Top 100 Survivor Characters of the Decade: #60–56

We are back with another entry my friends! Once again, a quick reminder of the criteria:

•The most important thing to note is that this is all subjective and done by myself. No doubt many readers will see people miss the top 100 and will feel like I have slighted a character. These are simply my opinions on who the top 100 is, it’s my personal list that I’ve been curating for well over 4 months, and I completely understand that you can disagree. I look forward to healthy disagreement as I reveal this list.

•A player’s entire history is considered in their rankings. For example, I won’t be looking solely at Malcolm Freberg’s Philippines appearance, his Caramoan and Game Changers games are part of the whole product.

•This list will only include Survivors who debuted between 2010 and 2019. That means players who have played prior to that won’t be included even if they participated in a season that fits out parameters (IE: the entire cast of HvV).

•I am ranking these Survivors as characters. Not as strategists or game players. I am solely trying to determine who I believe were the most entertaining characters of the last decade.

To read any of the previous entries, click HERE.

60. Mike Holloway, Survivor: World’s Apart

In children’s stories, it’s common to have a very clear protagonist and antagonist. At that age, kids are precocious and it’s easier for them to understand when things are black and white. This person is good, despite obvious flaws that we are going to gloss over. This person is bad even though their motives for what they are doing might not be so bad. That kind of concept works for children but when it’s applied to Survivor, the results may vary.

Make no mistakes about it, Mike Holloway is a protagonist in a children’s book. He is surrounded by villains (many of whom don’t have good motives for being the way they are) and the story of World’s Apart is how this heroic oil driller manages to beat the odds and slay the villainous people around him. His win is one of the most obvious winner edits of all-time, right down to Jeff Probst telling us in the pre-game,

I think you’re right, that it’s with an asterisk — we have to see how it all plays out — but it would not surprise me if the winner of Season 30 became one of the favorite winners of all time. I do think when this season is over, the audience will feel that whoever has won has absolutely earned it, and this is a very good season of Survivor played very hard by very good players.

(Shout-out to Parade.com era Josh Wigler for this interview, we miss you dude, come back when you’re ready.)

Considering the World’s Apart cast, from this quote alone, it would have been pretty easy to deduce Mike was our winner after Jenn Brown went home. Nobody else left in the game at that point could have Probst consider them potentially “one of the favorite winners of all time.” Then you actually watch the season, and it’s even more obvious… Mike is going to win this season.

So, with Mike, there isn’t a lot of room for nuance. He’s going to win. It’s telegraphed down the middle like a fast ball thrown by a Red Sox opponent (cheaters never win, assholes). The question becomes: do you like Mike or not? Those are your only two options. And fortunately for Mike Holloway, this guy enjoyed him.

A lot of why Mike is likable is thanks to the people that surround him. He’s in the end-game with a lot of detestable players and by comparison, Mike’s level of basic human decency makes him seem superhuman. The thing is, on any given season, Mike would be one of the more liked contestants. He happens to be a nice guy, the cast around him doesn’t change that.

Easiest example of Mike being a decent guy, the Shirin/Will incident,

This moment is ugly for everyone on that cast except for Shirin and Mike. Jenn also doesn’t do anything horrific but she’s also not there to defend Shirin in this moment. Only one person is: Mike. He’s the only person in that game who is willing to forget about the million-dollar prize and simply come to the rescue of a human being from getting personally attacked by a lunatic. In that moment, everyone on that World’s Apart cast showed their character and Mike’s shines through.

I think a lot of why Mike is so quick to defend Shirin is because of his own life experiences. We learn on the show that Mike doesn’t have his biological father present. Instead, his pastor has been his father figure since his early days. So, when Will takes the yelling to the point where he’s telling Shirin how she has no family because no one loves her, Mike knows the dark place Will has taken the argument to. He’s not about to let Shirin be lambasted for her family being abusive towards her because a small part of Mike understands what she’s been through.

There are a lot of parallels to be drawn from this moment to the Dan/Kellee incident from Island of the Idols. In that instance, Janet is the one who rises above the game to do something that might hinder her strategically for the greater good of everyone on the island. If World’s Apart had aired but a few years later, this Will tirade would have gotten even more attention and Mike’s willingness to stand up for Shirin would be even more celebrated.

Production had to also love Mike. Nobody works harder on this cast to make the Blue-collar vs White-collar vs No-collar theme work. From his very first confessional, Mike is going to work this angle for the cameras,

I work in the oil and gas industry. I’m normally the one that is covered the most in oil, covered the most in mud. Same thing with this game. If you’re not getting your hands dirty, you ain’t going to win. My hands are going to be filthy.

