Parvati Shallow

Patricia "Parvati" Shallow was a contestant in Survivor: Cook Islands, also is the winner in Survivor: Micronesia and the runner-up in Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

Regarded as one of the best players to ever compete, she is known for her charm, cunning, physical ability in challenges and strategic mindset by creating an all-female alliance that dominated her Micronesia game.

Profile
Parvati is the oldest of three siblings on a commune in Vero Beach, Florida. She and her family moved to Atlanta when she was 11 years old. Parvati went to the University of Georgia, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism with minors in French and Italian. While in college, Parvati was a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house.

Survivor: Cook Islands
Shallow originally appeared as part of the Rarotonga tribe along with Adam Gentry, Jonathan Penner, Jessica Smith, and Candice Woodcock. Her tribe did not face any danger for the first six days as they had immunity. When the four tribes were merged into two, Shallow and Gentry remained in Rarotonga while their other tribemates were sent to Aitutaki. Shallow survived her tribe's next three Tribal Councils as J.P. Calderon, Stephannie Favor, and Cristina Coria were voted off. When the contestants were down to twelve, a new twist called "Mutiny" was presented where anybody could change tribe affiliations. Shallow's former tribemates Penner and Woodcock decided to jump back to Rarotonga, thus having all remaining Caucasian contestants on the same tribe. Rarotonga lost the next two Immunity challenges and Shallow remained loyal to her "White Alliance" by eliminating Brad Virata, Rebecca Borman, and Jenny Guzon-Bae.

At the merge, despite coming with a 5–4 member advantage over Aitutaki, Shallow found herself at the minority as Penner betrayed his former tribemates and joined the Aitu 4 in voting out Nathan Gonzalez. After alliance member Candice was eliminated, Shallow and Gentry found themselves fighting for survival. They talked to Yul Kwon about voting out Penner (who betrayed their alliance) first in exchange for their jury votes, a plan which succeeded. On Day 36, Shallow was voted out in a 4–2 vote when the Aitu 4 saw her craftiness as more of a threat than Gentry's physical strength. As a juror, she cast her vote for runner up Ozzy Lusth.

Survivor: Micronesia
Parvati returned to compete for a second time as part of the all-star Malakal tribe. She initially formed a strong alliance with her fellow Survivor: Cook Islands contestant Ozzy Lusth and former Survivor: China contestants Amanda Kimmel and James Clement. After their tribe lost the first Immunity Challenge, they tried swinging Jon Dalton over to their side to gain a majority over the alliance of Yau-Man Chan, Ami Cusack, Eliza Orlins, and Jonathan Penner. However, Dalton was voted out instead as he was deemed as untrustworthy. Shallow then made a pact with Cirie Fields to go all the way to the final three with Kimmel. After losing the 3rd Immunity Challenge, Shallow was targeted by the opposing alliance but her alliance (now with Cirie) succeeded in voting off strategic threat Chan.

At the tribal switch, Shallow and Clement were separated from their alliance as they moved to Airai. However, she remained safe as her tribe won the remaining tribal Immunity Challenges. On day 20, she made a deal with Natalie Bolton to an alliance with Clement and Alexis Jones plus a final four deal with Jones and Kimmel, both of which Bolton accepted.

At the merge, Shallow found herself in a good position as she was allied with six (Jones, Kimmel, Fields, Bolton, Lusth, Clement) of the 9 people left. During the 10th Immunity Challenge, Shallow convinced Jason Siska to step down from the challenge so that she could win Immunity, which worked (under the condition that the tribe would not vote for Siska). However, Shallow's "Couples Alliance" decided to turn back on what they said and vote off Siska. Fields saw this as an opportunity to blindside physical threat Lusth and needed Shallow for it to work, which she agreed to. She recruited her Airai female allies Bolton and Jones to the plan, and Lusth was voted off 5–4. After Lusth was voted off, Shallow found herself in a failed attempt to patch things up with Clement and Kimmel (who kept her distrust to herself). The five remaining women then formed an alliance to vote off the men, starting with Siska. However, when Clement was evacuated and Erik Reichenbach won Immunity, they were forced to vote off one of their own. Kimmel was the intended target, a plan which Shallow did not want to be part of. She then helped Kimmel in her quest to find the Hidden Immunity Idol (which she found buried under the tribal flag) and together, they voted off possible jury threat Alexis.

