Next, we have the Lex Van Den Berghe Award for Most Likely to Hold a Grudge.
Survivor is an environment that spawns bitterness and resentment at the best of times, and in a returnee season, where the cast often share personal friendships outside of the show, the emotional effect of being voted out can be permanently damaging. While contestants like to constantly remind themselves, and others, that Survivor is “just a game”, we have seen over and over again just how personal this “game” can become. There are Survivor grudges that have lasted years. The most infamous Survivor grudge happened in the original Survivor: All-Stars, when Boston Rob went back on his word and voted out Lex. Due to their real life friendship and pre-show agreement, Lex believed this betrayal went beyond the game. He believed Rob had taken advantage of genuine friendship for the sake of a million dollars, and Lex couldn’t accept that, and he held on to that grudge for years and years.
Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chance has a very high chance of personal grudges and bitterness. Not only are there outside-the-game friendships amongst this group, but because of the cast been announced prior to filming, pre-gaming was more rampant than ever. While pre-game alliances may seem like a good idea initially, they can also be a detriment. More often than not pre-game alliances end up in betrayal and heartache because it is inevitable that once the season begins, players circumstances change and those pre-game alliances become a liability rather than an advantage. That’s when the back-stabbing happens and the grudges begin. Again, I have nominated two men and two women, based on their prior actions in their first seasons.
And the nominees are…
Andrew Savage – in Survivor: Pearl Islands, Savage played a very straight-forward game. He formed an alliance early on and he stuck to that alliance. He placed a huge importance on physical strength and challenge ability and was very rigid when it came to strategy. If Savage felt wronged in any way, or if he felt someone wasn’t living up to his standard, he would take that personally and was unable to let it go. His attitude towards Skinny Ryan and Lill throughout Pearl Islands is a perfect example of how hard it is for Savage to move on. Hopefully, Savage’s attitudes towards the game have changed, but I think out of most of the men, he is the most likely to hold a personal grudge against someone who costs him a challenge or attempts to vote him out.
Vytas Baskauskas – in Survivor: Blood vs Water, Vytas gave his jury vote to Monica just to stop Gervase from gaining the second place prize money – if that doesn’t scream bitterness then I don’t know what does. Vytas is one of those types of player that presents himself as a strategic thinker that views Survivor as “just a game”, but in his first time out he proved that he takes this game very personally. After all, this is the man that held a grudge against his own brother (Aras) for years prior to them playing together on Survivor: Blood vs Water. I think if Vytas is blindsided, especially by those he considers allies, he could find it very hard to take.
Tasha Fox – it was difficult choosing the two women for this category because the female cast for Second Chance was relatively logical and reasonable when they were voted out the first time. But these two female choices tie into one another because they both come from the same season. After she was voted out in Survivor: Cagayan, Tasha refused to speak to her former Brains tribemate, Kass, when she arrived at Ponderosa. Tasha held a personal grudge against Kass for her betrayal in the game and it continued long after the show was over. You could also view Tasha’s vote for Woo over Tony as a potentially bitter vote.
Kass McQuillen – much like with Tasha, the events of Survivor: Cagayan resonated long after the season had finished for Kass. She was involved in back and forth Twitter wars with the likes of Tony, Trish, Tasha and Spencer. She made her feelings towards her fellow cast-mates abundantly clear in post-show interviews. So while I think Kass does have the ability to view the game strategically while playing, it is after the season has wrapped where she has shown a tendency to prolong island based grudges. I would definitely keep an eye on Kass’s Twitter feed while the season is airing!
Vote below for which of these four nominees you think is Most Likely to Hold a Grudge in Survivor: Cambodia. Results will be announced in September.
THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED!
Photo Credit: Rosmarie Voegtli via Compfight cc
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umm i would have Spencer over Andrew he was very bitter
Savage is the no brainer here I think.
#BitterTasha
Totally gonna be Savage when he doesn’t make the jury again ahahaha.
Savage’s Pearl Islands bitterness was due to being eliminated due to Lill Morris and the Outcast twists. I don’t think he would have been bitter at all had he gone home because of other reasons.
I never really viewed Vytas’ vote as a bitter one, I felt that he thought (and I’d agree), that Monica played a better game, and deserved some credit for her impressive challenge abilities.
Where’s Abi?
It’s weird because the first name that popping in my mind was Woo. He hasn’t been voted off so there’s no witness how he would react if he’s blindsided. But I strongly believe for a player who took it too much on loyalty like him would be so desperately upset if he’s snuffed by that. It may not be an aggressive one but I think he would live with long suffering grudge for sure.
Tasha’s vote for Woo wasn’t about bitterness towards Tony. Listen to her interviews about it, it was much more complicated than that.
Well, of course she’s going to have a rationalization for her vote. She’s not going to think or say “I was bitter so I voted for Woo.”
spencer would probably be a better nomination than vytas
I think Vytas is the clear number one here. If you look at the BvV ponderosa videos he was SUPER bitter. He literally could not shut up about Laura helping Tina in the challenge that eliminated him, he seriously wouldn’t give it a rest