Survivor 41

[starvenger]

Xander's 1 or 2 Big Moves were more than the others had individually, and as we've seen before (Chris Underwood), that can be enough to win.

I agree that what he didn't do hurt him, but it sounds like he didn't have a great Final Tribal, and that probably didn't help either.

 

[leeniewdw]

It's probably a number of things that cost him, but the big move happened awhile ago. I actually had to look up who went home at that Tribal and it was Sydney, who wasn't even on the jury. I can't imagine that alone is worth the title....at least night at that stage of the game.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Ricard ponderosa...someone thinks very very highly of himself. And, dude, you voted out your BFF Shan. So you should be the one to approach her for mending fences.

SHAN!!! I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

 

[leeniewdw]

I don't get why anyone would harbor ill will at the Ponderosa for very long, so I definitely don't get what's up with Shan. However, he DID vote her out (and helped engineer it) so I also don't see why he thinks she needs to make the first step to talk to him?

 

[fortwildernessishome]

My opinion: The jury would never have voted for Xander to win because he is a white male. They were a "woke" survivor so a person they consider born with advantages would never get their vote. I will not watch again if Survivor continues down this path.

What a strange thought!!

What path? They cast a more diverse cast, so what? They can't tell them how to vote. And the 4 black contestants didn't stay together very long anyway(just citing a situation that didn't pan out how they even planned) . Might be helpful to keep in mind when this was shot and its timeline that was closer to the George Floyd murder and thus the focus in editing on that plotline.

You could be right about Xander being disadvantaged by his ethnicity (or age+ethnicity), but I don't think there's been a ton of black winners. So perhaps there was bias in casting and voting in the past but everyone was fine with that. Implicit bias is a thing, but it works both ways.


Maybe the "woke" cast voted for a woman since one hadn't won in 7 seasons (something like that). I mean, we can just make up things.

Totally agree with all of this!

 

[fortwildernessishome]

As for Shan, I think her church needs to send her packing.

YES!!!!!!!!

 

[lovin'fl]

https://ew.com/tv/survivor-41-xander-hastings-finale-interview/

 

[FigmentSpark]

SHAN!!! I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

*sigh* Video is not available outside the U.S.!

Can you give a recap? What did Shan do?

 

[leeniewdw]

According to the edit, she just ignored him. It showed a lot of cast interactions when he arrived, but not with her (though she was there). He said he got up before anyone else the next morning and just kinda sat around until someone else came and that person was Shan, who didn't say anything to him (appeared to get her coffee and leave). He said he felt like she needed to make the first move. IMO, they were BOTH stupid. If he'd greeted her with a hello and asked her to join him and she declined, then sure, it's her. But if they both were in the same area and neither spoke...who cares.

I just read Dalton Ross' exit interview with Ricard. He asked about Xander. Basically said that he was a nice, sweet, kid but he came across as inauthentic. Sounds like he tried TOO hard at times to be a friend to everyone that no one really knew what he felt and if he could be trusted. Seemed like Ricard just chalked it up to his age (which is completely understandable). It made me think of his comments about Heather at the final tribal. I mean he laid it on very thick, so I kinda get it.

 

[leeniewdw]

I'll add. Ricard also mentioned Brad (who I can barely remember, but he was the tall guy on that tribe) and how he (Ricard) tried not to show strength around camp, never made fire with people watching so they couldn't see how well he could do it, etc. Then he went on to say that he didn't agree with Brad about 'keeping the men' for their strength and mentioned strong women. I'm with him in a general sense, but then he included something about knowing he could never be friends with Brad inside or outside the game due to that viewpoint. I mean....c'mon. First, it's stupid to take a viewpoint of "men are physically stronger" as controversial, even if I get that women can be valuable to a tribe as well. But there was NO REASON for Ricard to include that he'd never be friends with him in/out of the game. Like why go out of your way to include that (the question was about how good he felt about firemaking skills and Ricard expounded into that.)

Whatever. He was a good player but I'm reminded he was a bit catty.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I wanted Xander to win but if it was going to be anyone else I'm glad it was Erika. I don't necessarily think she's my fav person as a person but strategically she did do well. She was fairly bold when she spoke without coming off like Shan did.

