When offering your inputs about the players of Survivor Ghost Island, remember that the truth of these players lies between their story and the edit.
Survivor Ghost Island‘s forward-facing theme is “reverse the curse,” but it extends beyond the game itself. Many of the players in the game have been fighting to reverse the curse of the past mistakes of their lives, including a startling number of players coming fresh off a divorce. Some are using this as an opportunity to prove themselves, while others are destined for doom as “cursed” individuals.
The truth is Survivor, as a production, needs to tell a story each season, and only is one formed when paring down the content based on how the filming progresses. Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers developed into a story about secrets and those who keep them, with the season circling around the winner, Ben Driebergen, and how he was the sole person to fulfill that challenge.
Survivor Ghost Island has set up its “villains” in a multitude of ways, but the edit is the means to an end. Unfortunately for players like Bradley and Chris, we don’t know how their fate ends or how they even play into the season’s end, but it seems imperative that they are seen as the negative forces for the television-viewing audience. The players need to be respected as individuals outside of the game (seriously, cut out the online bashing on a personal level), so it’s important to crib the commentary to the players as characters of the show.
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I am very lucky that I have a roommate who watches Survivor casually that I can get his honest, immediate reaction to what happens on the show from a straightforward perspective. When Bradley Kleihege first emerged as the “villain” of Survivor Ghost Island episode 4, he knew that there’s more to what’s being shown onscreen. “There’s no way all of Naviti treats this guy as their leader if they don’t respect him or appreciate him as a person,” he said in a conversation. “There’s gotta be something more there.”
To me, Bradley has been the victim of becoming a villain by circumstance; a person to blame for the eliminations of the much-favored Malolos. Survivor Ghost Island has been crafting them as the underdog all season, making us feel for them as they go home one by one. It’s a brilliant way of jazzing up a one-sided Pagonging, as it allows the editors to make the inevitable less predictable and give them a post-merge storyline to bookend once all but a maximum of three make it to the end.
When it comes to “the edit” in Survivor, there’s a bit of truth in whatever we are shown. Player after player has commented directly on Chris Noble’s self-indulgence, with the majority of the last episode on Yanuya beach focusing on how much players regrettably need to deal with Chris talking about himself too much. Yet, we know there’s more to him, including how much he cares for his mother who’s fighting multiple sclerosis.
Most good seasons of Survivor show a player’s story develop throughout their stay at a level pace while avoiding making it easy to guess who wins. For late-game players, that means building things slowly but surely episode by episode, while players who are cut before the merge either getting a ton of attention before being voted out or a sudden, justified reason why they voted out when it happens.
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The show likes to bolster their heroes and manipulate the full perspective in order to make them shine brighter than they truly are. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, with the most egregious likely being Rupert from Survivor Pearl Islands. Many remember the chaotic-good, bearded pirate wannabe, but the edit did a good job of making viewers want to support him as he yells menacingly in front of other players, asking them, “Who voted for me?”
Survivor needs its heroes, too, which makes it interesting to see how the edit protects the actions of certain individuals. Michael Yerger has been to Tribal Council almost every single week this season, yet the last two episodes have done a good job to hide the fact that he’s voted against a Malolo player in each occasion. James Lim’s elimination might be the strongest case of edit protection so far, as even though James cocked his head in surprise, it was aimed at Angela’s betrayal, not Michaels. Look for yourself below; they make it look like James is not looking directly at Michael beside him.
Donathan’s been the more overtly positive player of Survivor Ghost Island, with most of his content showcasing how he’s growing as a person backed by swelling music and edited support. He is the definition of what is known as the “journey edit” of Survivor, where the expectation is to show him emerge from a cacoon over the course of the 39 days. He represents the Matty Whitmores, the David Wrights and the Lauren Rimmers of the show.
At the same time, there are also players who start out positive that has the edit start to chip away at their positivity. Survivor usually designates these kinds of edits to early winner contenders that fall short at the Final Tribal Council. Remember Chrissy’s early dominance and how she started to rally after throwing up at the first challenge? A snappy line here, a negative comment from another player’s confessional there and short undercuts of negativity piling up at the end slowly key the audience into why they lost the game.
Betsided
Though Kellyn very much has the chance to win Survivor Ghost Island based on her overall edit, parts of the last episode are beginning to undercut her positivity so far. The Survivor subreddit has been falling over backward to make mountains out of molehills over her “head or heart” response at Tribal Council, but it’s hard not to argue that her being extra is a similar tactic to what players like Brad Culpepper or Aubry Bracco experienced in a second place edit.
But here’s the thing; if you look back to the Tribal Council, you can see that Jeff Probst asks players from right to left their response except for Kellyn. She likely answered “my gut” third of five responses, Jeff asked her to explain, she gave the explanation, and we got the perfect segue to the vote (all switched or cut by editing). Tribal Council often contains 45-90 minutes of just talking, and the idea of her diving into her long-winded “my gut” answer without editing manipulation doesn’t make sense.
While Survivor Ghost Island players are there to win a million dollars (or just to become Sole Survivor, whatever’s more important), CBS casts them as characters to make for compelling television. The reason the show is still a ratings powerhouse close to two decades since its debut is due to the marriage of gameplay changes and the ability to make people into characters telling different stories each season.
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I know it’s difficult, but let’s try to reserve judgment for the individuals as characters of the game, not as people outside of it. 99 times out of 100, what you see on television is a fraction of what you get in reality.