After another crazy Survivor Ghost Island Tribal where it seemed a flip was imminent, preseason favorite Brendan Shapiro was sent packing early.
Coming into the season, Brendan Shapiro had a look concurrent with your typical alpha male. I thought that his old age would put him in a good position mentally to make a deep run. While he may have seemed super strong, there were plenty of buff males on the season, so I thought Brendan was an early merge boot at the worst. But Brendan finishing in 17th place? I doubt many Survivor boot list-makers had this one right, and he is certainly up there in terms of being the most popular winner pick.
To start the episode, we got content from the Naviti. And then we got more Naviti content, and then we got even more Naviti content. With the exception of Kellyn’s trip to Ghost Island, Malolo got nothing heading into the Immunity Challenge.
We saw Brendan as one of the multiple tribe members struggle with the final portion of the challenge. Playing such an active role in a blown lead must be heartbreaking for any competitor. Although Brendan’s challenge failure was not the reason his tribe voted him out, landing one more ball on a platform could have put his tribe a few days closer to the next potential tribe swap.
When the defeated Malolo head back to their apparently inferior camp, the 5-4 split is immediately clear. No one seems to be displaying any signs of a flip, and this is where you see the majority deliberating over their vote.
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The five reach a consensus that voting off one of the two guys gives them the best odds. It appears that Desiree makes the deciding pitch for Brendan. He appears as the alpha male and giving him the idol is too obvious. The five determine that there is at least some chance of a Michael vote. He seems like the second most obvious vote in this case. This is the classic paradox we see in every season of Survivor. The majority five end up making the third-level move.
The first-level move would be to simply vote off the leader of the alliance, which still is Brendan. This kind of thinking is never seen in this current era of Survivor. The second-level move would be to vote off a less threatening member of the alliance. The goal is to avoid the idol being given to the alliance leader. This would probably have been Stephanie or Jenna. This type of thinking is still extremely popular today. This can be called the safe vote.
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The third-level move is, of course, is to send Brendan home. The reasoning is that it seems too obvious for the minority four to give the idol to Brendan. The five expects the four to expect a second-level move and save a less threatening player, being Stephanie Johnson. The majority five was able to think a step ahead of the minority, giving them the edge despite the idol.
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Brendan told Michael back at camp, so it seems like Brendan will be extra angry he did not receive the idol. However, the paranoia of the game is always going to cause these thoughts. Probably the entire minority four were saying this to Michael. You cannot blame Michael in the long run, he made a gut decision and in theory, only had a 25% chance of success.
Brendan’s exposure of his alliance’s figurehead would, in the end, be detrimental to his game. The majority thought they were getting rid of a big power player, whose game ended much earlier than the viewers would expect. Brendan first applied for season four, so he surely felt a little bitter towards his early exit. He still must feel a little unsatisfied that his ultimate goal did not come to fruition. In the end, he said he was satisfied with his experience.
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It seems like Brendan played hard, but is not holding any grudges. This is a staple of the gamers you see on present-day Survivor. The alpha male in Brendan Shapiro was too much to make up the numbers disadvantage.