Why Kelly Lost

After a week off while Survivor had a rerun – er, recap – it’s time once again to look back at What African Survivors Should Have Learned and compare it to how Kelly (and the others) did in comparison.

As always, we start by looking at whether she schemed and plotted. Indeed, she did. She was a key to helping the original Boran get an advantage. When Lex and Tom thought they should vote against Brandon in the mixed Samburu tribe, she found out about Lindsey’s vote and convinced the two men to switch. Even as she knew something had to be done about Lex, she kept it to herself so she could stay with her alliance.

But she might have broken the second rule, and schemed a bit too much. Sort of. Really, she didn’t, because she refused Kim P.’s invitation to join their alliance. But there was the appearance that she did, and that – plus some misinformation from Brandon – was enough to convince Lex that she was the snake in the grass.

Looking at the third suggestion – the voting order – we see that, in their minds, they were voting along schedule. They needed to vote off a strong person and Lex thought that Kelly was strong in that she was leading a coup against him. The others bought into it and went along.

What about the fourth rule? “Don’t backstab until you absolutely need to.” We can look at this from several angles. Kelly would have stuck by this rule and was not planning to join the Samburus to stab Lex in the back. Why? Because she would have been the fifth wheel. When she realized that Lex and company were going to target her, it did indeed become necessary to fight back. But what about Lex? Was it absolutely necessary for him to stab Kelly in the back? In his deranged mind, yes, it was. He had to root out the evil cancer. Was he right? No. He had Kelly right where he should have wanted her. She didn’t like him but was too afraid to move against him. And finally, we have Brandon. He was in the reverse position of Kelly. Was it necessary to stab his teammates in the back? No. In fact, it was quite stupid. He was a solid member of an alliance, where he probably could have ousted the Boran and eventually joined with Kim P. and Kelly to get rid of Frank and thus make it at least into the final four, if not more. Now he’s an untrustworthy turncoat who is a fifth wheel on an alliance that may be breaking itself apart.

But let’s get back to Kelly. The fifth rule is to pretend to be nice. Kelly had this down pat. She couldn’t stand Lex, but she nodded and agreed whenever he spoke, and she pretended to be a pal. It ended up not mattering, and she obviously must have put out some signals to indicate she wasn’t happy with him – after all, both Kim P. and Lex figured she might be a weak link. But she was better than most in this regard.

She also managed to avoid forming emotional bonds. She was in an alliance, not a sorority party, and she knew it. When it was obvious that things were falling apart, she had no qualms about switching sides. As a side note, I have to say that Brandon did well here, also. He did it for the wrong reasons, but he showed a willingness to go against friendship for the sake of trying to win, which is a plus.

Finally, we have the reminder that providing food wins allies and you shouldn’t be lazy. Kelly was definitely not one of the lazy ones, and it never came into play for her.

So, let’s look at everything. Kelly did not stab Lex in the back, but he thought she had. Brandon helped this little picture get fully painted in Lex’s mind, and then took Kelly’s place in the Boran alliance. She was unable to counter this play and nobody saw Brandon’s manipulation coming. In the end, that is why Kelly lost.

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