After the Survivor 48 premiere, Mary Zheng looked like she was going to be in trouble after her only ally in the game, Stephanie Bergerc, was voted out first. Then, in the episode 2 preview, Sai Hughley, whom Mary voted for, mentioned that she is one to hold a "grudge," so it really looked like Mary was heading home. As we all know, Mary survived that vote, and now, she's sharing why her tribe didn't vote her out.
Mary of the Vula tribe is one of the most interesting players in the Survivor 48 cast. Originally, I had her on my list of the six players most likely to win, but I swapped her out at the last second after rewatching the season premiere. I was worried that she was going to be in a really tough spot in episode 2, "Humble Traits," and she was. Somehow, Mary made it through the episode unscathed.
In fact, the Vula player I replaced her with on my top picks to win Survivor 48, Kevin Leung, was voted out instead of Mary, despite Mary not having a vote.
Well, Mary shared the reason why she was not voted out in episode 2 in a new video posted on her Instagram Stories. We can't share the video, but I did share what Mary said in the video:
"Here's one of the main reasons why people didn't vote for me at the last Tribal Council," Mary said. "It's because when I came back from my Journey, I said, 'I don't have an advantage," and nobody believed me. I knew that nobody would believe me because I was at the bottom. So, if I would have said, 'I have an advantage,' they would have thought that I didn't have an advantage. So, I was like, great, all I have to do is say, 'I don't have an advantage,' then they would think that I do have one. So, that's why they were scared to put my name down."
That's basically what we all expected, I think, and that's why Sai was so upset her tribe allowed Mary get in the boat so, so, so gracefully and venture off on the Journey. Obviously, Mary didn't complete the challenge and lost her vote, so she really had no power. But, Sai and the rest of the Vula players couldn't just take a chance that Mary was telling the truth, you know? I mean, they could have, but they clearly did not trust her after the first vote, which seems to be their own issue. I don't know.
Anyway, it would have been really interesting to see what would have happened if Mary scored an advantage. I have to imagine that she would have used an advantage to steal someone's vote and team up with Kevin to target Sai, Justin Pioppi, or Cedrek McFadden. The move would have been to try to flush out Sai's immunity idol and then pick off Justin or Cedrek.
We'll never know how it would have played out. Kevin was sent home, and now, Mary is ally-less on a somehow even weaker Vula tribe with no help in sight. Rachel LaMont, who was in a similar position as Mary was when she played in Survivor 47, shared what she would do in that situation. That advice was to lay low and find an idol or an advantage.
I would bet a lot of money that Vula will lose the next immunity challenge. Then, we'll see if Mary has a chance to find Sai's idol or make a move to stay in the game in Survivor 48, episode 3, which airs on Wednesday, March 12.