Most people weren’t terribly surprised that Aubry ended up with the most jury votes during the Survivor 50 finale. She was getting the winner's edit for awhile, but that doesn’t mean everyone agreed with the decision. Jonathan, who was on the wrong side of the 8 to 3 vote but the right side of that fire-making spoiler, was one of those people.
He’s been open during his exit press about how he thinks he did enough to win the game, and at times, he’s even been pretty direct about his frustrations with the jury. At least one legend of the game, however, doesn’t have a ton of sympathy for him.
An excerpt of Jonathan’s interview with longtime Survivor writer Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly was posted on social media in which he talked about how he’s not sure what to take away from his loss. He speculated that he lost, not because he played a worse game but because Aubry has such a storied history with Survivor. You can read a portion of his quote below…
I don't know what I'm learning because I believe deep in my heart that I played the better game. I know I did. But because Aubry's played five times, that weighed on a lot of the jury votes. And is that fair? That's up to the fans and up to Survivor to decide. But if that's a jury, then I'm confused, you know?
The fan response to his loss and subsequent comments has been mixed. Many did not appreciate his connection to the so-called Honor and Integrity alliance and openly rooted against him during the season. On the whole, that group of fans are happy he lost and feel like he deserved to finish second. Others, especially more casual fans of the show who care about challenges and the more physical elements of the game, however, are still shocked he lost. They feel like Aubry mostly coasted in the background for most of the game and ultimately won because she had more friends on the jury.
Survivor 50 is isn’t exactly the first season where people are asking questions about the jury. Aubry herself knows that from her first loss to Michele in Kaoh Rong, and there are plenty of other former castaways who lost a vote they feel they should have won. Russell Hantz is a good example of that.
The multi-time finalist absolutely dominated his first trip out in Samoa, pushing almost all of the strategy, but he only picked up two jury votes and lost decisively to Natalie White. The next season, he came back out in Heroes vs Villains, and while he didn’t dominate to the same degree, he was still an absolute force and pushed his way into Final Tribal Council again. This time, he got a grand total of zero votes and lost decisively to winner Sandra Diaz-Twine and second placer Parvati Shallow.
Not surprisingly, he doesn’t exactly have a ton of sympathy for Jonathan and made his views clear on social media…
At least you were beat by someone that played the game… just saying buddy
Now, who exactly Russell is talking about here is unclear. We know he’s at least talking about Natalie on Samoa. Russell has been very open in ranting about how he felt like she didn’t deserve to win because she was too passive. He’s never been shy about that opinion.
His views on Sandra have waffled a bit over the years. She’s, of course, one of only two multi-time winners in the history of the game. He’s had some nice things to say about her abilities in the past, but he’s also been critical of her play style, feeling like she coasts and plays a more social-friendly game that endears her to the jury without controlling enough votes. Maybe he was talking about Natalie. Maybe he was talking about both.
Either way, I don’t think Aubry’s win and Jonathan’s loss is going to go down as one of the more egregious examples of a bitter jury. Unlike Charlie a few seasons ago, Jonathan’s closest allies (Coach, Chrissy and Stephenie) actually voted for him. Unlike Russell during Samoa, Jonathan wasn’t overwhelmingly the main character and catalyst for every single thing that happened. Ultimately, he played a good game but lost to someone else who made a few good moves and had more friends on the jury. That’s a tale as old as Survivor.
