Survivor Flashback Friday: The Survivor Gabon GIF to end all GIFs

In an episode with the latest merge and a Susie Smith Individual Immunity win, it’s an everlasting GIF that is the most prominent in this Survivor Gabon episode.

Survivor Gabon is a confluence of moments that exist almost disjointed from one another. Nobody but Matty is too outwardly heroic, tactful, strategic, self-assured or even pleasant for a consistent amount of time, with just brief moments of importance or entertainment surrounding a wallow of suck.

However, there is one moment in the Survivor Gabon merge episode that stands the test of time. It’s so universally beloved by fans that it transcends the show’s existence, being used as a top-tier reaction image for years after it was created.

That moment is Corinne and Sugar’s shock combined with Matty’s relieved grin.

You see, the Fang tribe has encountered loss after embarrassing loss at almost every challenge in Survivor Gabon, with Kota members sitting pretty ahead of a likely merge. With Kota swapping tribe members one last time and losing the final tribal Immunity Challenge, Marcus, Susie and Bob were primed to eliminate either Ken or Crystal.

The odds were stacked against their favor. It only made sense for the old Kota members to systematically pick off old Fang members, bringing Kota (plus defected Randy) an overwhelming majority at the merge primed to Pagong Fang into infinity.

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That didn’t happen, but why Kota was thwarted is not the most important part of this infamous GIF. You see, Matty was the Golden Boy of Survivor Gabon, being the only person capable of receiving a falling-just-short hero’s edit on the season. At every Fang challenge, Matty was giving a 120% effort in hopes of making up for his tribe’s ~50% efforts.

This is a man who’s had to promise on his girlfriend’s life to make a deal with another player in order to remain safe, only for him to be blindsided. This is a man who had to push Gillian and Crystal up the hill on Day 1. He’s the guy who was one of two people in a tribe of seven participating in that water-based lacrosse game. He’s the one who saw an already destitute amount of rice spilled onto the ground. He’s the one who carried half a snake designed for six to hold. He’s the only person in Survivor Gabon to be burdened with being on Fang until its dissolution.

Everything that could have gone wrong for Matty, did. Up until Day 25, all but a few things broke to his benefit. Having a strong late-game competition like Marcus being sent home, evening the alliance numbers ahead of the merge was the first real time in more than three weeks that Matty got a huge, game-changing break.

Next: Survivor Game Changers: Ranking All 33 Previous Seasons

What do you do when something like that happens? You just got to give the biggest s***-eating grin in Survivor history, while simultaneously cementing yourself in internet history with it.

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