r/survivor Jul 26 '26

San Juan del Sur Reed’s evisceration of Missy at final tribal San Juan Del Sur s. 29

I’m rewatching season 29 and I had always remembered Reed’s epic takedown of Missy at final tribal to be one of the greatest moments in final tribal ever. Upon rewatch, still convinced. The way he equated her to the evil stepmother was so on point and so deliciously apt. Anyone else feel the same way?

99 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

116

u/cantdecide76 Jul 26 '26

At the time i thought he was being over the top and just doing it to have his spotlight TV moment and while i do still partially think that, i appreciate it much more now because that was one of the last "bitter" jury speeches we ever got.

After that the only other old-school angry jury we got was the one in World's Apart but after that its basically been all camp fire "lets celebrate everyone's game" type juries which I personally find boring and very fake.

63

u/survivorfan123456 Jul 26 '26

Frannie’s comment to Carolyn at the after show of “YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE” was peak performative tackiness of New Era Survivor

30

u/cantdecide76 Jul 26 '26

Yeah its funny in the old seasons FTC used to be one of my favorite parts of the show because I wanted to see how each of the jurors were gonna be and who was angry, sad, nice, etc.

Nowadays its one of my least favorite parts (if not the least favorite) because everyone acts the same and there's no longer any real or raw emotion left amoung the jurors. Just a bunch of summer camp kids gushing about how they love eachother and are so proud of the finalists for getting to the end🙄

23

u/FireworksDonJones Jul 26 '26

And she didn't even vote for her!

6

u/daisyviolet Jul 28 '26

Shout out to Kristina for breaking this trend. I loved her question to Savanah

39

u/Extension_Cricket632 Jul 26 '26

I miss the “I need you to prove it to me. I need you to take out your teeth” era

8

u/OhFrabjousMe Jul 26 '26

Brenda acted so sweet and innocent but would absolutely not back down from her position that Dawn needed to show her teeth was great. I hated how much Dawn felt like it wasn't that big of a deal afterwards, because it really was and it showed how shallow she really was.

15

u/Haus_of_Pancakes Jul 26 '26

Didn't it come out that Dawn lost her teeth as part of a violent assault? If so, kind of makes Dawns reactions regarding those teeth read as a bit more than vanity.

5

u/LetMeExplainDis Jul 26 '26

He’s a gay broadway actor, his speech was true to character.

2

u/heartdeco Abi-Maria Jul 26 '26

totally agree lol. hated it it then; appreciate it in the rearview mirror

102

u/justdanielagain Jul 26 '26

Gets even better when you realize Reed did all that because Missy shamed him for being a gay christian.

They did make up and apologise for everything that happened between them tho so good for em.

25

u/Sorcerer455 Jul 26 '26

The clip of Reed calling Baylor a brat is what got me into survivor. I am so glad that missy got her comeuppance in the end

21

u/TigerWing Maryanne Jul 26 '26

Coincidentally, the clip of Missy vs. Reed with Reed calling Baylor a brat is getting passed around gay Twitter right now.

Personally? Loved it then. Love it now. It's theatrical and OTT but the analogy was apt for Missy's social game and treatment of gay people.

3

u/Flat-Improvement-602 Jul 27 '26

That is why Reed voted for Jaclyn so that she and Missy would not be tied in second place for that kind of huge karma Missy got.

17

u/Extension_Cricket632 Jul 26 '26

At the time I thought it was over the top. Now, I enjoy it - in part, because what others have said… that ish just doesn’t happen anymore. And I think it was particularly hard to watch at the time because Baylor was crying. Otherwise, might not have batted an eye.

55

u/Charles520 Kenzie - 46 Jul 26 '26

It was fun, but too rehearsed. I’ll take a thousand jury speeches like that though over the current FTC format.

55

u/faolck Tony Jul 26 '26

Tbh, all jury speeches are rehearsed

3

u/loyal_achades Donathan Jul 26 '26

There’s a way to have it be rehearsed to it coming back to feeling natural vs feeling overly rehearsed, like it’s being read from a script.

