Survivor Samoa - O, the Controversy

Survivor Samoa has finally wrapped up and after a Final Tribal Council that emitted sparks and drama, in the end, it was Natalie White, the attractive, blonde pharmaceutical Sales Rep from Arkansas that took the million dollar prize. Many have argued that Russell Hantz, the mastermind behind the Foa Foa comeback over a Galu majority played the more masterful game. He found countless immunity idols, sometimes without a clue, and then back stabbed, lied, cheated and blindsided everyone else into the jury house. By many accounts, even Dalton Ross over at ew.com, made it very clear that Russell got robbed of the million dollars. He played the stronger game, played it aggressively, strategically and with a cojones-out abandon that it would be insanity for the jury not to bestow him with the million dollar check.

Well, the people who think this way miss the point of Survivor entirely. What makes the concept of Survivor so brilliant at its heart (and why, incidentally, after ten years, it remains such a wildly popular reality TV series) is that every minute of the game is not just consumed with the strategy to get yourself to the final two or three, but to ensure the fact that once you're there, you have the jury's heart to give you that million dollar vote. This means you also have to play a mean social game. You have to learn how to stick the knife in the back with one hand while the other hand massages it. If a player ignores this aspect, then you become another Russell - a second place sore loser (but we'll get to that later on). This is where Russell's game was sorely lacking. In his unmitigated hubris, arrogance and overbearing sense of entitlement, he felt that all he needed to do to win the jury votes was to simply demand it from them.

Wrong move.

I'm not saying he had to be humble and fake - that surely would have backfired and come off as disingenuous - it is Russell, after all. But if he had borrowed a page from Todd's book (Survivor China), he would have owned up to the fact that he played hard, was responsible for most of the other people's ouster in the game, and would still get them to respect his game play enough to vote for him because he didn't come across as boastful or taunting. A little humility goes a long way, but Russell didn't know how to do this - he completely ignored the human aspect of the game of Survivor.

In 19 tribal councils, very few juries have voted objectively; they have all voted according to the more likable candidate and that candidate was certainly Natalie. From the editing, it looked like the speech from Erik Cardona did much to sway the votes to Natalie's favor and he made some very salient points against Russell. But to credit Erik for Natalie's win would also take the victory away from her when in fact, Natalie won the game for herself, hands down. She knew to appeal to the jury's sympathies and she made sure to develop relationships during the game so when they were dispatched to the jury, there were no hard feelings. One can argue that she rode Russell's coattails to the end. Many players in Survivor don't respect this type of game play, but it's nonetheless a legitimate and effective strategy, albeit not a very impressive one. However, Survivor is also about knowing how to play the hand your dealt with and Natalie knew she couldn't be an aggressive or overly competitive player. This would have alerted Russell to immediately get rid of her, just as he discarded all the other more vocal females.

So who was really zooming who?

Everyone will have their own criteria for judging who should be the best player to win the game of Survivor and the most deserving player almost never wins this game. When Russell goes around the internet, rounding the press circuit dogging and hating on Natalie's win, trying to diminish it as much as possible, of all people he should know best that Survivor is a capricious game that's far from fair - much like that little thing we call life.