Survivor 41, Episode 6; The Jonny Fairplay Watch Party Special
Old school Survivor collides with a new era of the show at Worcester, MA "premier line dancing venue"
Author’s note: This newsletter (obviously) contains spoilers for Survivor 41, Episode 6, which aired Wed. October 27, 2021.
Catch up on previous recaps:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Down a brightly lit hallway on the outskirts of Worcester, MA, there’s a bar that’s easy to overlook. It’s called Rascals, and now that I think about it, classifying it simply as a bar doesn’t seem quite right. To be more precise, it’s marketed as the city’s “premier line dancing venue” and has the feel of VFW. But on Wednesday evening, no one stopped by to shake a leg. Live bands were traded in for big-screen projectors surrounded by bar stools arranged in semi-circles. For one night only, this humble locale was selected as the place most suitable to host a Survivor watch party hosted by notorious series villain Jonny Fairplay.
If you’re new to Survivor (or just haven’t spent much time around me after I’ve had two or three drinks), the name Jonny Fairplay may not mean much. So I’ll try to wrap him up in the most concise way possible.
Fairplay – at least, the man on TV and the man at the bar – is not a human, he’s a cartoon character. A wrestling heel turned reality television contestant, he first graced America’s screens in 2003. In perhaps one of the most iconic moments of the show’s history (not an exageration), he lied about the death of his beloved grandmother to the entirety of his tribe (with a little help from a visiting loved one). Just watch the clip I’ve attached below for yourself. I mean it. Stop reading this for a second and take a look at the dead grandmother scene because short of a dissertation nothing I could possibly write up would do the scene justice.
What you need to understand is that the whole shtick of Jonny Fairplay is that plays an asshole. Only when you understand that his job is solely to amp up and conjure the hatred of an audience is it possible to appreciate him. Obviously, upon seeing that he would be making a rare appearance in the Northeast, I took it upon myself to immediately buy two tickets to the event, crippling social anxiety and lingering pandemic be damned.
Will Morgan, a Worcester resident who also happens to be my best friend, was the one who first pointed out Jonny schmoozing up a group of people who paid the extra $50 for an exclusive photo op. He is nearly impossible to miss – he sports the same shock of curly bleach-blonde hair from 18 years ago, and his loud voice is unmistakable even among chattering crowds. He’s a natural performer.
But while Jonny was the draw for most of the attendees, I found that he was not the only Survivor alum in attendance. As police sergeant Bret Labelle of Dedham, MA (and S33 fame) let out a few hearty laughs between swigs of beer at the start of the episode, I was immediately invited to take a seat by a woman wearing a Budweiser t-shirt and sporting a Bruins logo tattooed on the back of her neck. While she may not have stood out in the way a bombastic Jonny Fairplay-type does, I recognized her immediately as Denise Martin, the former lunch lady turned 4th placer in Survivor: China.
So, what was it like watching a reinvented show with an old-school player? A little distracting, to be honest. I admit that did have to rewatch the episode Thursday morning to catch most of the dialogue. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few interesting takeaways that came out of this curious event.
Here’s What Happens:
Ua (the green tribe) is down to just two players – Ricard and Shan. Despite joining forces to take out Genie, a fair amount of tension lingers between the pair. Shan cites “needing” someone like Ricard (i.e. villainous, deceitful) to pull her into the game, because the pastor she is at heart is naturally inclined to keep an open heart1. Ricard picks up where their last conversation left off, and calls Shan out for trying to go back on her word and snatch the extra vote back from him mere minutes before the start of tribal council. The conflict ends when the two angrily roll over to their separate sleeping spaces without resolving anything, like a bickering married couple falling out of love.
The strange dance continues in the morning, when Shan approaches Ricard with a passive-aggressive “I’m going to ask you one more time…” before once again requesting the extra vote. At this point, their ability to effectively communicate has totally broken down. Ricard recognizes that Shan is both power-hungry and paranoid, but stays true to his word and returns the parchment to Shan now that tribal council has concluded.
She then says something along the lines of “you can have the next advantage or idol that we find!” to which Ricard sarcastically thanks her for permission to have the hypothetical reward.
Anyway, we briefly cut to check on Yase (the yellow tribe) and Luvu (the blue tribe). It seems that they’ve both received mail indicating that the tribes will “unify into one”. This implies a merge, perhaps the most significant milestone a player in the game could reach. Traditionally, the merge also includes a feast, which seems to excite the emaciated contestants just as much as the prospect of actually moving forward.
