'Survivor' recap: Dwight Moore blindsided and voted out of merged Gaia Tribe

Survivor featured the merged Gaia Tribe voting out Dwight Moore at Tribal Council seemingly with Jeanine Zheng's idol in his pocket during the Season 43 episode that aired Wednesday night on CBS.


Dwight, a 22-year-old graduate student from Palo Alto, CA, who currently resides in Collierville, TN, was voted out of Survivor on Night 14 of the game in a split 6-3-2 vote at Tribal Council instead of Ryan Medrano, a 25-year-old warehouse associate from Savannah, GA, who currently resides in El Paso, TX, and James Jones, a 37-year-old event planner from Philadelphia, PA.

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Ryan received three votes at Tribal Council, while James received two votes.

"I just got blindsided pretty hard. If the votes went the way I think [they] did, it means two people on Vesi flipped on me. I don't know who they are, but that's going to be tough to swallow," Dwight said in his final words.


"There's a lot of emotion right now, knowing that I was literally a day away from making the jury. That sucks. At the same time, I can't be disappointed in how I played at all. I was playing this game hard from the beginning, and I'm not mad -- I'm just accepting what just happened."

The Survivor broadcast began on Night 13 at the merged Gaia Tribe.

Jeanine, a 24-year-old UX designer from South Hamilton, MA, who currently resides in San Francisco, CA, said she was still reeling from what happened at Tribal Council because her No. 1 ally, Elisabeth "Elie" Scott, a 31-year-old clinical psychologist from Atlanta, GA, who currently resides in Salt Lake City, UT, was voted out.

Jeanine admitted she was totally blindsided and hated the feeling of being on the outside.

But on Elie's way out, she had announced how trusting Mike "Gabler" Gabler, a 52-year-old heart-valve specialist from Houston, TX, who currently resides in Meridian, ID was a bad idea.


Jeanine pretended like Elie's ouster was the best thing for her game, and she appeared to have Noelle Lambert, a 25-year-old U.S. Paralympian from Londonderry, NH, who currently resides in Manchester, NH, in her corner.

Jeanine went on to tell people that taking Elie out was going to free her and be a blessing in disguise. Jeanine told everyone that she wasn't tied to Elie and she was ready to play her own game.

"Everyone has told me I'm okay, but I just want to cry," Jeanine said.

On Day 14, Dwight talked to Owen Knight, a 30-year-old college admissions director from Bethesda, MD, who currently resides in New Orleans, LA, about how they felt solid with Jeanine, Noelle, and Sami Layadi, a 19-year-old pet cremator from Las Vegas, NV, who currently resides in Las Vegas, NV.

Owen pointed out how Gabler was unpredictable and on the war path, like "a bull in a china shop." Owen thought Gabler was "a loose cannon" and feared what he was going to do next.


Tree Mail then arrived at the Gaia beach, and a message read that tribe idols were no more and the tribe must divide itself into six pairs to compete in the next challenge.

Owen said nobody wanted to choose a partner because of how exposing that would be of alliances and power couples. The group also wasn't even sure if this was for a Reward or Immunity.

Sami told the cameras how it's also possible each pair may be forced to compete against each other, rather than with each other for a prize.

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The group decided to draw painted rocks to figure out the partners in order to make things easier.


The Gaia Tribe then met Survivor host Jeff Probst for a competition that turned out to be an Immunity Challenge.

The pairs included Owen and Gabler; Ryan and James; Noelle and Sami; and Dwight and Cody Assenmacher, a 35-year-old in elevator sales from Preston, IA, who currently resides in Honolulu, HI.

The rest of the pairs were Karla Cruz Godoy, a 28-year-old educational project manager from San Diego, CA, who currently resides in Newark, DE, and Cassidy Clark, a 26-year-old designer from Plano, TX, who currently resides in Austin, TX; and Jesse and Jeanine.

Jeff explained how the challenge would be run in three stages. A pair had to make "the cut" in order to make the next stage.

For the first stage, a pair was instructed to crawl through a twisted net in the mud and then dig up planks before racing back to their mat.


The first four pairs to plant their flag in their mat would move onto the next stage, while the last two pairs would be eliminated and have no shot at immunity.

For the second stage, the castaways had to race up a cargo net and use those planks to cross a rope bridge. A pair needed to get both players and all three planks to the other side, before dropping down a wall and racing to their mat.

The first two pairs to finish would move onto the final stage, which required the four castaways to compete as individuals. Each person had to hold onto a handle, which was attached to a bucket that contained 25 percent of each person's pre-game body weight.

As a person's hands fatigued, the bucket would be released and lower.

