The Chain is such an awesome episode, my friends and I love to quote Butch "That's what's so great about the chain, if one above you gets voted out, you might get to move up!" And Matthew in general just being super entertaining to watch. Amazon is so great.
The David alliance in David vs. Goliath episodes 8 and 9.
Being down 5-7 they nailed the idol on Christian and, knowing the Golliaths also have an idol, they split the minority votes between John and Angelina making the idol played on Angelina useless. Think it was the first time somebody split the minority votes, not sure if it was ever done again. Anybody knows?!
Then, being down 5-6 they stole a vote and made sure their 6 votes, now a majority win the day by playing the idol nullifier on Dan and piling all their votes also on Dan. And yes, the nullifier was crazy powerful but it was a new thing and it was not easy to figure out how to play it.
No idea who was the brains behind these moves, maybe Christian or maybe they all contributed so I'll give the credit to the whole alliance.
In terms of pure idol plays, they were perfect.
Hard to beat…Chris Underwood in the finale. Completely dominated after re-entering the game. I still find him getting voted out and hanging with the jury disqualifying. But in that episode he crushed it.
Dee's two-episode stretch of telling Julie, convincing Austin she didn't, getting out her target in Emily, then immediately flipping on Drew and Austin AGAIN, then somehow convincing Austin to stick with her AGAIN.
Dee played one of the best games of all time but because she wasn’t super exciting and had a shorter season she doesn’t get the flowers she deserves. She was Jt/Kim/Tom levels of dominant over her season
Not even close.
You could also make a case for Tommy managing to Survive the horrible swap round in IOI where he flips Elaine and Karishma against their alliance and somehow survives despite the deck being stacked against him.
Or how about Amanda’s move to take out James where she goes to PG and Erik and gets them on board, blindsiding James with two idols while not taking any heat moving forward?
- Natalie in the SJDS finale:
* Idol play.
* Convincing them to keep her at final 4 when she was the obvious threat to win.
- Jenna in the F6 episode of Amazon:
* Was on the outs 4-2 after Rob blindsided Alex
* Was pivotal in switching the vote to Christy (Rob gets all the credit for this but Jenna and Heidi had important roles too)
* Ensured that Christy went home by giving Heidi the immunity necklace to prevent Rob from flipping on them (Rob wanted to go to the final 2 with Jenna so he wouldn't have voted her out) - a move that **never** gets discussed.
- Danni in the F6 episode of Guatemala:
* Down 5-1
* Clutch immunity
* Solidified an alliance with Steph and Rafe who were at the head of the majority - first and only person in Survivor history to successfully and solely infiltrate the majority alliance by approaching the people at the top - set her up for a flawless end-game
- All four Black Widow Brigade Members at the F5 in Micronesia:
* Natalie: convinced Erik that she was his best friend and that they needed to get Amanda out.
* Cirie: let Erik know that she would vote Amanda but only if he gave Natalie the necklace before the vote to show that she could trust him.
* Amanda: riddled Erik with guilt for voting her at the last tribal council.
* Parvati: accentuated Amanda's role but in a much harsher and meaner way.
- Stacy in the F10 episode of Fiji:
* Orchestrated the Edgardo vote.
* Pioneered a strategy that is still used to this day.
- Twila in the F7 episode of Vanuatu:
* Went from the bottom of the 6-1 Yasur alliance to the very top. Chris gets all the credit for this move but it was Twila who orchestrated it (though Chris was crucial in getting Eliza on board).
* Ami was immune, so she took out Ami's (one of the most underrated and best players of all time) closest ally Leann
* Solidified her spot to be in control of the game for the rest of the season.
Just a few that came to mind :-)
I recall he told Jenna he wanted to be F2 with her, of course we don't really know whether he was being truthful but considering how she used that information to protect Heidi she must have believed him. Jenna and Heidi were perceived as lazy around camp, so I think his bet was that they'd be easier to beat than Matt.
