Worst Survivor ever.

Dan

Thanks for taking time to respond during a busy time of the semester. I think your points about Redemption offering some sort of escape from the politics of gaming and some type of reframing of characters are really smart.

Here are some preliminary comparsions of Matt and Ozzy on Redemption.

Matt, no doubt, was a religious player. His time on Redemption seemed different than Ozzy’s in several ways. Matt seemed to be a pretty passive player. He always noted that whatever happened was God’s will. Hence, his time on Redemption was usually framed in terms of him suffering. He’ll endure Redemption because God wanted him to do that.

Ozzy, on the other hand, seems to have some sort of transcendental experience on Redemption. Through nature, he transcends the pettiness, back stabbing, physical, and emotional wear of the game. Also, as I recall, one of the hallmarks of transcendentalism is the ability of nature to convert evil to good, which seems to be happening to Ozzy. Any of his faults seem to have been erased on Redemption through his communion with nature.

I guess I read Matt as some type of religious figure from the Dark Ages, whereas I view Ozzy as some combination of Emerson, Kerouac, and a surfer dude in terms of his religious actions and spirituality.
I think another key difference between Matt and Ozzy is that Matt played with a “whatever God wants” philosophy when he was off Redemption. I remember his love interest (her name escapes me) looking horrified when Matt came back from Redemption and had second thoughts about aligning himself with Rob. Matt seemed to be a pretty weak player apart from Redemption challenges. But I think this season frames Ozzy as someone who is getting stronger on Redemption and will come back and defeat everyone (of course, we are told in a preview he might lose to Edna tonight). Also, Ozzy seemed to always think about the strength of his tribe off Redemption. Matt seemed to be some bumbling fool who couldn’t align himself with a group strategy.

Finally, I think one of the differences between Ozzy and other religious players is that Ozzy’s spiritual journey is occurring more through actions and deeds (i.e., climbing trees, swimming with fishes, offering up his immunity idol, taking Cochran’s place on Redemption, etc.) instead of through talk. Players such as Matt, Coach, and Brandon talk about their spirituality, but I haven’t seen them be charitable at all. Their spirituality becomes some sort of hyper-visible oration, which is often hypocritical or bad gaming. Ozzy doesn’t talk about his spirituality. But he seems to be on a spiritual journey, and he seems to be the only charitable one around.
I can see your points about Cochran being bullied by Ozzy. In my own opinion, I think Ozzy apologized and did save Cochran from Redemption for the good of the tribe. Survivor is odd terrain because it is a game. Cochran was a lousy player, physically and mentally. We see athletes flip out on each other for bad play. It’s tough to draw the line between bullying and calling someone out on Survivor. I think Ozzy’s anger after that one physical challenge wasn’t any different than Tom Brady getting angry at a receiver who blew a route or dropped a ball. But, yeah, there’s a whole social element to the game that you don’t have in professional sports. I can see your points.

Like you, I think religion will become more of a part of Survivor. The redemption ideas plays into that. Also, the show really goes with what seems to be working. Religion seems to work now—just like Hantz’s do. Much like we saw a nephew of Hantz, we’ll see more religion on the show.

Again, thanks for the great, thought-provoking comments.