We have traveled from the sandy beaches of Pulau Tiga and the beauty of the Australian Outback to the dry and extremely warm climate of Africa. Africa is commonly cited as being one of the worst locations, simply because it was not as attractive to look at, especially compared to the other locations Survivor has visited.
While I do agree the African landscape is quite a bit duller than, let’s say, exotic Vanuatu, I personally thought it was interesting to see giraffes and elephants roaming around right where the castaways lived.
The African season brought a lot of firsts. Definitely not as many as Palau did, but at this early point in the series, Africa made a lot of heads turn when it comes to expectations that had been developed about the game. There is also a lot of irony involved at the end, and you’ll see what I mean in a little while.
For starters, Africa contained the very first Survivor twist. I still remember to this day watching the episode where the tribes were switched, and as someone new to the series, I was completely shocked that the producers would do something like that. Now, of course, it’s much more commonplace, and we’re actually surprised when there’s NOT a switch. But back then, people had seen two seasons of Survivor following the same basic rhythm. Two tribes of eight compete against each other until they merge at ten and compete as individuals until the end of the game. This twist was a great thing to happen because it caught audiences off guard. It gave them a reason to come back to the show again and again because it reminded them that they, just like the players, should never fall into the trap of making assumptions.
Africa was also the season that I feel truly started the trend of “evil” players. Yes, the first two seasons did have their villains. Richard Hatch was the king of them all, and who could ever forget Australia’s Jerri Manthey? However, the villains of the first two seasons were basically confined to just individuals. The first group philandered around aimlessly thinking that this was just some simply island adventure, and while the second group caught on to what the game was really about, there was still not a whole lot of cutthroat activity going on. For the first time in the series, we had a cast that really did cut each other’s throats. This cast was bloodthirsty. I guess they had to be, because the game has been constantly evolving since leaving Pulau Tiga, and nowadays, to seasoned Survivor fans, this seems very commonplace. But back then, it was just different from what people had come to expect about the show. Lex was the prime example, running around looking for blood after having just one vote cast against him. But he was not by any means the only one.
And this is where the irony I was talking about earlier comes into play. While the Africa cast was much more bloodthirsty than the first two groups, the winner was the nice guy. Ethan Zohn was truly the only “nice guy” to ever win Survivor. He is, basically, the fluke. He is the only winner out of ten who never really stabbed anyone in the back or stepped on anyone’s toes. He didn’t have any real need to. He found his group of guys from Boran he wanted to be with, and he was with them all the way to the end. He had his alliance, and he had his strength, and he never really even needed to do any severe backstabbing. The only winner who comes close is Palau’s Tom, but Ethan still walked away with cleaner hands.
Ethan’s victory, in and of itself, marked another first. Not only was he the nicest person to win, but he was also the first winner to be one of the physical powerhouses of the tribe. When you look at the first two winners, Richard and Tina, and you ask why they won, you would attribute it to mastery of a strategic game plan. When you look at Ethan, you really don’t see a whole lot of strategy, but you see a whole lot of physical strength.
So, without further ado, let is begin with the analysis of the third Survivor winner, Ethan Zohn.
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THE CHALLENGES
As I mentioned above, Ethan was the first Survivor winner to really have the attribute of physical strength on his side, as opposed to strategic game play. However, he was not the physical powerhouse winning all the challenges, a la Colby. While he did win some, and was a definite asset to his tribe during the tribal part of the game, the powerhouse of this season was Lex, with Kim J. having an impressive two victories in a row right at the very end. In a lot of ways, it was smarter for him not to win a lot of challenges, because it allowed him to be less of a target. However, do I think this was based on strategy? Absolutely not. Why? Because Ethan is, at the core, a competitor, and is not the type of person to throw and/or make himself look weaker in challenges, a la Brian Heidik. So this was almost an accident, and where luck factored itself into the game. Lex became the domineering powerhouse of the challenges, which placed more of the target on him, rather than Ethan. Ethan was then able to be seen more as the “nice guy” than as the “challenge whore.” So when it came to the challenges and how he was perceived in them, Ethan unknowingly lucked out that Lex took the challenge spotlight away from him.
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THE JURY/JEFF PROBST
To be completely honest, I don’t remember a whole lot of specifics about Africa, like I do with all the other seasons. I still know quite a bit, but not enough to give the Jury and Jeff Probst two separate categories. For this, I need to combine them into one. In a lot of ways, though, most people would probably have to put these into the same categories anyway because Ethan was fairly predictable with his method of operation. When it came to both answering Juror questions and answering Jeff Probst questions, Ethan had one single goal in mind: not stepping on anyone’s toes. This came out again in All-Stars. Ethan was there to be the nice guy who was going to try his hardest at challenges and contributing to camp life, and he wasn’t going to make anybody mad. The African Jury was a bitter one, and that was reflective of the mood of the cast. However, Ethan had to have done something right in order to secure the first 5-2 victory, the widest margin ever accomplished at the time. Remember, the first two winners won with a close 4-3 vote….Ethan was the first person to win with a wide margin. Ethan’s MO was the same in camp, in challenges, and at Tribal Council with both the Jury and Jeff Probst: don’t make anybody mad and be the guy that everybody likes.
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GENERAL OVERVIEW
Other than what I said before, there’s really not a whole lot to the game of Ethan Zohn that I haven’t offered already. Of all the winners, he is one of the most predictable. That’s probably why he’s the only person to be able to win this game without really getting his hands dirty. While his laissez-faire style of game play didn’t sit well with two of the Jury members, he was able to score 5 votes, more than either of the first two winners, and he did it simply by being the person that he was and offering everything he had. He was just so darn likeable that it was extremely difficult to ever vote him off. That’s the whole reason why he never received votes until the final Tribal Council, and then became the third Survivor winner with the widest margin (5-2) ever scored at that time.
“See” you next week!
