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On February 12, season 40 of Survivor premiered. This was no ordinary premiere, however. That day marked the beginning of Survivor: Winners at War, which has 20 of the greatest winners coming back to determine the ultimate Sole Survivor. This season also has the largest cash prize in reality show history, a whopping 2 million dollars. For comparison, the winner of a typical Survivor season gets 1 million. Needless to say, this season was highly anticipated by its fans.
The episode started with the winners finding out their tribes. The red tribe of Amber Mariano (winner of season 8), Sandra Diaz Twine (7, 20) Yul Kwon (13), Sophie Clarke (23), Kim Spradlin (24), Tyson Apostol (27) Tony Vlachos (28), Sarah Lacina (34), Wendell Holland (36), and Nick Wilson (37) competed against the blue tribe of Ethan Zohn (3), Danni Boatwright (11), Parvati Shallow (14), Rob Mariano (21), Denise Stapley (25), Natalie Anderson (29), Jeremy Collins (31), Michele Fitzgerald (32), Adam Klein (33) and Ben Driebergen (35). The Edge of Extinction would be in play for this season: when players get voted out, they can go to the edge and await a challenge that will let one of them back in the game. This season also has fire tokens, a mysterious Edge of Extinction currency that has never been used before and of which little is known.
In the first immunity challenge, the blue team lost and went to tribal council the next day, where one of them had to be voted out. The early targets were Klein and Stapley, who went into the woods early to discuss strategy, which made them easy targets. But as former winners, they knew how to save themselves. Klein argued that Collins and Anderson’s prior relationship of working together in season 29 was more dangerous than his relationship was with Stapely, who he had met only “two hours ago.” Thus, Anderson was voted out and sent to the Edge of Extinction, where she used clues to find a hidden immunity idol. In the first use of the fire tokens, Anderson sold the idol, useless to her at Extinction, to someone on the opposite tribe. She picked the only two-time Survivor winner, Diaz-Twine, who can use the idol and get to play for the next three weeks.
The blue tribe was victorious in the next round, sending red to tribal, which seemed to be split into three groups: Vlachos, Diaz-Twine and Lacina, who played together is season 34; the “poker alliance” of Spradlin, Apostol, and Mariano, and the one-time players of Holland, Kwon, Clarke and Wilson.
Kown used the “poker alliance” against his group and argued that they were the greatest threat and would reconnect with Collins and “Boston Rob” Mariano in a tribe swap. This worked. The three options to go home were Apostol, Spradlin and Amber Mariano.
Then Tyson threw Spradlin and Mariano under the bus, asserting to Kwon, Wilson, Clark, and Holland that the two women were closer to each other than he was to them. This great move saved Tyson, as the target then shrunk to Spradlin and Amber Mariano. The tribe debated the pros and cons of sending each of them home.
Spradlin’s win is regarded as the most dominating in Survivor history, which makes her a huge threat. However, Amber is married to Boston Rob, who is not only an iconic figure but who would also work with Amber against them the first chance he got. Diaz-Twine pushed to get Amber out for this very reason, and it worked. Amber became the second player voted out of Winners at War and the second player at the Edge of Extinction.
This was a legendary premiere, and this season is shaping up to be a wild ride. Player of the week goes to Klein, as he was in legitimate danger and shifted the target to Anderson and Collins. The next episode is on Wednesday, February 19.
