Survivor Edge of Extinction: Should Joe Anglim return?

He remains one of the most prominent challenge performers in Survivor history. Should Joe Anglim have the chance to paint another merge tribe flag?

Joe Anglim might be one of the most feared Survivor competitors of all time. He’s won half the individual challenges he’s ever played, been on tribes that have won 73% of their total tribal challenges (including two second-place finishes) and averages a finish in the top 84.5% of individual challenges (thanks, True Dork Times).

In no short number of words, Joe Anglim is Joey Amazing, and all the players of Survivor: Edge of Extinction knew his threat level from Day 1. Eric Hafemann and Gavin Whitson, while setting up their tribe’s shelter at Kama, were already scheming to get him out. Joe was the number one target of the entire pre-merge.

The only problem for his tribemates is that he never lost a single tribal Immunity Challenge. Kama only lost the first Reward Challenge of the season before the swap, but other than that, Joe wasn’t vulnerable. He knew that both him and Aubry were huge targets heading into the merge, and somehow they found Aurora as a third as they isolated themselves from the rest of the group at large.

Despite losing Aubry in the pre-merge, Joe Anglim arrived at what would be the Vata tribe with one task; draw the tribe flag. Even after Julie Rosenberg won the first individual Immunity Challenge after himself finishing third, he did nothing but rely on others to help him out, telling Ron to tell others not to vote him out.

For some reason, the Kama returning players were some of the most overconfident returnees Survivor had seen. Instead of pleading his case, Joe wanted to let the game flow around him as he painted a flag to symbolize the Vata group. Ron didn’t help Joe stay around; he orchestrated Joe’s elimination, becoming the first victim of the post-merge game.

On the Edge of Extinction, Joe opened up and reflected emotionally upon his journey while working with Chris to help find advantages along the way. At the Day 35 Edge of Extinction Challenge, despite being close to landing his second ball on the labyrinth maze, he fell just short of Chris Underwood, who would eventually win the game.

Joe Anglim, thanks to the returnees playing smart gameplay, saw his character arc on Edge of Extinction evolve into more of an emotional journey, showing the struggles of a wonderboy incapable of stopping himself from being an obvious challenge threat. Vote here if you think Joe Anglim should get a fourth shot at playing Survivor.