Survivor Island of the Idols: Should Vince Moua return?

Vince Moua proved that passing an Island of the Idols test doesn’t guarantee safety or success. Should he return in a future Survivor season armed with that lesson?

With this being the first Survivor season fully produced with a new casting director, we saw many firsts portrayed within the show this season. Vince Moua was the first castaway of Hmong descent to play the game, representing a community that may not be well known to the show’s target demographic within the United States. In his short stint, he proved to be quite the character.

Though he was never truly back up by a core group, he found himself closest early on with Tom and Elaine, producing the least likely trio from several walks of life to form a group as they collected supplies for the shelter. Despite Elaine throwing Vince’s name as a possible first boot, they all came together to throw Ronnie under the bus despite Vince stumbling on the puzzle portion of the first Immunity Challenge of the season.

It wasn’t until Day 7 that Vince truly shined, as he was chosen randomly to head to the Island of the Idols to perform a Metal Gear Solid-like sneaking mission. He had perhaps the toughest test of the entire season; he had to sneak into the Vokai camp at night (after being boated to the shore), retrieve a portion of their fire, and bring it back to the Island of the Idols.

Vince illustrated all facets of his Survivor gameplay, offering hilarious quips in recollective confessionals, employing his stealthy skills, adapted to a scenario he couldn’t prepare for by bringing ash from the camp (their fire was doused) and went through a training montage with Boston Rob and Sandra. It felt like it came out of a comedic action movie!

Unfortunately, a Hidden Immunity Idol only made Vince feel overconfident in his abilities, as once Lairo lost the Day 8 Immunity Challenge, he followed what he thought was the numbers while trying to give Karishma advice as to how to avoid becoming the target. He was blindsided 5-3-1 and didn’t get to use his idol good for just one other Tribal Council, proving that he may have kept too cool under pressure compared to what his mentors had in mind.

Vince was a funny, charming, opinionated character who luckily had a rollercoaster highlight of an episode before being sent out the door early on in Island of the Idols. Let us know in our straw poll if he should get another shot at playing Survivor in a future season.