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: Genevieve Mushaluk
Age: 33
Season: Survivor 47, 2024
Finish: 5th Place
HIGHLIGHTS
To say that corporate lawyer Genevieve had a quiet start on Survivor 47 would be an understatement. With only three confessionals total in the first three episodes, Genevieve seemed poised to be in a supporting role for the season’s action. That was, of course, until her breakout in episode four, when Genevieve leveraged her relationships with Lavo tribemates Sol Yi and Rome Cooney to force the two rivals into an unlikely truce and blindside Kishan Patel.
Genevieve’s ability to bring together such an unlikely pair to execute a blindside that would most benefit her own game solidified her as one of the season’s most effective social and strategic players, and she quickly went from a supporting character in the season’s overarching narrative to a main character. Leading up to the merge, she continued her delicate balancing act of maintaining her close game and personal relationships with Sol, Teeny Chirichillo, and Rome.
At the fake merge, Genevieve sacrificed her relationship with the unpredictable Rome and replaced him with Andy Rueda. The next two rounds went smoothly for Genevieve, but her game took a downturn at the Final 10 when she orchestrated a blindside against Sol. It was an impressive show of her abilities, but it brought her game out of the shadows and put a massive target on her back for the rest of the season.
Genevieve was fighting for her life from there on out and struggled to balance her strategic decisions with her personal relationships, especially when it came to her tumultuous relationship with Teeny. At the Final 7, Genevieve teamed up with Andy and Sam Phelan to pull off Operation Italy by crafting a ruse that Genevieve had found an idol, resulting in a split vote and Caroline Vidmar’s blindside.
When Rachel LaMont idoled out Andy the following round, the Rachel vs. Genevieve rivalry that had been festering throughout the merge finally came to a head, with Rachel coming out on top when she won Final 5 immunity. Genevieve made some last-minute hail-mary plays to save herself, but Sam revealed that her idol was fake, sealing her fate as the seventh juror.
WHY SHE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
This is obviously a very recent pick, and while I’m hoping we get at least a few Old School players on season 50, realistically there will likely be a strong bias towards the New Era in the final cast. And looking at our crop of New Era players so far, Genevieve stands out as one of the must-have casting choices.
Genevieve is one of the most dynamic players and characters of the New Era thus far. She’s funny, a compelling confessionalist, a deadly social player, and an effective strategist. Her season-long narrative of struggling to reconcile her desire to play a cutthroat game with her real personal connections added a lot of depth to her storyline, and a return for 50 would give us a chance to see how she approaches the game differently in a return outing.
She has shown us she can play well from the top, middle, and bottom of the game, so we know that she’ll deliver regardless of where she ends up on Survivor 50. Half the fun of the Survivor 47 post-merge was seeing Genevieve constantly targeted and wondering how the hell she’d get out of trouble this time. Even if she struggled to find her footing in a return outing due to a high threat level, it would be a blast to watch her try to claw her way out of trouble.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about the concept of the “New Era Mount Rushmore.” Who from the New Era makes it on the cast of Survivor 50 and succeeds on the season will give us clearer answers on who those Mount Rushmore faces should be. If she’s cast, I’m confident Genevieve will prove herself a strong candidate for one of those coveted spots.
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