Survivor - 5th Season Anniversary Special

Chapter 3 - Mexico (Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty)

Wow. So this is getting a bit more attention than I thought and this is more of an "extra" in my series... I really do appreciate it, guys.

So looking at these reviews, I'm getting the impression that there are quite a few David vs Goliath fans. For me personally, it just wasn't for me lol. The theme was something I found rather flawed, and most of the big characters I really didn't care about. And one of the few big characters that didn't annoy me was over hated during the season's airing by the Survivor community.

Yall are gonna be pissed when I say that I didn't care about Cagayan as much as 90 percent of the community does lol. The entire Beauty tribe was completely forgettable as well as other reasons that I'd explain in PMs due to possible spoiling.

But I'm getting off topic here a little. Let's move onto season three of this series.

~KF


Now with the first two seasons out of the way, it was time to move onto season three.

"Okay, so let's talk about Survivor - Mexico." ROB already forgot about the Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty part. Come on! How can one bet part of the Survivor production crew and can not even get the full name right? Embarrassing. "Right off the bat, I can say that it is the most unique season of the four. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on that."

"Well, after the success of our first two seasons, we wanted to do things a little different. We couldn't just stay in Japan again, so we had to figure out on where to go next." And this was one major instance where the real show of needed to take notes. Nine times out of ten, a Survivor fan complained about the show staying in Fiji since season thirty-three. Nonetheless, that was a different topic in itself.

"There were a couple options we had out there, but we eventually we decided on Mexico." Master Hand explained the details. "We thought that it would be a pretty fun area to film in. And unlike Kodai Island and Emperors vs Knights, the location was not really beach themed at all. The castaways actually rarely got in the water due to wild crocodiles."

...No pun intended regarding two of season four's castaways.

"I mean, one thing you can say about this show, is that the survival elements of it are one hundred percent real. Nobody's faking anything. The castaways are starving, they are losing weight out there, and they gotta deal with the brutal weather. ...Of course the fans know this, but someone that might not be into Survivor could question that and say something like, 'There is no way they don't have any food.' ...But it's real."

ROB laughed at that. "Well, they are losing weight for a reason."

"But getting back to the season as a whole, the location was the most unique we had so far, but we wanted to do something else at the same time. So we decided to have a theme like the last season. This time, Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty." Did that idea not sound familiar a little? "And instead of having two tribes, we had three times just to make things a little more complicated."

"And how did all that play out?"

"I'd say it worked pretty well. Maybe we should try it again at some point." The Survivor host thought out loud. "Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the whole season is that for the first time ever, we have an all one tribe final three in the Brains tribe. Might sound rather boring on paper, but notice that each person in that final three had completely different stories in spite of all coming from the same tribe."

"Isabelle, Funky, and Plague?" ROB gave the names out. "I like all three of them. They are all great in their own way. Isabelle in particular ended up getting what she wanted in having all Brains at the end."

"She played the game in her own way." Master Hand replied. "Her strategy was simple: keep the Brains together. A bit controversial, though. Some players might say that sticking with your tribe the whole time is not the way to go. Worst case scenario, you are on the bottom of your alliance and you're going home when you had the perfect opportunity to make a move. But I think Isabelle sat with the right people in the end. Jimmy got taken out early, Golden and Espio were both blindsided, Plague Knight rubbed people the wrong way, and Isabelle was basically responsible for bringing Funky Kong to the end after basically accidentally convincing him to give up a million dollars."

"Ooh!" ROB stole the word right out of the fans mouths. Yet at the same time, what he told him was rather accurate. "That's a pretty bold thing to say."

"I mean, Isabelle was so set on tribe unity, had various conversations about Funky Kong, he actually decided to go along with it... even after Isabelle took out his closest ally at final six." He brought up. "Still, Funky Kong decided to let Isabelle get to final three where he easily could have won against Chica where literally no one was going to vote for her. As a result, he continues to get called out for making 'one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history' on social media."

Now that was pretty harsh having to deal with that and relive that moment constantly, the moment being Isabelle's flag raising after she was put into a fire making challenge with Chica Candance.

It was time to see the game from the perspective of Isabelle Cosgrove herself.

"So what was the real reason on why you wanted to keep your tribe together so much?" ROB asked her.

