Survivor: All-Stars – Why Lex Lost

Well, that was… predictable. Indeed, when the producers don’t even bother to try to hide who is going before the final vote, you know it was obvious. Then again, to most of us it was obvious last week when Lex decided to trust Rob. So some of you may thinking that the answer to “Why Lex Lost” is a big “DUH!” But, of course, it’s never quite that simple. So let’s go our usual route and look back at What All-Star Survivors Definitely Should Have Learned to see if we can capture the full view of why Lex lost.

As always, we begin with scheming and plotting. Lex was definitely quite the schemer this time around. He came in to play the game, and he wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of that. He had an alliance with Colby and good friend Ethan? Pah! Colby’s gone. Ethan’s next. When Ethan protested and tried to use their friendship as a reason to keep him around, Lex waved him off, saying that friendship and business had to be separated.

While he had his alliance with Colby and Ethan, Lex simultaneously had another alliance with Kathy and Shii Ann, and also another with Jerri. He was sitting in a great position. Unfortunately, he slowly whittled away at his own position – helped by repeated immunity losses by his tribe. In the end, he decided to go along with a scheme proposed by Rob and trust Rob over somebody who had promised to cover his back the whole way. Bad move.

In fact, it was such a bad move that it falls into the category of scheming and plotting too much. Lex seemed to think he had to keep jumping around from alliance to alliance. Aha! I’m with Colby and Rich! Aha! I’m with Colby and Ethan! Aha! I’m with Kathy and Shii Ann! Aha! I’m with Jerri. Aha! I’m with Amber and Rob! Aha! I’ll also join back up with Tom later! It’s one thing to keep on your toes, but quite another to bounce around so much that you don’t even know where you’re at.

Some will argue that Lex should have stuck it out with Ethan and Colby, getting rid of the women instead. And they may be right. After all, a tribe with Ethan, Colby, and Lex would have been more likely to win immunity challenges. Plus, Lex would have not been as big a target when it came time to merge. He might have actually been able to make himself useful to Rob under those circumstances (if everything else remained the same – which, of course, it wouldn’t have).

But even if we grant that Lex’s earlier strategy was okay, and we only look at his most recent decision, we have to give it a big thumbs-down. Lex himself said he made a mistake and was paying for it – and he’s right. He gave away a certain ally for a vague promise from somebody who is known to break promises more often than a politician. If he truly thought he could convert Big Tom to his side, Lex should have gotten rid of Amber – thus breaking up a power couple – and gone into the merge. Yes, he would have been a target, but all he needed was one more person on his side.

Lex did okay this time with pretending to be nice. Indeed, if anything he was overly nice, even going so far as to tell people several times that they were going to be voted off – thus giving them a chance to fight back (though they didn’t succeed). This was not an issue in Lex getting voted off.

However, one thing that apparently was an issue was in letting his emotions control him. Initially, everybody assumed that Lex made his decision to keep Amber based on strategy. However, when Rob came to tell Lex he was going anyway, Lex claimed he wrecked his own strategy to save Amber – and that it wasn’t the game, it was about being friends. If this was indeed the case (Lex might have been just pulling out all the stops, trying to save himself – but it sure looked legit), then Lex made a serious blunder. As I said in this rule, “everybody involved should still know that issues of friendship can be tossed aside for the duration of the game if it is expedient. … they can’t let those friendships control the game.” Ironically, Lex told essentially this to Ethan when he informed the soccer player that he’d be sent home. However, when the Robfather told Lex essentially the same thing, Lex was extremely unhappy about it. Sorry, Lex, but you set up your own departure by allowing your friendship to interfere with your game.