Fake Survivor: Thailand

The Mutiny That Changed the Game

What if the Survivor franchise lived in alternate reality? A reality where different players were cast on different seasons? The purpled players might rise to dominance and Survivor icons might be a simple blip in the history of a long-running show. This is the purpose of our Fake Survivor series, a reimagining of the franchise’s season in chronological order.

Last week, we followed along as Devon Pinto became the first real winner to take home the Fake Survivor crown. This week, 16 new castaways come in with the hopes and dreams of following in his footsteps, but only one can become the victor of Fake Survivor: Thailand.

First, the established rules of this series:

•To decide any season’s roster, I will load up the season I am simming (in this case Thailand), go over to the simulate tab, and choose random. This ensures that no bias will have gone into choosing my cast of players for the season.

•While the cast of players is random, I will follow a season’s theme to the limits of their possibility (IE: All-Stars will be all returning players from the first 7 simulations, Micronesia will have half returning players, Cambodia will be all second-time players).

•Speaking of which, returning player seasons is where there will be some bias because I will not be able to complete a roster by randomizing. I will hand pick players from past seasons to compete in those seasons and do my best to avoid preconceived notions from reality, simply abiding by their performance in Fake Survivor history. I will try to mirror the number of returning players from each season based on what happened in reality.

•I have not altered any player’s profile to make them better or worse than anyone else on the season. I have not adjusted any player’s relationship to other players in any way to impact a season’s results.

•For simplicity’s sake, we will assume all players are the age they were the first time they played real Survivor. Otherwise it would be weird to imagine an infant Will Wahl on like Survivor: Africa or something like that.

•No restarts if a player I like in real life ends up being a really early boot, that’s just the reality and likely kills his chances to return in the future. That’s life man.

So, with all of that well-established, let’s get into… Fake Survivor: Thailand!

To follow along, here is the link to the simulation: http://brantsteele.net/survivor/thailand/r.php?c=nr14I2K7

Let’s see if we can help Fake Survivor: Thailand earn a better reputation than the real Survivor: Thailand would eventually receive. I will say that it’s probably not a good omen that the only OG Survivor: Thailand representative is the hateful Pastor John Raymond but let’s hope for a good season either way.

As we know, Thailand will start off by having the two oldest members of the cast pick their team, school yard style. This our 16-person cast vying for the title of Sole Survivor:

Brant Steele correctly assumes that Gillian Larson is the oldest women in the cast. She would be the oldest woman on pretty much any cast. Oddly, they also choose Jeff “Coconut Boy” Wilson as the oldest male competitor. Never mind that he’s probably one of the youngest players, sometimes you just have to suspend your disbelief.

After choosing their tribes, this is how Chuay Gahn and Sook Jai stack up:

Seems like an even division. There are no standout challenge beasts. Malcolm gets roped into the Ozzy and Joe archetype but he’s not like they are. He’s a much more strategic player while not being nearly as good at the physical competitions as the other two. He’s no slouch either, he’ll hold his own. There are also players like Woo and Stephanie on the other side who are very fit castaways and Laura Morett, who’s a proven puzzle master.

Right away, Chuay Gahn is split down the middle. There are no outsiders in this tribe. Elizabeth, Laura, Sean and Woo form one alliance. It is countered by Jacquie, Jeff, John and Stephanie. This is a good set up for a power struggle and potential early rock draw to cause some ruckus.

Sook Jai is a little more straightforward. Aubry, Jason, Katrina, Libby and Malcolm form the majority. Austin, Gillian and Will are the counter faction. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to see that 5 eradicate the other 3 pre-jury to never have to deal with them again, especially Will.

Regardless of my thoughts, it will have to wait because Sook Jai wins the first immunity of the season. Meaning Chuay Gahn will quickly have to resolve their standoff the old-fashioned way: getting lambasted by Jeff Probst in front of a fire. Before heading to tribal council, John and Laura have a major fight. This honestly won’t change much because they were already on opposing sides. You would figure from what we know of them, they would have gotten along because of their extreme views but I digress.

The two targets are Coconut Boy and Sean (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO). As expected, the first vote comes out a 4–4 tie. In the revote, Jeff and Sean will not vote. I was ready for some rocks at this juncture but out comes the second vote, there are 4 votes for Jeff and only 2 for Sean. Someone flipped and couldn’t stomach being eliminated by a rock. As it turns out, Pastor John became a total Judas in the pressure of the moment and Sean escapes tribal council with his life. Let’s see how that impacts John’s alliance and if he will be allowed back into their fold after his shocking betrayal.

