Survivor Winners at War episode 12 secret scenes: Back to business

Whether it’s fitting in with a group of legendary winners or falling back into a familiar role, the Survivor: Winners at War episode 12 secret scenes have it all.

It’s hard to imagine an hour where Tony Vlachos got eight separate confessionals, tried to flip the vote from Jeremy to Kim, got into a major argument with Sarah, and both built/established the spy nest network as a cooldown episode. Yet, somehow in Survivor: Winners at War episode 12, it seemed as though the focus on Tony was just as concerning as it was invigorating.

We saw a wide variety of perspectives this week, aided in part by the fact that there were only eight players left in the game. As such, the first of two Survivor: Winners at War episode 12 secret scenes takes us away from the majority of players. Why look more at camp life when we can double down on Sophie Clarke’s misaligned self-doubts on the Edge of Extinction?

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if many Survivor fans had Sophie lower down on the winner tier charts heading into Winners at War, especially since South Pacific did a better job of highlight Coach’s insanity and Ozzy’s challenge beast escapades rather than highlight her barbed banter. Thankfully, the legends on the Edge are there to comfort here and welcome her in as one of their own.

We saw Ben Driebergen go full Ben Driebergen and start going on an idol spree starting from the Final Nine in his winning season, and the second of two Survivor: Winners at War episode 12 secret scenes shows him starting it back up again at the Final Eight. Much like Tony Vlachos in the round before him, Ben’s finally breaking out of his shell and is now fully back on his idol bulls—.

The character of Ben Driebergen in Winners at War continues to be a land of contrasts, as he has so desperately wanted to escape the label of being all about idols. However, outside of blowing up Kim’s spot and letting Tony know about the many blindsides his way, Ben’s big move this episode was to search for an idol early and ultimately pull it off (even if Tony caught him in the act).

Finally, Jeff Probst offers his post-facto recap of the episode, fully knowing what happens in next week’s two-hour affair and the three-hour finale on May 13.