And that’s what Mike does. His early game mostly consists of Mike working hard and urging his tribe to do the same. To the point where they got annoyed with how much he wants them to be working. Mike has his funny moments too, like the time he earnestly eats a scorpion for the protein (on day one mind you) and regrets his decision when he pukes it up only minutes later.

Maybe not the best decision to eat a scorpion on the first day of Survivor. But I’m the type of person, if I see an opportunity in front of me, I’m going to go grab it. I’m going to run as fast as I can and clench on as hard as I can and ride that bull for as long as I can. I saw the scorpion, I seized the opportunity. And I paid the consequence. That’s your boy.

Mike’s insistence on working hard annoys his Blue-collar tribe. To the point that had they lost an early immunity challenge, Mike’s head could have been on the chopping block. Luckily for him, Mike is able to get over the hump and make some headway with Kelly and Rodney (in Rodney’s own mind), which opens up an alliance with Dan.

You can tell Mike understands the social aspect of Survivor much more than the people he aligns with. For example, when Lindsey gets voted off, Sierra Dawn Thomas is blindsided and hurt. Here is Rodney’s reaction to Sierra being upset,

Sierra’s out there crying and guess what? I really don’t care. You wrote my name down. So it’s time for you to get over it ’cause only the strong survive, brother. If you can’t do this, take your bags, pack ’em and take your ass home now.

Ever the sensitive soul that Rodney Lavoie Jr. Now here’s Mike’s take on the situation,

Tribal went exactly as our alliance planned. I’m 100% happy with the decision that we made tonight. I’m not happy about Sierra being cut off and alienated from the tribe. What I would really like nothing more than to pull Sierra back in. But I don’t think that she’ll ever trust us.

For all the talk about Mike not being great at Survivor, the strategy game, this seems to indicate that Mike fully gets it. He’s thinking ahead by wanting to find a way to bring Sierra back into the fold. He’s not out here drawing a line in the sand and closing the door to potential allies. Yes, Mike is going to make a dumb game move later on in the game, but that one move doesn’t disqualify him from being a good player.

When the tribes swap, Mike ends up on a tribe with Dan, Rodney and Sierra. Mike has to work overtime to get these two idiots to act like decent human beings to her. To the point where Sierra pretty much considers her alliance with any Blue-collars dead to rights. Still, thanks to Mike massaging egos, they are able to merge with everyone intact.

He shows even more strategic acumen by blindsiding Joakim. Mike can see that Joakim is getting too close to Rodney, a number Mike can’t afford to lose in the game. When Rodney proposes throwing a challenge to get rid of Joe, Mike pounces on the opportunity to do some blindsiding of his own. This strips Rodney from a potential second tight ally and lets him know where he stands in the Blue-collar hierarchy. Before this, Rodney same himself as the big dog. Mike blindsiding Joakim let Rodney know he wasn’t the Tom Brady he thought he was.

By merge-time, Mike has found a majority alliance that is taking control of the numbers. It’s an alliance full of unlikable characters, but Mike stands out as the guy you can cheer for. With an idol in his pocket, he seems like he’s a in position for a long run. And then the Survivor auction happens, and Mike makes a dumb decision.

This is such a bad game move from Mike. If he’s going to screw the rest of the tribe, he has to fully commit to it. By initially deciding not to pay the $20 but allowing himself to be guilted into doing it, Mike reveals his devious plan without going through with it. Then he doesn’t even get the advantage. It’s a lose/lose/lose scenario for him that drops Mike from a comfortable spot in his alliance right to the minority.

But it doesn’t matter, does it? Because Mike goes on an Ozzy-like streak of competition wins (minus one time where he has to play his idol). Despite everyone wanting him out of the game, Mike wins 5 of the last 6 immunity challenges and books his way into final tribal council by his own hand. With Terry Deitz, Mike shares a Survivor record for being immune in six consecutive rounds of play.

It’s an honestly impressive feat. I don’t watch Survivor for the challenges, but I do enjoy a nice immunity run. Think of the pressure on Mike’s shoulders. He knew that if he lost a challenge, he was out of the game. Especially after he’s played his hidden immunity idol. It’s almost fitting that on a tribe called Merica, we have this guy going on a Captain America run of his own to get to the end.

We don’t talk often enough about Mike’s decision to throw Rodney and Carolyn into fire making. Rodney spends so much time talking about getting his eventual revenge for Joakim but instead, Mike gets to be the one to decide Rodney’s fate. Rodney and Carolyn are both so bad at fire in front of the jury that Mike’s decision ends up being great for him.

In front of the jury, Mike acquits himself well. Seeing him schmooze Dan the way he does is a nice throwback to Chris Daugherty laying on so much bullshit for the Vanuatu jury. His 6–1–1 is well deserved, as Probst believed in the pre-game. It’s an underdog story that is told so obviously it’s hard to think of Mike as an underdog. But make no mistake about it, as the game was happening, Mike was truly an underdog and he came through.

