Embarrassingly Naïve – Survivor: Micronesia’s Jason Is Inducted into the Reality TV Hall of Shame

When Jason accepted everybody’s promise that he would be safe and gave up immunity, we here at the Reality TV Hall of Shame decided he did not quite deserve to be “recognized” for his gaffe with a Hall of Shame Moment, in large because of the outcome.

But then Jason kept on playing in his rather clueless way and ended up being voted out the very next week while holding – and not using – the immunity idol. That pushed us too far. In fact, looking at the entirety of Jason’s game, we decided that he still didn’t merit a Hall of Shame Moment, but rather a full induction into the Reality TV Hall of Shame.

Jason did several things early in the game that didn’t quite make it to Hall of Shame Moment status, but did factor into this full induction. For example, we have the hidden immunity idol stick he found at Exile Island the first time around. He was absolutely certain that the stick with a small face carved on it was the idol, and had no thoughts it might be fake – even though he’s a fan of the show and Yau-Man had previously shown everybody how to plant a fake idol. And when Eliza saw the stick, she immediately knew. As she told me when I interviewed her, “When I saw that stick, I was like, he can’t possibly think this is the real idol.”

What makes this worse is that it didn’t even affect him, but instead may have hurt somebody else – Eliza. Because Jason wouldn’t show Eliza the hidden immunity idol stick until just moments before they were headed to the Tribal Council in which she eventually got voted off, she didn’t have a chance to do anything strategic with the information. Eliza told me that if she had seen it sooner, “I would have known Ozzy had the real one and would have brought the stick to Cirie and said Ozzy has the hidden immunity idol. Cirie was my closest friend left. [I would have said] tonight’s the night to blindside him. I’ll play it up like I’m going and you guys vote with me. … Cirie later told me says she would have been able to pull in Parvati, Natalie, Alexis, and the six of us would have blindsided him. I wish I’d seen it sooner so I could have tried to play that card.” Of course, we’ll never know if it would have worked, but by believing so strongly that the stick was an idol and not showing it Eliza until the last minute, Jason blew any chance they had of using the information at that point.

Then came Jason dropping out of the immunity challenge when the others “promised” he would be safe. We’ve already gone into great detail about why this was such a bad idea, even as we decided not to officially recognize the action with a Hall of Shame Moment. So there is no need to repeat the story here. Suffice it to say contestants should not put their trust in others like that, and there is certainly no way somebody in his position should have done it.

Discussion of Jason’s position brings us to the straw that broke the camel’s back – and sent Jason packing. Jason should have known that he was in the worst possible position. He was an outsider from the early days of the show, dating back to when the Fans were still in their own tribe. He was an outsider after the tribal switch-up, only really allied with Eliza and Jonathan. At the merge, he seemed to know he could only rely on Eliza – thus his reason for trying to save her.

And yet, the very next episode, he suddenly believed that he was in a secret alliance with Natalie and the other Fans, and that Natalie sent him to Exile Island so he could find the hidden immunity idol and together they could Rule the World! Bwahahahaha! OK, maybe not quite that bad, but close – he actually thought he was suddenly in such a solid alliance that they would plan how to use the idol together and take control of the game.

What?!

I mean, really. Things like that just don’t happen. You don’t go from being a total outsider – due to both strategy and personality – to being a solid ally, literally overnight. As a fan of the show, especially, Jason should have known better. But really, all it took was a small bit of common sense.

In Why Jason Lost I addressed some of the key mistakes he made in this regard. Allow me to quote:

Some people only analyze actions as if people were computers and would do what is logically correct. Jason seems to have been one of those people, as indicated by another thing he said to me about Natalie – “I looked at the reasoning and I couldn’t see a better option for her.” But people are not computers, and as I noted earlier, this is a social game. That means social interactions must play a role, and rare is the case where somebody instantly switches from disliking you personally to suddenly wanting to help you. Jason should have recognized that.

Another of his failures in the social game was addressed by this point:

Let me take a moment to address something Jason told me when I asked how he could believe the others when they promised not to vote him out if he stepped down from the immunity challenge: “It obviously worked and I didn’t go home.” To me, this indicates that Jason actually believed he did the right thing there, simply because of the outcome. But he failed to grasp that just because they didn’t vote him out at that Tribal Council, it didn’t mean he was suddenly an ally. … He thought the fact that he stayed meant he was good. But it really only meant he was lucky.

It would have been one thing to consider that she and the other Fans apparently stuck to their promise to keep him around. He could have used that information to say there might be the possibility of an alliance. But to go full force into divulging the biggest secret of the game? No way.

Beyond that, let’s say for a moment that he did truly and fully trust Natalie. Why would that automatically mean she’s speaking for an entire group? He had no reason nor expectation that the others would go along with this plan.

And to take it yet one step further, Jason was so complete in his belief that he was now suddenly in a game-changing alliance that he decided not to use the immunity idol. I’m sorry, he didn’t decide it – he was convinced not to use it and actually believed Natalie!

If you’re in the game of Survivor, a game based on lying and backstabbing, and somebody suggests to you that you not use the idol, that should set off flashing lights and warning sirens in your head. This should especially be the case when the last guy holding the immunity idol had been blindsided and sent packing just days earlier in the previous Tribal Council! How Jason could have been so blind is a complete mystery to me.

Survivor is a game of strategy, and Jason was supposed to be a super-fan. Yet when I interviewed him, he didn’t seem to actually have any strategy, instead telling me his plan was “to come in and be an easygoing, likable guy.” That’s not a strategy. To make it worse, it didn’t really get any better than that.

He should have known that he needed to have some basic level of guile to play this game. He couldn’t just go out and win challenges and hope for the best. Yet he consistently failed to understand his place in the game. Frankly, he was naïve every step of the way, from believing in the stick to believing in his tribemates at the immunity challenge to believing Natalie.

Having such a basic lack of understanding of what was going on around him – especially for a fan – is just plain embarrassing. The way he played the game under these circumstances can therefore only be described as shameful and fully deserving of a full induction into these halls.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Survivor: Micronesia articles on RealityNewsOnline and here at the Hall of Shame:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of the Reality TV Hall of Shame, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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