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8. MONICA PADILLA, 26, Law Student, San Diego, CA.



Overall Finish: 7th Place

Casting Story:
Recruited at a club in San Diego.

Commentary:
Monica is someone who I think got a bad rap for being grouped in with the "Mean Girls" alliance which really may not have been as mean as the editing wanted as to believe. On top of that, she was portrayed as a weak link in challenges ever since she supposedly did horrible in the Episode 4 Immunity Challenge. While I believe that she did worse than most of the Galu members, I also believe that Russell Swan kindof scapegoated her to save his "homegirl" Yasmin and because of this Monica's poor performance became exaggerated. Despite being targeted twice before the merge, she became the first to break the young, attractive Latina curse and survive to the merge, accomplishing what Jessie, Cecilia, Liliana, Paloma, and Carolina could not.

Personality/Character: Monica seemed to have a pretty vibrant personality in her pre-game interviews, and like many others this season, it seemed to fade a little once she got on the island (due to editing, probably). However, Monica's boot episode and her antics at her final Tribal Council proved that she *did* have a strong personality after all and that she could have been a more entertaining character if the editors had shown more of her. Still, she was one of only about 4 or 5 people to have a confessional in every episode. I appreciate her going out fighting and trying to cause a little bit of chaos on the way down rather than just being quietly voted out. She gains points with me for that.

Strategy: Monica came into the game planning to play the "flirt" strategy, but she seemed like somebody who was intelligent and would be willing to make strategic moves to advance in the game. In the real show, we didn't really see much from her strategically until her final few episodes. I mean, yes, she was in the alliance with Laura and Kelly from early on, but if I remember correctly, it wasn't until she tried to save Laura by falsely targeting John that she tried to make a big move. Although the idea was good in theory, it never would have worked in a real situation because the Foa Foas would still vote Laura even if they agreed to vote for John to her. At the Tribal Council before this, she wanted the Galus to have a back-up plan incase Russell had found another idol, which was smart of her to recognize that (unlike Dave), but Galu couldn't have really done anything at that point. Even if they had split their votes, Kelly still would have gone home because of FF having 4 votes and Galu having 7 (with Shambo included).

Monica was almost voted off in Episode 4 and let's not forget she WOULD have been voted off at the double boot in Episode 6 if not for Russell getting evacuated and the producers cancelling the vote. This hinders her overall performance in my ranking, but I do believe Monica was someone who had her head in the game from the beginning and, like Russell said, she could have done some damage in another season. It's a situation like Dave or John where they had potential to be players, but didn't do so well in this season.

I went back and forth on having Monica at #7 or #8 and I ultimately decided to go with #8 for her since I don't think she was as strong on entertainment value as the rest of the Top 7 (though she's clearly stronger than some in terms of strategic potential) - it's hard to weigh out which factors are most important.

#7: (Soon)

cardswin5 wrote:

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I really believe Shambo would have been booted that night and not Monica, because from post boot interviews Laura, Kelly, Brett, and Dave were not voting for her and there's the majority. Idk why the editors decide to lie. IIRC the only people talking about Monica leaving (in the episode) were John, Erik and Shambo?

Yasmin next?

Hmm, that's possible. I don't know if I would necessarily trust what Dave and Brett said. They could have become closer to Monica later on (like Dave seemed to have) and tried to save face. Why would they have voted Shambo as chief in the next episode then if they were going to boot her? But interesting point nonetheless.

Thanks for bumping, tropical rain. I hope to have the next one up tonight but I'm not sure if I'll get to it. If not, it will be Thursday probably. I have to get Episode 12 finished up first...