Wanting to not dig too deep into a player’s unfortunate reward challenge experience, the Survivor: Edge of Extinction episode 13 secret scene shows defeat.
It seems like no matter what you do in a Survivor: Edge of Extinction Reward Challenge, if you’re on the outs you’re going to feel the consequences. Ron Clark was kind of on the outs despite being in a power position, but he alienated others with his Loved Ones’ choices and found himself voted out because of it.
The same thing happened with Aurora being on the outs for the Survivor: Edge of Extinction episode 13 Reward Challenge, as Gavin Whitson had the opportunity to take two out of five others on a reward. His first choice was based on supporting someone who had missed out on rewards like Victoria but ignored Aurora who was in a similar situation.
Aurora’s hardship became the focus of the Survivor: Edge of Extinction episode 13 secret scene, as instead of focusing on the reward players enjoying their reward, it opted to focus instead on Aurora’s status as an outsider in the game. We also heard her tie that into her story as someone who’s been through the foster system, making her strong in her determination.
Considering the events of this week’s episode, it kind of makes sense that we didn’t linger too much on this story. Unless a player has it balanced out with negativity by the hour’s end or if it feels like the end of a futility story arc, you don’t want to make the eliminated player look too great in the edit. You need to balance the edit of exiting players.
Not only that, but it made sense to focus on the reward players at the reward because it set up the narrative for Julie being saved and not targeted by Lauren. You had to set up Lauren’s doubts before reaching her plan in keeping Julie and eliminating Aurora down the stretch.