Survivor: Fiji – Why Rocky Lost

Rocky (or James, as we knew him for about 10 minutes on the show) helped guide a number of players to a torch-snuffing before he found himself getting the same treatment. How did things go wrong for him? What could he have done differently? Why did Rocky lose?

With Rocky being such a huge character on the show, it will be interesting to see what we can pick up by looking back at What Fiji Survivors Should Have Learned and using it as a tool to answer these questions.

While Rocky might have thought that the first rule of Survivor was to yell loudly, in fact it is to scheme and plot. And even though he wasn’t exactly the slyest of contestants, I do have to give him some credit here.

From the very beginning, Rocky made alliances. First, he got together with Erica and Jessica – ironic since he would later end up getting rid of woman after woman and trying to bond more with the men. His first alliance didn’t last very long because he didn’t realize that three people was not a majority. But he eventually got hooked up with Mookie and somehow managed to turn that into a majority vote.

It seems like Rocky was generally the driving force behind the votes, perhaps through sheer force of will. But he was also the beneficiary of several other players in his tribe playing the “anybody but me” game without realizing that eventually, it would be them. If they ever got together, as Rita tried to do just before she was voted out, Rocky could have been gone in a heartbeat.

What about the second rule? Did Rocky scheme and plot too much or backstab too soon? Possibly. Rocky was so enamored of the he-man-women-haters-club idea that he wanted to target the least he-man of the tribe last week, Anthony. Apparently, he thought that just because he easily turns on a tribemate, it would mean the original Motoans would as well.

But they didn’t. With Lisi joining them, the original Motoans had a four-to-two advantage. And they used it! If Rocky had focused on getting rid of somebody from Moto – such as Dreamz, who was not part of the inner circle there – the tribe would have remained at three each, and the outcome of this week’s vote might have been different. Indeed, if he had then persuaded Alex and Edgardo to get rid of Lisi – or beaten her in a tie-breaker, if that became necessary – Rocky could have had a nice ride at least through the merge. But he was more concerned with getting rid of Anthony than with strategic planning.

In my interview with Rocky, he admitted as much on this point. He said, “I couldn’t really see two or three steps ahead, only there and then. That was probably a piece of my downfall – that was the beginning of the end right there for me.” And he was right.

The third rule tells players to be flexible. I can’t say Rocky was successful here, but I can’t say he was particularly unsuccessful either. While I don’t think he has any idea what it means, he also wasn’t really put into a position where it mattered.

He did, however, have plenty of opportunity to follow the fourth rule, which says not to let emotions control you. Rocky pretty much is one big bundle of emotion. If something was bothering him, he let everybody know. And that’s the way he played the game as well.

Think about why Rita was voted out. Rocky had been picking on Anthony for so long that it seemed obvious he would be the target. Instead, Rocky complained to Anthony about Rita. Why? Because that’s the way Rocky’s emotions were swaying at the time. He was mad at her, so she had to go. The same was true the next week when it was Anthony’s turn to go. And looking back, we can often say the same thing. Rocky didn’t plan ahead strategically, he just went where his emotions took him.

Unfortunately for Rocky, those emotions also helped take him out of the game as well, because he couldn’t follow the fifth rule. “Pretend to be nice.” It sounds so simple. But for somebody like Rocky, who wears his emotions on his sleeve (and not in a touchy-feely sensitive guy kind of way), it was impossible. Rocky was clashing with Dreamz from the get-go, before the tribes were split. From that point on, he ranted and raved and yelled and picked on people.

Oddly, it seems like original Ravu wasn’t so bothered about it, except of course Anthony. But Rocky wasn’t so lucky in new Ravu. He thought he could say anything to his new pals because they were all just a bunch of guys. But he annoyed them with his treatment of Anthony the week before, and when he turned that on pretty much the entire tribe after they overate at the reward challenge, none of them were in a particularly good mood about it.

One part of this rule notes, “in the Machiavellian world of Survivor, it’s not good enough to look good yourself – you must make your competition look bad.” Lisi came into new Ravu as a potential underdog. She had made herself look bad after the tribal switch-up, and she was known for having a big mouth. But she didn’t even have to work to make Rocky look bad – he did it to himself and took all the focus away from her.

The seventh rule says providing food wins allies and you can’t be lazy. From all accounts, Rocky didn’t really do anything around camp. Yet he sailed through the original Ravu portion of the game. While that didn’t get him booted earlier, his new tribemates were smart enough to know that Rocky was not exactly a hard worker.

In fact, the eighth rule points to what the rest of the tribe should do. Were they right to boot Rocky? Hell yes! This is an interesting point in the game, where players are still on tribes, but the merge is likely coming soon. So they still want to get rid of the weakest tribal links, but don’t want to let the strongest individual players survive. Rocky fit the bill in both ways.

Rocky seemed like he could be a strong challenge competitor in those areas that would require brute strength. Intelligence? Nope. But holding up weight or something like that? Probably. However, he was a disruptive influence in the tribe, both in group challenges and just sitting around. Several players, both on and off the show, have said that Rocky was often the cause of challenge losses. That made him weak as far as the tribe was concerned.

There were numerous reasons to vote off Rocky – but there had been for weeks. The biggest change for him was the tribal switch-up, which he apparently thought would work to his advantage because he was on the tough-guy tribe. What he didn’t realize – and apparently doesn’t realize in real life either – is that he is not truly representative of most men. Alex and Edgardo can be tough-guys without picking on people like Anthony or being obnoxious after people overeat or targeting “weak” women or trying to overtly control everything that goes on.

Probably more importantly, Alex and Edgardo know how to play the game of Survivor. That means planning ahead and thinking strategically, not just targeting the person who pissed you off recently. Rocky was able to make it rather far considering his lack of strategy, but a new mix of tribe members put an end to that. Rocky should have recognized that allowing one of his own former tribemates to be booted would set up a situation where he would find himself in the minority. But he apparently never thought about it. After all, there would be a woman on the tribe, and she would obviously be the target, just like had happened before. What was obvious to Rocky was not so obvious to everybody else, though, as they were playing with their brains, not their raw emotions. And that is why Rocky lost.

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

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

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