Survivor 48 episode 8, "A Rift Between All of Us," was a huge turning point in the game. After forming an alliance of the strongest players in the game just days before, the alliance is already collapsing in on itself after a wild day of team-ups, challenges, tacos, a Journey, and a bunch of indecision about who to actually vote out during the episode.
Over the course of one day, there were a few players who had their strategy raked over the coals. How they handled the attention absolutely blew up their games, but David Kinne was the one player in particular who made a few key mistakes that ruined his chance at winning $1 million.
While David seemed like a good, milk-drinking dude, he definitely acted quite paranoid for someone supposedly in the the majority alliance during this episode. It happens in Survivor. Players plot and plan their way to the end with a group of people, but the game moves quickly and slowly. It's designed to highlight those cracks in alliances. It all started when the players had to choose another player to compete with in the immunity challenge. It offered the players a chance to play with friends or foes during the challenge, but it really stirred things up for David.
As they prepped for Tribal Council, David had a problem with Kyle Fraser and Joe Hunter trying to shift the vote. The issue stemmed from his fear that his alliance of six was actually not going with his plan to take out Kamilla Karthigesu, and he didn't want to hear anyone who wanted to make a different move.
Kyle is allies with Kamilla, which has been largely a secret until now, so he's trying to protect his own interest in the game. But, he's also making some good points about why it makes a lot of sense to keep Kamilla and vote out Chrissy Sarnowsky because Chrissy is going after Joe Hunter, one of David's allies. If Kamilla had a hidden immunity idol or if Chrissy rallied Mitch Guerra, Kamilla, and pulled in another player like Shauhin Davari, who even David suspects is working with Kamilla, and they used a Steal a Vote or Block a Vote at any point, Tribal Council becomes very interesting and one of the majority alliance could be in jeopardy. Kyle was lying in some respect, but he was also pointing out some basic errors in David's strategy to just rally the troops and get to the Final Six, and David didn't seem to understand. Instead, he called out Kyle for not falling in line.
That was a very red flag conversation, in my opinion. Why would I trust you if you're going to potentially call me out in front of everyone? Even if he's right, calling someone a liar or alleging someone is being deceptive in a setting like that is a bad move.
It seems like David has good intentions to play a game that fits his personality and style, but that's not how everyone wants to play.
Then, at Tribal Council, David continued to argue with Chrissy over and over about his strategy instead of just being chill about it, letting Chrissy go home, and keep playing the game. David's emotions got the best of him. Chrissy admitted after she was voted out to Entertainment Weekly that David was actually yelling at her at Tribal Council, but the scene was cut from the episode.
In the end, David did not get his way. Kamilla was not voted out, and David's strategy was exposed in front of everyone who will be voting for the winner of Survivor 48. Kamilla called it bad jury management, but it was just a rough scene.
Overall, David can't recover from this. Once a player starts throwing caution to the wind and losing sight of the bigger goal, it's a one-way ticket out of Survivor. If David isn't voted out next, I will be shocked.
Ultimately, I don't think David had much of a chance to win Survivor 48. His strategy was unsustainable, but he didn't do himself any favors.