‘Survivor: Cagayan’ castaway spotlight: Can ‘Kass’ McQuillen really shock people?

There are people on “Survivor” who you don’t feel are particularly destined to go far, and there are also people that you want to go far, but probably won’t. This is where Kassandra “Kass” McQuillen falls in our camp right now. She’s got a pretty interesting strategy, an obvious mind for the game, and some evidence that she is really good at reading people. The problem? She is going to most-likely fall victim to what could be for her a pretty terrible twist.

While we’re going to go much more in-depth about all of this below, our overall impression of Kass at the moment is that she is a castaway who could really play well if she was not on a tribe of really smart people, who are also going to need people who are physical to compete well in the challenges.

Name – Kass McQuillen

Age – 41

Occupation – Attorney

Location – Tehachapi (we’re not going to begin to try to pronounce that), California

Tribe – Luzon (a.k.a. the Brains tribe)

What she brings to the game – Above all, intelligence, but also humility. Kass comes across as a woman who doesn’t need to tell everyone that she is smart. Instead, she’d rather have them think the worst of her, that way she can surprise them later. She claims that this is her strategy in her courtroom, and it’s her strategy here. She also says that she is going to lie about her job, and tell everyone she is an “animal handler.” She also knows “Survivor” extremely well, and may be more of a fan than almost anyone else that is in the game. All of this stuff suggests that she’ll be very good television, and a nice contrast to the other “look at me” players.

What could get her in trouble – Here are the issues. For one, we don’t think a tribe of brainy people is going to buy that CBS cast an “animal handler” as one of six people to be on a tribe made up of the “brains”, even if she has a good excuse for her vocabulary. That’s going to be make her a target of suspicion, and to add to it, she even admits in her bio that she may very well “suck” at challenges. Not a ringing endorsement. This group is going to have a hard enough time winning as it is, and they could be extra attentive to trying to take out who they perceive to be the weakest player.

Past “Survivor” comparison – Kass goes with Sandra Diaz-Twine, and that is actually a pretty good one. While we’re not saying that she is going to do nearly as well as she did in the game, she has a similar sort of attitude towards her tribe and towards winning: That is all she is here to do. She also realizes what her limitations are, and wants to keep some of her strengths hidden for as long as possible.

Prediction – The thing is that we feel like most Sandra-like players would struggle with in a three-tribe format, since if you are a physical liability early, is that weaknesses show much more than if you are on a tribe of eight, nine, or even ten people. She’s going to have a hard time overcoming that, which is why we have a very hard time seeing her make it to the merge. It’s a shame, since we really do like seeing people go far who CBS didn’t discover while they were working at a bar in Los Angeles.

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Photo: CBS