S38: Lauren O'Connell

[Whimsy]

Meet Lauren

Age: 21

Hometown: Bakersfield, California

Current Residence: Waco, Texas

Occupation: Student at Baylor University

Personal Claim to Fame: I believe my claim to fame is my resilience and grit. Throughout my physically demanding career as a collegiate athlete on the Baylor Women’s soccer team, I’ve endured four orthopedic surgeries, rehabilitated physically and emotionally in order to remain an integral part of an Elite 8 team, and will obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Humanities (in 4 years!) from a phenomenal university while prioritizing service and volunteerism in the community of Waco.

Hobbies: Binge-watching multiple Netflix series at once, sleeping through my alarm and eating a party-sized peanut M&Ms bag in one sitting.

Pet Peeves: People who are intolerant of someone else’s personal opinions and beliefs, unnecessary rudeness, and those misguided people who choose Twizzlers over Redvines.

If You Could Have 3 Things on the Island What Would They Be and Why? My Bible to remind me that I can only find my worth in HIM. Sunscreen. But only SPF 25, because a little tan looks good on everyone. M&Ms.

SURVIVOR Contestant You Are Most Like:  Parvati Shallow is my spirit animal. Her infectious smile, smart wit, and expertise in using her sexuality has won her a place in my heart and I feel like my gameplay could be similar to hers. I also strongly relate to Kelley Wentworth’s gameplay. She is unapologetically herself, dominates the physical demands of Survivor, and is a threat in any type of challenge. Ideally, I would play the game as a perfect mix of these two powerful females.

 

[Bryce Lynch]

Hmm.  I like a lot about her profile, but I'm not sure how I feel about a young, Christian woman using her sexuality to manipulate men.

[azshadowwalker]

1 minute ago, Bryce Lynch said:

Hmm.  I like a lot about her profile, but I'm not sure how I feel about a young, Christian woman using her sexuality to manipulate men.

She thinks Baylor, one of the most scandal-ridden universities in the country precisely for its treatment of young women, is a positive institution. I don't think she has much sense. 

[Nashville]

1 minute ago, azshadowwalker said:

She thinks Baylor, one of the most scandal-ridden universities in the country precisely for its treatment of young women, is a positive institution. I don't think she has much sense. 

What 21yo does? 😉

My first impulse would be to chalk it up to a lack of real-world exposure, rather than a lack of common sense - which isn’t really so common these days, anyway,

[Bryce Lynch]

12 minutes ago, azshadowwalker said:

She thinks Baylor, one of the most scandal-ridden universities in the country precisely for its treatment of young women, is a positive institution. I don't think she has much sense. 

I'm not sure the acts of 3 football players and the coach for not dealing with them properly, necessarily reflect on a student body of over 16,000.   

[jay741982]

On 2/11/2019 at 8:09 AM, Whimsy said:

Meet Lauren

Age: 21

Hometown: Bakersfield, California

Current Residence: Waco, Texas

Occupation: Student at Baylor University

Personal Claim to Fame: I believe my claim to fame is my resilience and grit. Throughout my physically demanding career as a collegiate athlete on the Baylor Women’s soccer team, I’ve endured four orthopedic surgeries, rehabilitated physically and emotionally in order to remain an integral part of an Elite 8 team, and will obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Humanities (in 4 years!) from a phenomenal university while prioritizing service and volunteerism in the community of Waco.

Hobbies: Binge-watching multiple Netflix series at once, sleeping through my alarm and eating a party-sized peanut M&Ms bag in one sitting.

Pet Peeves: People who are intolerant of someone else’s personal opinions and beliefs, unnecessary rudeness, and those misguided people who choose Twizzlers over Redvines.

If You Could Have 3 Things on the Island What Would They Be and Why? My Bible to remind me that I can only find my worth in HIM. Sunscreen. But only SPF 25, because a little tan looks good on everyone. M&Ms.

SURVIVOR Contestant You Are Most Like:  Parvati Shallow is my spirit animal. Her infectious smile, smart wit, and expertise in using her sexuality has won her a place in my heart and I feel like my gameplay could be similar to hers. I also strongly relate to Kelley Wentworth’s gameplay. She is unapologetically herself, dominates the physical demands of Survivor, and is a threat in any type of challenge. Ideally, I would play the game as a perfect mix of these two powerful females.

