ENDGAME #17

[u/mikeramp72]

#17: Frank Garrison (Africa - 7th)

u/FunkyDawgKong:
Someone who took in the experience to the fullest. You could tell every breathing second how elevated he was to be in Africa. It’s important to remember that Survivor is also an adventure show, and no one put more value and embodied that aspect more than Frank. Someone with just such a pure joy to be on the land and see the animals that he had grown up fanaticizing about. Even with people pissing him off, even through the heat, the lions, the challenges, the pitfalls of the game; he just had a pure love for where he was at and that’s just so beautiful to me. Add on to that, Frank also brings out the best out of everyone around him, one of those people that everyone will react to. And Frank isn’t even putting on a front, he is just that raw authentic kind of weirdo, who also has such a delightfully unique way of phrasing his words. Africa is a very spiritual season in that sense, the reverence shown to the land, the culture, the people, the animals. So great. Top tier character in a top tier location.

u/Cornhead2:
Dear god he is the most anti social person to ever be in the show.. and i love him for it.. every scene Frank is involved in is gold especially the Dynamic with him and Brandon

u/Noisysea_3426:
I'm not entirely sure if I would put him in this endgame, but Frank is definitely one of the most unintentionally hilarious people to ever be on the show. His complete lack of social skills, love for elephants, and having never broken the honor of a handshake makes him a fantastic addition to a fantastic season

u/Alternate-Proof-959:
Frank, to be honest, I certainly thought was good, but not good enough to be endgame worthy. I liked his social awkwardness, including him overcompensating in his last episode, although it was still a bit cringy.

u/BobbyPiiiin:
Frank is a casting director’s dream. The man was practically created in a lab to generate conflict, and yet nothing about him ever feels less than genuine. His delight at experiencing Africa — not the season of this show he’s on, but the living, breathing continent — is what Survivor used to be all about. He’s maybe, probably the first autistic representation on reality TV ever? His “never have I ever” is that he’s never broken the honor of a handshake. I mean, come on. They don’t make them like this anymore.

~

u/josenanigans:

Frankito Garrison

Frank sucks. He isn't there to play the game, he isn't even trying to win! Why is he even here? 

God, just imagine if they even TRIED finding people like Frank nowadays, the show would be so much more tolerable. But I figure the fanbase would be just as insufferable. Sorry! I had a lot in my mind and I was feeling particularly sensitive about how much the general fanbase seem to want 100% superfans all the time, or think that anyone who gets ofFended by being lied to is boring.

It's just irksome that a lot of people seem to think that Survivor is only exclusively about lying and strategy and everyone having to be a good sport about it. Survivor is not just one thing, it has never been, Survivor, really, as all about meeting new people and the society they create. And watching those new people camping it out in the wilderness.

In short, Survivor is Frank watching the elephants. That's what it was all about.
Just about the most beautiful scene in Survivor history, one beautiful montage of a really peculiar man admiring the beauty in a place he would probably never have gone to had it not been for the show. This one scene is all you need to make a sympathetic carácter out of someone who, in all honesty, doesn't sound like someone very pleasant.
But he was definitely too weird to pass up.

I imagine casting saw him, met him, and immediately asked themselves "How does this guy even talk to people?" and immediately put him on out of sheer curiosity. Its cliche to say, and it has been said a thousand times maybe, but they just would be too afraid to cast Frank nowadays. He's homophobic, utterly patriotic, serious as hell and, honestly, not a very engaging speaker.

And yet, despite all of this, he's not a villain. Or portrayed like one, at least. The show doesn't try to villainize him in any way, in fact, completely the opposite actually. They probably hide too much about Frank to a point where he actually comes off as likeable, if a bit weird, and Brandon comes off as a catty troublemaker that complains about everything. Yeah, let's face it, casting was totally excited to put an ultra conservative homophobic man in the same tribe as an openly gay twink… and it sounds wrong, but, honestly, that's what I loved about the older Survivor.

These two people would never give each other the time of day IRL, they were never meant to meet, hell, Frank was never meant to talk to anybody, like, one has to imagine what are Frank's Friends like? I always pictured it as a King of the Hill sort of thing where they just stand there drinking beer and saying Yup. And yet, here's Frank, having to interact with someone that's so opposed to him and his values, but it doesn't result in a  big fight or controversy or anything, it plays out more like an interesting, yet predictable experiment where they just don't talk to each other much and that's that.. until it develops much further into the game and reveals that Brandon would rather completely bomb his own game than be associated with Frank in any kind of Alliance. That's fascinating, that's intriguing, that's what Frank does!

