We just found out the winner of Survivor 47 in the season finale, but really, I think we all knew who was taking home the $1 million prize and title of Sole Survivor this season!
Spoilers ahead for the Survivor 47 finale!
After winning the immunity challenge in part two of the finale, Rachel LaMont picked Sue Smey to join her in the Final Three. Sam Phalen, then, bested Teeny Chirichillo in the fire-making challenge to join Sue and Rachel. After a tightly contested Final Tribal, one player nearly became the first unanimous Survivor winner since Adam Klein in Survivor: Millenials vs. Gen X in season 33.
Of course, there's only one person that could be: Rachel LaMont, the winner of Survivor 47!
From underdog to challenge beast
Rachel started the game on the Gata tribe along with runner-up Sam Phalen. Initially, Rachel played along well with the tribe, vibed with Anika Dhar and Sierra Wright, who had a little alliance of their own before Sam, Sierra, and Andy Rueda, who Rachel had a complicated relationship with throughout the game, blindsided Anika and voted her out right before the merge. Rachel was blindsided, too, and left with only one ally in Sierra heading into merge.
When tribes came together, Rachel found herself on the losing end of a group immunity challenge with the five former Tuku players. Rachel had an uphill battle ahead of her, and she would have been voted out. Instead, Sol Yi found a hidden Safety Without Power advantage and secretly gifted it to Rachel right before Tribal Council. Rachel played the advantage, left the Tribal Council, and found new life in the game as a challenge beast.
Rachel won two immunity challenges before the Final Six, but even before that, she also found a clue in her bowl of fries at the Survivor auction. She sneakily cut open the tarp at camp while the rest of the tribe was there and found a hidden immunity idol. It was the biggest and boldest move of the game, and it paid off extremely well.
Then, Rachel used her Shot in the Dark in a way we've never seen before at Tribal Council in episode 8. She was the left out of the vote entirely; that's how little the player thought of Rachel at this point of the game. Rachel knew something was up, and with her idol in her pocket, she used her Shot in the Dark to see if the other players were targeting her. They didn't react, so she kept her idol. And, that did pay off in the biggest and best way possible.
That seemed like a rock bottom moment in the game for Rachel, though. She was very clearly on the outside, and then the game shifted. Rachel won a few immunity challenges, and she gained allies. Getting on the right side of the Caroline Vidmar-Sue Smey alliance was critical for Rachel. As they picked off bigger threats, Rachel ended up at the Final Six with an advantage that she won on a journey and a hidden immunity idol that no one knew about. And, she was there with several players who were not good at winning immunity challenges.
Rachel went full challenge beast at the end of the game. She won immunity in episode 12, which opened the door for Kyle Ostwald to get voted out. That was her second immunity challenge win.
She lost the immunity challenge to Genevieve Mushaluk at the Final Six, but she used her immunity idol perfectly. She duped every player except Sue into letting them think she was going home. No, no, no. She and Sue teamed up to blindside Andy Rueda after Rachel listened to Andy share his ENTIRE strategy for the game. Andy basically shot himself in the foot right at the end of the game.
After surviving the Final Six with a massive idol play, the first perfect idol play in several seasons of Survivor, Rachel won the immunity challenge at the Final Five and Final Four, cruised into the Final Three and won in near-unanimous fashion.
Rachel's four immunity challenge wins tied the record for a woman on a season of the series. That's an incredible accomplishment.
Rachel gets all but one vote at Final Tribal
The official vote for Rachel, Sam, and Sue broke 7-1-0 for Rachel. Sam was the only other player to receive a vote.
Honestly, I feel like Rachel should have been a unanimous winner. I understand why Kyle voted for Sam. I thought Sam did a good job of selling the game he played, but it didn't quite make sense because Sam had a very similar journey as Rachel without all the wins. In fact, Sam never won an individual immunity challenge. His pitch might have worked if Rachel was this dominant social and strategic player controlling the game, but it wasn't. Rachel was on the outside, like Sam, but she flipped the entire game in her favor in a way that I've never seen in the history of this show.
When the game was on the line, Rachel pulled off the win every single time. That's why she should have been the first unanimous winner since Adam Klein in Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X.
So, that's how Rachel put it all together to win Survivor 47! She was incredible this season. I'd love to see her return for Survivor 50, but who knows if that will happen?
We have a few seasons before that, though. Survivor 48 premieres on CBS in a few months. We'll be watching!