With the exit of Jefra, so too comes to a close the story of the Beauties. Beauty will not be the quality that wins this season of Survivor. But in remembrance of the Beauty tribe, I thought I could dedicate my casestudy this week to the last remaining member: Jefra.
Now you might think: You are going to write an entire blogpost about Jefra? Granted she does come of as a ‘non-entity’ as the title of this blogpost suggest. But I wanted to take a closer look at her journey this season to analyze the moves she made. (if she made any) Because for all we know the editors downplayed her moves in the game to push in her in the part of ‘non-entity’.
In my preview I saw Jefra as your typical eye-candy player who adds little to the season. For the most part she lived up to that part since right from the get go she connected with LJ and Alexis. I guess you can see that as a move, even though it’s the most basic survivor move out there. But the fact is that ever since she made that alliance (or maybe more accurate agreed to that alliance)she didn’t do anything until the tribe swap. She did make a nice little nest for her to settle in, so she didn’t had to make a move. But still, it’s at those times that you have to make preparations for future moves.
Her comfy little alliance of beauties was rudely disturbed when the tribe swap arrived. The beauties drew the short end of the stick as three beauties went to Aparri to almost immediately turn on each other. All the while Jefra remained on Solana but was joined by 4 brawns. Her situation looked pretty grim but luckily she still had LJ with her. LJ connected with Trish and pulled the Brawn alliance apart. Now what was Jefra part in this? Maybe a bit more the you might think at first. The episode suggested that LJ made Trish switch but we also saw that Trish approached Jefra first who reassured Trish that LJ is with her. Now I don’t believe the flip of Trish and Tony is in large part due to Jefra but it is clear that since that episode she got herself a final three alliance with Trish and LJ that probably would have gotten her to the end if Tony didn’t blindside LJ. A bad situation turned perfect were it not she lost her close ally Alexis just before the merge.
At the merge it looked like Jefra and her alliance were going to be picked of one by one, were it not for ChoasKass. Kass flipped and put Jefra’s alliance in the powerposition. Jefra’s part in this was pretty much zero though.
Things looked very good for Jefra and a final three was definitely in the cards. Winning of course is a different matter if she ended up with LJ and Trish next to her. Sadly for Jefra her A-plan to reach the end was shattered to pieces when LJ was blindsided by Tony. With her rock gone, Jefra had nothing to hold on to and seemed a little lost. But she had a chance here to finally play her game and to her credit she did try although it looked very clumsy. At a reward challenge with Spencer, Tash and Jeremiah she promised her loyalty to them in order to vote of Tony. Now her big move didn’t last long as Trish reassured her that the final 5 still stands and that she has Tony under control. Jefra broke the news of her reflip to Jeremiah and not much later signed his exit note.
Now did she make the right decision here? I would say yes but she did it in a very clumsy way. She should have never flipped to Tash, Spencer and Jeremiah in the first place. She never in a million years had a chance to beat Tash, Spencer or Jeremiah in a final three. At least with the other 4 she has a chance to win, al be it very difficult. The only way Jefra might have had a chance to win was to go to the final three with Kass and Woo. Kass is hated by almost everyone and would surely be keen to the idea to a final three with Jefra. And Woo has done nothing this season, except basically being Tony’s little bitch (excuse my phrasing here). So If I were to be Jefra, I would have picked off Tash, Spencer and Jeremiah until one was left, preferably Tash. Then I should have rallied Kass, Trish and Tash (or whoever was left) behind me and voted of Tony.
Now of course with Tony’s superpowered idol that probably wouldn’t have worked but Jefra didn’t know that so that should have still been her plan regardless. After voting out Tony, Woo would have been a free agent for Jefra to recruit in order to blindside Trish in case Tash won immunity. If Tash didn’t win immunity, Jefra should first have targeted Tash and then try and blindside Trish at final four. This would have resulted in a final three of Jefra, Woo and Kass. Granted, a little bit of an anti-climax but I can see Jefra winning in that instance.
This should have been what Jefra should have done but I do realize that this doesn’t really fit Jefra’s character and she doesn’t really have a feel for the strategy part of the game. It’s also what caused her eventual exit because it becomes clear that Trish doesn’t have Tony under control. Scared by an all-women alliance that never was a thing, Tony changes allegiance once again and blindsides Jefra. So instead of being a player that breaks the stereotype of young pretty girls on survivor, she ends up being a footnote in survivor history confirming the stereotype rather then breaking it and in the end still being somewhat of a non-entity this season.
Tony has struck again. What should have been a boring episode, where either Spencer or Tash would have been voted out, turned into once again an episode where Tony pulled out his bag of tricks and forced one of his allies towards the exit. A recurring theme with Tony however, is that even though his moves are very entertaining and great television, they’re not that smart towards winning the game. Same thing happens this week, by saving Spencer and Tash and pushing Jefra in the pit. Is Tony busy writing the narrative of his own downfall? It sure as hell is seeming that way.
