Survivor: Cook Islands – Why Ozzy Lost

No matter what plan one of the Raros approached Ozzy with, he never went along with it. Maybe he simply figured he could win immunity all the way to the jury and they would respect him for that enough to give him the million. It almost worked, after all! So it is somewhat difficult to criticize him too much for not breaking ranks. Indeed, if he had gone along with one of Adam’s or Parvati’s or Candice’s schemes and he did still make the final three, he likely would have been facing a jury of mostly Raros (and thus likely to vote for their own) and Aitus he’d double-crossed (and thus less likely to vote for him). So in this rare case, I’m going to say sticking with the alliance was the right thing to do.

Certainly, Ozzy didn’t have any problems with the fourth rule, which says not to allow emotions to control you. While he played with his heart and soul, he didn’t let that heart interfere. A perfect example is the aforementioned situation with Nate. It was pretty obvious that Ozzy and Nate were becoming friendly. But when Ozzy found out that (supposedly) the only way to get Jonathan to flip was by voting out Nate, that’s just what he did. He did not allow friendship to get in the way of the game.

The fifth rule advises contestants to pretend to be nice. Here, Ozzy didn’t have anything to worry about. He seems to be a nice enough guy and didn’t have to put on a special game face. The votes he did get are good indicators of this fact.

Of course, the sixth rule was shot to heck by Ozzy. It says not to be too much of a threat. Do I really need to explain how much of a challenge threat Ozzy was?! But here’s the thing – it didn’t matter. Because Ozzy never lost immunity when it counted, this rule had nothing to do with his loss!

We’ve already discussed the seventh rule in conjunction with the first, so there’s no need to retread that ground. So how did Ozzy do in the jury phase? Well, as we’ve already noted, he only lost by one vote, so he didn’t do too bad. But there were a couple votes he expected to get and didn’t. For example, there was Adam, who would have voted for Ozzy, but had made a promise to Yul. What was that promise? He agreed to vote for Yul in the end if Yul got rid of Jonathan before him. Yul did exactly that, even though, as all the Aitu four have said, it was a group decision to rid the game of Jonathan.

But that is one of the keys here. Yul took credit for what the group as a whole did. Occasionally that meant taking blame as well, but in this case, it got Yul a definite vote. Even to this day, Adam refuses to believe that it was truly a group decision. As he told me in my interview with him, “Yul ran the show. … I still don’t think Ozzy or Sundra really had any input.” By not playing the social game – both earlier and then leading up to the jury – Ozzy left out a key component.

Ozzy played so much of Survivor well. He was a challenge phenomenon. He caught more food than anybody. And the alliance he was in made it all the way to the final four. But as I noted earlier, Ozzy himself admitted to his one fatal flaw – emphasizing survival skills over Survivor skills.

I said in Why Yul Won, “Scheming and plotting might not win every edition, but it still remains the most important aspect of the game. Winning challenges, as Ozzy did, certainly is another important aspect that can get a person to the finals, but it is somewhat risky because one false move and that player could be gone. Or, as in this case, they might be questioned as to what they did other than challenges.” That is the situation where Ozzy found himself. His skill in certain aspects of the game cannot be denied. But the one missing link in his game was also the most important. That is why Ozzy lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Cook Islands articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

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

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