Shallow made it all the way to the final three with Fields and Kimmel (as promised) However, she was shocked to learn that only two of them would face the jury. She was eliminated first at the Final Immunity Challenge but was chosen to be in the Final Two by Kimmel. At the Final Tribal Council, Shallow convinced the jury to vote for her because of her aggressive game play compared to her previous season. Despite being accused of being a mean person by Eliza Orlins and a backstabber (by Ozzy Lusth), the jury decided to award Shallow the title of Sole Survivor with a vote of 5–3 against Kimmel.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Parvati returned to play Survivor for a third time as a part of the Villains tribe, where she found herself in the minority, being considered a threat by several tribe members, mostly the men. With this, she quickly accepted an alliance with Russell Hantz and Danielle DiLorenzo. Any plotting against Parvati was postponed when the Villains tribe won the first two Immunity Challenges, but they lost the third on Day 8. Parvati was immediately targeted for being a huge social and strategic threat, and also for having a possible alliance with three of the Heroes who became tribemates with her in the past (James Clement, Cirie Fields and Amanda Kimmel). She was spared, however, to get rid of the weaker link, Randy Bailey.

The Villains then continued their challenge dominance by winning four consecutive challenges. During this winning streak, a clue to a Hidden Immunity Idol was discovered, in which several tribe members agreed not to find it. Wanting to usurp Boston Rob's alliance, Parvati's ally, Russell found it anyway, causing Boston Rob's alliance of Tyson Apostol, Courtney Yates, Jerri Manthey, Sandra Diaz-Twine and Coach Wade to target them. On Day 15, both tribes were forced to go to Tribal Council with one person from each tribe winning immunity. Parvati knew she needed immunity, but failed to get it. Back at the Villains' camp. the majority alliance decided to split their six votes between Russell and Parvati, with Rob, Sandra and Tyson voting for Russell, while Jerri, Coach and Courtney voting for Parvati. If one of them played the Hidden Immunity Idol, a re-vote would occur and the alliance would vote for whoever was left among the two. Knowing Rob's plan, Russell tricked Tyson to switch his vote to Parvati, under the notion that he would rather betray her for his own survival. At Tribal Council, Tyson fell for Russell's plan for voting for Parvati, and after a 3-2-0 blindside, Tyson was sent home.

On Day 18, the Villains lost immunity, and the Parvati, Russell and Danielle alliance were still struggling to gain control of the game, but finally did when they persuaded Jerri to switch sides and vote out Russell's arch-rival, Boston Rob. While the Villains are yet to vote out a female member, the Heroes assumed that the Villains side was being run by an all-women alliance, led by Parvati. When the Villains lost immunity again do Day 21, they decided to vote Coach out to further confirm the Heroes belief of that. On Day 22, the Villains won a Reward Challenge where they got to go to Outback Steakhouse. There, Parvati found a clue to the re-hidden Immunity Idol and showed it to Danielle, to get her to trust her more than Russell. The next day, Parvati and Danielle both found the idol together. They decided not to tell Russell, to keep him out of the loop for awhile. After the Heroes won the Day 24 Immunity Challenge, one member of the Heroes tribe, J.T. Thomas made an unprecedented move—giving his own Hidden Immunity Idol to Russell, in hopes that he would use it to vote out Parvati. Russell, however, showed it to Parvati, along with Danielle and Jerri, and began to laugh about it. They than discussed on weather to get rid of Sandra or Courtney. Parvati wanted to get rid of Sandra, trusting Courtney more, but ended up voting with the rest of the villains to vote Courtney out.

On Day 25, the Heroes and Villains merged into the Yin Yang and migrated to the Heroes camp for the rest of the competition. The Heroes were confused to see Parvati still in the game. Parvati and Russell came up with this story that they both played their idol, negating all votes and that in the re-vote they voted out Courtney. The new tribe quickly alienated Parvati, who was deemed the biggest threat among the Villains. At the Immunity Challenge on Day 27, Parvati and Danielle were the last two remaining. Parvati decided to give it to Danielle, because Parvati already had an idol. Before Tribal Council, Russell gave Parvati J.T.'s idol to protect Parvati, but unknown to him, Parvati already owned one, making her the most powerful player at the time. Parvati went and then talked to Amanda, her former ally and Final Two rival in Survivor: Micronesia, to see if she could trust her. Amanda told Parvati to play the idol for herself. Judging Amanda's body language and halfhearted facial expression, Parvati did not believe her, and at Tribal Council, she made the biggest move of the game, by playing both idols, one for Sandra, and another to Jerri, to everybody's surprise. In effect, the vote, that could have ended up in a 5-5 tie between J.T. and Jerri, culminated with J.T.'s demise, because of Jerri's usage of the idol.