With Winners at War set to debut in less than a month, I am disappointed that Mike was not chosen to be part of the cast. His thunder was stolen by Ben Driebergen, who fits his archetype and whom production seems to favor over Mike. A second Mike Holloway appearance would have been interesting now that everyone knows what he can do in challenges.

It should also be noted that Mike has been in a long-time relationship with Big Brother 17’s Meg Malley. One of the least likely relationships I could ever imagine in CBS reality-land, but they seem to be very happy together. So, in the end, Survivor gave Mike money, fame and a romantic partner. Hard to argue he didn’t win the whole package with World’s Apart.

59. Zane Knight, Survivor: Philippines

For so long, Zane was my favorite first boot of all-time. He has only recently been dethroned and the person who has beaten him has an unfair advantage we will dive explore soon enough. Despite no longer being at the top of the first boot list, Zane remains a king among kings.

Production often casts people they know will never win the game. Those people are usually thrown onto a season as fodder for the good players and usually have a personality that will explain why they were cast in the first place. This fits Zane to a tee. He never had one second of game time where he might have had a chance to win the game and he was probably destined to be the first boot but damn, did he ever make use of his short time on the show.

So, let’s go through a quick rundown of Zane, the person, as he goes onto Survivor. He was going on Survivor having just quit smoking (and likely going into withdrawal for other substances). He was in terrible physical condition despite being only 28. When asked the Survivor he was most like, Zane cited Brandon Hantz. He also says he can be non-threatening like Cochran which is… impossible to believe. Put this guy on the worst tribe in Survivor history and let’s see how it goes.

Right away, Zane makes a splash with his introductory confessional,

You know, I had people come up to me all the time and ask me about Frankenstein [Zane shows his Frankenstein tattoo on his forearm.]. He picked a little girl a flower. I mean he strangled her after he gave it to her, but still, you know he picked out a flower and I think that’s the way I feel about myself is I can strangle you or pick you a flower, it depends on what you pull out of me.

There’s this duality with Zane where he’s going to say a lot of wild things but there’s some truth to what he’s saying. Zane isn’t stupid, he’s just very raw. He has this way of talking about himself that feels very genuine. It’s what separates him from the Phillip Sheppards of the world. Phillip always feels like he’s putting on an act for the camera. Zane is just being himself because it’s all he knows to be.

He spends his second day in the game making alliances. With literally everyone in his tribe. Zane first approaches the three girls individually, getting them all to agree to working with him. Then, Zane goes to Malcolm and Russell and proposes a men’s alliance, letting them know that he’s also made an alliance with all the women. This admission perplexes Malcolm, who understands how to play Survivor and knows that if you have an alliance with everyone on the tribe, you shouldn’t tell people.

As he’s making alliances, Zane tells us in a confessional that he’s interacted through various jobs with “crackheads and million-dollar business men”. I don’t know what exactly, but something tells me that Zane has interacted with a lot more crackheads than business men.

You can argue that Zane’s one-episode arc feels mostly detached from the rest of the season. That makes sense considering he’s part of Matsing and those first four boots are never going to interact with the rest of the cast. But at the same time, Zane is the first person we see interact with Denise and his character is how we establish how Denise will end up winning the game.

Denise is intrigued by Zane because she can see the duality I mentioned above. She can see that he’s had some rough time in life but that there is also something worth mining for. She explains it through the lens of being a therapist and being interested in people’s stories. That kind of attention towards other people is what will ultimately see her win the final prize so in that way, Zane’s story does come back and attach itself to the rest of his season.

On top of that, Malcolm’s weariness of Zane’s odd behaviour is actually the stepping-stone for the Malcolm and Denise alliance. They both see that Zane is up to some weird behaviour and decide to keep an eye on him. In the process, they form an alliance that would last until the end of the game. So, we have Zane to thank for this iconic pairing, although Matsing’s ineptitude would have forced them together at some point down the line.

So not only does Zane serve as the introduction for Denise’s winning playstyle, he becomes the impetus for the most important alliance of the season. For a player whose presence is short-lived and self-contained, Zane is able to set a lot of things into motion.

Then, Matsing gets to participate in their first immunity challenge. If only they knew what was waiting down the line for them. It’s almost sad to see them so hopeful and optimistic. Zane isn’t good at puzzles and he isn’t great physically either, so there’s no obvious place to put him in. In the end, Russell decides to pair Zane with him and they run the first part of the challenge. Zane gases out incredibly quickly and Russell has to actually drag him to the end. Zane spends the rest of the challenge sitting down, trying to catch his breath as his tribe crumbles under the pressure of a puzzle (that Angie had told Russell ahaead of time she couldn’t do).