I couldn't stand Parvati! Arrogant, shallow stuck up woman. Is she on Kelly's Tribe? If so Instant ally lol

[LadyChatts]

2 hours ago, jay741982 said:

I couldn't stand Parvati! Arrogant, shallow stuck up woman. Is she on Kelly's Tribe? If so Instant ally lol

They are (what are the odds).  So it begs the question, will she be her own woman and play her own game and manipulate the men or just follow Kelley around star struck?

[jay741982]

9 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

They are (what are the odds).  So it begs the question, will she be her own woman and play her own game and manipulate the men or just follow Kelley around star struck?

Maybe both? But her wanting to be like Parv's arrogant ass makes me see why Jeff said shes one to watch 

[LadyChatts]

I didn't know she was on Jeff's radar.  Reason enough not to like her!

[TVFan1]

I'll have to see what she's like on the show. Pre-game, I like her. Attractive, looks strong, hopefully she has a sense of strategy. I can see her going far.

[Bryce Lynch]

On 2/12/2019 at 7:27 PM, jay741982 said:

I couldn't stand Parvati! Arrogant, shallow stuck up woman. Is she on Kelly's Tribe? If so Instant ally lol

I liked Parvati for what she was, a smart, player who used her sexuality to manipulate men, and was very successful.  But, I think she is a poor role model for a young, Christian woman.  

[SVNBob]

On 2/11/2019 at 1:08 PM, Bryce Lynch said:

I'm not sure the acts of 3 football players and the coach for not dealing with them properly, necessarily reflect on a student body of over 16,000.   

As the sibling of a Baylor alumnus, I have to concur with this statement.

There's been a lot of talk in the most recent episode thread about Lauren's relative badassery as compared to the others in this season.   Mainly because she's been one of the best challenge performers throughout the season, even though she's been eating the least of all of them and is thus in a weakened condition.

Which raises a question I think I saw somewhere on Reddit...  What would Lauren have been like if she'd been on a tribe with Joe at the start?  With Joey Amazing providing her fuel, how badass would she truly be?

[Eolivet]

Anybody starting to get Michele Fitzgerald vibes from Lauren? On the outside of a big alliance (didn't Aubry's group run post-merge), had to save herself (Michele won immunity, Lauren appears to be a comp threat and appears to have made savvy alliances). I know it's early, but I wonder if I'm seeing things.

[TVFan1]

Seeing Lauren win would make me so happy.

[peachmangosteen]

I kinda see it, but I feel like we heard slightly more from Michele about her strategy than we do from Lauren. Lauren has basically only got "I'm sick because I can't eat" confessionals. That might have just been really long foreshadowing for her passing out though (which, if so, a bit overkill lol), so it'll be interesting to see where her edit goes now.

[peachmangosteen]

I was just thinking, did Lauren get a confessional after she passed out? I don't remember her getting one. It's weird to me that she didn't get one about it.

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Lauren and David are about the only two people not playing a totally craptastic game.

I feel like several people think Lauren is playing a good game and I kinda don't get it. She got into a very tight 3-person alliance with Wardog/Kelley, although we don't really know how that happened. Could have just been because she was a huge Kelley fan so she just latched onto her. She found an idol, which good for her. But she's really done nothing else. She hasn't won any ICs yet. She hasn't been the driving force behind any moves. Her attempt to move the target from David to Ron was not great to say the least. 

Now granted, several other people have made some pretty glaring errors so I guess her just sitting back and not doing much does make her game a bit better than the others lol.

[Nashville]

10 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I feel like several people think Lauren is playing a good game and I kinda don't get it.

IMHO Lauren has been hitting the Survivor equivalent of an “unsweet spot” - not playing well enough to win Challenges, but lasting long enough in them to make people fear her as a physical comp threat.

[blackwing]

On 4/12/2019 at 4:29 PM, peachmangosteen said:

I feel like several people think Lauren is playing a good game and I kinda don't get it. She got into a very tight 3-person alliance with Wardog/Kelley, although we don't really know how that happened. Could have just been because she was a huge Kelley fan so she just latched onto her. She found an idol, which good for her. But she's really done nothing else. She hasn't won any ICs yet. She hasn't been the driving force behind any moves. Her attempt to move the target from David to Ron was not great to say the least. 

