Shocking Moments Part 2: The Top Ten

Okay, so I recently told you about the first ten most shocking moments in Survivor history. Now I will tell you the other ten moments which are even more shocking. There are twists on the list. There are unusual events. There are dumb contestant moments. Some of it made you want to shout wtf at the TV. Why would people do that? What lead this to happening? How did something like this happen in the first place? Don’t worry. There are plenty more tribal council moments and tribal councils that will be on the list. You might already know number one based on previous blog posts, but I’m sure that you will enjoy the list regardless, especially the other moments that you wouldn’t know are on the list yet. So, I should get to the list.

#10 From Survivor: Pearl Island comes a controversial twist that I actually loved. It’s one of my favorite twists of all time and I wish that they did it more than once. I’m not sure why there is so much negativity around the twist, actually. Feel free to talk about it here in comments if you want to or you can ignore it like usual. I’m talking about the outcasts twist. I loved how voted out people could compete for a chance to get back in the game. This was the last season before returning players were introduced so the idea was pretty revolutionary at the time. The twist brought the six people who were voted out of the game so far back for a chance to compete to get back in the game. Here’s what some people don’t remember that well. If they came in third place at the challenge, it would have been like they never appeared at all. The second place tribe would go to tribal council, but no one would have been voted back in the game. But for people who were voted out of the game, they did quite well in the challenge. Some say that their unofficial buffs allowed them an unfair advantage in the challenge. They had to rescue one extra person than the other two tribes, but they still one the challenge and became the first, and possibly only tribe, to win every challenge they participated in. Never mind that they couldn’t compete in more than one challenge, no other tribe that I remember had a perfect score with challenges, even though all the members on the tribe lost at least one challenge on another tribe. Regardless, two people who were previously out of the game got back into the game. Both of them would make Survivor history when one of them got voted out a second time and the other one became a finalist. The twist remains a true shock to those who liked it or not and for better or for worse, went down in the history of Survivor.

#9 From Survivor: Caramoan comes what I think might be the best tribal council as a whole in the show’s history. I’m not sure what exactly to call it. But I do know that Malcolm revealed both of his idols and knew that the target would be off of his back. He planned for it to be a fake out like he did in the last season that none of the people here knew about. That great tribal council might have been unknown to them at the time, but this time it would be known as an awesome tribal council. He released that he would have to play his idols and told everyone that Phillip would get voted out. After both idols were smartly played, many Survivor fans saw great satisfaction in seeing Phillip get voted out. I’m certain that every Survivor fan saw a great tribal council the likes of which are very uncommon throughout the many tribal councils of many seasons.

#8 From Survivor: Marquesas comes an event that shook the Survivor world. Many people never saw such an event coming into the game. It happened so quickly, few people knew what had happened until it was over. I’m talking about the purple rock. Controversial to this day, the purple rock redefined the Survivor game for years to come. It would be twenty-three seasons after that one before the contestants would risk drawing a rock again. It would be six seasons after the purple rock was drawn before another tie vote happened (unless you count the outcasts’ tribal council). It was a shock as a twist itself, but it was especially shocking how someone who was not affected by the tie vote (and never even had a vote cast against him) was not only forced to draw a rock, but ended up drawing the rock that eliminated him from the game. After this, many players would do whatever they could to avoid drawing a rock and risk being eliminated from the game like that.

#7 From Survivor: Caramoan comes an event that made an entire tribe turn on one contestant. He totally had it coming and got what he deserved. I’m talking about Brandon’s meltdown. It was a fitting resolution for the dumbest Survivor player ever to pretty much cause his own elimination a second time. How is Colton considered the first two time quitter? While Brandon didn’t quit either time, it sure seemed he did both times. He gave up the necklace the first time, merely the pinnacle of his dumb moves that season, only two be invited back. He will probably never be coming back after the explosive way he left. The episode where he was voted out in a very unconventional way was promoted brilliantly. We had never seen Survivor like that before. I hope that we never do again. While he still wasn’t expelled from the game, it was a horrible way that he left. After a reward challenge that his tribe won, he got into arguments about it with Phillip. It’s unknown who exactly started it. We just know that Brandon hated his tribe so much that he threw out the tribe’s food and got into a fight with everyone that got him voted out before the planned challenge had even started. While he was not actually banned from the reunion show, he didn’t want to go and they were perfectly okay with that. Regardless, his meltdown and subsequently getting voted out was pretty shocking.

