S31: Monica Padilla

[Whimsy]

Meet Monica Padilla from Survivor: Samoa (Season 19), who returns to play on Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance.

 

Galu Tribe member Monica placed seventh on Survivor: Samoa and is often remembered for stepping up to Russell Hantz and telling him that she would "make or break" him on the jury. Ouch!

 

Here is your Monica Padilla topic.

[LadyChatts]

I voted for Monica because I didn't want Natalie, Stephanie, and the girl from Brandon Hantz's season to make it on.  I remembered nothing about her, but I considered that a good thing.  I've re-watched Samoa, and I still don't remember her.  In her interviews, she comes off like the poor man's Parvati.  I don't think she'll be as successful as Parvati was her second time, however.

[ByaNose]

I'm always fascinated by the invisible edit. I'm sure Monica thought she was giving great confessionals while on a winning tribe. Now, she gets home and nada, nothing, zilch with air time. The episode where she's doing a lot of talking is probably the day she's voted out. Bummer!

[LadyChatts]

Monica has more airtime in the bonus clips online than she's had on the show.  Same for Ciera (which is funny since Ciera had all this pre-show hype and Probst's seal of approval for being the "mom slayer".  And now, nothing).  Both girls talked a big game in their pre-game interviews.  Whether they actually are able to follow through on their game plans or just become invisible sheep until their ousters remains to be seen.  Monica made some comment on twitter that she would rather have the experience even if she got zero airtime (this in response to people on twitter asking her why she's getting no airtime).  It must be frustrating, though.  

Edited October 9, 2015 by LadyChatts

[ProfCrash]

Kass has barely had any air time. Tasha had little air time until this epiisode. Most of Bayon has received little air time because they have been winning. We see Joe and the Alpha's with a little Stephen for comedic relief.

[BigRedCheese]

I don't know, what is there really to show from people that are on a winning tribe and haven't really had to play the game yet? I know we got Savage bragging about his hot wife, Jeremy missing his pregnant wife, and Fishbach not fitting in, other than that, there's probably not much to show. 

[Oholibamah]

I don't know, what is there really to show from people that are on a winning tribe and haven't really had to play the game yet? I know we got Savage bragging about his hot wife, Jeremy missing his pregnant wife, and Fishbach not fitting in, other than that, there's probably not much to show.

Agreed. In fact, I think this is the same reason people don't remember her: Galu won everything premerge and then screwed up postmerge, so her number of editable episodes was truncated to 5 or 6. What we DID see of her in Samoa was pretty impressive, so I hope she gets to do some damage this season.

[LadyChatts]

I don't even remember her from Samoa.  I get that there hasn't been any reason to focus on the Bayon tribe.  I don't know, maybe she will show up halfway through the series spouting confessionals like a crazy person ala Natalie Bolton (equally invisible until Ozzy's blindside).  With all the other personalities, I'm not sure I see that happening unless Monica has some significant impact on this game.  

Edited October 9, 2015 by LadyChatts

[Zuleikha]

Most of Bayon has received little air time because they have been winning. We see Joe and the Alpha's with a little Stephen for comedic relief.

Most of the Bayon women have received little air time. Yet strangely, the Survivor editors have found ways to include most of the Bayon men in every episode. Personally, I would rather have seen some indication of what Ciera, Monica, Kimmi, Kass, and Keith are actually doing instead of the Savage story of how he met his supermodel wife or the Stephen-as-outsider-at-Camp-Macho clips. It would give me a more complete picture of the tribal dynamics, which I would like to have at this point. 

[Guest]

I wouldn't mind seeing anything from Bayon -- even chores or chit chat -- and less of the Abi and Jeff show.  This is pretty much their formula, though.  Pick a few stories and hammer us to death with them.  

 

I kind of wish they'd streamline the show to show more tribe footage.  I zone out for the challenge explanations, the boilerplate Probst talk ("Ciera, hand over the immunity necklace.  Immunity- back up for grabs"  "Is that worth playing for?"  etc.) and the TC voting footage.  