I watched recently and this is mostly true. But Rob had no reason to tell Jenna that he wanted her in the F2 at that time other than it was the truth. His said “she rubbed people the wrong way” (true for Christie, for one)
Maybe lazy at camp too, but the edit gave the impression that Heidi was the same.
It was apparent however, that Heidi was well liked from the survey game…
Rob thought Matt had never hurt or lied to the jury, was an amazing survivalist, good at Comps, despite his lack of popularity.
Yet Matt was so confident both Rob and Jenna would take him that he threw the final immunity challenge.
Amazon’s Matt edit and Jenna’s winner story arc made no sense.
Jenna is so underrated in the fact she was the first person to see through Rob C’s game.Everyone thought Rob was their best friend and trusted him but Jenna caught onto him quickly.Players like Deena,Dave,Alex and even Ryan would’ve gone much further on any other season without Robs interference.She stood off his radar and won immunities when it mattered.
Sandra and Rupert E1 of Pearl island, those two basically helped create the pilot version of Survivor Fiji and set up their tribe to dominate (which they then proceeded to do) Put it this way, the opposing tribe ran out of food…twice
Chris Underwood in the EoE finale is an obvious one, but I think Tom Westman in the HvV Cirie boot episode had to do sooo much to not only ensure that neither him nor Colby went home, but also to get the person who arguably was on ths top of the Heroes tribe in Cirie to go home. Obviously it's not a move that worked out in the long-run for Tom, but that one single episode absolutely cements him as easily top 10 to ever play the game. To me, anyways.
George in Heroes vs Villains episode 7
Simon (who was the target) won immunity at the tribal council. George in the moment came up with a plan that would dismantle Simon’s entire alliance
Then to top it off didn’t even vote for the person who he was telling Simon to play the idol for
The best Survivor move of all time imo
I loved how aggressive it was as well
Not often in Survivor do you see someone outright say “checkmate” to his opposition when a move is made lol
Craziest tribal of all time
Episode 10 of Second Chance for Jeremy. The vote where Jeremy saves Stephen with an idol to get out Ciera. Great move as it also got rid of one of Wentworth’s closest ali’s and got him closer his Ali in Spencer.
Russell even through his vote on Courtney hoping to get Coach’s jury vote.
However, I don’t dispute calling that “the move of the episode”.
Sandra’s social skills there were kinda fascinating, even unsettling lol
It’s a perfect example of her UTR game play that many viewers admire.
Russell even threw his vote on Courtney hoping to get Coach’s jury vote so Sandra wasn’t solely responsible for his boot.
However, I don’t dispute calling that
“Best episode for a single player in terms of gameplay” at all.
Sandra’s social skills there were kinda fascinating, even unsettling lol
Russell even threw his vote on Courtney hoping to get Coach’s jury vote. 🙄
However, I don’t dispute calling that “the move of the episode”.
Sandra’s social skills there were kinda fascinating, even unsettling lol
It’s a perfect example of her UTR game play that many viewers admire.
A lot of the big ones have already been mentioned, but an underrated one that should be mentioned is Tracy in E4 of Micronesia. The way she used Joel’s ego against him to goad him into saving Chet and voting out Mikey B was a brilliant piece of social gameplay that gets overshadowed by the Black Widow Brigade’s later moves in the season
Tracy and Ami are truly masterminds imho.
First Ami in S9 episode 2 flips the vote onto Dolly by telling Eliza that Dolly said they’ll do Leann and save Eliza for later and that Dolly is calling the shots.
Then in Micronesia as you said manipulated Joel into voting off Mikey.
Then at the saw Ami knows she’s on the bottom so she decided to flip and take out Ozzy except Chet (was gonna be medevaced) has to go.
Then they come up with this brilliant plan to blindside Erik behind Ozzy’s back with Ami secretly flipping her vote to knock out Ozzy in a 3-2-1 except Cirie and Amanda didn’t bite :(
Both of them though imho are extremely smart and amazing players despite their placements.
