Survivor David vs. Goliath: Should Lyrsa Torres return?

She kept fighting with her back against the wall until she left as the final member of the Survivor: David vs. Goliath pre-jury. Should Lyrsa Torres return?

Some players never find themselves find their footing during their first time on Survivor. Look no further than to upcoming returning player Kelley Wentworth, who finished in 14th place in San Juan del Sur before making an improbable late run in Cambodia. Sometimes you find a good seam in the game early and run good late. Other times you are Lyrsa Torres and are fighting from behind immediately.

Though she wasn’t the first target of the David tribe in Survivor: David vs. Goliath (that honor went to Nick Wilson), she was the first name thrown out ahead of the tribe’s first actual Tribal Council visit. She was perceived as the weak link by Carl and Jess, leaving Lyrsa to ask “uh, excuse me?” when Elizabeth let her in on the tribe’s plan.

You see, Lyrsa’s social game was stronger than one would expect, as she secured Elizabeth’s partnership very early on. She was also someone who was worth saving to players like Gabby, who felt railroaded and not spoken clearly to by Bi and Jessica. So Lyrsa being close to Elizabeth allowed them to get Gabby on their side, who got Christian on their side, who grabbed Nick onboard.

Even in the fallout, it was about Gabby’s standing in the tribe over Lyrsa as the one to vote in the future, as she stood to be the lynchpin on votes. Unfortunately, she never really got a strong footing of the Davids, as she was swapped to Jabeni; the “Davids of the Davids” as described by Mike White.

With Nick and Angelina proving to be the brunt of the challenge force with Mike, Natalie and Lyrsa filling out the rest of the tribe, it was a matter of time before votes needed to be tallied. It was a surprise to see Natalie Cole voted out first, as Lyrsa’s Egg-gate blowup over their reward win was quickly usurped by Jacketgate, even though Lyrsa was the other vote target.

With the tribe failing miserably on the final tribal challenge of the season, whether or not Lyrsa or Angelina would go home was up to Mike and Nick. For what it’s worth, Mike flipped on the Goliaths in taking out Natalie first, so it was Nick’s turn to do a favor and vote out Lyrsa, which is exactly what he did.

Lyrsa scratched and clawed her way to the merge, but fell just short in David vs. Goliath. Vote here in our straw poll to let us know if you think Lyrsa Torres should get another shot at Survivor in a future season.