Sometimes the best you can do is sit back and hope for the best. While this did not garner the best results for our most recently ousted Survivor player, this was Star Toomey’s thought process when deciding not to play her Shot in the Dark at her final tribal council.
The fourth juror admitted in her exit interview with Entertainment Weekly that while she knew that the vote was going to come down to her and Mary Zheng. At the time, she was hoping that the final tally would be in her favor. Her hope was that the original Lagi members would choose to keep her around over Mary, with who they have less of a connection.
It was this line of thinking that led Toomey to decide to not play her Shot in the Dark, which she knew the other competitors were expecting her to play.
Here's what Star told Entertainment Weekly about the decision not to play the Shot in the Dark:
"The thing with the Shot in the Dark is I already knew they were trying to flush it out of me. So I'm like, “I can't play that Shot in the Dark because that means tomorrow or the next Tribal Council, I am a sitting duck and it will be me.” So, I really did think that this honesty and loyalty thing that everyone was talking about, I at least thought that that also followed with me. Because out of everybody and everything that I've been watching, I've been the most honest and loyal throughout the whole time."
Toomey also expressed disappointment with her original tribe members, who never fully embraced her as one of their own in the premarge, or even as a number they were back together in the merge.
Luckily, Star’s experience in Ponderosa was a different story, stating that jurors Cedrek McFadden, Chrissy Sarnowsky, and David Kinne all gave her a warm welcome upon her entry.
Here's what she told Entertainment Weekly about that reunion:
“The first time I landed on Ponderosa, Cedrek, Chrissy, and David were all sitting on the stairs waiting for me. And then the moment where you think you're going to cry and you feel so defeated, they uplifted me, hugged me, and all my pain kind of went away for a little bit. I was like: Wow, this is what I've been wanting. Community people, true allies. Not, you're picking on me because I'm not a part of the group. That's childish. We're here to play a game.”
While Star may not have gotten the community she wanted, or deserved, from her original tribemates, it will be her who gets the last laugh on finale night, where she’ll be one of the eight jurors to vote on a winner.
The winner will be announced during the season finale on Wednesday, May 21, on CBS and Paramount+.