Survivor winners: Ranking all 45 Sole Survivors by season

Best Survivor Winners No. 20: Sandra Diaz-Twine (Survivor Heroes vs. Villains)

Few have had so little control of the game, but only Sandra Diaz-Twine did so in her second time playing as a winner of a previous season. Many had underestimated her Survivor abilities, as she posed very little a threat to start out. However, as conniving groups of players started to take out each other, and the fledgling heroes started to dwindle down, Sandra got to work.

You see, Survivor has always been a game of your peers coming back to judge your merit, and it seemed that Sandra was one of the few villains willing to offer an olive branch over.

While remaining loyal to her core alliance, she was more loyal to her own game of “anybody but me,” aligning herself with the inevitable players to drag her to the final tribal council.

While Russell Hantz and Parvati Shallow were plotting and scheming off together, Sandra knew how to push peoples’ buttons and not only tell them what they wanted to hear, but what made sense for them.

Her idol play at the final six was unnecessary to survive the vote, but ensure the heroes on the jury knew that she wasn’t playing around with the hope she dangled for them.

Despite a non-entity in challenges and playing to the whims of others, Sandra played the 2-7 off-suited hand she was dealt and got two players with pocket aces to fold.