[LadyChatts]

There's an interview with Probst out this week where he's raving about Jeff, and the attention he's getting.  He compared him to Trump and said that, for now, he is who everyone is talking about this season.  And then there's Abi.  Every episode so far has had a good chunk of those two, and it hasn't helped Ta'Keo lost the first two IC so there was extra focus on their camp.  Probst also goes on and on every season that he wishes they had more time to show what was going on-but would that even matter?  I wish we got extra footage similar to the BB feeds.  I don't know how they would do that since this isn't live, but it'd be nice to get more camp footage like we see in the secret scenes, and less confessionals as the bonus clips.

Edited October 10, 2015 by LadyChatts

[Zuleikha]

He compared him to Trump and said that, for now, he is who everyone is talking about this season.

He's one of the only ones we're seeing! Of course, he's who everyone's talking about. Although I admit that I wouldn't want more screentime for someone like Monica to come at the expense of Varner because Varner is funny in his talking hands. I want it to come out of Terry's or Savage's or Stephen's or Spencer's.

[Jersey Guy 87]

Most of the Bayon women have received little air time. Yet strangely, the Survivor editors have found ways to include most of the Bayon men in every episode. Personally, I would rather have seen some indication of what Ciera, Monica, Kimmi, Kass, and Keith are actually doing instead of the Savage story of how he met his supermodel wife or the Stephen-as-outsider-at-Camp-Macho clips. It would give me a more complete picture of the tribal dynamics, which I would like to have at this point. 

 

This is the problem with the way the editing goes - when the tribes merge you've got very little feel for the tribal dynamics for the dominant tribe.  And when the only attention the dominant tribe gets is focused on a few people (the Bayon men, in this case) you have no real idea who the players are. Which makes the first couple of votes post merge seem strange because there's no real info on how some of these people are interacting.  At this point I probably couldn't pick Monica out of a lineup.

[ByaNose]

I am curious to see how far the invisible edit goes. If she makes the merge will she get more airtime? If she does make the merge and still doesn't get any airtime she must have been very boring this time around or she's a quick boot before jury. I remember when Brenda played in Fans vs Favorites you never saw her which was odd since she was a huge favorite. I think they showed working out way down on the beach away from the action. To this day (I've been watching since Day 1) I don't understand how the edit completely ignores people. Especially, who were specifically chosen for an "All Star Season". Monica might never have been in any majority that affected the game and/or the winner. Maybe, tonight it will be her lucky night.

[LadyChatts]

I never get the invisible edit in a season like this, either.  Maybe down the road Monica will make some big splash and get airtime, and that's what they are waiting for.  However, I still think of seasons where people made it extremely far in the game, yet still got little to no airtime, even in their boot episode.  Max and Jenn are doing the Survivor Power Rankings this season, and Max keeps saying they need to let Monica speak.  Yet when we've heard her speak, it's been something simple and minor, like she hopes she doesn't get voted out for being one of the smallest on her tribe.  Even in the bonus clips she hasn't had anything of interest to really say.  This is the problem with AS seasons, is that sometimes a person who has one persona the first season completely changes the second time around.  Or, they may try to duplicate the persona again, but are up against people that can do it better than them, as well as bigger favorites that came after them that is stealing the limelight.  Look at Stephen for example.  He's been a mess in the editing so far.

[Guest]

Since no one remembers Monica from her first go-round, maybe she's just a quiet, careful player.  

 

I felt like Brenda came out and said before her second season that she was going to be more humble or something, then we didn't see her much at all.  I figured it was because she didn't like her footage of acting like a bit of a mastermind her first time so she kept her mouth shut the second time.  She didn't bite when they tried to tease out the weird confessional footage where the players claim they're the king or the puppetmaster and so-and-so's a snake and whosit's a cancer, etc.  

[LadyChatts]

Another Monica confessional.  And this one might actually go somewhere.  Whether forming a girls alliance works for her or backfires is another story.

[kikaha]

I thought Brenda got a low-key edit for a couple of reasons.  One, just what ByaNose said: Brenda purposely played in the background, avoiding not only drama and action but often the other players.  Two, I wonder if the Survivor producers didn't like what Brenda did to Dawn at FTC.  I sure didn't.  Felt it was cruel, vindictive and totally unnecessary. 

