Survivor season 35 finale: How each player can win

Devon Pinto – Likable stealth player

The biggest downside of cheering for Devon is that if you’re not paying attention, it seems like he did very little to affect the outcome of the game. It will be hard for him to convince a jury he outwitted and outplayed Ben, especially as he was the number one target for four or five Tribal Councils, but I feel he can explain himself with insight against Chrissy/Ryan, Chrissy/Mike or Mike/Ryan.

In the Chrissy/Mike and Mike/Ryan situations, Devon can play up his importance in shaping how the post-merge gameplay turned out. It was his idea to generate a Hero/Hustler alliance to take out the Healers, while also convincing Ben to infiltrate the Chrissy and Ryan alliance once JP was voted out to maintain control of the votes (and flush out Ryan’s idol). That doubles down on Chrissy and Ryan’s unawareness while showing that Mike was a tool of his will.

Against both Chrissy and Ryan, Devon has the hardest path to winning Survivor season 35. One way he can approach that jury is talking about how he was willing to cut down on his alliance at multiple opportunities to secure a path to the end, including voting out Ashley. He shows his ability to make a big move at the risk of exposing himself.

One latent factor in all scenarios is that Devon is the only player not to receive a vote before the finale night. While he’s unlikely going to receive all jury votes (securing the third perfect game in Survivor history), he can add that in to show that he manipulated the path to the jury’s defeat while not taking the blame.