'Survivor: Winners At War' recap: Danni Boatwright voted out after she turns on Parvati Shallow

Survivor: Winners At War featured Danni Boatwright getting voted out of her Sele tribe at Season 40's third Tribal Council session and heading to the Edge of Extinction during Wednesday night's episode on CBS.


Danni, the winner of Survivor: Guatemala, was voted out of her Sele tribe on Night 6 of the game instead of Survivor: Micronesia -- Fans vs. Favorites winner and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains runner-up Parvati Shallow, who also appeared on Survivor: Cook Islands.

Parvati only apparently received one vote from Danni, based on the votes Survivor host Jeff Probst read aloud.

"I've never been voted out. To have my torch snuffed is not a feeling I wanted to experience, but I still have life in this game and I'm holding onto that," Danni said following her ouster.

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At the start of the broadcast, the Dakal tribe was comprised of Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains winner Sandra Diaz-Twine; Survivor: One World winner Kim Spradlin; Survivor: David vs. Goliath winner Nick Wilson; Survivor: Game Changers winner Sarah Lacina, who also previously appeared on Survivor: Cagayan; Survivor: South Pacific winner Sophie Clarke; Survivor: Cagayan winner Tony Vlachos, who also appeared on Survivor: Game Changers; Survivor: Blood vs. Water winner Tyson Apostol, who also previously appeared on Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains; Survivor: Ghost Island winner Wendell Holland; and Survivor: Cook Islands winner Yul Kwon.

The Sele tribe was made up of Danni; Parvati; Survivor: Redemption Island winner and Survivor: All-Stars runner-up Rob Mariano, who also appeared on Survivor: Marquesas and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains; Survivor: Millennials vs. Generation X winner Adam Klein; Survivor: Philippines winner Denise Stapley; Survivor: Kaoh Rong winner Michele Fitzgerald; Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers winner Ben Driebergen; Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn, who also appeared on Survivor: All-Stars; and Survivor: Cambodia winner Jeremy Collins, who also appeared on Survivor: San Juan del Sur.

The Survivor broadcast began on Day 4, with Natalie Anderson, the winner of Survivor: San Juan del Sur, and Amber Mariano, who won Survivor: All-Stars and also appeared on Survivor: The Australian Outback, on the Edge of Extinction.

Amber said if the Edge was not a part of the game, she'd be really "depressed" considering she had traveled all the way to Fiji and left her four children behind to play the game.

Amber didn't expect to be voted out of the game this early on, but she said it was still possible for her to re-enter the game and also help her husband play.


"The game is still going for me," Amber said.

At Sele on Day 4, Rob received a Fire Token that had been bequeathed to him in his bag. Rob's gut reaction was that his wife had been taken out of the game first, and he said the thought of Amber on the Edge of Extinction killed him.

"It was really, really, really hard for us to leave the kids. I know that's weighing on her, so if she was taken out first, that makes it even harder," Rob said in a confessional.

"I do have other friends over there. It could've been Sandra. We just spent entire Season 39 together. But I don't know if I can trust Sandra, and if she voted Amber out, this is war!"

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Ben said last time he played the game, it was all about winning Individual Immunity and finding hidden Immunity Idols. But this time, Ben worked on building better relationships so he didn't have to play alone, and he started with Denise.

Ben therefore helped Denise find an idol, but there was a twist. The idol came in two halves and Denise had to give one half to another player by sundown. The idol would have power only when paired together.

Ben determined they could use the idol to bring another castaway in with their alliance, and Denise felt like she could trust Ben because he didn't try to force or persuade her to give him half the idol.

Because Denise thought Adam was a really smart player, she shared the information with him.

Adam didn't like that Ben knew about the idol because he's a "Wild Card" and it made him a little nervous, but he was at least happy to have this knowledge.


Denise then suggested they give half to Parvati, but Adam insisted that was a terrible idea since Parvati is one of the best people to ever play the game and might use it against Denise and vote her out.

Adam managed to convince Denise it made "way more sense" to give him the other half of her idol, and he called it a "huge" opportunity.

