‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ finale: Where does Natalie Anderson stack up among other winners?
At the conclusion of every “Survivor” season, we like to take a couple of days off from the show before getting to the winner and season rankings. One, it gives us a chance to rest our hands after some lengthy exit interviews; also, it gives us a chance to properly digest much of the season before making some big decisions on where the winner and the season stack up without an immediate bias.
We’re going to talk about Natalie Anderson as a winner today, and tomorrow, we’ll go through the entire season.
We have now updated our lengthy retrospective article, and after some thinking, have determined that Natalie is, at least for now, the 11th-best winner in “Survivor” history. Let’s go through this.
The case for Natalie – Big moves repeatedly, from getting Jon Misch out to making sure that Baylor was taken out with her immunity idol. She played the jury really well at times, making sure they knew she was the strategic force. Also, don’t forget some smaller moves, including her getting the women to vote out Drew Christy, and also her deciding to keep Keith around for a while longer over Alec.
Also, Natalie was a solid challenge performer, a hard worker around camp, and she was very persuasive. Was it smart to take her to the final tribal council? Not really, but like with Tony Vlachos, she still managed to make it happen. She was a very good player, and one we could see being underrated in a couple of years due to a season that wasn’t always loved.
The case against Natalie – You could cite a large percentage of non-“Survivor” fans this season, her not always being in on the plan (the Jeremy blindside), or even a comment about Jon that set Jaclyn off at camp near the end of the game, and could have come back to haunt her. Most of these, though, are pretty minor things.
The biggest debate – Trying to figure out if Natalie was better than Yul Kown of “Cook Islands,” who was our previous #11. While we do think that he may have been more strategically dominant, we also think that he was aided mightily by that all-powerful immunity idol, and he had many more lucky breaks during the season with so many other players painting big targets on themselves. He slips to #12.
Where do you think Natalie stacks up right now? Let us know! Also, be sure to check out all of our recent exit interviews, or sign up to get some more TV news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)
TVfangirl
December 23, 2014 @ 6:50 am
Top 10 at least… and if i’m feeling generous top 5. (realistically somewhere between 6-10)
sdsdsd
December 21, 2014 @ 3:24 am
between 12 and 17. at least Richard, Brian, Sandra, Tom, Chris, Parvati, JT, Sandra again, Rob, Kim and Tony are above her. she’s among winners like Tina, Denise, Yul, Ethan, Tyson. everyone else is under her for sure.
Karin Sun
December 21, 2014 @ 11:08 pm
I never saw Sandra in Pearl Islands, but you’ve gotta be out of your mind if you think Sandra in HvV was a better winner than Natalie. She just fails to compare to Natalie on so many levels.
1- Natalie pulled off at least three major blindsides with perfect timing and execution, and for good strategic reasons. Sandra’s only strategy the whole game was to get rid of Russell, which a) was purely personal because anyone could have beaten Russell at the end and b) she never successfully pulled off, since he sat next to her in the finals.
2- Natalie had a much harder road to run to the end. She had to navigate a post merge landscape full of couples with unbreakable bonds. She won because she smartly used two of the couples as shields throughout the game, orchestrated some blindsides at the end to break them up so they don’t control the endgame, and was tight enough with the remaining 2 people that she didn’t get any backlash for voting off their loved ones. She played her cards brilliantly. Sandra’s path through HvV on the other hand was insanely easy. She was only in danger at one TC right before the merge, and even then it was a coin flip between her and Courtney going home. She didn’t do anything better than Courtney to stay in the game. After the merge she was never in danger because there were bigger targets on both sides and all she had to do to get to the end was stay the course.
3 – Natalie won over a difficult jury. She sat next to 2 people who were automatically getting votes because of their loved ones. She was also facing a jury full of men (minus Jeremy) who have showed time and again that they don’t think highly of women. She got their votes because she was able to distinguish herself from the other women by working around camp, doing well in challenges, and connecting with the bros in a way none of the other women could. She totally earned every vote she got. Sandra on the other hand was the beneficiary of one of the most bitter juries in Survivor history. In the end, she won because she wasn’t Russell or Parvati.
Natalie should be ranked higher than Sandra in every way. I also maintain that she should be higher than Tyson, Yul, and Denise and probably tied with Tony. Definitely at least 11-12 on the list.