Sook Jai kept the winning streak alive in episode 2 by claiming the season’s first reward. However, Chuay Gahn showed their fangs by winning the immunity challenge and giving Sook Jai their first taste of tribal council.

Already in the minority, Austin isolates himself before heading to tribal council. Always an optimal strategy to avoid getting the boot. Predictably, when it comes time to read the votes, there are 5 on Austin, 3 on Libby and it’s the exact breakdown you would expect.

In a repeat of episode 2, Sook Jai wins reward and Chuay Gahn wins immunity for episode 3. It probably has something to do with Gillian having to compete in the challenges and slowing the entire tribe to a halt. So, it makes sense that the majority alliance chooses her as the second victim of the Sook Jai tribe. So far, Sook Jai has been very predictable, which makes for a united but boring Brant Steele tribe.

For the 3rd consecutive episode, Sook Jai wins reward but cannot keep that momentum for the immunity challenge. My wish then becomes complete when the alliance of 5 eliminates Will from the game before he has the chance to say something highly offensive to another player. The minority alliance is no more, the Sook Jai 5 is all that remains.

Then comes the chance to mutiny. We know that in real life, only Candice and Penner were crazy enough to do it because as Ozzy would tell you, “mutineers are the first to die!” Well, in this universe, mutinies come with a lot more ease. Both Elizabeth and Woo decide to walk over to the other side and join Sook Jai.

This is crazy to me. They are feeding themselves to the slaughter. Chuay Gahn had Sook Jai on the ropes. Now, if the Sook Jai tribe had any game sense (and they probably don’t on Brant Steele), they would throw these challenges to eliminate Chuay Gahn numbers instead of their own and even things out for the merge. By going through with the mutiny, Elizabeth and Woo also leave their alliance in the dust as they go from the majority to the minority at their own camp. A rare lose-lose move for the Chuay Gahn majority alliance.

With the added firepower from Chuay Gahn, and the stubborn refusal to throw a challenge, Sook Jai manages to stop their losing streak. As mentioned above, this puts Sean and Laura in a tough spot when they were previously sitting pretty. Yes, John betrayed his alliance in the first vote of the season but as it stands, they are still together and the last time I checked, 3 was better than 2.

This was confirmed at tribal council when Sean was unceremoniously voted out 3–2. Thanks for nothing Woo and Elizabeth. This pains me personally as real-life Sean will forever be one of my favorites and I had hoped he would do well so that I could employ him as a returning player. It seems that my dream will die along with Sean’s hopes of winning a fake million dollars.

After a brief pause of the Sook Jai winning reward and Chuay Gahn winning immunity trend, it continued in episode 6. It seems to me like Elizabeth and Woo will soon learn a lesson about why you don’t mutiny to a tribe whose dynamics you know nothing about (at least Penner and Candice had a reason to mutiny… they wanted to rejoin their original white alliance, and yes that sounds bad typed out).

Being the more obvious physical threat, Woo is the one that the Sook Jai 5 chose to mark for death. In an era before hidden immunity idols, there is no social game in the world that was going to save Woo. He pays for his mutiny and his dooming of Sean with his own elimination from the game in the pre-jury phase.

Now comes time for the fake merge, one of the stupider twists Survivor decided to pull out in the early days (which honestly doesn’t look so bad nowadays). Sook Jai completes its unlikely comeback by winning the immunity challenge. Unless there’s a huge power shift, this should spell doom for Laura… and a 3–1 vote count later, it does. Chuay Gahn voted out a mom!

Staying within the fake merge, Sook Jai adds more pain to Chuay Gahn’s side by winning yet another immunity challenge. The alliance of 3 will now have to turn on each other. We learn that John and Stephanie have bonded a lot and I’m sure you can tell where this is heading. In a 2–1 vote, Jacquie Berg’s torch is snuffed and she goes off to live in Survivor anonymity, much like in real-life.

Now we finally merge for real. Despite struggling in the early phase of the game, it seems like Sook Jai has a stranglehold on the numbers. The mutiny really did tank Chuay Gahn’s hopes and dreams. Although you never know what might happen, the Vegas odds on a Sook Jai tribe member winning it all would not pay out very highly at the merge.

With Elizabeth winning immunity, this made things even tougher for the 2 other Chuay Gahn OGs left in the game. It was simply a matter of choosing between Stephanie and John and sending them home. Sook Jai chose John. In an effort to assimilate herself further into her second tribe, Elizabeth voted with the Sook Jai 5, leaving Stephanie completely alone once John was voted out of the game.