Meanwhile, Kim on Dakal was playing on the bottom and trying to get her footing. Kim knew she had a target on her back, so she decided to go looking for an idol.

And much to her surprise, Kim found a hidden Immunity Idol. However, the same rules applied to Denise's idol in that she had to give half of the idol to someone else -- and it could only be used when both halves are played at the same time.

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Suddenly, Tony and Nick walked up to her -- and Kim didn't trust either person -- but they didn't see her find the idol. They probably suspected she was looking for one, but Tony and Nick didn't receive confirmation.

Kim thought she could trust Sophie, so she decided to give one half to her. Sophie didn't understand why, saying she was the worst person to trust and Kim should've given one half to Tyson instead.

Sophie said Kim was socially aware and so even if she came across as "the nicest Texan in the world," everyone would view her as a threat. Sophie essentially told the cameras Kim had teamed up with the "devil" and it might land her on the chopping block.

On the Edge of Extinction, Amber and Natalie found a scroll by the giant mast that read, "When you reflect back on all you accomplished while living on the Edge... It's these early days that will be remembered most vividly, when your story was first forming and each day offered a new beginning layered with opportunities for those liberated enough to recognize them."

Amber and Natalie tried to figure out what that clue was instructing them to do, but they couldn't figure it out.

Although Natalie didn't figure out the first letter of every line created the word "Water well," she knew it would probably lead her to something she could barter with for more Fire Tokens.


The girls therefore explored and ran around their island looking for more clues or some type of advantage.

Natalie and Amber ran to the top of the giant hill again but found nothing, and after a while of searching, Natalie decided to look in the water well -- and then she discovered a package.

Natalie took a little scroll out of a bottle that read, "This is an advantage that offers Safety Without Power. It allows a player to leave Tribal Council just before the votes are cast and return to camp. They will not cast a vote. But more importantly, they cannot be voted out."

Natalie learned the advantage had no power on the Edge of Extinction but she could sell it to any player still in the game for one Fire Token. Natalie wasn't sure which players had any Tokens left or would even be willing to use their Tokens, so she had to take a guess based on probability.

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On Day 5 at Sele's camp, Jeremy received the opportunity to buy Natalie's advantage for one Fire Token, and he was thrilled she had his back. Jeremy called it "a no-brainer" to buy the advantage and realized in that moment Fire Tokens were more valuable than anyone thought.


Over at Dakal, Tony built an enormous ladder out of bamboo and climbed it to retrieve jackfruit.

Everyone laughed at Tony, and Sarah acknowledged they were still great friends who were working together. However, Sarah didn't want anyone to think they were a power couple, so she maintained her distance from her fellow police officer and planned to keep their "Cops Are Us" a secret.

On Day 6, both tribes met Jeff Probst for the season's third Immunity Challenge.

Sele found out Amber had been voted out, and so Rob grilled the Dakal tribe and let it be known he was furious. However, when Jeff asked Rob if he believes Amber's vote-off was a personal move against him, Rob kept his composure and just acknowledged, "It's a game. I get it."

Jeff then instructed each tribe to race out with a cart to retrieve three keys, which would be used to release three very heavy wooden chests.

After disassembling their cart and maneuvering it through a barricade, each tribe had to reassemble the cart and then get it to the end, where two players from each tribe would use the pieces inside the chests to solve a giant dragon puzzle.


The first tribe to finish would win immunity and be safe from the vote at the next Tribal Council. In addition, the castaways were playing for Reward in the form of a Survivor spice kit.

Dakal had a solid lead on Sele, and then it was Sophie and Sandra doing the puzzle against Rob and Denise.

Both pairs executed very different strategies in which Sandra and Sophie threw pieces into place and hoped they'd fit, while Rob asked Denise to separate the puzzle pieces on a table first and color-code them before putting the pieces into the puzzle.

Rob and Denise had yet to put a piece into their puzzle while Sandra and Sophie were halfway done.

Jeff pointed out Rob and Denise's strategy for Sele was not working and turned out to be an "absolute disaster."

In the end, Dakal won the challenge in a "blowout and brutal fashion," according to the show's host, which was a "devastating loss" for Sele.


