Survivor: Tocantins – Why Candace Lost

Sometimes, it just doesn’t take much to be one of the first ones voted out of Survivor. Maybe you didn’t work hard enough. Maybe you didn’t talk enough to your tribemates. Maybe you talked too much (see Carolina, last week). What did Candace do to get herself an early ticket out of Brazil, especially when there was already a plan in place to rid the tribe of Sierra the sicky? Why did Candace lose?

Carolina was the first person voted out of Survivor: Tocantins and thus the first whose actions were viewed in light of What Tocantins Survivors Should Have Learned. But Candace was the first voted out of Timbira and thus this column will similarly be the first to evaluate that tribe and her place in it. There are some similarities – in both cases, there was an “obvious” target until something the new target did changed things up. Do the similarities continue from there? Let’s find out.

The first rule talks about the need for players to scheme and plot. And it is the first rule because it is also the most important rule. As the first paragraph notes, “the real survival skills necessary here are more along the lines of something you might learn from Renaissance schemer Niccolo Machiavelli than anything you can get out of a survival book.”

But that’s not where Candace focused her energies, as she now understands – too late. In Survivor Insider, Candace noted shortly after being voted off, “Obviously, it’s not strength that Timbira wants. I was lacking in the social compatibility.” Then, the following day, she added, “I knew that my brutal level of honesty… was going to be an issue in the game. … I’ve always had a problem with fake people. … It was too much for me. This whole social compatibility crap was just my downfall!”

“Social compatibility crap”?! No, that’s called Survivor!

After she’d had time to think about it and see the episode, Candace told me in her RealityNewsOnline interview, “My strategy obviously wasn’t the best of strategies. It was to work hard at challenges and at camp, which I did. … I worked hard and did the cooking and collected firewood and anything that needed to be done. Actions speak louder than words, and I have a great work ethic. I was sure they’d appreciate that. So much for that. I forgot about the whole manipulative/whispering/sneaking around/making up stuff. I needed to incorporate that and maybe I’d have still been there.” Indeed. She forgot about the most important aspect of Survivor!

And while actions may speak louder than words in most cases, that is not necessarily the case in Survivor, where words are the most important weapon you have at your disposal. You’ve heard that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Perhaps in Survivor, players should remember that the alliance is mightier than the hard worker. (Hmmm. I think I need to pep that up a bit to make it catchier. But you get the idea.)

Of course, the main point of all this is that Candace failed to properly scheme and plot. She didn’t make alliances and assumed that she would be safe because she was strong and a hard worker.

Which makes it that much more ironic that Candace also schemed and plotted too much! You might be asking yourself right now: “What?! How is that possible?” Allow me to explain.

One way that the tide turned against Candace so quickly was that she brought up the possibility of voting out Coach. She talked about it with several other people, but then didn’t carry through on it! I asked her why she didn’t follow through and she said, “Because I thought people on my tribe were so brainwashed by him. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. … It was like a cult.” So she knew that her tribemates wouldn’t go against him, but she still talked about it?! That actually makes matters worse!

And just to pile on, the one person we saw a lot of Candace talking to was Erinn. So what did Candace have to tell me about Erinn? “Wow! She’s conniving. It’s very obvious – you meet her and you just know she’s conniving. … I should have been paying attention to her but I didn’t want to.” Wait. What? She was obviously conniving and Candace should have been paying attention, but she didn’t “want to.” I don’t even know what to make of that!

Well, the one thing I can make of it is that she once again was scheming and plotting too much with the wrong people. And because of that, her scheming obviously was not kept secret. To make it a perfect trifecta for the second rule, her plotting against Coach was done too soon because she knew he would not make a good target this time around.

The third rule tells players they need to be flexible. I think it’s fairly obvious that Candace was not. We’ve already seen quotes from her indicating that she knew she needed to keep her mouth shut but she just couldn’t. And she said more in her interview with me: “I have a hard enough time biting my tongue in daily life and then put me in 120-degree weather and no food and put me with nauseating people.”