Second Chance is The Best Survivor Season

There is only one season of Survivor in which the theme, the twists and the cast converged to create a near flawless 39-day stretch of entertainment: Second Chance. From the first ever fan vote to a unanimous jury vote, from gastrointestinal distress to heinous weather conditions that certainly weren’t as fun as going on a cruise, this season truly had it all.

What makes the 31st season so unique, even to this day, is that it started in earnest during season 30. Thirty-two contestants, 16 women and 16 men, who had only played the game once before, were subjected to a fan vote. The top 10 women and men were announced during a tense Worlds Apart reunion, in which we were forced to watch favorites like Teresa “T-Bird” Cooper and Shane Powers left behind. Even with their exclusion, the 20-person cast was star-studded, brimming with mega-strategists like Spencer Bledsoe and Stephen Fishbach and soon-to-be legends like Kelley Wentworth. It was, as with any cast, not without a dud or two (one rhymes with Harmonica Tortilla). But, by and large, these were all gamers with parallel narrative arcs of wanting to avenge their prior defeat.

Rarely does Survivor nail each twist it tries on a season – the jury is still out on the titular Island of the Idols – but it’s hard to dispute that Second Chance hit the mark on every single one. None worked better than Wentworth finding the idol during an immunity challenge in the premiere, a scintillating scene the show captured beautifully. During one post-merge immunity, Jeff Probst again dialed up the crazy, giving contestants standing on a perch in the water a chance to ditch immunity and swim toward an unknown advantage. Fishbach (yes Fishbach!) beat Bledsoe for what was revealed to be a steal-a-vote. Unlike Wentworth, Fishbach’s advantage didn’t increase his life expectancy in the game.

Wentworth surprised some when she was selected as one of the 20, simply because of her abbreviated stay on San Juan Del Sur. Her fourth place finish was remarkable not only for the improvement she made from one season to the next, but also because there hadn’t been many female characters before Wentworth who wielded as much conviction and power as she did. Her command of the historic final six tribal, in which both she and eventual winner Jeremy Collins played idols, making it the first time no votes were cast for anyone, was masterful. She convinced Keith Nale not to go to the house, as it were, thus sending Kimmi Kappenberg to Ponderosa.

Collins was one of the more compelling winners in the show’s history. He played an inimitable social game, one so strong that Cagayan standouts Tasha Fox and Bledsoe never turned on him though Collins was the clear bigger threat. Collins’ through line of playing for his wife Val, who was pregnant with their son, was extremely touching, especially during the loved ones visit. Furthermore, Second Chance was propelled both by the entertainment value of its characters – Keith Nale! Enough said – and the level of importance each competitor placed on fixing the shortcomings that plagued them the first time out. Some, like early boots Vytas Baskauskas and Shirin Oskooi, were done in by either underplaying or overplaying pre-game alliances. Others, like Joe Anglim, Abi-Maria Gomes and Andrew Savage, couldn’t remedy the inherent character traits that prevented them from winning the first time. Collins, it turned out, had few weaknesses in the game, and his blindside on season 29 was hardly an indictment on his lack of strategic acumen.

The greatest Survivor seasons are characterized by themes that engender captivating narratives as well as characters willing to embrace those narratives. Nick Wilson relished his role as a David in David vs. Goliath. Rupert Boneham took to being a pirate in Pearl Islands like a dog takes to chewing a bone. And Sandra Diaz-Twine used her villain status in Heroes vs. Villains to deceive and destroy her competition. Although some Second Chancers have since been given third chances, the energy each contestant brought to that season created the vibe of a cannibalistic society preparing for an apocalypse. This all being said, Second Second Chance cannot arrive soon enough.

Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.

Source: ET Canada

About The Author

Justin Fedich
(484 Articles Published)

Justin Fedich is a reality TV editor based in Washington, D.C. He has reported on the need for increased representation in the Survivor franchise and has interviewed stars from Netflix hit shows The Circle, Too Hot To Handle and Love Is Blind.

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