There's no doubt that Boston Rob Mariano is on the short list of the best Survivor players of all time. While Boston Rob is sitting out Survivor 50, his mark on the season has already appeared.
Around the premiere of Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans in February, Jonathan Young revealed that he'd been preparing with Boston Rob for four years to return to Survivor, according to People. Jonathan finished in fourth place after losing the firemaking challenge way back in Survivor 42.
We're eight episodes into the season, and it's safe to say Jonathan's time with Boston Rob has been paying off.
"I did a lot of psychological training with Boston Rob. For four years, I went to his house, trained, sat at his feet, and learned everything I could because my strategic game needed some work. Boston Rob helped me with that a lot. I completely changed my game. It was years of going to his house and talking to him about what I could do differently."
Obviously, we don't know exactly what those training sessions have looked like, and we've yet to see Jonathan try to assert his dominance over this tribe as early Boston Rob might have. But there's a certain calm to Jonathan's game this season that he definitely didn't have in Survivor 42.
Heading into the season, Jonathan was one of the big question marks. He's obviously an incredible physical threat in challenges. He was a provider at camp, but he seemed to struggle in some of the social and strategic parts of the game.
I wouldn't say that Jonathan has been some grandmaster of strategy so far this season. He has a lot of work to do to make it further in the game after losing a lot of allies in recent challenges, but there's definitely been improvement in his social game. He's kept a low profile, not played too hard or made many enemies.
When the game hasn't gone Jonathan's way, I've been impressed with his ability to keep his calm, not lose his cool, and execute his plan to perfection basically.
On two occasions, at least, Jonathan could have blown his game up, but he was able to keep it together and actually make bigger moves after.
The first instance was when Jonathan was left out of the vote to blindside Charlie Davis. Jonathan thought the vote was going to Rizo Velovic, but his allies left him out of the blindside. Now, Jonathan could have gone full Ozzy Lusth and freaked out, demanded loyalty, and wrote himself out of the game.
Instead, Jonathan expressed his disappointment, but he played it perfectly. He made his tribe feel like he was down with the plan to do whatever. Then, he made his move when the game broke in his favor. Jonathan ended up on a voting group with Chrissy Hofbeck, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Tiffany Ervin, and Kamilla Karthigesu. Jonathan made it seem like he was with Tiff and Kamilla, and then he blindsided Kamilla to keep Chrissy.
Then, after the merge, Jonathan basically baited Dee Valladares at Tribal Council to lose her cool, kick off a live Tribal Council, and sat back and watched it all play out. He wasn't rude, or so it appeared, but he did put the pressure on Dee to start the panic. Boston Rob would have done something similar.
So, what did Boston Rob tell Jonathan to do in Survivor 50? He left his protege with three rules:
"One rule was to smile. Everybody wants to play with somebody who smiles. Number two, you want to win; nobody else wants you to win. Number three: control what you can control, and don't worry about anything else. You can have a tribe swap and completely mess you up. Don't worry about that. You can't control it. Just worry about what you can control."
So, you can see just how Boston Rob's influence has actually impacted Jonathan so far. I'd say Jonathan, more than some players, has taken everything in stride with all the twists and turns, and he's made the situation work for him when the odds were not necessarily in his favor.
Well, Jonathan has lost a few more allies in recent weeks since Dee Valladares' vote. Now, Jonathan finds himself in a tough spot. It seems clear that some players want to work with him. Will he be able to use more of those skills that Boston Rob helped him acquire in the final stretch of the game? It's now or never!
As things stand, I think Jonathan has the fourth-best chance to win Survivor 50. He's yet to really assert himself in challenges, but you could see him running off a few immunity wins in a row or getting in a solid alliance and making it all the way to the end with the way he's been approaching the game so far.
Jonathan might not win Survivor 50, but to me, his performance has seemed a lot better than the first time he played.
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