Survivor Rankdown 2.0 (Winner Reveal Page 225)

[#jeah]

I’ll do Erinn and Taj

[Solaris]

Kelly Goldsmith - Hayden

Jenn Brown - Andrelliott

Albert Destrade - Alex

Shirin Oskooi - Alex

Erinn Lobdell - Andy

Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George - Andy

 

Unclaimed:

Jenna Lewis

Clarence Black

Jan Gentry

Holly Hoffman

Dawn Meehan

Katie Collins

Mike White

Jamal Shipman

Edited August 18, 2020 by Solaris

[Solaris]

@JC @Steven_ @*Amanda @Zoey

[JC]

Clarence Black

 

 

Decided I would do some male writeups this time while I can. I do not really remember Clarence although I feel like his name just made me immediately associate him with the supreme court justice. Looks like he was on Ethan Zohn's season which was a long time ago which is probably why I do not remember him. I think I saw that he posed nude for something, and based on his abs, I think that must have been a spectacular photoshoot. I could not find anything racy online though unfortunately. Other than looking good shirtless, I do not remember him so nothing interesting about his gameplay. He did not do very well and was easily mistrusted after he opened a can of beans and ate them when they were supposed to be for sick Diane on his tribe. He survived this but then was voted out after the merge for being an individual threat.

 

 

 

Mike White

 

 

I remember finding Mike White a little annoying and was not really rooting for him although I do not think I cared who won. White is a writer, producer, and actor which makes him quite interesting. Mike was on the season David vs Goliath and played a decent game. He was pretty under the radar at first and skated by due to no one finding him the least bit threatening, which was a mistake because he made it all the way to final tribal and finished as runner-up. He did make some bigger moves like orchestrating Christian's elimination and winning the fire-making challenge, but he ended up losing to Nick Wilson at the very end in a 7-3 vote. It was nice to see an older person make the final as he was in his late 40s.

[Solaris]

Kelly Goldsmith - Hayden

Jenn Brown - Andrelliott

Albert Destrade - Alex

Shirin Oskooi - Alex

Erinn Lobdell - Andy

Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George - Andy

 

Unclaimed:

Jenna Lewis

Jan Gentry

Holly Hoffman

Dawn Meehan

Katie Collins

Jamal Shipman

[Elliott]

JC not even mentioning the cinematic masterpiece that is The Emoji Movie.

 

[.Rei]

Mike

[Steven_]

I'll claim Dawn and Katie.

[Solaris]

Kelly Goldsmith - Hayden

Jenn Brown - Andrelliott

Albert Destrade - Alex

Shirin Oskooi - Alex

Erinn Lobdell - Andy

Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George - Andy

 

Dawn Meehan - Steven

Katie Collins - Steven

 

Unclaimed:

Jenna Lewis

Jan Gentry

Holly Hoffman

Jamal Shipman

 

Last 4 for @*Amanda and @Zoey

[hayden98]

Kelly Goldsmith

 

Kelly Goldsmith was (and still is) a random favorite of mine from watching past clips of Survivor. Kelly participated on Survivor Africa, and was the first member of the jury, placing 9^th overall. Kelly started out on the same tribe as many people who later returned for later seasons such as Ethan, Lex, and Big Tom (this is more a plus for the first one than the second two, but you know :P). Kelly didn’t have a major role in the first several episodes, save voting out Diane and Jessie along with the majority of her tribe. Kelly, along with Lex and Tom, were switched over to the new Samburu tribe. Thanks to Kim Powers signaling an L for Lindsey to Kelly (and Kelly overhearing Brandon); Kelly was able to survive through to the merge after a dramatic tribal council where Lindsey and Tom tied.

The first episode of the merge wasn’t too crazy for Kelly, but the ending catapulted Kelly’s storyline as Lex received a mystery vote, which was actually T-Bird, but he assumed it to be Kelly and he went ballistic! Lex eventually attacked Kelly enough to cause her to jump ship and try to vote him out for real this time. Unfortunately, Brandon also flipped on his tribe and thus Kelly was sent to the jury in a close 5-4 vote, but not before Kelly gave one of my favorite voting confessionals.

