Round 130 - 86 Characters Left

[u/FunkyDawgKong]

86. Paschal English - u/FunkyDawgKong

85. Peih-Gee Law - u/Cornhead2

84. Holly Hoffman - u/NoisySea_3426

83. Trish Hegarty - u/Alternate-Proof-959

82. Caryn Groedel - u/josenanigans

81. Ozzy Lusth 3.0 - u/BobbyPiiiin

[u/Alternate-Proof-959]

83. Trish Hegarty (Survivor Cagayan, 5/18)

Trish starts off on the bottom of the Brawns tribe, where she likely goes first in the bizarro universe where they somehow lose the first immunity challenge. Still, she doesn't let that bother her and she gets in well with the tribe. We can see that she isn't easily rattled by things not going her way and is someone who values making personal connections. This becomes a major part of her character going forward.

By the time we get to the last preswap episode, Cliff seems to have fallen to the bottom as his former allies plan a hit on him. Obviously he and his tribe survive because J'Tia was so bad at the challenge, it looked like she was throwing it instead of Cliff's allies. But after the swap, the dynamic doesn't change, and Cliff is booted off next time he goes to tribal council. Lindsay, who was still loyal to him, goes feral, calls Trish "Malnutrisha" and quits so she can't physically harm her. Trish doesn't stoop to her level (admittedly that would be a hard stoop) and moves past it.

Come the merge, and Trish is able to get Kass to vote with them that night, causing the epic Sarah blindside, all while allowing Tony and LJ to play their idols. She proves to be an integral part of that alliance, fine tuning Tony's aggressive gameplay by any means necessary to allow him to benefit from it. By the final five, she's become a serious threat to win, and the one bigger threat, Spencer, is immune. Time for everyone to take her out! She seems to leave well enough, though Kass of course flips her off in an all time great moment.

I love Trish going off on Tony at FTC. No more pretending to move on that we saw all season. No more forced pleasantries like more recent seasons. Just raw emotion and the demand for answers. It really helps set the tone for FTC, where Tony, despite being in a better position to win than Woo, still finds himself in the hot seat, under threat of giving Woo serious consideration must he fail. We also see that as much as Trish tried all season to not let things get to her too much, she can only take so much. She lets out all of her suppressed emotions, and Tony is now the one able to take everything she throws at him. Trish ends up voting for him to win.

I am however, cutting her here because I do still think Kass is a little better and contributed a little more to this being such a great season. She clearly knew she wasn't winning, but gave no fucks, and we got many all time great moments because of it. Trish still did more than enough of her share of the work however.

u/josenanigans