 

So put those two factors together, combine it with the facts that Brenda didn't drive the strategy and wasn't a challenge beast, and no surprise we didn't see much of her.

 

Monica's confessional this episode makes me think we'll see more of her before long. 

[KimberStormer]

Brenda wasn't a challenge beast?

I like that Monica is thinking strong women, but I don't feel there's much hope or future for that in this season, I must say.

[NutMeg]

Brenda WAS a challenge beast, and apparently was singing a lot her second time around, in the (justified) hope that CBS wouldn't fork for the rights to the songs. Now, why that was her strategy doesn't make any sense to me, but one clue is how on the family visit she told her dad that he would be so proud of her because she had been humble. Methinks her dad - or rather her need to be approved by him - killed her game.

 

Back on topic: Monica talks this season! finally! and maybe that means she lasts, or foreshadows something, because she talks about strategy (when most of the manly men are mute on strategy). Not ready to call it the winner shot, but who knows? We've seen weirder before:)  

 

And now that we've seen her, she looks much older that on her first season. Not a ditch on her, I'm way older, but maybe she's a different person now? You know, not reacting based on her emotions but with an end game in sight... One can hope!

[Special K]

Happy to hear Monica talk.

 

Speaking of Brenda, it is disconcerting to keep seeing her modeling clothes on Zappos.  Perhaps I shop more than you guys do... :)

[CletusMusashi]

Goodbye, Monica! I don't remember you on your first season, either, but I will miss those little purple shorts.

[LadyChatts]

I feel like Monica is going to be that girl at the reunion show where everyone wonders if someone crashed the stage because they can't remember the girl sitting in the last row on the end.  At least she has a sense of humor about her invisible edit.  She didn't do anything for me, and I am happy Spencer and Kelly survived over her.  I actually thought it would come down to her and Kimmi, and we'd see a situation like Angkor where suddenly Spencer and Kelly went from the minority vote to power votes.

 

I wonder if Monica got any parting shots at her tribe after she was voted off.  Would have been funny if they completely left that out as well, considering Monica has gotten little screen time all season.  Parvati really needs to give a course on how to successfully pull together an all girls alliance.

Edited October 22, 2015 by LadyChatts

[LanceM]

Monica's problem was that she is not crazy, loud or obnoxious. She is a level headed intelligent normal person and unfortunately unless a player iike that goes deep in the game (or goes to tribal council every episode like Angkor) you are going to be pretty much invisible up to your boot episode. Sad to see her go.

[LadyChatts]

https://youtu.be/SIFACAC_eL4

 

Monica's day after vid.  She mentions that she played aggressively and hopes she made people proud with the game she played, even if she didn't get far.  Poor girl didn't even realize she wasn't going to get much of an edit this season.  Can't wait to read her interviews.  She sounded a little bitter about being targeted and didn't understand why they went after her.

Edited October 22, 2015 by LadyChatts

[LanceM]

Monica is on periscope tonight

 

https://t.co/wUvvatRUBG

 

(Really not too much to see her except some drunk Survivors)

Edited October 22, 2015 by LanceM

[LadyChatts]

Ah, so this is what Periscope is.  I've heard of it, but never bothered to check it out anytime I see one posted.  Nice to see Monica playing nice with Abi, especially for her birthday.  However, she strikes me as a little bitter.  

[loki567]

Bitter? No way.

 

"I love Kimmi but she's so stuuuuuupid!" I think her exit interviews are going to be fun. 

Edited October 22, 2015 by loki567

[LanceM]

I did enjoy how she kept on saying how much production sucked.

[LadyChatts]

Bitter? No way.

 

"I love Kimmi but she's so stuuuuuupid!" I think her exit interviews are going to be fun. 

 

Lol yeah maybe "bitter" is too harsh.  I don't know, between watching her day after vid, and that, something about her kind of bugs.  I do expect her to be asked about her invisible edit and her trying to back it up.  Did she say that she would have been the first boot if Bayon made it to TC before the swap?  

 

I do like seeing she's out with Abi.  I don't know if this is a one time thing for her birthday or if they are actually friends, but it is nice to see considering the bad rap Abi has.  