Kelly thankfully was avenged and neither Lex nor Brandon made it to FTC. Kelly asked Ethan and Kim to guess a number between 1 and 1000, which Ethan got closer to. After Survivor, Kelly worked for CBS while applying to graduate school. She did manage to cast five castaways for Vanuatu, including Ami Cusack. Since this time, Kelly has married and had twins. Anyways, Kelly isn’t the most important castaway by any means, but she was someone that I’m randomly really fond of and I’m glad that I’ve dragged her this far.

Edited August 18, 2020 by hayden98

[Zoey]

I’ll let Amanda choose which ones she wants and have the others done in the morning.

[*Amanda]

I'll do Jenna's & Holly's, but I'll wait because I'm not the only one who still has write-ups to do.  

[Solaris]

Jenn Brown - Andrelliott

Albert Destrade - Alex

Shirin Oskooi - Alex

Erinn Lobdell - Andy

Tamara "Taj" Johnson-George - Andy

Dawn Meehan - Steven

Katie Collins - Steven

Holly Hoffman - Amanda

Jenna Lewis - Amanda

Jan Gentry - Zoey

Jamal Shipman - Zoey

[#jeah]

I will try to get mine in tonight but realistically it may be tomorrow! 

[Alex95]

Albert Destrade

We've got people advancing only the hot guys with no reservations and yet Albert gets cut here?? Noted. Albert is one of Survivor's most underrated characters from Survivor's most underrated season. And also a top 1 Survivor hottie. Sophie's loyal minion who was unable to form one strategic plan on his own . Albert really thought he was running the game, but lucky for us, Sophie took the time to sh*t on him day in and day out in the most hilarious ways. Albert sailed through to the merge as part of the majority alliance with Coach, Sophie, Rick, and Brandon. Once the merge hit and they flipped Cochran, Albert proposed flipping at MULTIPLE opportunities, which Sophie always made sure to shut down. As a fervent South Pacific defender, the Pagonging of Savaii is a bit boring, but luckily we would have a scene of Albert mapping out a strategy to Sophie on how they should make their big move while Sophie silently judges him and shuts him down damn near every episode. So Albert stays put and Upolu makes it to the end together!

Then comes my favorite episode of the season and one of my favorites in Survivor history...the Brandon boot episode. Where Albert really thinks he's about to take control of the game. He comes up with a master plan to take a Sophie out and thinks she has no idea it's coming. Of course, Coach ratted Albert out .2 seconds after Albert concocted his hairbrained scheme. Sophie's more concerned with getting Brandon, the bigger jury threat, out though. Brandon wins immunity, so they have to fall back on just dumping Albert. The sequence of Albert realizing he's f*cked and beginning to scramble is iconique.

WHERE IS YOUR STRATEGIC MIND NOW?

Sophie describing how Albert is a turd in a toilet bowl and everyone on the tribe is taking their turn of flushing Albert and then Probst will make the final flush at tribal council is a top-tier confessional, and an accurate description of where Albert is at in the game right now. Albert, to his credit, makes a great strategic move in convincing Brandon to give him immunity. All the dark, underlying religious stuff with Albert, Coach, and Brandon is obviously a bit yucky, but it's also top-tier, complex, classic Survivor and some of the most compelling television ever. Albert survives the night with this move, but loses all respect from the jury. And of course the pièce de résistance is when the immunity necklace falls off Albert's neck when Brandon is voted out. One of the most visually shocking and iconic moments in Survivor history, up there with Lill's torch not going out when she's voted out pre-merge.

