Survivor David vs. Goliath player comparisons: Jessica Peet

Surprise Survivor: David vs. Goliath 19th place boot Jessica Peet becomes the first subject of our new player comparison series.

First, let me explain what Player Comparisons is.  Each week I will be looking into the Survivor player or players that the most recent boot compared themselves to, and analyzing whether the lived up to their expectations or not. Then I will look at every player who came in that exact same place and find who they are most like.

I will be comparing Jessica to all of the 19th place players, for example. I will only be comparing them to players from the U.S. version unless someone from Survivor: Maryland really sticks out to me. I decided not to do one for Pat last week because of the medical evacuation kicking things off.

She compared herself to: Sarah Lacina

The only comparison she made in her bio was to winner Sarah Lacina. This is not the most shocking comparison, especially considering that she was the most recent female winner. However, for someone of Jessica’s young age, it is still notable that she did not go straight to Parvati like many of the females with good looks often do.

Of course, you have to remember that Sarah also did not do too hot on her first season, although it is unlikely that Jessica gets her shot at redemption. Both females were in a position of power in their boot episodes but found their way to the chopping block. However, in Cagayan, Sarah did far more to damage her own chances due to her cockiness. Jessica did not play well in her spot, but she was far from abysmal. She just had one interaction with Gabby that was slightly overbearing, and all of a sudden she was blindsided.

Jessica is not too far off from Cagayan Sarah under further inspection; both went home in shocking fashion. I would add that Sarah’s did happen at a far later point in the game, and a higher level of competition. While Jessica did not make a name for herself, she did show potential that was sent home far too early.

Comparing her to 19th placers

In my search for the most similar 19th place player, I will first narrow it down to the top 3.  I will begin with Mari from Millenials vs. Gen X. She is also someone who you thought got off to a great start and quickly was the victim of a blindside. The one difference I will note is that plenty of people thought that Mari had a solid shot to win from the start. For Jessica, I thought she had a solid shot to make a deep run, but never to win the whole game.

Next, we go to Survivor: Caramoan with Allie Pohevitz. She, like Jessica, was a superfan who does not look like your typical nerdy superfan. With her Cool Kids alliance, she thought she was originally in good shape like Jessica. When the Cool Kids alliance found themselves on the wrong side of the numbers, she was the first one targeted.

The reasoning behind this was that she was perceived as the brains of the operation over Hope, and you could not get rid of Eddie or Reynold because of strength. The same thing happens with Jessica, as the tribe could not send another guy home and saw her as a greater threat then Bi.

The final comparison is Jessica deBen from Fiji. This Jessica was put in a tough spot at losing the first challenge and did nothing wrong; the tribe just needed strength. She was the first boot of this odd-numbered season and had no real time to bond. She was your typical early forgettable boot but easily could have had the skills to make a run if she was not on the cursed Ravu tribe.

The Verdict: Allie Pohevitz

Allie just edges Mari for this slot due to the similar situation of being in a four-person alliance with two guys who could not be sent home for the sake of the tribe. Of course, for this week there were only two episodes of data to go off on, as the season goes on the comparisons will be more and more narrowed down.