Famous for getting off the couch and jumping into deep, strategic Survivor gameplay, Cirie Fields may have been gone long enough to slide under the radar.
Cirie Fields was destined to win the hearts and minds of America when she first appeared on Survivor: Panama. She was just as unprepared for the wilderness, and just as athletic as the average person, but had an edge with an impeccable perception and social skills to boot.
She opts to use her wits and intellect to form alliances she knows are strong in a manner almost unparalleled. With the exception of her final season, where everyone finally understood she’s too strong a threat with her social game alone, she saw three moves ahead of each alliance and made sure to ease the flow of voting strategy without making things too personal or painting a target on her back.
Of course, driven through her personality, Cirie Fields played the game in a way where it seemed like her word was golden. A wise man once said, “It’s not a lie if you believe it,” and the way that Cirie was able to deceive others resulted in some of the most outrageously entertaining blindsides in Survivor history.
Cirie played the social game as hard as one could, bolstering her inner strength and becoming a stronger overall player as seasons went by. However, her most recent season was Survivor Heroes vs. Villains, airing close to seven years ago. The game has changed since then, and where she made it a point of pride to align herself with strong players and switching up alliances to get to the end, almost every post-merge player knows the basics of that advanced level of play.
As such, Cirie Fields enters Survivor Game Changers a little rusty. However, her name carries weight in this game, meaning other players will look to either align with her to get on her good side or collude to get her out as soon as possible.
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If she decides to go with the experienced player team up route, I could see her teaming up with Andrea Boehlke and choose a meat shield like Brad Culpepper to deflect heat off of her.
In a game that favors new school over old school, especially with a ton of returning Survivor players from the past three years, Cirie Fields holds the toughest route to the finals. Ozzy Lusth and J.T. Thomas both have a history with her, although it may yield more negative results than positive.
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Lest we forget, one of the biggest blindsides in Survivor came when Cirie went back on a voting bloc with Ozzy, convincing what would become the Black Widow Brigade to write his name down while he felt safe. In doing so, Ozzy went home with a hidden immunity idol in his pocket. There’s no way he doesn’t feel a bit sour over that.
J.T. Thomas, meanwhile, saw firsthand how powerful Cirie Fields could be at manipulating veteran players in Survivor Heroes vs Villains, as he saw her flip tribemates off of voting Candice so that they voted her way for Tom or Colby. He represented the sway of the vote, and in effect, flipped his allegiance to get Cirie out of the game.
In what may be a counter-intuitive move, the way Cirie plays Survivor Game Changers may have to go against character in order to take a target off her back. There are plenty of other castaways with bigger personalities that go aggressive in their moves, meaning she can slink back into the shadows if need be. That may not be the entertaining method diehard fans of hers may expect, but I’m sure those at home would sacrifice the flair to see how she performs in a final tribal council for the first time in her life.
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Survivor Game Changers is set to debut on March 8 at 8 PM ET with a 2-hour episode.