Survivor: Micronesia – Why Ozzy Lost

Ozzy was in a prime position. He held the not-so-hidden immunity idol, he could vie for just about any immunity challenge, and he was the king of his alliance. But even kings are sometimes deposed, as was Ozzy. What caused him to lose his crown? Why did Ozzy lose?

Hindsight is 20/20, and it’s easy now for people to say Ozzy should have played the idol to save himself. But he didn’t. Is that the reason for his loss, or was there something deeper and more complicated at work? Let’s take our usual journey through What Micronesia Survivors Should Have Learned to see what we can decipher.

When Ozzy was on Cook Islands, he didn’t do so well with the first rule, which emphasizes the overriding importance of scheming and plotting. Indeed, he told me at the time that he “probably screwed up a bit in my strategy in that I didn’t do enough politicking and did too much fishing.”

This time around, he endeavored to fix that problem. We saw a lot more of Ozzy talking to people and trying to maintain his alliance. He had an alliance with Parvati going into the game (more on that later, of course) and they quickly bonded with James and Amanda. Once they pulled in Cirie, they had a majority alliance and ruled the tribe.

Even after the tribal switch-up, Ozzy & Co. continued to control the vote because Joel’s recklessness led to a Favorite-dominated tribe. One by one, they said goodbye to the Fans (until they turned on Ami instead of Erik). And then after the merge, with the reuniting of the couples-plus-Cirie alliance, it seemed he was once again the king.

But here we encounter the second rule, which says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. Ozzy certainly violated the second part of this, as everybody knew exactly where he stood and who was in his alliance.

Plus, a corollary to this rule notes, “if any alliances do get out in the open, do not let it be known that you are the decision-maker, even to those in your own alliance, if possible!” Ozzy was directing everything. Even back before the merge, he directed Tracy to go to Exile Island and everybody else followed suit in telling her she had to go, despite the fact that she had never been on a reward trip.

That continued into Ozzy’s final episode, where he made it clear to everybody that despite the promise given to Jason, they were all still expected to vote him out. As I mentioned throughout various recaps, Ozzy was indeed the king. And in Survivor, kings are made to be deposed.

What about the first part of the rule? Did Ozzy scheme and plot too much? I’d have to say that’s a maybe. On the one hand, he made a very public promise that he never intended to uphold. On the other hand, so did most of the rest of the tribe! The difference is that, as mentioned above, Ozzy was the leader of the pack. But I don’t really think this particular issue had much to do with his loss.

The third rule tells players to be flexible, and in particular warns them that, “You cannot simply tie yourself to one alliance and hope that it survives!” But that’s just what Ozzy did. Never once did he seem to consider varying from the plan of the couples-plus-Cirie alliance. As he told me when I interviewed him this time around, they had a final five alliance.

Did we ever see him talking to others about forming a backup alliance? Or an alliance that would overthrow the one everybody knew he was in? No. He was set in his alliance and that was it. It’s fitting, since the players on Ozzy’s original season, Cook Islands, were among the worst offenders of this rule. Ozzy apparently didn’t learn from that.

I think it’s fairly obvious from Ozzy’s interview that he failed in the fourth rule by allowing his emotions to unduly interfere in his game. As he told me, “I just thought I could trust my friend – I thought Parvati was my friend and I thought we were good. And that was not the case.”

Ozzy’s certainly not the first person in this position to have been hurt by a prior friendship. Remember Lex on All-Stars? Apparently, Ozzy didn’t think that could happen to him. Of course, nobody thinks their friend will turn on them, but that’s what happens in Survivor, and players need to be prepared for it. Ozzy’s emotions blinded him to that possibility, while Parvati was able to put aside her feelings of friendship in order to make what she felt was the right game move.

I was going to say that Ozzy did fine with the fifth rule, which says to pretend to be nice. But then I remembered what Cirie kept pointing out – that Ozzy was playing for himself and himself alone. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t do a very good job of hiding it at times. For example, he made it pretty clear when somebody was on the outs (see my reference to Tracy, above).

Because of this, Jason knew exactly where he stood and certainly had no qualms about going along with the plan to vote Ozzy out. And Parvati had to see it as well (with Cirie’s help, of course). It’s not like Ozzy was a jerk or a loudmouth or anything – he just was a bit too obvious when he wanted/expected something to go a certain way.

Of course, the sixth rule was completely foreign to Ozzy. It says not to be too much of a threat. Ha! There was no possible way Ozzy could have followed this rule, short of an injury. As he told me, “there’s not much I can do to persuade people I’m not as capable as they think.” If Ozzy had been allowed to make it to the final five, as his alliance had agreed, he could certainly have beaten the others in challenges to make it to the final three.

But Ozzy was not simply a challenge threat. He had the immunity idol, which he could have used had he ever felt threatened. And because he was respected as a game player and generally well-liked despite what I said in the previous rule, Ozzy would have been a huge threat in front of the jury. So getting rid of him now, when he didn’t expect it and the numbers were available, made absolutely perfect sense from the perspectives of Cirie and Parvati.

Since the seventh rule (warning against laziness) doesn’t apply here, that makes for a good segue into the eighth, which asks if the other players did the right thing. In my opinion (which I know differs from our resident professor), the answer is a clear yes for Cirie, Parvati, Alexis, Natalie, and Jason. The latter three are obvious, but it’s just as true for the first two. If they stuck with their alliance, they would have made it to the final five. But then, they would have faced King Ozzy, a difficult task to say the least. Knocking out the big threat now when he didn’t expect it was absolutely the right thing to do.

Ozzy’s problem, though, was that he didn’t expect it. It has been suggested that he should have seen it coming and used his immunity idol. I’ll deal with that issue in another article. The point here is that Ozzy was a huge threat who was also the known leader of the main alliance. Yet his friendship with Parvati, in particular, blinded him to the possibility that his alliance was potentially not as solid as he believed. That is why Ozzy lost.

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

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

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