With such a terrible performance in the first immunity challenge, Zane knows the target is going to be onto him. So, Zane concocts the perfect plan to avoid the guillotine. He’s going to ask his tribe to vote him out for being a liability… wait, what?!

You see, Zane doesn’t think like us peasants. Like a chess master, Zane is always four moves ahead of the game and this plan is more of the same.

My whole reason why I’m throwing my neck on the chopping block is to establish whether I’m running the game. This whole ruse that I just threw on was just to feel out my tribe and find out how exactly I need to work things. So hopefully everybody loves me to the point to where they would rather have me as a hindrance than to keep Russell. I took my shot, I’m playing chess the best way I know how and hopefully, I’mma king me.

Zane already has alliances with everyone, so this plan is to test those alliances. In Zane’s mind, if they are true to him, they won’t vote him out despite having asked the tribe to do so. And to his credit, everyone is so shocked by Zane’s willingness to put himself out there that it almost does work. Angie begs Zane not to throw in the towel because she badly wants to vote Russell out and admits in confessional to liking Zane. I love the utmost confidence Zane has in confessional when Angie comes to him, asking him not to give up, “you ain’t never seen a move like this in Survivor history.”

He’s right about that one.

It’s then Malcom’s turn to ask Zane whether he’s really giving up. It’s at that point where Zane reveals to Malcolm the true identity of his plan. He wanted Russell gone from the beginning and playing possum was the road map to that result. The only problem is that Zane tells Malcolm he suspects Russell probably has an idol. Like I believe Zane’s words were “he 100% has an idol”.

Obviously, Malcolm isn’t going to take any risks this early. With Zane telling him that Russell, the guy Zane wants out, might have an idol, that cements in Malcolm’s mind the necessity to vote Zane off instead. Another next-level game move by Zane.

A quick aside to mention something Malcolm says in his conversation with Zane. He tells Zane, “that look in your eyes scares me right now”. Which goes back to Zane’s initial confessional about himself. Malcolm, like Denise, is seeing something in Zane that they don’t know how to handle. Zane really can pick a flower or strangle you, it just doesn’t seem like he can control which person he’s going to be at any given moment.

Ultimately, Matsing does what they need to do and send Zane home. It’s a shame to lose such a character so early but in a sense, it feels like Zane went at the right time. He was never long for Survivor and his bad physical health might have put him in a dangerous spot if he had stayed any longer. His energy level would have 100% dropped off and it’s hard to think Zane could have delivered too many episodes like his premiere. It would have become diminishing returns, dimming the light on a fantastic character.

Instead, we got one strong dose of Zane. He came in hot, blew himself up and made the premiere entertaining along the way. It’s also important to note Zane in context to the show’s run up to this point. We were coming off some weak seasons of Survivor (I love South Pacific but that’s not the popular opinion). The franchise was mired in what we would later call its “Dark Ages”. Philippines represented the moment where Survivor found its way again. From the premiere, there was a different energy around this season compared to the last few. Zane’s goofiness in the premiere has a lot to do with that.

So maybe Zane didn’t last long but his presence on Philippines was used to broadcast to the audience, “hey Survivor still has its fast ball.” In a historical context, maybe Zane matters more than simply as a genuinely fun character.

58. Kellee Kim, Survivor: Island of the Idols

It doesn’t feel like Kellee really got to play Survivor. Instead, she was tossed onto a tribe with somebody who couldn’t keep his hands to himself, she was made to feel uncomfortable and her experience will forever revolve around that incident (until she gets a callback and a rightful second season).

In the face of an awkward and gross situation, I feel like Kellee handled herself with grace and dignity. From the premiere, it’s shown that Dan has made Kellee feel uncomfortable with his constant touching. In the midst of a game where your every reaction could get you voted out, Kellee didn’t let that stop her from telling Dan how she felt.

This is what I had to say about their conversation from the premiere in my recap,

I give a lot of credit to Kellee for having a talk with him. It’s a tough spot to be in. Survivor is a game of social politicking and too often, players will not speak their mind against something they don’t like because they fear the blowback. I thought Kellee handled her discussion with Dan appropriately, in a non-argumentative manner and got her point across. It seems like, to give Dan credit, he admitted his missteps and wants to correct his behaviour and that speaks to his maturity. Overall, I thought this was a nice conversation around an awkward topic and that both parties came out looking good.

Talk about takes that aged like milk, right?

The infamous merge episode of Island of the Idols revolves around Kellee and her feelings towards Dan’s behaviour. It seems like that conversation they shared in the premiere did not actually do anything to change Dan’s touching. Production gives us receipts of moments where Dan has touched Kellee in ways she does not like. Now she has to juggle how she feels about Dan and the game that is going on around her.