Albert's pretty much out of this game at this point and has no choice but to crawl back under Sophie's wing at this point and beg for forgiveness. Especially with Ozzy coming back into the game, Albert must join forces with Sophie again to take their common enemy out. He has no agency in the game though and is just used as a punching bag for Sophie. The cards immunity challenge where Sophie demands that Albert drops his damn stack and pick up her cards as he stutters about how great of a position he's in is one of my favorite challenge moments. She also yells at him at the final immunity challenge when he's in her way during the obstacle course . Albert stays in Sophie & Coach's good graces by doing whatever they want so he's allowed to sit with them at FTC and become the obvious third place loser. Yay for him!

Final tribal council is used as an opportunity for everyone to verbally destroy Albert as he gives some of the worst answers in Survivor history. Albert is such a bullsh*t artist and his ways were surely gonna catch up to him. We've got Jim demanding Albert answer him without any compliments......so Albert starts his answer by telling Jim how intelligent he is and how he has such a great understanding of the game . We've got Brandon demanding the yes or no answer from Albert of whether or not he knew he was going home which Albert refuses to answer with just yes or no until he finally decides to lie a minute later . Truly one of the worst performances ever and a perfect ending to Survivor's most underrated beta male character.

 

(12:06 in this video for the full Albert #dragging)

There's also Albert and Rick's rivalry which is a funny B-storyline that lasts pretty much the whole season. There's no huge payoff or big #moment to come out of it (unless you want to count Rick fuming over Albert's snoring as a moment) but it's fun storylines and character moments like that I miss about Survivor. I know Albert's not a very popular or big character, but I've always loved him and I'm glad I helped get him to top 100.

And come on that bulge how could #TeamHot let him die here?!

[Alex95]

Shirin Oskooi

I know Shirin's a tough character for most people. I can't help but find her to be one of the most fascinating and unique characters to come out of modern day Survivor though. Her two season storyline is pretty amazing. Like you can't script it better (and I've been thinking about it a lot lately as I've been watching Nicole Anthony on Big Brother pretty much follow Shirin's exact trajectory). Shirin as a human being has always interested me. I think it's very clear that she did not come on Survivor and play a character or put on a show. I genuinely believe talking about monkey sex and casually hanging out bottomless is normal for Shirin. And that's very weird to most people! The way Shirin latched on to Jenn, Max, and Mike after Worlds Apart and now has blood feuds with all three of them is just absolutely fascinating to me. Her hour long, rambling, cringy af drunk jury speech in the Survivor Sequester game is pretty much #peakShirin where she's pretty valid, but she's just unable to coherently deliver her message or make people want to trust her and listen to her. I feel bad for her. But I'm sure she's fine in life lol.

Shirin came onto Worlds Apart as a pretty fresh character. We don't get a WOC as the nerdy superfan every season. 30 seasons in in fact, I can't think of any others that would fit that archetype. I was hoping to see Shirin be more of a HBIC, but what we got was even better. While she brought the lolz during the pre-swap, she was kind of annoying in her duo with Max. So when Max got blindsided, Shirin started to take the game more seriously and really come into her own as a character. There's a scene during the swap where Hali pretty much educates Shirin on how to play a social game and Shirin is all shocked_pikachu.jpg. She really had no idea how annoying she was coming across lol. Shirin begins to bond with the no collars and greatly improves her social game after Hali lands these hard truths on her (or more likely, she swears allegiance to them and the No Collars barely tolerate her as a number ).

At the merge, we get Shirin become one of the most rootable underdogs ever because of one episode alone. The episode where Will attacks Shirin is obviously one of the ugliest in Survivor history. It's an extremely personal episode where we got to learn a lot about Shirin and she really lets the audience in. We, as the audience, learn who Shirin is and what her life was like and her socially awkwardness and desperate need for approval and friendship all makes sense. Even though Shirin turned people off, she was never a bad person. The way Will treats Shirin is absolutely abhorrent (and Dan as well at tribal council comparing being adopted to coming from a home of domestic abuse). Shirin gets the last laugh twice though. Shirin raising her hand and not letting Will get his letter from home is one of my favorite Survivor moments ever. Then, Shirin's jury speech is great where she rails into Will and compares him to a dead fish. F*ck Rodney forever for voting for Will, not letting him be a 0-vote FTC loser, and having him TIE WITH CAROLYN?? Ughhhhhhhhh.

