineer Yau’s vote out before the final four to avoid falling into a scenario where his deal would kick in but Yau pulled off the first successful “modern” idol play to keep himself alive. As the obvious favorite to win the immunity challenge, Dreamz pulled through and won safety for the final three. Faced with the decision to give up his safety and honor his deal or renege on it, Dreamz could not get himself to giveaway the immunity idol and Yau was promptly voted off for being far too big of a threat to win it all with the jury.

So close.

The decision was costly for Dreamz both in the game and in real life. The jurors spent much of their questioning of Dreamz focused entirely on the truck deal and did not give him an inch of pity. The audience, who had fallen in love with Yau over the course of Fiji, did not respond well to Dreamz’s betrayal and he quickly became one of the most hated players in Survivor history. These are some comments that were pulled by USA Today shortly after the season had wrapped up`:

I think that either Earl or Yau-Man were deserving winners. Dreamz is a pig and a loser. That is why, at his age, he doesn’t even have a CAR! He has a loser job. He will probably end up wrecking that expensive truck. Loser, loser, loser. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes on judgment day. Cassandra is a loser to. She did NOTHING in the game and I have NO respect for her.

Dreamz lost his integrity, and a million dollars by going back on his word to Yau-Man. The only thing worse was the fact that he then lied to the jury and Jeff P. by saying that this was his game plan all along. Dreamz is a pathetic loser. I feel sorry for his son

Yau-man should have won. Dreamz was very dirty to play him the way he did. He broke a promise to steal a truck from a nice, old man. I hope he lives to regret that very public betrayal. I was so mad when Earl voted him off after Dreamz betrayed him that I turned off the tv. I think this has become a forum for deceit and lying and for that I will not watch another show.

That is only three examples of the general vibe that was being spread about Dreamz’s decision both on the internet and in real-life. By Fiji, the interest for Survivor had waned a little bit but between Cook Islands being right before it giving the franchise a boost in interest because of the race twist and Yau being so popular, a lot of people had seen “truckgate” transpire. For so many it was such a black and white decision of “Dreamz is bad, Yau is good” but I have never seen it quite that way.

What is first important to understand is how Dreamz grew up and the realities that he lived through. Never before had Survivor cast a person who had been actually homeless for parts of his life. Dreamz grew up in legitimate poverty and without many chances to breakthrough those financial struggles that were holding him down. It should be no surprise that Dreamz had never owned a car because in his everyday life, there was no way he could have afforded to buy one when he was more worried about finding food and shelter. For many people a car is just something everybody owns and uses, for someone in Dreamz’s situation, a car is a pipe dream of luxury.

Because the castaways understood Dreamz’s situation having lived with him for a month, they all agreed they would do something nice for him. Yau, along with Earl Cole, Boo Bernis, Cassandra Franklin, and Stacy Kimbal had all agreed that regardless of who won, they would all give the truck to Dreamz. This was not something that Dreamz was aware of and neither was the audience. It only came out in post-game coverage of Fiji. When Yau won the truck, he already knew that he was going to give it to Dreamz but he figured he could try to get some leverage out of it.

Yau-Man is always thinking.

As an intelligent man, Yau could see the writing on the wall going into the end-game. Dreamz and Cassandra seemed like a tight pair and he was tight with Earl. He also knew that Earl was aware of how much of a threat Yau was going into final tribal council and that going with Cassandra and Dreamz would be a much easier path to victory. Having realized all of this, Yau correctly theorized that the only way to make it into the final three was by having immunity at final four. With the truck in his hands and knowing he was going to hand it over to Dreamz either way, why not ask him for something in return?

For Dreamz, giving away immunity at final four is such a long ways away. Throughout Fiji, Dreamz has been flipping around, playing a very spastic game that made a lot of people weary of him. He was never one for the strategic elements of the game and the truck deal is no different. This is someone who could never in his life envision owning a car, let alone a truck worth $60,000. Remember that Dreamz grew up with nearly nothing and had to learn to survive by taking as much as he could when he could. Now that a truck was being dangled in front of him, of course he was going to accept it regardless of the conditions.

Yau knew that there was no way Dreamz would ever refuse his deal. It may have been an act of kindness but there was also calculated strategy behind his decision. Yau admits it himself in confessionals and Dreamz sees through it too. I don’t doubt that Yau was happy to give Dreamz something he had never had before but he also knew that it could be what eventually won him a million dollars. It was a gamble and Yau knew it. The reason Yau took the gamble is because he knew that without it, he was likely not winning either way.

Another element that is impossible to completely deny is that Dreamz is a black man. I am not going to come out and say that all of the criticism leveled at Dreamz was because of his color but I will say that switch Dreamz and Boo in this situation and don’t tell me that Boo receives the same kind of treatment. I do think that there is absolutely some racial motivations for some people who saw fault in what Dreamz did as “another poor black man” which is absolutely stereotyping in the worst way.

