If ever a Survivor player came close to the type of game play that Richard Hatch used, it was Thailand’s winner, Brian Heidik.
Thailand is another one of those seasons, like Africa, that is commonly cited as being a least favorite of many fans. However, the human drama that played out on that island of Koh Tarutao was one of the most intense that this game has ever seen, and a lot of that can be attributed to the used car salesman.
The major theme that came out of the Thailand season was that of the question of age. The big twist at the beginning of the game was on using the importance Thai people place on their elders to choose the tribes. At first, the choices seemed puzzling, especially when looking at the choices of Jan. Jake picked a younger, more athletic tribe, whereas Jan picked people who were older and closer to that of her own personal comfort zone.
It was clear from the beginning to many people that Sook-Jai was going to roll over Chuay-Gahn, but after just a couple weeks of the show, it was even more apparent that Chuay-Gahn was much more formidable than previously thought for the very simple fact they were more mature, and therefore worked better together as a team. Yes, there was the disaster called Ghandia, but they overcame that, too.
Sook-Jai self-destructed, and after getting rid of Ghandia on Day 12, Chuay-Gahn did not lose another member until Day 36. During the course of that time, Chuay-Gahn simply bonded together as a team and the five stuck together all the way to the end.
Now, within this little structure, you have a very interesting dynamic developing, and it all revolves around Brian. This was the first Reunion Jeff Probst hosted, and I think he made a very strong observation when he said that Brian was never at the top of the totem pole within his tribe. He was always IN control, but he never actually TOOK control. It’s a different style of game than Richard Hatch, but the concepts behind each are very similar. He used his skills of being a sleazy used car salesman to completely snow the other members of his core group of five.
I was talking to Murtz not too long ago about these strategy columns I’ve been doing during this summer’s offseason, and asked him what kind of topic he might think would be a good one for the future, and he said he’d love to see a column on Brian Heidik because he feels that he is highly underestimated as a player. I don’t know how true that is or not, but I do highly respect the way he played the game, even if he was extremely slick.
It earned him a million dollars. Now let’s get into some specifics and analyze exactly how Brian Heidik became the fifth million dollar Survivor winner.
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THE CHALLENGES
Brian’s approach to the challenges during this game was excellent. I remember saying a long time ago, back when I was talking about the challenges of the game specifically and how future players should handle them. I said that when planning how you’re going to handle the challenges in your game, use Brian as a model. During the tribal portion of the game, which was the longest of any Survivor season, he had the good fortune of being on a tribe that wasn’t one of the most physical, so he was able to prove his value by helping carry his tribe to victory. But his greatest strength of all came in how he handled the individual challenges. Towards the end of the game, he won three individual Immunity Challenges in a row. Was that a coincidence? No. Brian was smart enough to save up and hide his strength a little bit for the end of the game when he would really need it. Think about it. Once the merge finally materialized, Sook-Jai was completely outgunned and the original Chuay-Gahn was too tight to break. Brian was completely in control of his position within his own tribe, so he really didn’t need Immunity towards the beginning of the merge. However, he knew he would need it once he had to start burning all the bridges he had built with people like Ted and Helen. So he saved up his energy for a challenge run at the end of the game, rather than earlier on. Even when he wasn’t necessarily at his maximum potential in some of the earlier challenges, he demonstrated several times he was in control. During the torch snuff challenge, even when it wasn’t his turn, he was using his head to gesture to Helen where she needed to go next. In the final Reward Challenge, he threw the trip by misspelling “Road Trip” as “Raod Trip.” I’ve heard many people say they think he genuinely did that by mistake, but come on, give me a break. Do you honestly think a used-car salesman would misspell the word “Road?” He threw the challenge so he wouldn’t let himself come off as TOO dominant and saved it for Immunity. Like I said, when it comes to the challenges, all future players should model Brian, because he handled this aspect of it beautifully.
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THE JURY
The Final Tribal Council is the place where dominant political figures like Brian finally get blasted by the players they’ve betrayed. It happened to Brian, it happened to Boston Rob later on in All-Stars, Chris in Vanuatu. Unfortunately, this is inevitable. Brian played the game by making promises to everybody so that his safety would be ensured, and ensnared his prey enough to the point where none of them would bother to compare notes and realize he was at the center of the storm. While this is a good game to play if you can pull it off, you will get blasted for it by the Jury. Remember, while they ideally should vote for the best person, they are human beings, and when you play this type of game, these people you were close to are in for some brutal betrayals. It happened here to both Ted and Helen. However, as Brian demonstrated, you can overcome this by handling the Jury right. While some of his credibility was shattered, Brian was smart enough to do some things right. 1) Out of the three people he made tight alliances with (Ted, Helen, and Clay), he ultimately chose Clay as his Final Two partner. This was brilliant because out of all three, Clay was the most likely to be hated by the Jury and the most likely to make himself look like an idiot in front of them. So that’s another thing to note if you play this type of game in the future…..when deciding which one will actually be your endgame partner, choose wisely, because it could mean the difference between the million dollars and the $900,000. 2) Brian gave angry Jury members exactly what they wanted to hear. Helen completely blasted him, and he gave her the apology she wanted along with a sound, logical explanation of why he did what he did to her. With Ted, he did what he wanted by blasting Clay. Now, look at Clay. He might have had the opportunity to change Helen’s vote, but he blew her off instead. See the importance of choosing your partner? If Brian had chosen Helen, do you think she would have blown off an angry Clay? It may have been by only one vote that he won, but that’s all that matters. Just like the challenges, Brian did a good job of setting up his position for the Jury, as well as handling them, and is a model for future players to follow.
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JEFF PROBST
Brian was sleazy throughout the entire game, and was very slick with everyone he talked to, including Jeff at Tribal Councils. He gave your typical BS answers about things being fair, or an answer about he is trying to get people back for betraying them, or whatever. He never once wavered, and never once revealed his hand to anybody. He always, especially at Tribal Councils, made himself look like the good guy. I remember at the very first Tribal Council, Jeff asked him a question about first impressions, and he talked about how you never judge the book by its cover and you look at the true character inside and it’s “all about love.” He was very endearing, setting himself up to look like the good guy while he planned to make his move and become like “Cool Hand Luke” or Mr. Freeze. That was very reflective of how he conducted himself at Tribal Councils later on.
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GENERAL OVERVIEW
What can I say? Brian played an almost flawless game. He helped carry his weaker, older tribe to victory and the Final Five. Within that group, he made an alliance with every single one except Jan. When it came time to choose his actual Final Two partner, he made the right choice (and helped himself in the Final Tribal Council later on) by choosing unlikable and unpopular, lazy old Clay. In the individual challenge, he worked with Clay to get one Reward, but then saved his strength and hid his true abilities to get a good Immunity run once the time came to start cutting loose his allies. He did a very good job of representing used-car salesmen, and while it might not be a good reflection of our society as a whole, he used those skills to dominate Thailand and become Survivor’s fifth million dollar winner.
“See” you next week!