Of course, production steps in by telling her that they can get do something about the situation… if Kellee feels like it’s no Bueno. The onus is put on Kellee to decide if she can ask production to remove a player from the game for things that don’t have to do with the game. This is an incredible amount of power that Kellee shouldn’t have to wield. At this point, production is basically asking Kellee to decide Dan’s fate instead of making the decision by themselves and simply removing him.

Unable to simply cut someone’s game short singlehandedly, Kellee decides to keep trucking. Of course, we all know how that goes when her feelings towards Dan are used to blindside her out of the game, in devastating fashion.

From there, Kellee has to sit silently on the jury and watch Dan pretend like he did nothing wrong at tribal council, unable to voice her own opinion on the matter. Think about the reality of this situation. Survivor forced a victim to watch as the guy who made her feel the way she did tried to excuse away the behaviour that made her feel that way in the first place. It’s all kinds of fucked up.

At the finale, Kellee finally gets her say with Jeff Probst during the reunion. It’s a moment that Kellee handles with a lot of poise because there is a lot of pressure on her to say the right things. For all that production has put her through, it’s nice that at the very least, Kellee is afforded the last say on the matter.

Through this incident, Kellee handles everything as well as anyone possibly could have, but there’s more to Kellee than just being involved in Dan’s ugly behaviour. Kellee also plays one hell of a game for the time she is out on Survivor. This is a woman who went home with two idols in her pockets, becomes the female James Clement, and we don’t talk enough about it.

Early in the game, Vokai is dominant. They lose only one pre-swap challenge in the second episode. In that episode, Kellee is a part of the group that comes together to blindside Molly, Jack and Jamal. From there, Kellee cements herself as part of the Vokai majority that will run the early to mid-season.

The crux of Kellee’s game becomes her trust in Dean because of outside influence. They might know each other directly but Dean’s most significant ex-girlfriend happens to be one of Kellee’s friends. On Survivor, that may as well be a lifelong friendship.

Because of that bond, Kellee feels like she needs to keep Dean around as long as possible when they swap onto the same tribe. But Dean is in trouble coming from the other tribe and not being part of any concrete alliances… until Kellee has a moment of inspiration.

I don’t care what anyone says. That is an all-time great Survivor confessional. I love when players sound like themselves when talking to the cameras (and Survivor is much better at that than Big Brother) and that felt genuinely like Kellee was hit with her plan in that very moment.

She is only comfortable giving that idol to Dean because it is an idol set to expire. It’s an idol that Kelee got from the Island of the Idols, which lead to my second favorite Kellee moment of the season: the hair idol and the crying she pulled off when she got back from IoI.

Knowing there would be questions and a target coming her way, Kellee broke down into tears the minute she got off the boat. She even implored her tribe to search her things to make sure she had nothing on her, all the while having secretly hidden her newly acquired idol in her hair. That was such a cool reveal on first-watch and a nice reminder than almost 20 years in, Survivor can still do things to surprise you.

Of course, that trust in Dean ultimately proves to be fatal. When she gets targeted in her boot episode, Dean comes across this information through a third party. Rather than let Kellee know she is in trouble, Dean keeps quiet and lets her get voted off with two idols in her pocket. It got rid of the person whose life Dean owed in the game and allowed him to continue along as if nothing happened.

Throughout the game, Kellee proves to be thoughtful and interesting. The discourse she has with Jamal over the concept of the women’s alliance and how often it actually happens is interesting. She handles a tough situation as best as she can and while out there, she comes up with some fun gameplay. I hope production does what needs to be done and allows Kellee a second chance at the game so that she can escape the narrative from her first season.

This list would not have been complete with Kellee being left out. In terms of Survivor moments of the 2010s, her storyline is one that will forever stick to my mind, for many unfortunate reasons, but her grace in that tough spot will be the lasting memory. And that deserves to be commended.

57. J’Tia Taylor, Survivor: Cagayan

How much you like J’Tia correlates exactly with how much you like Survivor train wrecks. If you’re not into the players that burn hot and fast, J’Tia probably isn’t going to be your speed. For me, those kinds of characters are perfect in spot minutes, like a good supporting actor in a fantastic movie, and go far in making a spectacular season as good as it can be.

In terms of train wrecks, J’Tia is in the elite tier. She is someone who simply cannot play Survivor without losing her mind, much like an Abi-Maria Gomes. Which is funny because on paper, J’Tia had it all. She’s an extremely intelligent and attractive woman. In the pre-season, she came off as very charming and funny. She’s in great shape so she should hold her own in challenges. I remember J’Tia having a lot of hype in the pre-season as someone that should do well.

