Survivor Cambodia: What Could Happen with the Players

Okay, I’ve never done something like this before in my blog and I’m not yet sure if I will ever do this again. But, basically, it’s time to speculate as to how the returning players on Survivor: Cambodia will play with one another next season. This will be pure predictions based off of who is on the next season and why they could do one thing and not another thing. It’s fun to speculate in my mind. Besides, I don’t want to be the only blogger who doesn’t think of something like this for his blog. There are many things for me to speculate about and since I don’t know yet whether or not I’ll do a cast assessment this season, then this might be the only thing that I do about it.

First, there’s this random thought that I had about the voting poll. There’s been a lot of speculation as to why Carolyn and Mike were included on the poll when we didn’t know if one of them would win before the voting closed. Mike did end up winning. Why did they include Mike if he was going to win? Why not include another guy? I think that this might have been for Carolyn’s benefit. While they couldn’t get her enough votes in the poll to win, they could be justified for at least putting her on the poll in the first place. Although, one does have to wonder if they should have gone with a different woman besides Carolyn so that they wouldn’t have someone on the list who was already on the current season anyways. It might have actually hurt her chances.

Terry had a rivalry with Aras when he played in Panama. He will now be playing with Aras’s brother Vytas in Cambodia. One will wonder how this will affect their game. Monica played with Laura in Samoa and now Laura’s daughter Ciera is playing with Monica on Cambodia. I thought that these two facts are interesting. It also reminds me of Coach who played with both Brandon Hantz and Russell Hantz.

So far in seasons that have returning players from Australia, at least one player from it makes it very far in the game. So does that mean that Kimmi or Jeff Varner is bound to make the finale? I tend to think that Jeff Varner would do better in the game. Can he win? Will he make it far? Or will Cambodia be the first season with returning players from Australia where this doesn’t happen?

I have checked through all the old seasons and I noticed something that I’m not sure if anyone else has. Even if you factor in people who have played more than once, no season has had every player from that season voted off. This could change for Borneo if Kelly Wiglesworth is voted out. If she is voted out along with Woo and Stephen, then everyone from Cambodia will have been voted off at some point. Pretty interesting, huh?

Since the theme of Cambodia is about second chances, you do have to wonder how this will affect twists this season. Will they do a back to the basics season? Will they not use hidden immunity idols for the first time since Palau? Will they avoid having a tribe swap? Will they include Redemption Island? Some people think that Redemption Island doesn’t belong on a second chance season since players are already getting a second chance. I personally love Redemption Island and think that it would actually fit and work on a Redemption Island season.

One wonders how they will divide the tribes. I do wonder if the higher vote getters would be on one tribe and the lower vote getters on the other tribes. Or, they could mix and match putting the top five men on one tribe and the top five women on the other tribe. I think that it will probably be random division of some sort.

Players could team up based on similar experiences or even if they’ve played the same season before. Spencer and Tasha could reconnect, which I why I think that they will start out on different tribes. Jeff Varner and Andrew were both voted out right after the merge due to strange situations. Will they team up? Erik and Brandon apparently had an alliance in Caramoan since they both gave up the immunity necklace, but the show didn’t really focus on it since it wasn’t that important to the game. I learned about that on Survivor Oz. Back to the point of this paragraph continued in the next one.

Will Woo and Stephen get together? Will Kelly Wiglesworth join with them? What about Terry, Keith and Kass? Will Shirin and Joe stick together? Will Ciera and Vytas form a pair? Can Kimmi and Jeff Varner work together despite how she might have unintentionally cost him the game the first time? What about the three players from San Juan del Sur or the four players from Cagayan? Will those who are by themselves from their season form an alliance with all the other people without a fellow contestant from their original season?

Four players from Cagayan makes me wonder if they will intentionally split the players up so that there’s two from that season on one tribe and two on the other? That would mean that at least two of the brains will be reunited no matter what. Will they put Kass and Spencer together to see if they clash? Would Kass be put with Tasha instead? Now I would speculate about the three San Juan del Sur players, but I’m not sure what I’d say about them.

Here’s a quick reminder of how the players did last time they played: Runner-ups- Kelly Wiglesworth, Stephen, and Woo, last voted out- Kass, Terry, and Keith, voted out in the finale- Ciera and Spencer, regular jury members- Joe, Vytas, Jeremy, Monica, Shirin, Peih-Gee, Abi-Maria, and Tasha, made the merge but not the jury- Andrew and Jeff Varner, premerge boots- Kelley Wentworth and Kimmi.

Now I think that I will do a look at each player specifically and mention how I think that they will end up faring on the next season. Remember that this is speculation only and I don’t know what will actually happen. It is fun to think about how they will fare.

Stephen came in second to JT and got no jury votes. He seems to be pretty popular among Survivor fans. The fact that he helps with Rob has a Podcast might have something to do with it. When I think about how he will fare, I’m not sure if I have any good guesses. I think that he’ll at least make the merge, but could easily not make it that far.

Jeremy is one of Survivor’s many endearing alpha males. There are some people that don’t like him, which is understandable as there tends to always be people that don’t like other people. Anyways, I find it hard to predict for sure where he will end up. I think that there’s a good chance that he makes the merge again, but I’m not sure if he can make it much farther than that.

Andrew is someone that I want to make pretty far in the game. He was considered screwed by the outcasts twist and I do wonder why it took him so long to return to the game again. I say that he probably makes the jury phase of the game this time.

