The history of Survivor is filled with some iconic duos who dominated the game together, and very few of those duos are more fondly remembered than Parvati Shallow and Amanda Kimmel. Working alongside each other, the two ladies formed the Black Widow Brigade (alongside Cirie, Natalie and Alexis) and helped turn Micronesia into one of the most popular seasons in the history of the show. Unfortunately, the two apparently aren’t exactly exchanging Christmas cards these days.
Shallow recently wrote a memoir entitled Nice Girls Don't Win, and as part of the promotion, she’s been giving a lot of interviews about her personal life and her Survivor career. During a recent chat with US Magazine, she was asked about how things are with Amanda, and it’s bad news for fans hoping time has healed those wounds. Shallow said the two women “never really repaired” their relationship after Micronesia, and she thinks it likely has to do with hard feelings over how the season ended.
Shallow and Kimmel famously formed an alliance with some of the other women and started picking off the men one at a time. Eventually, the two ended up at Final Tribal Council together, pleading their case to win the show and a million dollars. The other three women from the Black Widow Brigade ultimately supported Parvati, helping her win a million dollars. Here’s a portion of her quote…
I loved Amanda. She and I had this very sweet friendship and people make edits of us together, and it makes me cry... It’s really hard to play Survivor multiple times when you’re young. It’s exceptionally hard to play Survivor back to back and lose in final Tribal Council [twice]. She’s an incredible gamer. For anyone it would be really difficult, and for us to have played so tightly together the whole time, and for me to win and her to lose and for her not to really understand why.
It’s reasonable to see that final vote as creating a rift between the two, but according to Shallow, that’s probably not the only reason for the rift. Kimmel left the island dating fellow contestant and Survivor legend in his own right Ozzy Lusth. During the early part of the season, Parvati is quite clearly close with Amanda and Ozzy, but after the merge, she saw an opportunity and organized Cirie, Alexis and Natalie to blindside Ozzy without Amanda’s approval. The two women kept working together, but there was clearly distrust after that.
Here’s another quote from Parvati on that part of it…
She had Ozzy who was not a fan of mine because I’d blindsided him. She and I grew apart at that time. I think there was also a little, ‘Why her, not me?’ And Ozzy was sort of the constellation prize. She and I never really repaired our relationship and when we played Heroes vs. Villains, she was a hero and I was a villain, and were at odds again. It was a bummer because I think she’s really special. She’s really good at Survivor. I wish she was on season 50.
Shallow isn’t the only one wishing Kimmel was on Survivor 50. The much-hyped all-stars season which is currently filming in Fiji is bringing back 24 former players of varying quality. Amanda was heavily rumored to be apart of the cast but allegedly dropped out at the last minute, much to the disappointment of fans who wanted to see her return for the first time since the aforementioned Heroes Vs Villains, which aired all the way back in 2010.
Shallow isn’t on the season either, as she wasn’t asked to return (it’s mostly non-winners), but Ozzy is coming back for another round. It would have been amazing to see him play alongside Amanda one more time. It’s unclear what the relationship is like between those two, as they have long since broken up, but fans certainly would have enjoyed seeing the dynamic play out.
Regardless, Parvati and Amanda will always be an iconic duo, whether they’re best friends or not. The two (along with some other great characters) helped create one of the most beloved and iconic seasons in the history of the show. It’s near impossible to find a best of list without Micronesia on there, just as it’s nearly impossible to find a list of the best and most popular players in the show’s history that doesn’t feature both Amanda and Parvati.
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