Survivor 47 finale: Is Rachel LaMont or Sam Phelan the winner?
We came into tonight’s Survivor 47 finale with a perspective that was very-much different from what we’ve had all season. After all, we like to think that there are a lot of possible winner candidates as the game plays out!
Yet, entering this two-hour finale / reunion it became increasingly clear to us that this was Rachel’s game to lose. She had such an incredible resume, one that could easily make her a top 2-3 winner of the New Era if she could pull out the victory. She’s won challenges, found an idol, and also proved herself to be fairly adaptable on a strategic level. While she may not have dominated every facet of the game, there is something so impressive about knowing your threat level and still making it through one Tribal Council after the next.
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If Rachel made it to final three, we were almost 100% confident she’d win. If she didn’t make it there, Sam was the clear choice. He has at least participated in some big moves like Operation Italy, and served as an underdog for a significant chunk of the post-merge. At the very least, he was in a much better spot than either Sue or Teeny.
So, what actually happened?
Rachel won the final four immunity challenge and from there, Teeny ended up losing fire-making to Sam — or rather, the wind blindsided her! It would not let that fire burn in the right direction, which is actually pretty sad since she was so close.
We say that the moment that Final Tribal Council started, Sue was basically out of the running. Rachel played the better game than Sam, and we don’t think the Mike or Ben comparisons with her are fair since she is a better social player than either of them. Yet, Sam did a great job of articulating his game and also making points counter to Rachel. He at least did enough here to ensure that this was not a unanimous vote.
In the end, Rachel got every vote other than Kyle. A pretty impressive win!
The major criticism of the season
We know that it is every contestant’s dream to play this game; we really do not need to hear about it every single week on the show.
Related – Be sure to get some more discussion now on Survivor, including what more is ahead in season 48
What did you expect to see happen entering tonight’s Survivor 47 finale?
Go ahead and let us know in the attached comments! Once you do that, come back here — there are a lot of other updates ahead.