Why Kim P. Lost

Kim P., the last of the kiddy alliance – indeed, almost the last of the Samburu – is gone. So what happened to finally mark her final day? As always, let’s take a look back at my article, What African Survivors Should Have Learned to find out why Kim P. lost.

As usual, the first thing to look at is if she schemed and plotted. Frankly, this one is tough to see. As already mentioned, she was part of the Samburu Kiddy Alliance (SKA), but more as just somebody who happened to be there rather than as a decision-maker. Once that alliance was broken apart, she just kind of floated along until she was eventually picked off. Basically, she was the Amber of Survivor: Africa. Once the SKA was decimated, she did agree to ally with Teresa and Frank (and supposedly Brandon) and managed to get Kelly over to their side (with Lex’s help). But even here, she didn’t seem to be in any sort of decision-making role, though I’ll admit it’s hard to say for certain. Teresa seemed to be the one directing the plays while Kim just did what she was told. It didn’t work, and so she was left twisting in the wind again. When it came time to try to recruit Kim J. to their side, again it was Teresa, not Kim P. who tried to do the work.

She certainly didn’t have to worry about scheming and plotting too much! She did have an opportunity to stab Brandon in the back early, when Lindsey came to her with the suggestion that they ally with Tom, Lex, and Kelly against Brandon after the twist but before the merge. She said she wouldn’t do that to a friend. Little did she know that she would be the one stabbed in the back by Brandon later when he voted to get rid of Kelly, thus condemning all of the Samburu to an early departure. Still, she made the right move by not voting against him when Lindsey brought it up, for it was indeed too early for that sort of maneuver, and it probably would have gone for naught anyway.

How did Kim do in the “pretending to be nice” department? Well, in the original Samburu tribe, not very well. She had her little SKA clique and that was all that mattered. While Teresa and Frank eventually ended up allying with her anyway, out of necessity, she still didn’t play that part of the game very well. After the merge, we started to see a bit more of her playing nice with others, but it just didn’t matter by then.

The sixth rule is especially of interest with Kim – don’t form emotional bonds. She formed a friendship with Brandon (and, less importantly, Lindsey and Silas). She assumed Brandon would vote, as a friend, the way she wanted him to. She was wrong. Then she became a spurned friend. Rather than listening to him as he explained his “strategy,” she blew him off. Now, I am certainly no fan of Brandon and thought he made an idiotic move, but perhaps if she hadn’t allowed the bonds of a spurned friendship to get in the way, she might have listened more rationally to him and maybe, just maybe, the alliance could have been salvaged. Maybe not, but she never even gave it a chance.

The last rule is against laziness. We’ve gone over this ground with Silas, Lindsey, and Brandon already, but let’s face it, the SKA was a bunch of do-nothings. This obviously didn’t endear them to the elder alliance or to Lex/Tom/Kelly after the twist. It wasn’t the main cause of her downfall here, but it sure didn’t help matters.

Looking at the Boran alliance who voted her off, did they do the correct thing? Right now the game is in a phase where the leading alliance should be voting off the strongest unallied members. Teresa has shown that she has physical strength and will and determination. She has shown that she will try to plot rather than just accepting her own demise. Yet the Boran didn’t target her, going instead for the much weaker Kim P. Why? I can’t say. Perhaps Kim J. is keeping her safe because she may want to try some tricky move (if so, she’d better do it soon). Perhaps they just like her better and figure they have nothing to fear from her. They’re wrong. I would love for them to find that out by having Teresa win the next immunity challenge.

My conclusion from Why Amber Lost last season read as follows:

In the end, it really comes down to Amber’s close alliance with Jerri that caused her to be voted off. She was not a spectacular player on her own – as Tina said, she mostly flew under the radar. She decided to ally herself with somebody who she thought was a strong leader and would take her to the finish line. But she bet on the wrong horse. And that is why Amber lost.

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