Now granted, several other people have made some pretty glaring errors so I guess her just sitting back and not doing much does make her game a bit better than the others lol.

I agree completely.  Some are saying that she is playing a great game but as far as I can tell, she is barely playing.  She got into a tight three person alliance with Kelly and Dan the Warthog, but it seems to me she has yet to make any kind of decision in this game.  All she does is do exactly what Kelly and Dan tell her to do.  The other players are noticing as well, saying that the three of them have always voted the exact same way every vote.

She's the very definition of a coattails player.  It's like Blood vs. Water when the tight and open alliance of Tyson, Monica and Gervase rolled over everyone but it was very obvious that Tyson was doing all of the driving.  In this case, Lauren is 100% squarely in the Gervase role.  Zero votes to win.

[KimberStormer]

I started to type this:

Quote

The thing is she has an actual alliance, unlike just about anybody else out there!  It's not a big alliance, but it's a real alliance!  So she's doing pretty good all things considered.

But then this week's episode happened, and the brilliant Wardog, in his wisdom, has put an end to that.  There are now no alliances at all.  Aurora has been all alone since Joe went out.  Rick lost David.  Gavin was included in the ephemeral 6 and Victoria was not.  Ron has now betrayed Julie.  And Wardog eliminated Kelley and backstabbed Lauren.  So literally nobody has any alliance whatsoever, there's not even any voting blocs.  Just a bunch of assholes on an island (and another group of assholes on a different island.)

[peachmangosteen]

I want her to organize Wardog's boot and just dominate the endgame or something so I have someone to root for. I feel like she'll just do the nothing she's been doing all season though and get voted out soon or be dragged along a bit longer but never do anything interesting.

[LadyChatts]

She’ll probably play her idol next episode just because, or get voted out with it.  I think she’s just been following Kelley’s lead and not playing her own game.  So it’ll be interesting next week if she just finds an alliance that’ll have her and do what they say, or actually make moves on her own.

Edited April 18, 2019 by LadyChatts

[jay741982]

On 4/18/2019 at 3:22 AM, KimberStormer said:

I started to type this:

But then this week's episode happened, and the brilliant Wardog, in his wisdom, has put an end to that.  There are now no alliances at all.  Aurora has been all alone since Joe went out.  Rick lost David.  Gavin was included in the ephemeral 6 and Victoria was not.  Ron has now betrayed Julie.  And Wardog eliminated Kelley and backstabbed Lauren.  So literally nobody has any alliance whatsoever, there's not even any voting blocs.  Just a bunch of assholes on an island (and another group of assholes on a different island.)

And Lauren was being dumb tonight thinking about not taking out Wardog even after the Betrayal!

[KimberStormer]

Meh, they always have footage of people saying "maybe not the person I'm definitely voting for", I don't put any stock in that.  That might have been taken from any point in the show.

[Rough Draft]

9 hours ago, KimberStormer said:

Meh, they always have footage of people saying "maybe not the person I'm definitely voting for", I don't put any stock in that.  That might have been taken from any point in the show.

Yeah, to me this episode looked pretty heavily edited in order to be misleading. I'm guessing Lauren and others spent a lot more time discussing the ouster of Warthog than they showed, especially after Rick won immunity (or at least that's what I prefer to believe, since I like Lauren and I'd hate to believe she was dumb enough to want to keep Warthog around after what he did to their alliance).

[SoCal Mema]

On 2/11/2019 at 11:08 AM, Bryce Lynch said:

I'm not sure the acts of 3 football players and the coach for not dealing with them properly, necessarily reflect on a student body of over 16,000.   

It was a little more than 3 football players and coach.  You might want to read, "Violated".

[KimberStormer]

Thing about Lauren, she has been to almost every tribal, only missing the Aubry vote, and has Survived them all, so far.  Since I'm assuming there will be an extra tribal thanks to the bullshit this season, I think that means that if she makes F3 she will have survived the same amount of tribals as Denise Stapley?

Still hoping she uses her idol in some dramatic fashion and takes away at least a tiny bit of tribal council spotlight from Rick.  It bugs me so much that he got the credit for this Ron thing, and if Julie goes to THE EDGE next it will take so long for the jury to learn otherwise that it might never matter.