‘Survivor’ SPOILERS: DeShawn’s Nearly Fatal Mistake

Nick Davis

The finish line of another Survivor season is upon us. But the season has anything but slowed down. Last Wednesday’s episode was a hurricane of scrambling castaways trying to cement their ideal final three. Amidst this scramble, and an immunity win by the game’s current frontrunner Ricard, two names became most prominent for tribal council elimination. DeShawn and Danny.

Players gravitated towards Danny’s name the most, and the logic behind it makes sense. While Danny most likely has a better chance of beating Ricard in the final immunity challenges, he’s also very well-liked by every player. Both the remaining players and the jury members respect Danny and his game. DeShawn, on the other hand, has played a very emotional game. He’s burned bridges and played deceptively on more than one occasion. And at Shan’s elimination he specifically was called out for being a snake. A statement he messily attempted to refute later on. All of this to say that DeShawn is a much easier personality to beat in a final tribal council than the friendly and easy-going Danny.

DeShawn’s Blowup

The castaways in control of the vote did a pretty decent job maintaining secrecy as to which of the pair they were actually going to vote for. This was because of an idol scare perpetrated by an unsuccessful search by Danny midway through the episode. The end result of this was DeShawn being a little too preemptively ready to go out swinging at tribal council.

DeShawn made the decision to reveal a conversation he’d had with fellow castaway Erika in preparation for what he thought was about to be his own elimination. He revealed that Erika had said to him she had no intention of taking her number 2, Heather to the end with her. She said this because she was worried that the proximity of her and Heather’s game would muddy her case at the final tribal council.

This all wound up exploding in DeShawn’s face when the vote was split between himself and Danny, and then the revote went in Danny’s direction. Now DeShawn is a lone player at the final 5 with his biggest ally in the game gone, and his other tribemates not trusting that anything they tell DeShawn will truly remain secret. Whoops.

Tribal Council on the twelfth Episode of SURVIVOR 41.
Pictured: Deshawn Radden. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS Entertainment 2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Finale Time

DeShawn’s mistake is certain to go down as one of the bigger blunders of this season. Probably up there with JD’s decision to give Shan his steal-a-vote right before Shan gave him the boot. DeShawn may or may not be able to navigate his way out of this hole he’s dug himself into. It is anyone’s guess. There’s certainly a kind of power in being a lone vote in numbers this small. DeShawn’s sole vote could change the entire outcome for whichever sides wind up targeting each other at the next tribal. But, at the same time, if the numbers wind up pointing at DeShawn, there won’t be too much he can do about it.

This upcoming Wednesday is the finale of Season 41. We’ll get to see the fate of DeShawn, and the other four remaining castaways, then.

Jeff Probst snuffs Danny McCray’s torch at Tribal Council on the twelfth episode of SURVIVOR 41.
Photo: Robert Voets/CBS Entertainment 2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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