‘Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites’ spotlight: Erik Reichenbach
When you play “Survivor” for the first time and you make an absolutely insane move, it’s understandable that you become America’s favorite reality TV punching bag for the better part of several years. However, we’re not sure that there is anything that helps you more when coming back to play the game again then being known as the guy who made one of the dumbest moves in the history of the game.
Who’s going to target Erik Reichenbach straight out of the gate? The answer here is pretty simple: no one. He’s not going to be a threat, as a likable guy who gave away his immunity necklace and got humiliated by it. While the other castaways may not consider this early on during “Survivor: Caramoan,” Erik practically has himself a free pass all the way to the merge.
Let’s count the things that Erik really has going for him going into this season:
1. His season in “Survivor Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites” was long enough ago that no one will be tired of him.
2. As a former “fan,” he can tell the fellow favorites what the experience is like from the other time.
3. He’s a student of the game, and knows all the players well from watching them.
4. He’s great in most challenges, and pretty good around camp.
5. He’s not going to anger anyone or make any enemies.
Since we have have both Brandon Hantz the crazy person and Malcolm Freberg the unknown going before the merge, the favorites need Erik to stick around for at least several weeks … and he will. It’s only after the jury phase that Erik is really going to have to start formulating a strategy in our eyes.
If we were Erik, the best thing we would do is try to give everyone a Fabio-like impression that you are there to have fun, and make your moves subtle enough so that no one knows until after they are voted out what you did to them. He’s probably still going to have to win out immunities from the final five on, mostly because he is so likable that it’s hard to see him getting all the way to the end with someone else taking him.
Prediction – Ultimately, we see Erik falling somewhere between ninth and fifth place, since he’s the sort of player that is extremely valuable to have around for the first half of the game, and incredibly dangerous from there on out. It’s very hard to win this game as a young man, and it almost becomes a destriment that you are perceived as good at challenges.
What’s your take on Erik this season? We want to hear from you below, and you can check out some of our other spotlight articles for the favorites tribe over at the link here. We have one more to do in Phillip Sheppard this weekend, and we’ll follow that up with our official predictions early in the week.
Photo: CBS