Survivor featured the Viakana tribe voting out Danny McCray on a re-vote instead of Deshawn Radden, who essentially shot himself in the foot at Tribal Council, during Wednesday night's Season 41 episode on CBS.
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When the players cast the first round of votes, they were split between Danny and Deshawn.
"I'm not surprised by the outcome. I knew me or Deshawn would be going home tonight, and I know that he had a closer relationship with Erika and Heather, but I had the chance to compete and I put my life in the game, and I gave it all I had," Danny said in his final words.
"I got to help carry my team in the team portion and do what I could in the individual. Some might say I came up short, but I'm okay with the result, as long as I left everything out there."
Survivor 41, Episode 12
The Survivor broadcast began on Night 21 at Viakana's camp following the Tribal Council in which Liana Wallace had been voted out.
The six castaways remaining in the game at this point were Danny; Deshawn; Ricard Foye, a 31-year-old flight attendant from Lynnwood, WA who currently resides in Sedro-Woolley, WA; Erika Casupanan, a 32-year-old communications manager from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada who currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Heather Aldret, a 52-year-old stay-at-home mom from Charleston, SC; and Xander Hastings, a 21-year-old app developer from Jacksonville, FL who currently resides in Chicago, IL.
Deshawn said he wanted it to be Danny, Liana and himself at the end, and he never expected to get so emotional at Tribal about "the barrier and extra baggage" a Black man brings into a game like this.
Deshawn, however, told his fellow castaways that they needed to play the game and do what's best for them, regardless of race going forward.
Danny told Deshawn he had really depended on Xander to vote out Ricard that evening, even though he was well aware he didn't have Erika and Heather on his side.
"I trusted that dude. He got me though!" Danny said, adding that he didn't understand Xander's move because Ricard could easily run off with the game.
Danny acknowledged it was "crazy" to keep Ricard around any longer, but Xander explained to Danny how Ricard was serving as his shield and if Ricard got voted out, he'd probably be next.
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Xander called it "a strategic decision" on his part but assured Danny that they'd take Ricard out next -- and everyone would probably be onboard with that vote -- as long as Ricard didn't win the next Individual Immunity Challenge.
On Day 22, Heather and Erika commended Deshawn on the depth of his words and being so vulnerable with the group.
Similar to how Deshawn struggled with voting out people of color, Erika didn't like voting out women because she'd love to see a woman win Survivor, ideally herself. Erika cried about letting some viewers down, but Deshawn advised her to play the game that feels right.
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The six castaways then met Survivor host Jeff Probst for a Reward Challenge.
Jeff divided the group into two teams of three, and they were required to have one person leap off a net ramp into the ocean, dive down to release a set of buoys, and then bring them onto a finish platform.
The next teammate would then go. Once all three buoys were collected, the players must attempt to land the buoys into three baskets.
The winning team would have a choice between two Rewards -- grilled chicken and vegetables or cake, cookies and candy.
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The teams were Ricard, Heather and Danny vs. Xander, Erika and Deshawn.
After the grueling obstacle course, Ricard took a shot that took a long time for Danny to retrieve in the water, and so Deshawn was given a chance to catch up with his baskets -- and he nailed two baskets in a row.
Deshawn, Erika and Xander therefore won Reward, and they chose to feast on protein and veggies, which Jeff called "fuel."
After the challenge, Erika, Deshawn and Xander discussed getting out Ricard, and they were all in agreement with that vote.
"When Xander and Erika brought up voting Ricard, it's like, 'Well, duhh! Y'all should've done this the last vote!' But this time, if you guys are ready, this is it! And we finally get to play this game on an even playing field," Deshawn gushed in a confessional.
The trio also promised each other a Final 3, but Deshawn admitted he didn't really mean what he said because he didn't trust the two players as far as he could throw them.
Back at camp, Ricard and Heather were shown collecting sticks for the fire while Danny embarked on a hidden Immunity Idol search. Danny felt his back was up against the wall, and so he searched until he couldn't search any more.
Once the trio reunited, Ricard noticed Danny's demeanor had shifted and he suddenly seemed happy and content, which made him think Danny had found a hidden Immunity Idol. Ricard informed Heather, who recognized this may affect her alliance's plan going forward.
On Day 23 of the game, Erika talked to Deshawn at the water well about how she was afraid the jury may not be able to differentiate her game from the one Heather had played. Erika began to wonder if her "chicken Final 3" was actually the right Final 3 for her.
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Deshawn also liked the idea of Erika, Xander and himself having totally different stories to pitch to the jury if they made it to the end together.
Erika asked Deshawn to keep their conversation between the two of them, and Deshawn was proud of himself for planting the seed about Heather and how votes would probably be split between them.
