In a confusing yet not super unexpected turn of events, after watching the entire season of Survivor 50 unfold and then having the votes revealed on live television, Jonathan Young still doesn’t understand how he lost the game. While the fans at home watching could clearly see that every “move” he took credit for actually was led by other players—and his social game was only strong with the people he liked, who voted for him in the end—his perception of the game is still led by confidence that he played the best game of the season.
But a lot of his criteria for what a winner should be doesn’t necessarily match up with the outwit, outplay, outlast that Survivor was built on. While he did make it to the end (outlast), a lot of the strategy he claims that actually led to eliminations (outwit) was actually implemented more thoroughly by other players. And yes, he did win two immunity challenges (outplay) that ensured his safety, he never truly needed it because no one else at that camp ever saw him as a threat.
That was proven when he reached the Final Three without receiving a single vote—same with Joe Hunter. Unlike in the old school era of Survivor, not getting any votes usually means you’re perceived throughout the game as not actually doing anything to contribute to the gameplay, therefore, no one has to worry about you.
Like how fellow Survivor 50 contestant Kamilla Karthigesu—whose blindside was led by Chrissy Hofbeck and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick after convincing Jonathan to go with them instead of the new era players he was previously aligned with—made it to the Final Four of Survivor 48 with no votes only for it to be revealed at Final Tribal Council that she was a mastermind of the entire game, but no one realized it because of her alliance with Kyle Fraser. That, unfortunately, was not the case for Jonathan.
And in an interview with Parade, he expresses that he didn’t go wrong anywhere in the game, but rather it was the jury who lost it for him. Though he does also share that he knew he lost as soon as Joe dropped the ball at the final immunity challenge. Not when he lost the challenge, when Joe couldn’t beat Aubry Bracco…
“Just as soon as that ball dropped, I knew it was pretty much over, and that I was going to get second.” He tells Parade’s TV Editor, Mike Bloom, “Because I knew what was going on, if you noticed, mostly the whole time. Except for the Charlie [Davis] vote…”
He considers all the training he did with Boston Rob Mariano in the four years since his last game and is confused how he was able to adapt his game so thoroughly, but no one gave him credit for it at the end. And with plans to play again, he says, “We’ll have to figure it out for the third time. I don’t know exactly what to learn from this, but I promise you, I’ll learn something.”
And the irony of that statement is that the problem with both his Survivor 42 and Survivor 50 games had nothing to do with strategy, but in how he worked with and treated other players. Prior to Dee Valladares becoming the first member of the jury, he spent most of his time berating her for lying in a game where the first qualifier is literally “outwit.” And when asked directly, she told him that, yes, she will lie in Survivor, because the fact is everyone on that beach is going to lie at some point—including Jonathan.
Yet when Bloom asks about his relationship with Cirie Fields, he says, “I know that I couldn’t trust Miss Cirie…” but continued to work with her for basically the entire game. How is that different than Dee? It’s really not… But despite the fact that he didn’t feel he could trust Cirie in the game, he doesn’t understand how she told him she’d vote for him if she ended up on the jury, yet didn’t vote for him in the end.
“Miss Cirie basically rallied the troops when she got back to Ponderosa…that’s part of the reason I think I lost.” - Jonathan Young tells Parade
He then rants about how she had an influence in the game that led to multiple people always asking her how she was voting in order for her to tell them how to vote and that definitely translated to her time on the jury. “You don’t think they’re doing that at Ponderosa? And is by happenstance that the people that surrounded her…are the same people that didn’t vote for me in the finale? I’m just curious.”
What Jonathan is still failing to see is that all the people who didn’t vote for him played with Aubry or played like Aubry, appreciating her game. But there is one player who apparently told him, “I should have voted for you” when they reunited at the Survivor 50 premiere and that was Ozzy Lusth. “That’s not a great thing to hear at all,” he declares, going on to say he was “really shocked” that Ozzy told Aubry his gameplan at the end and that he voted for her despite her revealing it to others and ultimately getting him voted out.
Though he still claims ownership of the Ozzy vote.
And as far as if the tables had turned and he’d lost fire to Rizo Velovic, Jonathan says it’d be hard to decide who he’d vote for in the new Final Three. “I wouldn’t vote for Rizo…as far as the camp life, he doesn’t have much of that going on.” And when considering Joe, he says, “I think he deserves more credit than he got…and I think that when you know somebody’s down, don’t kick them.”
While he didn’t mention Aubry, he basically said definitely no to Rizo and if he voted for Joe, it would be a sympathy vote. Which leads me to believe that he might actually consider Aubry the best player? Regardless, his exit press has been a complete conundrum of contradiction and if he does return to play Survivor again, I’ll be interested to see if he’s able to finally adapt his own perception of his game—since that’s what actually kept him from winning.
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