Survivor Island of the Idols: Should Missy Byrd return?

She made some decently dope moves early in Island of the Idols before making some very undecent moves later. Should Missy Byrd return to Survivor?

There were a great many Island of the Idols players who had a very strong peak and a very low valley. Missy Byrd exemplified the extremes in the game of Survivor, as she came to play hard early and often, even at the expense of her early allies in an attempt to build new relationships.

Missy came into the game immediately forming a close bond with Elizabeth, as the two shared similar stories of athleticism and interests. They were the keys to holding most of the Lairo women together through the first ten votes, as once one had been taken out, the rest would immediately falter one by one.

They ran early Lairo by targeting Ronnie and Vince for various levels of sketchiness, but Missy wanted to establish long-term relationships with characters such as Karishma and Aaron instead of completely tanking their games. As such, a pivotal vote right before the tribe swap saw Missy thread the needle of Aaron wanting to keep Dean and Elizabeth and Elaine wanting to keep Karishma; Chelsea became a Plan Z target for being a threat and part of a dubious showmance.

It was here that it became clear to others just how much influence Missy had in the game, but the tribe swap forced the original Lairo players on Vokai 2.0 to bond together. And such they did, thanks to a well-timed advantage from Elaine blocking Jason’s vote at the first Tribal Council with the new group, as the Lairo members on that new tribe voted out Jason.

Heading into the merge, Missy had a great deal of influence and secondary connections to back her up, but it’s where her determination to win got the better of her. She shared an honest heart-to-heart moment with Kellee about Dan’s unwanted touching but Lauren’s third-party perspective combined with the knowledge Kellee was targeting Missy regardless gave Lauren an unclear view on why Kellee wanted to bond with Missy; strictly to blindside her.

This set Missy off to Elizabeth in telling her to trump up claims of her level of discomfort with Dan (a level Elizabeth, personally, hadn’t experience), in an attempt to get Missy out of the crosshairs. This was successful, as the primary target became Kellee and Dan became the secondary target of Jamal, Noura, and Janet as Kellee was voted out.

Instead of owning up to the idea that Dan was making women uncomfortable in the game, she denied Janet’s claims and tried to bolster Dan as part of her alliance alongside Aaron, Elaine, Tommy, and Lauren. She kept herself safe with an Immunity Challenge win and, despite having those strong numbers, a double-elimination series of split Tribal Councils following Jamal’s exit from the game saw Aaron voted out in the first of same-night Tribal Councils.

Missy had found herself in a group that should have had the numbers to take out Tommy, but her strained relationship seeing Karishma as a goat and a number in her favor gave Elaine the opportunity to make a play. She worked with Tommy to bring Karishma to her side for the second Tribal Council to form a 3-2 coalition against Missy, as both Missy and Elizabeth’s votes for Tommy combined with Aaron being voted out unseated the crumbling power Lairo had just earned.

Missy’s competitiveness proved to be a double-edged sword, as she was a threat to win Island of the Idols had she focused more on her social game. Vote here in our straw poll to let us know if you think she should get another shot at Survivor to provide a more well-rounded game.