Survivor: Kaoh Rong - Season Preview
Part 3 - The Brawn Tribe
By Jim Van Nest
February 18, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Ok, enough about crazy idols, let's get to The Brawn tribe. They will be called To Tang and they'll be donning yellow buffs this time around. Here they are:
Alecia Holden - The first member of Brawn is 23-year-old Alecia. She sells real estate and considers herself a tomboy and an adrenaline junkie. Her list of crazy activities would support that - bungee Jumping, base jumping off the Stratosphere, hang gliding, etc. I'm not getting a real good vibe from her. She doesn't like bossy people, people who think they're right all the time and uptight people...which pretty much describes 80% of Survivor players. If they bother her that much, she could have a rough time. And if she thrives on adrenaline, I can't imagine how she'll handle 20-22 hours of absolute nothing and boredom every day.
She worries that her temper might get the best of her. And at the end of the day, she says "at the end of the day" at least five times in her two minute video. That's enough to drive anyone to drink. Her dad was a boxing promoter, so she's been around the ring all her life. I'm not sure how that translates to Survivor, but she mentions it several times, so it seems important. You can probably guess already that I'm not an Alecia fan. Also, I don't think she's long for this game. The one thing going for her is that if history repeats itself, the Brawn tribe will not be heading to Tribal anytime soon. If they do, though, I would fully expect Alecia to be one of the opening targets.
Cydney Gillon - Ok, I honestly have no idea what to say here. Cydney seems okay right off the bat. She's a body builder, so that's kinda cool. I worry for her in that regard, as body builders eat a ton of calories every day. They have to for the kind of training they do. I wonder how she'll do when she's only getting a teeny fraction of what she's used to. Could it cause her to be sick? Will she get pissy and be hard to deal with? She tells us she doesn't really like other girls much, so will she find herself on the outs there? Where she completely loses me is when she starts talking about her other personalities. So, aside from Cydney, we have to be prepared for Rebecca and Storm. Here's what I say about this - should Brawn hit a losing streak, expect Cydney, Rebecca and Storm to be hitting Ponderosa early. The only way she makes the merge is if her tribe stays away from Tribal Council.
Darnell Hamilton - Darnell is an interesting cat. He's from Chicago and he grew up in the projects. Not that living in the projects makes him interesting, but taking a kid from the projects and throwing him into a tropical beach and jungle situation could be interesting. He could thrive out here in the sun, or the rough conditions of Cambodia could be too much for him. I honestly don't know which way he'll go. What I do know is that the guy seems to have a lot of determination and a lot of people telling him he can't do this and he won't make it. That's a HUGE motivator right there and it might just be enough to carry him through for a while I don't see Darnell as a big threat to win the game, but I do see him as someone who will definitely make the merge and then it'll depend on alliances and his social game.
Jennifer Lanzetti - Next up is contractor Jennifer. She's been in the contracting/construction business for almost 20 years. Another tomboy likes to hang out with men - but she loves the women in construction. They tell it like it is and they don't mess around. Her biggest concern is the weather. She doesn't like to be cold and wet when she sleeps. Uh oh. Huge red flags on this one. The weather for Second Chance was terrible and word around the campfire is that this season's weather is even worse. If that's the case, Jennifer could be in for some long nights.
Other than the weather thing, I think she actually has a decent resume and skill set for the game. As a contractor, she should be instrumental in building a shelter. As long as the boys let her play, that is. She's in great shape, comes across as very sharp and compares herself to Kim Spradlin. First off, probably not - Kim's one of the best of the best. But the fact that she didn't compare herself to Parvati is a step in the right direction for ANY female contestant. Provided she doesn't get tripped up by the weather, I think Jennifer has a shot to make some noise in this game. She'll make the merge and then some. How far she gets will likely hinge more on her relationships then her brains, brawn or beauty.
Kyle Jason - Now THIS is what I'm talkin' about! I love this guy. If not for Tai Trang, Kyle Jason would be my Survivor 32 crush. Tattoos (several of them military), huge ear gauges and "bounty hunter" listed as his profession are just a couple of reasons I like this dude. First off, he served several years in the military, overseas in battle. He served as security for companies over in Afghanistan and now he works as a private investigator and bounty hunter. People are gonna look at him and think, "What the hell is this guy?"
But he's not just beard and ink. Dude has some smarts to him. He mentions in his video that he's fine with people lying, but he can't handle stupid lies or stupid in general. I can totally relate to this. It was like So Kim's lie on Worlds Apart - "the neutral bag"? Really? You don't deserve to go home for lying; you deserve to go home for telling the dumbest lie in the history of Survivor. But I digress... There are a couple things I don't like about Kyle. First, the man bun. Dude. Just don't. Second, he lists Russell Hantz as the Survivor he's the most like, because Russell is one of the only people to play the game right. Where's Kimmi again? "No, Pumpkin, no." All that aside, I can still get on board with a Kyle Jason run to the end. Not sure if I'll pick him as my winner, but he's in the discussion in my head.
Scot Pollard - Our last castmate is 6'11", 310 pound former NBA Champion, Scot Pollard. Last time on BvBvB, the stunt casting was NBA star "Uncle" Cliff Robinson. He was seen as a threat and dumped pre-merge. Scot has an interesting take on how to handle his time in the NBA. He's just gonna tell everyone about it. Other than Jimmy Johnson, any other sports star/celebrity on the show has tried to keep their past a secret. Gary Hogeboom was Gary Hawkins. Jeff Kent was a rancher. Lisa Whelchel was a stay-at-home mom. Well, Scot doesn't see any reason to lie and when you're as huge as he is, it probably wouldn't work anyway.
Other than the NBA thing, Scot doesn't give us a lot in his bio or his video. He's concerned that people will see him as rich, because he has NBA money. He's interested to see if he can test that theory and move beyond it and have a legit chance to win. I don't think his money situation will hurt him. I think the fact that he's massive will. I don't expect him to be a challenge beast, but he will be a force to be reckoned with on some of the early team challenges. Where he could end up in trouble is on the challenges that require quickness or even smallness to succeed. Also, when people are starving, sometimes it's as simple as "he's the biggest guy out here and he eats too much, and I'm really frickin' hungry, so he has to go." I think Scot has a merge game in him, but I'm not sure he'll go too much farther than that.
Wow, can you believe it? That's everyone! To recap the Brawn tribe, I think Alecia and Cydney are going to have problems while Jennifer and Kyle have some staying power and could make deep runs in this game. And with that in mind, it's time for me to make some predictions. Before I do, I should note that these predictions are based solely on the CBS videos and the official Bios up at CBS.com. I know no spoilers and have read no other prediction columns. This is all based on my own observations from seasons of the past and the parts of the pre-game interviews that CBS decided to share with us.
Without any further ado, the people I mentioned that I think will do well in the game from the three tribes are Jennifer and Kyle from Brawn, Caleb and Anna from Beauty and Joseph, Elizabeth and maybe Debbie from Brains making some noise. As of now, I'm getting really good feelings about Kyle, Elizabeth and Anna. And even though I don't care for his alter-ego, I'm going to include Caleb in my predicted Final 4. I think he'll be the one to go out leaving a final three of Anna, Kyle and Elizabeth. And when all is said and done, I think I have to go with the Bounty Hunter for the win. Kyle Jason - congratulations, my friend. You can pick up your million dollar check from Jeff Probst on Finale Night in Los Angeles. Spend it wisely, my man.
And with that, I think I'm done here. Please come back every week to check out the weekly recap and as always, if you have any comments, complaints, questions or anything else, you can reach me on Twitter: @vannestjc. 'Til next time, kids...take care!