When I think of why someone might become a first boot, there are a few scenarios. Maybe the person was too bossy at camp. Maybe they proved to be a huge liability in challenges. Maybe they didn’t fit in socially and failed to make any strong bonds in the first few days. Maybe the game got to them and started messing with their state of mind. Well, J’Tia manages to cover all of those check points and yet because of Luzon being the way they are, completely avoids the first boot fate that she was destined to be. Few players can say they finished 15th in their season and say they outperformed expectations but J’Tia can say that with certainty.

Right out of the gates, J’Tia went out of her way to prove our fate in her to be misguided. As an engineer, you would figure J’Tia would be good at building shelter. Well, J’Tia would agree with that hypothesis and she quickly takes charge in building the Luzon shelter. Well, she doesn’t build anything so much as tell the others what to do instead. Right away, that annoys everyone on her tribe and to top that off, the shelter she imagines ends up being a catastrophic failure.

My favorite moment from Luzon’s shelter building scene is when Kass tells J’Tia there’s no way her plan is going to hold up everyone’s weight. J’Tia refutes it because “bamboo is strong”. Then, at the end of the montage, Tasha goes to test out the shelter, sits down and the thing immediately crumbles. Forget holding up everyone’s weight, it couldn’t even hold one person. J’Tia: shelter building queen.

So J’Tia isn’t great at building shelters? So what? Neither was Rupert and we all seem to worship him. As part of the brains tribe, we can at least count on J’Tia to deliver in the puzzles department. Engineers are great at spatial recognition, right? She should be a beast at these immunity challenge puzzles. Wait, you’re telling me she ends up being a key piece in Luzon losing 3 out of the first 4 challenges? She’s especially terrible in the second challenge where she singlehandedly loses it for her tribe.

J’Tia doesn’t just suck at puzzles though. She also sucks at blind fold challenges and water basketball and essentially any challenge you want to put in front of her. In a lot of ways, J’Tia comes from the Crystal Cox school of “looks physically like she could dominate most challenges but has none of the practical abilities to do so.”

One of my favorite underrated J’Tia moments is before the blindfold reward challenge for some egg laying chickens. This is not too long after J’Tia has burned most of her tribe’s rice so she has this confessional where she shares how badly she wants to win for her tribe,

This is an important challenge. Like, we’re trying to build on our winning streak. We’re trying to show that we are actually a tribe that can play the game. Honestly, I thought I was going home last time. I thought I was going home the time before that. So I dumped the rice out. I mean, I’m the reason why we’re hungry. I really want to help them win some food because I put us in this food situation, so I’m gonna be busting ass in this challenge.

Then once the tribes actually start the challenge, Luzon builds up a lead that they proceed to lose when J’Tia simply cannot figure out how to keep the tribe’s flag on a bench. Much like James Miller, J’Tia isn’t much for accurate predictions.

I always thought it was funny how Luzon, the Brainiac tribe, keeps dominating the early parts of the immunity challenge, the physical part, only to completely biff it at the puzzle every time. It’s like casting went out and recruited the least stereotypical brains tribe they could have ever put together.

J’Tia quickly reveals herself to be completely out of her depth on Survivor. I describe her as someone who burns bright and fast, but the truth is that she doesn’t burn that fast. Relative to how badly she performs on Survivor, J’Tia stays on the show for a long damn time. That has nothing to do with her ability to manage the social game and everything to do with Luzon being an absolute wreck of a tribe.

Like in Luzon’s first vote, J’Tia becomes a potential target for the tribe because of her general attitude. Kass tells her as much to her face, which J’Tia addresses in a confessional,

I went up to Kass and she was very honest. She said that she doesn’t think that I work around camp and that I’m going home. Kass kinda hurt my feelings a little bit. ’Cause I’m not lazy. We needed a shelter and I felt like if I hadn’t built a fire under the tribe’s butt, we wouldn’t have got it done. So I felt like I was being motivating. Clearly it doesn’t come off that way, but I just hope that I have not ruined my chances. I might have.

I love the dueling aspect to J’Tia in this moment. She’s not self-aware enough to realize that Luzon would have built a shelter with or without J’Tia’s plans, because building a shelter is like the first thing you do on Survivor in any season. But she is self-aware enough to see that Kass is being truthful and there is a legitimate chance she might get voted out at tribal council. J’Tia is losing her mind out there but we can’t say that she doesn’t realize the position she puts herself in. She just can’t seem to do anything about it.

We’ve already talked about Garrett managing to get himself voted out before J’Tia but it’s truly a monumental mistake on his part. He manages to make Tasha and Kass feel so cornered that they decide they need to keep J’Tia over him to avoid the risk of getting steamrolled by his style of play. And then J’Tia goes out there and dumps the tribe’s rice and still manages not to get voted out!

