John Trujillo

***John*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Maldives. He later returned for Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

## Maldives

John looked like an eventual winner of this season for so long. I mean his charisma was on point, he had a very strong mind of the game and was well-connected without the game. But of course, to be the best, you have to beat the best. And sadly, John failed to do that.

From the jump on Bodu Beru, John’s #1 would be Kam. They got along very well and remained to be each other’s #1’s throughout the game. They didn’t have much to accomplish here however, as their only preswap TC was one where their teammate self-destructed. Come the swap, John’s edit became nearly invisible. Then again, his tribe really wasn’t too interesting as he was in a 5-2 majority, and the two Tribal Councils they attended took out the minority back-to-back. But it does go without saying though, that John still made crucial moves to keep with social ties with everyone intact.

We’ve made it to the merge and John’s game really starts to pick up from here. Acknowledging that tribal lines may still be a thing, John began to socialize with the 4 Dhoni he had never met. And while he enjoyed chatting with Trey, he was informed that Zent and Trish were not to be trusted by former tribemate Joseph. And in return for the information John was given by Joseph, he proposed a Final 3 deal with himself Kam and Joseph. All parties accepted, however with varying degrees of loyalty. Regardless, Jake (the target) became Jake (the first Juror) with no issues in John’s way.

Right after Jake’s exit, everyone began searching for items as some were wasted at Tribal beforehand. John got lucky and received a Vote Blocker. (which was fake) He found Kam and Joseph immediately. The plan for this vote was to split the votes onto both Zent and Trish, with the majority on Zent. Of course, when Trey pressed him about the vote, he lied and said Trish because of Trey’s plea to vote with him. He was caught lying at Tribal Council, which only confirmed that John could not trust him.

At F9, after rounds of waiting patiently, John decided that it was time to flip on a Bodu Beru. The first target was Pierre for two main reasons. 1. It’d help the F3 alliance with positioning, and 2. John found out from Magnus that Tyler and Pierre were planning on blindsiding him and Kam. He went to Tyler with his information, who denied a countless amount of times. And whether or not he actually believed Tyler, John handled that situation well as he either gained a new ally in Tyler or caused some distrust with Tyler towards Magnus. Meanwhile, John was ALSO good with Trey after Pierre’s exit. Including Trey on the vote and proving his truthful nature.  But after all this, you’d think that it was smooth sailing for John right?.... Wrong. Oh so very wrong.

While John and Kam had the agenda of voting out Magnus, they were shortly double-crossed. Former ally Joseph saw the threat level in Kam and led a coalition to blindside her. When it worked, not only was John mad, but he was shocked for the first time in this game. Truly feeling like he had nowhere else to go. During the next round, John played out of fear, exposing Trish’s antics to the rest of the tribe in hopes to save his own butt. Luckily the rest of the tribe had felt the same way and booted her.

At the Final 6, John wasn’t alone in thinking that Joseph had overstayed in the game. Ready to target him, everyone tried to go hard for immunity, unfortunately Joseph still ending up winning. Leaving the next biggest threat, Trey. Trey was a returnee, the lone Dhoni remaining, and the biggest jury threat left. So as much as it hurt John, he knew that Trey had to go. He told him beforehand due to general respect for him, and a potential jury vote.

When Tyler won immunity at Final five, John, Mike and Tyler wanted to split the vote 2-2 between Joseph and Magnus to confirm one of them goes out. Unfortunately, Tyler forgot to vote resulting in a tie between Joseph and Michael instead, in which Michael was idoled out.

At the Final Four, Magnus won immunity. And since there was no forced firemaking, it looked like John would be sitting pretty. And even if he DID have to go to fire, he was at the highest level of firemaking, making it extremely hard to beat him. The target was Joseph, and even when Joseph made his plea to John about challenge strength in the Final Three, he didn’t budge. Magnus did however, swayed by Joseph to cause a tie, John and Joseph were sent to firemaking. Which Joseph surprisingly won, taking out John at the Final Four.

## Fans Vs. Favorites

John began on the Punahele tribe, right off the bat in a 3 person alliance with Alison and Bradley. John had generally solid relations with a majority of the tribe and led to him surviving the first tribal they attended, but not enough for him to not get targeted during the second tribal. There was a divide in the game between Eras; Era 1 and Era 2. John, being a part of Era 2, was originally targeting Will. But after Tae flipping and joining them, the target moved to Travis with him going home 5-4. However, John received those 4 votes, which put him on edge for a while.

Coming into the Joint Tribal, John tried to get in with Kristin and Matthew to gain social rapport and to keep his name out of the crossfire. Unfortunately, the fans were an extremely tight unit so it was to no avail. When the vote initially tied 8-8, John was all for booting Will and moving on. But Tae continuously trying to push for rocks got on John’s nerves quickly. John stood his ground regardless and got his way as Will was voted out 13-1 on the revote.

After the Joint Tribal, John found a Hidden Immunity Idol. But didn’t need it that episode as Bee was unanimously voted out 6-1. However, the next vote wasn’t as simple. Aria was clearly on the outs of the tribe, so to avoid an idol screwing up their plans, the plan was to split the vote 4-1 with the 1 being on Tae. But behind his back, Bradley, Tae and Aria were forming a trio to vote out Alison. So when the vote came in as a tie 3-3, John was blindsided. But no matter how hard John tried to save his ally Alison, no one flipped. Leaving John in a tight spot.

Thankfully for him, the merge came right after. Despite only trusting Brittney from the faves due to the previous tribal, John still wanted to stick with them for a few votes to even out the numbers. With Karmynn now gone, John and Brittney made a foursome with Kip and Kristin. John’s relations were improving across the board a whole lot, saving him from being a possible target in some vote discussions. During the Auction, John stole Kip’s Vote Steal. As the vote grew nearer and the favorites stayed silent about their target, John and Brittney made the choice to flip and vote out Bradley with the Fans.

After a near-invisible episode and a Kip vote-out, John came into the Final 10 facing the De-merge twist. He was now on a tribe with Despair, Kristin, Jaylen and Tae. John was a bit worried about his chances here. He figured Tae, Despair and Jaylen weren’t too fond of him, and he just flipped on Kristin the vote prior. But he didn’t have to worry too much, because he finally won his first individual immunity. John tried to sort out his issues with Tae regarding the past votes, but it only ended up confusing him more as Tae asked for John to vote him out. Thinking Tae bears an idol, John figured that Jaylen would still go home due to Kristin’s extra vote. But when Jaylen went home initially, and with no idol play, John was left confused again.

At the Final 8, John’s main target in the game was Tae. The sides at this point were Matthew, Brittney, John and Kristin. Despair, Tae and Aria, with Mark in the middle. Hearing that he may be receiving votes, John used his Vote Steal on Mark to secure 5 votes on Tae, and keep the 4 strong. During the next round, John’s name was getting thrown out again, but due to having the overwhelming majority, Despair was voted out regardless.

At Final 6, Aria won immunity. Causing the majority to turn on each other. But meanwhile, Kristin was making John feel sketched out about the vote, resulting in John misplaying his idol and Mark going home. Next round, Aria lost immunity, so it wasn't a hard decision for the others to vote her out there. Next round was interesting though, Kristin won immunity, but it wasn’t a traditional vote. She had the opportunity to bring someone with her to the Final 3, while the two others battled in firemaking. He was annoyed because Kristin was easily taking Matthew and battling Brittney in fire was a lose-lose situation.

John ended up losing that battle, reminiscent of his showing in S8 when Joseph beat him, landing himself in 4th once again.