Survivor: David vs. Goliath – Why was _____ voted out in 15th place?

A first boot candidate almost made it to the merge, as Survivor: David vs. Goliath’s 15th-place finisher didn’t leave without a fight … over jackets.

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact reason why Natalie Cole was voted out of Survivor: David vs. Goliath without getting too personal and too judgmental. Tribal and social dynamics are different for people of certain status or backgrounds, and just because the game is supposed to strip away societal norms doesn’t mean that pre-merge boots typically aren’t women or people of color.

In fact, if you include David vs. Goliath, if you go back to the 10 most recent seasons with either completely new castaways, just captains and non-returnee seasons (pre-game alliances mean things are slightly pre-determined), a woman or person of color has been the first vote seven straight seasons and eight of ten. First boots which have been women of color; five of ten.

There are a ton of factors that go into casting a season of Survivor, as the crew typically finds archetypes to complete a group of players that need to fit into each theme. Natalie Cole was certainly brought on as a powerful leader within the black community, having broken down barriers for women of color maturing into the successful CEO she has become.

Unfortunately, on Survivor, your fellow castaways aren’t your employees.

Natalie lived her game as if she was commanding employees to run her game. Of course, the magic of editing can choose to highlight the best and worst moments of people to fit the narrative, but countless times, people on both Goliath and Jabeni tribes talked about voting out Natalie for her overt negativity and bossy attitude.

That can be a coded word when it comes to describing a person’s personality (just as “thug” or “ghetto” have been used in Survivor’s past by former players), but it’s also indicative of the frustrations experienced by those in and out of Natalie’s alliance.

Players like John and Jeremy, the latter of which started out on her side, would come up to her and talk about how she needs to lay low only for her to run to players like Dan and ask them why they’re talking about her behind her back. She didn’t have social grace or social awareness within the game of Survivor, especially when she talks about bringing out “Napalm Natalie” as if to scorch the earth in her wake.

She could have been the first vote on the Goliath tribe, but Jeremy’s overbearingness, paranoia and overplaying his strategic game made him a target. In fact, Angelina whipped the vote to get out Jeremy not because she was trying to save Natalie, but to take out a bigger threat that made things personal.

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As soon as the tribes swapped into three and Jabeni was merged into Nick, Lyrsa, Angelina, Mike and Natalie, the cracks emerged immediately. Natalie made it clear to her tribe that she wasn’t going to bother socializing with the David minority players on her tribe, instead opting to shell out orders to everyone else on cooking and starting a fire.

Nick saw this opportunity to pitch Mike on an alliance, as he saw that he was not a fan of Natalie. He couldn’t have known that he was a Natalie vs. Jeremy dissenter before the vote, but it worked to Nick’s benefit in forming the Rockstars alliance.

This proved important when Jabeni lost the second Immunity Challenge in the three-tribe stage, as Natalie, Mike and Angelina were picking between Nick and Lyrsa to send home. It seemed like the decision was primarily based on Nick’s strength over Lyrsa in the case of another series of challenges, but Angelina had a secondary reason; she wanted Lyrsa’s members only jacket.

Plenty of times in Survivor, you will see players wearing departed players’ clothing once they leave the game. It never becomes called out unless its integral to the story, and here Angelina uses Natalie’s perception within the tribes as a “bossy” person not able to understand her social cues as a means of securing that jacket by proxy.

With Natalie pushing Nick to get her jacket or give up his in order to retain his shot at winning a million dollars was rude and brutish, even if Natalie was doing so for Angelina’s benefit. It allowed Nick to approach Mike more easily about flipping the vote, and even easier for Angelina to be okay with voting out Natalie just due to how much of an energy drain she could be around camp.

As Tribal Council came around, it became clear that the majority were voting for Natalie. As Mike chimed in with negativity about Natalie’s demeanor, Angelina was quick to defend her, and it permeated over the entire Jacketgate. Natalie was clear that she wanted things a certain way and thought it was only logical to maintain the “Goliath strong” mantra she thought would hold.

It did not hold, as a 3-2 vote for Natalie saw Angelina pull off the lamest acting job. As she embraced Natalie and voted for Lyrsa, the real reason she was doing so was that she could ask for Natalie’s jacket as she was headed out the door. She didn’t care too much that she was voting against the majority because she knew the vote would go that way. Angelina was angling for that jacket.

Natalie was voted out of Survivor: David vs. Goliath because she acted like the Goliath of the Goliaths. As goes in this game, the more you stand out, the bigger the target on your back grows. Natalie lived her life turned up to 11 out of 10 and refused to be anything but.