Nick Wilson is your Sole Survivor winner for David vs. Goliath

He was supposed to be the first one voted out of the game. Now Nick Wilson is your winner of Survivor: David vs. Goliath, defying all odds.

There have been a few Survivor players that hail from the great state of Kentucky. Twice players have fallen just short in fifth place, with Donathan Hurley accomplishing the feat just last season. None have sat at the Final Tribal Council like Nick Wilson, and none have won the game before he took down David vs. Goliath, defying all odds in the process.

Despite making quick friends with everyone and giving alliance nicknames to anyone who would hear him out, Nick started out on the David tribe on the outs. He was “supposed” to be the first player voted out due to his laziness, but Pat’s tweaked back was not alright at the time of him crashing into the back of the boat coming from the Immunity Challenge, forcing his evacuation.

From there, Nick was determined not to take this opportunity for granted, offering up his first winner quote at how he was supposed to be the first one out and will cherish every opportunity to take him to the end. This push came to shove immediately, as he teamed up with Christian Hubicki to form the Mason-Dixon alliance, voting out Jessica and blaming Gabby immediately.

This helped him garner trust among the Davids, which would prove beneficial at the tribe swap. Moving to Jabeni alongside Mike White, Angelina Keeley, Lyrsa Torres and Natalie Cole meant needing to hold on and make new friends, and he found a close partner in Mike White to form The Rockstars, voting out Natalie and Lyrsa.

Nick arrived at the merge with a ton of options and a bunch of friends in the game, allowing him to pick and choose where to go. With the Davids being down in numbers, he opted to mix his Mason-Dixon and Rockstar alliances together to create a Strike Force that would, in theory, have everyone coast to the Final Six.

Of course, nothing nice can happen in Survivor, and Nick found out from Alec (and then, as we would learn later, multiple people) that the second post-merge vote would land on Christian. From there, a Civil War unlike we’ve seen since The Avengers emerged, with Nick working with his David partners to use their advantages and take out the Goliath brochachos one by one.

With so many threats gone ahead of him, it was the betrayal by Christian in taking out Carl that Nick was first presented with a real challenge. He then proceeded to gain a Hidden Immunity Idol, fail to vote out Christian, actually vote out Christian and reveal his Immunity Idol and use it even though he received zero votes. He headed into the finale with no protection and showing a hand he could no longer benefit from with four Goliaths, a hope and a prayer left.

He knew that his back was against the wall, so he and everyone else searched for the Hidden Immunity Idol, only to come up short. That’s when he stepped into maximum overdrive to compete and win his first Individual Immunity Challenge of the season, ending a string of one-time winners since the merge began.

Choosing to take Mike and Angelina (the Jabeni trio) on the spaghetti reward, it was there that Angelina revealed her idol clue and found the Hidden Immunity Idol on the rock wall behind them. He wanted to get out Alison, and Angelina and Mike agreed at first. However, Mike pulled rank and brought the Goliaths together to vote out Davie, making Nick the last David in the game.

Nick’s game has been always about him being knocked down a peg, getting mad and getting even, and by winning the Final Five Immunity Challenge (the Cagayan Kass McQuillen come-from-behind bucket and puzzle challenge), he secured himself at least a shot at fire-making at the Final Four.

It turned out he didn’t need to brave his survival skills, as the Final Immunity Challenge of the season saw his toughest competition literally drop the ball in the spinny ball drop challenge akin to a carnival game. This gave Nick Wilson the third-straight immunity win, the security of the Final Tribal Council, the option to take all-time goat Angelina with him to the end and be the only David competing against Goliaths.

Mike White won the fire-making challenge, posing the biggest threat to his game as Nick prepared to provide his closing arguments as to why he should be the Sole Survivor of David vs. Goliath. He pitched himself on his winning social game, tapping his social game to acquire knowledge and the acumen to know when to apply it. He spoke to his Goliath undertones as people came to him, making the game fun. Finally, he spoke to how he’s been fighting from behind for his entire life, becoming a public defender in the spirit of his departed mother and talked about how he fired as many stones with his slingshot that he could to take out Goliath.

Whatever he said to the jury worked well, as Nick Wilson became the 37th Sole Survivor and the winner of David vs. Goliath, winning 7-3 over Mike. No need for a tie-breaking vote this time!