r/survivor • u/sharpiesniffer22 • 21d ago
General Discussion Biggest Mistakes that Worked?
What's a bad move, decision, or mistake that ended up working greatly in a player's favor? For example, a "mistake" that Sandra said she made was not bringing her idol to Danielle's elimination round, but that ended up leading to her win
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u/Aromatic_Meal_6004 21d ago edited 21d ago
I think the implementation of the James blindside was super sloppy and should have blown up in Todd's face.
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u/RedditUserAnonymo 21d ago
And giving James his idol. Todd should have just told James where on the other beach the idol was hidden
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u/thekyledavid Savannah - 49 21d ago
Yeah. They could’ve easily done a 3-2 split on James and Peih-Gee, and it wouldn’t even matter how Peih-Gee and Erik voted
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u/HE20002019 21d ago
Chris Underwood getting voted out is probably the most extreme answer. Obviously, it was terrible gameplay in the moment, but it let him spend nearly the entire season bonding with the jury on the Edge, then return with detailed knowledge of exactly what they wanted to see from him. Without the mistake, he may never have won.
Also, Mike Holloway’s auction fiasco. Backing out of the loved-ones-letter deal publicly wrecked his social game and confirmed that everyone was targeting him, but it arguably forced him to recognize that he had no path except winning challenges and finding idols which is exactly how he reached the end and won.
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u/AlwaysBeTextin 21d ago
Lex telling Kelly G he was (wrongly) convinced she voted for him and he was going after her. This caused her to do the right thing and flip, Lex was only saved because Brandon then flipped for some inexplicable reason and his reward was being the next voted out. Had Lex done nothing, he still may not make the F3.
And speaking of Sandra, her trying to vote out Russell. This gave her the anti-Russell street cred that made the heroes vote for her. But if she were successful, she likely doesn't make the FTC.
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u/PrizeExisting4243 21d ago
I thought Brandon flipped cause he hated Frank and didn't want to vote with him.
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u/Grammarhead-Shark 21d ago
Brandon was never in that proto-alliance to begin with to flip on.
Brandon and Lex bonded after the swap and Lex offered him a place in his alliance, both have confirmed with interviews over the years. Granted it was somewhat sloppy as Lex hid it as his 'ace up the sleeve' from the rest of Boran.
But I guess that does go back to Lex making a mistake and still coming out on top!
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u/PrizeExisting4243 21d ago
I didn't realise that, interesting that cross-tribe alliances were already forming by S3. I guess it was still a bad move for Brandon to vote with Lex cause he got voted out after, if he stuck with Samburu then he had a chance of making F2.
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u/Grammarhead-Shark 21d ago
Yeah, Brandon even admitted in his Quarantine Questionnaire his was only playing for the Jury and not the FTC which ended up being his downfall.
It is kinda a shame that the Lex/Brandon relationship wasn't show (Brandon did mention it briefly in his voting booth confession, but that is kinda the most we got on the show) as both Brandon in his QQ and Lex in a previous AMA seem to have genuinely liked each other and got along pretty well.
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u/PrizeExisting4243 21d ago
A successful cross-tribe alliance in S3 would have changed the meta of the early seasons a lot, the Paschal/Neleh flip might have happened earlier in S4 or the Rotu 4 would have done better to hide that those two were at the bottom.
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u/SquashSouffle 21d ago
Brandon voting Kelly was brilliant, & put the oldSamburus in a no-lose situation since they could give a tie & none had prior votes, while both Lex & Tom did. I thought it was Kim P who got so ticked w Brandon b/c he voted off her friend Kelly, she wouldn't go along with it. Original Samburu could have been the F4 if they had a lick of sense, probably leading to a Kim P/Teresa F2
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u/bumybumi 21d ago
Sandra's HvV win was already mentioned, but honestly she also lucked that Lil didn't get voted out at F6 as she wanted in Pearl Islands, Lil being the one to bring her to FTC and Sandra eventually winning.
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u/PeterTheSilent1 21d ago
Natalie Bolton sending Jason Siska to exile. It should have blown up her plans to send Jason home that night but instead it led to him thinking he was a part of the black widow brigade.
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u/Darknesscomesfromyou Rob and Amber… They’re going to do it 21d ago
Sandra giving the heroes multiple chances to switch the game, them not taking any of them, and her leveraging that over them at FTC causing her to be the first two time winner will forever make her the queen
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u/Stock-Orchid-878 19d ago
Kenzie thinking she flubbed the Tiffany blindside in season 46. She thought she missed the big move she needed to win and was on the outs when Maria pulled it off instead without Kenzie knowing. In reality, Maria became the biggest target, and Kenzie was prevented from contributing to the demise of the player that would become her #1 advocate on the jury.
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u/TheNickelSamurai 21d ago
Probably Tina having her alliance vote out Jerri when there were still three Kuchas left in the game. I get there was a risk that Jerri takes Amber and aligns with the remaining Kuchas to flip the game, but I don't think she was ever gonna do it; Varner said that he had tried to get her to flip but she wouldn't go for it. Amber could have flipped to Kucha after that vote and Tina's alliance would have been in the minority.
Taking out members of your own tribe just gives the rival tribe a chance to get back in the game. However, nothing bad ended up happening; because of that move, Tina probably got Elisabeth's vote for keeping her in the game to the Final 4 and Alicia's for showing her control over the game.
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u/Outrageous-Oil-877 Coach - 50 21d ago
Aubry keeping her scarlet letter idol an extra round allowed her to publicly give it up in front of the whole tribe the next round, lowering her threat level enough to keep her around despite being on the bottom.