In the most recent episode, Jeff said to Ori before the vote: "I always find it interesting when people label getting voted out as failure. That's not how Survivor works. You've already lost the minute you show up on Survivor. Almost everybody loses. It's how you play the game that is the measure of success or failure." I imagine many of the winners who received one to two million dollars would disagree with the idea that they failed the minute they showed up, just because everybody else lost, and many people who played hard, but lost the game would look at their bank account and disagree with the idea that they were successful because they made big moves. However, there is something to be said about placing value in the attempt, and viewing true failure as failing to respond to the call to action to show up and play the best game one could possibly play. Survivor is just a brief experience in one's life, and in many cases, an experience former players have used to propel themselves into very successful careers. Eight players who failed to win the first time, came back to win again on a second, third, or fourth attempt (arguably nine, considering that Chris Underwood was voted out third on the season he went on to win, without initially having the knowledge that there would be an opportunity to return to the game).
Survivor is a competition that one definitively fails at when they exit the game with no chance of return, but in the grand scheme of the players' lives, it is just a setback, and this is a mindset that the most popular players throughout the show's history generally share. Audiences love an underdog, and especially on Survivor, no one is more loved than the scrappy player who somehow manages to maintain optimism and keep trying no matter how many times things don't go their way. But lasting in the game despite failing to dictate how things go is not enough to become a fan favorite in most cases. Audiences respect failure when a "hero" loses despite their best efforts, which happen to be pretty good. Ori did ultimately fail at the game, but his attempt was a very impressive failure, which made him very sympathetic and likable to viewers. However, the circumstances of his elimination left a lot to be desired from a storytelling perspective, leaving audiences feeling incredibly dissatisfied with the outcome.
In his Wordplayer column Impressive Failure, Terry Rossio speaks from a screenwriting perspective about writing a hero when the story requires them to fail, suggesting that the best way to make it work is to make the hero fail in such impressive ways that the audience is too struck by their efforts to perceive them as a failure, because seeing them try so hard makes it so the audience can't help but root for them. While Survivor is a reality television show without a script, from a storytelling perspective, the rules are the same. Ethan Zohn's journey on Survivor All Stars is a perfect example of the impressive failure. Although he became the sixth person voted out of the game, his loss did not feel like a failure at all, because he came into the game with a massive target on his back as a former winner, and still managed to survive four tribal councils, ultimately becoming the last winner standing. Sandra's outing on Survivor Game Changers is another example of the impressive failure. Coming into the game as the only person to ever win her first two seasons (a record no one else has come close to matching still to this day), there was absolutely no chance that her competitors were going to let her anywhere near the end game-- the fact that she came back at all knowing that it would end her perfect winning streak was already incredibly endearing. But she managed to exceed expectations, playing much more aggressively than she ever had before, running both her original starting tribe, and her swap tribe like a mafia boss, very easily besting Tony Vlachos and J.T. Thomas, the two other winners on the season. It was only when production introduced yet another swap that left her in the minority on a tribe full of players she had yet to share a beach with that she became the sixth person voted out, with her new tribe throwing the challenge to get her out, because they saw how powerful and dangerous she was in the game. Though she went home relatively early, many fans were more impressed by her gameplay than ever, because she played so masterfully and got much farther in the game than many had ever anticipated, making it all the more frustrating that she went home solely due to a bad draw at the rare second tribe swap of the season.
