Survivor: Game Changers: More on Tai’s fourth-place finish

The jury may have said that they would have voted for Tai to win in Survivor: Game Changers, but could he have made it to the final three anyway?

Tai didn’t actually improve on his Survivor placement in his second go-round. However, one could argue that he at least played a better game, theoretically speaking. At the reunion for Survivor: Game Changers, the jury did say that if he had made it to the final three, he likely would have gotten jury votes — though not enough to win. (It turned out that it would have come down to Troyzan’s vote. Yes, really.) That didn’t happen when he actually did make the final three.

But why didn’t Brad take Tai at the end instead of Sarah? Jeff Probst himself called it a “million-dollar decision” to do so, because Brad would have had Troyzan’s vote and thus the prize.

It seems like what went into it came down to loyalty. Even though Sarah had flipped back and forth before, Brad likely felt he’d solidified a connection with her based on their final six immunity feast, and that she wouldn’t be as able to argue her way through because she didn’t have five immunity wins and didn’t lead the game. Meanwhile, Tai had resisted attempts to be brought back in the fold, so to speak.

Considering that the vote that sent Tai home came down as 3-1, it’s unlikely that he really changed Sarah’s mind that much. After all, she didn’t seem terribly confident in her skills in making fire, asking him for help anyway.

But let’s entertain the idea that it went to fire with Troyzan losing. That gives us Tai, Brad, and Sarah in the final three, just for the sake of speculation. Tai could have theoretically gotten votes, but that was without Sarah in the final three.

He did vote for Sarah, though, so assuming that everything else goes as before, it would have been 6-4, Sarah. That’s with Troyzan giving Brad a vote.

Let’s break that down further, though.

During the reunion, Debbie, Zeke, Sierra, Hali, and Andrea said they would have given Brad their votes in a Troyzan-Brad-Tai final. He had the votes of Sierra and Debbie originally, so let’s consider those hard votes for Brad. Zeke, Andrea, and Hali all voted for Sarah in the timeline that we have now.

The only vote that would possibly flip would be Ozzy’s. He said he would vote for Tai in the Tai-Brad-Troyzan final. So instead of 7-3, it may have been 7-2-1 instead.

Next: Game Changers: The final power rankings

Could Tai have won more votes? Let us know if you think so in the comments below.