So Shirin exists Worlds Apart as a fan favorite, a role I don't think anyone ever imagined Shirin to be in. A mouthy, WOC who isn't particularly lovable has the casuals loving her??? How can it be?! But because of that, she's a lock to return for Second Chance just one year later. Hoping to rewrite her Survivor story, Shirin comes onto the island looking for peace. She just came back way too soon unfortunately though. Because Shirin's downfall will be quick and it will be harsh. Shirin somehow is not the most annoying person on her tribe because she is blessed with living with Abi-Maria Gomes. Abi-Maria wants to align with Shirin because she feels like they can relate, both being the outcasts on their season. Shirin excludes Abi-Maria though, and laughs at her behind her back like a cartoon villain after Abi's blow up with Peih-Gee. Now, let's get one thing straight. This is not entirely comparable to what happened to Shirin in Worlds Apart. Shirin was yelled at for having no one who loves her and pretty much told she should die alone. Abi-Maria, on the other hand, was just made fun of behind her back and excluded from the group. While I am not defending Shirin's behavior, the situations are just not comparable. Having said that, watching Shirin become that person is both really fascinating, and really sad. I would expect Shirin to have a little more sympathy for Abi-Maria (though I also recognize that Abi-Maria is impossible to deal with ). Shirin falls on her head hard though. While she ran the first vote to blindside Vytas, the tides switched against her and Spencer extremely fast and they were forced to beg Woo to spare their lives, after ignoring him for like three straight days . Shirin's downfall from Worlds Apart to Cambodia is a great multi-season arc, though as a huge Shirin stan I would have to admit it's still a little difficult to watch. Shirin is still a top-tier Survivor character in my heart though and I will always have love for her.

[JC]

Oh oops that Albert cut was definitely an oversight on my part. The picture that I saw had his face looking creepy and weird though lol, if only I had seen the bulge  

[Steven_]

KATIE COLLINS

 

Katie Collins is the daughter of Survivor winner Tina, and the two of them competed together on Survivor: Blood vs. Water. Katie has the distinction of being the first castaway to make her first appearance as a loved one. She was on The Australian Outback via webcam for the family visit challenge before returning several years later to play as a castaway. As for her Survivor run, I can't recall anything about her individual game play. She was quiet and under-the-radar, and I don't think the edit focused on her much. She's probably best remembered for being the victim of the tiebreaker rock draw. Ciera decided to flip on the power trio of Tyson, Gervase, and Monica and forced a rock draw tiebreaker. This really could've shifted the power in the game if one of those three had drew the elimination rock. Unfortunately, Katie drew the white rock and was sent to Redemption Island. She was then knocked out the game for good when her own mother Tina defeated her in the Redemption Island duel. Katie then went on to vote for Tyson to win the game, even after he rudely snarked that her seat was now over by the jury section during her elimination. Anyway, sorry to Katie, but out she goes from the rankdown.

[Steven_]

DAWN MEEHAN

 