I think Xander didn't seem to want to just take Heather along for a so-called easy one. He did see that Erika struggled with the fire but that may have also seemed like an easy thing to do there that could have led to even more jury dislike that he would make the player who showed an obvious lack of fire-making skills to make fire. Heather didn't play very strategically but she did know how to build fire so if she made it through it would have been at least due to her skill there. Xander may have come off too much of a people pleaser where yes he did play strategically and I was rooting for him but other players were left with not feeling a close enough connections which Ricard touched on that. I respect that for him he's like "yup learning from this, filing it away" kind of mentality.

I did actually agree with Shan that it did feel like Deshawn may have more jumped onto a cause without fully being for the cause. I kinda felt more like that when it was pointed out how while he did make friends/connections he did throw people under when it suited him. At the same time I didn't want him to just play based on his race and ethnicity, maybe it was just more about being more honest about his strategy because he seemed to want to still present that he was really good friends with enough people while he really just seemed to come off like he was gathering information on people to use later. His "truth bomb" backfired I think in his face when Heather and Erika were like "meh okay we'll talk it out". I do think maybe Erika was a little too sweet with Heather at the reward but it was good for them to kinda air it out and move on whereas Deshawn ended up having that be the thing people remember him by yet again, how easy he's willing to toss information out when he thinks it will get him something.

I think in our present lives diversity tends to mean for a lot of people someone other than white but that becomes a disservice to people. Naseer who endearingly explained he learned english from watching survivor, evvie who is part of the Community, Ricard who is part of the Community, erika a filipino canadian, etc. We've had many players in the past from so many ethnic backgrounds and lives that I think sometimes it's easy to forget that. Survivor HAS stumbled in the diversity aspect in the past but I feel that way when they forced separations of tribes based on arbitrary reasons and they have seemed to move past that. The inclusion of people other than white or other than male does not equate to being woke (can we just get rid of that word??) either.

At the jury talk I was actually surprised at Danny. He was not really someone I liked that much but he showed a lot more to himself at the jury. I didn't realize he admired Erika that much.

While the live reading of the votes was neat to see after that long I felt it took away from the anticipation, made it feel less special but that could be because for 99% of their seasons (exclusion of the first season) they've done the reunion show so it's 2 decades worth of feeling the normal build-up. At the same time this did mean that the other players who played the game didn't get more airtime at the end to discuss things like they might have done in past reunion shows.

I saw the preview for Season 42 kept the idol thing where you have to say the phrases. I'm sure it will be funny to watch the players try to say it but I think that should have been a one and done twist.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Once Xander had the idol, his path was much easier than Erickas.

I agree with your other thoughts in the comment I pulled the above from but I disagree here.

Once you have an idol your path is only easier when you have a strong alliance with people who never think to vote you out.

Once you have an idol you have to worry if every tribal will be the one where they try to flesh it out of you, make you play it to play it even if you're not the real target leaving you vulnerable again and the idol presumably up for grabs again. The only time where a person's position is easier is when no one knows you have the idol up to a certain point, but once they do each tribal council is a very precarious one with a target on your back. Even if you win individual immunity (or are on a tribe that won immunity) the next tribal could be the one where you have to weigh the odds of playing your idol to protect yourself or you're playing the idol to toss it away.

It's actually rare for a player to keep an idol for time after time after time once players know it and with Xander it's like they rarely even thought about seriously getting him out at least the way they voting when they had chance after chance, kinda surprising really.

 

[starvenger]

It's actually rare for a player to keep an idol for time after time after time once players know it and with Xander it's like they rarely even thought about seriously getting him out at least the way they voting when they had chance after chance, kinda surprising really.

To me that is either respect for the Idol, lack of respect for Xander's game, or a bit of both.

 

[threeboysmom]

Dang it. Just watched finale last night. I’m so stinkin’ mad right now, I have no words.

 

[lovin'fl]

It's 50% identity and 50% bitter jury. Period. They wanted a woman and/or a POC. They were bitter with Deshawn (and Xander too but he already was dead in the water due to identity...hence Deshawn getting 1 vote to make sure Xander wasn't runner up since he had those 2 strikes against him being identity and bitter jury). Just MOO. And, hey, folks can vote how they want. And use whatever guidelines they so choose. I am not posting to complain about it. Just saying that I 100% believe that's what happened.

