Jamal Shipman won Survivor in how he handled the inappropriate touching incident, despite being voted out. He was the only man who offered anything constructive in the latest tribal council, and now he's gone.
It was impossible to box Jamal in to one character type. He was lauded with how he handled sensitive topics about race and gender, and, as he would likely admit, he wasn't always correct in his assessment of the situation. On a strategic level, he played hard, rebounding from the Molly Byman blindside to ingratiate himself back into the original Vokai alliance, at least temporarily. In the episode before the merge, Jamal misplayed an idol - confoundingly on Noura Salman, who said she was over his face earlier in that episode - and then found himself on the wrong side of the numbers once his closest ally Jack Nichting was taken out by Kellee Kim. He was the second to be eliminated in a riveting yet unsettling double merge episode, but Jamal will be remembered not for how he voted but for how he carried himself.
In the tribal council in which Jamal was eliminated - Karishma Patel and Janet Carbin also received votes - Jamal spoke up when Aaron Meredith made an alarming comment about Dan Spilo's harassment. Meredith said that if the touching was taking place and causing an issue, he would have heard about it. This, of course, is an awful excuse that countless men in workplaces across the country use to turn a blind eye to unacceptable behavior. Luckily, there was someone like Jamal to set Aaron straight. (Aaron has since delivered a tearful apology.)
Jamal responded to Aaron's shortsighted and damaging claim by saying, "That's the problem. This is what happens in the real world." It was comforting to hear him say this, especially since the victim in this situation, Kellee Kim, was already on the jury, unable to add her input. When the majority of votes came in for Jamal, it felt less like a loss of a key player in the game and more a loss of a crucial voice in a season that has become about much more than strategy.
The question of who will win the title of Sole Survivor has never been less pertinent at this point in a season. That's due to the fact that there are so many more important conversations that have grown out of events that have taken place - and are likely still to occur - on season 39. Jamal didn't win the game, but it's not hard to argue that his presence on Survivor has been more valuable than that of any other person in Survivor history.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.