Dawn Meehan is quite a complex Survivor character. When we first met her in Survivor: South Pacific, she was introduced as this kind and motherly figure who adopted six children. She aligned herself with Cochran while everyone else wasn't going out of their way to make him feel welcomed. In addition, she was very emotional and struggled living in the elements. She cried a lot, but she pulled herself together and stayed to play the game. She even ended up being one of the better challenge competitors for her tribe. However, her ally Cochran ruined her game and the rest of the Savaii tribe when he stupidly flipped to be on the bottom of the Upolu alliance. The former Savaii tribe members were picked off, and Dawn ended up on the jury. She returned later for Survivor: Caramoan. It was a fans vs favorites season, and she was reunited with her former ally Cochran. The two agreed to team up, and Dawn was determined to play a more aggressive game. And she definitely played more aggressively, but her ruthlessness did her no favors. She brutally backstabbed people who really trusted her; she had terrible jury management. The most noteworthy betrayal was when she voted out Brenda. Brenda really believed in the bond she and Dawn had. Brenda looked out for Dawn, and there's a memorable scene when Dawn lost her retainer. She broke down crying and threatened to pull herself from the game if she didn't get her retainer back, but Brenda went into the water and retrieved it for her. Brenda brought this up at the final tribal council when Dawn made it to the end with Cochran and Sherri. The jury was quite brutal with Dawn, calling her out on her betrayals and being insincere with people. They also thought Dawn didn't own up to her villainous way of playing. However, Brenda was the harshest. She reminded Dawn how she retrieved her retainer, and she claimed she had Dawn's Survivor life in her hands that day. She asked Dawn if she really would've withdrew from the game if she didn't get back her teeth, and Dawn told her she would not have. Brenda wanted proof, so she told Dawn to take out her retainer. Dawn argued against it, but eventually took them out and showed her teeth to everyone. And even after Dawn did that, Brenda still did not vote for Dawn to win the game. Nobody voted for Dawn to win the game. Despite being partners in crime with Cochran, the jury believed that Cochran made the strategic decisions and blamed all their hurt feelings on Dawn. Back in Survivor: South Pacific, Dawn was a bit of a fan favorite. However, the fans were outraged when she voted out Brenda - Dawn even had to disable her social media for a bit due to the hateful comments she was receiving. And (if I'm remembering correctly) didn't Dawn have to apologize to Brenda at the reunion show too? After the negative reaction to her Caramoan game, I doubt Dawn would want to play again. Kudos to Dawn for making it this far in the rankdown, but her time in this game comes to an end now.

[#jeah]

TAMARA "TAJ" JOHNSON GEORGE (Tocantins)

 

 

I'll get my other write up in tonight but I have time now to talk about Taj  Uuuuuugh losing both Taj AND Erinn here is pretty brutal as they are two of my favorite parts of Tocantins. Taj made it to fourth place on Tocantins and was part of the "Jalapao Three", also consisting of JT and Fishbach, that made it all the way to the final four together despite being down like 6-3 in numbers at the merge. Taj came into the game with a possible disadvantage, being married to famous football player Eddie George AND being a singer in a girl group, SWV. Iirc she was outed pretty early on by someone but it didn't seem to hinder her game, as Taj's outgoing and bubbly personality kept her out of the line of fire. Seriously, queen of putting a smile on everyone's faces! During the pre-merge, Taj spent a lot of time on Exile Island which actually proved to be beneficial for her. She was able to start a ~cross tribe alliance~ with Fishbach, Brendan, and Sierra but lol that "alliance" didn't really mean shit come merge time...anyways besides that cross tribal alliance I do remember Taj blowing up randomly after one immunity challenge that they lost. It was so weird and random to me because she basically threw a fit over nothing lmao and we had never seen her do anything remotely similar to that before...oh well it didn't end up hurting her in the long run. Come merge, Taj is glued to JT and Stephen and they are able to pull in Coach's side of TImbira to take out Brendaddy at the merge vote (not counting Joe's medevac). At this point in the game, it's pretty clear that Taj is one of the more secondary characters in the sense that she's never painted as someone who could win the game. Which is kinda sad imo because she seemed to be loved by everyone but maybe she just didn't really have any strategic chops beyond sticking with her core alliance. Taj had another really memorable moment with her hubs visiting and going with her alone to Exile Island, omg her family visit segment always gives me tears...their relationship seemed so real and strong in that part. (Apparently they got it on while at Exile, lmao same girl same)  Anyways Taj also found an Idol during pre-merge which I forgot to mention, which was pretty awesome but then I always thought it was dumb of her to just give it to Stephen to hold onto. Girl Y.  Uhh but yeah Taj was voted out at the final 4 when Stephen convinced JT to vote for her, worried that Taj might take JT to the end if she won. Overall, I think Taj was so much fun to watch on her season. You could feel the joy radiating from her when she was on screen (most of the time haha), and she was just a solid addition to a season that I really like. I guess this is a good spot for her, but I almost picked her at the end to advance.  

