Two winners were sent to Edge of Extinction in the Survivor: Winners at War premiere. Here, we look at the reasons Amber couldn’t survive the season’s first episode.
At the outset of Winners at War, there were some winners we expected to bite the dust early, and some we thought would make it quite far in the game. The premiere episode gave us a little of column A and a little of column B. We already discussed Sele’s decision to send Natalie to Edge of Extinction. But Dakal’s Tribal Council is a little more in-line with what we expected before the season began.
Before the premiere, we expected Amber would have the worst odds to win this season. Some players might be interested in the meat shield strategy, which would entail keeping players like Rob, Amber, Sandra, and Parvati around for most of the game. But the overwhelming sentiment seems to have been, “Boston Rob needs to be stopped at all costs.”
Rob and Amber’s marriage is rooted in Survivor, and combined, they have already won at least $2 million from this game. They are the couple in Survivor‘s history, and none of their tribemates had any intention of bringing them together at the merge, especially when one half of that couple is renowned for his contributions to Survivor gameplay.
Voting out Amber was an obvious choice.
Early in the second half of the Winners at War premiere, Sandra elaborates more on her confession that she felt betrayed by Rob, who, while filming Island of the Idols with her for 36 days, failed to share that he would appear on the upcoming all-winners season. “Boston Rob told me that he would never come out here,” she says. “Every time I see Amber, I just think about it.”
So while Amber’s vote-off to Edge of Extinction may have been a strategic move, she also faced at least one bitter tribemate excited to get her out and, by extension, damage Boston Rob’s chances of winning another $2 million.
Unfortunately, Amber’s survival in Winners at War was destined to be an uphill battle. It would be like trying to keep a torch alight in a hurricane. It would be like trying to keep water in a bucket with 19 holes in the bottom. It would be like trying to keep a rope perfectly taut for 39 days. “Amber, zero percent chance of winning the game,” Spencer Bledsoe might say.
In the aftermath of Dakal’s Tribal Council, we know that Amber wasn’t the only target on the tribe this episode. For the first time, Kim found herself in a pickle. With three votes to her name, she was the backup in case Amber played an idol. Time will tell if Kim becomes Dakal’s main target following Amber’s vote-off.
“Amber, the tribe has spoken.”