"Oh, there were a couple of reasons on why I played the way I did." The first and only Animal Crossing representative of the show answered. "For starters, I guess I was simply glad my tribe spared me at our first tribal. They chose to make a big move and take out Jimmy instead for being a potential threat. Had my team went to tribal first or second, I probably would have been one of the first couple people out of the game because I was the absolute weakest."

"...What about Plague Knight? You don't think they would have took him out to weaken Jimmy?"

"That's true, because he ended up being on the bottom of the tribe for aligning himself with Jimmy." That idea did not seem too farfetched. "But Plague Knight proved to be better at puzzles than me, and Golden wanted to vote wherever the majority went at the time. But because of me being so glad and thankful that my team spared me, I really wanted to make it up to them because they could have just went with the safer option instead of risking our team being divided by getting rid of me, but they didn't."

"You wanted to show them that you were loyal."

"I did." She bobbed her head up and down quickly. "I might not have been the most useful in challenges, but I figured if I could help them out later down the line, I could get them to trust me. And with Plague Knight obviously not being trustworthy at that point, it put a target on his back for voting with Jimmy. If any Brain had to leave, it was him, but... things didn't go according to plan."

"Clearly." The robot giggled. "If Plague left in Katt and Espio's place, it would have been an almost completely different story."

"You're probably right about that." Damn. Probably one of the biggest wasted opportunities in this series. "But other than that, I trusted no other group other than the Brains. I mean, those were the people I started off with and they saved me. I helped make sure Rosalina was out and keeping Funky Kong in the game, I... well I tried protecting Golden, but Specter happened and the two of us fell for his lies pitting him and Funky against each other."

"Hahaha!"

"He would have still been kept on." She continued. "But you know, it... really only further motivated me to keep the Brains together. At that point, I didn't even mind keeping Plague around. I actually wanted to work with him. Me and Funky take him to the end, we felt that we would have beaten him because people didn't like how he acted. I didn't trust old Beauty, I didn't trust old Brawn."

...Did that not sound like old school Survivor to some people? Trusting nobody but the initial starting tribe?

"And I suppose that led you into make a controversial move by refusing to take out Funky at final six." ROB brought up.

"I knew this was coming, haha." Well, explain then. "I still had Funky Kong as a number at final six. Panther was supposed to go home, but he won immunity. So the secondary target was Chica, to basically weaken his options because she was going to be loyal to him for that vote since she knew we were against her. But then I've been told that apparently people were wanting to take Funky out, and since I still felt like I needed him, I rejected that. However, once Incineroar's name was brought up, I suddenly thought that it wasn't the worst idea in the world to take him out. So basically, keep Funky, but limit his options."

"Trying to keep him close to you, I see." To keep a long story short. "I knew he was mad."

"He was upset, yeah, especially since Incineroar was his idol. But we managed to work things out by trusting each other until the end. The jury was really questioning why I took him to the end, but I explained to them that I knew what I was doing. I saved Funky Kong not once, twice. And in their eyes, even though I needed Funky to stay in the alive, I convinced the jury that he actually needed me more. So people were more mad at Funky taking me to the end than me taking him, because... I could have been gone at four."

"Thanks to Plague... again."

"We really should have sent him home early in the merge, haha!" She chortled. "He really could have sent me home thanks to the surprise fire making challenge, but I managed to pull it off, which only made me have an even stronger case to why I should win Survivor. Sure, I may have looked like a fool to some people by saving Funky at six instead of voting him off, but while I was out there, I felt that it was more about the people that I wanted to play with... and I ended up winning the game."

"You weren't even supposed to be on the season!"

"I wasn't!" The woman nodded in confirmation. "I was supposed to be on Survivor - Caribbean! But they all of a sudden moved me one season up, so I ended up being the last minute castaway on... and... let's just say they made the right choice."

Alright, so what was next?

"What are the fans' overall opinion on the season as a whole?"

"People say it's great, like Emperors vs Knights. Better than Kodai Island for sure, but season two is still their favorite so far." Master Hand informed. "You know,... I don't really know how many seasons we are gonna put out there, but I hope I'm wrong, I'm actually predicting over time that Mexico might not be one of the most talked about seasons."

"Oh, really?" That was rather unexpected for ROB to hear. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, nothing really against the season itself, but it is the most... 'tame' season compared to the other three. The most simplistic. It had its own unique moments, but most of the moments aren't nearly as iconic as the other seasons. The main two I can think of for this season is Funky Kong's million dollar mistake, and well,... when Espio idoling himself out of Survivor..."

