‘Survivor: Cagayan’ castaway spotlight: Will J’Tia Taylor engineer a victory?
Anytime that you hear the words “nuclear engineer,” there is one thing that you tend to think: Smart. Therefore, it makes sense that J’Tia Taylor is a member of the Brains tribe on “Survivor: Cagayan.” She is clearly driven, can wear a variety of different hats, and is an interesting addition to a group that already has a number of smart people.
Unfortunately, we’re still sitting here trying to figure out whether or not there is anything new that J’Tia brings to the table that the tribe does not already have. She’s smart, but so are other players; she may be in good shape, but there’s a former cheerleader in Tasha on the tribe. She’s going to have a hard time finding her place, and then contributing in a way that has her noticed by a jury at the end.
Name – J’Tia Taylor
Age – 31
Tribe – Luzon (a.k.a. the Brains tribe)
Location – Chicago, Illinois
Occupation – Nuclear engineer (up there with “Rocket Scientist” on the intimidating job titles list)
What she brings to the table – She is going to be able to bring a decent amount of life experience to the game, as a former model who traveled the world, and then chose a new career path when she realized that would not work for her. Her social game could be a big asset if she can keep some of the negative stuff at bay. We don’t see her as someone who is going to make huge waves right away, which could keep her out of danger for the first vote.
What could get her in trouble – There’s a lot of strange contradictions in the video interview with J’Tia. She says that she wants to be someone who people want around, and then she says that she is devious and could complain a lot. It doesn’t really seem like she actually has that much of a strategy, save for maybe just trying out a bunch of different things and seeing what works. We also don’t have a whole lot of evidence that she is going to be that big of an asset in any challenge other than puzzles, since she makes no mention of ever doing anything athletic.
Past “Survivor” comparison – This one is a little bit tricky. We almost want to throw in a little bit of John Fincher and Amanda Kimmel together, though we’re not saying that J’Tia is going to be anywhere near as good of a player as either one of them. They were people who had some good ideas, but were often either too scatterbrained or failed the execution of them. (In Amanda’s case, that failure came in not being able to sell herself to a jury.
Prediction – We see J’Tia as someone who is probably going to be able to make it through at least one tribal council on Luzon … but two or three could be tough. If this tribe has a losing streak, she could be one of the first people out of the game. If she makes it to the merge (which we see as unlikely), we could see her as being someone who is brought close to the end, since others may feel like they can beat her. She is just too all-over-the-place for us to really feel like she has a chance of taking home the million bucks at the very end.
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Photo: CBS