There are so many rules in Survivor that fans have gotten used to over the years that when a twist or advantage is executed in a way we’re not used to, it can be a little confusing on what the actual rules are. Especially considering there have been multiple times host and executive producer Jeff Probst has had to clarify the rules or change them because of something improbable happening.
And at last night’s Tribal Council, things definitely got confusing for viewers at home as Cirie Fields played her extra vote and caused a 2-2-2 tie between herself, Emily Flippen, and Rick Devens. While Devens played his idol and the votes cast against him were nullified, players still had to do a revote between Cirie and Emily.
Now, under usual circumstances, in the case of a tied vote, everyone votes again for one of the two tied players except the players in the tie as they obviously would just vote for each other and cancel out their votes. But because Cirie played her extra vote, that rule is altered to accommodate the activated advantage.
As Jeff explains in Survivor 47 episode 8, “He’s All That,” in the case of a revote where there’s a difference in the tied players voting ability—Sam Phalen lost his vote, but was tied with Sierra Wright who still had her ability to vote—the eligible player(s) will participate in the revote. And per the standard extra vote rules, an extra vote is seen as any other standard vote possessed by a player at Tribal Council.
So as Cirie played her extra vote, it was considered an extension of her vote at Tribal Council which means it was eligible to be played again on a revote—just as someone’s standard vote would be eligible to be used again on a revote. And since she was one of the tied players, she would need to go back to the voting booth to enact this second iteration of her extra vote as, per the Survivor 47 rule clarification, she and Emily had a voting disparity and therefore their ballots would not cancel each other out.
And because her extra vote was played in secret, in order to not reveal who played the extra vote, both Cirie and Emily returned to the voting booth and placed their second vote(s) of the night. Their votes cancelled each other out anyway, so all it did was add a little extra time to Tribal Council—which is likely the reason the rule was established in the first place.
So overall, while the process was fairly confusing to fans accustomed to a specific way revotes work, everything that happened at last night’s Tribal Council was by the book and fit with the previous rules that have been established in the game. Though it would have been nice for Jeff to clarify that for us like he did in Survivor 47.
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