Survivor 51’s second episode was a full-blown roller coaster from start to finish. From a cut-off thumb and several avoidable rookie mistakes to someone writing their own name in one of Survivor’s most questionable moments in over 50 seasons, no one knew what surprise was around the corner or what dumb mistake would come next.
Ultimately, the player whose torch was snuffed out was professional voice actress Ana Sani from Canada. Sani was part of the Savu tribe, where she bonded with several of her tribemates, particularly against Eric Macksoud, the latter who was working very hard to become everyone’s number one target.
However, Sani didn’t apply the lesson that loose lips sink ships, as she not only began throwing names around when there was already a collective target, but also made several completely preventable rookie mistakes. For starters, Sani mentioned Sharonda Cox and Linnea Capobianco to Alexis Levine, arguing that Cox and Capobianco would be strategic threats.
Sani then didn’t properly cover her tracks with Levine after the latter caught her in a conversation regarding her, which immediately made Levine turn against Sani, and Levine ended up joining Cox and Capobianco in targeting Sani. To make matters worse for Sani, she also brought up Kristin Flickinger’s name after Flickinger became injured during the immunity challenge. Sani ended up blindsided at Savu’s first Tribal Council, losing a 6-4 vote .
Suffice to say, Sani’s gameplay was less than stellar. While other players’ plans were objectively worse (yes, I’m talking about Rob Antonson’s appalling plan to vote for himself to save Macksoud), Sani was deemed the ultimate liability regardless.
In her exit interview with Dalton Ross for Entertainment Weekly, Sani said that after the whole popcorn fiasco (when Levine caught her talking about her with Carter Krull, and Sani panicked by shifting the strategy talk to popcorn), she lost her mind.
Sani expressed, "That was absolutely bananas. First of all, I was trying to save Carter because if you watch it back, he was the one who was talking crap about Alexis.’’
Sani went on to say she brought up the popcorn talk since Flickinger had previously talked about coconut popcorn, but the second that Levine left, Sani knew she was in trouble. Sani added, ‘’The moment [Levine] left, I went into a full crashout. Thankfully, they didn’t show that, but I lost my mind.’’
Sani then revealed she was (yet wasn’t) 100% blindsided, as the episode showed when she got voted out. According to Sani, she was indeed warned that there was talk that she and Cox didn't get along, and she immediately thought it came from Levine. Sani then confronted Levine, and apparently they had mended fences before Tribal; therefore, Sani was shocked to learn this hadn’t been true at all.
As to who she considered her closest ally in the game, Sani said Krull was the player she consideredd her bestie on the island and her number one. As for her one regret in the game, Sani confessed that it was trusting Levine.
Lastly, Ross asked Sani what she thought when she saw Antonson vote for himself in a dismal attempt to pull off a masterful move, but it backfired when production intervened and told him he wasn’t allowed to do so. ‘’I was like, 'What is going on with this man?’" Sani said as she explained how Antonson was sure the vote was on Macksoud.
Sani added, ‘’But he was in that voting booth for so long, and I was so confused. And then he came back, and he looked stunned. I’ll never forget when my name was being read out loud, the look on Rob’s face, but the drained white ghost face on Carter. I will never forget that. The two of them were just completely blindsided as well.’’
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