In a shocking blindside, Eric Hafemann showed why you don’t play Survivor for the family visit; you play to win. He became the eighth person sent to the Edge of Extinction.
Sometimes in Survivor, all it can take is one wrong comment to the wrong person to get you voted out. That is exactly what happened to 35-year-old firefighter Eric Hafemann. The season had started off well for Eric as the two tribes he was on dominated at challenges. He was also in an alliance of six (the Kama Six) that was in control of the game.
However, all of that came unglued Wednesday night as Eric became the eighth person sent to the Edge of Extinction. This vote was a classic case of why you play to win, not just make the family visit.
After successfully blindsiding Joe, Eric and Ron tried to reel Aurora (Joe’s closest ally) back in with the Kama tribe. They also further attempted to cement their control of the game by turning David and Rick against the former Lesu tribe members. In the talk with David and Rick, Eric started using the family visit to get David and Rick to stay loyal to them.
As we all know, things rarely go exactly according to plan in Survivor. Wardog hatched a plan to pull in Aurora, Rick, and David to even the numbers at 6-6 and force the rock-picking tiebreaker. Feeling like she was the next one to go after being left out of the loop in the previous tribal council, Aurora agreed to the plan. David also agreed and tried to bring in Rick. However, Rick was still unhappy with the former Lesu tribe for voting him out and refused to go along with the plan.
At the Immunity Challenge, Eric was the second person eliminated from the competition, making him vulnerable at Tribal Council. Back at camp, the original Kama tribe (Kama Six and Aurora) held a meeting at the beach where Ron and Eric again pushed making the family visit as a reason to stay loyal. Eric and Ron’s confidence levels were at an all-time high. In a confessional, Eric stated, “I know this Kama alliance won’t stay together forever. Things are going to get crazy. When it does, myself and Ron have David and Devens in our pocket to make the big move.”
Wardog then approached Julia and Gavin separately, pointing out that once the Kama tribe split up, Rick and David would side with Eric and Ron, leaving them vulnerable. Julia then acted on this information and went to Eric to test him and see if he would be open to voting off David. Eric hesitated, saying he thought they could make it until eight people were left, pointing out David had gone to rocks for his alliance in his previous season. He also told Julia he didn’t want anyone doing anything stupid so they would all make the family visit.
This led Julia to approach Gavin about making a move with Victoria. Gavin agreed and suggested they vote out Ron. When they approached Victoria about their plan, she was hesitant. At Tribal Council, Eric was in for a huge surprise. He continued to use the family visit as a tool to try and get his allies to stay loyal. This tactic did not work, as he was blindsided by a vote of 8-2-2 and became the eighth person sent to the Edge of Extinction.
There were two main reasons Eric was sent to the Edge of Extinction eighth; Eric and Ron were seen as being in control of the game. Also, according to Julia, the second reason is because Eric was viewed as a bigger physical threat and someone who could challenge Joe and Chris on the Edge of Extinction.
Luckily for Eric, he is now on the Edge of Extinction where he will have a chance to return to the game. This will also be a chance for him to prove his former alliance members right that he can be a challenge threat for Joe and Chris.