I don’t know if you watched the most recent episode of Survivor 49, but one castaway took a completely unprompted shot at Sandra Diaz-Twine. Not surprisingly, the Queen of Survivor wasn’t just going to sit there and take it; so, despite being on vacation in Hawaii to celebrate her husband’s birthday, she fired off an Instagram post defending herself and calling out the contestant.
Let’s back up real quick and set the stage. I’m just going to talk very frankly about the most recent Survivor episode; so, if you haven’t watched round four “Go Kicks Rock, Bro” then go do that and come back to this article later.
Anyway, Survivor hit the castaways with a surprise tribe swap at the beginning of yesterday’s episode; which was a good thing since all four eliminated members had all come from the same tribe. Matt and Justin from Hina, unfortunately, drew the short straw and ended up in the minority on their new tribe which was filled with mostly people from the former Uli.
That left them scrambling to stay in the game after they lost the elimination challenge, and during one of Matt’s scrambles he took a shot at two-time winner Sandra Diaz-Twine. He was asked about it later at Tribal Council, and here’s what he said…
I said ‘I didn’t like the way Sandra played the game, but here I am quoting Sandra anybody but me.’
Sandra is, of course, a legend of Survivor and one of the greatest players in the history of the game, but her reputation is a bit complicated amongst some fans. Her supporters say she makes great social connections and has a great sense of what she needs to do to get through each vote. Her detractors say she’s far too passive and has often benefitted from letting other people play the game more aggressively, which has allowed her to slide by.
Personally, I think Sandra is one of the best Survivor players ever (and proved herself a master strategist on The Traitors). There’s no extra money for putting yourself out there and engineering all the big moves. What you need is to make connections to get yourself through each week and get everyone else to vote for you at the end, which she has done twice.
She doesn’t need me to defend her though. After her close buddy and fellow Survivor legend and reality star Carolyn Wiger gave her a heads up, she took to social media herself to give her thoughts…
Diaz-Twine also re-posted a meme from the Drop Your Buffs podcast that essentially said the same thing and featured a split screen of Matt criticizing her and Sandra sitting at Tribal Council from one of her seasons ready to pounce. Both responses were exactly what you’d expect from the Queen of Survivor, who is somehow able to both be extremely snarky and aggressive at times but also forge really thoughtful and in-depth relationships with people.
Following the episode and Sandra’s Instagram post, Matt was interviewed by The New York Post and apologized for his comments. He said actually playing Survivor gives you a different perspective on how much scrambling you have to do to survive votes and said The Queen clearly knows something he doesn’t since she was able to use the strategy to win twice.
I apologize, Sandra. You got it to work. You got it to work twice! I couldn’t get it to work for one tribal. So you know something I don’t, Sandra.
If nothing else, Matt’s original comments about Sandra are a very fitting way to talk about the show in 2025. Some fans, myself included, have been frustrated with the long-running reality show’s clear preference for casting superfans. Bringing on a contestant who describes his strategy by referencing the strategy of another player is perhaps the most fitting example of that.
Fortunately, we'll all be able to watch plenty legends of the game return when Survivor 50 airs early next year. Sandra will not be around, as they didn't bring back either two time winner, but many of her biggest competitors will be. I can't wait.
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