Survivor Edge of Extinction: Should Julia Carter return?

Easily the most underrepresented player in Edge of Extinction, Julia Carter pulled off a huge blindside before the tables turned. Should she return to Survivor?

Heading into the Survivor: Edge of Extinction preseason, I had high hopes for Julia. She presented herself as a strong, capable woman who knew the game and was playing for her father who passed away when she was just a kid. It’s a shame that didn’t shine through in the edit. In fact, it’s a shame she was hidden from the edit for so long considering how her game ended.

She was one of the few players working with Victoria and Julie who knew that Aubry was manipulating her, as she shared notes on what Aubry was saying. She also helped Ron distract Joe as they headed back to the Kama camp so he could search his bag for a Hidden Immunity Idol. Despite being the only person not to have a confessional in the first four episodes, she was playing the game.

Julia’s voice finally shone through when “falling” for Joe’s glad-handing words to her as they were thinking of who to vote for; a problem she would never encounter until the merge. It was then that the plan to take out the returnees would be underway, even if it meant taking out Joe himself.

Julia’s big opportunity came at the next vote; the Final 12. Whereas “Kama strong” reared its ugly head, she and Gavin hatched a plan (that Wardog took some credit for) to get out Eric to break up the Eric + Ron stranglehold. All she needed to hear was Eric’s hesitance to take David or Rick out to realize he was recruiting loyalists for the Final Eight, so she struck then.

However, her game unraveled the next Tribal Council, as the paranoia that Julie experienced over her and Ron’s betrayal of the information left her on shaky ground. Rick Devens saw that opportunity to pull off a live audible at Tribal Council; those two plus Manu work together to take someone else out. Julia was having none of it, calling Rick a passenger and telling Wardog to shut up as whispers and yells started flying.

Although Julia was the victim of the moment, she was responsible for one of the season’s biggest blindsides and, perhaps, one of the most memorable Tribal Councils of all time. We saw little of her on the Edge of Extinction, both in and out of the game awaiting redemption, but what little we did see was explosive. Vote here in our straw poll and let us know if Julia should return to Survivor in the future.