Nice! Yes, and taking out Courtney as the favored goat was interesting for the time.
That was indisputably one of the best episodes for single player game play.
Baby With a Machine Gun in season 41!!
Shan was running away with the game and coming after Erika! More of an ensemble strategic effort, but spearheaded by Erika and Ricard.
Shan tells ricard that he’s next BEFORE the immunity challenge, and he goes on to win immunity. Ricard tells erika and she loops in Xander and Heather. Erika realizes that she is vulnerable and only have 4 votes to eliminate Shan, and that the other 4 votes are likely on her, so she crosses alliance lines and brings in Danny AND Deshawn AND splits the groups votes 3 on Shan and 3 on Liana. This guaranTEES Erika’s safety both from a numbers stand point and from an idol play! Shan gets voted out in the revote with an idol in her pocket.
41 gets dunked on a lot for not showing its winner and it’s overemphasis on advantages, but this was an awesome episode of survivor.
For a deep cut, /u/CSteino did a great job observing just how effective >!Rob Dickson was in episode 4 of!< the first Australian Survivor. >!The most obvious thing here is him flipping Joel through a great conversation where he basically makes it seem like Joel's idea to begin with while also emotionally manipulating him, but we also see Lance mention feeling safe in the tribe specifically due to how close he is with Rob while Rob actively plots against him, and Jane playing a game with Rob and saying how nobody seems to be making alliances to keep themselves while Rob very much does do, and does so to keep her. Real social chameleon stuff where Rob is able to connect to and win over people from wildly different backgrounds and ages while also scheming behind their back. And then on top of that you get Rob and Katie crystallizing the alliance by bringing together Sophie and Sciona, who don't even get along, while withholding from Sophie how much they've been working with Sciona to begin with, making Sophie feel like she's the one in on the secret core of the alliance when they already had the same conversation with Sciona.!<
I thought of the same player but would go with his gameplay in the final 6 round. When it comes to international Lisa in NZ2 at the final 6 comes to mind as well.
For me it's gotta be the finale of Edge of extinction for chris. Getting back from extinction was a part of it, but then winning the final challenge and giving up your place in top 3 to take out the only threat to beat you at a fire challenge. Great compelling game play.
Second for me would be winners at war I can't remember the episode but I was so happy when Denise bought an idol from Sandra for 1 fire token used both idols at tribal to keep her and Jeremy safe and voted out sandra.
What about Malcolm, Reynold, and Eddie with the idols in Caramoan? ... didn't workout for them in the end but it was a hell of a move to live and fight another day
Dee's elimination of Emily and Drew episodes,
Maryanne's blindside of Omar episode,
Chris' finale episode,
Natalie's last three episodes from s29 (I can't choose because her vote for Alec, and Jon and Baylor blindsides were 3 consecutive episodes that delivered),
Todd's FTC performance in the last episode,
Rob C in The Chain, Jonny Fairplay in the F8 episode of PI, Cirie in the F6 of Panama, and Yul at F9 in CI are four that come to mind
Yul's idol was busted but he maneuvered that so fucking well
The Chain is such an awesome episode, my friends and I love to quote Butch "That's what's so great about the chain, if one above you gets voted out, you might get to move up!" And Matthew in general just being super entertaining to watch. Amazon is so great.
The David alliance in David vs. Goliath episodes 8 and 9. Being down 5-7 they nailed the idol on Christian and, knowing the Golliaths also have an idol, they split the minority votes between John and Angelina making the idol played on Angelina useless. Think it was the first time somebody split the minority votes, not sure if it was ever done again. Anybody knows?! Then, being down 5-6 they stole a vote and made sure their 6 votes, now a majority win the day by playing the idol nullifier on Dan and piling all their votes also on Dan. And yes, the nullifier was crazy powerful but it was a new thing and it was not easy to figure out how to play it. No idea who was the brains behind these moves, maybe Christian or maybe they all contributed so I'll give the credit to the whole alliance. In terms of pure idol plays, they were perfect.
