In a shocking and sad turn of events, Jenna Doore became the victim of the Survivor 51 tribe swap in episode 4, “That’s the Magic of Survivor.” After Rob Antonson quit the game, production’s response was to continue with the addition of a third tribe, just with one tribe randomly getting one less person than the others.
And in a game where you’re only as strong as your weakest member, for any tribe to have less players is always a disadvantage. Going into the challenge, both the other tribes got to let a player sit out, meaning they hand-selected who would be competing based on who would be best for that challenge. But with Savu being a tribe of five against two tribes of six, it was no surprise at all that they were dealt the short end of the stick not just at the tribe swap, but ultimately with the challenge, too.
After losing immunity, the five players strategized back at camp with basically everyone knowing it would either be Jenna or Alexis Levine going home that night. With Ori Jean-Charles reuniting with his Helicopter Alliance buddies of Devin Way and Angelica “Jelly” Loblack after the tribe swap, it was easy for the three to take majority and decide the vote.
And, of course, with Devin aiming his target at Jenna since Day 1—for no reason other than not believing she is a wedding photographer—she was, unfortunately, the one who went home.
Now, in her post-game interview with Parade, she’s opening up about the misfortune of being a casualty of the tribe swap, but she’s looking on the bright side.
“It sucks to go out this way. But I’m never going to be someone who says that you get ‘swap screwed,’ even if that’s somewhat true,” Jenna shares. “As a player of the game, you do everything you can. You have to deal with bad hands. Sometimes you can’t get out of it, but you have to deal with bad hands.”
And when asked how she feels about going from the majority on Toka to being eliminated from Savu, she may have started an accidental discussion that we hope CBS and Survivor hears.
“I feel less screwed over when I get to play the ‘Premerge Baddies’ season of Survivor,” Jenna says, opening up a conversation about potential future themes of the show that could bring back some of our early eliminated favorites. “That is when I will have some vindication!”
And now that she’s mentioned it, we kind of love the idea. There have been so many great players in recent seasons who were taken out too soon. The first couple that come to mind are Sabiyah Broderick from Survivor 45, Jon Lovett from Survivor 47, and Thomas Krottinger from Survivor 48.
But especially if we’re dealing with the open era consisting of anything from any season, that means we could potentially see players even further back than just the new era. Like Cao Boi Bui from Survivor: Cook Islands or Aaron Reisberger from Survivor: China.
Who else would you want to see in a “pre-merge baddies” season?
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