Five Survivor 47 mysteries, solved

After Survivor 47’s finale—the end to an excellent season—I’ve had a few lingering questions, and read your questions in comments here and on social media.

So I set about looking for answers, and found some, including about Rome’s spoilers, Teeny’s fire-making, Kyle’s vote for Sam, and Rachel’s final Tribal Council argument.

Was the winner and the order of elimination spoiled in an exit interview? Are fire-making competitors allowed to stand up and block the wind or move around their fire? Answers to those questions and three others follow!

Did Rome spoil the boot order?

Rome in Survivor 47 episode 4, two episodes before his game ended in a spectacular way (Photo by Robert Voets/CBS)

For more than a decade, Survivor recapper Gordon Holmes has interviewed eliminated players, and as part of those interviews, asked them to do word associations with their fellow players.

In his interview with Rome, posted to YouTube Oct. 24, Gordon started as usual: “I’ll give you someone’s name; you give the first word or couple words that pop into your head.” 

Rome interrupted Gordon. “I wrote them all done for you,” Rome said. “I got not just my tribe. I hung out with everybody. … We can go down everybody if you want.”

That is very unusual! Players are aware Gordon does this, and many players have clearly given it a lot of thought, but I’ve never read an interview like this.

Gordon said, “Do you just want to read them off and I’ll just sit here?” Rome did just that, rattling off players and an associated word. He said names in this order:

1. Sierra
2. Tiyana
3. Anika
4. Kishan
5. Aysha
6. TK
7. Jon
8. Rachel
9. Sam
10. Sue
11. Teeny
12. Genevieve
13. Andy
14. Kyle
15. Gabe
16. Caroline
17. Sol

“I know you’re trying to take Jeff Probst’s job. Leave mine alone,” Gordon joked at the conclusion. But it’s doubtful CBS would hire Rome considering that list.

It is not, of course, a chronological list of Survivor 47’s eliminations. But if you break it in half after #7, you have two lists, which, when read in reverse (from 7 to 1, then 17 to 8), give the exact order of elimination for every player. Wow!

There are two exceptions:

• Caroline is in the wrong place, and should come between Kyle and Andy
• Rome himself is not mentioned, but of course he wouldn’t be, because Gordon doesn’t ask the players to do word associations for themselves

What are the chances that Rome’s pre-written list would accidentally match, in two parts, almost the exact order of elimination? I suppose it’s possible. Probable? Nah.

Those who watched this interview mid-season quickly realized what was happening, and as eliminations lined up with the second half of the list, especially, realized that it correctly spoiled the season, right up to Rachel’s win.

Why didn’t Teeny block the wind while making fire?

Teeny’s fire is thwarted by the wind during Survivor 47’s fire-making challenge, which Sam came from behind to win (Image from Survivor via CBS)

During the final four fire-making challenge, Teeny seemed to have Sam beat; Teeny’s fire was roaring and lapping at the rope before Sam had anything. But wind kept blowing Teeny’s flames to the side and front, preventing the rope from catching fire, and allowing Sam to catch up.

Could Teeny have blocked the wind somehow, perhaps moving to a different place?

If we thought we might get answers from a Jeff Probst interview or podcast, LOL no. Dalton Ross only asked Probst about “what was it like sitting there watching”. 🙄

On the podcast, producer Jay, the one who asks the insufferable questions, said this to Jeff Probst: “The fire-making challenge on Survivor is not without its share of controversy in that some people want it to go back to the way it was. So I gotta ask you: Is tonight’s episode your mic drop?”

So yeah, we got a verbal hand job instead of an actual question or discussion of the merits and/or the rules.

Anyway, RHAP podcaster David Bloomberg said in a video that he talked to a former player who participated in fire-making, who said there were no rules given to its participants, so they think competitors can stand up or move around.

Why didn’t Teeny do that, or even try? She said it was because “I just didn’t have the wherewithal in that moment to think to block it.” Teeny told Mike Bloom:

I should have thought to stand up and block it. But in that moment, I was just desperate. And it felt so fleeting, and it felt so crazy that my brain was just absolute static. And all I could think about was, “Just keep adding sticks in this fire.”

Why didn’t Rachel mention her shot in the dark play?

Survivor 47 winner Rachel (center) with runner-up Sam (right) and third-place Sue (left), and two jury members, Sol and Genevieve (Image from Survivor via CBS)

Rachel played such a well-rounded game that she won all but one of the juror’s votes. Even though it seemed like Sam had a strong final Tribal Council at times, she was still convincing, batting down his dismissal of her game and making a solid case for her own.

However, Rachel did not mention one of her most brilliant moments in the game: the way she played her Shot in the Dark. Why didn’t that come up? Rachel says she basically didn’t give herself enough credit for that move.

“I knew it was very clever in the moment, but I just didn’t feel like that was something that was so great that I should take that to final Tribal and try to sell it as a move,” Rachel told Rob Cesternino. “I understand looking back on it—now that I have the space to see—that it was very creative and innovative, and something that really hadn’t happened before. But it did not even occur to me to bring it up at final Tribal.”

Did Teeny really think she could win?

Survivor 47’s Teeny Chirichillo (Photo by Robert Voets/CBS)

After Teeny lost fire-making, and Jeff Probst ground salt into her open wound, Teeny said, “at least I can go out now saying that I believe I would have won if I would have got there, and I’ll just never know.”

Everyone laughed, and she was smiling, so I read that mostly as a self-deprecating joke, one that had a hint of truth since no one will ever know what would have happened had she made the final three.

But just in case that was literal, did Teeny actually think she’d actually win at the final three? Nope! Teeny told Dalton Ross:

I’m aware enough to know that Rachel was this absolute force that I don’t think I would’ve beat, honestly. But I do think that I would’ve given a really impeccable speech speaking to my social game and the relationships that I made. I do not believe that I would’ve been a no-vote finalist.

Why did Kyle vote for Sam?

Survivor 47 episode 11 started with the promise of an epic showdown between Sue and her mortal enemy, Kyle

Kyle—who spent the season as a challenge winner and Sue’s secret nemesis—cast the one vote for Sam.

During the after-show, he said he voted for Sam because “I really appreciate Sam, and I appreciate where he’s headed in life.”

That is a terrible reason, at least in my humble opinion. But Kyle says he actually voted for Sam for a much better reason: to give him the $100,000 runner-up prize.

First, some background: Survivor’s runner-up receives $100,000, while the third-place player receives $85,000.

In a final-three season, if the winner wins unanimously, or the other two players receive the same number of votes (e.g. one each), they split $185,000, the combined value of the second- and third-place prizes.

So, if both Sam and Sue received zero votes, they would have each received $92,500. But Kyle’s vote means Sam got $100,000 and Sue $85,000.

In a Cameo video someone reposted to TikTok, Kyle said, “You want to know why I voted for Sam? Because I knew everybody was voting for Rachel.”

“I didn’t feel like Sam was a third-vote finalist with Sue; I don’t believe that they played the same game. I believe that Sam deserved a second place, and if I can single-handedly take money from one man’s pocket and put into another man’s pocket and have no sweat myself, I’m going to do it, because I’m not just in this for myself. I’m in this for family, I’m in this for friends.”

Taking $7,500 from Sue and referring to her as a man? I’m not sure the feud is over!

Just to be clear, Kyle said that, despite his vote, “Rachel deserved that win.”