Survivor Walkers: The Four Musketeers

Survivor is considered one of the most challenging, mentally and physically draining, strategic, and intense games ever to be played. To be selected to become a player for it is considered to be an enormous honor and opportunity. Out of thousands upon thousands of people who apply for each new season, only a lucky 16 are chosen to participate. These 16 fortunate individuals then sign up for the adventure of their life, as each and every action they engage in is filmed and shown to an audience of millions. Also, let’s not forget the $1,000,000 cash prize that they now have a one in sixteen chance of attaining (no longer a one in a million chance).

However, there are four players who never won and who never had the experience of being voted out of tribal council. Michael Skupin (Survivor: The Australian Outback), Osten Taylor (Survivor: Pearl Islands), Jenna Morasca (Survivor: The Amazon and Survivor: All-Stars) and Susan Hawk (Survivor: Borneo and Survivor: All-Stars) all left their games (in the case of Jenna and Sue, their second games) prematurely. Although all left for different reasons, they share the distinction of being the only four people to unnaturally leave the game of Survivor.

Mike Skupin was in a great position during his stay in the Outback. He was the obvious leader of the Kucha tribe (who had a 6-to-5 advantage pre-merge) and was considered by many to be most likely to win it all. Mike proved himself to be a super-Survivor, having successfully caught and slaughtered a wild boar for his tribe, showing him to be an excellent provider as well as someone who will do whatever it takes to win.

Then, tragedy struck. Come day 18, Mike had jockeyed himself an extremely powerful and respected position. He was tending to the fire in his camp when he accidentally inhaled some smoke and passed out, falling directly into the fire. When he regained consciousness, Mike tried desperately to push himself out of the fire, placing his hands and wrists onto the burning logs and coals. Mike’s hands practically melted, and with a scream of anguish and pain, Mike rushed to the lake to sooth his raw fleshy hands. Although his tribe tried desperately to relax and calm him, they all realized the severity of his injury was too great to let him stay in the game. A helicopter flew down to the Kucha beach and medics rushed out. They quickly administered him some pain killers and flew him out of the game and into Survivor history as being the first player ever to leave the game without being voted out at tribal council.

Mike left the game with all of his honor and integrity intact. From this experience, Mike became an extremely religious man and began touring various children’s organizations and Christian institutions, preaching the importance of never giving up hope and always believing.

From the moment Osten Taylor stepped of the boat and into Survivor: Pearl Islands, he was not happy. By the sixth day, Osten was already complaining to his tribe about how he had the possibility of contracting pneumonia and how his body was physically too weak to remain in the game. His tribemates kept telling him that it was all in his head and he should just stick with it. Now, Osten may be one of the most “jacked” people I have ever seen, meaning that everywhere you looked, you saw another muscle. In fact, I even thought that he had some muscles on top of other muscles. All that being said, when Pelican Pete (just a harmless bird) showed up on Morgan Beach, Osten freaked out. Each time the bird got closer to him, he just sharpened his machete more and more, an act that was both childish and shameful.

When the big twist rolled around (the Outcast tribe) and Morgan lost the challenge, Osten had had enough. He told his tribe that he was checking himself out of the game and that he wanted them all to vote for him that night at tribal council. Once again the Morgan tribe tried to calm Osten down and tell him that he should reassess his situation and stay in the game. But this time was different. Osten had made up his mind and decided that it wasn’t worth him jeopardizing his health no matter what the cost (even though he had said only a few moments before that when he goes into anything he goes in 110%). That night at tribal council, Jeff Probst uncovered that Morgan had decided to vote Osten out based on his request, and deemed that a vote was not necessary. He snuffed his torch and sent him home. Jeff then stated that “too many people work too hard to get into and stay in this game” and threw Osten’s torch on the ground.

But it didn’t end there. Osten then came out and publicly called Jeff Probst juvenile and a coward. He later stated that he quit the game because, and I quote, “Mark Burnett quit on us by letting the Outcasts in. So I [thought], ‘You know what? I’ll quit on him.’” He then insulted the game of Survivor itself and dismissed all questions asked of him on the official Survivor site. But believe it or not, it got even worse. Osten then agreed to an interview with RealityNewsOnline, in which he was curt, rude, snide, and most of all bitter towards the opportunity that he threw away. Osten’s legacy landed him with not one but two mentions in the Reality TV Hall of Shame (his original induction and then an update to address his post-game statements), as well as making him the first person to ever voluntarily walk out of the game. To this day, Osten is considered by many to be the biggest disgrace to Survivor thus far.

Jenna Morasca not only won her first time around in Survivor, but she won with a 6-1 vote, the biggest landslide vote in Survivor history. Although considered by many to be an unworthy victor, Jenna did successfully sway a jury of seven people whom she beat that she was the sole survivor based on her strategic ability, as opposed to her competitor’s friendly disposition. Heck, she even secured the vote of Christy, a girl who repeatedly said that she would not let her “wicked step-sisters” win the game, so take that for what it’s worth.

When Jenna signed up to participate in Survivor: All-Stars, she knew that she had a mother at home who had potentially terminal breast cancer. However, she had been pushed by her mother to go out and experience the adventure again, since they both were such huge fans of the show. However, after seven days out in Panama, Jenna’s daughter intuition kicked in. She sensed that something was wrong back home and suddenly became an emotional wreck. She stopped eating, she stopped drinking, and she just stopped playing the game altogether. The constant chip on her shoulder became too much of a burden to handle.