For the third time, Joe is back into the post-merge game. His six Immunity wins put him only three behind the all-time Survivor record.
Forget about Ozzy, Joe Anglim is the official challenge beast of Survivor. For the second straight season, Joe hasn’t attended a Tribal Council before the merge! We have seen time and again in Edge of Extinction how Joe has carried his tribe to dominant victories. With Kama’s back to back wins in last week’s double episode, Joe has become only the seventh castaway to make the merge in three different seasons.
Now it’s time for Joey Amazing to get back into the grind of competing for Individual Immunity. He won his first two necklaces in Worlds Apart and then was voted out after his first loss. In Second Chance, Joe took home four consecutive Immunity wins. He was spared in his first Tribal without a necklace, but after he fainted before dropping out of the next challenge, the majority agreed that it was time for Joe to go.
Can Joe Catch Ozzy and Boston Rob?
Here are the current standings of the all-time Individual Immunity leaders:
1) Boston Rob – Nine
2) Ozzy Lusth – Seven
3) Joe Anglim/Spencer Bledsoe – Six
In terms of all-time Individual Immunities, Joe is currently at six, putting him in a tie with Spencer for third place. Ozzy sits in second place with seven, thanks to his five in Cook Islands and two in South Pacific.
So all Joe needs is one more win to tie Ozzy, which is fairly likely to happen. At this point, there isn’t a ton of physical competitors, especially if Chris doesn’t come back into the game. Even if Joe loses the first challenge, there’s a chance Kama will stick together to try to vote out David or Wentworth.
The tough part will be trying to reach Boston Rob’s record of nine that he accumulated over his four seasons. He won four necklaces in both All-Stars and Redemption Island, along with one in Heroes vs. Villains thanks to a pre-merge Individual Immunity Challenge. You know that someone is a challenge beast when they win an Individual Immunity without even making the merge!
In order for Joe to tie Boston Rob’s record, he will have to win three in a row, and four in a row to break the tie. I say “in a row” because there’s no way Joe is going to survive a vote after winning the first couple of challenges.
The reason why he made it through one Tribal Council in Second Chance unscathed was due to the fact of incredibly advanced gameplay from a whole bunch of returnees. That same level of gameplay hasn’t been present so far, and I can’t see that elevating too drastically following the merge.
The great thing about Joe is that he’s good at everything. He’s won challenges by swimming, balancing, solving puzzles, and by sheer physical ability. A lot of the castaways remaining are more dependent on the type of challenge itself.
During his pre-game interview with Josh Wigler, the one lesson Joe learned from his past seasons was to pace himself. If he wants to last the entire 39 days, he has to be smarter with conserving his energy so he doesn’t collapse mid-challenge again. If Joe can manage his energy levels, there’s a chance we could witness an all-time Survivor record being shattered.