Survivor season 35: Joe Mena on his ideal Final 3, when he’d return
Love him or hate him, Joe Mena speaks the truth, making him a perfect candidate to answer Survivor season 35 questions on the show’s subreddit.
Playing up the villain role is a tough task for a Survivor player. It’s a lot of effort to play into the designated spot of “player the audience wants to see upended,” and very, very rarely do those players get an undercut of positivity into their edit (read: Tony Vlachos). Joe Mena speaks from the heart, but to the uninitiated, his brash honesty may rub them the wrong way.
The brutal honesty is what makes him such a good well of information for Survivor fans, as the Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers jury member opened up about his time on the island in a Survivor Reddit AMA for the reality competition program’s subreddit. Aptly named “Cocobodegatony” in reference to the community’s designation as the bodega version of Tony Vlachos, he came ready to answer whatever questions came his way.
Of course, coming so close to the Survivor season 35 finale, people had questions about the finale. He stated that Ben still wins in a Ben/Chrissy/Devon Final Tribal Council, that he would want to keep JP, Ashley and Chrissy around heading into the Final 3 (of course cutting one of them right at the end) and how much s— he’d be talking if it was him, not Devon, who succumbed to the Final 4 twist.
While I figured Joe Mena voting for Devon should that twist had never happened, Joe had a good explanation why he’d look to vote either Chrissy or Ryan instead at the Final Tribal Council. “As the game went on, Devon quit during a challenge. Him sitting next to a queen of challenges doesn’t look too good. As far as Devon and Ryan; they played the same game.”
That puts an interesting development into post-Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers conversations about who wins. It doesn’t give Chrissy the outright win, as Joe mentioned himself how he wanted to bring Chrissy to the end had he held control of the game. However, it does give Ryan’s shot of winning a bit of a boost, as Devon’s perceived “quitting” may have rubbed the jury the wrong way.
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As for the rumor about Survivor season 38 bringing back returning players, Joe replied that he’s not playing, so he doesn’t care. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t be up to face off against others on the island once more, though, as it’s “all about timing” for him with his family and work commitments. Who knows if Survivor is around past 40 seasons, but it would be neat to see him compete again!