Though many fans were shocked and surprised that Jonathan Young did not take home the title of Sole Survivor on last Wednesday’s finale of Survivor 50—including Jonathan Young—the majority seem to understand the exact game he played and how it lost him the title at the end over Aubry Bracco.
And, in much of his post-game press, Jonathan himself has been very vocal about how upset he is to lose, repeating to multiple outlets that the jury is to blame for this loss. And…he’s right. He did lose because of the jury, but he’s the reason he lost because of the jury.
In the game of Survivor, jury management is one of the most important—yet critically un-thought about—parts of the game. Social game is not just about winning over people in the game, it’s about correctly playing in a way that your fellow castaways would appreciate should they end up on the jury. You want their vote, but you don’t want them to feel like you’re campaigning for yourself before they’ve even left the game.
While he did seek out training from Boston Rob Mariano for the four years between his season and now, I don’t know if he took away the right things from his tutelage to help him in a new era game. Especially because—if we’re being honest—had Boston Rob appeared in the new era for the first time ever, using the same tactics he played his original game with, he would have been voted out quickly because his social game doesn’t fit this generation of players.
We saw as much in Survivor: Winners at War when he was literally voted out for using the same dominating social strategy—refusing to let anyone out of his sight via the “Buddy System”—that actually won him Survivor: Redemption Island a little less than ten years prior. Because that’s not what vibes anymore. Shannon Fairweather also received some advice from Boston Rob ahead of her appearance on Survivor 49 before she was voted out because she was playing a poor social game.
So as Jonathan continues to ask everyone why he didn’t win and what he’s supposed to learn from this experience, it’s clear as day to anyone who has watched Survivor since the beginning. He might have adapted his game between seasons, but he didn’t adapt for the season he was going into.
Sitting at Final Tribal Council with the jury that he had, his choice to dominate the conversation with claims of moves he made—despite other people directly telling him those weren’t him—lost the jury’s in-game respect for him as he clearly had no perception of what was actually going on at camp. And if that’s too nuanced to understand, we can simply look at the numbers.
As far as voting goes, Jonathan was in on the vote 72% of the time he attended Tribal Council. This means that he voted for someone other than who went home three times in the game. But Aubry voted correctly 100% of the time this season. Every Tribal Council she was at, she wrote down the name of the person who went home. That’s one point to Aubry for outwit.
And yes, Jonathan won two immunity challenges versus Aubry’s one, but he never needed the necklace for his own safety when he won it. Aubry won hers at the exact moment she would have left the game had she not had it. That’s one more point to Aubry for outplay.
While they both made it 39 days, Aubry was on the chopping block from day 1. There wasn’t a single Tribal Council she went into where her name wasn’t brought up as an option. In fact, she received votes at 44% of the Tribal Councils she was vulnerable at. But Jonathan Jonathan did not receive a single vote until Final Tribal Council. Not because he had a great social game that kept people on his side, but because there were bigger fish to fry and he never presented himself as a threat, but rather a loud voice that others could use to amplify their messages. So that’s one final point to Aubry for outlast.
And if that’s not objective enough for you to understand why he didn’t win, let’s look at the votes he claims he was behind. Dee Valladares, for example, is a jury member he was so proud to see get her torch snuffed. But when he was gunning for her, no one else really cared. It wasn’t until Emily Flippen revealed to Rizo Velovic that Dee told her about his Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol that she became mainstream targeted. Rizo told Cirie Fields about the betrayal and they both—after previously working with her—decided she needed to go. They rallied the rest of their troops to ensure she went home.
And it was already the plan to blindside Ozzy Lusth by the time Jonathan even made it to Group B’s camp during the double elimination. Before he arrived, Ozzy had already spilled the beans to Aubry and she used that to her advantage, getting both Rizo and Joe Hunter on her side. Joe even went as far as to confirm at Final Tribal Council it was Aubry, not Jonathan, who sealed that vote for him. And even if he had gotten the idea out first, it was Tiffany Ervin who whispered in his ear that now was the right time to take out Ozzy. He didn’t initiate any of that vote, he simply agreed with it, once again.
So with everything I listed above, what is the one thing Jonathan did do correctly? Perception. He misperceived the entire game through Jonathan-colored-glasses that painted him as the hero of the season when in fact, he was just a participant in other people’s plans.
I’ll end with this: Jonathan, if you plan on coming back for a third time—which honestly at this point I doubt the producers will allow after you’ve spent the whole post-game complaining Survivor 50 was rigged against you—you need to learn to open your eyes more and open your mouth less. Because this game is not always about who is the loudest or seemingly in charge. It’s about who can get on the right side of the jury with the right moves on their resume. And this time just wasn’t your time.
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