#6 From Survivor: Heroes versus Villains comes the first of two major shocks that season. While a lot of that season wasn’t actually shocking to some people due to all the accurate spoilers that went viral that season, if you didn’t know them or you still watched and didn’t believe them, you probably weren’t expecting something like this. Here’s the setup. Your alliance of six has a brilliant plan to vote out one of two threats in the game. You just have to remember to vote for a certain person. But, someone from the rival alliance tells you that they want to get rid of a threat that would force you to change their vote for you. Surely, you wouldn’t change your vote and risk your own elimination, would you? Apparently, you would do that. Tyson, who had to follow a very simple plan, changed his vote while the rest of his alliance tried to do the rest of the vote the right way. When Russell went to play an idol, Tyson thought that he would play it on himself and would certainly get rid of Parvati. Instead, Parvati was given the idol to play and with an extra vote against her, the votes against Russell wouldn’t line up and Tyson would be the one voted out of the game. You can’t really blame him because he did it to himself. Spoilers aside, the season probably is very great in your minds because a lot of great things happened that would be good to see whether you knew spoilers or not. I’ll get to a great moment that spoilers didn’t ruin later. Tyson voting himself out (in a way, at least, since casting a vote against yourself is against the rules of the game) was nominated among four other moves as the five dumbest moves in the game (thus far at least). While Colby not taking the easy win in Australia was pretty dumb, it was not that much of a shock so it won’t be included in this list of mine. But, the other three will all be here shortly. Speaking of which, that leads me to the next item on my list.

#5 From Survivor: China comes a moment that had never happened before. It has happened in seasons since, but not as huge a mistake as it was the first time. While it is always a dumb move no matter how often it appears, it was especially dumb the first time it happened. One reason for that is that it happened with twice the bad brains as it would otherwise. I’m talking about James getting voted out with not one, but two hidden immunity idols. He’s such a strong player in the game. You’d think that he’d know that he was a target since everyone knew that he had the idols. But he thought that he was safe (not the first or last player to do that) so he didn’t play either idol. He then laughed at being an idiot when he got voted out. “I had two hidden immunity idols!” he exclaimed in his exit confessional. He got played. But his dumb move wouldn’t last that long as the dumbest. But we’ll get to that later.

#4 From Survivor: Australia comes what I consider to be the first real shock in Survivor history. It is considered to be one of the most memorable moments in the history of the show and the game itself. It would unfortunately happen in other seasons, and I’ve already mentioned some of the other times it was considered a shock. But this time was very serious. It marked the only time in the twenty-seven seasons of Survivor that Jeff Probst was not a witness to a contestant’s elimination. It was very unexpected to everyone involved. I’m talking about Michael Skupin getting medically evacuated. I wasn’t rooting for Kucha in that season of Survivor. But I don’t think anyone wanted them to fail in the way they did. While tending the camp fire, Michael accidently breathed in some of the smoke and passed out onto the fire. His face was protected, but his hands were burnt very bad. This sudden injury forced a sudden change of plans for everyone that season. The medical team had to quickly come and pull Michael from the game. This managed to lead to Kucha’s downfall, although it would take until the final four before they were all out of the game. It remains the most serious medical evacuation (I’m pretty sure, at least) and the first shocking moment in the history of this show.

#3 From Survivor: Micronesia comes an event that made all the people who did dumb events in Survivor that far look like members of Mensa. (If you didn’t already know, you have to be a genius in order to be in that group.) You’d have to think that someone like him would have known better before he made this very dumb decision. But he didn’t and went down in Survivor history for this infamous mistake. I’m talking about Erik giving up the immunity necklace. Maybe he didn’t realize that there was an all women’s alliance and he was the only man left in the game. Maybe he thought he could do what Jenna Moresca did in Amazon. Maybe he had delusions of still being immune if he gave up the necklace like Burton was when he returned after the outcasts twist. Whatever he thought when he made the decision, he definitely doesn’t think now. He made a terrible decision by giving up the necklace to redeem himself. He talked about making a lot of mistakes in the game when he gave it up. Nobody remembers any of those mistakes, if they were even real. The decision was so dumb that when the Black Widow Alliance suggested it, Natalie wanted nothing to do with their crazy idea. She thought that there was no way someone could be that dumb. But she was wrong. He was that dumb. Some people might have thought that the suggestion would be a lot of build up to nothing when the decision came as to whether or not he would keep the necklace. But he shocked everyone by giving it up and immediately getting voted out because of it. He made a dumb decision that few people have topped with a worse one. Speaking of which, this leads us to the next shocking moment.

