Surviving the Jury on Survivor

The jury on Survivor: All-Stars was probably the angriest one ever. Lex told the two of them that Survivor is not just a game, that it exposes who they are as people. In Rob’s case especially, it revealed some very bad things about his character. Alicia accused both of them of having mastered the fine arts of ego-stroking and butt-kissing. Neither Rob nor Amber had a chance to respond to these jurors, not that it would have made much difference. Both Lex and Alicia were so angry with Rob that nothing he could have said would have changed their votes.

Eliza and Julie were both angry jurors in Vanuatu. Eliza said that Chris and Twila both owed her an apology – and she demanded one! Twila refused to, but Chris gave her what she wanted, saying that he never intended to do her wrong. Appeased, Eliza voted for Chris. Julie told the final two that she was not going to vote for Chris or Twila so much as she was going to vote for or against Chris. She was hurt because she thought she was like a little sister to Chris, but he betrayed her. How could he lie to her? Her question was emotional, and Chris gave an emotional response. He said that he meant what he said at the time, but that he made a last minute decision to save himself in the game. He tearfully said that he never meant to hurt her. His answer made Julie feel better and convinced her that their friendship was important to her. He won her vote.

Coby told Katie and Tom that he was going to be “very serious” with them. He made it clear that he didn’t like Katie at all, but that he thought Tom played dirty, too. He said he’d be basing his decision on what Tom said throughout the night, and that a vote for Katie would mean that Tom hadn’t swayed him. There wasn’t much either player could say to that. Janu asked Katie for positive and negative adjectives to describe the way she played the game. The question seemed innocuous enough, but Janu hated Katie. Katie said that she wouldn’t answer the question and didn’t expect Janu’s vote. In the finale, Janu admitted that she was going to vote for Tom no matter what. I still think that was a mistake. Had she given a good answer she might have swayed another juror the way Kelly swayed Gervace way back in the first season. Caryn demanded to know if Tom found her a friend or just a pawn. Tom said she was a friend, then told her to look in her heart for the answer. Seemed like a weak answer to me, but apparently Caryn’s heart was pro-Tom, since that’s how she voted. Caryn’s heart was certainly not as pro-Katie. She called her lazy and unkind, among other things, and asked why she might vote for her. Katie apologized and pointed to her strategy of making a good alliance, which is what the game is all about. It was the best answer she could have possibly given, but as Gregg’s question made clear, it was only good enough for second place. Jenn didn’t think much of Katie either, asking her whether or not she played the game as a “strong woman,” the implication being clear that she did not. Katie said that her strength was in sticking to her strategy. It’s not an answer that could have satisfied Jenn, since Katie’s strategy basically was to be carried.

As far as angry jurors go, Lydia from Guatemala will never stand out in the annals of Survivor history, yet she did show a bit of bitterness towards both Steph and Danni. Why should she vote for them after she voted them out? Stephenie said that she wanted to beat the best, so it was better for her to face Danni than Lydia, who would have been easier to beat. Lydia probably didn’t appreciate that answer. As for Danni, she said that she had no choice but to be manipulative because, “it’s a game.”

Questions from left field: Every once in a while, a player will come up with a question that is completely off the wall. How can a player best handle a question from left field? In season 1, Greg’s final question was to ask the jurors to pick a number between one and ten. In Africa, Kelly gave a bitter speech in which she said that Kim’s success came at her own expense and that Ethan never bothered to get to know her. She improved upon Greg’s question by asking the final two to pick a number between one and a thousand. Big Tom was even more creative. He asked Ethan and Kim if a hyena came into their camp, ate some of the mush, and then licked its rear end, was it because of instinct, or to get the taste of the mush out of his mouth? In All-Stars, Jenna Lewis’s question wasn’t nearly so strange, but it didn’t focus directly on the game. She asked Rob and Amber what they intended to do with the money if they won. Bruce asked the same question in Survivor: Exile Island. Ian’s question in Palau wasn’t odd either- he asked Tom and Katie why they should win. Shane was an angry juror in Exile Islands. He thought Danielle was lazy and Aras was a liar. He also threw in that Aras was homeless and freeloaded off of his dad. Shane said he didn’t want to vote for either of them, but could not abstain. Thus, he asked each of them to pick a number between one and one million.

When a juror asks a question from left field, it can be for one of two reasons. It might be that he or she has already made up her mind on whom to vote for, and just wants to have some fun. That’s probably what Greg did, and it is certainly what Tom did, since he said when he cast his vote that Ethan deserved to win much more than Kim did. I also believe Jenna was planning on voting for Rob all along as well, considering that when she cast her vote for him, she made it very clear that she thought he deserved the win. Bruce seemed to genuinely admire Danielle and was happy to vote for her. The other reason might be that the juror doesn’t like either player and doesn’t care who wins. I think that was the case with Kelly and Bruce’s questions. In either case, players shouldn’t spend much time trying to figure out how best to answer a question from left field. They should just pick a number or give a funny answer about hyenas and move on.