Survivor Winners at War: Michele and Wendell’s story and its abrupt end

One of the strangest storylines in Survivor: Winners at War to this point was the relationship between Michele and Wendell. Until it abruptly ended.

When the seasonal tribe swap occurred in Survivor: Winners at War episode 5, Michele wound up on a tribe with Wendell and she informed the viewers that Wendell was actually her ex-boyfriend. This was something that even some Survivor fanatics might not have known.

At first, the interactions between these two was what you might expect between two exes: Awkward and uncomfortable. It was pretty clear from the moment the Sele tribe came together that Parvati and Michele were on the outs and that Michele’s history with Wendell might make her the bigger target.

Their first conversation on the beach didn’t go very well with Wendell not wanting to make the ordeal into anything at all. When Sele lost in the next episode, Wendell told Michele he’d consider voting with her if she gave him a fire token. She gave him one and he ended up not voting with Michele and helping oust Parvati.

For some reason though, when Sele lost again, Michele didn’t end up voting Wendell out. Stranger yet, the two were working together despite how rude Wendell had been to her previously (not to mention stolen her fire token).

It was a bizarre storyline, to say the least. When Wendell was voted off the newly merged tribe, Michele didn’t help kick him off when she had every reason to want his butt gone. Perhaps this was part of her strategy in case he ended up winning his way back into the game or it was a way to gain his vote if she were to make it to the end, but either way, it was strange.

If my ex and I were on the same tribe together and they took my fire token, talked down to me, and talked crap in the challenges that ultimately cost my team the win, I wouldn’t be so quick to form an alliance with them.

But hey – Michele has been playing a sneaky game this season and is out to prove that she was deserving of winning her season. She’s lived in that shadow throughout the current season and it’s clearly been something that’s gotten in her head. Maybe she was trying to prove something more by working with Wendell.

With Wendell now off to the Edge of Extinction, we probably won’t hear much more of this once prominent Survivor: Winners at War storyline, but it was one that left me scratching my head.