Survivor Ghost Island: Bradley Kleihege emerges as season villain

The fourth episode of Survivor Ghost Island brought about a new villain, and it’s someone we had previously heard very little from in Bradley Kleihege.

For the first three episodes, all we knew about Bradley Kleihege on Survivor Ghost Island was that he liked to complain. The little bit of airtime given to Bradley was last week after the tribal switch, where he was complaining this his new tribe’s camp wasn’t as great as his old tribe’s camp. He hadn’t had a single confessional, so it was hard to get a gauge on what kind of a player he could be.

Well, on Wednesday night, it looked like our time with Bradley would be short-lived. He not only got two confessionals, but he emerged from the edit as someone that fans can root against this season. His first real screen time of the season was in a confessional where he said he was going to do his best to “stonewall” the four contestants on the outs of the main alliance.

From there, we saw him and Stephanie chatting on the beach. Stephanie was trying to get information out of him, and he cockily said “We shall see” and walked off.  These two scenes gave us an idea of what type of a person Bradley was (anyone who compares himself to Boston Rob or Kim Spradlin is clearly full of themselves) and the early stages of becoming a Survivor villain were showing.

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Before Bradley, Chris or Dom could have been considered as the villains of the season, but now it’s clear as day who the next bad guy is, and it’s neither of the latter two players. Bradley was given the set-up episode to what could be a villain-like edit.

It’s obvious that Bradley’s fellow teammates don’t care much for him, at least not the ones on the outs, as Jenna mentioned how she wanted to vote for him five times. Brendan also had some choice words about Bradley the week prior when he was whining about the new camp. It’s a bummer we’re just now getting to see more from him because he was really stirring the pot in this past episode. Where was that in the first three episodes?

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At Tribal Council, the Malolo four came after Bradley hard, basically warning Sebastian and Chelsea (she got a confessional too! Oh my!) that they were on the bottom of the five. Michael did his best to get one of those two (or anyone really) to switch over and help them oust Bradley. To be fair, he handled himself well and even played the “I don’t know why I’m getting targeted” card and ultimately was spared.

It was a good thing that Bradley didn’t get the axe because Survivor needs a good villain each season. Bradley has the potential to be one of the cockiest villains we’ve seen in a few seasons, and he made that show with his “that’s why I’m going to be such a great lawyer” confessional and comparing himself to two of the better winners in the history of the show.

Had he been ousted this week, it’d have been a “what could have been” scenario with Bradley and nobody wants that. No, we want the villains to stay as long as possible, but suffer a humorous downfall. That’s what makes good television after all.

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While it’s fun to root against players like Bradley, it’s also fun to watch them advance because when the downfall happens (and it almost always does happen with the villain of the season), it’s even sweeter to witness. Bradley’s demise (well, hopefully) will be a highlight of Survivor Ghost Island, and I can’t wait.