For the people watching Survivor 45, it may be no surprise that Bruce Perreault was voted out in episode 10. He would’ve been voted out earlier, but he won two immunity challenges in a row. And if the season continues the way it has been, Jake O’Kane will probably be voted out in the next episode.
With that out of the way, what really stood out in “How Am I the Mobster?” was the moment Julie Alley, the 49-year-old estate attorney from Tennessee, broke the fourth wall — if that’s even a thing in reality TV.
At the very beginning of the show, Alley revealed that she did not sleep well and that she had pain in her neck. Then, in the confessional, she revealed that she couldn’t sleep because she didn’t like being deceptive.
“I am connecting with people — they’re trusting me — and I am lying to their face,” she said. “With both Kellie and Kendra, I was just devastated. They just wouldn’t even look at me. It felt so personal. The feeling of betrayal is hard for me. I am used to being very loyal and trustworthy, and you can count on me no matter what.”
She added that she doesn’t lie in real life and she didn’t realize how “powerful” of a position she’d be in as a trusting, mother-like figure. As the oldest player this season and a single mother, the other players refer to her as “Mama J.”
What else bothered her, as she explained, was that she’d have to continue to behave that way. “At some point, you gotta turn on each other. I almost can’t even go there. How do you vote them out and they love you,” she said. “I mean, are you kidding me?”
I found the moment fascinating because what she described was how her behavior conflicted with her values and those values are arguably universal. However, in the game of Survivor, deception is rewarded (and entertaining) and her conflict with it makes her a target.
Later in the episode, after the ladies in the game drank sangria, dined on a delicious yet nutritious meal, gossiped, and cried while talking about their relationships with each other and their mothers, everybody seemed to agree that someone as trusting and likable as “Mama J” could win the game, so she had to be voted out.
It was just another reminder that Survivor is a game show. It highlights 64 minutes out of a full day in the lives of everyday people trying to win a million dollars. And if they were all agreeable, they wouldn’t be fun to watch.
Watch Survivor on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. on CBS.