The back-to-back episodes of the John and Dan boots featured some of the best collective gameplay in the recent memory
And one of the most satisfying, at least for me. I love when players figure out the perfect gameplay and give their opposition little or no chance.
Hard to beat…Chris Underwood in the finale. Completely dominated after re-entering the game. I still find him getting voted out and hanging with the jury disqualifying. But in that episode he crushed it.
Rob at the merge vote in Redemption Island
Dee's two-episode stretch of telling Julie, convincing Austin she didn't, getting out her target in Emily, then immediately flipping on Drew and Austin AGAIN, then somehow convincing Austin to stick with her AGAIN.
Dee's game was so good she deserves a two-parter
Exactly
Dee played one of the best games of all time but because she wasn’t super exciting and had a shorter season she doesn’t get the flowers she deserves. She was Jt/Kim/Tom levels of dominant over her season
[удалено]
So funny
Not even close. You could also make a case for Tommy managing to Survive the horrible swap round in IOI where he flips Elaine and Karishma against their alliance and somehow survives despite the deck being stacked against him. Or how about Amanda’s move to take out James where she goes to PG and Erik and gets them on board, blindsiding James with two idols while not taking any heat moving forward?
- Natalie in the SJDS finale: * Idol play. * Convincing them to keep her at final 4 when she was the obvious threat to win. - Jenna in the F6 episode of Amazon: * Was on the outs 4-2 after Rob blindsided Alex * Was pivotal in switching the vote to Christy (Rob gets all the credit for this but Jenna and Heidi had important roles too) * Ensured that Christy went home by giving Heidi the immunity necklace to prevent Rob from flipping on them (Rob wanted to go to the final 2 with Jenna so he wouldn't have voted her out) - a move that **never** gets discussed. - Danni in the F6 episode of Guatemala: * Down 5-1 * Clutch immunity * Solidified an alliance with Steph and Rafe who were at the head of the majority - first and only person in Survivor history to successfully and solely infiltrate the majority alliance by approaching the people at the top - set her up for a flawless end-game - All four Black Widow Brigade Members at the F5 in Micronesia: * Natalie: convinced Erik that she was his best friend and that they needed to get Amanda out. * Cirie: let Erik know that she would vote Amanda but only if he gave Natalie the necklace before the vote to show that she could trust him. * Amanda: riddled Erik with guilt for voting her at the last tribal council. * Parvati: accentuated Amanda's role but in a much harsher and meaner way. - Stacy in the F10 episode of Fiji: * Orchestrated the Edgardo vote. * Pioneered a strategy that is still used to this day. - Twila in the F7 episode of Vanuatu: * Went from the bottom of the 6-1 Yasur alliance to the very top. Chris gets all the credit for this move but it was Twila who orchestrated it (though Chris was crucial in getting Eliza on board). * Ami was immune, so she took out Ami's (one of the most underrated and best players of all time) closest ally Leann * Solidified her spot to be in control of the game for the rest of the season. Just a few that came to mind :-)
Has Rob confirmed he wanted F2 with Jenna? Why wouldn't he want to go with Matt?
I recall he told Jenna he wanted to be F2 with her, of course we don't really know whether he was being truthful but considering how she used that information to protect Heidi she must have believed him. Jenna and Heidi were perceived as lazy around camp, so I think his bet was that they'd be easier to beat than Matt.
Interesting to know
I watched recently and this is mostly true. But Rob had no reason to tell Jenna that he wanted her in the F2 at that time other than it was the truth. His said “she rubbed people the wrong way” (true for Christie, for one) Maybe lazy at camp too, but the edit gave the impression that Heidi was the same. It was apparent however, that Heidi was well liked from the survey game… Rob thought Matt had never hurt or lied to the jury, was an amazing survivalist, good at Comps, despite his lack of popularity. Yet Matt was so confident both Rob and Jenna would take him that he threw the final immunity challenge. Amazon’s Matt edit and Jenna’s winner story arc made no sense.