I love J’Tia’s reaction to Garrett telling her to her face that she’s the next one to go,

So my tribe sat me down and told me, “J’Tia, please sit down right here. Well, we’ve been reviewing your file and we think you have to go. We just made- No, no, no, no, no, I’m not going to take you in private, I’ll just tell you in front of the whole company.” Yeah right. What, in my personality, made you think that was gonna work?

You can’t tell me that this isn’t a legitimately funny and self-aware confessional. She doubles down on the funny after the fact too,

There’s always hope in this game. I don’t mind a fight. If that’s what it has to come to, I’m down for it. I’m coming in hot. It’s gonna be guns blazing. I’m going in like a crazy woman — like a banshee. That’s why they have people guarding you. I’m like the mental patient and you left the mental patient alone and I went crazy! (laughs) It’s what happens when you leave crazy people alone!

The rice dump is an incident that people can debate over. Some people hate it, because it shows how selfish a person can be. Some people love it for the sheer ridiculousness of the act. What you can’t debate is that J’Tia realizes how crazy she is being the entire time. She doesn’t try to pretend like this was a move she is making because of strategy. She’s just pissed in the moment, unable to control her own actions and burns 95% of her tribe’s rice. She’s calling herself crazy. That’s evidence enough to know that this is something she knows she should never have done.

And then, after Garrett gets voted out, this girl has the audacity to complain about being hungry! Girl, tell that to the rice you burned in the fire just last night!

Eventually, Luzon realizes they have to get rid of her before she ruins all of their games. In her own boot, J’Tia is both thoughtful and funny,

I’m not surprised they voted me out. I threw almost all of their rice away and was weak in the challenges, so yeah, those were two really good reasons to vote me out. What can you say? I feel two ways about it. I wish them the best of luck and half of me hopes they starve. But so is life. You live and learn, you make mistakes, you grow. I’m just gonna grow outside the game.

For a person that is often branded as crazy or chaotic, J’Tia isn’t really off the wall. She had one big moment of bad decision making and that mistake defined her entire Survivor career. You can see as she goes out that J’Tia recognizes her own faults and owns them. To me, I see that as something worth admiring. It’s okay that Survivor got the best of her, it gets the best out of a lot of people. It takes guts to admit it to the world.

What hurts J’Tia the most as a character is that she essentially goes out with Garrett. Sure, she hangs around for two more episodes but it’s not the same J’Tia. She has a much more muted presence on the season, even in her own boot episode. So, we have this player that is built up for two great episodes and the climax of her season happens in another player’s boot. In that way, it feels a little unfulfilling.

There’s also the feeling that we could have gotten so much more from J’Tia. Imagine she manages to scrape by yet another vote, Spencer gets the boot at final 15 and J’Tia proceeds to the swap. Can she manage to chill out just enough to get her bearings? Does the crazy ride continue to an even bigger flameout? Think how much Cagayan would be altered by one simple change and think how much more J’Tia we could have gotten. Thankfully, the way Cagayan plays out is still essentially perfect but it’s fun to think of what could have been.

To me, J’Tia represents something we don’t see too often on Survivor. She represents what Survivor can do to a person’s sanity. In real-life, you can be smart and well-adjusted, but it doesn’t mean Survivor won’t make you crazy. It’s hard to convey how real the show is to the players who are famished, sleep deprived and cold. J’Tia loses her mind on Survivor and she realizes it, she just can’t do anything about it. Yes, it’s fun to laugh at her antics but at the back of my mind, I always have this thought that it could just as easily be me.

Her presence in Cagayan is important in carrying the early season. There is so much Luzon content early on because, like Matsing, they kind of suck at challenges. J’Tia is the key to making those Luzon moments as good as they became with her combination of bad Survivor gameplay and self-aware wit. Because of that, while her presence on the season isn’t long, her memory for most fans will remain forever.

56. Zeke Smith, Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X & Survivor: Game Changers

Like Kellee, Zeke is going to be remembered for a moment he had no choice to be part of. It was something he never thought he would have to deal with on the show and his handling of this incident as it happened is a big part of why he has so much support in the Survivor landscape. Of course, I could only be talking about the Varner incident.

If I ever hear the word “deception” again, it’ll be too fucking soon.

It’s tough to watch this back again, I hadn’t seen this since Game Changers originally aired and I forgot how rough it actually was to watch. Seeing Jeff Probst handle this makes me wish we could have that kind of Probst dealing with every issue because he was very clear with Varner how badly he screwed up.