Monica is a random person, but they tend to make it pretty far in the game the second time. That may not make much sense, but a lot of times, I have recognized a player better from their time as a returning player and not from their first game. So I say that she will probably make the jury again.

Jeff Varner is something that I think can make it all the way to the end. Will he? I don’t know for sure. But I say that more than likely, he will be a finalist in this upcoming season. There’s a lot of people that I want to make it far, so I’d probably be happy regardless of who makes the end. In my mind, he could also be likely to flip on people as he was voted out because of a tie the first time and might go to great lengths to avoid that fate happening again.

Woo might make it far his second time playing the game. But, I don’t think that he will. I feel that he will be out before the merge happens as he might not offer as much to the game the second time around. He could make it far if people want to take someone to the end that they feel that they can beat. But I’m not sure if that will work for him.

Shirin could make it far the second time around. But there might be enough of a stigma against her since people at the finale would know that she is rich outside of the game. So I say that the second time around, she doesn’t make the merge.

Peih-Gee is a contestant that I like a lot. Of course, I like most of the cast, even those that I didn’t vote for. I think that she will make the jury again. You may notice that I’m just making guesses and predictions here for the cast at large at this point. The predictions may mostly be random at this point based on previous thoughts on these players before and past trends from previous returning player seasons. I just hope that I don’t run out of things to say.

Kass has many different fans and haters in the Survivor community. She has mixed reactions generally among everyone in the show. And it is likely that she will start the game with at least one of her fellow players from Cagayan. I don’t see her making the merge this time. There’s a stigma against her and I don’t think she can overcome it.

Abi-Maria may be a villain, but not a hateful one for people to avoid voting her into the game. She can be a bit annoying and those players never tend to do well a second time. I think that it’s safe saying that she’ll be a premerge boot the second time.

Terry is remembered for having a very powerful idol. He was a great player, but didn’t win his season. He then didn’t end up making a lot of other returning player seasons until now. Conspiracy theory says that he was the inspiration that got rid of the final two. People who are the last voted out normally don’t do as well the next time in the game. But, I think that if anyone can be the first to break that curse, it would be Terry. I say that he will probably be a finalist this second time.

Kelley Wentworth is one of only two players on this season who didn’t make the merge the first time that she played. There’s normally mixed results with players like that. About half of them are voted out or otherwise eliminated before the merge a second time. I think that she will probably make the jury the second time.

Tasha is a pretty interesting and wonderful person in my mind. I’m not sure if she can last again the second time around, although I’d say that she’ll probably make the jury. That’s just my thoughts at least and more of a hope that she does well again.

Keith did pretty well the first time despite his general cluelessness at the game. But cluelessness isn’t a good thing and he’ll probably do poorly the second time around. I say that he won’t be useful the second time and get voted out before the merge.

Ciera has a certain stigma against her from her previous game. Now some people like John Cochran can turn that stigma around or at least have people ignore it in some way. With her, I don’t think that she’ll make the merge this time.

Kimmi is another contestant who failed to make the merge the first time she played the game. I don’t think that she can change her game around the second time and I think that she will fail to make the merge a second time. Meanwhile, while her birthday isn’t going to happen during the filming of Cambodia, I do wonder if she’ll pull off a Richard Hatch like she planned to do on Survivor Australia and spend a whole day naked. One wonders how people will react to this if she does it.

Spencer might fall victim to a sort of curse that seems to affect people voted out in finales who return for future seasons. You can look up information about that or I could do a blog post (or two) about it in the future. The point is, that of all the players who were voted out in the finale of a season and returned to play another season, only one of them made the finale the second time. That person was Cirie who ironically was voted out again in the second finale she was in. Nobody else, including Cirie’s third attempt at Survivor, has ever made the finale again. With that being said, I still think that Spencer will make the jury.

Kelly Wiglesworth could have actually won the first season if she had just stuck to her alliance. One can see the reasoning that she had for leaving it and that plan could have worked if only the right people were still on her side. Will she learn from her old mistakes? I think that she has learnt enough to make it to day 39 again.

Joe is a wonderful player who could easily wind up playing the same sort of game that he did the first time. His tribe will probably need him and use him early in the game. After the merge, he’ll be a threat that will be targeted and probably put him on the jury. It will be interesting watching the merge play out and seeing how many of the strong players make it to the merge. I’m going to love to see what happens and there are few people who I wouldn’t want to see win out of the great cast that we have. Anyways, I say that Joe will be on the jury again.

Vytas is someone who for me fits the second chance criteria perfectly even if Redemption Island already gave him that. I realize at this point that I already have the highest possible number of people on the jury that has happened in the past. If I said that they would make the merge then that is me guessing that they will be on the jury. But the point is, I’m not sure who to cut out of the jury members that I have and I’m not sure that Vytas can make the jury the second time anyways.

Well, I’m not sure where all this post has gone. Sometimes I watch an episode of a TV show and I never figure out how they got from point a to point b after watching it many times. I can’t think of any good examples at the moment of that. I don’t even know most episodes’ names of TV shows. But I digress. The point is, I hope that you understood this blog post. Now, here’s a simple run-down of my predictions for the season. Premerge boots: Woo, Shirin, Kass, Abi-Maria, Keith, Ciera, Kimmi, and Vytas. Jury members: Stephen, Jeremy, Andrew, Monica, Peih-Gee, Kelley Wentworth, Tasha, Spencer, and Joe. Finalists: Kelly Wiglesworth, Jeff Varner, and Terry. Those are my predictions for upcoming season. There might be another set, but I’m not sure about that yet. I doubt that all of these will be right, but it is fun to predict. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.