Why was ______ sent to Survivor’s Edge of Extinction second?

For the fledgling Manu tribe, Keith’s struggles were too much to ignore, resulting in him being the 2nd person sent to the Edge of Extinction.

19-year-old Keith struggled early and often on Survivor: Edge of Extinction leading to him being the second person voted out. Keith’s troubles started in the marooning as he struggled just swimming to the raft. This caused tribemate Lauren to have to help guide him. At camp, Keith soon quickly found himself on the outs as the tribe united against him, Reem, and Wendy after Reem and Wendy attempted to help teach Keith how to swim.

At the first Immunity Challenge, while Keith didn’t struggle, he didn’t do a whole lot to help his tribe and the Manu tribe lost. Back at camp, he was able to help his situation by throwing Reem under the bus to the majority alliance and helping them send Reem to the Edge of Extinction. Unfortunately for Keith, things only got worse from there.

In what can only be described as the single worst challenge performance since by an individual since tribemate David in Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, Keith struggled to swim once again. This time, Chris had to help him get to the cage, costing Manu a lot of time. Then, Keith struggled just to get over the cage and back into the water to help untie the snake.

Then, in an effort to redeem himself for his disastrous performance in the water, Keith subbed in for Chris on the ring tossing portion of the challenge and failed to hit a single target before subbing out for Chris. This resulted in Manu once again going to Tribal Council.  Keith’s performance placed a giant target on his back as Wardog stated his desires to vote out Keith for being a liability in challenges.

At camp, Wardog led the charge to get rid of Keith for his poor performance in challenges, while Wentworth wanted Wendy out as Wendy was targeting Wentworth. After Keith approached Chris pledging his loyalty, Chris considered voting out Wentworth, which unbeknownst to him, David and Rick had already been planning on. Then, Rick approached Keith about the plan to blindside Wentworth that night, which Keith readily agreed to.

Unfortunately for Keith, it turned out to be just lip service as he became the second person voted out by a count of 6-1-1. The episode ended with a cliffhanger as Keith was once again struggling. This time, his struggles were with whether or not he wished to go to the Edge of Extinction. (Editor’s note: There is no doubt now that Keith will, in fact, head to Extinction Island.)

There is only one tangible reason why Keith was voted out second; his poor performance in the challenges. He had made a solid effort to integrate himself within the Manu tribe. However, Manu is rapidly losing numbers, and in Survivor, you do not know when (or if) a twist will come that shakes the tribes up.

So, if you are a tribe in a situation like Manu, the best thing you can do is vote out your biggest liabilities in challenges. Keith had unfortunately proven to be largely useless in challenges, and that is why he got voted out second.