After the tribal last week, where Jeremiah was voted out, it seemed like Tash and Spence were up against an impossible task, something the alliance of five don’t hesitate to make clear. Especially Kass is getting more annoying by walking and talking around like she has played some amazing game. The last couple of episode it didn’t bother me that much, since she didn’t got a lot of airtime. Does her increased airtime mean we can expect a new move by ChaosKass? Just look at Jefra. In the first two minutes of the episode, Jefra gets just as much airtime then in a regular episode. That was our first clue that things were going to go south for jefra this week.
Next we have a Survivor classic: the Survivor auction. Here the players are given 500 bucks to bid on various dishes of food and a advantage in the game. And I must say, that food looked really good. It really makes you stand up and go to the kitchen and make something for yourself. I believe the ribs and beer would have been my pick. ^^
Now you might wonder why I wouldn’t go for the advantage. Well, because the importance and value of the advantage is a little bit overrated according to me. In this instance there were 3 people vying for the advantage: Tony, Tash and Spencer. That means you have a 2 out of 3 shot to return empty handed and still starving. By choosing food, you also get an influx of energy which is also some sort of advantage, no? And even if you do get the advantage, that’s still all it is: an advantage. It’s no guarantee, you’ll win immunity. So basically it’s not worth the hassle and the 500 bucks.
Maybe that’s also what the producers thought since this time the advantage was a clue to yet another idol. Tony and Spencer both bid 500 bucks, after Tash backed out and basically became the big loser of the Survivor auction. Props go to Tony here because he doesn’t need to do this with an idol already in his pocket. He’s just so focused on the game and doesn’t want Spence or Tash to win immunity. (which seems a little pointless, now we know how the end episode unfolded) Spencer and Tony had to draw rocks for the advantage and it was like Tony didn’t have enough power with his superpowered idol, because Tony won the advantage and would later find the idol. With two idols in his pocket, Tony will kick himself for years to come, if he still loses this game.
Having two idols in his possession might have given Tony a burst of confidence and a feeling of being indestructible. It might be a factor that plays in to his motivation for his following actions. Tony is paranoid and very hyper. He is seeing threats everywhere and is blinded by some less likely worst-case scenario’s then the more obvious threats. And that’s what Tash and Spencer’s angle is to save Spencer after Tash won her third immunity challenge. Tash spends a lot of time with Trish, Jefra and Kass to make Tony nervous. All the while Spencer’s is trying to further grow the seed of an unlikely all-girl alliance in Tony’s head to keep Tony from seeing the more likely and bigger threat of Spencer reaching the end. The paranoia gets to Tony and he decides to set the wheels in motion to blindside jefra. Tony approaches Spencer and Woo, who’s to Woo’s own words clicking on the same level as Tony 9 out of ten times. :D Isn’t Woo cute in a clueless kind of way?
But why Jefra? Why not vote out Kass or even Trish, who’s a bigger jury threat. I think he chose Jefra because Jefra isn’t in any of Tony’s final three scenario’s. I believe Kass is in a possible final three scenario and so is Trish. This means Jefra is expendable and that’s why he voted her out. Also Jefra doesn’t really add something to the game, whether it being strategy or work at camp. We saw with Morgan, that’s something that irks Tony and influences him in his voting motivation.
At tribal Tony calls Jefra out and pulls out his normal immunity idol out of his bag of tricks and threatens to play it if anyone has an idea to vote for him. Of course Tony doesn’t play it, not that anyone ever expected him to anyway. In the resulting vote, Tony stays true to his plans and blindsides Jefra in 4-2 vote.
Now it seems like every time Tony strikes, we have to ask ourselves the same question: was it a good or bad move? It depends on how grounded Tony’s fear for an all girls alliance was. Now we know pretty much for sure that Tash wasn’t in on an all-girl alliance. She just wanted to make Tony nervous which she did successfully. But what for the case for a Trish, Kass and Jefra alliance? I wouldn’t rule it out completely. I’m sure Trish is very much on guard for Tony’s bag of tricks and might have an alliance with Jefra and Kass as a backup plan if Tony tries something. (which obviously failed if that was the case) Plus, a final three with Trish, Kass and Jefra seems like an easy win for Trish.
But in the end we have to go with what we saw in the episodes. And in the episode, Trish seems very loyal towards Tony. If Trish had another main alliance then Tony, wouldn’t we have seen it by now? Taken that into account I believe that Tony’s fear for an all-girls alliance is not grounded, making this a bad move. Add to this that he probably hasn’t won himself a jurymember with this move. Having betrayed his alliance once again, it remains to be seen if his alliance will keep taking his antics without consequences. I guess we’ll see next week. You can find Jefra’s Day after and Ponderosa vids below and I’ll see you next time.
