Swiftie Survivor

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I know I’m going to regret this but much like Charlie from Survivor 46 I have fallen into the Swiftie realm and this week in my hometown of Tay-ronto the craze got too much for me to resist. So here it is, every castaway who made the jury, including this week’s boot, and their associated Taylor Swift Era. Forgive me, Swiftie overlords.

*And for those who are less into this, Taylor Swift’s record setting tour, The Eras Tour, is coming to a close in under a month after starting in March 2023. The show covers all of her “Eras”, or albums, which each have a distinct feeling or story. Here we go.

Debut: Kyle

• Debut, Taylor’s self-titled first album, is about innocence, youth, and country roots. Kyle is from Cheboyan, Michigan, with a population of under 5000. He gives country through and through. Kyle isn’t necessarily young, but he does give a touch of innocence that’s endearing. Before the season, he referred to himself as a blue collar boy, and said he’d do anything for a million dollars. This is just like Taylor’s self-titled debut. She was entering the music industry innocent and ready to do what it took to make it to the top and find A Place In This World.

Fearless: Caroline

• Fearless, Taylor’s second album, is about optimism, love, and adventure. Caroline has a Fearless type attitude. No matter what happens, she has a positivity filter. Genevieve comes up with a plan to take out Sierra? She gives kudos. Rachel lands an unlikely tile on the tower? Caroline can’t help but compliment her. While others might be overwhelmed by the stress of winning Survivor, or by making the merge with the majority (or the success of their debut album), Caroline is optimistic and always having The Best Day. Fearless has a lot of fairytale imagery and Caroline’s approach is giving Disney princess.

Speak Now: Sue

• Speak Now, is about empowerment, reflection, and storytelling. Sue, the pilot, was worried about people in the game seeing her as too capable. And Taylor wrote Speak Now all on her own. It’s about reflecting and truly being yourself. As the oldest woman to ever win immunity, Sue screams empowerment. One thing she could get better at is reflection. The players see through her lies about her age and about finding the idol. If Sue just embraced who she was, like Taylor did in Speak Now, she might have a better chance to win it all at the end instead of having her name mentioned as a target over and over. Taylor writes about her newfound stardom. While Sue was prominent in the pre-merge, if she wants to be a star and make the endgame, she’ll need to assuage those targeting her by becoming more radio-friendly, or just generally affable, like Speak Now’s “Mine” and “Back to December”.

Red: Teeny

• Red’s themes are passion, heartache, and intensity. Teeny not only started on Lavo, the red tribe, but they are Red through and through. Teeny was heartbroken about Sierra, heartbroken about Sol, and is probably going to be heartbroken about the next person to go. Teeny is playing this game with full-out passion and it’s fun to see someone playing with such strong emotions and intensity. Red is about lost love and Teeny has experienced losing someone they loved twice now. Genevieve knew she’d be losing Teeny if she took out Sol so don’t be surprised to see Teeny singing, “We are never ever ever getting back together,” to their former ally, Genevieve.

1989: Andy

• 1989 is about freedom, self-discovery, and city life. Andy grew up in Buffalo and made his way to Brooklyn to live in NYC. Like Taylor did in 1989, he is living it up in the city and discovering the gamer that he is. Andy’s hair is out, the glasses are off, and he doesn’t hesitate to take out his enemies. Band-aids don’t fix bullet holes because you could try to make up with Andy, but he’ll remember how you treated him in the pre-merge. Just like Taylor made her full transition from country to pop in 1989, Andy has Shaken it Off from his early-game challenges to becoming a strategic force with Style in the merge. He is living his Wildest Dreams.

Reputation: Genevieve

• Reputation covers identity, revenge, resilience, and the limelight. Genevieve told us she was petty this week and she showed it by spearheading Sol’s vote out. “Look what you made me do,” Genevieve tells her enemies, by writing down their names. Although she is the ice queen ready to take out her closest allies at a moment’s notice, she also has a softer side. Reputation has a couple of pure love songs, and Genevieve has shown her kindness by picking up cast-off players like Rome and Andy. She knows who she is, just like Taylor does on Reputation, and depending on how you treat her she’ll take you out or take you in. The question is, will her rep as a gamer catch up to her at any point? She just has to keep saying Don’t Blame Me.

