Survivor Winners at War: Ranking all 20 performances from season 40

18. Adam Klein

Assessing Adam’s gameplay is interesting because he had some good moments combined with a few critical mistakes. He started the game off on the wrong foot by sneaking off with Denise to the water well, where they “got a little lost.” That put Adam’s name on the chopping block right out of the gate.

We’ve seen many castaways recover from searching for an idol on Day 1, and so did Adam… at first. He was able to get the vote off of him and onto Natalie. The following episode, he convinced Denise to give him half of her idol, and prevented her from loaning it to Parvati! He also was developing strong social connections all around, being involved in nearly every important conversation leading up to the Danni vote.

Instead of building on those relationships, Adam began to let his short-lived power get to his head. The majority alliance on the Sele tribe decided it was time to go after Parvati. Adam felt that he was actually building a tight bond with Boston Rob and thought he could still vote Parvati and keep Rob as an ally. Thinking his relationship was stronger than it actually was, Adam urged Boston Rob to vote out his number one ally.

That was the turning point for Adam, as everyone found it hard to trust him after that point. He was blindsided by the Ethan vote and even Denise wanted to distance herself from him. If his expansion tribe lost one more challenge, I could almost guarantee Adam would have been voted out. When it came to the merge, Adam was so confident in the now-infamous “podium idol” that he played a little too aggressive, thinking he would be safe.

Inspecting the podium was by no means a bad move, but banking on this potential idol to save his life wasn’t a good idea. For the third time in Winners at War, Adam made a serious error, and this time there was no recovering. I still believe Adam understands this game really well, he simply got too comfortable in his position and put up a lousy, but entertaining performance.

Highs:

– Getting his name off of the Day 1 chopping block
– Convincing Denise to give him half of her idol instead of Parvati or Ben
– Having a significant role in controlling the Danni vote

Lows:

– Raising suspicion after going missing with Denise minutes into the game
– Telling Boston Rob to vote out his closest ally and believing that Rob bought into it
– Interrogating Ben and Sarah about the Yara tribe’s idol
– Losing everyone’s trust, including his closest ally: Denise
– That hilarious attempt at playing the Tribal Council podium as an idol