‘Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites’ spotlight: Dawn Meehan
When you look at most of the cast on the Favorites side of “Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites,” few are like Dawn Meehan. Many of them are significantly younger (save for “Special Agent” Phillip Sheppard), and most of them are known for being some sort of gigantic character.
However, Dawn is the sort of nice woman who you could meet on the street and have a nice conversation with. As a mother, she has a maternal instinct that is often present when it comes to how she plays the game; but at the same time, she is also someone who is unafraid to strategize and try to figure out how to get herself closer to the million-dollar prize.
The first time around on “Survivor: South Pacific,” the one thing that really held Dawn back was just not knowing the right time to make a big move. As soon as Cochran flipped, she should have been scrambling in order to find a new alliance that she could bring value to. Since that didn’t happen, she (despite her own best efforts later) became a bit of a sitting duck and a target due to her popularity around camp.
The first thing that Dawn should do this time around is continually remind Cochran just how bad a move he made last time. These two have a history, and they could work together well if she lets bygones by bygones. She also needs to get in an alliance pretty early on with some stronger players, that way the target that she brings to the game is somewhat diminished. While on some seasons her personality along could get her $1 million, she’ll need to be aggressive here to impress a jury. Make some big moves! Blindside some people in your alliance after the merge! Dawn occasionally let her heart get the best of her the first time, but like Cochran, she is so smart that’s hard not to imagine her learning from past mistakes.
The best thing that she can hope for ultimately is being at the end with with either some goat players or someone who really didn’t contribute that much to the game. She could beat Cochran if they stay together that far, but she’d be even more guaranteed to win against a Phillip or a Brandon (who she also knows rather well).
Prediction – We really like Dawn’s attitude and her strategy in the preview video below, and she is someone that is pretty easy to root for. The biggest issue we see her having is strictly that these are very aggressive players that she is up against, and if you look back at the last three seasons with at least ten returning players, the fan favorite types (Cirie, Erik, Rupert) tend to be voted out right before the end since everyone knows that they will take home the prize. Dawn’s a pretty good competitor and could go on an immunity run, but we ultimately see her getting around the same sort of finish on the jury as last time. She’s a great person to have a round camp, though, and for that reason we’d be stunned to see her go before the merge.
Want to read more of our “Survivor Caramoan” castaway spotlights? If so, be sure to click here.
Photo: CBS