Edited October 22, 2015 by LadyChatts

[loki567]

No, I was joking. She's clearly bitter.

[LanceM]

She wasn't bitter in her closing comments on the episode tonight or in her day after video, of course in both those incidents she was sober unlike tonight where she has clearly had a few.

[ProfCrash]

I have not seen any of her videos yet but she could also be pissed because of her total lack of air time.

[peachmangosteen]

And maybe she's pissed because, you know, Kimmi really was soooooooooo stupid.

[Jersey Guy 87]

I'm glad I no longer have to try to remember who Monica is and what season she first appeared on.

[Guest]

She didn't sound that bitter to me.  Compare her to Vytas, who said he would've preferred to have not gone at all, or Jeff, who trashed Tasha's personal life in the press, or Shirin, who did the same to Woo.  I guess the difference is I agree with her that Kimmi played incredibly stupidly.  

 

Interesting she said that Kelly wasn't playing at all.  

[LadyChatts]

http://cartermatt.com/183761/survivor-cambodia-second-chance-exclusive-monica-padilla-on-blindside-kimmi-targets-and-more/

 

One of Monica's boot interviews.  Here she does say she told Kimmi she wanted to do a girls alliance:

Is there anything that you think was that bad about what you said? I feel like had you said it to a Kelley Wentworth or maybe a Shirin, if she was still around, you would be fine.

No, and we were tight! It’s not like I said it to a dude. Kimmi’s a girl! I said ‘let’s do a girls’ alliance,’ and then you go back and you rat me out, and you call me a snake? (Laughs.) Let’s reanalyze who the real snake in the grass is!

 

 

I wonder if she would have been more successful approaching someone different with the idea for a girls alliance.  However, I believe that idea was destined to fail this season.  I can see why it has only been successful twice, and in reality, Parvati and Kim got lucky it worked for them.  Monica said she and Kimmi were tight and she still seems puzzled why she was targeted.

 

I mentioned in Kimmi's thread that I'm glad the vote went the way it did for selfish reasons, from the prospective of a TV viewer.  However, I would have found it equally amusing if Stephen and Jeremy spared Monica, knowing they could point the finger at Kimmi for trying to blindside her.  It would have came at the expense of Kelly, but for TV viewing purposes, it would have been epic.  Also, this is reason #1,000 why I would be no good at this game.

[kikaha]

LC, good find.  I'm starting to think Monica was obsessed with a women's alliance.  Before the season started, she made alliances... with women.  During the game, she wanted the women to stay strong together.  She hoped to form a women's alliance, and blurted out that wish to someone who had zero interest in it.  Worse yet, that person (correctly) saw this posed a threat to their existing alliance. 

 

Poor play all around by Monica, from her strategy (how would a women's alliance work this season?)... to her challenge abilities... to her social miscues.  Another player who pretty much buried herself.  It also sounds to me like she let her desire for a women's alliance cloud her thinking. 

[Special K]

Before the season started, she made alliances... with women. 

 

I'm starting to think this might be a theme of this season -- those who pre-made alliances seem to be getting screwed (Vytas, Jeff, maybe Monica?) and those who are playing by the seat of their pants (Spencer, Jeremy, even Keith!) seem to be in OK position.

 

We all know that one of the keys to Survivor is being flexible and adjusting as you go, based on your circumstances and the people you have to work with.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Special K

[LadyChatts]

I'm starting to think this might be a theme of this season -- those who pre-made alliances seem to be getting screwed (Vytas, Jeff, maybe Monica?) and those who are playing by the seat of their pants (Spencer, Jeremy, even Keith!) seem to be in OK position.

 

We all know that one of the keys to Survivor is being flexible and adjusting as you go, based on your circumstances and the people you have to work with.

 

I'd throw Shirin in there, too.  And it almost doomed Spencer.  One thing about Shirin is not only did she have the pre-game alliance, she knew who she wanted out first and wouldn't budge on it.  Then made the mistake of targeting Varner and ignoring the advice of one of her allies about who to talk to.

