Survivor Island of the Idols: Why Elizabeth’s decision was understandable
In the premiere of Survivor: Island of the Idols, Elizabeth Beisel made a bold decision that some may have criticized, but we explain why it wasn’t a bad move.
This article contains spoilers from the premiere episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols.
Survivor boot camp has officially begun on Island of the Idols, as Boston Rob and Sandra taught Elizabeth Beisel an important lesson during the season premiere. The Olympic Swimmer came onto the island completely shook by the mentor’s presence. After some chit-chat, Boston Rob established the first lesson: making fire with flint.
Elizabeth Beisel got time to practice starting a fire with Sandra’s assistance before facing the ultimate test. Rob challenged Elizabeth to a duel. If she can make a fire before him, she wins an idol that’s good for two Tribal Councils. If Rob makes fire first, she loses her vote for that night.
After thinking it over, Elizabeth accepted the challenge and got beat by Rob fairly quickly. Then both of these legends took turns in explaining why she made a poor decision and how she should have never considered his first offer. Although their points are valid, I find it difficult to hate on Elizabeth’s decision for a few key reasons.
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First of all, casting has put in a ton of emphasis on making big moves and playing an active game, not a passive one. We readily hear players and even Jeff sometimes saying that it’s better to go out swinging than playing a quiet game. With that attitude fresh in her mind, how could she turn down an opportunity to win an idol?
From the point of view of a fan, if you said no to competing with one of the greatest players ever, how many times would you look back and regret taking that once in a lifetime experience? Beyond that big-play mentality, how was Elizabeth supposed to know that the mentors have the power to bargain?
If she decided to not compete against Rob, she probably thought that was the end of this island visit. Boston Rob literally read out written rules for their fire-making challenge. Is that really going to make people even consider that the mentors have the power to bargain? So although it wasn’t the most productive decision, it’s totally understandable that Elizabeth took this once in a lifetime opportunity.
When Elizabeth got back to the Lairo beach, she decided to lie about her island visit, coming up with a Ghost Island style story. Did everyone buy it? Probably not, but it was simple enough to avoid raising excessive amounts of suspicion. Domenick Abbate spoke about this on RHAP’s Know-It-Alls, since he was on Ghost Island and said it was basically expected that the player returning from the island will keep something secret.
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When she got back to camp, it was fun to watch everyone scramble to pull Elizabeth aside so they could talk about voting plans. If she told the truth about her visit and revealed that she actually had no vote, she would have missed out on being included in all of those vital conversations. It will be interesting to see how the big secret begins to spill out once more people visit the island.