Why Did Hali Join the Jury on Survivor: Game Changers?

On the newly merged Maku Maku tribe of Survivor: Game Changers, the first person on the jury perhaps wasn’t the most obvious target.

Note: As you might expect from the title, this article contains spoilers for the April 19 episode of Survivor: Game Changers.

Amidst all the talk of a “war” on last night’s episode of Survivor: Game Changers, it may be a bit confusing as to why the targets fell on Michaela and Hali. No one seemed to think of them as real threats. (Michaela may be a physical threat, but she also has to go toe-to-toe with everyone else in the game now … excluding Ozzy, who joined the jury in the second half of last night’s doubleheader.)

Instead, the idea seemed to be that Brad and Sierra’s side of things had a better chance of pulling Hali over than Michaela. Ergo, the point was to get rid of Michaela, who could (and did) drift over to Cirie and Andrea’s alliance.

But why Hali? For one, everyone noted she seemed to be a more cerebral or at least thoughtful player than Michaela, pre-Michaela’s newfound anger management buddy in Cirie. Additionally, just because Brad and Sierra could pull her in didn’t mean they had to be loyal to her. Presumably, the plan went something like: pull Hali in, then pick off everyone not part of their alliance, and then get rid of her before turning on each other.

Pretty simple, right?

Here’s the thing. It seems like Brad and Sierra forgot Cirie exists and that Cirie is really, really good at Survivor. Cirie not only likes Michaela, as we can see from both halves of last night’s episode, but she also knows how to plant ideas in other people’s heads very effectively. She did it in Micronesia with coming up with the plan to have Erik give up immunity, and she did it again here. This time, her agent was Zeke.

Cirie read Zeke correctly, figuring he wouldn’t like hearing how Brad and Sierra would take over the game if they just went along with booting Michaela then and there. (This might backfire a bit in episodes to come, judging by Zeke’s role in the Ozzy boot. That’s for another time, though.) Zeke went and then put the bug in Sierra’s ear about changing to Hali despite concerns about Hali possibly having an idol.

And suddenly, the plan to put a few votes on Hali instead became seven votes. Check out who votes for whom in the following video:

Cirie, Andrea, Sarah, and Zeke all voted for Michaela; as Cirie said in her confessional, those votes didn’t mean a thing. She knew she’d flipped enough people to Hali to make it work. Hearing Hali’s last words also makes it clear that she was not happy about going home when she did. Should someone like Cirie make it to the final Tribal Council, she can confidently tell Hali that no blood was on her hands for that vote-off.

Even though she didn’t vote for Hali, the bulk of the credit for her boot goes directly to Cirie in our book, with some additional credit to Sierra and Zeke. Going forward, it may behoove you to keep an eye on Cirie and Michaela — especially Michaela, who holds the secret of Cirie’s role in Hali’s elimination. Right now, it doesn’t seem likely that she’ll drop that information, though.

Next: Ranking Every Season of Survivor

Why do you think Hali went home? Sound off in the comments below.