Survivor: Micronesia – Why Jason Lost

Jason was given a new lease on life when the women chose to turn on Ozzy. He was given another new lease on life when he was sent to Exile Island and found the re-hidden immunity idol. But apparently, Jason ran out of lives as he committed the equivalent of game hari-kari. What led to this inglorious turn of events? Why did Jason lose?

Last week, we began by noting that hindsight is 20/20 and in retrospect, Ozzy should have played the idol – but he didn’t know he needed to. This week, we could say it again, but I have to add that unlike Ozzy, Jason should have known he needed to. To find out why I’m saying this and what led to Jason’s situation, let’s take our usual look at What Micronesia Survivors Should Have Learned.

The most important – and not coincidentally first – rule, of course, tells players they need to scheme and plot. I guess Jason, at some level, understood this. He just didn’t really put it into action. And when I interviewed him and asked what kind of strategy he had coming into the game, he didn’t even bring it up. Instead, he said he wanted “to come in and be an easygoing, likable guy.”

From there, it was even worse when I asked how his strategy changed. He said, “To just play the game for myself and make it as far as I could on my own.” But while Survivor is a game where only one person can win and you do have to look out for yourself first and foremost, it is not a game you can win by yourself. You need alliances, it is a social game. But that’s not the way Jason played it.

Part of scheming and plotting needs to be a recognition of what is going on around you in the game. But Jason didn’t have that at all. He had been completely on the outs with Natalie and Alexis from their time together on the original Fan tribe. Yet it didn’t seem to occur to him that it was unlikely somebody would go from totally disliking him to wanting to align with him.

Some people only analyze actions as if people were computers and would do what is logically correct. Jason seems to have been one of those people, as indicated by another thing he said to me about Natalie – “I looked at the reasoning and I couldn’t see a better option for her.” But people are not computers, and as I noted earlier, this is a social game. That means social interactions must play a role, and rare is the case where somebody instantly switches from disliking you personally to suddenly wanting to help you. Jason should have recognized that.

Due to the fact that he didn’t scheme and plot enough, it’s safe to say he followed the second rule by not scheming and plotting too much. So we’ll go straight to the third rule, which tells players to be flexible. One of the specific guidelines within this rule says, “Players have to look at what’s going on around them and judge the proper way to proceed.” Later, the rule says, “You need to have your finger on the pulse of every member of your tribe.” Considering what we already said about Jason not understanding what the other tribe members were really doing, I have to say he failed here.

Let me take a moment to address something Jason told me when I asked how he could believe the others when they promised not to vote him out if he stepped down from the immunity challenge: “It obviously worked and I didn’t go home.” To me, this indicates that Jason actually believed he did the right thing there, simply because of the outcome. But he failed to grasp that just because they didn’t vote him out at that Tribal Council, it didn’t mean he was suddenly an ally. That’s what I mean when I say you have to have your finger on everybody’s pulse. He thought the fact that he stayed meant he was good. But it really only meant he was lucky.

The fourth rule tells players not to allow their emotions to control them. I can’t say for certain on this one, but I do believe Jason fell prey to this rule. I believe he believed Natalie because of emotional, not necessarily logical, reasons. After all, at this point he was essentially alone. He had previously been aligned with – and pals with – Eliza. When she left, he was obviously going home. So when Natalie started showing him attention, I think his emotions – and not just logic – played a role.

Jason did fine in terms of the fifth rule, pretending to be nice. Well, let me correct that – he did fine from what we saw. In his own words, though, he told me, “I think maybe I had rubbed Natalie the wrong way somehow. I don’t really know for sure. I just got tired of their whole L.A. thing.” And Eliza had previously told me something similar, that Natalie and Alexis didn’t want to align with herself and Jason after Jonathan left because they didn’t like Jason. So in this case, I guess I have to retract my opening statement and say that while we didn’t see any problems, it appears there may have been some. Then again, I’m not sure we can blame him too much for getting tired of Natalie, considering what we saw of her in the most recent episode!

The sixth rule says not to be too much of a threat. This one is interesting for Jason, because he would have been booted if he hadn’t won immunity challenges. And they also wanted him booted because he could win immunity challenges – and he held the idol on top of that. I think it was six of one, half dozen of the other in this case.

Certainly the seventh rule, which says not to be lazy, didn’t play a role. So now we look at the eighth rule to see if the others did the right thing. Some might argue they didn’t, as the Fans should have banded together against the Favorites. However, Natalie and Alexis firmly believe they are in a final four alliance with Parvati and Amanda. Cirie appears to believe she is in a final three alliance with Parvati and Amanda. Amanda isn’t sure what to believe. Erik and James – well, they just believe anybody needed to go except themselves. In an ideal world, Amanda, Erik, James, and Jason could have sprung a trap, but it just doesn’t look like they were all traveling in the right circles.

Jason was a man without a country. He thought people had kept true to their promise to keep him around, and that meant he was in an alliance. He was dead wrong. Jason just didn’t seem to quite get the social aspect of Survivor. He was the easiest target, left twisting in the wind without even realizing it, and a threat on top of it. That is why Jason 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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