Why Hunter Lost

Things are getting stranger and stranger at the Maraamu camp. With the worst losing streak in Survivor history (at least U.S. versions – I’m not sure about the others, though it’s hard to believe any other team could have lost this many challenges in a row!), Maraamu had to boot yet another of its own while Rotu stays solid. So who did they choose? The weakest link? No! Of course not! They chose the strongest. Yes, that’s the way to help out the team. Good show!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. As always, let’s take a look at the Maraamu decision through my article, What Marquesan Survivors Should Have Learned. Let’s see exactly why Hunter lost.

The first question we have to ask, as usual, is whether Hunter schemed and plotted. The answer to that is, well, he tried. He had a little team of workers: himself, Gina, and Patricia, going into last week’s Tribal Council. But he didn’t count on Sean/Vecepia and Rob/Sarah getting together. Mind you, he should have realized it might happen, because each of those twosomes has a lazybones in it, but he didn’t see it coming. The same was true this week. He tried to talk to Rob, but while he thought he had somebody he could mold, Rob just saw him as competition to be overcome. Hunter thought there was no way the tribe would vote him out, as he was the strongest member (he must have read my articles). But he didn’t count on the competitive spirit overtaking good judgment. Could he have overcome this through more scheming? Maybe, but maybe not. When you have three self-proclaimed alpha males on the same team, and each aligns with a woman on his side, it’s not easy to plot the correct course.

So he certainly didn’t have to worry about scheming and plotting too much or backstabbing too early. He even tried to keep his scheming secret – though that probably didn’t work too well because the other twosomes were plotting against him. Still, nothing to complain about here.

Moving on to the fourth rule, he did generally pretend to be nice. Now of course we don’t see every minute, but he played along in their morning “radio shows” and seemed cordial enough even when he was trying to get things done. But no matter how nice he appeared, his overall work ethic got in the way and pissed off Sean and Rob. Similarly, he appears to have managed to keep his emotions in check – at least in front of the others.

He certainly had nothing to be ashamed of in the department of providing food and not being lazy. The only problem was that the others found this threatening! We’re in the same situation as the Samburu from last season, where a work ethic is bad. So the whole logic of the situation gets turned upside down.

Which brings us to wonder if the tribe voted properly. They should be trying to weed out the weakest members so they have a chance of someday actually winning a challenge. But that’s not important to them. Rob says he doesn’t care if they are strong, just so long as they listen to him. Sean thinks he’s outwitted Hunter by voting him out this early. Does he really think he has a chance in this game now? Without a twist of some sort, these guys are dead meat. Even with a twist, I can’t see Sean getting along with the members of Rotu! I can’t see Rob outsmarting the Rotu folks with his oh-so-clever use of fear as a weapon. The whole thing is preposterous! Yet there they were, letting their egos dictate how to vote rather than trying to salvage what’s left of their team.

Hunter was doomed to be voted out shortly after the merge. He was too strong and too much of a leader to be allowed to stick around unless he had a powerful alliance (which he didn’t). But the “knuckleheads” (as he correctly described them) on his team decided to vote without allowing their brains to have any role in the decision. They chose laziness over work and demonized the one person who tried to hold everything together. That is why Hunter lost.

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