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Each castaway was instructed to spin to unspool a coil of rope, make his or her way across a series of obstacles -- including a balance beam -- collecting one puzzle piece along the way. Once at the end, the players would use that one piece to solve a Survivor word puzzle.
The puzzle read, "Don't make this next vote your last."
The first person to finish would win immunity and be guaranteed a spot in the Final 5. The next person voted out, however, would become the thirteenth person voted out of the game and the sixth member of Survivor 41's jury.
The challenge came down to Ricard vs. Deshawn on the puzzle, and Ricard ended up pulling out his third Individual Immunity win of the season.
When asked how he solved the puzzle so quickly, Ricard explained, "The entire time I was unspooling, I was thinking of every four-letter word I can in this game. And so I had them all and just needed to rearrange them once I got [to the finish]."
"That's impressive," Jeff noted.
Erika realized it was time to put together a "Plan B" since Ricard was no longer an option.
Deshawn and Danny called the group idiots for voting out Liana over Ricard, and Danny pointed out how one of them was going to be the next target.
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Ricard flat out asked Danny if he had found an idol, but Danny wouldn't come clean. Danny actually had nothing in his possession, but he allowed everyone to assume he had a weapon to use.
Ricard looked through Danny's bag and didn't find an idol, and then Xander told Heather that they should keep Danny because he could probably beat Ricard in a future Individual Immunity challenge.
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The idea was to keep the person who could beat Ricard in challenges, but no one seemed to agree on that. Erika wanted to keep Deshawn in the game because he had said he wanted to go to the end with her, but she did acknowledge Deshawn was a bigger threat.
Deshawn had made some moves and overcame adversity, but Erika's goal was to convince everyone to get rid of Danny instead.
Erika, for instance, told Ricard that Deshawn is good at everything Ricard is good at and Danny seemed to have some hidden skills.
Ricard admitted he was nervous about Erika and Heather, and what made him more nervous was the fact Deshawn had more of a relationship with these two women than Danny seemed to have.
"I don't think there's a threat that the three of them could get together, but I feel the slightest threat, if Deshawn was here, that could happen," Ricard explained.
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Deshawn hoped he could rely on the early relationships he had developed with Erika and Heather, and Erika bluntly told Deshawn that she wanted to keep him. Deshawn wanted the women to remember the days when it was just the three of them.
At Tribal Council that night, Deshawn announced he's a wise guy who was definitely on the chopping block that night. He assumed the group was going to split their votes between Danny and himself -- to see if Danny had an idol -- and then take him out on the re-vote.
Danny made it clear that everyone wanted to "beat" Ricard that day but then he won immunity.
"I think what's considered a threat is relative to each person and where they are in the game. Of course Ricard has played a great game and there's no denying it," Erika explained.
"But at the same time, Ricard and I have built a trust, and I know up to this point, Ricard hasn't betrayed me and I have no reason to believe that he's going to... Whereas with Liana, Liana has voted for me before. So I made a decision that could get me a few steps further in the game."
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Deshawn then announced that if he was on his way out that night, he'd like to spice up the game a little bit with "true" information.
Deshawn subsequently declared, "It's going to be a tough road for me to get to the end regardless, so I'm just going to say this right now: Erika will not be taking you to the end, Heather."
Deshawn explained how Erika had said she and Heather had played identical games and so they'd split jury votes.
Ricard criticized Deshawn's "truth bomb" in the middle of Tribal Council since Deshawn didn't even know whether he was staying or going.
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Ricard also asked Deshawn, "If Erika didn't want to take Heather to the end, what if you were the one to be by her side and now you just ruined it?"
Erika announced how there was potential Deshawn still had game left to play and Heather probably considered an end of this game without her as well.
"I'm kind of glad you brought that up because I feel like we've always tried to work together and I've always in my gut just couldn't 100 percent trust you. And now, I KNOW I can't. So thank you!" Erika told Deshawn.
Deshawn told Jeff that he was just following his gut and had at least "done something with some gumption."
It then became time to vote, and Xander told the cameras when writing Deshawn's name down, "Your truth bomb was a little bit more of a truth kamikaze, my friend."
After no one played an advantage or idol, Jeff proceeded to tally the votes and read them in the following order: Deshawn, Danny, Danny, Deshawn, Deshawn, and Danny.
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After the re-vote, Jeff announced three castaways had voted to oust Danny from Survivor 41, resulting in Danny's torch being snuffed.
"You're welcome, friend," Erika told Deshawn.
"Thank you. I appreciate it," Deshawn replied.
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Danny said, "Go Cowboys," on his way out of Tribal Council, and then Jeff congratulated the Final 5 and revealed they'd be taken to a new island where they must start over with minimal supplies.
The castaways would also be facing two Immunity Challenges, two Tribal Councils, and one fire-making tiebreaker, and one winner over following next three days.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