Right after the vote, Russell was furious with Parvati for keeping her idol a secret from him. The Heroes began to work on flipping Sandra to their side, to get eliminate Russell. After Jerri won immunity, the Heroes switched their target to Parvati in case Russell plays a Hidden Immunity Idol. However, the Villains had already flipped Candice to their side and their plan failed, with Amanda sent to the Jury in a 6-3 vote. After Parvati won immunity on Day 31, both Heroes and Villains temporarily banded together to vote Candice out for her duplicity. On Day 33, Russell won immunity, and decided to turn on his alliance. He tried to pit Parvati and Danielle against each other, but failed. Russell than aligned with the remaining Heroes to voted Danielle out, and with a little help from Jerri, Danielle was voted out in a 4-3 vote. On Day 34, the final six was visited by their love ones. Jerri won reward and chose to bring Parvati and Sandra with her. Russell than aligned with the Heroes and decided to target Parvati. However, his plan was ruined when she won immunity on Day 36. Parvati than won her third challenge on Day 37, and they voted the last Hero, Colby, out of the game in a 4-1 vote. After Parvati failed to win the final immunity challenge, it seemed that she would be voted out, since everyone wanted her gone. Parvati wanted to get rid of Sandra, thinking she would get a lot of votes in the end. However, they voted out Jerri Manthey in a 3-1 vote, because Russell believed he would get her vote on the Jury.

At the Final Tribal Council, Parvati confessed that she entered the game not knowing the threat she has become to the other castaways. She then sought help from Russell, but not let him treat her as a scapegoat by making her own, independent strategic moves. While she was castigated by Jury for aligning herself to Russell despite her strong abilities, she was applauded for playing an impressive physical and social games.

In the end, Parvati came in runner-up, gaining the Jury votes of Coach, Danielle and Jerri. She beat Russell Hantz, who received no votes, and was beat by Sandra Diaz-Twine, who got the votes of all five Heroes, plus Courtney's. At the reunion, it was revealed that Parvati has played the most days than anyone else in Survivor history, with 114 days in her three seasons, a record that will be surpassed a year later by Rob Mariano, who has played a total of 117 days in four seasons.

Post-Survivor
Using her winnings in Survivor: Micronesia, Parvati invested it in a gym business, ESP Wellness, which she co-owns with The Amazing Race 5 contestant Erika Shay. Parvati has been named the 2012 and the first ever Rob Has a Podcast Miss Survivor which was voted for by the RHAP community.

Trivia

 * Parvati's inclusion on Micronesia had a far greater impact on Heroes vs Villains than people know. Originally, Candice Woodcock was asked to return, but declined, causing the producers to recruit Parvati, who many fans saw as a sketchy character for a favorite, being that she was a one-dimensional flirt in Cook Islands. It was in Micronesia where Parvati grew her "villainous" outline (with the "Black Widow Brigade") and was considered for Heroes vs Villains.
 * Parvati was the second castaway to earn the title of Sole Survivor in a subsequent attempt. She succeeded Amber Brkich on All Stars and was later succeeded by Rob Mariano on Redemption Island.
 * Parvati is the only 3-time returning player to compete with the same number of castaways in each of their seasons (Cook Islands, Micronesia, and Heroes vs. Villains all had a total of 20 castaways).
 * Parvati is the only player to win and then finish as a Runner-Up in her next attempt.
 * Was inducted into Xfinity's Survivor Hall of Fame in 2010.
 * Parvati is the only person to win the same Individual Immunity Challenge twice, winning the When it Rains, it Pours challenge in separate seasons.
 * Parvati is second (behind Rob Mariano) on days spent on Survivor with 114. She holds record for the most days in 3 seasons (Rob M. had only 78 days in three seasons)
 * Each season she has competed in, she has had 4 votes count against her.
 * Parvati won the most challenges of all women in Survivor.
 * Parvati is one of the four season winners (along with Sandra Diaz-Twine, Amber Mariano, and J.T. Thomas) to compete in more than one season, and make it to the Top 10 in every season they compete in.
 * Parvati is the only one of the four who has competed in 3 seasons.
 * Parvati is one of four contestants to play the game three times, but become a jury member only once (the others are Stephenie LaGrossa, Colby Donaldson and Amanda Kimmel).