Shocking Survivor 50 Twist: Boston Rob’s Hidden Influence on Jonathan Young Is Turning Heads

There’s no question Boston Rob Mariano belongs on the short list of the greatest Survivor players ever. And even though Boston Rob isn’t competing on Survivor 50, his influence is already showing up in the season.

As the premiere of Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans approached in February, Jonathan Young revealed to People that he had been preparing with Boston Rob for four years to get back on Survivor. Jonathan originally finished fourth after losing the firemaking challenge in Survivor 42.

Eight episodes into the season, it’s fair to say that time with Boston Rob appears to be paying off.

“I did a lot of psychological training with Boston Rob. For four years, I went to his house, trained, sat at his feet, and learned everything I could because my strategic game needed some work. Boston Rob helped me with that a lot. I completely changed my game. It was years of going to his house and talking to him about what I could do differently.”

Of course, viewers don’t know the exact details of those training sessions, and Jonathan still hasn’t fully taken control of the tribe the way early Boston Rob often would. Even so, there’s a noticeable calmness to Jonathan’s game this season that simply wasn’t there in Survivor 42.

Coming into the season, Jonathan was one of the biggest wild cards. He’s clearly a major physical threat in challenges and was valuable around camp, but he had struggled in the social and strategic parts of the game.

I wouldn’t call Jonathan a master strategist just yet. He still has work to do if he wants to last deep into the game after losing several allies in recent challenges. But his social game has clearly improved. He has stayed under the radar, hasn’t played too aggressively, and hasn’t made a long list of enemies.

When things have gone against him, he has impressed by staying composed, not spiraling, and still executing his plan when the moment opens up.

At least twice, Jonathan could have torpedoed his own game, but instead he held it together and then made stronger moves afterward.

The first came when Jonathan was left out of the vote to blindside Charlie Davis. Jonathan believed the target was Rizo Velovic, only to learn his allies had excluded him from the move. At that point, he could have gone full Ozzy Lusth, lashed out, demanded loyalty, and effectively talked himself out of the game.

Instead, Jonathan voiced his disappointment but handled it nearly perfectly. He made his tribe think he was on board with the plan, then struck when the game shifted in his favor. Jonathan ended up in a voting group with Chrissy Hofbeck, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Tiffany Ervin, and Kamilla Karthigesu. He gave the impression he was aligned with Tiff and Kamilla, then flipped and blindsided Kamilla to keep Chrissy.

After the merge, Jonathan essentially baited Dee Valladares at Tribal Council into losing her cool, which triggered a live Tribal Council. He didn’t seem openly rude, but he clearly applied pressure and let the panic build. Boston Rob would have likely done something very similar.

So what exactly did Boston Rob tell Jonathan to do on Survivor 50? He left him with three simple rules:

“One rule was to smile. Everybody wants to play with somebody who smiles. Number two, you want to win; nobody else wants you to win. Number three: control what you can control, and don’t worry about anything else. You can have a tribe swap and completely mess you up. Don’t worry about that. You can’t control it. Just worry about what you can control.”

That makes it easier to see how much Boston Rob’s guidance has influenced Jonathan so far. More than some other players, Jonathan has taken the twists and turns in stride and found ways to turn bad breaks into useful opportunities.

That said, Jonathan has also lost more allies in recent weeks since Dee Valladares’ vote, and he now finds himself in a difficult position. Some players clearly want to work with him, but the question is whether he can lean on the lessons Boston Rob taught him during the final stretch of the game. It’s now or never.

Right now, I’d place Jonathan with the fourth-best chance to win Survivor 50. He hasn’t fully taken over in challenges yet, but it’s easy to imagine him stringing together a few immunity wins or locking into the right alliance and making a deep run to the end based on how he’s played so far.

Jonathan may not win Survivor 50, but his game looks significantly stronger than it did the first time around.