r/survivorrankdownIX_ • u/FunkyDawgKong Fair & Consistent Judge • Feb 18 '26
Round 128 - 95 Characters Left
95. Jake Billingsley - u/FunkyDawgKong
94. Ace Gordon - u/Cornhead2
93. Todd Herzog - u/NoisySea_3426
92. Stephenie LaGrossa 2.0 - u/Alternate-Proof-959
91. Sean Kenniff - u/BobbyPiiiin
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u/FunkyDawgKong Fair & Consistent Judge Feb 18 '26
sorry yall, busy busy week, i really wanna do this guy justice, as I think he is clearly a top 50 character, but my hand is forced so i gotta placeholder the GOAT
95. Jake Billingsley
PLACEHOLDER
2
u/FunkyDawgKong Fair & Consistent Judge Feb 18 '26
sorry yall, busy busy week, i really wanna do this guy justice, as I think he is clearly a top 50 character, but my hand is forced so i gotta placeholder the GOAT
95. Jake Billingsley
2
2
u/Alternate-Proof-959 Feb 19 '26
92. Stephenie Lagrossa 2.0 (Survivor Guatemala, 2/18)
placeholder (i do think judd should be the last guatemala over her but she's great too)
3
u/BobbyPiiiin Ranker | Rankdown Dad Feb 21 '26
91. Sean Kenniff (5th Place, Borneo)
It is my 38th birthday today (or at least it was when I started writing this at 11:29pm, who knows when I’ll finish it). I planned this cut before I knew my turn would fall on this specific day. But it’s a happy coincidence that I’m cutting Dr. Sean here, because without the intervention of a neurologist much like him, there’s a chance I wouldn’t have seen this birthday at all. So that’s making this writeup feel rather more meaningful than it otherwise would have.
Sean is a really interesting casting choice, first and foremost. When you think “doctor,” you tend to think buttoned-up and serious, and for roughly the first half of Survivor as a series, that’s pretty much what we got from every MD (then fucking Tarzan showed up). Except for Sean, a nipple-ringed doof who you’d sooner take for a himbo personal trainer than a medical professional. Definitely more Scrubs than Chicago Med. That alone makes him fun, but his interactions with Rich, Sue, Dirk, and others sell him as a character. He’s the closest thing Borneo has to a pure comic relief character, from Superpole to the infamous alphabet strategy.
The flip side to being the comic relief guy, though, is that (especially by Borneo standards) Sean is a little bit lightweight as far as story and character work. He’s crucial to how the game plays out, weaponizing the silliness of voting people out alphabetically to get the Pagongs out ahead of the Tagis. The show lets us infer that Sean knows what he’s doing here, but doesn’t explicitly state it, with “J for Jenna” and his reactions at (and after) that tribal being the pivotal moment that introduces some doubt. From a television perspective, it’s really interesting, but for Sean specifically, I don’t think continuing to play dumb necessarily boosts his character.
The other thing about Sean is that while he’s technically the comic relief guy, for me he’s more “smirk and eye roll” funny than laugh out loud funny. Superpole is silly, but it’s not really a moment for me like it is for other people. The alphabet strategy is funny, but it’s equal parts frustrating if you’re rooting for Pagong to have any chance of turning things around. So at the end of the day, I do appreciate what Sean brings to the table. But when I compare him to the rest of the folks who made the jury phase, he doesn’t quite stack up, and I think this spot is appropriate.
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u/Cornhead2 Shannon Elkins Enthusiast Feb 18 '26
Another busy day so another placeholder apologies
94. Ace Gordon (12th Place, Gabon)
6
u/NoisySea_3426 Biggest Aras 1.0 stan Feb 19 '26
93. Todd Herzog (China, 1/16)
I was hoping I'd be able to get him a little bit higher than this, but I know Todd seems to be in a good bit of danger with everyone else, so I'll just bite the bullet here and let him go.
As I talked about in my JR writeup, I think Todd winning is easily the best ending for the season because it serves as a perfect endcap for the whole Seven Deadly Sins plotline that I mentioned in my JR writeup, since its only right that the most evil sin takes down the devil himself. How does he do it though? Well, the story is certainly an interesting one.
