Development of China Players

The last time that a Survivor contestant died while the show was on hiatus, I did a post like this where I talked about the development of players from that season. Now that Ashley Massaro from the 15^th season of Survivor has died, I figured that it made sense for me to come out of hiatus myself and do a post like this. I will talk about the development of China players.

Now what do I mean by development of players? Well, if you’ve read posts like this before, I talk about the players from this season who played in more than one season and talk about the changes that were in their game from one season to another. While the same person may play, it is unlikely the same sort of game the season time around. I realize that I should do this with the Edge of Extinction players so I hope to get to that next month. For now, enjoy my look at the players from China.

James was considered one of the strongest players in the game. This made him considered a threat, even before the merge, after he was switched to another tribe. He made it to the merge and had two hidden immunity idols to protect him, the first person in history to possess more than one at once. But he did not have the sense to use them and was blindsided with both of them in his possession.

When he played a second time in Micronesia, he got injured and didn’t leave much of a mark on the game as he was medically evacuated from it at then being the longest in it first. When he played the third time, he came off as obnoxious and got injured yet again at a challenge so terrible that it was banned. He was then voted out early in the game. Main transition: From strong yet dumb to just annoying.

Peih-Gee first played a kind of mischievous game the first time around. But somehow she was able to get pretty far in the game until she came up short after the merge. She was voted into Cambodia and was the first returning player from China not to play in Heroes versus Villains. Sadly, the second time around, she didn’t far as hot after she found herself upon Abi’s hit list and wound up voted out before the merge this time around. Main transition: From a good player who did well to a good player who didn’t do as well.

Original thoughts on her from a previous blog post: Peih-Gee is someone that I remember from her first season simply due to how much a tribe member named Denise constantly mistreated her. This season, she had Abi mistreating her causing a much earlier elimination this time around. Clearly, she did better the first time around, although it is hard to say what exactly changed for her the second time around. Main transition: From a good player who made it far to a good player who didn’t make it far.

Amanda is great. I love this player at lot (but not in a homosexual way. Oh, wait). In China, she did a good job playing the game, but she fell short at the jury and got only one jury vote, doing better with it than any third place finalist before her. The second time she played, she made history by being the first player who made day 39 a second time. Again, she fell short and didn’t win. The third time she played, she became the first player to play 100 days of the game, but was finally voted out for the first time and became a member of the jury. Main transition: From a power player who fell short to a power player who fell even shorter.

Courtney is one player that I’m not sure ever made a positive mark on me. She seemed very weak at challenges the first time she played, yet she made it all the way to the end and came in second place. She didn’t do as well the second time largely due to winding up on the wrong side of the numbers. She made it to the jury, but not the merge, being voted out for being on the outs of the villain tribe. Her last ally went on to win the game. Main transition: From a person on the right side of the numbers to a person on the wrong side of the numbers.

Contestant’s name	China	Second season	Third season
James	Dumbest	Weakest	Worst
Peih-Gee	Best	Worst	N/A
Amanda	Most notable	Best edit?	Worst
Courtney	Furthest	Wrong side of numbers	N/A

It is likely that except for maybe Amanda, all of them did the best in terms of edit (and placement for all but one of them) in their first season. Heroes versus Villains didn’t really treat any of them well. But I do think that it is possible that James wanted to be thought of as bad since he didn’t want to play the game anymore. I’ll see what happens to any others if they play again or if any of these four people play again. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.