Kyle Fraser and Kamilla Karthigesu just pulled off the biggest move of Survivor 48 so far. The pair was able to convince Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson to turn on their ally Shauhin Davari with a creative lie about who Shauhin was targeting and a hidden immunity idol. Now, the Final Five is set!
In the first look at Survivor 48 finale, which airs on Wednesday, May 21, we see the players return to camp after voting out Shauhin. Kyle, who definitely deserving credit for the invention of the move and half of the execution, was pretty excited about what they were able to accomplish in getting rid of Shauhin.
"My plan was to send Shauhin home, so the game of chicken between me and him is finally over," Kyle said. "It was a really tough move to pull off, and it felt nice to put on my acting hat with Kamilla. We got away with a pretty good heist. I set it up, and she dunked, you know? It was an alley-oop."
An alley-oop is probably the best way to describe that potential game-winning move. Kyle laid the groundwork to Kamilla to swoop in and drop a huge lie in the middle of the game. It completely rocked Joe's world. Now, Joe feels somewhat indebted to Kamilla and Kyle even though Joe won immunity and Eva has a hidden immunity idol. It was the perfect move at the perfect time.
Obviously, I don't think Kyle or Kamilla love that Joe is still in the game, but there's something to be said about their strategy to let Kyle continue to work his magic on that alliance. And, it works because that relationship between Kyle, Joe, and Eva is real. If Kyle were just faking it, he probably pulls the trigger on a move sooner against that duo, but instead, Kyle got the best of both worlds. He stayed connected to the majority alliance to protect himself, and he positioned himself close enough to the "decision makers" in Joe and Eva to protect Kamilla, too. It's just terrific gameplay.
Voting out Shauhin was probably a move that had to happen based on where Kyle and Kamilla were in the game. If Mitch gets voted out instead of Shauhin, Joe and Eva remain in that powerful position to possibly pick off Kyle and Kamilla if Shauhin was able to convince Joe to flip on Kyle. Now, it's easy for Kyle to keep pitching that "Final Three" alliance with Joe and Eva.
"The important part here is we got Joe and Eva to vote out their number three, Kyle continued. "But, I wanted to come out of this vote with the best possible working relationship with Eva and Joe, because now, we're in a position where I have all of the options to get to the Final Four."
Of course, there's still a scenario where Kyle gets voted out before the Final Four. This could be a big misdirection like we've seen in the past from Survivor. Joe could side with Mitch and Eva and vote out Kyle. Kamilla could betray her ally and side with Joe and Eva, but I don't think that's very likely.
We'll share more clips from the Survivor 48 finale as CBS shares them! Don't forget to watch the Survivor 48 finale on Wednesday, May 21, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+