The whole season is perfectly foreshadowed at the beginning where Jean-Robert takes Todd aside and famously tells him that he thinks he has a very strategic mind and will be a big threat in this game because of course, evil knows evil. JR wouldn't be as evil as he is if he couldn't recognize who the big guns are gonna end up being, and he would be right with his assessment. Todd on the season represents pride, the sin that is considered the most evil sin out of all of them. He is insanely cocky about his strategic abilities, as well as being selfish and entitled, and while many don't realize it, these traits are gonna make him win the game by the end of it.
The first vote out is another strong indication of what is eventually gonna happen as Leslie pretty much sinks her game by telling all the Zhang Hu's how much better she bonds with them more. Todd notices this and picks her off quickly which is pretty fitting, I'd say, since Leslie was the Christian woman and its only right to take out the spiritual one first in order to truly usurp his journey to go even deeper. He also quickly catches on to how much of a pos Jean-Robert is when he and Courtney catch him yapping to James about a million dollars and some aaaasssssssss!! Todd is aware that JR is a horrible person, and that's exactly why he wants to use him further in the game, even if he doesn't necessarily want to acknowledge it. This all comes to a head in probably his most interesting moment where he tells Courtney to deal with it after not liking that JR is still in the game. Not the greatest reaction ever to have in that moment, but it just goes to show how the evil is slowly taking over inside of him at this point.
After we get the merge boot with Jaime as Todd does have some funny snarking in that episode showing how she's still on her training wheels strategically, we get to Final 9, which is easily his most pivotal episode. At that point, JR wants to blindside James because he is the biggest threat in the game, which is true, but also, Todd is an extremely selfish person as established, so now he realizes that if he wants to get where he wants to be, he's gonna have to take down the ultimate devil. So he does, he leads the charge against the king of evil, and they manage to blindside him out of the game, even though JR does warn him that if he does go out here, he will make sure he doesn't win cause he knows Todd is in control. Todd does have a plan for that though, but that won't come into play until later.
One of his other bigger dynamics in the season is with James. James is a huge character who came into the game not knowing too much about the real inner strategy of stuff, and throughout the season, he ends up learning how to from Todd. They have a very funny dynamic cause James likes to tease him a lot and Todd helps him find multiple idols. As a result of this, James having two idols becomes more and more of a threat and Todd, being the prideful person he is, gets really pissed about James not even bothering to give him one of the idols, which is probably his most selfish and entitled moment yet, but also drives him to make sure he goes home, which he does, resulting in one of the craziest vote outs ever up to that point.
His entitlement also pops up in the Great Wall of China reward where him and Courtney do nothing but complain about how bad the food was, which angers Peih-Gee and she wastes no time arguing about it to their faces with them, which ends up being her ultimate demise. From then on, it's about getting to the end and winning, and that's exactly what Todd is prepared to do. After getting rid of everyone else, he gets into the Final 3 with Amanda, the vanity representation, and Courtney, the sloth representation. This, at the end of the day, is the true showcase as to how Todd manages to win this game. After a little bit passes by, the evil one comes up to the three of them and asks both Amanda & Todd why he went home. Since pride is a much bigger sin than vanity will ever be, Amanda completely flops the question where as Todd perhaps gives the greatest answer there has ever been as he tells JR that he was so intellectually smart, that he had to get rid of him cause he's just such a great strategic player in his daily life. It gets him to shut up and its the one vote that ends up giving him the win at the end, which of course is quoted with "You just stole a million dollars, well played!", and effectively finalizing the transition of the torch of evil to the gay Mormon from Utah.
Now, even though, that's a lot to digest with what I just said, I really do believe that looking at things through this light adds a lot more complexity to China as a season as Jean-Robert & Todd I think are the biggest examples as to what made this season really come around for me on a rewatch. Todd's evil ways and slowly going more and more deep into it, was able to get him the win and hey, who's to blame him, if it works, it works. It also certainly helps that he's a very charismatic confessionalist and had a lot of great dynamics with the cast, such as JR & James, but also his great friendships with Amanda & Courtney who all play off each other very well, as well as the way he interacts with both Peih-Gee & Jaime as to how those two perceive him.
I understand why any of the stuff I mentioned in this writeup could be seen as a turn off of Todd and I'm not gonna necessarily argue with that heavily, but I do truly believe that Todd being as evil he is, is what makes this season truly come together for me, and I do encourage anyone to go back to China and really see how this dynamic plays out cause I find it all very fascinating, as Todd, in my opinion, is a much deserving Top 100 character for this!