 

[leeniewdw]

I saw the preview for Season 42 kept the idol thing where you have to say the phrases. I'm sure it will be funny to watch the players try to say it but I think that should have been a one and done twist.

I didn't think about it until your post but that season is already filmed, so it makes sense that some of the new stuff carries over. Will be interesting to see if the "change history" hourglass smashing carries forward too. Perhaps Danny's very obvious anger about it would have influenced them into skipping it. Let's hope so.

I agree with your other thoughts in the comment I pulled the above from but I disagree here.

Once you have an idol your path is only easier when you have a strong alliance with people who never think to vote you out.

Well having a strong alliance is part of being a good player. If they didn't think he was a threat to win, then they didn't have to risk a backfire in voting for him and having HIM control over who goes home.

 

[Boopuff]

It's 50% identity and 50% bitter jury. Period. They wanted a woman and/or a POC. They were bitter with Deshawn (and Xander too but he already was dead in the water due to identity...hence Deshawn getting 1 vote to make sure Xander wasn't runner up since he had those 2 strikes against him being identity and bitter jury). Just MOO. And, hey, folks can vote how they want. And use whatever guidelines they so choose. I am not posting to complain about it. Just saying that I 100% believe that's what happened.

Wow. Great assessment! Read this to my DH and we really thought Xander had a shot at winning (or Ericka) but after this "woke" season my DH said he may be done with it. I can see the jury knowing that Xander really played well but to think to throw Deshaun a vote just to prevent Xander from 2nd place... (if that's what happened- but they are buddies)

 

[leeniewdw]

It's 50% identity and 50% bitter jury. Period. They wanted a woman and/or a POC. They were bitter with Deshawn (and Xander too but he already was dead in the water due to identity...hence Deshawn getting 1 vote to make sure Xander wasn't runner up since he had those 2 strikes against him being identity and bitter jury). Just MOO. And, hey, folks can vote how they want. And use whatever guidelines they so choose. I am not posting to complain about it. Just saying that I 100% believe that's what happened.

People who have money who have come on the show have attempted to hide it because they don't want people to discount their "need" for the money. Danny is just the most recent example. People who were lawyers have hidden it because of a bias about their need. Pretty sure Tony and Sara hid that they were cops (or at least Tony did) due to perception. People do this because they know there are no rules about how people vote and people cannot possibly be completely unbiased. To me there's no problem with that, it's human nature.

Anyway, I listened to Ericka on RHAP this morning and it's CLEAR how smart she is and how strategic she is. She's truly impressive and there is no way Xander nor Deshawn had the plan and executed it the way she did. Perhaps the editing didn't show all of that along the way, but I'm convinced she was the deserving winner.

Not that I think anyone can truly think 2 players are exactly equal in deserving the title, but if somehow I was on that jury and did think that, I probably would have chosen Ericka too given the drought in female winners. Oh well.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I didn't think about it until your post but that season is already filmed, so it makes sense that some of the new stuff carries over. Will be interesting to see if the "change history" hourglass smashing carries forward too. Perhaps Danny's very obvious anger about it would have influenced them into skipping it. Let's hope so.

Yeah I think they should have seen that it just didn't work out the way they thought it might but guess we'll see how it unfolds, each season is different even if there's the same things in play.

Ooohhh the hourglass is a good point, other than Danny it didn't seem like the other players (at least with the edits) had a big issue with it but Danny did make it known quite loudly how he felt.

I'm really hoping they opted to scale back just how much stuff but I'm not sure if the players had the same issue with all the stuff thrown in like the viewers clearly did.

 

[leeniewdw]

I can see the jury knowing that Xander really played well but to throw Deshaun a vote just to prevent Xander from 2nd place... crappy.

Holy projection batman.

I also listened to Deshawn's exit interview and he said he knew Danny would vote for him because they were day 1 partners and he would have been shocked/hurt if he didn't. I can't believe anyone would take that vote and say that Danny was so "woke" he wouldn't even have Xander take 2nd place. Holy crap.

I don't get how people can literally read and hear the people on the show and their perceptions of Xander and think it's a complete lie to cover up their "wokeness'. Xander was a fun kid to have on the show, cute as a button, gave great 1:1 with the camera, but it appears he wasn't a great strategist and his relationships were not as deep with people as others had and that they didn't really trust him so were guarded with how much they invested with him.