Survivor SA Island of Secrets full season review: An old school classic

Survivor SA: Island of Secrets wasn’t the most unpredictable season, but its old school vibe and cool characters made it an enjoyable international outing.

Of the many international versions of Survivor, M-Net’s South African iteration is among the best. Not simply for production value, but also for its gameplay, spectacular host and ability to honor the US version while still making it their own. Their seventh season: Island of Secrets, aired this summer and they have recently crowned a winner.

If you’ve never watched any international version before, South Africa is the way to go! Overall Island of Secrets was a solid season that felt like old school Survivor despite the inclusion of twists and advantages. Let’s take a deeper look into pre-merge and post-merge phases of the game to see how Island of Secrets sizes up to other seasons.

Warning: The rest of this article contains major spoilers for Survivor SA: Island of Secrets.

Chaotic first seven days

The first three episodes brought along some exciting moments but not the smartest gameplay. The opening scene of the premiere with the “captains” being sent to the Island of Secrets after picking the weakest links of their tribes was an interesting way to start but wasn’t anything too special. The vote where Paul had his torch snuffed with the idol out of his possession was the first glimpse of Rob’s masterful manipulation.

As entertaining as it was to see Jacques incorrectly save himself with his idol instead of Ting Ting, it made Survivor SA feel like amateur gameplay. The potential was there for a big move, and it was botched so bad. Thankfully, the tribe swaps helped to stimulate strategic thinking moving forward.

Exciting post-swap gameplay

My favorite part of Island of Secrets has to be all of the drama and well-executed blindsides after the tribe swaps. Usually, it doesn’t make good Survivor when one tribe keeps on losing, but I thought it was fun watching the dynamics of the Laumei tribe. They pulled off that sweet and satisfying blindside on Felix, and even the Tania vote a fun one to watch. It was the blend of Tania, Felix, Durão and Jacques’ colorful personalities that made this tribe exciting to watch.

Laumei’s losing streak resulted in another tribe switch, which saw Rocco get his torch snuffed as he was the first big physical threat taken out with the influence of the Amigos. Then there was the shocking plan to blindside Nathan that Nicole actually went along with. This phase of the game was full of exhilarating social politics and unpredictable moves. That said, a lot of that fun, advanced gameplay went out the window when the Amigos took charge after the merge.

Rob’s domination leads to a one-sided post-merge game

While there were so many players and groupings that held a measure of power in the pre-merge game, the scales shifted once the Amigos reunited at the merge. Every single vote from the merge on was orchestrated with excellence by Rob and his crew. Even on the close votes including getting rid of Meryl and Jacques, there was never any doubt that Rob had the numbers to get his way.

Nearly every castaway only sensed Rob’s enormous control over the game after they were on the jury. The few that did realize the need to get him out, including Danté and Jacques, were powerless because of their inferior social game to Rob. No one could get the numbers to vote him out.

There’s no doubting that Rob Bentele played an incredible game, certainly worthy of the title of Sole Survivor. That said, usually, when one person or a small alliance dominates for a majority of the season, it’s not as entertaining. In US Survivor, seasons like Redemption Island, One World, Ghost Island and All-Stars are perfect examples of great winners playing in a boring season.

The reason why I refuse to put Island of Secrets in the same category as those predictable seasons is that the overall talent of the cast was much higher. In addition to Rob Bentele, there were some strong strategic and social players including Seipei, Geoffrey, Mike, Steffi, and Nicole.

It’s true that they got outplayed, but they still understood the game well and were prepared to do anything they could to win. That determined attitude is something that was present in Island of Secrets, but lacking in the casts of Redemption Island, One World, Ghost Island, and All-Stars.

Overall, Survivor SA: Island of Secrets was a solid season that gave you that old school vibe but with some exciting new school gameplay mixed in. I still believe that Survivor SA: Philippines is the better season, but South African Survivor is definitely heading in the right direction and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next year.