Survivor Island of the Idols: Should Jason Linden return?

A four-four deadlocked vote broken by a suspiciously-timed Island of the Idols power sent Jason Linden out. Should he get a fair shot returning to Survivor?

It’s always fun to see Survivor players dig themselves a hole early, dig up (stupid), and somehow come out relatively unscathed. Though Jason Linden got out of that hole, it wasn’t too long again before he found himself crawling out of an inescapable one, reminding us this game is not fair to all when twists are involved.

An ardent superfan wound up so much he found himself losing his voice as early as the premiere confessionals, Jason came out the gate playing on his pent-up energy. He went searching for an idol very early on and made himself a target in doing so, with many on Vokai pointing to him as an easy potential first boot.

With him on the outs, Jason turned to Noura, who also found herself on the bottom of the tribe’s totem pole with her “Noura knows best” attitude. It was after their ability to work with the numbers on a blindside of Molly (primarily), Jack, and Jamal that allowed them to float back to the middle of the tribe, with Jason using the opportunity to tone things down after receiving two votes.

Unlike Nick Wilson, a fellow lawyer that fumbled early and went on to rebound and win, Jason didn’t quite get that opportunity. It was 10 days later and after a tribe swap that Jason found himself facing another Tribal Council opportunity, as Vokai 2.0 now saw an even 4-4 split between original Vokai and Lairo.

Based on exit interviews, heading into the sixth Tribal Council of Survivor: Island of the Idols, the Vokai plan was to trick Aaron or Missy into voting for Elaine while actually throwing their four votes onto Aaron, effectively taking out a huge challenge threat early. However, little did they know that Elaine sitting out of the Immunity Challenge would send her directly to the Island of the Idols.

When she visited, she earned a Block-a-Vote advantage that allowed the 4-4 deadlock to be nullified and the four Lairo on Vokai 2.0 to effectively team together to take out somebody on the other side. Jason was deemed a target that couldn’t be wrangled in post-advantage play, so Elaine both blocked his vote and saw him voted out 4-3 on Day 16.

Jason became the final member of the Island of the Idols pre-jury, proving to be just a step shy of gaining the full confidence and stive necessary to work his neurotic energy and focus it on whipping the votes at the merge. He was voted out because the right advantage was offered to the right castaway right ahead of a vote that could have resulted in drawing rocks otherwise. Vote here to let us know if you think Jason should return to get a different shot at playing the game.