Josiah Bunting

***Josiah*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Japan. He later returned to compete again in Essential Survivor: All-Stars

## Japan

As one of the main castaways this season, Josiah got off to a fast start that never seemed to ever slow down. His brain was always geared to work, so seeing him come 6th and get his torch snuffed so abruptly, wasn’t the easiest pill to swallow.

Josiah put his charisma to use on the starting Furui tribe, despite not even being able to speak to everyone much, he was near the top of everyone’s trust Rankings, evidenced by how much information he received during the pre-swap. And like his fellow cast member Theo, Josiah is very analytical. During the Richard boot, a 4-3-2 split vote was put in place by his alliance. And for it to work successfully, Kamen needed to follow through with his end of the deal. But when Josiah remembered a critical point in Ace’s argument, he realized that Kamen may be tied with Richard and Luke. And if he had an idol, he could side with them, idol himself and have everyone in the tribe go to rocks with those 3 being safe. In reality, Kamen kept his word and Richard went home, but Josiah going into sincere detail about the potential events should definitely show you how he plays this game. Especially considering he himself wasn’t a pivotal point in that plan.

After the Richard blindside, Josiah began to worry about Luke. He was thinking that Luke felt completely isolated from the tribe, and to make sure he wasn’t gunning for him if he found an idol, Josiah became buddy-buddy with him. Which worked for him in the long run.

At the tribe swap, Josiah was fully aware that a 4-4 split with some questionable OG tribemates wasn’t his ideal situation. He was on a new tribe without his #1 man in Ace. But this left room for a new #1 man, which came in the form of Jack. As Josiah continued to try and find a crack in Wakai, he noticed that X was easily the most barring. Which prompted the Double J’s to concoct a plan to infiltrate Wakai, and get him on their side. He planned on him and Jack completely trashing Deca to X as a sign of ‘trust’ so they could gian him as a number and not have to worry about rocks. Awkwardly enough, once Tribal rolled around X revealed that whole alliance to the rest of Wakai, who were on board with voting Deca anyways due to his sneaky mannerisms. This easily put Jack and Josiah in a horrible spot. Now that they know Wakai is dead set on voting Deca (thanks to Geo), they could either stick to their plan and vote Jay, which would send them to rocks. Or take a huge gamble and vote out of their own.

In the end, they took the gamble and voted out Deca 6-2. But this vote out had a payoff, an alliance was created with the J’s, Geo and X. But besides the beginning of Josiah worrying about Jack in the future, the rest of the post-swap wasn't too eventual due to the constant throwing by NuFurui. But by the Final 11, we had merged…

Taking the advantage of knowing everyone at the merge beforehand, Josiah took some time to catch up with old Furui friends such as Enrique. He learned that Cheren found an idol, and that Enrique had the headmaster for Travis’s elimination. And knowing Josiah, he put that information to good use. After Theo won immunity, Jack and Josiah were in the middle of two alliances. They could either side with the OG Furui and take out their target, Jay. Or make a new plan with OG Wakai and take out Cheren with an idol in his pocket. Intelligently, the duo did the second offer, blindsiding Cheren and the rest of OG Furui.

At the Final 10 things didn't go over smoothly with the OG Furui as expected, Josiah had to do major damage control with Ace, Enrique, and most definitely Kamen. To regain their trust, he planned on flipping back to them and taking a Wakai out. After Enrique won immunity, Geo told Josiah that Theo didn't exactly trust him. Which was now on his radar, but Furui’s target that Tribal was Geo, so he didn't focus too much on it… until he heard from Kamen that Theodore was rallying to get him out. So Josiah rallied his starting tribemates and told them to boot Theo. And with the major help of Theo not playing his idol, Josiah barely advanced to the Final 9.

Next round, Jay winning immunity didn't phase Josiah. It seemed like OG Furui was gonna ride it out until the end with no issues. But then Geo began to act funny. He made it clear to everyone that he was checking out of the game. Heck, even Jay confirmed it with OG Furui. So despite having a few concern and suspicions about Geo’s behavior. Josiah and the rest of his allies voted him out. But as expected, Geo was blatantly lying and idoled all 6 votes against him. But fortunately, the Wakai had targeted Jack instead of Josiah, allowing him to scrape by once again.

