‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ spotlight: Sunday Burquest looks to take these people to Sunday school
Yes, that joke in the title never gets old, and we’re also sure that “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X” contestant Sunday Burquest has probably heard it a solid million times over the course of her ministry work. Jokes aside, she is a woman with a lot of determination, and she’s went through times in her life where she’s learned to care for both others and herself. She’s got that life experience that you often need to be good at this game.
Will this translate to her actually having a long stay out on the beach in Fiji? That’s what we have to figure out today.
Tribe – Takali (Gen X)
Bio – She’s 45 years old, hails from Otsego, Minnesota (located northwest of Minneapolis), and works as a youth pastor. While we’ve had many people of the faith appear on “Survivor” over the years, contestants with faith-based occupations don’t have the best track record. Pastor John Raymond was the first person voted out of “Survivor: Thailand,” while Leslie Nease, a Christian radio host, was an early boot during “Survivor: China.”
Positive attributes – First things first, we do love that she is a longtime fan of the show. We do think that this pays dividends, and she will know a bit about what it takes for certain people of her archetype to do well in this game. She needs to form a strong alliance early, unify them, and continue to inspire them and make them feel secure. If she does all of that, she can then use that trust to convince them to help do her bidding in the game. Raising several children should add to her resolve, and the same goes for being a real survivor after being diagnosed with breast cancer. We can’t imagine her quitting the game in a million years given what she’s been through.
Potential negatives – Religion can at times be a turn-off for non-religious people, so she, like many others on the show over the years, may have to monitor that. There are going to be questions about her challenge ability as the oldest woman on her tribe, and that’s often not a great place for someone to be.
Finally, she’s also playing this game from a trickier position in that she does have to consider her congregation in a way that few others do, since there’ll be that fear that her in-game actions are a reflection somehow of who she is as a person. We do worry that this will limit how devious or sneaky she will be willing to be. One thing that does give us hope is that she does realize that there is a certain degree of disloyalty that goes into playing this game; she just wants to make sure any deception she does is in the context of “Survivor.”
“Survivor” comparisons – She name-checks Lisa Whelchel from “Survivor: Philippines,” and based on her philosophy on deception mentioned about, it seems like the perfect comparison given that this is something Lisa struggled with but eventually did execute. Lisa was a fairly decent player, and so is someone else in Holly Hoffman who we’d also compare her to for her attitude and also, admittedly, her accent.
Early assessment – Like Rachel Ako on her tribe, we can see Sunday being he sort of player who is gone early or makes it far, albeit for very different reasons. We can’t imagine Sunday struggling to get along with the people on her tribe, especially with there being many other openly Christian castaways this season. Her problem is that if she struggles in the challenges early, she’s a huge target. Otherwise, she could go far given that people will make the assumption that because of her job she won’t be willing to do anything immoral. She could use that to her advantage, but either way if she makes it to the end she will still have to battle an unfair prejudice against older female players. We don’t see her winning.
Be sure to head over here to check out our other “Survivor” pre-game coverage, or vote in our poll as to how well you think Sunday will do! You can also sign up over here to score some further TV news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)