One of the best sneaker agents Survivor has ever seen, Kamilla Karthigesu mastered the art of shadow strategy in her season, now returning for true redemption to make it to the end and not be defeated by fire. But now that her brilliance is well known, will she be able to execute the same strategy or will we see a whole new Kamilla come out in Survivor 50?
Kamilla’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career: Survivor 48 (4th Place)
Total Days Played: 25 days
Total Votes Against: 0 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 2
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 2
- Combined reward and immunity challenges
Immunity Idols Played: 0
Advantages Played: 0
- Earned an extra vote on a journey, but gave it to ally Kyle Fraser for him to play
Survivor 48
At the very start of the game, Kamilla instantly formed a bond with fellow Civa tribemate Kyle Fraser after discovering they had a lot in common, including how they planned to approach the game. They chose to keep their alliance under wraps in order to not put a target on either of their backs, but when Kyle found the beware advantage, he immediately took it to Kamilla when he couldn’t figure out how to open it. Kamilla unlocked it and gave Kyle the hidden immunity idol inside.
After the third immunity challenge, Kamilla was chosen to go on a journey where she was forced to risk her vote in a game of chance. Fortunately, luck was on her side and she rolled the dice correctly, gaining herself an extra vote.
While Civa was strong and avoided the first few Tribal Councils, a tribe swap on day 8 put Kamilla and Kyle on the bottom of the new Vula tribe alongside three former Lagi members — Joe Hunter, Shauhin Davari, and Thomas Krottinger. During public introductions, Kamilla acted like she and Kyle hadn’t had much time to get to know each other back at Civa, hinting to the former Lagi members that she’d be open to working with them.
This paid off when they lost the next immunity challenge and it was clear either Kamilla or Kyle would be the target. Based on separate conversations, it seemed they were more likely going after Kyle—especially when they went through Kyle’s bag in front of Kamilla, seemingly trusting her—which led Kamilla to giving Kyle her extra vote and encouraging him to play his idol. That night, they blindsided Thomas and still managed to avoid letting their relationship come to light.
But after winning the next reward, the four new Vula members bonded and decided they wanted to work together to the end, with Shauhin now believing he was the one who had a true secret alliance with Kamilla. This was even more apparent when the merge came and Kyle was invited into a greater alliance featuring the “strong” players—Joe, Shauhin, David Kinne, and Eva Erickson—but Kamilla was left on the outs.
She continued her secret alliance with Kyle, though, and informed him when his alliance member David started throwing his name out. The two of them worked collectively behind the scenes to make him the first inner-alliance blindside of the season. She went on to protect Kyle against two more attempts to vote him out.
Kamilla won the next immunity challenge and used it as an opportunity to try and blindside Joe—who had been on a winning spree. But thanks to a rogue outsider and Joe’s paranoia, the plan blew up and Joe remained in the game, going on to win the next immunity. With only six players left in the game, Kamilla wanted to get out the biggest threats which moved her target to Shauhin. Kyle approached her with a plan to throw Shauhin under the bus of their alliance and she excitedly accepted.
The two separately approached Joe with false stories of Shauhin’s plans to blindside Joe’s day 1 ally Eva, giving merit to their misinformation. He easily agreed to blindside Shauhin that night.
Kamilla went on to win the Final Five immunity challenge, earning herself a spot in the Final Four where she and Kyle both knew this was the end of their partnership and only one of them could make it to the end in order to win. When Kyle won the Final Four immunity challenge, he put Kamilla up for fire against Eva, but Kamilla wasn’t able to produce a flame and became the final member of the jury.
She spent as much time as possible during Final Tribal Council sharing her side of Kyle’s story so everyone knew that the two of them were driving the entire game, contributing to his 5-2-1 win against Eva and Joe.
Survivor 50 Predictions: How far will Kamilla go?
Kamilla played an absolutely incredible game in Survivor 48 that, unfortunately, has zero hope of ever being replicated, especially so soon. But, she’s smart enough that she has the potential to come up with a brilliant new strategy for this new, unprecedented season and there’s a high likelihood that she still may be underestimated.
Her biggest weaknesses in the game are going to be Kyle and Joe for sure, though. As long as they are there, her target is too big and she needs to figure out a way to manage that despite being on separate starting tribes. Kamilla has the tools to win, but she’s starting the game with a few too many hands on her toolbox. If she can break away from the pack and get back to her own game, she has what it takes to get to the end.
Kamilla Karthigesu Survivor 50 Player Score
When the player list was first announced, I knew Kamilla deserved to be on it. She’s one of the top new era players and one of the few new era players who can actually hold her own against some of the old school legends. This season is a chance for her to prove herself and secure her own spot in the Survivor history books.
But she’ll need to really play her cards right to make that happen. Can she do it? Absolutely! Will she do it? Only time will tell. And with the uncertainty of Survivor, nothing is guaranteed and everything is up in the air until the final vote is read at Final Tribal Council.
Outwit (Social Game): 7/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 7/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 14/15
Wildcard Factor: 5/5
Total Player Score: 33/50
Regardless of how far she goes, I’ll be rooting for Kamilla every step of her journey this season. She’s absolutely deserving of her spot and I cannot wait to see how she navigates the unknown fan twists that enter the game. We’ll see how it goes when Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount +!