Survivor Edge of Extinction: Should Wendy Diaz return?

She spent more time trying to free chickens than anyone else in Survivor: Edge of Extinction. Should Wendy Diaz get another shot at the Sole Survivor title?

Never was I more convinced that a player was vying for the Survivor Sia Award than when I saw Wendy Diaz sabotage her tribe’s reward when she was already on the bottom of the tribe. Despite being at a 6-1 disadvantage in the numbers, instead of playing up her challenge strengths as a capable swimmer, she decided to separate herself from the Manu tribe dynamics even further.

Such is the life of Wendy Diaz; a decisive figure in Survivor: Edge of Extinction, to be sure. She started out on the bottom of a tribe always on the outside looking in, separating herself from the majority to help Keith learn how to swim with Reem. As those two were voted out, the tribe found themselves in a scenario where they finally won a reward of chickens at the detriment of Wendy’s health.

During the Reward Challenge, Wendy dropped a piece of the challenge on her ankle, swelling things up and presenting her with cover for her first task; trying to protect the chickens from harm. After losing the Immunity Challenge and facing elimination, she instead applied her deceptive skills to steal the tribe’s flint and hide it, preventing them from cooking her friends.

Despite being a vegetarian only for her Survivor days (at the time), she asked players like Rick to help her free the chickens, to which he declined. As Chris was voted out for unrelated reasons to her, things looked even grimmer as the tribe swap brought four Kama players against her. Serving as tribe camp guide would only take her so far.

Eric proved to be the biggest proponent of killing the chickens upon arrival, so Wendy hatched a plan. In the dead of night, she released the chickens, much to the chagrin of the Manu tribe. Upon the loss of their next Immunity Challenge, a Victoria-led insurrection saw Aubry as the main target. All Wendy had to do to seal the deal was to pretend to be onboard with Aubry’s blindside plan.

Even then, Wendy seemed hesitant to pretend to go along with Aubry, which should have tipped Aubry off enough to play her idol. That would have voted Wendy off fifth, but instead, Aubry became too overconfident. She was blindsided by Victoria et al, and the next hour of television saw two tribes go to Tribal Council, with Lesu and Manu facing off.

With both tribes wary of going to rocks over specific players, it seemed as though the focus came down to two players; Lauren and Wendy. Both tribes seemed to tell each other that they would go to rocks and possibly take out a returning player’s legacy, yet when it came down to it, after a 4-4 vote tie, everyone agreed that Wendy’s time in the game had come up.

She lost the Edge of Extinction challenge in part due to her Tourettes and OCD tics, which came at a detriment when navigating a ball through a snake puzzle. Those hardships, despite being on the Edge for just one night, proved enough for her to wave the white flag and quit. Vote here to determine if you believe Wendy Diaz should get another shot at becoming the Sole Survivor of a future season.