Alison Thorpe

***Alison*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Yemen. She later returned for Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

## Yemen

Alison was a Fan Favorite early on in the game. Known for her fiery personality, and determination to win, she was an extremely rootable person in a season where you’d think otherwise. Alison came in 3rd with people justifying her loss with bad jury management, but as time grew on, more and more people think Alison should’ve won over James. Let’s cover her game and see what you think at the end.

Starting on the pink Extroverted tribe, Alison made her presence known right off the bat. Making a ton of fire, publicly searching for idols on Day 1, and was extremely social. And while searching for idols that early usually would’ve been bad, she DID manage to claim one in the process. Early on she made close bonds with Khamp and Cass, while not being fond of Matt - even questioning his tribe on the Extrovert tribe. As time went by, Alison strengthened her bonds with Khamp. Going as far as to say that they were running the tribe as they had several flows of information coming in. But she didn’t realize that people were catching onto their positioning in the game, and weren’t afraid to create an opposition against it. Evidenced by the 2nd time Munfatih went to Tribal Council.

With a core group including Felix, Cass, Khamp and Owen. Alison was targeting Matt after realizing that he threw out her name to Khamp, this got around so by the time the trek to Tribal started, Alsion was convinced that the vote would be 8-1 on Matt. However, behind the scenes Terry, Joshua, Felix, James and Matt made a 5 person voting bloc to take out Alison’s ROD, Khamp. It soon worked, making Alison rethink her whole plan as she’s been dropped to the bottom of the tribe.

Luckily for her, she went from bottom to the top in quick succession. She was swapped into the new Mutaradid tribe in a 3-2 majority with James and Joshua. But since they won 4 straight challenges and never went to tribal, not much happened. James found a Vote Steal that he informed Alison of, solidifying their status of Ride-or-Dies, and Alison came into the merge with everyone on that tribe on good terms.

At the merge, Alison’s game went from stagnant to a roller coaster. After reaching the Nemey camp, she found her second idol this game! But it looked like she wouldn’t be keeping it for long. After Cedrick won immunity, word started to get around about Alison having an idol. This rumor garnered 6 votes onto Alison, but with the help of James’s sneakiness, she played her idol and successfully idoled Josh out.

During the Final Nine, Alison really started to get annoyed with the people on Nemey. Cedrick, Neb, Felix and Abby were directly on her hit list… and add in Zak when she found out that he lied about his vote and flipped on her. But as of the actual vote, so much craziness went on with an apparent Felix blindside, along with multiple people spinning words around, that even Production still has questions about what really happened. In Alison’s case however, she voted Cedrick presuming that was her best option.

Even though no one knew what really happened for the Final Nine around, it was very clear that Zak was behind most of it and it was getting to people’s heads. This common distaste for him created ‘The Alcoholics’ alliance - consisting of Alison, James, Felix, Joshua and Neb, five people who were all at each other’s throats at one point in the game. Ironic how they’d come together. Putting a lot of stock into this alliance, Alsion was gung-ho about the plan to blindside Zak. And for the first time since the first boot, she voted with the initial majority! Taking out Zak and advancing into the Final 7.

At this point in the game, Alison truly wanted to go to the end with James. Even though she felt like he could beat her, she perceived that she played the better game and can win the jurors in an FTC. But before they can talk about the Final Tribal, they have to get there. But lots of consideration, James and Alison decided to target Joshua for his challenge ability. They roped in Cedrick who was just about to give up, and with James’s Vote Steal this creates a majority. But Abby revealed to everyone that she wanted to leave the game but didn’t wanna quit. So she asked to be voted out by everyone which attracted very varied responses. Alison in particular, wasn’t fond of it. Preferring for her to actually quit instead. This caused a huge spat between the two of them. But nonetheless, come Tribal, Joshua was still voted out 4-2-1 as James stole his vote. Right after, Abby quit the game as they failed to fulfill her request, so it was a free ride to the Final Five.

For as pivotal of a round this was for Alison, she didn’t comment on it much. She won her second individual immunity, and was planning to idol James into the Final Four. They voted out Neb here due to his challenge prowess and the vote came in 3-2, with James having 3 negated and Neb bearing the other two. Now we’ve reached the Final Four and James finally won Immunity. It’s clear that Felix was the target here but of course he tried pulling some last minute strings to stay. Alison was pretty deadlocked for Felix to go so she naturally got annoyed when he wouldn’t accept no for an answer. However, Cedrick was more lenient because despite Alison’s threats, he still caved and sent her and Felix to fire. Of course, Alison beat him as Felix never made fire once, but it was still an emotional moment.

Now we’ve reached the Final Tribal Council with Alison, Cedrick and James. Alison was still confident that she had a shot to win the game, but she was also worrying about the jury catering to James more. Her worries proved to be true as the jury seemed to really appreciate James’s game far more than Alison’s. People assume this is because of the fight she had with Abby as she could’ve tainted the jury. But postseason, several jurors have said they wished they'd voted Alison instead. She lost in the game in third place by a 4-1-0 vote.

## Fans Vs. Favorites

Alison came into this season with a target on her back. Being a finalist on the season prior, not to mention ‘The Robbed Goddess’ from that season according to some, she definitely had expectations to live up to and a legacy she had to define.

From the Jump, Alison wanted to work with Bradley and John. Those were 2 people she became fond friends of after her season. Thankfully, they felt the same way and the first alliance of the season was created. Unfortunately, these 3 people consequently became on the bottom of the tribe as Alison began to worry people with her idol searching, showing that she did not learn from his previous season.

Of course, when Punahele attended tribal, Alison’s name was definitely brought up. First by Travis, who’s had a vendetta against her since Day 1. But Jayla then informed her that Tae also threw her name out. Taken aback, she confronted Tae about this. Prompting them to compare notes which made them realize that Jayla was spewing out lies to target Tae. After this revelation, it didn’t take much to convince the rest of the tribe that Jayla needed to go.

Two invisible episodes later and we’ve reached the Joint Tribal. By now, Alison has joined the majority alliance due to a flip by Tae which resulted in a Gen 2 + Tae alliance forming. Coming into the Joint with an 8-8 split, there was no thought of someone flipping on the initial vote. Which proved to be true as the vote tied 8-8 between Will and Jaylen. Punahele was very split down the middle on whether they should go to rocks or flip to save Jaylen. Alison was easily the most willing to flip, as Will has expressed time and time again that he would never work with her. Tae tried to sway her opinion but as Will continued to try and plead, it only stiffened her stance on booting him. Eventually, Tae caved in and voted out Will with the rest of the members (besides Bee)

Yet another invisible episode later, and we’re at the Final 14. It’s clear that Aria is on the bottom of the tribe as Bee just got voted out and the 5 person alliance reigned supreme. Of course, Alison was planning to vote Aria with her alliance. But Bradley had other plans. To avoid getting idoled out, and gaining a new ally, Bradley began to orchestrate a plan to take out Alison. He got Tae on board with this, assuming the vote would tie, Aria plays her idol which takes out Alison. Unfortunately, the vote was tied without any idol being between Aria and Alison.

Knowing her life is on the line, Alison and John tried their hardest to try and get Bradley to flip. And although it almost worked, it  was very clear that they didn’t trust him anymore and were blowing hot air. Even Brittney, who originally voted with them, flipped to avoid rocks. Sending Alison out by a 3-1 revote.

## Voting History

 Ain't No Damn Fish Here
 THROW SOME NAMES OUT
 Fade Back To Obscurity
 A Ditzy Naive Little Kid
 It's The Hypocrisy For Me
 I'M A VILLAIN
 Voted Out, Day 16