Survivor: Guatemala – Why Morgan Lost

Morgan was the youngest player on Survivor: Guatemala, but she was also among a group of many other young players on her tribe. While we didn’t see it on the show, she thought she had an alliance that would take her at least to the merge, but instead they turned on her and sent her packing without warning. Why did Morgan lose?

Unlike last week, the answers to this question is not obvious at all. Oh, sure, there is what we saw, but as Morgan told me when I interview her that is nowhere near the full story. So let’s look back at What Guatemala Survivors Should Have Learned to see what we can find.

The first rule, of course, is to scheme and plot. Morgan knew going into the game that this was a necessity, as she specifically told me she was going to let people judge her as a nice girl and then not be so nice behind their backs. However, she also said she really didn’t have much time to do that.

Still, she did understand the importance of making early alliances. She was a member of a six-person alliance that agreed to go to the merge together. As far as she knew, everybody on that alliance was on the same page. Obviously, it didn’t turn out that way. She was honest with the members of her alliance – and even with Lydia, who she thought everybody was voting out – and expected the same in return. She didn’t get that honesty.

The only thing I can think that she might have done wrong as far as this rule is that while everybody else was running around and making plans, it appeared that Morgan was more content to listen and do what the others were doing. For example, she had no idea that a few people discussed voting out Stephenie – she would have been all for that! She didn’t know there was a debate about voting out Lydia. She thought everything was set. That said, she did make a specific deal with Brianna to not vote against each other (obviously, Brianna didn’t hold to that), so it’s not like she was just sitting there waiting to be told what to do.

Obviously, therefore, Morgan did not scheme and plot too much, backstab too early, or do anything else to violate the second rule.

The third rule says to not allow emotions to control you. Morgan had little problem here, at least as far in the game as she progressed. She did tell me that she might have had a hard time with it if she had gotten further. Indeed, even as only the second person voted out, she knew that some of her strategy went out the window when she met her tribemates. Everyone got along and they were happy together – that made it difficult for her to plot against them.

In the end, though, this was not really a factor because Morgan didn’t really have a chance to worry about her emotions getting in the way. It was difficult but she planned to vote out Lydia, just like she thought everyone else was going to do.

Morgan also did fine with the fourth rule, pretending to be nice. While we didn’t see it (like so much else pertaining to Morgan), she did tell me that she had been “brutally honest” to Amy, telling her that she was holding the tribe back during the 11-mile hike. But that was certainly not the reason Morgan left.

The fifth rule says not to be too much of a threat. Morgan, at about 100 pounds, was certainly no physical threat – but she was not a threat to make them lose challenges, either. Indeed, a couple of her tribemates pointed out that she would be better than Lydia in some of the physical challenges.

Morgan had not shown herself to be a strategic threat yet either. But she does believe that Gary saw her as a threat – he was surrounded by younger players and was afraid they might band against her. So getting rid of the youngest might have been part of his plan to counter that.

More importantly, Morgan was a threat to Lydia staying around. Votes appeared to be headed Lydia’s way. Those who wanted her to stay had to find somebody else to take the heat. That person was Morgan.