Knowing where the game and our players stand going into the Survivor 48 finale, those early episodes look a whole lot different—and not just how clean and healthy looking they were.
Like, did you know of the first five players shown in the season's opening "casting reaction" sequence, four of them make it to the finale? And our fifth finale member? He got the most prominent, final spot in the sequence before the game officially began. Hmm...
So let's walk through the path our Final Five took to get to the finale and see if there's anything we might have missed during our first watch-through.
Episode 1 - The Get to Know You Game
The season premiere opened with video call recordings of our castaways learning they would be on Survivor 48. First Mitch Guerra, then Eva Erickson, David Kinne (though not Final Five prominent character this season), Kyle Fraser, and Kamilla Karthigesu. The remaining castaways' reactions were sprinkled in before Joe Hunter got a big emotional reaction, leading into the first confessional of the season, where he established he prides himself on being someone others can rely on.
This was explicitly demonstrated throughout the remainder of the episode as he was a driving force behind Lagi winning both the marooning and the first immunity challenge. Additionally, he was the first to start fire for the purple tribe and immediately started making bonds as he became part of the California Girls alliance with Thomas Krottinger and Shauhin Davari while building the shelter before committing to Eva as well. He was very much a main character of this episode alongside Kyle.
Kyle—feeling he did not do his best at the marooning—opted to go on the journey to compete for tribe supplies against Kevin Leung. When he had to forfeit the challenge, rather than sulking, he went over and helped Kevin finish, also showing a clear penchant for genuine social connections. This was further emphasized when he returned to the Civa camp (empty-handed) and wasn't immediately the odd man out, but rather bonded with his tribe, especially Kamilla.
From the very beginning, Kamilla stated her strategy was to mess with people and throw targets elsewhere. While she might not have been the most social of the Civa members, she was never left out of the conversation and was not immediately placed on the bottom of the tribe. Plus, she demonstrated her intellect by being the one to complete the puzzle and win second place immunity for the tribe, which they all saw as a benefit and not a threat.
But someone on the fence of being a threat to Civa was Mitch, who appeared close to Charity Nelms (who everyone decided was on the bottom) and gave the first in-person introduction after landing on the beach, where he shared his story. But with Civa being the naturally social tribe, he was still included in everything, like when David realized there were symbols everywhere, he pulled Mitch to investigate before looping in the entire tribe.
While Eva got a big introduction with her story for the audience, the only real moment in the game that was focused on her at the beginning was the one that included Joe, as she opened up about her autism and decided that he would be her No. 1 for the season. She had great showings in the challenges alongside the rest of her tribe, but there were no other gameplay factors highlighted for her other than the key alliance.
Episode 2 - Humble Traits
In line with the title, "Humble Traits," this episode focused on humility and furthering social connections for our Final Five. This happened the most around the discovery of the Lagi and Civa Beware Advantages.
While on a hunt with David, Kyle found the advantage and immediately knew he needed to bring Kamilla into the fold to help solve it, which she did. While over at Lagi, Star Toomey tracked down the advantage with the specific intent of using it against Eva after she had suggested Star sit out of the next challenge. She couldn't solve it and recruited Joe, who immediately brought in Shauhin to avoid any mistrust issues. But he started to feel in the middle of everyone's game and realized that ultimately, he's going to have to lose someone's trust in order to win.
Ironically, Star did sit out of the next challenge for Lagi along with Kamilla for Civa, who used the opportunity to connect with the other tribe member and gain some information, though we wouldn't learn this part of the conversation for a few more episodes.
Mitch, though not really involved in the Beware Advantage moments, basically won immunity for Civa and then went on the journey to earn himself a Block-a-Vote, which he told Civa about. This was also the episode where he had a standout moment with host Jeff Probst that emphasized his story and ability to connect in front of everyone.
Episode 3 - Committing to the Bit
Episode 3, "Committing to the Bit, was most definitely about Vula, but we got a little bit of time spent on our Final Five.
Kyle, initially wary of Mitch due to his relationship with Charity, felt more at ease with Mitch after the two went fishing and Mitch initiated conversation regarding strategy. This moment was very minimal overall, but ultimately had a huge impact on the game as Mitch felt very close to Kyle after this, though it only really minimized Mitch's threat level in Kyle's eyes.
Joe worked to keep morale high with a bonfire at the Lagi camp, but when Eva presented him with a bracelet she made for his daughter, everyone else started getting wary of their relationship. Then, when Eva tried to get Star to open up about the Beware Advantage (which Joe brought her in on), she chose to throw out the names of two of her tribe members to gain trust, which backfired and instead made those players want to team up with Star to get Eva out.
