Gabriel: Heroic Philosopher or Just a Crackpot?

There has been some heated debated among Survivor fans in the past week. The topic? None other than Gabriel Cade. I feel Gabriel needs a champion. So let me state on the record, Gabriel, I understand where you are coming from in your reasons to play Survivor.

First of all, it is PLAY Survivor. It is a game, just like Monopoly is a game and Clue is a game. Only this game comes with a prize of a million dollars. Well, not really a million dollars, Uncle Sam takes his cut the winner is left with roughly $550,000, but that is still quite a lot of money.

One of the things I liked about the first group of Survivors is that all of them were naïve and really didn’t know how to play the game except Richard Machiabelly Hatch. Alliances were new to the viewing audience and the players. If people understood them better, the voting would have been different, and Tagi wouldn’t have wiped out Pagong the way they did.

Another thing about the first group, is that Mark Burnett stated in his first Survivor book that every one of the contestants would have done it for nothing! Yes folks, the money was not the main thing that spun them (or so they claimed). Of course, as the days went on, Sue Hawk did say “the money is spinning us,” which again was quoted in the same book. And most of these first 16 people didn’t think about the fame aspect – Burentt says the only two that even toyed with it were Rich and Sean.

Survivor 2 taught me one valuable lesson (two really if you count don’t pass out near open flames as one): the value of alliances. At the merge, the tribes were five and five. Of course picking Colby as the weakest link was stupid on Kucha’s part, but everyone is a Monday morning quarterback.. I was amazed how the votes came down on tribal lines. You couldn’t shake em. Amazing. Even at the end, Colby had his alliance with Tina, he could have, no SHOULD have taken Keith with him to the final two but placed his alliance with Tina higher – and lost because of it. Well, it was still nice that he wanted his alliance and rewarded Tina for it.

Now we get to Survivor: Marquesas. And unless you were one of the few people last week without a TV set, Rotu FINALLY had to evict one of their own. They settled on Blue Lagoon Boy, Gabriel Cade. It may be a brilliant move on their part, it may come back to bite them in the butt. Right now Gabriel was one of their strongest members in a physical sense. It would have done them right to keep him until the merge and then cut him loose when his strength would not be seen as an asset but as a liability. If I were on the tribe, I would have said buh-bye to either Sean or Rob. How easy was that to decide? It took me less than two seconds. Then of course, you do have to remember that for ever 44 minutes we are shown, over 100 hours of footage was collected. Maybe Sean and Rob do some work and we don’t see it. Somehow I doubt it though. I am sure these guys are nice in real life, but on this island, they just aren’t carrying their weight.

Now certainly these group of Survivors know their 15 minutes of fame are going to be up sooner than previous contestants. Already most of the Survivors from the previous shows have gone off in that sweet ether of television flavor of the month, and perhaps will resurface 10 years from now on “What ever happened to…” type show, or a question on Jeopardy or in Trivial Pursuit.

Which brings me back to Gabriel. I am not going to give you the play-by-play recap of what happened last week. For what ever reasons, Gabriel, sweet Gabriel was tossed. Personally I think it might have been from his rapping, and if that is the case he does not need a champion. Gabriel, love ya bubbalah, but that was the most painful thing I have ever heard on TV or movies since Robert Shaw scratched his fingernails down the blackboard in Jaws. What got me was right after the rap, he is shown clutching is teddy bear to his heart. Oh, way to melt me, Gabriel.

Gabriel said on several occasions that he didn’t need the money. That is really nice. Honest. Gotta hand it to him, honesty is a good quality. But by saying that he pretty much doomed himself. I would guess all the other 15 contestants are doing it for the money. Or need the money. He said he was doing it for the experience. He was a hard worker. He should have been valuable to his tribe. But his tribe turned on him. So what did he really mean about the experience?

I think I understand. I think I may be the only other person besides Gabriel’s mom who agrees with this philosophy. I said during S3 in an article I would do it for the experience. Think about it. How many Survivors have they made? Four. How many winners. Four, but we don’t know who won this series yet. How many runners-up? Four. That leaves all the other contestants, minus eight who have done something we can only dream. Yes it is easy to sit here in the comfort of our homes, nice and warm with food in our bellies, and trash the contestants. We aren’t in their shoes. We don’t know what they think or thought at a given time until they give their exit interviews.

I realize what I am going to say will make me unpopular, judging from what my own fellow writers here have said. But Gabriel is right. The experience is paramount. I would do Survivor in a heartbeat. Would I make it to the merge? Probably. Would I make it to the final four? Odds are against it, but anything could happen. Could I win? No. For one thing, I don’t need the money either. Not that I have a million dollars in my checking account, but I know other people could use it more, and my morals and values would let me take the high road like Colby did and let someone else have it. Don’t get me wrong. I would love a million dollars. I could find a way to use it. But I know there are other people who could use it more. But to have the experience of playing the game, for 40 days to see a part of the world I would not have normally seen? Wow. How do you take that away?

Gabriel’s problem is he wanted to create his mini-society. Gabriel’s version of Shangri La. Earth to Gabriel, you cannot do it. Gabriel wanted his love tribe, his little Utopia. Hello? Utopia, as it was explained to me in English Literature, means “Nowhere.” Granted, Gabriel met a kinder end by having his torch snuffed by Jeffy, then Sir Thomas More, who was beheaded (although he was just beatified as a saint – patron saint of politicians. Go figure). I have been told that Gabriel has a really neat background, born on a commune. He seems to be a very nice person. Kind. Unable to backstab or plot. He really is similar to the angelic creature he shares his name with.

I must be one of the few people who watch Survivor for the sociological aspects. I don’t care for the chess aspects – how Rotu should do this, how Maraamu should do that. I watch to see how people interact with each other. I don’t have a pool of who should go out each week. I let it just happen, let it unfold. I let the experience of watching the show sweep over me. I watch each show several times, picking up on nuances, how people are interacting. What are they saying to each other. I find the way they interact fascinating.

So I just wanted to let the world know that there is another person out there who has the same idea as Gabriel. Another person who would play for the sheer experience of playing. Unfortunately, I am afraid Gabriel and I may be the only two in the world who feel this way.

You can reach Susan at sschechter@earthlink.net, but please be kind. E-mails telling her to get bent will only make her cry.

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