What if...Borneo

I'm ready to start a new series. While studying for my AP Chemistry midterm in between my studies of Survivor: Kaoh Rong and Aubry Bracco ahead of Survivor 50, I came up with what I believe is my greatest idea. What if...what if? Yeah, I know that makes absolutely zero sense. But seriously, what if...I did a series about the biggest what ifs on Survivor. What if Erik didn't give up immunity? What if Woo didn't take Kass? What if Brandon didn't have a meltdown? There are so, so many possibilities based on the most major decisions in Survivor, and these are just the most notable I can think of from the seasons I've watched. My idea is to reverse these decisions, or give these events another outcome, and think about what would have happened, including the eventual winner. Without further ado, let's go through the decision on the best turning point in Survivor: Borneo, and where to go from there.

The Decision

Finding an event that really sticks out is pretty difficult in Borneo. The game was very simple, and there was very little strategy. After all, nobody knew what to expect or what to do. I could go into the creation of the first ever Survivor alliance, the first ever Survivor showmance, the first and only voting off due to wanting to create the second ever alliance (yes, that happened), and so much more. However, I think the interesting thing to consider is Kelly Wigglesworth's throwaway vote during the Jenna Lewis (more Survivor 50) blindside. This wasn't an attempt at jury management (they barely had alliances and that definitely wasn't a thing yet), but was simply a throwaway vote because Kelly was closely bonded to Jenna. However, it made Wigglesworth's alliance of Richard, Rudy, and Sue begin to suspect her. Without further ado, here is what I believe would have happened had Kelly Wigglesworth voted with her alliance in the Jenna Lewis blindside.

The Outcome

So what would have happened? The remaining players in Survivor Borneo after Jenna's blindside were:

Richard

Rudy

Sue

Kelly

Sean

Colleen

Gervase

so with four votes, it Survivor's first alliance should easily get to the end.

In episode ten, Gervase still wins have won reward, and Rudy still criticizes him. Richard still would wons Survivor's first of many fire-making challenges, earning him immunity and a spot in the final six. Gervase and Colleen are still on the bottom, and Gervase is still the much bigger target. The votes are the same:

Richard --> Gervase

Rudy --> Gervase

Sue --> Gervase

Kelly --> Gervase

Sean --> Gervase

Colleen --> Sean

Gervase --> Sean

and Sean still obviously follows his alphabet strategy, sending Gervase home in a 5-2 vote. The original version of episode eleven begins with Kelly hanging out with Colleen, and the rest of her alliance is immediately on her case for jury management (finally). However, in this alternate reality, Kelly never attempts jury management and doesn't betray her alliance, so the episode truly starts with Sean's reward challenge win, where he brings Richard to solidify his spot in the alliance. Again, in this alternate reality, Kelly doesn't get angry with her alliance because she didn't have the initial break-up moment with her alliance in episode nine. However, it doesn't matter, as Kelly wins individual immunity and the target remains Colleen:

Richard --> Colleen

Rudy --> Colleen

Sue --> Colleen

Kelly --> Colleen

Sean --> Colleen

Colleen --> Sean

with the latter going home in a 5-1 vote. In episode twelve, Sue and Kelly never get into their notorious fight because Kelly doesn't vote against her alliance at tribal, and Richard never gets the chance to smooth things over. Kelly wins yet another challenger, earning reward with Jeff, and then wins yet another challenge at immunity, though this time she doesn't necessarily need it to guarantee her safety. Once again, we can simply just go through the results of the actual tribal, and at this point Sean is even less insulated in the alliance than he is in real life:

Richard --> Sean

Rudy --> Sean

Sue --> Sean

Kelly --> Sean

Sean --> Kelly

sending the creator of the alphabet strategy home in a 4-1 vote. The finale begins, and Kelly wins a maybe-not-so-clutch third immunity in a row to guarantee her spot in the final four. I do think it is a clutch immunity, as she is the best target due to not being as insulated in the alliance as Sue, Rich, or Rudy. Richard and Rudy are obviously going to vote together, and Kelly sides with Sue against Richard as in real life (if she somehow sided with Sue after the fight in real life, she certainly will side with Sue without the fight), leading to the first revote in Survivor history:

Richard --> Sue

Rudy --> Sue

Sue --> Richard

Kelly --> Richard

Since Rudy won't flip on Richard and Kelly doesn't want to go to rocks, she sides with the men to vote out Sue, and likely once again loses her vote by flipping:

Rudy --> Sue

Kelly --> Sue

and sending the snake and the rat to the jury in a 2-0 vote. Kelly still wins final immunity, and still debates which of her allies off:

Kelly --> Rudy

deciding on Rudy due to his lovability and not having betrayed any of the jury members. So, we once again have a final tribal council between Kelly Wigglesworth and Richard Hatch; will this one go any differently? Pagongs Jenna, Colleen, and Gervase still favor Kelly, and Tikas Rudy and Sean certainly vote for Rich. Sean still goes against his alphabet strategy to vote for the better strategic player, and Greg still votes for whoever guesses closest to his number:

Rudy --> Richard

Sue --> Richard

Sean --> Richard

Colleen --> Kelly

Gervase --> Kelly

Jenna --> Kelly

Greg --> Richard

meaning none of the jury votes change despite Kelly no longer socially isolating herself and destroying her alliance, and neither do any of the regular vote-offs either. Borneo's outcome staying the EXACT same is going to be a rare occurance, especially considering the higher level of strategy in pretty much every other season. However, it's interesting to see that due to Kelly's string of immunities and flip on Sue, she still can't turn a single jury vote and still loses due to picking the wrong number...