 

Monica seemed to have her heart set on this girls alliance, and in her pre-game interviews she said she wanted to be the new Parvati.  I knew she'd never be able to pull off what made Parvati successful.  She wasn't going to be some backstabbing queen puppet master manipulator flirt that got this particular set of women to vote in a bloc.  And she couldn't even read who she called her closest ally and realize that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows between the two of them.  If she sensed the slightest hesitation from Kimmi about her idea for a women's alliance, that's the time to say 'just kidding!'

 

Since I don't like Eliza, it is fun to read through her twitter this season because of some of her friends on here.  Needless to say she isn't a Kimmi fan anymore for voting off Monica, is still on the anti-Spencer getting airtime bandwagon, and said Monica's tribe was to blame for the RC loss, not her.  I think Eliza is more invested in their portrayal and how well they do than they are.

[KimberStormer]

Obsessed?  I just can't see what you're talking about.  I think this is venturing into just-world fallacy type area.  Not every episode of Survivor is a morality play or Greek tragedy where the bootee's flaws lead to their ouster.  Sometimes you're playing with idiots who torpedo themselves for no reason: Danielle voted out by Russell, Monica voted out by Kimmi.

[LadyChatts]

http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-monica-her-lack-of-air-time-more-of-a-question-for-cbs

 

Another Monica interview.  I think she will be best remembered for getting no airtime, despite saying she played an aggressive game.  This one she mentions that she had pre-game alliances; problem for her is, those people either didn't get picked (Teresa, Shane, Mikayla) or wound up on the other tribe (Wentworth, PG).  Teresa has been a very vocal supporter of Monica, so that would explain it.  It just kind of surprised me that Teresa was so supportive and calling CBS out for not showing the feisty side of her.

Edited October 23, 2015 by LadyChatts

[Oscirus]

So now that we have Monica in interviews and Stephen both saying that Monica was targeting Jeremy now it becomes more apparent why she was voted out.  So her biggest problem was getting stuck on the same tribe with the wrong alpha ( one who actually socializes with everyone).

[Zuleikha]

Where did Monica talk about targeting Jeremy? I didn't see that in any of her interviews that I found.

[wonald]

Read Fish's latest blog. He explains Monica's faults succinctly.

[LadyChatts]

In reading more of Monica's interviews, she comes across more bitter about her lack of airtime (and the fact that Spencer is getting so much-but seriously, I don't think he's getting anymore than the likes of Abi, Andrew, or Jeremy, for starters).  I'm kind of disappointed that she has the 'oh well' attitude at the whole experience.  Yeah, she lost, she did worse than she did before and got zero screen time when she claims she was playing an aggressive game.  But be grateful you at least got the opportunity.  Some of these second chancers are depressing in their bitter interviews.  It's like the concept of possibly being the first boot or doing so much worse than your first time isn't even a thought to them.  Everyone that has gotten the boot so far has deserved it.

[Oscirus]

I'm not going to lie, if I got booted early especially on my second chance, I'd be bitter as hell.  She should probably be careful making actionable statements but yea I can see why she's mad.

[kikaha]

Where did Monica talk about targeting Jeremy? I didn't see that in any of her interviews that I found.

Fishbach says that in his blog. 

[rose711]

Monica was loyal to her alliance. I don't know what any of them were thinking in voting her out. Spencer is clearly a bigger threat than Monica.

I don't see Monica talking about a women's alliance as any different then Jeremy talking about needing to keep big guys around

[LadyChatts]

http://www.people.com/article/survivor-cambodia-second-chance-monica-padilla-exit-interview

 

Another Monica interview.  She definitely admits to being bitter and, without coming right out and saying it was rigged, believes she was sent home to keep Kelly and Spencer around, who the fans probably wanted to see more.  She also said she wouldn't do it again knowing what she knows now.  Of course she has to insult Kimmi by saying Kimmi wouldn't be smart enough to come up with getting rid of her on her own (personally, I might tell Ms. Lawyer that Kimmi at least is smarter than her since she never even saw the blindside coming and had no idea her #1 ally didn't like her).  And, you know, Kimmi is still there.

 

How she even got up for the vote is still beyond me.

Edited October 25, 2015 by LadyChatts