So far this season we’ve seen both a double elimination and a triple elimination, so honestly, getting another double elimination in episode 8 really wasn’t all that surprising. What was, though, was the fact that the two players who ended up getting voted out were tied together by chance, not voted out as individuals.
There was no information given to the players when they paired up—which is fair play, standard for the game. So as far as who each player had to compete with and who they had to campaign to stay in the game with, per Survivor’s usual code, that was legit. In fact, Jonathan Young expressly referenced season 48 when he asked Joe Hunter what they did upon receiving extremely similar instructions at the Final 10.
Our castaways knew there was just as high a likelihood of competing against their partner as there was competing with their partner. And even when they understood one person would be left out, three players—Cirie Fields, Aubry Bracco, and Rick Devens—immediately viewed this as a positive rather than a disadvantage after what happened with Ozzy Lusth and Rizo Velovic during the Blood Moon twist. They were sent to Exile Island, but they were immune. Knowing they aren’t the best at challenges, the three put their names in to not be chosen for a pair.
And in the end, most of their suspicions were correct when they arrived at the challenge arena and Jeff Probst announced that they pairs would be competing together for joint immunity, with the unpaired person—Cirie—going to Exile. But, this is where things start to flow into the gray area. He explains how the twist works in very specific phrasing:
“You are going to run as a pair. You will win or lose, as a pair. You will go to Tribal Council tonight and you will vote as individuals, but you can only vote for a pair. Because tonight, one of these pairs, both players, will be voted out of Survivor 50.”
But then after he talks through the challenge optics and reveals the reward, he says that at Tribal Council, “one pair will be the 12th and 13th people voted out of this game, become the second and third members of our jury.” And that made me pause for a second because something didn’t seem right about that.
If everyone is competing as a pair, winning immunity as a pair, getting eliminated as a pair, why aren’t their torches being snuffed as a pair? Wouldn’t both players be considered the 12th members voted out of Survivor 50 and the 2nd members of the jury? Because in a pair elimination, wouldn’t it be considered a tie game? Then the person who goes home next would be the 14th person voted out and the 4th member of the jury. That’s how ties work, right?
Because upon revealing that Coach Wade and Chrissy Hofbeck received the most votes and were eliminated, what was the determining factor that chose who would be solidified as the 12th person voted out vs. the 13th person voted out. Because those numbers signify game status. They say one person lasted longer than the other.
Did a rock draw happen off screen that we didn’t see? Did Chrissy and Coach rock-paper-scissors for who would get the second spot? Upon Chrissy being called first I wondered if the producers of the show just wanted to end the episode with Coach’s antics, which didn’t seem very fair to Chrissy, especially considering the conversations regarding gender bias currently circling the season.
Then I thought, maybe they just went in alphabetical order… Chrissy comes before Coach. But Coach’s real name is Benjamin, so wouldn’t he go first? All in all, this topic has been circling my head and my group chats since it went down, and I’m trying to figure out why a vote where both players’ names were written down on one parchment of paper to be eliminated didn’t end in them tied for the same position in the game.
What do you think? Should Chrissy and Coach have had their torches simultaneously snuffed and left the game together?
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