Let me make this absolutely clear. There has been a lot of revisionist history, mostly by Varner (who is supposedly sorry), about what happened at that tribal council. Varner claims to have been manipulated by production and the edit to be something that he isn’t. That is complete crap. Varner outed Zeke on national television. Point, blank and the period. No matter what happened to get him to that precise moment, only Varner can control his actions and he did what he did. There is no excuse for it. There is no crusade to be had against anyone other than Varner himself. He deserves the criticism he received after the show and honestly, time and Zeke’s willingness not to pursue the issue has kind of allowed him to skate by this incident.

For a long time before Game Changers, Survivor had been out of the zeitgeist. We had seen the show’s crazy popularity in the early 2000s that eventually waned as the diehards kept watching but many casuals went on to other things. Survivor built itself a nice number of regular watchers and for much of its history, it has gone along simply existing in its own world.

That incident with Zeke and Varner brought Survivor back into pop culture in a way we hadn’t seen since the early days of the show. Suddenly, people in my every day life who I know hadn’t watched in years were talking to me about what happened on Survivor. It was a monumental episode that attracted a lot of new eyes to the series.

And Zeke was at the center of all that attention. He never asked to be put in that spot and he certainly never wanted it, but Varner’s actions put Zeke in the middle. I’m not sure how I would have handled that kind of unexpected attention but from the moment Varner uttered those words, Zeke handled everything perfectly.

That ability to find strength within himself and not let Varner’s decision damper his own Survivor experience was moving. My favorite moment of that entire clip is when Varner, the weasel that he is, claims to be Zeke’s biggest cheerleader to which Zeke immediately shuts him down by telling him he doesn’t need a cheerleader. That confidence in who he is, honestly, it’s wonderful. Especially for someone who obviously had to go through a lot of emotions and decisions to really figure out who he was.

I don’t need my words to describe Zeke’s strength in this moment. Why not go to the man himself through the article he penned with the Hollywood Reporter about the incident.

My other big Zeke memory is something I’ve talked about in this countdown already: Zeke’s scene with Bret at their reward challenge.

This is the scene that completely validates the Millennials vs Gen X concept that production was going for. Bret is able to see the comfort Zeke has being himself. It inspires him to tell Zeke that he is also a gay man. They share stories about their respective lives and how being gay has impacted them. It’s all s beautiful.

Zeke is able to make that connection that Bret’s generation paved the way for Zeke to be unapologetically himself. To the point where he never even had to think about telling his friends and family that he was gay. It’s a moment where both players are thankful for each other and has nothing to do with the game. It’s honestly beautiful.

That scene takes on a more serious turn when you consider what happens to Zeke in Game Changers. In Millennials vs Gen X, Bret is afforded the opportunity to come out because he chooses to do so. It’s an empowering moment for him. What we didn’t know at the time was that Zeke was also making a choice. Production knew that Zeke had under the transition to become a man but it was something he didn’t want to reveal. They respected his choice and for all of Millennials vs Gen X, Zeke’s wishes were honored.

It’s just sad that Zeke unfortunately gets to experience the emotions that Bret is talking about from his generational point of view when the Varner incident occurs. I wonder if in the moments soon after that tribal council, Zeke thought back to his conversation with Bret and was able to see the discussion from Bret’s own point of view, having been through something similar to what his generation would have experienced.

I think it’s fair to say that Zeke is the most important person to come through Survivor in terms of LGTBQ education. Zeke doesn’t want to be labelled as the transgender Survivor player and he isn’t, but the amount of knowledge he has been able to spread about those subjects has to be invaluable to many. Zeke’s own story of discovering himself, if it inspired even one person to find peace within, is worth more than its weight in gold. Not only that, Zeke continues to do amazing work outside of the show and keeps using what was a dark moment in his life to spread good in the world.

Those two moments are the reason that Zeke makes this list and with a high placement. As a Survivor player, Zeke is not my cup of tea. He is the epitome of modern-day Survivor. Big, flashy moves. Seeing players as simple chess pieces on the board and not real people. Relationships that feel transactional as opposed to bonds being built between two humans. When I think of a Survivor game bot, Zeke is the person I picture.

Above anyone else, he is the person I see as the reason Millennials vs Gen X is as meta as it becomes. I’m not saying I want everyone to hate each other as they get voted off, but the amount of well wishes and cordiality everyone expresses on Millennials vs Gen X as they get voted off does annoy me a little bit. Sometimes, we want to see some piss and vinegar because while it may be “just a game” to the fans, it’s more than that to most players.

Still, despite my aversion to Zeke’s style of play, it’s impossible to argue that he is one of Survivor’s most important players of the decade. He was the face of Survivor’s biggest moment of the 2010s and he handled everything thrown at him with so much poise, grace and charm. I don’t know that anyone else could have handled that task as well as he did, and he deserves to be commended for it.