‘Survivor: Blood vs. Water’ castaway spotlight: Vytas Baskauskas
One day after chronicling former “Survivor: Exile Island” champion Aras Baskauskas in our “Survivor: Blood vs. Water” castaway spotlight series, we’re back with the family member who bravely decided to join him for 39-and-a-half days on the Philippines this time around: His brother Vytas.
First of all, we’re assuming that the correct way to pronounce his name is VEE-tas based on the CBS video below. (Just getting that out of the way.) If the entire competition featured all of the contestants in pairs fighting for their lives, we have to be honest here: We actually think that these two would win. They are both in great shape, smart, and seem to understand one another very well. Unfortunately for them, the game does not quite work that way, which is probably going to be where some of their problems come up over the course of this season.
Basic details – Vytas Baskauskas, 33 years old from Santa Monica, California; brother to Aras Baskauskas
Occupation – Yoga instructor / math professor
Strengths – Anyone who is both a professor and a yoga teacher has to have a ton of intelligence and focus, and that comes into play in “Survivor” more so than even doing well in challenges. As someone who seems to be a longtime fan of the game, he will not come into this bright-eyed and expecting it to be easy. That will work in his favor, as will being on a tribe that has one obvious physical threat (in Brad Culpepper) that could take some of the target off of him.
Weaknesses – The #1 problem Vytas is going to have, strange to say, is Aras. These two guys are both so strong and will probably be so good that no one will want to have them together. It’s a good thing that they’re willing to vote each other out if need be. Also, Vytas claims that he has a little bit of a temper, and that could be trouble depending on what happens in the game if the wrong person gains power or if he goes on a losing streak.
Prediction – We don’t think that Vytas will be doomed by anger problems. We think that the most interesting dynamic of this season is going to be when we are around a week or two before the merge, and we start to ask the following question: Do we really want X person to make it with their family member? We wouldn’t want Aras and Vytas on the same tribe together if they were both in the game at that time, even if they both had separate alliances they were loyal to. We think that this problem will surface, and Vytas will be a casualty of it. He’s capable of getting far if he makes the jury, and that is another reason to take him out then.
If you want to take a look at the rest of our castaway spotlight series, be sure to click here.
Photo: CBS