Survivor: The Amazon – More Thoughts on Why Rob Voted Out Deena

Shortly after episode 9 of Survivor: The Amazon aired (it seems like so long ago because of the recap episode last week), I wrote an article on why Rob voted out Deena. I addressed a number of reasons, including, in the end, that he was just plain too lazy to fight against the tide even though it would have been to his benefit.

Since then, the e-mail has been pouring in on some other possibilities. I waited to write this article in case the recap episode told us anything new. Alas, it did not. So now it’s time to see what readers thought about Rob’s decision and why he might have made it.

Beth spoke for a lot of people in her summary of why Rob may have voted against Deena:

I think you all ignore the biggest reason why Rob voted Deena off – he thinks Heidi and Jenna are hot, and he still harbors some hopes that one of them will pay a little attention to him sometime before the game is over. I think he would have really liked to get rid of Alex, who is his last real competition for the girls' attentions, but that would have meant voting against Heidi and Jenna and alienating them permanently. Voting Deena off was not the best move for Rob strategically, but the little boy inside who wants to be part of the in-crowd and hang out with the popular chicks made the decision for him.

He's still a card-carrying horny toad when all is said and done.

If we are to believe the show's presentation of Rob, then he's one of those guys whose spent his whole life wanting to be in the "cool club." He does seem to spend an awful lot of time discussing his attraction to Heidi & Jenna and acknowledging that, outside of the game, they are exactly the sort of girls who would never give him a second glance. Compare this behavior to someone like Alex, who the show portrays as way too much of a stud, a true ladies' man, to ever openly mourn over his lack of dating and sex opportunities. I think that Rob had his chance to join, finally, a symbolic "cool kids club" – he relished the idea of going into the final 4 with Heidi & Jenna. Deena would have been right there, but she screwed herself over, as discussed in your article on why she lost. Realizing how angry Heidi and Jenna were with her, Rob, I think, liked too much the idea of being in a continuing alliance with them, and the super cool Alex, to go along with Deena's plans. He liked that he was finally being courted by the "cool kids" and included in their plans.

The one thing I noticed about this installment of Survivor is how much it resembles high school. This is classic in-crowd vs. outsiders stuff. Look at all of the high school archetypes: Rob, the geek who finally makes it to the in-crowd; Jenna and Heidi, the most popular girls in school; Alex, the big high school stud; Deena, the girl who made it in the in-crowd only because she is a family friend with the most popular girl; Matt, the oddball; Butch, the older guy who still hangs around but is not part of the current high school clique; Christy, the girl who is different; and so on. Based on the information revealed on Yahoo Premium, Deena was voted off for one reason, she tried to bring in Christy, the misfit, into the clique against the leaders of the pack, Jenna and Heidi. The popular girls decided to show Deena that she was only let into the clique out of pity and promptly tossed her out.

Rob has, as far as we can tell, always been on Survivor to play the game. Not to make friends, to get laid, or anything else. He did things early on that showed he could turn on those with whom he was friendly – such as Ryan and Daniel – if it meant advancement in the game (although I must note that if he had sided with Ryan from the first vote, he still would have advanced and we wouldn’t have had to put up with seeing Roger any further, but I digress). It’s unclear why he would suddenly decide to, as he put it himself, think with his other head. Maybe it is some deep-seeded psychological need to be wanted by the cool kids, but if that is the case, he has violated the “rule” against allowing emotions to control you and he deserves the loss I’m certain he will soon face because of this voting decision.

Let’s move on to some of the other hypotheses. Dennis thinks:

The reason Rob voted for Deena was to put one of his allies on the jury. His surprised expression at TC was meant to tell Deena he was still on her side and so she should be on his.

Another person who thinks Rob’s strategy was aimed at the final Tribal Council is Kevin, who said:

I think Rob's strategy has been to fly under the radar for the express purpose of looking like a non-schemer at final Tribal Council. Even with all the scheming he has done with Alex and Deena, he always seems to be the one going along with whatever the other person is saying. He may blab about how neither Deena nor Alex are in charge, but in conversations with them, he certainly allows them to feel they are.