I have two nominations for the Hall of Shame. Please don't be daunted by the length of this thing.
First nomination: the entire jury. Not since the OJ jury have I seen one so racked with special interests and hidden agendas.
Let me start with Deena. She was is just as guilty of discrimination as Heidi or Jenna. H and J against Christy and anyone else who wasn't "cool," and she against anyone without an abundance of female chromosomes (with the exception of Rob, of course.) She carried her Sheena of the Jungle thing right to the end.
Were I Matt when she turned that centuries old throw-away remark (May the best man win) into something sexist, I would have simply not answered, and told her to sit down, unless she had a question not steeped in personal crusade. For heaven's sake, she used the phrase herself once when plotting with Rob. I think the question was an attempt to justify to the others the gender specific vote she had already made up her mind to cast.
Deena's not so hidden agenda: sexism (not to be confused with feminism)
On to Dave. Does anyone really believe that his vote wasn't spawned of the embarrassment of being voted out by "his boys," the guys he thought he was leading, particularly one (Matt) he believed to be clueless? I guess it was just too tough for a rocket scientist to admit being outsmarted by a "weirdo." Did his ego cause him to forget what Jenna was really like, or was he still picturing her in the shower?
I'm still debating with myself as to whether his question at final TC was calculated to catch "bullsh*t," or was simply bravado (i.e. See what a smart question I asked; how could these dumsh*ts vote off a smart fella like me?) I'm leaning toward the latter; he always was full of himself.
But could such a smart fella really have believed that Jenna played a good game? That whining, selfishness and vitriol are smart strategies? That obviously aligning with certain people to the disdainful exclusion of others is sound game playing? (We saw how well that worked for him.) It astounds me that someone who played the game as stupidly as he did should even get the opportunity to bring his agendas into judgment of others.
Dave's hidden agendas: revenge against the men and general self-aggrandizement.
Christy. I never understood the whole America's Sweetheart thing. I admit I'm not overly concerned with political correctness, but what is PC about whining about and pandering to a handicap, which is how she was portrayed before they began to reedit her in a more favorable light. If anyone is confused about her true nature, hearken back to her pouty attitude in building the first shelter and her arrogant attitude when she thought she had some leverage in her final episode. I guess even hearing impaired people aren't immune to the Corleone syndrome. Her lust for control in any way she could get it makes me feel for the people she probably bullies in her non-survivor world. Can you imagine the power she must be able to wield as a deaf person who can vocalize?
I'm sorry, I seem to have strayed from my theme. At any rate, the point I'm probably too slowly getting to is that her vote was almost surely biased by the campaigning that inevitably went on in Loser Lounge. The "cool" kids undoubtedly continued to hold sway over her. She proved throughout the episodes that her vote was always for sale. Why else would she have cast her vote for someone who obviously thought so little of her, and someone whom she had vowed to prevent from winning?
Christy's agenda: longing for acceptance and/or power in any way she could get them.
Alex. Alex was vomiting sour grapes all over the newly constructed set. His vote was based on pettiness, jealousy and misguided arrogance. Being a self-proclaimed "cool kid," it must have been tough for him to cede any kind of props to "outsider" Matt. I think it occurred to him while dwelling on why he was in Loser Lounge that Matt threw the target challenge in order to ensure Alex's ouster. Tough pill for an arrogant load like Alex to swallow: outsmarted and outgunned by a nerd.
Compound that with Matt's "audacity" in trying to beat a "cool kid's" time with one of the "cool chicks" (Shauna) and Matt's temerity in lying to Alex about his vote, and you have all it takes to make a person like Alex unforgivingly angry. After all, Matt wasn't "cool" in Alex's high school world and didn't have those rights . . . how dare he try to enter Alex's world without permission. God, what a loser Alex is.
Alex's agendas: supreme arrogance and misguidedly inflated ego; too cool for school; can't let a nerd (especially one who beat him) win.
Butch has to be included in infamy by association, or in his case non-association. Having probably been left out of the Loser Lounge machinations, his vote was, because it was so isolated, as meaningless as Christy's, Heidi's - oh, hell all of them, which is why I'm nominating this jury for the Hall of Shame.
Butch's agenda: no real agenda, just ineffectuality.
Finally, Rob. I could write a book about him, but I promise I won't. . . at least not here. I'll just say that it was shameful of him to vote without his big head. I'm not suggesting that he voted for Jenna for sexual reasons, although that's not beyond the realm of possibility, but that he certainly didn't allow his brain to compute and accept that he was outplayed by Matt. I know the general consensus is that Rob is the Survivor genius, and while he played very well, I'm not so sure he really outplayed Matt, and furthermore, I'm not sure he really completely thinks so either.
Did anyone find it curious that he didn't rap on Matt at the reunion? He did say that he didn't think Matt should win, but he also included Jenna in that one. He made it abundantly clear who he thought should be the winner. I think after having had the opportunity to read Matt's bio and watch the tapes of the show, he came to the realization that while he thought he was pulling Matt's strings, his own were getting yanked pretty hard. I'm sure that he realized that Matt designs restaurants which translates to sales--convincing others to buy his ideas; getting others to believe that buying his work makes them partly responsible for the existence of that work. In other words, Matt is not the spaz or clueless moron Rob thought he was. During the game, Rob really believed he was "just the bestest survivor ever," and to admit that he was outplayed was unthinkable.
Rob's grapes were even more sour than Dave and Alex's combined. Good Lord, what an egomaniac. I'll concede that he played the game hard, and he played the game well, but the fact that he gave his vote to a totally undeserving contestant (because he was unwilling to give props to the person who outplayed) him warrants his full inclusion into the jury Hall of Shame.
Rob's agenda: hubris; desire to prolong his reign as the resident puppet master; embarrassment at having been beaten by his "stooge."
Second nomination: production staff of Survivor
They are as guilty of self-serving self-preservation techniques as any of the contestants. The sudden switch in the way Jenna was being edited in the final two hour episode was nothing less than a shamefully blatant attempt to placate a soon to be pissed off audience.
It was sickening to watch them edit that vapid, self-absorbed megalomaniac into someone worthy of empathy and support after having shown so much of her distasteful and despicable character. It was a bald attempt at damage control knowing that most viewers would be outraged that such an empty and undeserving person won the game.
Their ploy became so obvious to me, and I hope to many others, when from the very beginning of the episode, Jenna had disappeared and been replaced with someone wholly other--the new improved (swimsuit) model. It became transparent after the first few minutes that they were attempting to soften up attitudes toward Jenna to justify her winning. Probst gushing about how she had changed was just silly. How stupid do they think we are? If she did indeed change at all, it was only because she had no confederates left who would put up with her emptiness.
I've read many postings from people who have vowed to swear off future editions of Survivor because the ending of this one was so dismaying. Of course we know that regular posters (and people like me) are blowing smoke and will be back, but what about the viewers who only watch casually? Will they be back after having been deceived? I don't know . . . the producers may have aimed their shot at their feet more surely than Heidi with her bow and arrow.
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