That was pretty iconic indeed.

"Like I said, I hope I'm wrong. But I think it's due to the smaller tribes, and when the tribe swap happened, the tribes were even smaller. Less people, less room to work with. Things didn't really pick up until Espio's blindside. And even then, like I said, not too many iconic moments there. I guess since Emperors vs Knights happened, the goal with Mexico was probably to simply 'keep it up'."

"Guess we can talk about that double idol play there." ROB figured. "First tribal in history where more than one idol was played at a Tribal Council, most votes negated with nine, and Espio is the first and only Survivor to idol himself out of the game with only two votes to his name."

Oh, the rhyming.

"Hahaha!" laughed Master Hand. "Maybe anyone who is not a big fan of Mexico would say something like, that moment carried the whole season."

"One of, if not, the biggest blindside the show has seen." ROB reminded. "Even if the season is not going to be as memorable as the others, people are definitely going to be remembering that as long as the series is airing."

It was time to bring Plague Knight in, since he obviously played a major role with that. Oh, but why not the other? The ultimate culprit of the blindside. It did not hurt anything to bring him in as well.

Specter Knight.

"So I'm gonna let you take a trip down memory lane." ROB told the scythe wielder. "Explain what were you thinking leading up to you doing what you did."

Maybe the fans were amused a little bit. Both Specter and Plague were sitting together side by side, knowing of their relationship. "It was after that reward challenge. I was on the losing team..."

"And you were directly responsible for your team losing that challenge..."

He hated to be reminded of that. Of all the things he expected in his Survivor experience, he never predicted himself blowing a challenge, especially a team competition. "Well, I didn't lose that challenge for not being strong enough. I lost that challenge because other players were even stronger than myself."

...Was that not the same thing at least to an extent? Just take responsibility. Not really that hard, Specter.

"Ryu out of the gate wanted all of the super physical players together, right?" He explained. "That was his overall strategy. On the original Brawn tribe, he made an alliance with myself and Incineroar. Tifa unfortunately got voted out right before the merge, but we ended up recruiting Funky Kong, Golden, and Panther. Daisy was also in the alliance, but the consensus at the merge was that she, Katt, and Panther were all becoming too close, and Katt was someone no one had the desire to work with, since she was completely clueless regarding pretty much everything."

Damn. Throwing someone under the bus much?

"This one over here-" The taller knight used his thumb to point at the smaller one without even looking at him. "-was supposed to be the one eliminated, but the Brain Tribe alliance was unaware that Katt was not going to be on the jury. Plague was on the bottom of the old Brains. They knew that if he was on the jury, he'd be unlikely to vote for them in the event any of them made it to the end due to them fearing he was going to be bitter."

"I was already bitter at them." He joked. "I mean, they took out Jimmy and Espio was being a snake!"

Completely ignoring him, Specter continued on. "So the Brain Tribe alliance simply decided that they needed to get rid of Plague as soon as possible. But from that challenge, I went on to think about my overall position in the game. I was clearly not as strong as someone like Ryu or Incineroar, so I felt that I was not in the best position. And Golden and Funky Kong, they were not only in the Strong Guys alliance, but in the Brain Tribe alliance as well. So they were basically running the show a little. And with Funky Kong winning immunity, that basically confirmed my thoughts. Luckily, Plague Knight actually approached me because he was overhearing talk about him being the next to go, and eventually we decided to work together to turn the game on its head."

"So you-" ROB pointed at Plague, before his arm moved to Specter. "approached him."

"Correct." Mona's right hand man in real life nodded in response. "The only reason why I even talked with Specter of all people because,... who else was I supposed to trust out there? Not that I a hundred percent trusted them at that point, but we at least talked some kind of strategy before. I heard that I was supposed to be the next to go, so I needed some help in order for me to save myself. And he turned out to be just the right person to talk to, because he had Brawn tribe's idol since day two."

"No one ever knew a thing until it was too late." Specter shook his head. He knew very well that moment was probably one of the most satisfying moments in his entire life. "We approached Daisy and Chica at the last minute, since they were on the bottom, and that we needed to get a Brain member out of the game. Our primary target was Golden, since we felt he was the biggest overall threat in the game. But our greatest fear was that we all knew that the Brain tribe idol had yet to be played."

"And obviously I didn't have it."

"If you did have it," Specter then turned. "perhaps it would have been so much easier and Golden would have been sent home instead."