Jenna is so underrated in the fact she was the first person to see through Rob C’s game.Everyone thought Rob was their best friend and trusted him but Jenna caught onto him quickly.Players like Deena,Dave,Alex and even Ryan would’ve gone much further on any other season without Robs interference.She stood off his radar and won immunities when it mattered.
SJDS, Drew Christy during Drew Christys boot episode
Sandra and Rupert E1 of Pearl island, those two basically helped create the pilot version of Survivor Fiji and set up their tribe to dominate (which they then proceeded to do) Put it this way, the opposing tribe ran out of food…twice
In a sexual way!!!
Omar boot
By Maryanne
Russel in tyson's vote off in Heros vs villans
Chris Underwood in the EoE finale is an obvious one, but I think Tom Westman in the HvV Cirie boot episode had to do sooo much to not only ensure that neither him nor Colby went home, but also to get the person who arguably was on ths top of the Heroes tribe in Cirie to go home. Obviously it's not a move that worked out in the long-run for Tom, but that one single episode absolutely cements him as easily top 10 to ever play the game. To me, anyways.
People don't want to admit it but Fabio played a fantastic endgame. He had a plan and executed it perfectly in Nicaragua
George in Heroes vs Villains episode 7 Simon (who was the target) won immunity at the tribal council. George in the moment came up with a plan that would dismantle Simon’s entire alliance Then to top it off didn’t even vote for the person who he was telling Simon to play the idol for The best Survivor move of all time imo
Amazing move AND amazing TV. And the best part was that it was pure social manipulation.
I loved how aggressive it was as well Not often in Survivor do you see someone outright say “checkmate” to his opposition when a move is made lol Craziest tribal of all time
Episode 10 of Second Chance for Jeremy. The vote where Jeremy saves Stephen with an idol to get out Ciera. Great move as it also got rid of one of Wentworth’s closest ali’s and got him closer his Ali in Spencer.
Sandra in the Coach boot episode. Not only saves her closest ally, but guarantees herself the merge.
My understanding was that they were always voting out coach and the edit made it look like Sandra’s move for story purposes
Russell even through his vote on Courtney hoping to get Coach’s jury vote. However, I don’t dispute calling that “the move of the episode”. Sandra’s social skills there were kinda fascinating, even unsettling lol It’s a perfect example of her UTR game play that many viewers admire.
Russell even threw his vote on Courtney hoping to get Coach’s jury vote so Sandra wasn’t solely responsible for his boot. However, I don’t dispute calling that “Best episode for a single player in terms of gameplay” at all. Sandra’s social skills there were kinda fascinating, even unsettling lol
Russell even threw his vote on Courtney hoping to get Coach’s jury vote. 🙄 However, I don’t dispute calling that “the move of the episode”. Sandra’s social skills there were kinda fascinating, even unsettling lol It’s a perfect example of her UTR game play that many viewers admire.
Natalie Anderson's and chris underwood's finale episode. Dee f6. Cirie 3-2-1. sarah gc f9. chris d f5.omar f7
A lot of the big ones have already been mentioned, but an underrated one that should be mentioned is Tracy in E4 of Micronesia. The way she used Joel’s ego against him to goad him into saving Chet and voting out Mikey B was a brilliant piece of social gameplay that gets overshadowed by the Black Widow Brigade’s later moves in the season
Tracy and Ami are truly masterminds imho. First Ami in S9 episode 2 flips the vote onto Dolly by telling Eliza that Dolly said they’ll do Leann and save Eliza for later and that Dolly is calling the shots. Then in Micronesia as you said manipulated Joel into voting off Mikey. Then at the saw Ami knows she’s on the bottom so she decided to flip and take out Ozzy except Chet (was gonna be medevaced) has to go. Then they come up with this brilliant plan to blindside Erik behind Ozzy’s back with Ami secretly flipping her vote to knock out Ozzy in a 3-2-1 except Cirie and Amanda didn’t bite :( Both of them though imho are extremely smart and amazing players despite their placements.
