Survivor 48 runner-up Eva Erickson has explained why she thinks the game slipped through her fingers and Kyle Fraser was ultimately crowned the "Sole Survivor."
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
RELATED LINK: 'SURVIVOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO'S STILL TOGETHER?! WHICH SHOWMANCES SPLIT UP? (PHOTOS)
Eva defied many odds -- including multiple autism episodes -- and was viewed as the heart of Survivor 48, but she ended up losing the $1 million to Kyle on Night 26 in a 5-2-1 jury vote.
Eva had received two jury votes from Star Toomey and Mary Zheng, while Joe Hunter had received a single vote from Cedrek McFadden.
Although Eva presented a strong argument at the Final Tribal Council, she believes it didn't land with the jury for "multiple reasons," according to Entertainment Weekly.
"First of all, I had the biggest uphill battle in that Final Tribal because I had cultivated this view of myself from the beginning because I knew that I was coming in as a physical threat, as a social threat," Eva shared.
"Those are two things I cannot hide. I cannot tone down who I am there, but I can try to diminish my intelligence so that people would not recognize me as this massive threat from the start. And so everybody kind of assumed that I was just kind of dumb."
But Eva certainly is not dumb.
The 24-year-old hockey player graduated from college in three years and is now a PhD student in Engineering and Political Science at Brown University.
"Going in, the jury thought that I was going to be this zero-vote finalist that they didn't see very much of my game," Eva said.
"And so I was like, 'I have a big battle here. And I had to speak very, very well in that Tribal Council and not only convince people that I had played a strategic game, but also that I was just intelligent to begin with.' I needed them to see these things about me."
RELATED LINK: 'BIG BROTHER' SHOWMANCES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHICH COUPLES HAVE SPLIT UP?? (PHOTOS)
FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
Eva therefore attempted to convince the jury that her gameplay was smart and intentional.
"[But] I did not convince them enough that I deserved to win," Eva acknowledged.
"But it's also hard when you're competing against two amazing other players who had their own great games. And Kyle had a lot of Civa out there that wanted to vote for him from the start."
Eva's former Lagi tribemates, on the other hand, had been taken out during the tribal swap.
Walking into Tribal Council, Eva told EW that she believed she was "at a significant disadvantage" as a result.
"But I figured there were people that I could convince and that knew me well, that they would recognize these parts of my game and parts of who I am that I had been kind of diminishing," Eva said.
"Like Mary was someone that I thought I could convince. I had a fantastic relationship with her out there, but I knew I needed to earn her vote. Star, I knew that she wanted someone to wow her. She had said that before and I was like, 'I think I have a very wowing story.'"
Eva also apparently thought she could convince David Kinne to vote for her.
ADVERTISEMENT
"And I was looking at Cedrek -- I knew he'd be an emotional voter. I thought that I could make his emotions be swayed towards me, and I was wrong. I was hoping that I was going to get those four votes and that could be enough for me, and it didn't happen."
RELATED LINK: 'THE AMAZING RACE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
However, Eva clarified that Cedrek and David's votes did not surprise her.
"I knew I would have to earn them and I felt like I let myself down there in not earning those votes," Eva concluded.
Eva will not be returning for Survivor's milestone 50th season in Spring 2026, but three of her former tribemates -- Kyle, Joe and Kamilla -- will be given a second chance to win $1 million.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
