Survivor Edge of Extinction: Was the fire-making decision a difficult choice?

The climactic Final Four fire-making challenge in Survivor: Edge of Extinction became a historic moment, but was the decision really a tough one?

Warning: This post contains major spoilers for the finale of Survivor: Edge of Extinction.

One year ago in Survivor: Ghost Island, Domenick Abbate won the final Immunity Challenge to secure his spot at Final Tribal Council. He then faced a major dilemma with the new fire-making challenge twist. Dom knew that he would stand a better shot of winning the million if he could get rid of Wendell Holland, his partner in crime.

However, the other two castaways wouldn’t stand a chance in fire against Wendell. Dom threw out the insane idea of giving up his immunity necklace to beat Wendell at fire-making. He decided to take the conservative route and he paid for it by narrowly losing to Wendell.

Fast forward a year and Chris Underwood turned Dom’s idea into reality. Recognizing how big of a threat Devens was, Chris came to the conclusion that only he would be able to beat him in fire. So Chris took the gamble, beat Rick at fire, and that gave him the momentum to win it all.

Although Chris did what Dom only dreamed of, these two situations are completely different. Here are a few reasons why Chris’ decision to give up immunity wasn’t a hard choice to make, and why I think it’s not his best move of the season.

Chris understood the jury better than anyone else

Only Reem spent more days on the Edge of Extinction than Chris did. For nearly four full weeks, Chris was a jury member. No doubt he had many conversations with other jurors about who they thought deserved to win.

Once Victoria was out, he knew that Rick was going to win the jury’s vote for sure. As a result, Chris knew that the only way he had a shot at winning was if he got Rick out of the game. The fact that he took the initiative upon himself to eliminate the biggest threat gave him even more brownie points.

It was a low risk, high reward decision

Coming into the Final Four of Ghost Island, Dom believed that he had the votes to be crowned the Sole Survivor. He played a great game, knew which alliances to ride and get rid of, and he used his idols and fake idols in a masterful way. However, after a shocking tie vote, Laurel had to select a winner and she picked Wendell.

So Dom had a lot to lose at that fire-making challenge. At that moment he felt like he could win even if he sat beside Wendell, and he was almost right. Chris was in a completely different situation.

He knew that if he didn’t pull off another big move, his 12-day resume wouldn’t be enough to warrant a majority vote from the jury. Even if Rick lost the fire-making challenge to Gavin or Julie, they could gain some serious momentum. Gavin already had four votes, imagine what he could have earned if he took out the biggest threat in the game by clutching it out in fire!

We also have to remember how bad Gavin and Julie wanted to make fire. They wanted an opportunity to prove themselves and they made that fact clear to the jury. If Chris let them attempt to pad their resumes, what message would that send to the jurors?

Chris giving up immunity wasn’t his best move

I personally think Chris’ best move of the season was convincing Lauren to play her idol for him. For someone who has held onto their idol through incredibly nerve-wracking Tribal Councils, I was shocked that she used it for Chris. Although the idol play turned out to be unnecessary, it showcased Chris’ powerful social skills and protected him just in case he turned out to be the target.

He knew exactly what strings to pull and masterfully got her to think that it was better for her game to have Chris moving forward. Then during the next Tribal Council, Chris completed this brilliant move by turning around and voting out Lauren.

I’m not saying that Chris’ fire-making decision was a no brainer, but it was an obvious move that was the difference between runner-up and champion. Dom’s decision was much more difficult to deal with. That said, Chris came out clutch and gave the jury another reason to award him as the Sole Survivor.