As she failed to win immunity, Stephanie probably realized that there was no hope left for her in the game. She was circled by an alliance of 5 plus one hanger-on, all whom had their guns aimed right at her. Much like in real-life, Stephanie’s boot episode was probably sad and more about her experience than the choice of who to send home.

Still, being the villain that he is, Jason took the time to vote against Elizabeth along with Stephanie. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and claim that this is a hinky vote, designed to sow distrust among an alliance that has not yet had to turn on itself. Soon it will, and unless they take care of Elizabeth next, it will come as early as next episode.

In an odd showing of solidarity, the Sook Jai 5 shrugged off the hinky vote and suddenly become a strong alliance at the final 6. Knowing what would come next, they solemnly voted out Elizabeth, choosing original loyalty over allowing a mutineer to make it further than them. With the Chuay Gahn all being voted out; the real game could begin.

While we were expecting some fireworks, episode 12 did not deliver. It seems like the Sook Jai 5 is a highly organized alliance because there was no disagreement on who was the 5th in the alliance. Katrina thought it was Libby but everyone else agreed that it was Katrina and in another lopsided voted, Katrina became the first of the 5 to fall.

Thankfully, the finale is where the alliance finally became at odds. Maybe it’s because Malcolm was the next on the chain of command and his winning immunity messed it all up but for the first time, the alliance could decide on a communal target. Malcolm wanted Aubry gone, they had fought previously over the course of the season. Libby felt it was Jason’s time to go because he wasn’t the most trustworthy player in the alliance. Aubry saw Libby as the next to go. It all came down to Jason’s vote. In a decision that would never happen in real-life, Jason sided with Aubry and voted off Libby in a rare 2–1–1 final four vote.

The final 3 immunity proved to be very important. By the looks of the F4 vote, if Aubry or Jason won, they would take each other. If Malcolm won, he would probably take Jason. His only way of getting to the final 2 was by winning that immunity. He would have to overcome his shaky hand problems if he wanted a chance at the million dollars. By some miracle, he was able to do exactly that and win final immunity. At tribal council, he shocked no one by voting out Aubry and cementing the first ever all-male final 2 in Fake Survivor history.

This is a vote I could not predict going in. Normally, I have a feel of how these things will play out ahead of time. This one, not so much. Malcolm had immunities to his name but Jason had pulled off some moves independent of his alliance along the way. There’s also the matter that Chuay Gahn might like one more than the other while the alliance might lean the other way.

The first three jurors, all of whom were Chuay Gahn lifers, sided with Jason. The next three jurors, Elizabeth who converted to Sook Jai, Katrina and Libby, voted for Malcolm. The swing vote fell into Aubry’s hands. This is the kind of situation that makes Brant Steele beautiful.

In real-life, giving Aubry the choice between Jason and Malcolm would be easy. She is good friends with Malcolm from their time spent together on Game Changers. They hang out in real life and actively like each other. Her relationship with Jason on the other hand, is less friendly. He was chaffed that Aubry outplayed him in Koah Rong and did not give her his vote to win. He also played mind games with Aubry after the vote by telling him different versions of how he voted to torture her as she wanted for the winner to be at her reunion.

In Fake Survivor, none of that matters. Fake Aubry doesn’t like Fake Malcolm because they’ve had fights in the game and he voted her out at F3. Fake Aubry likes Fake Jason because they voted together almost the entire way and he did not vote her out of the game. And that’s how Fake Aubry gave her vote to Fake Jason and he became the winner of Fake Survivor: Thailand.

It’s interesting to note that much like their real-life counterparts, Fake Survivor: Marquesas ended up being a flip-floppy adventure while Fake Survivor: Thailand was linear and dominated by one alliance. Maybe it’s the way the seasons were designed or maybe it’s just dumb luck. It’s easy to pinpoint the mutiny being the turning point of this season. Had Woo and Elizabeth simply stuck with their tribe, it could have turned out differently.

Sook Jai was on the ropes and if they had lost another challenge, one of the 5 would have had to leave pre-jury. Instead, by going over there, Woo and Elizabeth offered themselves up as lambs to the slaughter in case Sook Jai lost an immunity. It was made even worse by the fact that in changing tribes, they allowed for their own alliance to become the minority in their starting tribe and leaving them completely open for elimination by the alliance that had previously been the minority.

It’s striking to see how bad gameplay from just two players can lead to such a reversal in fortune for an entire cast. That’s the beauty and pain of Survivor, both in real-life and in our fake reality.

PS: For some reason Jacquie Berg was voted as the season’s fan-favorite. Just thought I should mention it.