It took us a few episodes, but the first villain of Survivor 48 has finally entered the chat and we’re very eager to see just how villainous their journey ahead might prove to be.
After finding a Beware Advantage, Star quickly began enlisting the help of her fellow Lagi tribemates in hopes that someone on the tribe could help her crack the code, secure the advantage, and regain her vote at Tribal. She first enlists help from Shauhin, who is more than happy to help his tribemate out, and begins trying to figure out the puzzle clue using the provided key. The same could not be said for Thomas, who upon learning the news acted supportive to Star’s face but quickly began plotting behind her back.
“When I hear that Star has a Beware Advantage, the first thing I think is, ‘She doesn’t have a vote at Tribal.’ It’s easy breezy beautiful. We’ll place nice until we go to Tribal, but we’re gonna, like, chop her head off instantly no problem,” Thomas plotted in his confessional.
Harsh as the comment was, this is a game, and looking for ways to outwit your players is a key component of the gameplay. We could understand Thomas wanting to use this knowledge as an advantage and way to target Star, but then he took things one step further and cemented himself as our first real villain of the season.
When Shauhin filled Thomas in on his conversation with Star and told him about her giving him the key to cracking her Beware Advantage riddle, Thomas pitched a truly diabolical plan: get rid of the key so Star couldn’t crack the Beware Advantage riddle and thus wouldn’t be able to win the advantage and regain her vote at Tribal.
“What if it disappears? I mean, she just gave it to you. What if it disappears? Doesn’t have to be your fault. If the girl doesn’t have an idol or advantage, she’s a sitting duck. She doesn’t have a vote. It makes everything easy,” Thomas pointed out.
Thankfully for Star, Shauhin quickly shut down Thomas’s idea and was not about to sabotage his fellow tribemate; however, it proved that Thomas is willing to do literally anything to get a leg up on the competition including lying and sabotaging them behind their backs.
Not only did Thomas try to convince Shauhin to destroy the key to Star’s Beware Advantage, but then he went and lied to his entire tribe when he won an advantage during a challenge. While Mitch openly shared his success with his tribe, Thomas did not blink an eye as he told his tribemates that he didn’t risk competing for the advantage when learning it could result in him losing his vote at Tribal.
“I think having an advantage in Survivor is incredible. But my plan is to not tell a soul,” Thomas shared in his confessional. “The second someone else knows about your advantage, not only does it cause a target on your back, but you can’t use it as well. Star is a perfect example of telling too many people about what she got.”
Thomas is clearly not here to make any friends and episode 2 proved he’s willing to lie, betray, and backstab anyone who gets in his way without any second thought. The ease at which he concocted the idea to dispense of Star’s Beware Advantage key and lie to his tribe about his advantage, suggests Thomas has officially begun his villain origin story and he’s going to be someone to keep an eye on this season.
There’s no telling what dastardly deeds he might retort to in the weeks ahead and all we know is that we would not want to end up on his bad side, as Thomas has quickly proven he’s not to be trusted and is only going to be looking out for himself.