Survivor 30 provided the most toothless villain in the show's history

Season 30, officially known as Survivor: Worlds Apart, featured the theme of White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar and was an interesting look at how people from very different walks of life, with supposedly different outlooks on life, might play the game if grouped together by those outlooks.

The result was an entertaining season to watch, but not necessarily for the best reasons. There was a lot of misogynistic dialogue and behavior from some of the male contestants that was outdated even at its air date in the spring of 2015. Looking at it through a more enlightened and aware lens in 2024, it was even more uncomfortable and unsettling.

Three players - Dan Foley, Rodney Lavoie, Jr, and Will Sims II - each had moments throughout the season that hopefully they regret now. Of the three, Will's bad moments seem probably the least out of character. After being accused of holding back food he generously shared with his whole tribe, he went on a tirade aimed at Shirin Oskooi, who was the only one present of a few people who had voiced doubt about Will's gesture.

If Will had stuck to that topic all would have been okay, but he started ripping into Shirin personally, saying no one liked her and that she had no one in real life who loved her either. At the time, he did not know she was a victim of abuse as a child, but even when he found out, he didn't really back off, and in the end, he probably truly regretted it.

Dan also had several moments where he was condescending to the women and questioned their intelligence. In fairness, this was his MO because he talked about the men in that fashion, too, during his confessionals. Considering Dan was scared the whole season to make any kind of big move, and failed to take the advice of other players, he really lasted longer than he should have.

Mike Holloway deservedly won the season, backed by a strong physical game that resulted in five individual immunity wins, plus some nice rewards, as well. He did live up to his blue-collar label, but he expected everyone else to work at the same frantic, intense level he did, and that was not very realistic. He played a very manic, uneven social game, but he made it to the final three with the right people.

This season also debuted Joe Anglim, who quickly gained fan support. He was good-looking, smart, and solid in challenges, and he played a good social game, all of which led him to be ousted fairly quickly after the merge. But even Joe, the golden boy, who would play the game two more times, and eventually married his season 30 tribemate Sierra Dawn Thomas, has had his image tarnished by racist accusations and for his political views. Those things were not evident in season 30.

Who was the biggest villain in Survivor 30 and why wasn't he effective?

The worst player of the season and the biggest villain had to be Rodney. From day one, he strutted around like he was king of the island. He talked derogatorily about women, in general, and acted like he was the one in control of the game.

For a good chunk of the game, this was actually true. He displayed none of the work ethic that came with being a blue-collar person. He did nothing in camp. He was awful in challenges, and he often cried, whined, and went on childish rants when things didn't go his way. He didn't get to go on any rewards because he was never on any winning teams. That's curious and telling. He threw a childish tantrum after being left out of a big reward that happened to fall on his birthday. Mike pointed out to him that rewards had to be earned.

He must have been more charming than the edit showed because he did draw players into a fairly strong alliance. He brought in no-collar Will after the merge and worked with Tyler Fredrickson and Carolyn Rivera of the white-collar tribe. Both should have seen through his act much sooner and worked to get rid of him.

Sierra and Dan from the blue-collar tribe rounded out his alliance, despite the fact Rodney had been fairly cruel and condescending to Sierra for much of the game. Like Dan, Sierra was hesitant to make any kind of big move against Rodney, but because Mike kept winning the challenges, this alliance eventually had to devour itself.

Even at the end, Rodney was convinced he would have won if he had made it to the final three, but he was delusional. He couldn't even save himself by making fire after it took him more than 45 minutes to get a fire started. Because he never did anything, he had no clue how to make fire, and he became the final member of the jury.

His actions and words made him the villain, but blind lemmings gave him his power. He should have been voted out much earlier in the game. When Jenn Brown played her idol, her small alliance should have voted him out instead of Kelly Remington. With the head of the snake gone, Rodney's alliance would have crumbled, and it would have been a much different and better game.

Every season needs a good villain, but season 30 had, maybe, the weakest one in history. Rodney was just a paper tiger, but he must have been able to charm some folks despite his vulgar acts and words.