The sixth season of Survivor, set in the Amazon, was a season that was full of surprises. It began with a battle of the sexes, which was a notion viewers had been teased with at the beginning of Thailand.
This battle of the sexes set the stage for one of the greatest seasons yet, because the battle itself heightened the competitive edge of each side, because the women wanted to prove (and did prove) they were “Amazon women” and the men didn’t want the embarrassment of being beaten by the women.
Ultimately, this battle set the stage for one of the greatest individual segments of all time. After being apart, the men and the women realized how much they needed and wanted to work together, so after the switch and the merge, all about the battle of the sexes was forgotten. Even the notion of original tribes after the switch was forgotten. For the first time in the series’ history, the merged tribe (this time named Jacare) clearly became a completely different tribe with absolutely no tribal lines drawn at all.
In Marqeusas, they did make a big alliance without regard for tribal lines in order to overthrow the Rotu 4. But the difference is that this new alliance went all the way to the end and still had a pecking order. With the Jacare tribe, alliances were shifting almost daily.
After the merge, pretty much every week contained a surprise boot. If some type of group or alliance looked as if they could take over and go to the end of the game (ex/Jenna, Heidi, Rob, Alex), their plans were quickly thwarted when something went wrong (ex/Alex told Rob he would get rid of him at the Final Four). It truly became everyone for his or herself, which, of course, made for even more entertaining television.
However, even with all the surprises contained within the constant shifting of loyalties, there was possibly no greater surprise that came out of the Amazon than the winner herself. Jenna Morasca, the 21-year-old swimsuit model became the Sole Survivor in the first ever landslide 6-1 Jury vote.
Talk about surprises. The viewer reaction when Jenna won was very strong, and not in a good way. A lot of people were shocked, and some were even angry, that swimsuit model Jenna had won in such a large margin over strong, worker-bee Matt. They were upset because Jenna had won even though she had come across as whiny, spoiled, and selfish. She had been one of the “younger, cuter girls” who bathed together. A lot of people didn’t like how she acted about the situation over Christy and the letter from home. She had cried about quitting at the Final Five because she was sick. And people just could not believe that she had earned the title of Sole Survivor over someone who had been a physical player in the game and worked at camp harder than anybody.
At the time, I was just as shocked as anybody, because I thought for sure that between the two of them, Matt had it in the bag. However, after the fact, I put it into strategic Survivor perspective and realized that I was glad Jenna had won over Matt because I truly feel she deserved the title more. I remember even writing a column back at the old Survivor-Central about this right after Amazon ended where I defended Jenna and her newfound title.
So how did Jenna become Survivor’s sixth million dollar winner, not to mention the youngest winner to date? Let’s take a look.
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THE CHALLENGES
For someone who was viewed by many in the beginning as weak, Jenna did surprisingly well in the challenges. She won 4 individual Immunity Challenges, the same number as runner-up physical powerhouse Matt. Did anyone expect that out of a swimsuit model? No, and that is why I firmly believe Jenna’s victory gives a great example for the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” The first challenge victory, which was the one with the chopping ropes to break the masks, demonstrated Jenna’s skills because she played it so beautifully. She evenly dispersed her attacks for the most part, and when going after fellow ally Deena at the end, she jokingly said that everyone needed to “share the necklace,” which helped to alleviate any tensions that might have resulted from that. So I was very impressed with how she handled that challenge. The last two challenge victories of hers were especially important. She was criticized for whining to quit at the Final Five, but then she came back and decided she was going to play as hard as she could while she still could stay out there. She then came through and saved her butt with two impressive challenge victories, which she was then able to use in front of the Jury with a nice, concise argument about her determination and willpower. One particularly head-scratching moment came after her second challenge victory, when she became the only person in Survivor history to voluntarily give up the necklace she had earned to another player when Jeff made the offer. Exactly why she did it remains to be seen, but the point remains that, for someone who initially may have appeared to be weaker, Jenna proved she was strong. Her performance in the challenges helped to show her skills and was able to be used as a tool in front of the Jury.