The Final 8 comes around and this is a somewhat straightforward round for Josiah. Enrique wins another immunity and Josiah is stuck in the middle again. He can either bring Luke and himself to the Wakai and blindside Kamen, or stick with Furui and vote Geo out. Long story short he stuck with his roots and voted out Geo. But not without some sneaky maneuvers. He grabbed Geo’s idol parchment from the last Tribal and handed it to Jay, warning him to play it tonight so the attention diverts from Geo. Thankfully, Jay played it on himself and was blindsided by Josiah, while Geo took a 5-3 vote to the face.

At the Final 7, things start to get iffy for Josiah. Tribal lines start to disappear and people are finally catching onto his rewarding and fluid gameplay. But before any plans were made, Josiah had won immunity. Saving himself from elimination. Thankfully, he wasn’t the only big target as Enrique was still in the game, but when Enrique played an idol on himself, all six votes cast against him were negated. Leaving his 1 vote for Luke to be the killer. Now Josiah’s at the Final Six with no major allies. He knew that Enrique and himself were the two biggest threats left in the game, so he attempted to buddy up with him. So with Josiah and Enrique now allied, there were three duos left in the game. (Ace & Kamen, X & Jay). But before Josiah could reach any of them, those two duos teamed up, blindsiding Josiah and Enrique who had played his idol and received no votes.

## All-Stars

Being one of the most noteworthy names in his season, let alone the ORG during this time, nobody was shocked to see Josiah return for such a high-caliber season. But seeing him land in 11th compared to his 6th Place finish last season really proved that this wasn’t a cast to mess around with, whether he underestimated them or what.

On the Nicobar tribe, Josiah began to click up fast with Brandon, Kamen and mainly Logic. As he worked on his social bonds, Lucifer was ruining his as everyone began to realize that he was a bit inactive. So when the tribe finally lost, all eyes were on lucifer. But it wouldn’t be Lucifer if he didn't stir up some chaos. In an attempt to save himself, Lucifer began to spread the lies that Josiah came up with a Ben/Aidan split vote plan. But thankfully, no one believed him (except Ben), and they voted him off 9-1. And despite the rest of Josiah’s preswap being fairly uneventful, it goes without saying that he and Logic easily had the best games on that tribe. Shame we never got to see it play out.

At the swap, Josiah got very lucky with his draw. While he wasn’t with his ride-or-die in Logic, he was able to pick up 5 other OG Nicobar members on his tribe with the addition of Payton and Adam as the two token OG Andaman members. And when they lost the challenge, you’d think it’d be an easy pick off right? Well, this is All Stars, nothing is easy. As the downtime until Tribal Council began, the 6 began to set their target onto Payton, but to avoid an idol play, the six wanted to split the vote 4-2-2. Although, the core four in Josiah, Zach, Kamen and Jacob realized that Adam and Payton were too calm for a 6-2 split. So in fear, they planned to split the vote in a way where those four would be the majority on Payton, while Brandon and Jayden were on Adam. Unfortunately, their suspicions about the traitors were correct as they attempted to flip Josiah (which they almost did) and put four votes onto Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob used his Extra Vote, voting Payton out 5-4.

Fast forwarding to the merge, things started off with a bang as Josiah found an advantage in the Merge Feast. This advantage was the Vote Revealer, making everyone's votes public at a Tribal Council. After the immunity challenge, he clicked up with his core four alliance, plus Gabe who had recently flipped. But, he flipped with information, informing Josiah that he was the target for the other side.So once Tyler won immunity, Josiah became a little paranoid. But thankfully, Gabe had a Steal-a-Vote and with the advantage + Ben and Jayden, they were able to take out Adam. At the next vote Josiah struck big and won immunity by a mile. Putting the target on his back even bigger, and while the other side was majorly fractured due to the previous vote, it made it easy for Josiah’s side to take out Enrique, while using a Vote Revealer in the process, only making them even MORE fractured.

At the Final 11, Gabe won immunity. So while he was glad it was someone in the alliance, Josiah knew that he’d be targeted immediately. But this round, things weren’t so easy to figure out. At last night’s Tribal, Tyler put something around his neck for everyone to see. But whether or not it was an idol was a big question. So while Josiah’s side were complementing that, the other side managed to put their differences aside, and bring in Ben and Jayden, for a vote out they’ve been waiting for… and right after another Kim blow up at Tribal Council, Josiah was voted out.