Kamilla once again demonstrated her incredible puzzle prowess as the caller for the immunity challenge and won it for her tribe. She got to go on the journey and was the only player to win an extra vote in an extremely dangerous game of chance that cost everyone else their vote.
Episode 4 - The House Party's Over
In "The House Party's Over," the tribe swap finally broke up the social Civa and the physically strong Lagi tribes to make things interesting as we entered the second phase of the game. Eva stayed on Lagi, and Mitch stayed on Civa, both continuing to be great challenge assets to their tribes and winning immunity.
The new Vula tribe found themselves going to Tribal Council in a grouping of the California Girls alliance vs. Kyle and Kamilla, though the original Lagi members were made to believe Kyle and Kamilla were not together, which was the beginning of a beautiful strategic gameplay arc for the two.
With the information Kamilla learned from chatting up Star at the second episode's immunity challenge, she was able to deduce a lie told by Thomas and gain favor with Shauhin as a trustworthy person. Their secret alliance then helped ensure they played Kyle's hidden immunity idol and Kamilla's extra vote correctly, sending home Thomas rather than one of them.
Episode 5 - Master Class in Deception
Where Joe and Shauhin should have turned around and immediately wanted to vote Kyle out for blindsiding them and their ally in "Master Class in Deception," Kyle managed to bond with them and become their new closest ally. That right there was one $1 million move on top of another. Kamilla was also more or less included in this grouping, and the four of them went on to win the next immunity challenge.
During that challenge, Eva had an emotional moment that led to her and Joe revealing to the entire cast the extent of their relationship—a bond much larger than the game—in addition to her autism. While some people became cautious of them after this, Star opened up to Eva and invited her to help solve the Beware Advantage, which she did. Star decided that Eva earned the idol inside of it, and Eva secured her first advantage in the game.
After losing immunity for the first time, the Civa tribe found themselves going back and forth between many options due to multiple factors, but ultimately Mitch was left out of a 2-1-1 vote against Bianca Roses.
Episode 6 - Doing the Damn Thing
Entering phase three of the game, in "Doing the Damn Thing," our castaways all met back at the Lagi camp before fighting to earn the merge. Divided into two groups, Eva, Mitch, and Joe went up against Kyle and Kamilla whose team ultimately won the merge feast and a chance at immunity.
Kamilla was the first out of the challenge, but Kyle was the last standing and took home the first individual immunity win of the season. At the merge feast, Eva's idol and Mitch's Block-a-Vote were revealed to that group as they discussed sending Charity home, a move Mitch was once again left out of.
Later, back at camp, Joe and David connected, deciding to band together to create the "Strong 5" alliance consisting of them, Eva, Shauhin, and Kyle because, "the game doesn't have to be this new generation of stabbing people in the back and doing crazy moves just for the pizzazz." They decided they want to move forward with a core group of honest people who will play loyally to the end.
Episode 7 - Survivor Smack Talk
In probably the funniest new era Survivor challenge, the Strong 5 went up against each other in an endurance immunity challenge after being divided into two groups, both fighting for the necklace and reward in "Survivor Smack Talk." Eva was the last woman standing, but Joe secured immunity in his group. Kyle fought hard, but ultimately couldn't outlast David in the challenge, who got immunity, but also a reward, fueling Kyle and Kamilla.
Prior to the challenge, both Kyle and Kamilla connected with Mitch to explain what happened with the Charity vote and ease his mind a little bit, but he was still feeling unsure of his place in the game. He decided to play it cool and just go with the flow to avoid being seen as a threat by association. Joe, however, was very wary about keeping Mitch around because of his story and his strength in physical challenges.
Divided into two groups for two tribals and a double elimination, Mitch tried to up his social game to build that human bond with Joe that he seemed to be liking with everyone else. Ultimately, Mitch revealed he had a Block-a-Vote, which he planned to use on Sai Hughley, making it so she couldn't play her Shot in the Dark, so they could ensure she went home, which protected him a little longer.
Kyle and Kamilla considered using the Tribal Council shake-up as a chance to blindside Shauhin and planted the idea that he had an idol in David's head. But in the end, they decided to stick with the alliance and send Cedrek McFadden to the jury.
Episode 8 - A Rift Between All of Us
In "A Rift Between All of Us," Joe believed inner group alliances were revealed when he forced the tribe to name names after receiving instructions to pair up for the immunity challenge, rather than leaving it to chance. Eva won immunity and reward where she received a reward, which led her on a journey to an advantage.