Lover: Sol

• Lover is about, well, love, romance, and acceptance. Sol is an easy one. Sometimes someone does something delicious or devious on a show and we admire them. We recognize that regular basic human decency can be thrown out the window on a cutthroat show for a million bucks. And then Sol displays patience, grace, and all-around charm and people adored it. No one ever told him, “You need to calm down.” Lover is about love and acceptance and Sol showed that. He gave Rachel the advantage and owned it to her. And then when he was ousted he walked out with class. Sol is The Man!

Folklore: Gabe

• Folklore is about storytelling, nostalgia, introspection, and escapism. In Folklore, Taylor Swift tells stories that aren’t about her. I get the sense that Gabe is doing the same. Inside the game, he is playing pretty straightforward, sticking with Caroline and Sue from the jump. In confessionals, he talks his trash and acts the villain. Gabe is a storyteller, leaning into the experience of being on Survivor. He is living out the dream and honoring his heroes, like Ray Lewis, as he embraces the camp of it all. He knows who he is and he is also having a good time playing someone else, this villain character as a sort of Hoax. While other folks might see the exaggerated confessionals, if you look closely at Gabe’s camp conversations, he actually has a ton of emotional depth and chooses his words, or lyrics carefully, just like Taylor does in Folklore.

Evermore: Sam

• Evermore covers reflection, nature, and storytelling. Sam is our Evermore, where Taylor was inspired to keep writing after Folklore. In a moment of reflection, she decided to just keep writing through the pandemic. Unlike Gabe, who held onto his numbers, Sam lost his number one, Sierra. He invested time and energy into her and now he is left with the question: can he come back from this? Can he keep going? He recognizes his place in the game and is telling that story, talking about causing chaos and making big moves while Tolerating It out of the loop. Sam has the variety of Evermore, playing from the top and now the bottom. Let’s see if, in this Evermore-ian character study, he can still reach number one like Taylor did to get his Closure.

Midnights: Rachel

• Midnights includes themes of introspection, sleepless nights, fantasies, and personal thoughts. It’s really about Taylor overcoming challenges in her life. Rachel started her game with sleepless nights caused by Andy. It feels like they’re constantly heading for a breakup, or a vote-out, like Swift and Joe Alwyn, but it never happens (at least not before Midnights/the last episode dropped). Like this album, tragedy is always waiting to strike and it just misses: Anika gets voted out over Rachel, Sierra is the Gata who gets booted, and Rachel just manages to avoid losing her vote in the last round. She started the season as a kind of Anti-Hero before Sierra, Sam, and Andy blindsided her saying, “You’re On Your Own Kid”. And now she has this poppy, positive energy as she fights back against the lows. It’ll be interesting to see whether the heartbreak finds her asking if she “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” or if she has a happy ending as the Mastermind.

The Tortured Poets Department: Sierra

• The Tortured Poets Department has stories about breaking up, disappearing love, and storytelling. For Sierra, it seemed like she had it all. She was in the best position on Gata; she narrated a lot of the pre-merge, and she was ready for it all. And then, heartbreak. All her Gata members disappeared on her. Much like Matty Healy turned on Taylor, Andy turned on Sierra. And while she and Sam felt like they were destined to go to Final Tribal Council, and it felt So High School, they didn’t make it there. Now as the first member of the jury, she has a chance to recover. Much like Taylor found love and hope with Travis Kelce, Sierra will have the opportunity to find her meaning in the game by making a major impact on the season as the queen of Ponderosa.

Well, this got out of hand and now I am the one who needs to calm down. Thanks for reading.

-Kevin

Kevin Jacobs is the winner of Big Brother Canada 10, a film buff, and a tech nerd. Follow him everywhere @kevintedjacobs.

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