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THE JURY
There has been much debate since the Amazon season concluded as to who performed better in front of the Jury, Matt or Jenna. Many people I have heard from feel that Matt performed better, but my position remains consistent that Jenna did a much better job. While her responses overall had their flaws, she was generally much stronger and spoke with more conviction and sense than Matt did. Matt showed a lot of weakness through two major revenues: 1) He started off on a very strong morality pole, and that fell apart very quickly, and he tore it down in his final statements, which showed weakness, but, most of all, 2) He very clearly attributed his success in the game to Rob. He said that he would not be there in the Final Two if Rob had not helped him along the way. It is NEVER a good idea to sit in front of a Jury and tell them that the reason that you are there is because of another player. Sorry, bad move. At the beginning of the Council, Matt was standing on two pedestals: his integrity and his camp work ethic. The integrity one rapidly fell apart, and so by the end, all he really had in his favor was his incredible work ethic. The reason for that was the weakness he showed overall in which any hopes of having a strategic platform were dashed when he attributed his success in the game to Rob. So, overall, Jenna was much stronger. She made sure the Jury knew about the fact that when she needed to save her butt, her determination came through in the challenges, and even though she wasn’t the “big person chopping down all the trees”, she still had other legs to stand on. Matt did not, and it was his own fault. The Jury sensed that, and they spoke loud and clear: 6-1.
As a side note, the argument that drives me craziest is the one that Christy misunderstood the directions, and therefore only voted for Jenna because she thought she was voting against her. Jenna gave a great answer to her question, which was the one where Christy said she had overheard a remark about how she had a “handicap because she was beautiful,” and at the reunion show, Christy said she voted for Jenna because she felt she had been outwitted, outlasted, and outplayed, and also because she had known Jenna from day one and she only met Matt in the middle. Christy is an intelligent girl, and it is possible for someone to have a change of heart. Not everyone always holds on to petty grudges, and like I said, Jenna gave a very well-thought out answer to Christy’s question, after she apologized. So I truly feel that Christy did vote FOR Jenna. I just wanted to clear the air with that real quickly, too.
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JEFF PROBST
There were a couple of things in my mind that made Jenna stand out when it came to how she answered Jeff. The first thing I would like to cite is the Tribal Council where she and Heidi came to Tribal Council with red paintings on their cheeks. Jenna had a heart, and Heidi had a sun. Naturally, Jeff took the opportunity to point this out and call them on their VERY close alliance. However, when Jenna was asked about it, she gave a very clear and logical answer. She didn’t try to hide it like some people do (like Jeff and Kim in Palau) and just said that it is “natural for some people to bond closely.” This could almost be foreshadowing for the successful role she would play in front of the Jury, as described above. The second thing I wanted to point out was something she mentioned more than once when prodded by Jeff: the notion that she, when given the option at the Final Three, would chose the player who would give her the best competition. She repeated this a few times, but in the end, chose Matt over Rob. She later admitted at the Reunion show that, of course, this was all a strategy because she wanted the Jury to think she was voting based on that. I thought that was an interesting thing to keep repeating, but something worked, because in the end, she got six votes.
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GENERAL OVERVIEW
As I said before: initially, I shared the general public’s shock that the swimsuit model had managed to beat out the physical worker-bee, especially in the first ever 6-1 blowout. However, after putting it into a strategic Survivor perspective, I came to realize that the best person did indeed win. While Rob C. played one of the hardest games ever in Survivor history, he still did not play the game the best for the very simple reason that he lost in the end. And between Jenna and Matt, I would definitely choose Jenna. As she said herself, she was undergoing a learning experience and growing up in front of millions of viewers, and it worked, as she demonstrated in the season finale and the All-Stars, as well. Even though she came off in the Amazon as being bratty, this 21-year-old did many things right during her time in the Amazon to earn her six Jury votes, her million dollar check, and her title of Sole Survivor.
“See” you next week!
