Angela Perkins is the lone representative of the Survivor Ghost Island “Women Over 40” club, but her extensive military background should stave off concerns.
Survivor is what you make of it. In a game of social politics, strategy and risk assessment, the show has produced winners as young as 21 and as old as 57. However, since the first truly strategic-heavy of Panama, there have been 15 non-returnee seasons (excluding Survivor Ghost Island). Of those seasons, the oldest player didn’t make the merge 10 times, and only Chrissy Hofbeck had a shot at winning the prize.
If Angela Perkins aims to reverse the curse just like her fellow castaways, she’ll have to avoid the perception that comes with the territory. Thankfully, her physicality combined with her family status will aim to split the middle between a Chrissy and a Ben type, which might be a fair comparison considering her background.
Angela enters Survivor Ghost Island, like other players, ready to go on a brand new adventure. For more than two decades prior, she had served in the U.S. Army as an officer captain in locations ranging from Afghanistan to Turkey. Now that she’s retired and her kids are either away at college or graduating high school, Angela is ready to play Survivor for herself.
The fact that she is so tough and battle-hardened, especially comparing parallels to her previous deployment to the unknowns of working with a tribe of strangers who you don’t know have your back, may make the transition from civilian to castaway that much easier. You can tell she’s all about order and control, especially if you read her CBS bio.
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One thing I did read there that gave me pause was her self-comparison to Michaela Bradshaw. Sure, they both seem to enter the game with the goal of dominating physically as a means of gaining grounding within her tribe, but the notion that she finds similarities to “talkative” facial expressions, not being afraid to express her feelings and not being afraid to celebrate screams the wrong lessons being learned.
Michaela Bradshaw was one of my favorite players from Millennials vs. Gen X, but Game Changers showed the other shoe dropping; she was perceived negatively by the majority of her tribes. Michaela even admitted that not controlling her facial expressions and what she says gets her in trouble, and even though Angela looks tougher than the Kellyns, Chelseas and possibly Morgans of her starting Naviti tribe, anything that makes integrating harder is going to hurt her chances.
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Per other Survivor Ghost Island players’ preseason impressions of Angela Perkins, the results seem to form two camps. Most describe her as a “mom” and want to take her very far (perhaps with them to the Final Tribal Council), while others note her age and suggest that she won’t last or is very reserved.
What players agree on is that she has an edge to her, as 21 years of service duty will do that to a person. Her introduction video shows her doing pushups, running and chin-ups, and her ability to contribute in challenges seems to be a big selling point.
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While I don’t see her steering an alliance, I wouldn’t be shocked if she played a loyal number of the majority who offers insights in calling some of the shots heading into the merge. Beyond that is hard to say, but seeing how Survivor Ghost Island offers up exiling players for a risk/reward game of chance, who’s to say how far Angela Perkins goes in this game.