Survivor Game Changers: Episode 6 Boot Grabbed “The Wrong Buff”
An unfortunate tribe swap is what the person voted out of Survivor Game Changers in episode 6, “Vote Early, Vote Often,” believes did them in.
Spoiler warning for Survivor Game Changers episode 6, “Vote Early, Vote Often.”
It was clear that Sandra had little chance to win Survivor Game Changers. The only two-time winner, she had the biggest target on her back going into this game because of her “anybody but me” mentality that she had perfected to a T. Even she had expected to go out before episode 6, as exit interviews have proven.
Talking to the Xfinity TV Blog, Sandra Diaz-Twine believes that the bad swap was “1000%” why she went home this episode. What she said about the numerous swaps, advantages and idols brought to Survivor Game Changers.
"There’s potential for anyone to go home. It’s not like it just hurts me as the biggest threat. It can hurt anybody. We’ve already proven on “Heroes vs. Villains” that a big target can go far. Even a winner can go really far. The twists and the turns, that’s really what can get someone. I 1000% feel that me picking the wrong buff is why I went home. If I’d gone to Exile there was so much I could’ve done. If I’d gone to Mana I would have had Troyzan and Hali and Michaela and even Aubry. But grabbing that wrong buff is what killed my game. All the twists and turns and swaps, the fans love that stuff."
While she may have felt a bad swap did her in, there are problems with this reasoning. First off, why just her and Jeff Varner made their way to this version of Nuku is because old Mana members went out one by one until J.T. A big part in that is due to bad challenge performance, again a problem you have when players like strong players like Caleb, Tony and Malcolm are voted out and a strategic mind like Ciera goes home first.
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That said, Sandra did go to tribal council almost single episode this season and received no votes until her farewell departure. That, in of itself, is a miraculous feat, and something she should be proud of.
Meanwhile, over at Entertainment Weekly, Sandra dives deeper into #Goatgate, explaining that the Nuku tribe that caught the goats kept them overnight, but weren’t eating or drinking provided food and water. Not only that, but apparently the tribe was kept “well fed” regardless of what we saw on TV.
"I would have to say that the next episode when you got to see us eating these big pieces of meat? That is not fish and that is not chicken. And that’s the last I’m going to say about that. And I didn’t have nothing to do with it because I was at a confessional! I come back to camp and there it is and after I saw that episode I was like, ‘Lord I’m going to take the s— for that one too.’”"
So that’s another part of Survivor Game Changers that the editors left on the cutting room floor. It’s clear that the team are willing to do whatever it takes to serve an ongoing narrative, but giving a villain from Heroes vs. Villains a villain edit isn’t too much of a stretch. Plus, it wasn’t as comically overbearing as Debbie’s edit was.
Next: Survivor Game Changers: Ranking All 33 Previous Seasons
Survivor Game Changers episode 7, “What Happened on Exile, Stays on Exile,” airs next Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.