[Zoey]

Jan Gentry

Jan was a contestant and placed third on Survivor Thailand when she was voted out for an easy win for Brian. Jan was probably the greatest character on that god awful season and was overlooked when it came to the vote offs. Jan had secured friendships with numerous other members of the tribes and was the biggest threat when it came down to the final three or four. She was by far my favourite of her season but I refuse to watch it again because of how horrific it is so I’ve forgotten most of it. Sorry Jan! I wish you could’ve won your season in this rankdown.

Edited August 19, 2020 by Zoey

[sublymonal]

@Alex95 I totally agree with your write up of Shirin. She’s someone that I both have fond feelings for and also find incredibly annoying at times, but I think that’s just because she’s human

[Solaris]

Remaining Write-ups:

Jenn Brown - Andrelliott

Erinn Lobdell - Andy

Holly Hoffman - Amanda

Jenna Lewis - Amanda

Jamal Shipman - Zoey

[Solaris]

We're past the deadline, only Andy notified me of needing an extension!

 

 

Please get the remaining write ups in this evening!

 

@*Amanda @Zoey @#jeah @Elliott @sublymonal

[#jeah]

ERINN LOBDELL (Tocantins)

 

 

Erinn was my fifth choice to put through at the end, but I thought Aurora and Karishma needed some love as the late-season queens so I decided to sacrifice Erinn. She's definitely one of my favorite random one-time players ever who I would LOVE to see come back one day; although I highly doubt she would have interest to come back as she doesn't really seem involved in the community or much of a fan of the show in the first place. Erinn was the unlikely third placer of Tocantins who is one of the best cockroach-prototype contestants of all time. I mean, who would have thought like three episodes in that Erinn would a) be the last Timbira member standing and b) be one vote away from making the FTC? 

 

Erinn started out on the Timbira tribe and seemed plucky, sarcastic, and a bit out of place. She was a hairdresser who had like, never been camping before. She was decent in challenges and I think helped her team win the first IC. She clashed with Coach early on (which will become a theme all season long) and befriended Candace, who became the first voted out in Timbira. Not a good start for Erinn, as she then became the default person that the team would have as an easy vote. But Erinn stayed around and always managed to keep the target off her back when it came time to vote.

 

Erinn is a confessional goddess and has some of the best soundbytes of the whole season. I love how over she is with Coach and all of his stories and delusions of grandeur; I think Erinn speaks for the audience with all of her eye rolls and roasting of him, both in confessionals and to his face. Coach's vote-out episode is one of my favorites ever and tbh Erinn is a huge reason why. She reads him for filth when he comes back from his ARDUOUS journey to Exile Island. For someone who talked a big game and tells all these stories of almost getting murdered by people in the wilderness, Coach was a big baby when he went to Exile. Especially since pretty much everyone left in the game by that point (including Erinn) had spent time out there. So her ending Coach in front of everyone was pretty great, if not the best social. move on her part  And that episode we get the famous "Dragon slayed" confessional.

 

Unfortunately for Erinn, she was probably.a goat and could have only MAYBE won if Stephen won immunity and took Erinn to the end. Stephen maybe would have looked pretty bad if he did that...I think he still would have probably won because Coach and his team hated Erinn so much, but she would have been a deserving winner if she somehow pulled through. She played a pretty unique and enjoyable game imo and has always been one of my random favorites. Unfortunately she couldn't survive this round so out she goes, but I'm glad she made it well into the top 100!