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Why Diane Lost
by David Bloomberg
-- 07/10/2002
Diane Ogden, the 42-year-old, twice divorced, mother of two, was the first to be voted out of Survivor: Africa. Why was it necessary for her to go? Could she have done anything differently in order to stick around?
For Survivor 2, I took a look at why each player lost when they were voted out (and, finally, why Tina ended up winning). Due to the popularity of that series, I am continuing it for Survivor: Africa. Again, I will be comparing the actions of the losing player to what they should have learned before coming to play the game. These rules/suggestions/whatever you want to call them can be found at my updated article, What African Survivors Should Have Learned.
The first thing that any Survivor contestant should do is to scheme and plot. We saw essentially none of this anywhere in the first episode. That’s not to say it didn’t happen, but at least it wasn’t yet important to the storyline, and therefore wasn’t shown. Frankly, Diane could have schemed and plotted her ass off, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Her tribe saw that she was a hindrance, not an asset, and they were going to get rid of her no matter who she tried to ally with. I mean, they voted her off instead of a guy who stole food and lied about it!
Moving down (and skipping the bit about not scheming and plotting too much – for obvious reasons), we take a look at what the voting scheme should be for people who want to stick around. As I note, the first thing to do is vote off the weak: “Early on, the weak are those who will hurt your tribe’s chance in the immunity challenges.” I might as well have been thinking about Diane when I wrote that. Collapsing during the first challenge is not the way to convince people that you should stick around. This is exactly why people chose to keep Clarence, even though they felt they couldn’t trust him. He is strong and will be useful in the challenges, not to mention in helping to rebuild the hut, carry things, etc.
The fourth item, about refraining from backstabbing until it’s necessary, doesn’t apply here. Even the fifth, pretending to be nice, doesn’t really matter. Still, Diane did start off on the wrong foot by taking control of the map and then leading them in the wrong direction. It wasn’t exactly that she wasn’t nice, but she sort of usurped a leadership role that she hadn’t earned. I doubt that had any bearing in the end, but it still wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
And the sixth and seventh suggestions – don’t form emotional bonds and do provide food – also play no role here.
Diane wasn’t terribly bossy. She wasn’t a nasty person. She wasn’t the target of an alliance. She was just weak. She had faced the elements, and the elements won. For the good of the tribe, Diane had to go. It is perhaps the most simple and straightforward of reasons. But that is why Diane lost.
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