First out of the challenge, Kamilla and Mitch end up on a journey fighting for their vote, and Kamilla managed to sway the game to ensure neither she nor Mitch lost their vote as both were trying to band the original Civa back together to vote out a big Lagi threat—namely Joe. Mitch was working really hard to take control of his game and make a move, but Kyle was unsure if the timing was right and couldn't give him a solid answer.
Kyle was feeling in the middle as his old Civa crew and closest ally, Kamilla, needed his vote to vote out a huge threat who had also become an ally for him. But then he discovered David and Mary Zheng were putting Kamilla's name on the chopping block and began scrambling to move the target to Chrissy Sarnowsky. Ultimately, the trust he built with Shauhin, Joe, and Eva allowed him to sway them enough to believe Chrissy was a bigger threat than Kamilla and send her to the jury.
Episode 9 - Welcome to the Party
Right after Tribal Council, "Welcome to the Party" begins when David tells Kamilla he floated her name, and she immediately decides he needs to be the next target. Kyle was on board with this as well since David and Mary would not let Kamilla's name go to the point that he was pushing away his closest allies.
Joe started to see a new side to David that he didn't agree with, but Eva was still on the fence, so Joe let her take the lead on this vote and said he'll go with whatever she decides. She fulfilled her journey and won a Safety Without Power, choosing to only share the information with Joe, Shauhin, and Kyle (who in turn told Kamilla).
Mitch taught Star to swim in an attempt to start building a relationship with her, knowing he'll need her vote to make a move at some point.
Eva decided the chaos around camp was not worth the alliance loyalty and they chose to vote out David instead of Mitch.
Episode 10 - My Enemies Are Plottin'
In "My Enemies Are Plottin'," Kyle informed Kamilla that after voting out David, he can't go against his core alliance anymore, and if she wanted to make a move against any of them, she'll have to do it without his vote. But after winning the reward, he still picked who joined him strategically, leaving Mitch, Mary, and Star back at camp with Joe and without food, so they hopefully got angry enough to want to join Kamilla in voting him out.
Kamilla had Mary and Star on her side to try and blindside Joe, but Mitch didn't trust Mary or Star enough to vote with them, despite his confessional accompanying the entire swimming lesson sequence one episode ago.
Eva and Joe discussed feeling solid with their path forward: getting rid of Star and Mary, then Kamilla and Mitch, to make it to the Final Four with their core alliance of strength as originally planned.
None of it mattered in the end, though, because Joe won immunity and the core alliance decided to vote out Star while those on the bottom voted for Mary. This was the first time all season that Kamilla was on the wrong side of the vote.
Episode 11 - Coconut Etiquette
Despite previously saying he couldn't make a move against Joe, Kyle was starting to second-guess whether he could beat Joe at the end in "Coconut Etiquette." He made a pact with Kamilla that one of the two of them will make it to the Final Three no matter what.
Kamilla won immunity and tried once again to get Mitch to work with her and Mary to pull in either Kyle or Shauhin to blindside Joe. After Eva shared that she for sure plans to use her idol at Final Five to guarantee her or Joe's safety, it was clear they had to split them up sooner rather than later.
Eva also got the chance to go on a journey where she lost her vote and won it back, not opting to double or nothing for the chance to win a Knowledge is Power advantage.
Joe felt the stress of the game for the first time when Mary admitted she was writing his name down. This frustrated Kyle who had been sweating for weeks, but not enough to blindside him. Eva allowed her Safety Without Power to expire without playing it.
Episode 12 - Icarus Time
Feeling the pressure of the Final Six in "Icarus Time," Kyle realized that it was finally time to play strategically and make a move against his core alliance. With Joe once again winning immunity, the target was off his back, so he aimed his sights on Shauhin.
Mitch, after weeks of not wanting to make a move due to timing, was itching to make a move, but everyone had seemingly gone silent on him and Kamilla—since he was the planned next castaway to go—and he was starting to get annoyed that no one was willing to work with him. But Kamilla and Kyle concocted a plot to pit Joe and Eva against their closest ally, Shauhin, while still staying in their good graces moving forward, which worked.
Episode 13 - Only One of Yous Can Win
Our Final Five will face off in an immunity challenge to narrow it down to four before one of them secures the necklace one last time and two are chosen to go to fire and duel for a spot in the Final Three. Then we'll finally get to hear from our jury and see who's named our Sole Survivor!
Or at least that's what we expect will happen, but it's Survivor. Who knows what surprises are in store? Guess we'll find out this Wednesday, May 21st at 8pm ET on CBS and Paramount+.