"When it finally drops and smashes a tile, you're out!" Jeff explained.

The last person left standing would win immunity and be safe from the vote at the next Tribal Council. He or she would be guaranteed a spot in the Final 11.


In the first stage, Sami, Noelle, Jesse, and Jeanine were the first pairs out of the challenge. However, they congratulated each other on a warrior effort, and no one was mad.

The second stage ended with Karla, Cassidy, Ryan and James getting eliminated.

In the final stage, the four castaways who battled it out for victory were Owen, Dwight, Gabler, and Cody.

Dwight dropped out first, and then, after 23 minutes, Owen was out.

It came down to Cody vs. Gabler in a showdown, and after 38 minutes, Gabler -- who was playing for inspirational military veterans and people suffering from PTSD -- won Individual Immunity.

The challenge lasted longer than it had in any other previous season, and Gabler and Cody set a new record.


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Once Gaia returned to camp, Baka and Vesi seemed to team up during a swim in the ocean, and the large group discussed targeting Ryan or James. They thought James was the social threat while Ryan was the physical threat.

The group talked about playing it safe and putting four votes on each man.

But while a group of men were getting water from the well, they discovered a bottle with a hidden message inside. Sami, Owen, Dwight and James learned there was an advantage hidden underneath their shelter but they'd have to risk getting caught before Tribal to find it.

James immediately went looking for the advantage, and he found it. And then Dwight told Noelle about James' advantage, which resulted in Noelle spreading the word to Gabler, Jeanine, Jesse and Ryan.

This gave Noelle the ammunition she needed to gun hard for James, and word traveled fast among all the castaways.


Jesse and Noelle therefore talked about putting five votes on James in order to take out a threat and hopefully flush his advantage.

But then Karla told Jesse that Noelle was calling the shots.

"If we don't get Noelle by surprise, we're going to be dead," Jesse told his close pal. "You're seeing the same thing I'm seeing."

Jesse could see that Noelle was accumulating power, and he discussed the concern about Noelle being a "dangerous" gamer with Cody, who suggested going after Dwight instead.

"It's not exactly what I want, but if I'm able to take out Dwight and weaken Noelle, that's fine with me," Jesse explained. "And it also gives Cody a sense of agency."

Cody wondered if making a big move was too soon, but he knew he'd have Jesse on his side regardless.


James then read his "Knowledge is Power Advantage." James was told he could ask one player one of the following two questions right before the vote at Tribal Council: "Do you have an advantage or, do you have an idol?"

If the answer is "yes," that castaway must give James his or her advantage or idol, and it would then become James' property.

James was shown telling Cody, Karla and Ryan about his advantage. He told the castaways how he trusted them, and he tried to gain trust in return. Cody had an immunity bracelet, and James knew he had it, and so Cody realized it may be time to vote him out.

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Cody therefore gave his hidden Immunity Idol to Jesse to hold. He thought it would be safer with his friend for the Tribal Council.

The castaways -- fearing "Knowledge is Power" was an option -- orchestrated "cross-tribe switches" so James wouldn't be able to guess who had something to take.


Jeanine let Dwight temporarily hold onto her immunity bracelet, and Noelle gave her "Steal a Vote" advantage to Owen.

Jesse said the easy route would be to stick with the plan and take out James. The more risky route would be teaming up with Cody to flip their votes and take out Dwight, turning their backs on the former Vesi Tribe.

At Tribal Council on Night 14, Dwight announced how there was no longer any indication former tribes were working together. He said those alliances were in the past and everyone was playing an individual game.

Jesse and Karla declared they were a "nine" on the confidence scale from 1-10 about the vote. Everyone else was at a seven or eight about the vote.

After everyone cast their vote, James decided not to play his advantage.

Jeff then read the votes in the following order: James, Dwight, Ryan, James, Dwight, Ryan, Ryan, Dwight, Dwight, Dwight, and Dwight.


After Jeff called out Dwight's name several times, Jeanine repeatedly gestured to Dwight with an open hand. Dwight assured her that he saw her and heard her, but he didn't appear to act on anything.

Dwight then left the game with Jeanine's idol in his pocket, and he told Jeff on his way out that he had "the journey of a lifetime."

(Per Survivor rules, once the first vote is read, an idol cannot be transferred. If Dwight had handed the idol to Jeanine in the middle of Jeff reading the votes, producers would've had to confiscate it).

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The episode's closing credits later showed that Noelle and Dwight voted for James, and Gabler, Jeanine and Owen voted for Ryan.

Ryan, James, Sami, Karla, Cody, Jesse, and Cassidy all voted to eliminate Dwight from Survivor 43.







About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski