Welcome back to Inside Survivor’s 50 For 50, a semi-regular feature highlighting 50 former castaways who we think should be considered for a spot on Survivor 50. In a snake draft, the Inside Survivor team selected ten players each, with the only rule being they couldn’t have played more than twice.
PROFILE
Name: Lauren Rimmer
Age: 42
Season: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, 2017
Finish: 7th Place
HIGHLIGHTS
Lauren Rimmer was written off in the pre-season of HvHvH as an obvious first boot from her tribe. Her personality didn’t seem to be a good fit for that cast in general, and spending several minutes waxing poetic about harvesting horseshoe crab blood in pre-game interviews didn’t leave many fans with high hopes for her as a strategic player.
But Lauren quickly emerged as the dark horse of the season, an immediate fan favorite underdog who was not only super likable but one of the funniest confessionalists of her era as she ruthlessly dunked on the likes of Patrick Bolton and Cole Medders before swiftly voting them out. Whether it’s her distrust of redheads, her dominating the meme-y squatting and foot challenges of all things, or her love-hate relationship with Ben Driebergen, you probably remember something about her. In a mostly forgotten season (save for the ending), that goes a long way.
Lauren’s rise from rags didn’t quite get her to the riches. After making bold plays to blindside JP Hilsabeck and Joe Mena in back-to-back betrayals, she proved to be a genuine badass. But she was too badass to survive another round, as the target landed between herself and Ben, with the two gunning for one another. Lauren tried to win favor by splitting her recently found idol with the unpredictable Dr. Mike Zahalsky, but Mike burned her when he threw it in the fire, securing her elimination at the hands of Ben’s own idol play.
WHY SHE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
I fear Lauren’s time may have passed without a returnee season for the non-winners of the 30s, but let’s not let her be forgotten, shall we? At the time of HvHvH’s airing, Lauren was the fan favorite across the board, winning over all sides of the fanbase as a throwback to an era gone by. She was the modern Sue Hawk with a touch of the Courtney Yates snark, a player willing to be vicious without losing that human element, someone who made moves but wasn’t playing the meta.
Unfortunately, the controversial nature of HvHvH’s ending overshadowed her. Everyone remembers Chrissy Hofbeck and/or Devon Pinto being robbed by the fire-making twist, and their names are on all the second-chance lists until the end of time because of it. Everyone remembers Ben going on to win and giving up on Winners at War to tarnish the season’s already maligned legacy further. But again, let’s not ignore the first 80% of the season where Lauren was the star everyone adored. Her impact might not be long-lasting, but it was certainly felt in the moment.
Lauren is a prime candidate for a second chance, whether that’s a theme itself or just in general. Her exit was tragic, self-inflicted by one misguided move that spiraled out of control. She may not have been able to win the season had she survived the final seven, but her story just doesn’t feel complete with the ending she got. Her boot was the beginning of the end for HvHvH as a season, the moment when everything fell apart. So why not pick up those pieces and let her try again?
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