Survivor Winter Park: The Forest Enigma

## Cast

***The Forest Enigma*** is the eleventh main season of *Survivor Winter Park* and the fifth season in the second era.

*The Forest Enigma* served as an old-school season before the second major all-star season, being the first with an all-newbie cast since the inaugural season and minimal twists. This allowed the cast to focus on the relationships that the game both creates and complicates. Susan Mallen's domination of immunity challenges with her record-holding challenge run garnered her respect from the jury, viewing Benjamin DeLoach and Adelaide Vazzana as sketchy and passive players respectively, granting the her the title of Sole Survivor in a 5-1-1 vote.

## Production

Both *Halloween Spooktacular* and *The Forest Enigma* were first discussed in July of 2021, focused on being primarily newbie seasons in order to widen the casting pool for *Island of Desolation*, following its push-back from season ten to twelve. With the intended date being December of that year, both new seasons would see a quick turnaround, with casting for both beginning around the same time. Most new players who were unable to play in the previous season (notably Delaney Gardner, Susan Mallen, and William So) were pushed forward to this season. Cole Groth would once again take over hosting duties.

The original conception for the season was titled "Warrior's Revenge", and would've featured a dueling element similar to Redemption Island, in which players from both tribes would compete. The winner would receive an advantage, while the loser would receive a disadvantage meant to parallel that advantage. The complicated nature of the twist would lead to Cole shutting it down.

Based on the "Enigma" title, there was an original twist planned where, following every pre-merge immunity challenge, players would be given a puzzle to solve. Due to time restrictions, this twist was scrapped at the tail end of production. Cole and Thorin Groth eventually decided to run the season without a main twist. Despite not having tribes divided by gender anymore, the trend of non-physical challenges seen in *Halloween Spooktacular* was followed once again as a way to force the challenges to be innovative in some way.

The season was originally meant to have 18 players, with an entirely different format: Two tribes of nine, which would swap at the Final 15, into three tribes of five (with Yasula being an introduced tribe). A merge would've occurred at the Final 11, and a Final 3 would've faced off against a jury of eight players. However, on the day of the season, two players would fail to show up, forcing the expansion tribe to be dissolved despite having buffs already made for it.

Buffs did not arrive until the second day of the game, with buffs for *Island of Desolation* being used in their place on the first day. The Yasula tribe, going unused, was instead passed out to players who were swapped onto the same tribe as their original. The Koro tribe was originally light yellow (Koro), which was eventually changed.

## Twists/Advantages

### **Twists**

* **Tribe Swap:** At the Final 12, the remaining players were shuffled into two tribes of six.
* **Blitz Round:** Starting at the Final 9, a Blitz Round began. The events following that immunity challenge until the Tribal Council at the Final 8 were all taken at a quickened pace.

### **Advantage**

* **Hidden Immunity Idol:** A Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at both tribe camps at the start of the game, with a third being added into circulation during the Final 12 immunity challenge and a fourth upon the merge.The last time they could be used was when there were six players remaining.

## Season Summary

*The Forest Enigma* would debut sixteen new players (the first season with no returning players since *Season 1*), divided into the two tribes of Sulu and Voku. The Sulu tribe would only go to one Tribal Council with a unanimous decision, while the Voku tribe would see the continued failures of the three women, only being spared by the controlling men's alliance. The tribe swap would continue with a male-dominated alliance on the new Voku tribe convincing Susan Mallen to flip against Delaney Gardner, with Susie being saved through Paul Ramos' self-destruction at the final round of the pre-merge.

At the merge, Michael Collins would be credited with controlling both his tribes in the pre-merge, immediately setting himself up as a target unbeknownst to him. His blindside would lead to an unprecedented five-round immunity streak for Susie, with every player remaining blindsided left and right due to the constantly changing power structure of the tribe. Susie's luck would run out after her fifth immunity win, with Adelaide Vazzana handily winning the final challenge of the season. However, she would convince Ada to make a Final Tribal Council of three strong players by taking out jury goat Owen Watkins at the end, with Benjamin DeLoach not seeing an incentive to fight against their plan in hopes of convincing the jury it was his idea as well.

At the Final Tribal Council, the jury would mostly have their minds made up, finding Ada's decision to take the obviously large jury threat of Susie to the end while respecting Ben for doing so as well. Susie would receive praise for her domination of the challenges and ability to bounce back from blindsides, although she would be discredited for not needing to play the game well at all due to her immunity streak. This wouldn't stop her from winning the game in a 5-1-1 vote, with Ada receiving a vote from Jake Lienhart through the production team.

## Trivia

* *The Forest Enigma* is the second season to have no returning players, following *Season 1*.
* *The Forest Enigma* holds the record for the lowest number of unique individual immunity winners, with 3.
* Susan Mallen is the first winner since Cole Groth in *Season 2* to not win the final immunity challenge.

## Future return list

* **2 for *Island of Desolation*:** Delaney Gardner and Susan Mallen
* **1 for *March Madness*:** Benjamin DeLoach
* None for *Lord of the Lads*
* **1 for *Guild of the Girlies*:** Van Nguyen
* **2 for *Clash of the Champions*:** Delaney Gardner and Susan Mallen
* **1 for *Dynamic Duos*:** Tyler Sibley
* **1 for *All-Stars*:** Michael Collins
	+ **Total returns:** 7 returns across 6 seasons (an average of 1.167 returns per season)