It’s been over 13 years since Survivor‘s 20th season aired, and Heroes vs. Villains remains an iconic iteration of the CBS series. But, it could’ve played out much differently, according to a farfetched-yet-captivating conspiracy theory shared on Reddit.
Like the Heroes tribe, the Villains were stacked with several big-name former castaways, including five players on the men’s side: “Boston Rob” Mariano, Tyson Apostol, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, Russell Hantz, and Randy Bailey.
However, by the time the two tribes merged, all the men from the Villains tribe had been voted out except Russell, who had a hand in eliminating each of them.
A Reddit user who goes by cman632 shared a conspiracy theorizing that Boston Rob, Tyson, and Coach all blew up their games to help Russell make it further at the request of Survivor’s production. And by doing so, they were each gifted another season when they’d have the best runs of their reality competition careers.
It’s obviously BS, but I’ll always love the conspiracy that Boston Rob, Tyson, and Coach were bribed to throw HvV to Russell in return for a returnee season designed for them to win,” the Redditor wrote.
“It gets better, they lost faith in Coach winning by the merge so they made a deal with Cochran to flip in return for a season of his own. Not only did Coach need additional help, he still LOST!”
Russell never actually won Heroes vs. Villains — he came in third while Sandra Diaz-Twine earned her second $1 million check from Survivor. But, two of the three men he took out on season 20 went on to become Survivor champions.
Russell convinced Tyson to switch his vote to Parvati Shallow on day 15, which ultimately derailed the vote-split strategy Tyson, Boston Rob, and Coach concocted. Parvati played a Hidden Immunity Idol at that Tribal Council and Tyson’s game bit the dust after Russell, Parvati, and Danielle DiLorenzo wrote his name down.
Well, Tyson returned for season 27’s Blood vs. Water and he won the entire show.
Then, there was Boston Rob. He was the next person ousted from the Villains tribe after he and Russell went head to head at Tribal Council. He went out on a 4-3-1 vote after Coach burned his on Courtney Yates.
We got another Boston Rob vs. Russell showdown for season 22’s Redemption Island. Although Russell was the third person out, Boston Rob dominated the game en route to the $1 million grand prize.
With no allies left, Coach followed Boston Rob and Tyson to Ponderosa at the Villain’s next Tribal Council.
He was then brought back for season 23’s South Pacific when he had the best showing of his three-season tenure. He made it to the finale without receiving a vote cast against him. But, the Jury awarded Sophie Clarke the win six votes to three.
The conspiracy also noted that John Cochran flipped to Coach’s side in exchange for another season. And as history has it, Cochran returned for season 26’s Caramoan and he cashed the winning check as well.
Do I believe this conspiracy theory? No, not at all. But, it’s kind of unreal how the three contestants did go on to have legacy-defining runs after their run-in with Russell on Heroes vs. Villains.
