On this week’s episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols, contestants had to figure out how to play a game show for a million dollars amidst various women accusing Dan Spiro of inappropriately touching them. Some players thought addressing the issue should come before gameplay, while others chose to continue strategizing anyway. The fact that the players - and viewers - reached different conclusions is part of what made the show so compelling.
Going back to the premiere episode, Kellee Kim expressed feeling uncomfortable when Dan would touch her in an unnecessary, overly familiar manner. Importantly, Kellee diplomatically confronted Dan about it, asking him to stop. That should have been the end of it, but subsequent footage confirmed that he continued to put his hands on her, while her body language screamed “no!”
Fast forward to the merge when Kellee met Missy Byrd for the first time. The two women bonded over their mutual feeling of unease around Dan and the pressure to bite their tongues due to the game’s social nature; accordingly, they resolved to team up to vote him out. Although Dan’s behavior brought Kellee to tears, she later stated, “As much as I feel disrespected by him and feel disgusted by him, I’m not going to make a game decision based off of those feelings.” Instead, she wanted to target her new acquaintance Missy for being a strategic threat, and honestly, that’s legitimate. As satisfying as it would be to watch her stick it to Dan, Kellee had no obligation to throw away her game or make a bad move because of what Dan did to her - she’s there to win, not fix the world.
Meanwhile, Missy told her main ally Elizabeth Beisel about the conversation she had with Kellee. Since they were down in numbers, Missy said their “only play” was to go along with the anti-Dan sentiment to stay safe. Here’s where it really started to get icky - Elizabeth agreed to “play up” her discomfort with Dan to her tribemates, despite acknowledging she didn’t actually feel that way about him personally.
Fans have come for Elizabeth for lying about such a thing and giving credence to the belief that women invent these types of stories. While it certainly crossed a moral boundary, it’s a common tactic in Survivor for players to badmouth a fellow contestant to make them a target. Furthermore, it should be acknowledged that Elizabeth’s lie was contained to the game itself - she was abundantly clear to viewers in her confessionals that she didn’t see Dan in that light. That hardly absolves her, but it should be a consideration.
Missy has also received a lot of hate, but from what was depicted on the show, Dan really had grabbed Missy and her discomfort seemed genuine. Yes, Missy later decided to switch her vote to Kellee, but that wasn’t based on what Dan had or hadn’t done; rather it was because she learned Kellee was actually targeting her. If Kellee has the right to decide to keep Dan, Missy definitely has the agency to overlook Dan this vote and protect her own neck, as well.
That’s when Elaine Stott - whose feelings on Dan were not articulated - made a strategic decision to tell Dan that his original tribemates/allies were ready to vote him out. She figured giving him the heads up would solidify him as a number on her own side, and she was correct. Again it’s a common tactic on Survivor to pick up an ostracized player, but it just feels worse when it puts someone like Dan in a better game position.
In the case of Janet Carbin, the decision to vote for Dan was anything but strategic. By her own admission, she got along well with Dan and didn’t even consider the move good for her own game, but hearing the concerns voiced by the younger women on the tribe made her think it was the right thing to do. When her tribe later surprised her by voting out Kellee instead, Janet felt ostracized by the very people who had convinced her that Dan was too shady to keep and the fans’ collective hearts definitely went out to her.
During the second tribal council of the night, Dan seemed irritated that host Jeff Probst would even bring up the accusations against him, but how could Probst not? At that point, the complaints were intrinsically tied to the previous vote. It’s complex adding that kind of thing into a strategic reality show, and it’s certainly not “fun” to watch, but it’s a reality these contestants were facing that could not be divorced from the gameplay.
Survivor: Island of the Idols airs Wednesdays at 8 pm EST on CBS.