‘Survivor 48’ finale recap: Did Eva, Joe, Kamilla, Kyle, or Mitch win the $1 million prize?- ?
?48?concluded on Wednesday with the jury's decision on whether?Joe Hunter,?Kamilla Karthigesu,?Kyle Fraser,?Eva Erickson, or?Mitch Guerra?would be named the next "Sole Survivor." When we last left off in the penultimate episode, Kamilla and Kyle manufactured a lie to convince Joe and Eva to oust their ally?Shauhin Davari?with the dual hope that it would undermine their loyal gameplay and relieve them of their own responsibility for turning on the alliance. In the epic three-hour finale, titled "Only One of Yous Can Win," which aired May 21 on?, we find out if Kamilla and Kyle's gamble paid off, whether or not Joe can fulfill his promise to get him and Eva both to the end, and how, if at all, Mitch finally makes the big move he's been waiting to make. The members of the jury at the start of the episode are:?Cedrek McFadden,?Chrissy Sarnowsky,?David Kinne,?Star Toomey,?Mary Zheng, and Davari. Two more from the final five will join them and only one of the final three will take home the $1 million prize. Let's find out who outwits, outplays and outlasts the others!
"I do think I deserve an Emmy"?— Kamilla KarthigesuFollowing their "hare-brained" plan, Kamilla and Kyle were in shock that they actually pulled it off and equally shocked that Joe never fact-checked the story Kamilla told him with Shauhin directly. If Joe had, they may not have went through with voting Shauhin out, but as it stood post-tribal is that both Eva and Joe felt they can trust Kyle and believe that he'll be going with them to the Final Tribal Council. Eva's advantage in the final five challenge for immunity and pasta reward was to get an automatic placement of her ball in a basket at the midway point of the obstacle course, instead of having to toss it in. In the running of the course, Joe, Mitch and Kyle all got to and passed this stage before Eva got to it, effectively nullifying her advantage in a challenge she didn't need to win anyway (she has a hidden idol to keep her safe). Once again the puzzle at the end of the course became the great equalizer and even Kamilla, lagging behind in the entire challenge, caught up to be only one piece behind anyone that was ahead of her. In the end, Kamilla overcame her deficit and grew a commanding lead on the puzzle to nab her second individual win and secure her own safety to reach the final four. Kamilla invited Eva to join her on the reward, wanting to fulfill her wish of having pasta.
"I should have made a move"?— Mitch GuerraWith Kamilla's immunity win, Mitch saw an opportunity for him, Kamilla and Kyle to be on the right side of the numbers to finally get Joe out of the game. The situation placed Kyle in the middle having to yet again decide between whether sitting next to Mitch or Joe is more dangerous for his own ability to win. While on reward, Kamilla was proud to know that she successfully created a situation where no one will be able to write her name on the parchment until they vote for her to win, but she, too, was in a position of having to assess who is most dangerous for her to sit next to. She felt like Kyle would be the worst for her to be at the end with, but she found herself wanting to stick to her word that either she or him needs to be in the end and so she can't vote him out. Eventually she confessed to Mitch that he's going to be difficult to beat because everyone loves him and so she'd be voting him out. The final five was direct about the decision to vote Mitch out next, a revelation that caught some side-eye glances from the members of the jury at TC. Mitch admitted that "it sucks" because there's no argument he could make to sway anyone, but understood their perspective and that it's just a game. Knowing she didn't need it, Eva still officially played her immunity idol ahead of the 4-1 vote to send Mitch to the jury. Mitch's single vote was for Kyle.
