Survivor host Jeff Probst has clarified the rules for when a castaway hands his or her hidden Immunity Idol to another player to hold at Tribal Council and then asks for it back.

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The latest Survivor 43 episode featured castaways shuffling their idols or advantages around before Tribal Council in fear James Jones would play a "Knowledge of Power" advantage, which would allow James to steal an idol or advantage as long as he could correctly guess the player who had one in his or her possession.

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Before Tribal Council on Night 14 of the game, Noelle Lambert asked Owen Knight to hold onto her "Steal a Vote" advantage in case James had suspected Noelle was powerful, and Jeanine Zheng gave her immunity bracelet to Dwight Moore just for the evening.

But much to Jeanine's dismay, Jeff began reading the votes aloud and Dwight's name had been written down several times. Jeanine therefore quietly showed Dwight her open hand, repeatedly, begging for the idol back.

Although Dwight reassured Jeanine that he could see and hear her plea, he was voted out of the game with her idol bracelet in his pocket.

According to Survivor rules, Jeff has revealed that Dwight was unable to hand Jeanine's idol back to her before the final vote was read, Entertainment Weekly reported.

"No [he couldn't return it]," Jeff explained.

"Once the reading of the votes begins, that's it. That's why I say, 'If anyone has an idol or an advantage and you want to play it, now would be the time to do so.' That's your window."

"After that," the longtime host continued, "you are basically handcuffed from doing anything other than hoping it's not you."

If Dwight had humored Jeanine and returned her idol as the votes were being read, Jeff said it would have been confiscated by Survivor producers.

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Jeff also confirmed that Dwight was not allowed to give Jeanine her idol back after he had been voted out of the game.

"Once you're voted out, you're out of the game and any advantage or idols in your possession lose all their power," Jeff explained.

"You must turn all unplayed idols or advantages over to us. You are not allowed to even sneak an advantage to a player so they could try to bluff with it."

Jeff told EW that even a dead post-vote idol could not be put back in the game as a decoy for a player to use.

On Wednesday night's episode, Dwight was voted out of Survivor 43 with six votes instead of Ryan Medrano, who received three votes, and James Jones, who received two votes.

Jeanine had cast her vote for Ryan, assuming the merged Gaia Tribe was going to split their votes between Ryan and James.

Jesse Lopez and Cody Assenmacher, however, decided to flip on their former Vesi Tribe and get Dwight out while they had the chance.

The men thought Dwight was a strong player and that his ouster would also weaken Noelle, who had seemingly been controlling the game at that point.

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Jeanine presumably felt a great loss when Dwight left the game with her idol because she had already lost her closest Survivor ally, Elisabeth "Elie" Scott.

Having been on the wrong side of the vote at the previous Tribal Council, Jeanine felt like an outsider in the game and was afraid she'd be targeted next.




About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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