"Hey! I did the best that I can to look for that thing!"

"But getting back to the point," The warrior faced ROB once more. "since we were never a hundred percent sure who had the idol, we decided to split votes. I play my idol, and we split our votes. That was my plan. Preferably, it would have been two votes for Golden, two votes for Funky Kong, but he won immunity. Espio was the next strongest, because of course we weren't going to vote for Isabelle of all people. She was too weak."

A harsh truth that the woman herself was well aware of.

"So the plan was to have those two vote for Golden, while me and Plague vote for Espio. In the unlikely event that they somehow did not have the idol, it would have been chaos, since those two would have been the only ones up for elimination on the re-vote, which is something that I never really thought about until a long time later. But it turns out that someone did in fact have an idol."

"I was actually hoping that Golden had it." Plague Knight added. "Or Funky Kong, so that they'd look stupid for idoling out one of their friends. But something even better happened. The person who had the idol was Espio himself. Even I was shocked. When he pulled that thing out, I was practically jumping on the inside. I wanted to bust out laughing right then and there, haha! I knew from that moment he was officially going down in Survivor history forever. Nobody idol'd themselves out of the game before."

"Gotta thank Specter for saving your life, right?"

The man turned to face the alchemist again to check his reply.

"Um..."

He stared from underneath his helmet.

"Well, I gotta be honest. If it weren't for him, I would not have made it all the way to the final three. They wanted me out way before then, but because of him, I ended up reaching day thirty-nine."

"My thanks for your honesty."

"However, if it wasn't for me," Plague Knight pointed at himself. "this guy would have never been as convinced to flip."

"Don't get so full of yourself, now." The old Brawn member warned him. "The most I would have done was approach you, anyway. I knew very well you were on the bottom, and at the end of the day, quite literally, not much would have changed at all."

"..."

Yet again, Specter Knight managed to shut him up.

"So what were your initial thoughts when he did that?"

Now ROB was all of a sudden with Ryu Hoshi, another key player in Mexico.

"The minute I saw Specter Knight with the idol in his hand, I was like 'I knew he had it. I knew it.' Because obviously I didn't have it. Jet didn't have it. Katt didn't have it, so that left either him or Incineroar..." Pause. "Yeah... Specter was the most likely to find it, and he did. But what I was wondering was, 'Why does he need to play an idol? No one was even thinking about putting his name down.' And then he ends up playing it for Plague and I was thinking, 'Oh man... That's not good...'"

"Did you wonder why he was playing it for him?"

"Of course, like I can't recall one conversation they had with each other, Plague was supposed to be blindsided, Specter was on board voting him out and he was another option to satisfy the Brain Tribe alliance, why in the world was he playing his idol on him? And then when Espio played his idol to save Golden only for him to be voted out himself, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. I know I definitely would have been embarrassed. The poor man idol'd himself out of Survivor in front of the entire universe. Hard pill to swallow if you ask me."

"It wasn't really his fault, though."

"It wasn't." He shook his head in agreement. "It was not as if anyone was expecting Specter to do something like that or something. Even though I wanted someone like Epsio out at that point anyway, he wasn't the intended target. Plague Knight going home satisfied everyone, and I was trying to prove to Golden and Funky Kong that I was willing to work with them in the long run for the sake of our Strong Guys alliance and Specter... messed everything up for me, because that was basically a flip."

"You couldn't trust him anymore."

"I couldn't." Ryu shook again. "He knows my big plan was to keep as many strong, physical players as possible, and I already had a setback with Tifa leaving (who was basically Specter's number one ally). I feel she somehow trusted him more than me, because Specter reminded her of Cloud from season two, who she is literally real life friends with. But he knows that I literally made sacrifices to ensure our safety going deeper in the merge."

"Jet and Katt?"

"Absolutely." The street fighter nodded this time. "It broke my heart to vote people out of my own tribe that we were supposed to represent, but I predicted a strong person such as myself would be a huge target once the merge hits and I was trying my hardest to prevent that. And like I said, I was doing my best to please Golden by sacrificing members of my own tribe just to gain his trust. There was nothing else I could have done, and we even began to build a friendship."

"Do you think backstabbing members of your own tribe and aligning with... literal complete strangers was the reason why you are considered a villain in season five?"