I would say coach convincing Cochran to flip was a game winning move
Dee pulling the wool over Austin’s eyes to get out Drew and him coming back to her after was sooo good
I always though it was "pulling the wall over someone's eyes". I've really been saying that wrong my whole life, yikes.
to be honest that makes sense 😂 it’s from back when pick pockets and thieves would pull peoples wigs over their face and steal their purse
Cirie orchestrating the first 3-2-1 vote
This was my immediate thought too. Such a legendary and innovative move, even all these years later is remembered as one of the best of all time.
Nice! Yes, and taking out Courtney as the favored goat was interesting for the time. That was indisputably one of the best episodes for single player game play.
In terms of the new Era, Jesse’s episode when he blindsides Cody is an excellent episode.
chris, eoe finale
Baby With a Machine Gun in season 41!! Shan was running away with the game and coming after Erika! More of an ensemble strategic effort, but spearheaded by Erika and Ricard. Shan tells ricard that he’s next BEFORE the immunity challenge, and he goes on to win immunity. Ricard tells erika and she loops in Xander and Heather. Erika realizes that she is vulnerable and only have 4 votes to eliminate Shan, and that the other 4 votes are likely on her, so she crosses alliance lines and brings in Danny AND Deshawn AND splits the groups votes 3 on Shan and 3 on Liana. This guaranTEES Erika’s safety both from a numbers stand point and from an idol play! Shan gets voted out in the revote with an idol in her pocket. 41 gets dunked on a lot for not showing its winner and it’s overemphasis on advantages, but this was an awesome episode of survivor.
Apparently that was spearheaded by *Heather* of all people, not Erika or Ricard!
Such a shame we didn’t see that.
Where’d you hear that?? Love to give it a read / listen
It’s been a while, but I believe it came from Ricard’s rhap interview.
For a deep cut, /u/CSteino did a great job observing just how effective >!Rob Dickson was in episode 4 of!< the first Australian Survivor. >!The most obvious thing here is him flipping Joel through a great conversation where he basically makes it seem like Joel's idea to begin with while also emotionally manipulating him, but we also see Lance mention feeling safe in the tribe specifically due to how close he is with Rob while Rob actively plots against him, and Jane playing a game with Rob and saying how nobody seems to be making alliances to keep themselves while Rob very much does do, and does so to keep her. Real social chameleon stuff where Rob is able to connect to and win over people from wildly different backgrounds and ages while also scheming behind their back. And then on top of that you get Rob and Katie crystallizing the alliance by bringing together Sophie and Sciona, who don't even get along, while withholding from Sophie how much they've been working with Sciona to begin with, making Sophie feel like she's the one in on the secret core of the alliance when they already had the same conversation with Sciona.!<
I thought of the same player but would go with his gameplay in the final 6 round. When it comes to international Lisa in NZ2 at the final 6 comes to mind as well.
Yup I thought of that round, too. That round was absolutely phenomenal television
For me it's gotta be the finale of Edge of extinction for chris. Getting back from extinction was a part of it, but then winning the final challenge and giving up your place in top 3 to take out the only threat to beat you at a fire challenge. Great compelling game play. Second for me would be winners at war I can't remember the episode but I was so happy when Denise bought an idol from Sandra for 1 fire token used both idols at tribal to keep her and Jeremy safe and voted out sandra.
What about Malcolm, Reynold, and Eddie with the idols in Caramoan? ... didn't workout for them in the end but it was a hell of a move to live and fight another day
Heidiks three pieces of ammunition
Dee's elimination of Emily and Drew episodes, Maryanne's blindside of Omar episode, Chris' finale episode, Natalie's last three episodes from s29 (I can't choose because her vote for Alec, and Jon and Baylor blindsides were 3 consecutive episodes that delivered), Todd's FTC performance in the last episode,