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Rob apologized to his fellow tribemates for taking charge in the challenge and blowing out.

Parvati said the "old school players" were outnumbered by "new school player," so she said an old school player had to go next.

Once the tribe returned to camp, Rob said he usually works well under pressure but was second-guessing himself in the challenge because there were too many voices in his head he was listening to.

Rob insisted he had tried hard in the challenge but took full responsibility for his tribe's loss.

However, Rob wasn't too worried and felt secure in the relationships he had been building out there. Rob said Jeremy would be a good target because he was on the bottom but Ben was also a great option because he was a bit unpredictable and hard to trust.


Rob therefore spoke to Ethan and Parvati about his suggestions, and Danni noticed the trio was talking amongst themselves and leaving her out.

Danni wondered if she was going to the Edge that night since no one was including her in anything, even Parvati, whom Danni had felt very close to at the start of the game.

Since she was feeling like an outcast, Danni stated her case to Ethan and Ben.

Ethan asked what her conversations with Rob had been like, and Danni replied, "He said, you know, he wanted to stay Old School strong, but it was a short conversation."

"You know he's not an old school [player] right?" Ethan asked Danni, pointing to Ben.

Ben admitted the situation was a little awkward, and Ethan couldn't believe Danni had spilled the beans. Ethan said Danni must have felt like she was on the outside and so she was leaking all of their secrets.


Ben finally received confirmation and was 100 percent certain the "old schoolers" were "clinging onto each other," and so his main objective became to take out an older player. Ben told Ethan, Adam and Jeremy since they needed Rob and Parvati, they should take out Danni.

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Meanwhile, Danni talked to Rob about how she was on the outs, but Rob didn't feel that way.

Danni confided in Rob that she'd be 100 percent his if he opted to keep her, and then she threw out Parvati's name as an option.

"You've got me. I'm in. I promise," Rob said.

Rob, however, told the cameras Parvati was his "No. 1" and so Danni needed to go. Adam agreed Danni was "sketch" to Rob's face, and Adam thought it was incredible news the old schoolers were turning on each other.


Adam would have loved to see Parvati go since she's "a massive threat in this game," but he realized Parvati was close with Rob -- "the godfather" -- and going against the godfather in Survivor was really dangerous and risky.

Ethan then warned Parvati that Danni was gunning for her, and Parvati noted it made no sense for Danni to talk to Rob about her vote-off. Rob was still wary of Ben, but it seemed like the group had decided on Parvati.

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Michele discussed whether they should take control back of this game by going after a huge target like Rob or Parvati instead of Danni.

Jeremy, Michele and Adam talked about potentially voting out Parvati since she didn't have a hidden Immunity Idol. (Adam knew he and Denise had it). Adam feared voting out Parvati might backfire, but at the same time, he didn't think he could win this game without taking those risks.

On Night 6, the Sele tribe attended Tribal Council.

The entire tribe was clearly paranoid, and Ben called out old school players for working together. However, Parvati and Rob argued it's the name of the game to have side conversations with everyone possible.


Danni pointed out she had played a loyal game her first time around and was having trouble keeping up with the new twists and turns in Survivor -- such as idols and advantages -- but Parvati insisted Danni came out swinging by targeting Rob in the early days of the game.

As Tribal continued, Rob suddenly whispered into Jeremy's ear, which then resulted in Parvati whispering in Danni's ear. Rob also whispered to Parvati, and then Rob checked in with Ethan.

Ben announced he wasn't going to look for idols in this game but would help others find one, and then Rob asked the group out loud, "Who has the idol?"

"I don't got nothing," Ben shouted.

"I think we should find out who has the idol," Rob announced.

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All the castaways therefore opened up their bags at Tribal Council, but Denise and Adam were able to hide their halves from the group. Denise and Adam played it cool, and so Ben assumed no one had an idol.

Rob said he was hoping to find out the truth, but Adam pointed out building relationships was more important than idol searching at this stage in the game.

After the castaways cast their votes and no one played an idol, Jeff read one vote aloud for Parvati and revealed the rest of the votes had gone to Danni.

On her way out of the game, Danni dropped her Fire Token into Denise's chest.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski