Survivor Final 5 Analysis: Parvati Shallow

Game play

Parvati Shallow didn’t make much of a splash on her first season, as her alliance completely underestimated their opponents and found themselves making the walk of shame one by one. On Fans vs Favorites, we saw her come into her own and win it all. That transition from just another pretty face to the Black Widow of Survivor, meant that Parvati came into this season with a huge target on her back. Now, she has a chance to be the first contestant to win Survivor twice.

Parvati bonded with Russell early on at the Villains tribe, and they found themselves down in numbers against the alliance of Boston Rob Mariano. They turned that situation around with a combination of strong strategic game play from Russell and strong social game play from Parvati and Daneille Dilorenzo. The three would work together as the tribes merged, using Hidden Immunity Idols as well, until their alliance took control of the game. Russell is the main strategist in the alliance, with Parvati as his sounding board and co-conspirator. Parvati was willing to keep secrets from Russell and that independence, as much as anything else, started the break-up of their Alliance. One too many secrets, one too many affronts to Russell’s ego and the plan for the three to make it to the end started to come apart.

Now Parvati has to be aware of the threat her reputation as a player who is great in front of the Jury presents to her making the Final Three. Her path to the Final Three isn’t clear, and her chances of victory would be better if Colby and Sandra didn’t join her there, but if she can make it to the Final Three she has a good chance to win.

Chance to Make the Final Tribal Council - 39%

Of the five remaining Survivors, Colby has to be at the top of the list for Elimination, but Parvati is a very close second. Unlike Colby, the danger Parvati represents is entirely based on her game play, her ability to convince a Jury and what she’s done in the game so far. Parvati does have ties to both Sandra and Jerri, which should keep her safe at the Final 5 tribal council if Colby doesn’t win immunity. While Russell may be willing to vote her out at that point, Sandra knows Colby must go and Jerri should see it that way. This is a sticky point for Parvati because Jerri could be the swing vote in that event and Jerri has swung the way Russell wanted her to in every case so far. In the previews for this episode, we got a soundbite of Jerri stating that she had all the power, that could be her caught between Russell/Colby and Sandra/Parvati.

If Parvati can get to the Top 4, she faces her biggest challenge. Russell has stated that he would prefer not to have Parvati in the Finals, and Sandra is a smart enough player to know that if Colby is gone, Parvati is the only player that might beat her. To make the Final Three Parvati will have to find some way to play to Russell’s ego, or she will need to win the Final Immunity challenge. Parvati is tough, has good balance and is athletic so we give her a slightly better than one third chance to save herself with an immunity challenge win. She gets a few extra points for the chance that she might manipulate Russell into keeping her safe.

Chance to Win - 40%

If Parvati gets to the Final Tribal Council, and Colby is not there, Parvati should be able to win. Parvati, we’ve seen before, is good in front of a Jury: she doesn’t get hostile when she faces aggressive questions, she’s able to give ego-soothing answers that don’t sound sycophantic, and she can make legitimate claim to having made key moves either personally or through her alliance. Her reputation as a previous winner makes it easier for the other players to respect her game play, and she can make good arguments to back them up. Finally, while people may accuse Parvati of lots of things, they all acknowledge that her sweet / flirtatious nature makes it easy to get along with her. You might smack yourself in the forehead later and wonder why you listened to that devil girl… but you still listen to her.

Personally, we think Parvati’s strongest talent in the Final Tribal Council scenarios is her ability to make you laugh with her about the fact that she beat you. She does a very good job of reminding people that it’s just a game with moments of frivolity, and she’s just gotten a little farther than you did, by a mix of luck and skill. The impact of that easy attitude, that lets people be okay about losing to her, cannot be underestimated.

Ideal Final Tribal Council

We’ve said this for several contestants, but Jerri / Russell are the ideal people for Parvati to bring to the Final tribal council. Colby will beat her if he’s there, and Sandra who she could possibly beat, certainly represents a threat that should be avoided if she can.

We think Parvati would be able to beat anyone but Colby if she had to, and that would make her our favorite to win… if every other castaway wasn’t aware of that fact.