This week on Survivor: Winners at War, the players set their sights on the endgame, and one winner became the 15th sent to Edge of Extinction. Read on for insight into this vote.
Survivor: Winners at War’s penultimate episode played out rather unceremoniously, as Cops “R” Us got their way without much opposition. In spite of a successful 50/50 coin flip on Michele’s part, her odds of winning the game decreased dramatically when Jeremy was voted out.
In the first Tribal Council of the episode, Nick is set up to be the swing vote. Jeremy and Michele have their sights on Ben; Tony, Sarah, Denise, and Ben are splitting the vote between Jeremy and Michele. With Nick’s help, the majority voting bloc would flush the 50/50 idol and send either Jeremy or Michele to Edge of Extinction.
Without his help, though, the best they could do is put four votes on just one of their targets and hope they don’t play an idol. This puts Nick in a prime position to change the course of the game.
Unfortunately for Jeremy, Michele, Nick himself, and all their fans, Nick does not oppose the majority alliance at Tribal Council. Instead, he sticks to the plan, and Jeremy is sent to Edge of Extinction after Michele’s fun, but ultimately inconsequential 50/50 advantage play. This sets the course for the rest of the episode, and likely the rest of the season as well.
So, why was this episode specifically Jeremy’s time to go?
We have watched Jeremy build strong relationships in this game every time he has played. This season, his bond with Michele was very tight. But beyond her, he failed to become closer to other players than they already were to one another. So when Tony, Ben, and Sarah plan to get him out, and all he has is Michele and a 50/50 chance at receiving a 50/50 coin flip (as Michele did consider playing it for him), it’s not enough to keep him afloat for another episode.
If Nick were closer to Jeremy, would that have prevented him from becoming the season’s 15th vote-out? It’s hard to say. Jeremy is incredibly threatening to all the players left in the game, regardless of the strength of their relationships with him.
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He is likable and could easily sweep the jury like he did in Survivor: Cambodia. A player like Nick would have a difficult time seeing past this, even though he knows it will be difficult to beat some (most?) of the other players as well. To Nick, Jeremy was unequivocally threatening, and therefore a very enticing vote-out.
Unfortunately for all the Jeremy fans in the world (myself included), he becomes the 15th player sent to Edge of Extinction in Survivor: Winners at War. The best we can do is hope that he scrambles back into the mix in the win-back challenge to kick off the finale next week. But even then, he would have a very difficult road on the way to Final Tribal Council.