"It's pretty much the only reason why I'm on the cast for it." Ryu snickered slightly. "But based on the success of the Brain tribe in the end, it's compare and contrast. I've realized the downside to always taking out members of my own tribe: you lose allies that could possibly trust you for a while... Maybe I shouldn't have voted Jet out in that moment. Daisy should've gone home instead. But Katt was someone no one wanted to work with at merge."

Who by the way, was pretty upset to find out Jeff was no longer in the game...

"So hearing what Specter had to say to defend his decisions at the final eleven," ROB went back on topic. "do you think he was somewhat accurate in what he was saying?"

Ryu heaved a quick sigh. "Okay. I'm gonna say this: I do agree that Specter wasn't the absolute strongest in our Strong Guys alliance. However, I think he moved a little too early. I wasn't even thinking about voting him out next, I'm pretty sure the Brain Tribe alliance wasn't planning on putting his name down. If anyone, they would have been concerned about me. Funky was tight with Incineroar and Specter would have been more in the background if it weren't for what happened. I really didn't see him going home for the next couple rounds..."

"It's kind of interesting imagining what could have been, though..."

"It is." Hoshi thought the same. "But Specter really felt like he wasn't in the best spot in the game, and it ended up in one of the most shocking tribals in the history of the show. ...It'll be interesting in the next season, knowing we're going to be on the same tribe again..."

Master Hand was finally seen speaking with ROB again.

"Now, one castaway in particular that we really wanted to bring back was Panther." The host informed. "Panther would have been an obvious lock on for Heroes vs Villains. He would have been placed on the Heroes tribe for multiple reasons. He was quite an underdog in the pre-merge handling his team in the challenges regarding physical strength, since he was the strongest in that group. But the main thing that made him a hero in our eyes was his overall character."

"He was quite entertaining for sue."

"He was. Come to think of it, he was probably one of our first really complexing characters on the show, and I think people genuinely like authentic personalities and not just one-dimensional people." Master Hand thought out loud. "Thus, the reason why Panther has a large fanbase. He even broke down stereotypes and talking about toxic masculinity at the reunion show. He would have been a no brainer to bring back... But unfortunately, Wolf played before him, and we wanted to bring him back anyway before he was even thought of to be on Mexico."

"Their previous existing relationship?"

"Panther literally visited Wolf at the the Loved Ones visit and vice versa." The gloved hand brought up. "I mean, Luigi is not on this season because of Mario. Funky is not on this season because of his cousin. Ken is not on this season because of Ryu. We figured it would be rather unfair to other players and would kinda harm the integrity of the show a little. But, yeah... Panther would have loved to be on the cast. I sure hope he gets his second chance someday, because story wise, he kinda played a part in the overall message of that season. Caribbean had an even stronger message because of its fantastic storytelling, but Mexico had a message of its own."

Wolf's friend was now being interviewed.

"Well,... of course you are more than just a typical flirt in your life." ROB told Panther. "I feel when people think of you in general, even they know it goes much deeper than that."

"It's just a bit of my personality." The anthropomorphic hunched his shoulders with a grin. "Sometimes it's how I connect and I'm more than okay with it."

"You are basically one of the most popular figures of the show." The production member went on. "And yet you aren't being brought back for Heroes vs Villains. What are your honest thoughts about it?"

"I mean, I'm fine. It's only fair since Wolf played before me." He was honestly pretty much okay with it. "Of course I would love to play the game again, but Wolf is my friend and Kodai Island was the first season of this series. If I'm not playing this upcoming season because of one of my best friends, so be it."

"So I watched that reunion show when Mexico was finishing up, and you made pretty good points about toxic masculinity and everything."

"I mean, let's face it. This is the twenty-first century and people still act like men are supposed to have no emotions and need to play as many sports as possible. Otherwise, 'you're not man enough.' The way I honestly see it, you're a real man based on your own standards... All seriousness aside though, when I watched the edit, I think... they portrayed me rather perfectly They showed an overall view of me with even some extra details. I've no complaints at all."

"You know what they say, there is simply more than meets the eye, right?"

"Meh... I was taught to not judge the book by its cover." He replied. "And the exact wording of the show was to look beyond the surface during the Final Tribal Council."

"Haha, they all mean the same thing so I think people will get that regardless."


Okay, maybe Panther's bit should have been a bit longer, but I didn't know what else to do with him.

But anyway, three down, one more chapter to go, and then soon I'll be getting to the pre-season of season five. Really can not wait! My first All Star season is just around the corner!

Really hope you guys enjoy!