However, it becomes clear that something strange is afoot when we cut to a scene of Jeff stepping out of some tall grass. He stares directly at the audience watching at home, which we have by now learned is never a good sign.
Instead of following tradition and simply combining tribes into one, season 41 has adopted the most convoluted way possible to merge the contestants. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to bullet point the highlights:
First, Jeff will force the contestants to draw rocks. Two people will sit out, and the remaining ten will be split into two groups of five.
Next, the two groups will run a challenge.
The winning group will select one of the grey rock individuals to join their ranks. The person not selected will be forced to go hang out on an island by themselves for two full days.
What the contestants do not realize is that the player sent away will be granted “historic” power unlike anything seen on Survivor seasons past
“This one may ruffle some feathers,” a sadistic Jeff chuckles before calling in his hapless victims.
The players happily drop their buffs on Jeff’s command, only to find out that things aren’t going to play out exactly as anticipated. Everyone finds out that the two groups will compete not only for the opportunity to eat actual food, but also for safety in the next round. The five people from the losing group (as well as the grey rock holder not selected by the winning tribe) will have to “earn” their way into the merge by surviving one more tribal council.
Evvie, Danny, Ricard, Sydney, and Deshawn draw blue rocks, while Liana, Xander, Heather, Tiffany, and Shan reveal yellow stones. This means that Naseer and Erika’s fates are entirely at the mercy of the winning tribe. Today’s ridiculous challenge involves digging a massive “boulder” out of the sand 2, pushing it through a series of obstacles, and then using it as leverage to climb up a steep wall. Once the whole tribe has scaled the wall, they face some sort of sliding word puzzle.
The competition gets close at one point, but the blue team ultimately wins. After (allegedly) playing a round of Rock-Paper-Scissors, the blue group selects Naseer to join them on the merge feast.
Unfortunately, this results in Erika having to face her single worst Survivor nightmare – two days alone on a deserted island with just a few basic supplies. Granted a rare bit of screen time, she reveals that she’s been towards the bottom of the pecking order for some time. The moment she drew a grey rock, she knew her prospects of being chosen by the challenge winners were low at best.
We cut away from that depressing little moment to take a look at the fruit, bread, and charcuterie waiting to greet the folks lucky enough to have secured a spot in the merge. The majority of the cast has not had anything to eat for the past several days, so sitting down at a table full of food is a dream come true.
This, however, does not stop some from talking game. In particular, Danny is upfront about his concerns that the men are being knocked out one by one. He then reveals that Naseer was, in fact, specifically chosen to prevent losing a male vote rather than by the pure luck implied by a game of Rock-Paper Scissors.
Whether or not Naseer is aware of how intentional this choice was, he’s grateful all the same. In a strange but endearing comment, he mentioned that the new buffs smell really good and that he loves the new color. I love it too, Naseer.
Meanwhile, Erika is somehow managing to stay positive on her own. We learn that nothing has ever come easily to her. As a Filipino immigrant, she physically looked different from the majority of her largely white Canadian peers, which at times led to feeling ostracized3. Her parents often had to work multiple jobs just to keep the family afloat.
Though she’s been quiet so far (no doubt due to the Luvu winning streak), it becomes clear immediately that a strong desire to succeed burns deep within her – if only to prove that her family’s efforts throughout the years were not fruitless.
The scene ends with her triumphantly making her own fire.
Back at the main beach, the winners and losers converge. Right away, folks get to chatting. Naseer and Xander converse about their idols and looking out for one another. Danny throws out Erika’s name as an “easy” vote to balance out the current gender disparity. Sydney piggybacks off of the idea despite “not being able to stand” Heather, who we’ve heard almost nothing from thus far.
We then transition to Shan, who openly acknowledges that this cast is one of the most diverse Survivor has ever seen4. As it turns out Danny, Deshawn, Liana, and Shan are all eager to join forces to create a black alliance. Interestingly, Liana specifically points out that the foursome has a shared experience of being the only one in a classroom that looks a certain way. There’s some irony in the fact that the group plans to target Erika, who literally expressed the same exact sentiment just a few minutes earlier, but there’s no need to dwell on that for now.
Speaking of Erika, she’s still just sitting alone on her island. But not for long! To her surprise, Jeff pulls up to her makeshift camp on a big old boat and squats down next to her and her little fire.
