In a rushed premiere, why was Reem Daly the first person voted out and sent to Extinction Island?
Every season, someone has to be voted out first. For those who get voted out this season, there is an opportunity to redeem yourself and return to the game. It’s called Extinction Island. Reem Daly found herself on Extinction first after rubbing the rest of her Manu tribe the wrong way with an overbearing personality and a tribal council meltdown.
Symbolically, Reem was the first one to jump off of the boat during the marooning, missing the chance to get an advantage in the game. Then, in a bit of foreshadowing, Reem is seen taking a fall in the early moments at Manu on Day 1. Those were only the beginning of Reem’s problems.
Things seemed to be looking up when Reem bonded with Wendy Diaz after noticing Wendy’s Tourette’s Syndrome and 19-year-old Keith Sowell, who said Reem reminded him of his mother. Unfortunately for Reem, her micromanaging rubbed her tribemates the wrong way.
It started on Day 2, with Reem moving other castaway’s clothes around, which irritated Dan “Wardog” DaSilva who didn’t like Reem touching his belongings. Rick Devens and Lauren O’Connell also took notice of her behavior, putting Reem in further jeopardy.
When Reem and Wendy teamed up to teach Keith how to swim, the three were officially on the outs of the tribe as the other six, led by Kelley Wentworth, took notice of their group and aligned against them. On Day 3, Manu fell behind early at the Immunity Challenge and never recovered. During the challenge, Reem struggled to get up the rope ladder, and Wentworth took a hard fall, suffering a gash on her head, but got up and kept going.
As soon as Manu got back to camp, Reem targeted Lauren and Wentworth for being a strong pair. She tried to pressure Rick into voting with her on a plan to eliminate one of them, which alienated her ally Keith, who told his other tribemates about Reem’s plan and tactics. Wentworth’s alliance, in turn, targeted Reem for her weakness in challenges.
After Wardog and David talked with Wendy about possibly voting Reem out, Wardog wanted to vote Wendy out for being too stubborn. Wendy told Reem about the rest of the tribe’s plan to get rid of her, which upset Reem.
At Tribal Council, Reem lashed out against her tribemates, claiming the real reason the tribe was claiming she was weak was due to age discrimination and openly targeted Wentworth for the injury Wentworth suffered during the challenge. An argument between Wardog and Reem ensued over Reem’s handling of the clothes situation and her personality. After Reem’s meltdown, she was voted out in a 4-3-1-1 vote after both alliances split votes.
From a fan’s perspective, anything you could do wrong, Reem did wrong in the first three days. She tried to micromanage things around camp to the point where she even alienated one of her allies, she struggled some at the challenge and targeted arguably two of the tribe’s strongest members for elimination on Day 3.
When it seemed as if there might be a glimmer of hope as Wardog was considering eliminating Wendy instead, Reem put the nail in her own coffin by lashing out at her tribe during tribal council, accusing them of age discrimination in the process. To any future Survivor players, this episode is a great lesson in “What Not to Do If You Want to Avoid Being Voted Out of Survivor.”
Luckily for Reem, she now resides on Extinction Island where she will have an opportunity to return to the game.