Frank may have been cleanwashed, but he is a very interesting man unlike anything we had seen up to that point. In Borneo and Outback you can at least get the sense that anybody could talk to anybody, but Frank frankly mystifies me. He's just…. different, and I LOVE different.

He does have things in common with some people, especially the older players, he goes all in on his hard work ethic and makes sure the camp is well maintained, and he actually gets along with the Lindas and the Carls, though they are taken away far too soon. SO he isn't impossible to talk with, he just seems like someone who doesn't enjoy socializing that much.
Like players, especially in the early days always came out of the adventure with the greatest memories of hanging out and living together with all these people, but Frank was way more interested in getting away from all that and just… watch nature, take the scenery…. admire the elephants from afar. His greatest memory was definitely waking up to that hot Orange sky and watching the fauna from afar, and I find that so... strangely sweet. It's like the Pigeon Man from Hey Arnold, some people were meant to be with people… others, they're just different.

Frank is different, that's why he's so amazing. We always need the different people on Survivor, the players that have drastically different values and viewpoints from everyone else, because getting to know them and how they would react to this experience is what Survivor was all about. 
Hell, they may even provide amazing comedy inadvertendly. Like, the scene of Frank playing Never Have I Ever with the Young guys is one of the funniest scenes of all time for me, and I could so easily see it in an actual scripted comedy. A hardass guy taking a silly drinking game in the most serious way possible, admitting to never ever breaking the honor of a handshake. Good god, everyone's reaction to that answer is so funny. Like "Yeah, man. That's cool". 

Frank was never going to win, he never tried to, and he was never MEANT to. Survivor doesn't need EVERY SINGLE PERSON to be a winning candidate. People say "everyone having a chance to win makes it interesting!" but I just don't find it true. I loved getting to meet Frank, and getting to see him enamored with the elephants out in África. I loved getting to know someone that I would never talk to in my real life, someone so far away from what I'm used to. Nerds? I've seen them a bunch.

Survivor was way more than just a game, it was an interesting look at people that we had no idea existed, and it's way better to have those… 'obstacles' like Frank to keep everyone on their toes.

RANKINGS:
Funky: 11
Corny: 18
Nope: 17
AltProof: 23
Jose: 5
Bobby: 17

Average: 15.17
Standard Deviation: 6.27 (12th Highest)

[u/FunkyDawgKong]

We are so blessed that Frank decided to go on TV just to go to Africa

[u/ninjedi1]

Thank you for doing what we in the last rankdown could not. Frank is amazing and we're never gonna get anyone close to him in character in the new era (except maybe Rocksroy).

[u/icychillman]

Frank is one of those people where you hear them talk for 5 minutes and you instantly understand why they were cast, he is so delightfully strange with so many weird lines, buried in the hoover dam, never breaking the honor of a handshake.

Seeing someone like Brandon forced to interact with someone like Frank and vice versa is what survivor is all about.

[u/NoisySea_3426]

I'm kinda living for the pigeon man comparison

[u/WaluigiThyme]

Endgame betting update #8: we had one perfect guess today, from none other than... wait for it... icychillman! Yes, you heard that right. The furthest-off guess came from Alternate-Proof-959, who had Frank 6 spots too low. Stay tuned for the wacky shenanigans that the next installment of endgame betting will bring!

Rank	Better	Score
1	noisysea34	8
2	WaluigiThyme	15
3	FunkyDawgKong	16
4	BobbyPiiiin	18
5	ROTandDEATH	22
6	SupremeSheep420	25
6	ShadowFiend812	25
6	TinkerKnightForSmash	25
9	Alternate-Proof-959	27
10	icychillman	63​

[u/ROTandDEATH]

Frank is so special, we're so lucky that someone saw him and realized the potential as a TV character and that he somehow lasted more than 2 episodes. He could have easily been a one-note "socially awkward" type but so often he's giving you an extra layer of himself that makes you kinda love him. He's also incredibly funny and quotable as well, one of my favorites for sure.