Why Frank Lost

Many people thought it would happen sooner, but Frank is finally gone. He managed to pull it out not once but twice before when people were gunning for him. What happened this time? Why did Frank lose? As usual, we’ll take a look back at my article, What African Survivors Should Have Learned, and see if we can answer that all-important question.

As always, the first item to look at is whether Frank schemed and plotted. With Frank, that’s kind of a tough question to answer. Certainly he formed an alliance early. Unfortunately, he misread Silas and actually believed he would stick with them – until it was made plain that this would not be the case. After the twist, Frank quickly plotted Silas’s downfall – a good maneuver, for sure. He tried to make inroads to the Boran alliance, but was not readily accepted, especially after the merge when all the old Borans were back together again. He simply could not hold up his end on the social front. He made friends with some of the Boran, but it apparently wasn’t enough to keep him around. Here the editing took over, for we have no real idea what made Tom decide it was time for Frank to go. I’m sure it was strategy, but it would have been nice to know for certain. In any event, Frank found himself on the wrong end of an alliance that broke itself apart. Brandon was unable to ally with him because they didn’t get along (or, depending on which statement of Brandon’s you believe, he wanted to re-ally himself after voting against Kelly, but nobody trusted him). This left his group with three and the other with four. Obviously, that’s not a recipe for winning. So did he scheme and plot? He tried, but he was simply not good enough at it.

One thing he definitely did not have to worry about was scheming and plotting too much. He made it clear that his handshake was his bond. There is no way he ever would have voted against Teresa, not even as a “strategy” vote, which is what she called her vote for him this time. In Survivor, though, such open honesty and honor can be detrimental. But at least nobody worried that he was double-crossing them. The same goes for the fourth rule, dealing with backstabbing.

The fifth says players should pretend to be nice. To put it bluntly, Frank wasn’t terribly good at this. He let his feelings about the various people show quite clearly. This made him an outcast in many ways, though it was probably not the overall reason for his departure. While the editing made it seem that perhaps his discussion about gun control and the liberal media may have played some role, I really tend to doubt it. The Boran alliance was voting based on strategy, not on who supports the Second Amendment. Had Brandon and Kelly and Lindsay still been around, his personality might have been more important. But since he outlasted them, it was a minor issue. Although, I should note that Lex has been rather opinionated about Frank’s personality in the previous episodes. But he was likely the only one to whom it really mattered at this point.

The sixth rule says not to form emotional bonds. Frank definitely bonded with Teresa, and, as noted above, I don’t think he ever would have voted against her. Like I said, this can be a detriment in Survivor. To their credit, Tom and Teresa realized that they would have to put aside their friendship with Frank in order to progress in the game. When Teresa said hers was a strategic vote, she was right. If she voted against somebody else, she would have been targeted next (of course, she still might be). But by voting with the group, it gives her another opportunity to try to get Kim J. over to the all-girls alliance – she showed her allegiance to Kim. I don’t think it’ll work, but it’s a nice try.

In the seventh position we have something that Frank definitely understood: Don’t be lazy. Frank was probably the hardest-working player. Nobody could fault him in this regard. Unfortunately, there were enough other faults to make up for it. Indeed, early in the game working hard was actually seen as a problem by the kiddy alliance!

What about the order of the vote? Right now we are in the phase where alliances should be voting off the strongest members of the opposing group. In the ex-Samburu, Frank was definitely in that position. Last week he missed winning immunity only because he accidentally touched the fuse. This week he was beaten by only seconds. The last thing the Boran probably wanted was to give him another chance at immunity. He had to go this time.

So, as usual, it comes down to a combination of reasons. Lex probably targeted Frank in part because he didn’t like his personality. At this point I don’t know that the others would have simply gone along with him had it not been for the fact that Frank was a competitor and, not incidentally, on the wrong side of the Boran alliance. Frank was strong in many ways: He was physically strong, mentally strong, a strong competitor, had strong opinions, and a strong sense of honor. In different ways, all of these combined to make him the target that Boran shot at this week. That is why Frank lost.

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