Survivor: Palau – Why Ashlee Lost

In the first week, Ashlee was among those on the Ulong tribe who overthrew their leader, Jolanda. By the second, it was Ashlee herself who was sent packing. How did her fate change so quickly? Why did Ashlee lose?

There is only one way we can find the answer to these questions (okay, there is probably more than one way, but allow me some dramatic license), and that is to look back at What Palau Survivors Should Have Learned to see what Ashlee did right and where she went wrong.

The first rule, of course, is to scheme and plot. Ashlee did some good scheming when Jolanda was trying to direct who the first person voted off should be last week. She felt that Jolanda was too strong a personality and not a team player, and so joined up with Kim, Angie, Jeff, James, and Stephenie to oust her.

In the second episode, Ashlee was supposed to stand with most of that initial unit – at least Angie, James, and Stephenie – to go against Kim. However, something changed that seems to have little to do with strategy. According to several comments made by voters and seen in Survivor Insider video, it appears that Ashlee told some of her fellows to vote her off. On the other hand, she also said that she was not happy to be gone. And on the CBS morning show, she basically said both things! So where does this leave us?

I would surmise that the group felt strongly that it might be a tie vote (though if they had talked to Ibrehem, they might have found that it wouldn’t be). Stephenie, as we saw, was already feeling pretty low. So she might have simply told a few of her closer allies to just vote her off if it meant keeping them safe. Again, this is only me taking a guess – but it’s an educated guess based on what was said and what we saw. In any case, telling people to vote you off, or even hinting that you’d like to go, is obviously not very good plotting and scheming!

The second rule says not to plot and scheme too much. I think it’s pretty obvious that we don’t have to worry about that in Ashlee’s case. However, some members of her alliance failed the part about keeping scheming secret as they opened their mouths to Kim, the other potential target, and Kim’s cuddle-buddy Jeff. This allowed them to make a possible counter-move. It’s unclear how much of a role that played in ousting Ashlee, but it certainly didn’t help her cause any!

Ashlee had a few problems with the third rule, pretending to be nice. To be more specific, it wasn’t that Ashlee was nasty or mean, it’s just that she was not terribly sociable. Bobby Jon noted that very point when Ashlee refused to eat the fish that had been caught and then went to sleep in the shelter rather than sitting around the campfire with the rest of her tribe. It appeared that she was sick, but Ashlee has said she watched all nine of the previous series, so she should have known what separating herself from the others would do to her chances of winning.

The fourth rule says not to let emotions control you. If indeed Ashlee did ask to be sent home, or even indicated that she was done with the game, it would also be a violation of this rule. Yes, sometimes players feel sick or tired or cold or just plain down. But Survivor is all about pushing through that barrier, and somebody who has watched all the series to date should have known that.

Fifth is to not be too much of a threat. No worries there, so let’s move on. Sixth is to not be lazy. We didn’t see that Ashlee was lazy, per se, but if she was doing a lot of lying around due to weakness or illness or what have you, then she was not viewed as a contributor. It’s not the same thing as being lazy, but it’s still a liability in a similar vein. Considering that Ulong is focusing primarily on physical strength now, the weakness Ashlee showed was magnified.