After digging into her vulnerabilities and almost rousing the poor woman to tears, Jeff reveals that he has something to give. It turns out to be an hourglass that can “turn back time”. Erika is faced with a choice. Option one: she can leave the hourglass (and therefore “history”) as is and continue the game in her current position. Option two: if she chooses to smash the hourglass, history will be reversed and immunity will be stripped from the challenge winners. That means that the losers – and by extension, herself – will be guaranteed a spot in the next round of play.
So, does Erika commit the sin of Survivor sacrilege to save her own butt? Before we can find out, an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MARK BURNETT flashes across the screen and the episode ends.
(In case you were wondering, it was at this point during the watch party that Jonny Fairplay raised both his middle fingers at the television and uttered a string of expletives)
This Episode’s Takeaways:
To say that the crowd had strong feelings about the latest installment would be an understatement, and it’s difficult to blame them. For those still nostalgic for the early days of the franchise, I can only imagine that the advantage overload currently taking place is hard to absorb. Jeff may have finally jumped the shark with the hourglass stunt at the end of the episode.
Naturally, the loudest voice in the room was Fairplay. A purist, he had no qualms about expressing his distaste for the show’s current direction. But to be perfectly honest, his voice quickly became the one I was least interested in hearing. He was busy soaking up the spotlight, and as a natural introvert, attempting to start a conversation seemed overwhelming. Instead, I shifted my focus to Denise, and I’m glad that I did.
We talked a lot one-on-one throughout the episode. Some of it was light – she mentioned seeing tribemate James Clement in the nude, the sorts of things she would and would not eat during her tenure (“absolutely no fucking snails”). She showed me a scar on her knuckles she got from a machete wound that cut to the bone (she says that you can see her use her buff to cover it up in later episodes). We looked at some low-res photographs of photographs and screengrabs saved on her phone.
But at times, it got deeper than that. She’s adamant that there should be more accountability among producers and networks to take care of the mental health needs of the people they profit from. We talked for a bit about the well-recorded history of suicides in ex-reality television stars, and she solemnly recalled the struggles of fellow Survivor China castaway Ashley Massaro as well as the funeral of fellow Massachusetts show alum Dan Kay.
Before we parted ways for the evening, we had a short conversation that really resonated. “You know, I really have four different identities,” Denise confided while taking a shot at a nearby dartboard. She began to list them off: the Survivor player, the version cultivated for family and friends, the employee. And finally, “whoever the fuck I actually am”. Recalling all of the Judith Butler I had to read during my final semesters of college for a brief moment, I told her that I think I understood what she was saying
“I know you know,” she answered. “I can see it in your eyes.”
Beneath the layers of absurd twists and turns, the theme of identity permeated throughout this particular episode. The Shan that exists alongside Genie is not the Shan that exists alongside Ricard. Erika knows hardship well, despite keeping up a chipper demeanor. The Liana hanging out with Deshawn, Danny, and Shan has a different air to her than the Liana on an all-white Yase tribe. Season 41 Jeff Probst is not the same as Season 7 or Season 15 Jess Probst.
Even at Rascals, away from the glamour of cameras, the Jonny Fairplay performing is not the same one that I see on Instagram posing for selfies and playing Minecraft with his middle school-aged daughter. It’s impossible to say which version is of him is the one that is most “real”.
There are the agreeable facades that win prize money, the over-the top personas awarded with infamy, and the veils that aren’t so easily classified. As this season goes on and the contestants whittle down, we’re sure to see more angles and more masks from the individuals remaining. But to see which mask each player inevitably chooses, we’ll just have to keep tuning in each week.
My two cents: this whole line of thought comes off as sort of self-aggrandizing. Pastor or not, own up to playing a villainous cutthroat game if that’s what you want to do rather than imply that having a certain person around “makes you” become more of a villain. I predict that this duplicity will catch up with her in some sort of explosive way in the coming episodes.
When I say massive, I mean massive. Like comically large. I am very bad at estimates but it had to have had a diameter of about 12 feet, and these poor folks had to create an enormous sandpit just to dislodge the thing. It was really silly, even by this show’s standards.
According to a 2016 census, about 2% of the Canadian population self-identified as Filipino.
She actually calls it “the most diverse”, but statistically speaking Survivor Cook Islands and Survivor Fiji boast more racial diversity. However, I am sure that CBS is eager to cover up the brief era in which they literally divided the tribes based on ethnicity.