Survivor: China – Why Frosti Lost

Frosti was the first person in three weeks to not try to work with a false idol. But knowing who had the idols didn’t help him stick around – nor did his parkour skills. How did Frosti, who seemed much more “in” with the Fei Long crowd, end up on the outs before somebody like Erik? Why did Frosti lose?

To answer these questions, we will wake up from our post-Thanksgiving/post-recap episode/post-Black Friday/post-Cyber Monday stupor and follow our usual path through What China Survivors Should Have Learned. Let’s see what we can discover.

The primary rule of Survivor is to scheme and plot. Frosti didn’t plan to worry about that immediately, but, as he described in my interview with him, he saw that it was important from the very first day. He noted, “I had to step up getting close and figuring out who would be an ally and an enemy.”

When he was moved to Fei Long, Frosti knew he had to work to stick around. Unlike Sherea, who really only bonded with Courtney, Frosti did his best to be friendly with everybody and to be wherever the action was. As he told me, “A rule of thumb is if you see two people doing something, you probably want to be there.”

To further show his understanding of this rule, if Frosti had made it past this vote, he planned to work with Courtney and the Fei Long who were lower on the totem pole, like Denise.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to successfully accomplish any of this. It’s somewhat ironic because many people expected Frosti to be a challenge threat, yet it was his loss in this challenge that really made him vulnerable – because Peih-Gee was the winner. Her abrasiveness coupled with the fact that she was one of only two remaining contestants who had never been on Fei Long would have almost certainly meant she would have gone home instead of Frosti. But with her winning, things were more up in the air.

Frankly, it’s not entirely clear what more Frosti could have done here. He made a deal with Todd and Amanda. He became close with Courtney. As he told me, he knew he wasn’t in the best of positions, but he didn’t think he was that bad off.

But while we’re saying it’s not clear what more he could have done, there is one thing in particular he could have done less of: Spending time with Courtney. The second rule warns against being too open with scheming, and in particular says players should not form couples. Frosti and Courtney had become an obvious couple, and that frightened Todd and the other allies. Indeed, Todd specifically mentioned that Courtney needed to play the game and get rid of Frosti.

And really, Todd was right to be worried. Keeping Frosti around would have constituted a risk. The relationship between the couple would have continued to grow, making less and less likely that Courtney would vote him off. Meanwhile, as the numbers dwindled, having a couple around became more and more dangerous. Frosti needed to find a way to be less public about his relationship with Courtney.

Frosti did okay in terms of the third rule, though, as he stayed pretty flexible. No, I’m not talking about his ability to do backflips and the like – but rather the fact that he understood he might have to jump alliances when necessary. For example, he wanted to go back with the Zhan Hu alliance, but knew the danger that would involve if he crossed his new Fei Long friends. He felt out the other players – finding, for example, that James was not going to stick with his new Zhan Huers. Because of that, Frosti was able to (temporarily) stay in the good graces of the Fei Long alliance.

The fourth rule is probably one Frosti wishes Courtney would have violated. It says not to allow emotions to control you. Courtney obviously passed since she helped get rid of her Survivor boyfriend, but what about Frosti?

I’d say he did mostly okay as well. He noted that he became very friendly with just about everybody there. But he knew it was a game, and he had to play it. The only time he should have listened to this rule a bit better was in dealing with Courtney. Although he didn’t have to decide whether or not to vote her off, we already discussed how his emotions pulled him too close to her.

Frosti had no problem at all with the fifth rule, which says to pretend to be nice. He was nice to everybody, and I don’t think anybody would have a single bad thing to say about him.

The sixth rule, however, is a different story. It says not to be too much of a threat. Anybody looking at Frosti for the first time wouldn’t peg him as a huge threat. But he was forced to show some of his skills in challenges, and the others certainly knew he was capable of amazing feats. And he did well on the mental challenges as well, having won one memory competition and coming in second in another. In discussing whether to vote out Frosti or Erik, Todd specifically noted the challenge threat posed by Frosti.

As noted earlier, Frosti was a threat in another way as well. Allowing him to stick around meant Courtney had a steadfast ally. With the numbers dwindling, Todd certainly didn’t want anybody to be in a situation where they had alliances outside of the main Fei Long one, as that would be a threat to his position in the game.

The seventh rule talks about not being lazy, and we can easily skip past that one. That takes us to number eight, which discusses how the other tribe members should vote.

This poses an interesting question. With James being convinced he was safe, I think it would have again been the perfect opportunity to blindside him and remove him from the game. As it stands now, he can practically waltz into the final three.

But other than James, it was probably wise to go after Frosti. As discussed above, he was certainly more of a threat than Erik – not only because of his challenge abilities, but because he has allies, while Erik is a lone wolf.

Indeed, that describes pretty well Frosti’s overall situation. He knew he had to scheme and plot, and he did it fairly well, but he had other problems that overshadowed that ability. He was a double-threat, being dangerous in challenges and a danger to overthrow the ruling alliance if he stuck around. Todd saw that the threat had to be eliminated. That is why Frosti lost.

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

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

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