Survivor: Why was _____ sent to the Edge of Extinction tenth?

With a target on his back for most of the game, David was finally voted out at tribal council on Day 25. He became the tenth person sent to the Edge of Extinction.

David’s Survivor game started off strong this season before unraveling at the end. He was in an alliance of six at Manu consisting of himself, Wentworth, Lauren, Wardog, Rick, and Chris. Within the alliance of six, David formed a tight alliance with Rick. The alliance of six had three clear targets: Reem, Wendy, and Keith. However, Manu kept losing. Reem and Keith were voted out at tribal council in the first two episodes, leaving Wendy the odd person out.

With David having wanted to blindside Wentworth since episode 2, now seemed like the perfect time to pull the trigger. However, Chris informed Wardog of the plan to eliminate Wentworth despite David telling him not to do so. In the end, it was Chris who was instead blindsided. This left a clear divide in the alliance of 5: Wentworth, Lauren, and Wardog in control of the 5 with David and Rick on the bottom.

Things got worse for David when the tribe swap hit as Manu’s alliance of 5 was swapped to the Lesu, losing Wendy in the process. In episode 4, Lesu lost the immunity challenge, and David’s closest ally Rick was voted out. With David now firmly on the bottom of a tribe that could not win a challenge, he needed a miracle to stay in the game.

In episode 5, he got that miracle. The Lesu tribe won the immunity challenge making him safe from the vote. Then, in the second hour of the episode, two tribes went to one tribal council to vote out one player. The new Manu tribe targeted Lauren, while the Lesu tribe targeted Wendy. With both tribes wanting to avoid the rock picking tie breaker, Wendy was voted out.

The merge hit on Day 17, and things got brighter for David when his closest ally Rick won his way back in from the Edge of Extinction. Upon returning, Rick received a hidden immunity idol that came with a twist. Rick had to give one half of the idol to another player, and if both players remained in the game after the next tribal council, the idol would gain its power. Rick chose to give the other half of the idol to David.

Going into tribal council on Day 19, Wentworth wanted Rick gone. However, Julie was appalled by the cruelty of voting Rick out again right away and refused to go along. Wentworth then went to Joe, who was on board. Wentworth’s and Joe’s alliances split votes between Rick and David. However, it was Joe who was instead blindsided. With Rick and David having survived tribal council, their idol now had its full power.

After Joe’s blindside, Wentworth’s alliance plotted to align with Aurora, Rick, and David to force a tie at tribal council and eliminate one of the Kama Six members through the rock picking tiebreaker. Aurora and David were on board with the plan, but Rick refused to work with the people who had voted him out before.

However, after talking with Wardog, Julia became suspicious Eric and Ron were keeping David and Rick around until it was time to break up the Kama Six. Her suspicions were confirmed when she talked with Eric, and he refused to vote out David. As a result, Eric was blindsided at tribal council on Day 22.

After blindsiding Eric, Gavin wanted his alliance of himself, Julia, and Victoria to team up with Wentworth, Lauren, and Wardog to target David. At the immunity challenge on Day 23, Gavin outlasted David to win immunity. After the challenge, Wentworth, Lauren, and Wardog attempted to shift the target from David to Ron. As a result, Julia wanted the Kama alliance to regroup, which frustrated Gavin.

The quiet behavior from the members of the original Kama tribe sparked fear and David and Wentworth’s alliances. This led to arguably the most chaotic tribal councils of all time. Amid the chaos, Rick and David played their hidden immunity idol on David. The idol negated one vote against him. In the end, it was Julia who was blindsided.

After Julia’s blindside, Wardog formed a new majority alliance with Wentworth, Lauren, Gavin, Julie, and Ron. The alliance’s target was Aurora. However, when Aurora won the immunity challenge on Day 25, Wardog’s alliance decided to target David instead. David tried to target Wardog. However, time had finally run out on David. He was voted out 8-2 over Wardog.

There were three main reasons why David was sent to Survivor’s Edge of Extinction tenth; being a returning player, Aurora winning immunity, and his status as a strategic threat. Aurora was the main target of Wardog’s alliance. However, once she won immunity, they had to look for a new target. David became that new target because of his status as a strategic threat, as well as a top 4 immunity challenge threat in Gavin’s eyes.

Luckily for David, he now resides on the Edge of Extinction where he will have a chance to return to the game and become the Sole Survivor.