Up until his final episode, in which he received ten confessionals, Ori had a relatively quiet edit this season, receiving an average of 2.6 confessionals per episode, which was sixteen percent below average, according to the Survivor Fact Checker on Instagram. Even though his swap tribe went to tribal council every round, the decisions made were largely framed through the eyes of Devin and especially Jelly. Last week particularly, the decision to take out Alexis or Devin was framed as Jelly's choice, even though she would not have had the numbers to flip on Devin without Ori, whose perspective we got very little of. And this is a typical move from the show, as players who get voted out largely due to bad luck are almost always given a quieter edit, especially if they are likable, so that audiences will not be too upset about their elimination. But even so, Ori was very well received by fans. Even before getting a sympathetic portrayal in his elimination episode, seventy-three percent of fans who voted in the Survivor Fact Checker's popularity poll the week prior said that they either liked or loved Ori. Although we did not get a lot of his perspective in the game, we saw him to be rational, calm under pressure, charming, and sweet. He had a very sympathetic reason for playing, wanting to retire his mother, who worked so hard and always put her children's needs first. And, most importantly, he stayed optimistic and determined. Jelly having an idol and being vehemently opposed to writing down Devin's name left him in an impossible situation, summed up by the private conversation we see her have with him on the beach, telling him that he has no chance of swaying her, and that he'd be better off trying his luck with Devin, whose only option other than voting for Ori was to vote for her. Despite being in a near impossible situation, Ori did not give up, and we saw him go home not because he was outplayed in a particularly impressive manner, but rather, due to a lack of other options.
When a hero fails due to their own stupidity, the audience loses respect. When a hero fails despite their best efforts, because they were genuinely outsmarted, the audience is much more sympathetic. When a hero loses despite an impressive effort due solely to bad luck, they are still seen as very sympathetic figures by viewers, but it makes the larger story being told much more unpleasant to watch. Ori made all of the right decisions to advance his own game. He did not go home because Jelly and Devin outsmarted him, after identifying him as a threat to their game. They even told him outright what their plans were and why, risking him saving himself with his shot in the dark, or an idol, which speaks to how well he was playing socially, and how unhappy they were about sending him home. He got voted out solely because Jelly and Devin had more time to bond with each other than him, which was something he had no control over. The only way that he could have potentially bettered his position on his tribe would have required immediately betraying his helicopter alliance, alienating one of his closest allies in Sharonda, as well as whoever of Jelly and Devin remained in the game. It also would have required him to anticipate being in this exact position several rounds ahead of time, act on it immediately, and persuade Jenna to vote with him and Alexis against Devin, which she did not seem willing to do. And even if he did manage to see into the future and execute that move, there would still be no guarantee that Alexis would pick him over Jenna, after having more time to bond with a woman she said reminded her of her friends back home. If Sharonda had been in the place of either Jelly or Devin, their alliance likely makes the exact same decisions, and if they continued losing, whichever one of Jelly or Devin ended up on their tribe would have presumably been voted for by Sharonda and Ori in the same spot. An inseparable duo on a tribe of only five people leaves very little room to maneuver, and locking in a solid three was the best he could do in that situation.
It is one thing to see a tribe of nine whittled down to one, as happened to the Ulong tribe on Survivor Palau. A tribe of only five people with pre-existing relationships leaves players with considerably less room to better their position and ensure that they will be one of the last two members of their tribe remaining, if they continue to lose. While one could use hindsight bias to argue how Ori could have played differently to prevent his ouster, the reality is that he made the best moves he could, and just ended up in an unlucky situation. The online fan base is often teased for advocating to see many pre-merge contestants come back to play a second time, but the reason why fans so often feel that way is because seeing likable players get eliminated from the game in very sympathetic ways, with very little they could have done to change their fate makes their story feel incomplete. In the early days of the show, players who went home early typically made very clear mistakes that led to their ouster. With small tribes, extra votes, lost votes, idols, tribe swaps, and other advantages, luck plays much more of a factor, resulting in more players with clear potential going home very early and without being able to show the full extent of what they are capable of.
Despite being in an era of the show in which production is seemingly less interested in bringing back returning players than ever, production seems more committed than ever to creating conditions that increase demand for more players to get a second chance-- especially early boots. Just as players go into the game knowing they are most likely going to lose, fans watch the show knowing that only one person will win, which inevitably means watching most if not all of their favorites lose. Fans can handle, and even appreciate seeing their favorite players lose when they are genuinely outplayed after doing their best and playing their hearts out with the time they had. When they go home early solely because they got a bad hand, it becomes a much harder pill to swallow. And when fans give up in pure frustration, failing to see the point in continuing to watch when luck matters more than skill, that is when the show has truly failed.