Survivor: Guatemala – Why Blake Lost

Well, I consider myself shocked – I had no idea Bobby Jon and Danni would actually turn against their old pal Blake. I’m not sure it was exactly the brightest thing to do, but it definitely raises the all-important question: Why did Blake lose?

Smart move or not, we will be able to answer that question, and a few others along the way. As always, we’ll do this by looking back at What Guatemala Survivors Should Have Learned to see where Blake went so wrong that he didn’t even see it coming.

The first and most important rule is to scheme and plot. Blake believed he was in a solid alliance with the three other people from original Nakum – and he had a definite promise from Bobby Jon. He had no idea he was in any danger, so as far as we know he didn’t try to make sure all of his voting ducks were in a row.

Meanwhile, the original Yaxha members were scheming and plotting their butts off, knowing they needed to do so in order to save themselves. Heck, Brian even purposely led Blake into situations where his stories would get annoying – that, my friends, is some serious scheming!

Obviously, therefore, Blake didn’t do too much plotting. However, he did fail to keep his scheming secret, though through no real fault of his own. It was obvious to everybody where the math was – four for original Nakum, three for original Yaxha. Gary, Amy, and Brian knew they needed to pull one vote over. That kind of information is always helpful, and Blake did nothing to try to counter any moves they might make. The math should have been obvious to him as well, and he should have known they’d make a play rather than just go gently into that good night.

But Blake figured he was pals with Bobby Jon, Brandon, and Danni, so he was good. He relied on them violating the third rule and allowing their emotions to control them. Danni said she liked Blake – though she didn’t like certain things about him. But that didn’t stop her from voting him off. She thought he needed to go, and that was that. Once again, it never seems to have entered Blake’s mind that such a thing could happen.

The fourth rule says to pretend to be nice and to keep your politics and controversial beliefs to yourself. I guess we’re going to have to add “and frat boy stories” to the list of things to keep quiet. I mean really, did anybody care what size his girlfriend’s boobs were? Or about his best drunken night out? Or anything else he told them? No! He must have thought he was just being entertaining, but Brian obviously knew better than Blake how to make the best of the situation. One part of the rule specifically notes, “Also remember that in the Machiavellian world of Survivor, it’s not good enough to look good yourself – you must make your competition look bad.” Brian did exactly that to Blake.

Fifth is to not be too much of a threat. Blake had gotten healthier and appeared to be a strong competitor at this point. However, the Yaxha tribe is filled to the brim with strong competitors. Blake’s final words indicated that he thought he was being sent home because he was a threat later in the game. We never saw any indication of that, though it might have entered their minds at some point.

The sixth rule says to be flexible. So far, the early tribal switch has generated some of the flexibility that I believe producers were looking for. Neither of the votes since then has broken down on purely tribal lines. But Blake was not thinking of such things. He wanted to stick with his original Nakum teammates and apparently made no attempts to go behind their backs to work a separate deal. He simply expected to move along with that alliance, in direct contradiction to the part of this rule that says, “you can’t simply tie yourself to one alliance and hope that it survives.”

Seventh is to avoid laziness. Early in the game, Blake was seen by a few people – like Brandon – as being lazy because he was so sick. Ironically, Brandon was the only one of his original tribemates to vote to keep him! At this point, we didn’t get the impression that Blake was seen as being lazy, though he was seen as being “Golden Boy,” which certainly left a negative impression about how he acted.

So did Blake’s tribemates make the right decision in voting him out? Right now, they should still be voting out the weakest links. I don’t think Blake was one of them. Yes, he was annoying, but you can live with annoying if you win challenges. Amy’s injured ankle may have made her the weakest, and she was from original Yaxha on top of it, making her certainly an easier target for the majority. But Brian and Gary played well by convincing Bobby Jon and Danni that Blake really didn’t deserve to be there. Plus, you’ve got to figure that there will be mental challenges eventually – and I doubt Blake’s teammates figured he was going to do well there.

Until now, almost all Survivor: Guatemala votes have been somewhat Darwinian in nature – voting out the physically weakest link. But they changed their tune for Blake. He is young, he talked too much, and the things he talked about annoyed his tribemates. He also figured he was completely safe and therefore didn’t seem to bother to do anything other than a quick promise with Bobby Jon. Meanwhile, Brian was luring Blake into being even more annoying while Gary was talking to Blake’s supposed allies about just how undeserving he was. This tag-team combination worked Blake over and convinced two of his allies to turn on him. That is why Blake lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our other Survivor: Guatemala Episode 5 articles:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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