After the explosive end of Survivor 48 episode 8, we had a feeling that David’s game was in jeopardy, but we didn’t quite expect his fall would come as quickly as it did.
Following the heated tribal council in episode 8, David’s game unraveled before our eyes with his continued desire to target Kamilla – a move that ultimately led to his downfall. David was wise to catch onto the threat Kamilla posed to his game, but what he didn’t realize until it was too late was that he was barking up the wrong tree trying to convince Kyle of this plan. By the time David realized how close Kamilla and Kyle were in the game, his theories were written off by the other players in his alliance as paranoia.
David’s alliance ended up turning on him, blindsiding him at tribal council by voting him out and making him the third member of the jury. It was clear that David did not expect his alliance members to flip the vote on him, and he made his anger known when he left tribal without any farewell words.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly following his elimination from the show, David had a lot to say about how his game came to a close, and he did not hold back on calling out the one player he blames most for being the downfall of his game.
“There was a lot going on, and so I did blame Joe mostly because he was the one I knew that had to have flipped, because as you saw on the log, there was this consensus among the group — me, Mary, Eva, and then obviously Joe conceded, ‘Okay, we're going to do Kamilla.’ And then Shauhin and Kyle did a great job of manipulating Joe, and even Eva to an extent. And they changed the vote back to Kamilla at the last second, which I predicted they would. And he didn't stand his ground. He didn't.”
While his full alliance ended up turning their backs on him, with the exception of Mary, it was Joe’s decision to turn on him that David took as the ultimate betrayal of his trust..
As David explained, Joe had given him his word and swore on the lives of his children that he would not blindside him and that if he were to take a shot at David, he’d hand him a sword and fight it out. That’s why David felt so betrayed when Joe chose to blindside him at tribal and cast a vote to eliminate him from the game without a proper chance to plead his case.
“And so that was a hard moment. I felt he stabbed me in the back, and he did. He swore on his kids that he would never stab me in the back. He would just give me a sword rather than a dagger to the back. He would just give me a sword and we would fight it out. And I truly believed him, and I think when he said it, he meant it at the time. And so giving him that look was definitely like, ‘Man, I thought you were better than this,’ basically.”
Honestly, we understand David feeling betrayed by Joe, especially with the added context of the promise Joe made to David in giving him his word not to blindside him. While we get that going back on your word is a part of the game, all you have in games like this is your word and the words of those around you. When you put trust in someone only for them to turn their back on you, it’s more than justified to feel betrayed.
Joe did turn his back on David, and it’s going to be interesting to see if that proves to be the downfall of his game. After all, with David gone, the target on Joe’s back has grown bigger now that he’s one of the biggest physical competitors remaining in teh game.