#2 From Survivor: Heroes versus Villains comes an event promoted as dumber than anything you had ever seen before. While many people disagree to the degree of the dumbness of the move, I would have to say that it is dumber than anything mentioned so far, although it is no longer the dumbest move of all time. It was a total shock, even if you did know the spoilers of that season. I’m talking about JT giving up his hidden immunity idol to Russell Hantz of all people. Sure, Russell’s first season had still not aired a single second of footage in America and it was not available in any way to the contestants playing with Russell. Regardless, the people on the other tribe are your rivals and you wouldn’t want any of them to have power like that, even if they are on the outs on their tribe, which he’s not by the way. While JT is not the only contestant to possess an idol and give it to another player, he is the only one who made a dumb decision that caused his direct elimination because of it. His idol was handed to Russell and eventually made its way to Parvati. That caused shocking moment 2b (or not 2b, that is the question) when Parvati played that idol and another one she already had on two different villains. She covered Sandra and Jerri, both of which were openly considered to be the least likely players to have the idol. (Sandra would prove them wrong later that season.) Unfortunately for the heroes, Jerri was the person that they all voted for so the villains vote against, you guessed it, JT was the vote that mattered and he was eliminated. And he would have had a fighting chance if he were smart and kept his idol for himself.

#1 What did I list as the most shocking moment in Survivor history? Well, it has gone done in infamy as one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history. I think that it was a great moment to watch, although it was not a great moment for the players who chose it. It left you wondering what the players were thinking. It left me dumbfounded, speechless, and in total and complete shock from the moment it was first suggested to the moment the episode ended. Many people hate it and hate the season because of it and other reasons. I love the season and consider it to be one of Survivor’s best seasons. Things like this made you wonder how Survivor can keep topping itself each season, and it does because of moves like this. I have a blog about Survivor because of this and if you look back at old blog posts, you’ll notice that the very first blog post I ever made here was about this episode. In my mind, it was the most shocking Survivor moment in twenty-seven seasons of the show. From Survivor: One World comes the most shocking moment in Survivor history: Manono giving up immunity to the other tribe. This moment made you want to yell at your TV. What were they thinking? Why would you give up immunity to the other tribe? This wasn’t like keeping your luxurious beach and winning streak like it was in Survivor: Fiji when Moto chose to give up immunity in a twist. But there was no twist, no benefit, and no reason why the tribe of men would give up immunity. From the moment Colton first suggested that, you probably think that he’s crazy. You can’t do that. And your tribe isn’t going to agree with that. If it’s a unanimous decision too, then the target isn’t going to agree to give up immunity. But they all agree to give up immunity too. So they arrive at tribal council and you must be thinking that there is no way that Jeff Probst would allow them to vote someone out right? They didn’t lose the immunity challenge. He should tell them to go back to camp and bring back the losers. Instead, he lets them stay at tribal council and they get to vote out a member of their tribe. Why would someone believe that this would ever happen? This is a total shock to everyone involved. Manono voted out Bill that night. He must have seemed dumb for agreeing to do that and not realizing that he was the target that night. But it was his fault he was eliminated due to the fact that he threw Colton’s hidden immunity idol into the sea for reasons unknown. On camera, he wasn’t to blame. But he and the rest of his tribe would crumble after their bad decision. And it remains in my mind the most shocking moment in Survivor history.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post. I will keep doing two a week, if possible, until the next new season premieres. You’ll also find posts about Survivor: Borneo at some point, but probably not until the summer, although it could happen sooner. The die hasn’t unlocked the 6^th option which happens to be where both S options are for both days of the week. Well, the Sunday movies are a little tricky with two different sets of lists for the same six movie options on the same day. Only the 1^st option for the number 1 is the same thing both ways. But I’m sure that I’ll be able to watch the series at some point in the near and hopeful future. And hopefully, my mother wouldn’t be too much of a problem since she likes to watch it as well and wants to see it with me at some point. So we’ll possibly watch this together, although I’m not sure if we will yet or not. You’ll be able to tell based on the randomness of when I update it if she is watching it with me or the regular times that I post updates if I’m watching alone. I will probably only watch alone if I start watching before the season ends. And I’ll try not to make it so that there’s only a one in six chance of watching Survivor between watching five other things. Trust me, I will watch it and not limit myself to possible options where I don’t. Besides, I just wouldn’t want to watch any other shows that start with s during that time if I did add it to the die roll list. There are probably a lot, but I don’t own that much at the time and I don’t think that it would change any time soon. Sorry for my randomness. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.