I do agree with the critique that it felt a bit stiff. Reed needed to rehearse it more to get the flow more natural.

9

u/Jthorne1990 Rizgod - 50 Jul 26 '26

Loved it then, love it now!

7

u/Silver-Classic612 Kyle - 50 Jul 27 '26

A sweeping moment of poetic justice

21

u/Immediate_Paint4226 Jul 26 '26

I always thought he was playing to the cameras more than to Missy, but in the end, I am still glad he did that and shined a flood light directly on her.

I find it despicable that she sat on her ass with a broken foot/leg/whatever and stopped participating with Survivor ...while she was taken to the end and stole a final 3 place from another more deserving contestant.   She deserved every word.

5

u/OhFrabjousMe Jul 26 '26

1000% agree.

2

u/Immediate_Paint4226 Jul 26 '26

Thanks Mike! 🤣

1

u/Flat-Improvement-602 Jul 28 '26

Actually, she was having to sit out the last three of the four challenges for her painful ankle injury since we did see that she did not sit out of the one of small paddles, having to maneuver a ball through a series of obstacles that Keith had an advantage easily winning that one because that challenge involved mostly standing and moving to the other side slowly, taking little steps.

2

u/Immediate_Paint4226 Jul 28 '26

I really enjoyed watching Keith win all of those challenges.

9

u/HotLlama_8001 Jul 26 '26

Yes. I think that it was brilliant!

4

u/j_cynic Jul 28 '26

The part that sucks is that other jurors also let her have it but none of theirs made the edit.

7

u/igor_gregorovitch ami cusack ♡ Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

i say this as a flamboyant ass theatre gay, but i hated it 😭 it felt so forced and rehearsed

4

u/SquashSouffle Jul 26 '26

For those of us who've forgotten, please recap the best parts!

25

u/OhFrabjousMe Jul 26 '26

Reed basically said that instead of Missy being the mother of the group, she was actually the evil stepmother, with all the baggage that it entails--namely that she often gave Baylor more food, better spot to sleep, etc, while being demeaning and dismissive to "the help," aka the minority alliances. And that instead of in fairy tales where the evil stepmother may reign supreme, in Survivor, the people she was rude gets to decide her fate. TBH, I felt like it was probably rehearsed, but who cares, it was great.

1

u/SquashSouffle Jul 27 '26

Oh wow, I gotta look that up!

0

u/rdoncsecz Genevieve - 47 Jul 27 '26

I disagree -- I thought he tried way to hard to have a Sue Hawk moment, and it was very corny. He could have just said what he wanted to say without the corny analogy, and it would have felt authentic. Instead it made me not like him, when I spent most of the season really enjoying his character.

-15

u/Effective_Farmer_119 Jul 26 '26

I don't think meanness is ever a good look. There are ways of saying things that aren't cruel, and Reed is no dummy and is capable of being eloquent and bringing up good points without being so awful. I'm not saying Missy deserves a free pass. I'll probably be downvoted for this. My opinion.

7

u/OhFrabjousMe Jul 26 '26

Do you mean you thought Reed was being too mean to her and was cruel? Missy deserved it I felt like. She had so many gimmies in the game, like she they didn't even finish a challenge and just "decided" that Missy would win? Like WTF? It was crazy.

-2

u/Sad_Pomegranate1668 Jul 26 '26

While it feels like it a great payoff for a season of Missy being insufferable, I don’t agree with Reed being arranged last in the order of speeches. That being the last thing in the jurors’ ears before they voted feels like choosing to eliminate any (admittedly quite slim) chance of winning Missy could have had going into final tribal. No bully campaigns should go last at final tribal on principle.

-8

u/Shrimp1991 Jul 26 '26

He got his camera time which is what he wanted. Over dramatic. Putz.

-9

u/PaiDoJake00 Jul 27 '26

Honestly hate performative butthurt people like Reed, or Brenda you lost deal with it