Why Tom Lost

Big Tom was the first of the final four to be voted out. He was one question away from at least tying for immunity with Kim, but she pulled it out and voted him out. Let’s look back at my article, What African Survivors Should Have Learned, and see why Tom lost.

Did Tom scheme and plot? Indeed he did. He formed a solid alliance with Ethan and Lex, and they grabbed Kim as a hanger-on (plus Kelly for a while) to take ‘em to the very end. Along the way, he apparently dropped little hints or suggestions that other people should vote for Lex, but he never violated his own alliance. It’s easy to look back now and suggest that perhaps he should have, but he was in a good position. Kim had never won a challenge (and, indeed, had caused Boran to lose several). His best opportunity was almost certainly to go in and try to face Lex in the final two. So there really wasn’t any more scheming or plotting he could have done that would have put him in a better position.

But did he do too much of it? He certainly did more than Kim J. wanted to see, but then she really didn’t want to see any, so that can’t be our guide. The hints he dropped about Lex came back to haunt him later, and those were, indeed, a mistake. While he technically didn’t violate the agreement, Survivor is not a court of law. He may have been not guilty on a technicality, but they still threw the book at him. Lex, of course, would never forgive that. Even if he would have, it would have been poor strategy to bring Tom (or Ethan) along to the final two with him. It made sense to get rid of Tom now, especially since he had to know Tom would be voting for him. For Tom’s part, if he was going to try to get others to vote against Lex, he should have made sure it would actually vote Lex off. He wounded his opponent and only annoyed him more.

This plays into the rule against backstabbing before you absolutely need to. While Tom never voted against Lex, he did play around with a knife near Lex’s back. All Lex needed was to think that Tom was going to stab him in the back. And with Tom’s admission that he had talked to people about it, well, that was the end of that. It wasn’t that he backstabbed too early, per se, but rather he did it and didn’t make sure the knife actually got him through the heart. And, frankly, there was no absolute need to do what he did.

Next we have pretending to be nice. Here we have to look at Tom and say he kind of played the opposite. He pretended to be such a country bumpkin that he didn’t know when he was saying things that wouldn’t be considered nice. By being so outgoing, so apparently open and honest, so goofy, people couldn’t help liking them no matter what he did – well, except for Kim near the end, if her comments at the jury hearing are to be believed (and there’s no reason they shouldn’t be). Eventually the sexist bumpkin routine apparently rubbed her the wrong way, though I think she would have voted against him anyway. But he never let that get in the way of the game. He obeyed the next rule about not forming emotional bonds that would interfere. He could have a blast with Lex, but still hold a grudge for the whole Brandon incident. And not letting it get in the way is the key. He bonded with Frank, but voted him out when it was time to go. He recognized that this was a game.

Tom was never lazy. He even tried to provide food in a situation where almost none was to be had (such as when he tried to climb a tree for a tiny “fruit” early in the game). He was as annoyed as the original Samburu elders when he ended up with the lazy kiddies after the twist. He did his share and nobody could ever fault him for that.

He played a thinking part in the Boran alliance, helping to direct who should go next. Usually he followed the proper path of voting off first the weak, then the strong, then the weak and then the strong again, as described in rule three. As noted above, he couldn’t really have ended in a better position, though he should have seriously considered voting off Lex (strong) the one time he didn’t win immunity near the end (when, in fact, Tom won it).

So looking at everything, it appears that Tom’s biggest problem was that he may have been too likeable for Lex to want to face in front of the jury, not likeable enough for Kim to keep around, and made the mistake of plotting Lex’s demise without actually carrying it through. He played a good game, but that is why Tom lost.

Even though Survivor: Africa is over, you can still order Survivor III, the Diary, by Mark Burnett

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site and be registered for giveaways and special offers! You can find all of our articles about this show at the Survivor: Africa Page, and take a look at our sections on The Amazing Race and Popstars 2. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For even more news about reality TV, be sure to check out RealityTVFans.com, SirLinksALot and the Manly Man!