Survivor – Johnny FairPlay or NoPlay

Most of us Survivor fans were a little confused when the cast announcement was finally made for the new Survivor season, that it was to be “Fans vs. Favorites.” Certainly some of them were obvious, Yau Man, James, Ozzy, but some of the others, especially the more devious women such as Eliza, were a little confusing. She wasn’t my favorite by any stretch of the imagination. Yet the one name that was the biggest puzzlement was Johnny Fairplay. Favorite what? Although, you have to admit he pulled off a great scam, although we still can’t decide whether that was fair to drop the morals that badly.

Last night, we all tuned in to watch, thinking if we had to watch Johnny Fairplay, then at least we could enjoy watching him manipulate, knowing what type of guy he really was. It was the most interesting thing, as the other Favorites knew exactly who he was as well, yet, as the group divided into two separate alliances, Johnny was without a place to call home, and everyone was clamoring for him to join their group, saying they’d rather have him with them than against them. Even Johnny asked, have they never seen the show? Why were they thinking that just because they allowed him on the inside of their alliance, he wouldn’t stab them in the back? Talk to Rupert about that.

The two different alliances were all ready to get rid of either Eliza or Parvati, if they should lose the immunity challenge, but they didn’t expect to, as they were the Favorites, the team that had been through all this before, right? Wrong. They did horribly. Well, maybe not horribly, but seemingly so compared to the Fans. The Favorites have to realize the Fans may not have ever done this before, but most of them have watched every single episode and have studied the show intensely. They know how to play, and aren’t tied down with ideas of how they played the last time.

Losing Immunity, Johnny Fairplay was supposed to be going over the choices, deciding which early alliance to follow in who to vote off. He was the swing vote, depending on how you looked at it. Instead, we saw the guy in tears, talking about his pregnant girlfriend, and the prospect of becoming a father seemed to have enlightened him to what is more important in the world.

The problem was, this was Johnny Fairplay, the guy that set it up beforehand to have his best friend come on the show and say Johnny’s grandma died, just to gain a sympathetic edge. No one believed him last night, and everyone thought it was a trick, yet they couldn’t figure out how he was going to pull this one to work in his favor, since he wasn’t in danger of leaving anyway. It didn’t make sense.

Even Jeff Probst questioned it at Tribal Council. He questioned whether Johnny was just finding it a little different and more difficult than he had remembered. Johnny clung to the story, claiming to be a changed person with his impending fatherhood, and saying he was now realizing there were more important things. He missed his girlfriend and just wanted to be with her. The only question was whether the rest of the Favorites were going to support him and let him out, or whether they were going to cling to their original plans. It was an easy choice as Favorites; they knew who Johnny could be, not who he was now, and knew they had to get rid of the conniver while they could, and it appeared Johnny was voted out unanimously.

It was after, in his words to the camera, that another possibility came to light. Johnny told the camera that he went out on his own terms this time, and that was important to him. I think maybe that’s what this was all about. He was still crafty, but he created something totally different than any of us were expecting. He didn’t want to come on the show to win, but to change what we thought of him and to not be disliked anymore. He created a scenario to have both alliances wanting him, making him well sought-after, then raised the sympathy by wanting to leave to be the good dad.

Besides, Johnny probably wasn’t going home to his girlfriend anyway. He’s most likely stayed in seclusion on the island somewhere at “Losers Lodge” until the show was done filming.

Johnny Fairplay came on Survivor this time to not Outlast and Outplay, but I think he was still Outwitting. He got exactly what he came for. No one this morning is talking about what a jerk he is. They’re either questioning why he left or calling him honorable. It has to be better than what he’s been living with the past few years. Even though that was something he created, not matter how shallow you are, it can’t e easy to live with people hating you like that. He managed to change that over a three day period on the show.

For more information on Survivor, see SirLinksalot: Survivor.

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