Xander would have been a Bottom 5 winner. Made a lot of mistakes and was often clueless about social dynamics, etc. He also got to coast on the season’s super powerful ideas due to the shitty twist publicly revealing them.
But Erica just plain sucked and anybody arguing for her win on the internet never gives actual specifics as to what she did. Usually it’s “Xander lost because..” which is outright nonsense. I think the fact that a woman hadn’t won the previous six seasons was the kicker here (although a woman wins Ben’s season without the firestarting challenge and Natalie or Sarah wins Season 40 without one). Therefore, there’s no doubt in my mind that Heather also wins the $1 million if she makes it to final tribal council.
Erica’s social/strategic game was so shit that it made her an insta-target so that her own tribemates attempted throwing a challenge to get her out. She was then going to be first out at the merge and was saved by the dumbest, most time-wasting twist in the history of the show. Jeff: “Would you rather be immune or not? LOL.”
Then there’s Evvie, Shan and Ricard who collectively are somehow three of the most egotistical players in the history of the franchise. Within five minutes of being out there, they were all bragging about being masterminds. Evvie literally said on the show she wanted to stack the jury with women so a woman can win. Ricard is a gay man married to a trans man. Shan literally was willing to throw her game in the trash for an alliance based on skin color. It was literally the most biased, agenda-setting jury in the history of the show.
We then saw Erica make no real big plays of her own and even fell into a trap of beefing with Heather that another player set up and even exposed her own shitty firemaking skills AFTER Xander informed her he was bringing her to the end. We then saw no brilliant tribal council performance from her, no reasoning given by her or the jury as to the bullet points for why she deserved victory.
The whole thing reminds me of the first four seasons of Survivor: South Africa where the person who did fuck-all defeats the season’s best strategist simply because most of the jurors consider it a moral crime to have someone vote you out. An absolute joke.
Seriously, we’ve had shitty winners due to weak final tribal council Final 2/3 or a winner that raised eyebrows over who they beat. But everytime there was plenty of explanation for the WHY of it. This jury mostly had nothing but good things to say about Xander on a personal level which gives even more evidence that the fix was in.
Also, the whole “underdog” storyline for Erica is so fucking dumb. Do you know what group has the highest college graduation rates, makes the most money in the cities when young and has the highest match rates on dating sites? Asian women. You know who has a much more generous social safety net including guaranteed healthcare? Canadians. You know who makes a shit ton more money than anyone else in her season and is with a white guy? Erica. Sorry, but the facts aren’t ignorable. Erica’s literally the top of the food chain in 2021, not an underdog.
Like looking at a bunch of 73 year old CEOs and going “lots of white dudes!” has fuck all to do with the situation for young people now and going forward. For example, college entrance rates for white men is now exactly the same as for black and latino men in the United States. And it’s actually LOWER for white men who come from working class families! This fucking application of skin-tone and gender while ignoring class is so fucking dumb, just as is the idea that giving the Presidency or a CEO job to a woman and/or POC will do anything for the marginalized members of the working class.
Regardless, I’m enjoying Season 42 immensely. No big egos yet and I just don’t get a bitter jury vibe from any of these people.