"I've tried to maneuver myself to avoid making fire at all costs"?— Joe HunterAs Kyle put it, the final four consisted of two "very different duos" in the sense that the closeness of him and Kamilla was kept secret for most of the game while Joe and Eva existed as a very public pair for the entire run of the season. Another difference was their outlook on how to win the game as individuals — Eva and Joe both wanted to win the final immunity in order to secure safety for them both, but Kamilla and Kyle had a mutual understanding that sitting next to each other makes it difficult for them each to win and so they'd be asking the other to make fire instead of taking them to the final three. For the final immunity challenge, the four players competed in the notorious ball drop timing device, Simmotion, that first appeared during Season 18 in Tocantins. Kyle was excited to play the classic challenge, but Kamilla was keenly aware of the difficulty of it and so she agreed to believe that it's equally scary "for everyone here," not just her. In the challenge, Eva was the first to bow out after adding her third ball to the device. Kamilla was next to drop with the fourth ball added. Joe dropped next, also at the fourth ball, leaving Kyle standing alone as the final immunity challenge winner and giving him the power to decide who sits next to him in the final three and which two will need to make fire to earn their spot. Even before his individual chats with the others, Kyle had already decided he'd be taking Joe with him to the end in order to "make good on a promise" he made Joe and to prevent him from notching another victory before the final pitches to the jury — he wanted to keep the momentum on his own side. Eva and Kamilla were both told they'd be making fire and so they used the afternoon to practice, understanding that it was their opportunity to show the jury a new jewel in their crown. When it became clear that Eva was struggling to overcome her frustration during practice, both Kyle and Joe contemplated stepping in to her position instead, but she insisted that it was something she had to do. At the challenge site, Eva was thrown off when she realized that the tools they'd have to make fire differed from the coconut and husks she was using in practice. Still, she pushed through and competed against Kamilla as determined by Kyle. Eva was first to get a flame in her hessian and proceeded to build up a fire using the sticks before Kamilla could turn a spark into a flame. At one point Eva had a scare when her large flame dampened down to a small fire, but she was able to build it back up and won the challenge with Kamilla never producing a lasting a flame at all. "Hello beautiful, triflin' ass b----es"?— Star ToomeyAhead of their time with the finalists, Shauhin and Kamilla appeared to be #TeamKyle, saying in confessionals that he "turned on people when he absolutely had to and not a moment too early" and "is a damn good liar." Mitch was looking for Kyle to "own the cutthroat game he truly played" in order to get his vote. #TeamEva had possible support from Mary ("she whole-heartedly trusted people" and "was incredibly courageous") and Cedrek ("a physical beast"), but Kamilla would need her to "reveal to the jury" that she actively tried to lower her threat level. Chrissy sees Joe as a "stand up guy" and Star thinks he "took the game and dominated," but David was concerned that he "broke a lot of promises" so backing for #TeamJoe was just as uneven as the others. Star was interested in hearing about the "undercover moves" the finalists made to get a glimpse at the aspect of their games that were not obvious. The jury was impressed when Eva revealed she earned the Safety Without Power advantage under the cover of night and that she never used it, but she and Kyle both blew their minds more by admitting to their secrets as a Ph.D. student and a lawyer, respectively. "As soon as you gave me the bullet, I had to load it"?— Kyle FraserEventually the topic of the Shauhin vote came up, thanks to a prompt from Mary and David, with Eva taking the lead to say that because Shauhin's best move was to split her and Joe up that they decided to flip on Shauhin. Shauhin put a damper on that by saying that he was not in fact looking to split them up because he knew his best chance at winning was actually sitting next to them. Kamilla volleyed the conversation to Kyle, allowing him to counter Eva's argument that she and Joe were "the strongest pair" by explaining exactly how he and Kamilla were the strongest pair and no one knew about it. He said "the perception was that Joe was the muscle, Eva was the heart, and Shauhin was the brains." He slammed the door fully shut when he added, "I took out the brains of this operation because I had to." Following a bomb of a knock knock joke from David and Eva's closing statement where she declared herself an "unprecedented" player that they should reward to represent their season, the jury's questioning came to a close and their deliberation began. In the voting booth we witnessed Cedrek vote for Joe, Mary vote for Eva, and Kamilla vote for Kyle. The final tally as read by Jeff was: Joe, Eva, Kyle, Eva, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. The sole Survivor of Season 48 is Kyle by a commanding 5-2-1 vote!
Mary Live long and prosper
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