Fridge / Survivor

• Fridge Brilliance:
  • The rope-cutting challenge. In this challenge, players systemically eliminate others from the competition by cutting their ropes upon answering questions right. Intuitively, players will target the people they do not want to win Immunity first, essentially announcing their targets to evict from the game next. Then they cut off the ropes for their number two threat and vice versa. If a player does well enough, they don't target a couple people, and it's pretty easy to assume that the people they are not targeting are people they want to win immunity. Essentially, it's a trap to force players to reveal their targets and alliances, and this was what sealed the fate for John's alliance in Marquesas, because Vecepia, Pascal, Kathy, Neleh, and Sean saw them get eliminated and immediately realized the four were in an alliance.
  • Why did Caryn decide to pick Willard, an older man, over Jonathan, a younger, more athletic man, in Palau? Because Willard was a weak older man who could be a scapegoat if they went to tribal council, and he would probably be voted out over her. Sure enough, he was the first person voted out of Koror when they eventually did have to go to Tribal Council, and Caryn ended up making final five.
  • Chase and Sash's decision to eliminate Jane over the easy-to-beat-Dan was actually Fabio's idea; Chase and Sash had just made it their own. When Chase and Sash mistakenly told Jane they were voting her out to her face, Fabio was smiling at this because he essentially tricked them into revealing their alliance.
  • The blindside of the Four Horsemen in Fiji was an amazing plan was actually brought about in part by Fridge Brilliance. Dreamz had told the other five that they had the idol and that Alex or Mookie was going to play it so they would force the others to lose their advantage. Stacey and Earl then suggested they voted for Edgardo, since their plan was expecting the five to vote for Alex or Mookie since they knew for sure that Edgardo wouldn't play the idol. They then decided not to tell Dreamz about it so he would think they were voting for Mookie; so a throwaway vote was cast for Mookie while Edgardo was voted out in a 5-3-1, making one of the most epic blindsides ever.
  • In the time when alliances were unethical, Sean's "Alphabet strategy" actually isn't as stupid, since his Alphabet strategy basically meant that most of the Pagong tribe would be the first people he voted for; so essentially he wasn't making any alliances.
  • If one looks at the cast for South Pacific, they can see that the cast has a lot more Ascended Fanboys/Ascended Fangirls than previous seasons. Why? Well, this season was the first one to be filmed after Purple Kelly and NaOnka quit in Nicaragua. Given the uproar that the double-quit caused among the crowd of people that enjoyed the show and had been applying for it time and again, it's very likely that this is the producers' way of apologizing for the quitting.
    • Whenever people quit and don't commit Suicide by Cop; people generally really hate you. A lot of people agree with Jeff that it's very rude to just "quit" because you "can't take it anymore" like Kelly and Naokna did.
  • Say what you will about Fairplay, talking Sandra and Lillian into voting out Darrah over him was actually a very good move for him to get into the final two. Anyone who had seen the show by that point (or had sat through a couple complete seasons) would have known the final immunity was always an endurance challenge; and aside from himself, Darrah was the most physically fit to win that. So by getting rid of Darrah, he would compete for final immunity against a scoutmaster who would constantly screw up and was at the time 51 years old and a woman who hadn't won a single challenge all game and wasn't physically strong. And that's what made Lillian's come-from-behind final immunity so much more of a Moment of Awesome, since nobody expected ''her to do that.
  • Jenna Lewis and Gervase Peterson did way better in their second attempt in the game than the former Tagis. Why? Because they know what it's like to be in the losing end (aka Pagonged). They even joined a very tight alliance to ensure it. Both of them placed 3rd eventually, as well.
  • In Blood vs. Water, Rupert and Candice were the first two inhabitants of Redemption Island. Before the merge, their spouses were the last two people eliminated. Also, the first and last jury members are previous winners. The season loves the Book Ends/Ironic Echo trope way too much.
  • When Tyson was a mormon, he served in the Philippines for two years. When he finally won the game, guess which country the season was held?
  • In Heroes vs. Villains, the Heroes excel at physical challenges, but the Villains trounce the heroes in terms of puzzle solving. The Villains are known for being strategic masterminds, so it makes sense that they would do better in challenges that have a cerebral element to them.
  • The winner of Heroes vs Villains was a villain who was actively working against all the (remaining) villains. Say what you will about the outcome, but it's fitting how the winner was essentially an Anti-Villain rather than a straight-cut hero or villain. It shows that to win Survivor, you need a balance between being well-liked (hero) and cunning strategy (villain).
  • If Survivor Superfans do well in all original players seasons (Ex would be Rob Cesternino), they why do they do so bad in Fans vs Favorites? They're starstruck
  • In Island of the Idols, Episode 3 had a very weird scene where Karishma cut her hand, and aside from Dean briefly checking on her, nobody else came to her. At first, it seemed to be to initially portray Karishma as whiny that nobody came to check on her - but come the Merge Episode, those same people who didn't check on her ended up supporting a man who sexually harassed various girls - after they had exaggerated about their own incidences with him - by voting out one of the girls he harassed, throwing the person who was trying to help them under the bus, and telling the man that he did nothing wrong. And in that same episode, Karishma was the only one of her old tribe voting for him. In hindsight, the aforementioned scene in Episode 3 wasn't meant to show Karishma as whiny, but rather just how much her tribe lacked empathy.
  • Matt in the Amazon is infamous for his Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant behavior most notably when the other castaways are unnerved by Matt's constant sharpening of the machete for hours at a time. This is treated as a sign of Sanity Slippage however, there is a probable explanation. A dull blade is significantly more hazardous than a sharp blade and given that Matt has a background in restaurants it would make sense that he knew this. As for why he spends so long sharpening the machete- a closer inspection shows that he's using the whetstone wrong and thus it's taking him forever to make any progress.
  • If one thinks about it, Tony is the perfect person to become the champion of Winners At War due to all the winners' strategies. Most of them are cold and calculating and their gameplay is based around getting people to vote the way they want to. Tony, on the other hand, is known for being a wild and erratic player and thus, is the one blind spot that the other winners would want to vote out...yet they can't, because Tony's wild behavior hides a very strong mind, so while everyone is trying to make sense of Tony so that they can get him to vote they want, Tony is getting everyone to vote his way.
• Fridge Logic:
  • How come more people don't learn how to make fire? (Reality Show Genre Blindness)
    • Lampshaded by Jane of Nicaragua and Reed of San Juan del Sur.
  • It's assumed the Purple Rock is still done outside the final four specifically to scare people into flipping.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Kourtney got evacuated on day three from a horrible wrist injury. In a later medical examination, a grapefruit sized tumour was found in her abdomen and despite it being there during filming, she showed essentially no symptoms. Yikes!
  • Ethan has a reputation as being one of the most charitable winners after being inspired by exploring a local village as part of a reward. Among the causes he has supported over the years happened to be a cancer fighting drug that ended up saving his life. If Ethan didn't win survivor or possibly if Ethan didn't win that specific reward then there's a good chance that he wouldn't still be alive.
  • Players like Elizabeth in the Australian Outback and Erik in Caramoan finding out about a previously diagnosed medical condition in the worst way possible.