Much of the conversation about last week’s epic Tribal Council has been about Rick Devens for obvious reasons, but apparently, there was another little situation that the show decided not to air. One castaway allegedly had to be called back to the voting booth because the producers felt he didn’t follow the rules. Once there, they apparently made him cast another vote and throw out the first one.
Warning: we’re about to get into some very direct spoilers for episode 8 of Season 50. If you’re not caught up, continue reading at your own risk.
The contestant in question is Joe, and apparently, producers decided they weren't going to count his original vote because he refused to write Coach’s name down. The castaways were told they needed to vote for a pair and write down both names onto the parchment, but he initially only wrote Chrissy’s name down because he didn’t want to betray Coach. That’s apparently why we saw him say that he wasn’t going to write down Coach’s name during the chaos of the live Tribal.
Article continues belowThe story came out this week during Coach’s exit press. He told his old buddy Tyson on The Pod Has Spoken that he initially felt betrayed by Joe but felt better after hearing the whole story of what happened. Here’s a portion of his quote…
He went in there and he said he wrote Chrissy’s name down and then they called him back in there. He started walking down and they called him back down and I do vaguely remember something like this happening and then he went back in there and scribbled my name down. So now I don’t feel betrayed, but in the moment, I really did feel betrayed by him the most.
Not surprisingly, Tyson was amused by the semantics of the whole thing. By writing Chrissy’s name down, Joe was effectively voting against Coach, even if he didn’t physically write his name down. Tyson called it an “integrity loophole.” Coach was highly amused by the turn of phrase but said it helped him get over the betrayal he felt initially.
The betrayal in question, of course, relates to the so-called Honor And Integrity Alliance. Coach, Chrissy, Jonathan, Joe and Stephanie seemed poised to work together for the entire game, but the big twist this past episode, which forced players to work in pairs and go up for elimination in pairs, ended up being a death sentence for Coach and Chrissy, especially after Rick Devens pulled out a fake immunity idol at Tribal Council.
Ozzy, Cirie and Rizo, who were on the outskirts of the alliance, decided to vote for Coach and Chrissy. That put Joe, Stephanie and Jonathan in a position of having to decide between standing by their allies or betraying them in order to align with the players that would still be left in the game.
Stephanie decided to align with Ozzy, Cirie and Rizo, though she apparently told Coach he was going home and should play his shot in the dark. Joe tried his little scheme where he voted for Chrissy but not Coach initially, and Jonathan decided to ride or die and go down with his fallen allies. We’ll see if it costs him later in the game.
Regardless, it was a sad but fitting end for Coach Wade 4.0. The Dragon Slayer is, without question, on the Mt Rushmore of fun Survivor characters of all-time, and whether you personally love to root for him or against him, it’s undeniable that he always brings so many fun emotions out of the other players. If this is the last time on Survivor, he will be missed. Fingers crossed we at least get to see him on Traitors.
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