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WARNING: If you have not seen Survivor Season 18 Tocantins, this article might contain spoilers for contest conditions.

Survivor Season 18 in Brazil, Tocantins, is as real as it gets. Such as the severe infection that caused one of the men to be removed from the contest permanently in order to prevent amputation of his leg or possibly death by blood poisoning. Of course there are conditions which have some predictability during a filmed reality show. Yet my instincts tell me that scripting an entire season of Survivor would tax the talents of any professional scriptwriter. Besides, what would be the purpose in faking anything at all? How could anyone fake the personality of Coach?

Coach has survived so long that I am beginning to wonder if he made a secret deal to share the million dollars with several of the other contestants. I do not know if such a deal would be legal, however, my respect for Coach has grown greater during this season. He seems to have won the hearts of the most competitive people on the show. I wonder if Tyson would do anything differently if he had known that he would be voted off. Not that Tyson would have dissed Coach, but I wonder if Tyson would have been a little more friendly to the other people?

My personal favorite is Taj. Not necessarily to win the million dollars, but just her beautiful way of sharing her idol with the other members of her secret society. Taj has been a great competitor as well. She provided another proof of reality for me when she revealed the huge number of insect bites which covered nearly her entire body. Most amazing to me is the way Sierra has stayed on, in spite of her early illness, and her obvious antigonism toward Coach. The Dragonslayer says he does have compassion on Sierra for her plea to him. But I think she is doomed.

I must admit that I fell in love with Sydney. What straight man wouldn't love her. Even Spencer discovered her friendship and trust. After seeing how the contestants have lost weight during this season, I wonder if another reality show might consider Brazil Tocantins as a weight loss training session by natural conditions. Some careful consideration would have to be made about the psychological wellness of contestants though. After seeing Sandy get so distracted and repetitive by the living conditions, I think there are severe pressures that can't be seen on TV.

What can be seen though, is the amazing trust and cooperation that a person like Taj can develop during such a deadly contest. Without Taj and her immunity idol, I doubt that Stephen and JT would have had the ability to form such an influential cabal. The next most admirable act for me was Brendan's restraint while being voted off. He could have easily spent his immunity idol to cause Sierra to be voted off. Maybe there was no way for Brendan to know exactly who would be voted off if Brendan had used his idol, but my point is that he accepted his own fate.

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