One of the greatest strategists of the new era, Genevieve Mushaluk, is returning to the game after just barely missing the finish line in Survivor 47.
And with the stakes even higher than before—and Genevieve being willing to take things as far as she needs to make moves worth $1 million—could this be the season that’s actually ready to handle her level of gameplay?
Genevieve’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career: Survivor 47 (5th Place)
Total Days Played: 24 days
Total Votes Against: 9 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 2
- First win on Day 13 during a group challenge where the last player standing won immunity for their entire group. Genevieve and Teeny Chirichillo outlasted everyone in the other group, tying for the win.
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 1
- Combined reward and immunity challenge
Immunity Idols Played: 0
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor 47
Genevieve got a lucky start on the Lavo tribe as they placed in the first two immunity challenges, avoiding Tribal Council. When they lost the third challenge—with the tribe clearly made up of three 2-player alliances—Genevieve successfully convinced the duo of Teeny Chirichillo and Kishan Patel to turn against Aysha Welch and Sol Yi in order to save her ally Rome Cooney. But when they lost the following challenge, after Kishan had thrown Genevieve’s name out, she recruited Sol in to blindside him, to Teeny’s surprise as well.
They safely made it through the next vote before entering the individual phase of the game where all tribes came together and were immediately tasked with finding an advantage to the next challenge. Genevieve secured the advantage, which allowed her to skip the team portion of the challenge (guaranteeing reward) and go straight into the individual immunity challenge. Based on his untrustworthy behavior, Genevieve helped her fellow castaways send her closest ally Rome home before they were officially merged.
Now on the bottom, Genevieve found herself a magnet to the outcasts from the other tribes, specifically Andy Rueda, who felt betrayed by his supposed allies and turned to her. And luck was on both their sides when a team immunity was announced, dividing the players into two groups with the last overall player standing winning reward and immunity for their group while the last player standing on the losing group won immunity while their group went to Tribal Council.
On the same team, Genevieve and Teeny outlasted the other group and won immunity for themselves, Andy, Sol, Sierra Wright, and Sam Phalen, effectively splitting up the Tuku tribe’s majority alliance.
A few days later, an elimination-style immunity challenge sent four players on a journey, four players on a reward, and left Genevieve alone at camp with Sue Smey, allowing her to strategize a plan to blindside Sol, which unanimously went into effect at the next Tribal Council. Despite voting for him, Teeny felt betrayed by Genevieve for orchestrating his elimination, and she became a target at the next vote. Luckily the Tuku alliance once again chose to turn on one of its own instead.
And while she continued to have her name thrown out as the biggest game threat, she lucked out when Kyle Ostwald lost immunity, allowing her to convince everyone that they might not get another chance to send the challenge threat to the jury.
Sam won the next reward challenge and brought Andy and Genevieve with him, where Andy proposed “Operation: Italy,” a plan to blindside Rachel LaMont. As part of the plan, Genevieve put together a fake idol and revealed it to Teeny. When Rachel won immunity, they shifted the target to Caroline Vidmar, though Teeny didn’t trust Genevieve and tried to convince everyone that something was afoot. No one played any advantages and the plan went accordingly, blindsiding Caroline.
Genevieve won the next immunity challenge and shared the reward with Sue and Teeny, where she proposed voting out Rachel. But when Rachel played her hidden immunity idol that night, Andy was the one with his torch snuffed. After this play, conversations started suggesting that the two contenders for the title of Sole Survivor were Rachel and Genevieve, which caused the remaining three players to grow frustrated.
When Rachel won the Final Five immunity challenge, everyone decidedly voted out Genevieve as the biggest threat to win the game, making her the 7th member of the jury. At Final Tribal Council, she voted with the majority for Rachel to win $1 million and the title of Sole Survivor.
Survivor 50 Predictions: How far will Genevieve go?
If there’s one thing we can expect to see from Genevieve, it’s bold moves and quick alliance shifting as she strategically maneuvers the game. Otherwise, she’s a closed book who plays by her own rules, which makes her extremely dangerous for players and extremely thrilling for viewers. Her downfall last time was in her blunt gameplay and lack of social safeguarding, so if she’s able to keep a few key allies around on her journey, she’ll have all the tools she’ll need to make it those few extra days to Final Tribal Council.
But if she doesn’t turn her social game around this time, I have a feeling we’re going to see her exit around the same time she did in Survivor 47. She’s too smart a player to not be able to dig herself out of a few initial holes she might find herself in, so I anticipate she’ll get to the merge.
Genevieve Mushaluk Survivor 50 Player Score
Genevieve left her last season with a few lessons to learn, and if she enters Survivor 50 with them in mind, there’s nothing she can’t handle. She’s a hard player to beat, and the only reason she lost at the end of Survivor 47 was because the other threat won immunity at the right time. While it’s nearly impossible to manage time on the island, it’s something that might have to come into play this time around to ensure a grand finish. Advantages and challenge wins will be much more important if she wants to guarantee her safety this season.
Outwit (Social Game): 7/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 7/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 11/15
Wildcard Factor: 5/5
Total Player Score: 30/50
There’s so much potential here that I am simply buzzing to see how things go for Genevieve this time around. Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount +!