Survivor: Second Chances, the 31st season of the iconic show, allowed fans to vote on the cast of 20. There were two big caveats - contestants could have only played one other season, and they could not have won their season.
It was a great idea and was well-executed. The fans did a great job with their vote, mostly selecting players who were indeed worthy of a second chance at the game. There were only a couple of people who were head-scratching choices, and one of them was Abi-Marie Gomes.
Abi’s first appearance was in season 25, Survivor: Philippines. She played a strange game. She was confrontational, vindictive, showed no tact, and had almost no feel for the game. Inexplicably, she finished fifth that season, and it is puzzling why anyone thought she deserved a second chance.
Did Abi-Marie Gomes play a better game on Survivor: Second Chances?
While many contestants worked hard not to repeat their mistakes from previous games, Abi was even worse. The cast was terrific overall, and it was one of the better seasons. The most significant negative aspect is that Abi was a member of that cast.
Like in her first shot at playing the game, she showed a remarkable lack of self-awareness. She was narcissistic and vengeful and, for a time, controlled her tribe before the merge. She perceived slights where there were none, as with Peih-Gee Law, and she ensured her erstwhile ally was sent home early.
There have been many agents of chaos on Survivor, and it is incredible how often they control the game around them, especially pre-merge. It is also mind-numbing how long they tend to stay in the game. We’ve seen players like Brandon Hantz, Phillip Sheppard, and more recently in Survivor 46, Q Burdette, disrupt the game. They always tend to stay around longer than they should.
In Second Chances, everyone in the game knew she was a wildcard and couldn’t be trusted to maintain secrecy or hold her temper. After the merge, she formed an alliance of need with Ciera Eastin and Kelley Wentworth, but only because they didn’t have many choices in the middle part of the game.
Abi would have been the perfect person to take to the final tribal council because everyone knew no one would ever vote for her, yet she made it deep both times. In Cambodia, she finished seventh, mainly because no one could trust any alliance with her would hold, and not because of her strategic gameplay. The fact she was a wild card worked against her both in the Philippines and Cambodia.
The history of Survivor is littered with players who felt comfortable and overly confident about their place in their game, only to find themselves blindsided. Abi was no different. In a confessional right before being voted out, she said she just had to decide who she would pull to the Final Three.
Even in her departing comments right after being voted out, she said she was glad she could get away from all those crazy people. In reality, they were all sane, and luckily, she wasn’t rewarded with a Final Three appearance.
Watch Survivor 48 beginning Feb. 26 on CBS and Paramount+!