Survivor: Why was _____ voted out of Edge of Extinction sixteenth?

At her 15th Tribal Council in Survivor: Edge of Extinction, time had finally run out on Lauren O’Connell, who became the sixteenth person voted out.

After Rick and Lauren played their Hidden Immunity Idols on Day 36 of Survivor: Edge of Extinction, the search for a new idol was on. After finding his idol, Rick gave Chris back the other half of his two-piece idol. Now, Chris and Rick both had Hidden Immunity Idols. Unbeknownst to Lauren and Julie, Rick had planted two fake idols in hopes that he would have more time to search for the real one.

With two idols played at the previous Tribal Council, Julie and Lauren suspected two idols might be put back into play and continued searching. Julie found the first of Rick’s fake idols. On her way back to camp, Lauren found a clue to Rick’s other fake idol and found it.

At the Immunity Challenge, Rick won his fourth Individual Immunity of the season. This allowed Rick the ability to play his idol on someone else if he wished. Back at camp, with Gavin feeling like the only person vulnerable, Rick approached him for a deal. Rick’s deal was to use his idol on Gavin in exchange for Gavin taking him to the Final Three if he won immunity at Final Four. Gavin agreed to the deal but had no intentions of taking Rick to Final Three.

Gavin went to Lauren and Julie to get them on board with targeting Chris. With so many idols floating around, Lauren suspected one might be fake. This led Lauren to approach Chris about getting rid of Julie. However, Chris did not trust Lauren’s plan, thinking he was the real target. Chris went to Rick to get on the same page for who to target. Rick wanted Lauren gone for being a strategic threat.

At Tribal Council, Lauren and Julie both attempted to play their fake idols. Rick played his real idol for Gavin and Chris played his idol on himself. Chris’ idol negated three votes against him. As a result, Lauren was voted out 2-0, making her the sixteenth person voted out.

The main reason Lauren was voted out fifteenth was because of Hidden Immunity Idols. Chris was given a two-piece idol after coming back from the Edge of Extinction. It gained full power after Day 36’s Tribal Council when Rick gave half of it back to him. If Chris did not have that Hidden Immunity Idol, Lauren would have stayed.

The other reason Lauren was the fifteenth person voted out was that she was seen as a strategic threat. Before Day 37, Lauren had attended and survived fourteen Tribal Councils. She had also found and played a Hidden Immunity Idol. She was also on the right side of all but two votes before she got voted out. That is a resume worthy of the title of Sole Survivor.

With Survivor’s Edge of Extinction twist complete, Lauren did not have a chance to get back in the game. However, she did become the 12th member of the jury, making Survivor history in the process. Lauren made further Survivor history by attending 15 Tribal Councils in which she was eligible to be voted out.