At the final four immunity challenge, Jeff Probst tells the remaining contestants that Fiji will be a final three instead of a final two. None of these people had seen Cook Islands, which was the first final three ever so nobody expected one to show up in Fiji. All of a sudden, all that stood between Dreamz and a chance for a million dollars was a deal he had made with Yau at the final six. Back then Dreamz didn’t think of it as the last step before final tribal council and this new information lingered in his mind.

Understand again Dreamz’s life circumstances. Winning a million dollars would absolutely change his world. In confessionals, he spoke a lot about honoring his deal to show his son important values but the more he thought about the money, the more Dreamz realized how much it could help his son’s life. Despite how small the chances of winning might have been, having a shot at the money is better than being a certain vote-off at the final four. Painstakingly, Dreamz decides to keep immunity for himself. The people that hate Dreamz seem to think of him as this terrible human but it’s very obvious how much it hurts Dreamz to go against his word. You can see it in his face throughout tribal council as he tries to explain his decision and it’s even more obvious when he leaves behind his immunity idol not only at tribal but on the chair that Yau had been sitting.

Dreamz at tribal and the leaving his immunity behind on Yau’s chair.

Some people think that Dreamz sunk his own game by reneging on his deal with Yau-Man. I think that either way, Dreamz was never going to beat Earl. The choice was between giving up immunity and being voted out as the final jury member or going to the final tribal council with a miniscule chance of winning. As the final boot, he would have made $60k. As a losing finalist, he made about $85k for tying with Cassandra (which means they split the 2nd and 3rd place prize evenly down the line). That’s a nice bit of difference by simply going on to face the jury.

I’ve seen arguments that Dreamz should have given the truck back to Yau. I can see a case for that but I don’t think Yau would have wanted it back. In his mind, it was a move to further himself ahead in the game and it backfired but I do think that Yau legitimately also wanted Dreamz to have a truck. Of course, Dreamz had to sell the truck once he got back because he realized he would have pay taxes on it before ever receiving his Survivor prize money and taxes on a $60K truck are no joke.

There is also the debate that he should have given up immunity to give himself a better character arc and a chance to make more money with sponsorship deals that might have come with the honorable edit he would have received. My argument against that is very simple. Dreamz is not a Survivor fan. He has no way in hell of knowing anything about the fanbase, the show and how it’s put together. At no point during his debate between giving up immunity or keeping it would it have ever come across his mind that giving it up would give him a better story. That’s just not how Dreamz is programmed to think or he would have been playing completely different from day one.

Otherwise the Four Horsemen probably don’t have this happening to them.

To me, Dreamz did nothing wrong within the context of Survivor. It was not a great public relations decision but again, that never factored in for him. Yau knew the deal that he was making and was simply hoping that $60k in the form of a truck would be enough to get him into the final tribal where he would have had a legitimate shot against Earl. Like Dreamz, Yau was trying to up his prize money and unfortunately for him it didn’t work. I think it was a sly move that was never shown as such because of how lovable and revered Yau was.

Ultimately, that is why there was so much blowback on Dreamz’s decision. Not since Stephenie LaGrossa had a contestant resonated so much with the fans like Yau did. He was portrayed as a sweet old man who survived on his wits and social skills. He was loved by his tribe so much so that when Alex Angarita and Mookie Lee went through his bag to find an idol and told the rest of the camp, the tribe was pissed at Alex and Mookie for going through Yau’s stuff instead at being angry at Yau for hiding an idol from them. Yau had a natural charisma that made him impossible to hate and an ability to form poised sentences. It was almost the opposite for Dreamz who was full of nervous energy and didn’t possess the same vocabulary that Yau did. Both men were smart in their own ways but Yau’s intelligence translated much easier to his tribe and the audience and it hurt them more when they saw him get booted off for a deal he made with someone they perceived as being less intelligent than Yau was.

I think “truckgate” is a fascinating part of Survivor history. Yau trying to finagle a way to the final three is impressive. Everything about Dreamz struggling with his decision to honor the deal or not is compelling. It makes for a very emotionally charged end-game that could never be replicated because of its circumstances. It may not have been pretty but you’ll never be able to convince me that Dreamz made the wrong move in his situation. Put yourself in his shoes, staring down the chance at a million dollars only to throw it away based on an unenforceable deal that had been made previously and tell me you would react any differently.

A Tribe of One

Ianic Roy Richard

Written by

Sports fan and alleged analyst. Day one Survivor fan and reality television junkie. @atribeofone1 on twitter. For inquiries: ianic.roy.richard@gmail.

A Tribe of One

The premiere spot for Survivor history and analysis ranging from Borneo to the current season.

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