Sugar: Epic, or Epic Fail?

This is hopefully going to be a weekly segment of the blog where I compare the latest castoff of Survivor: Heroes versus Villains to their performance on their original season. Then, their performance on HvV will be deemed either epic, or an epic fail. Think of it as being like a ghost race on Mario Kart. They’re only trying to beat their former selves. We’ll be starting with the very first player voted out of Samoa, Sugar.

First boot from Survivor and "pinup girl" Sugar Kiper

On her first season, Jessica “Sugar” Kiper was known as a “pin up model” during Survivor: Gabon, the 17th installment of the popular series. Do pinup girls even exist anymore? Who knows. One thing is for certain however, and that is that Sugar certainly stuck out in the minds of audience members. And that’s just the way she’d want it, fully admitting in pre show interviews that her return to Survivor was fueled by the desire to be “discovered”. There’s an overload of quotation marks used when describing Jessica, because she often times comes across as simply being artificial. Could the pinup girl traipsing through the jungle, hoping to be discovered be the real Jessica? Possibly. But somehow, there seems to be a disconnect between who she has decided to portray on television, and who “Sugar” is in real life.

In Gabon, Sugar made a point to betray people for enterainment of the viewers. She was pandering to what she believed the audience’s whims would be, and as such perhaps she was the greatest strategist the show has ever seen. While winning over audience members, Sugar’s unpredictable strategy and seemingly disingenuous mood swings made her plenty of enemies in the game. Even though she was able to make it to the final tribal council in her original season, she was unable to win a single jury vote. Corinne harshly summed up the attitude of her fellow castaways in her final speech.

When Sugar returned to partake in Heroes versus Villains, she was selected to be a member of the Heroes Tribe. But once again, Sugar came across as an abrasive persona instead of as a genuine human, rubbing her tribe mates the wrong way when she kept them up at night with her endless chatter. Though not seen on TV, it didn’t help that Sugar had attempted to form alliances with other cast members before ever stepping foot on the island, something that had been explicitly told not to do by production. Several cast members scorned the idea of pre game alliances in interviews, alluding to dislike of Sugar’s strategy before the game had even begun. Having been in Samoa only three days before being unanimously voted out (including by rumored beau JT Thomas), Sugar did little to be remembered by, though she was able to get in a few more sob scenes, earning contempt from fellow hero Colby who claimed her emotionally unstable behavior made it impossible for her to make it 3 days, “Let alone another 36.”

Sugar: EPIC FAIL

At least she was entertaining the first time around. This time, had her top ripped off in a challenge, chased Colby around the shelter, cried after losing the Heroes lead in the first immunity challenge, and then sat on the beach and cried more. This is what we call a Hero?

Not a happy camper, Sugar's emotions once again got the best of her.

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