Survivor 51 has been a complicated season for me. On one hand, it’s a breath of fresh air compared to the New Era’s repetitive formulas; the first three episodes were so enjoyable that it was easy to overlook the troubling pattern quietly forming beneath the surface. But now, with five episodes behind us, the show has slipped back into some of its old pitfalls, and the pattern is impossible to ignore: six women have been voted out in a row, creating a gender gap more glaring and unprecedented than anything we’ve seen before.
As we saw during episodes 4 and 5, the players were now divided into three tribes: Toka, Savu, and Dina. As two became three, room to play shrank considerably for certain players, especially for Alexis Levine. With only three other Savu tribemates, options were limited, and after Devin Way, Jelly Loblack, and Ori Jean-Charles teamed up under the Helicopter Alliance, Alexis’ chances of survival went from bleak to nonexistent. After Savu lost the immunity challenge, Alexis was then promptly blindsided and eliminated.
The Dina tribe also lost immunity, and the target seemed to narrow to Lewis Kelly. While Lewis and Kilby were against all former Savu members, Kilby had integrated himself better than Lewis, as the latter was sick at the beginning of the Tribe Swap, making it easy for Lewis to be the first man to be voted out of the game. However, a last-minute twist gave Maggie Nestor two Extra Votes, which she gave to Lewis and Kilby, allowing them to force a tie between Lewis and Linnea Capobianco (as Maggie wanted them to target Linnea for her).
After Kilby refused to switch his vote after the deadlock and not wanting to go to rocks, the former Savu members in the tribe (Sharonda Cox, Eric Macksoud, and Cristian Chavez) turned against Linnea and, one by one, sent her out of the game. Linnea then became the sixth woman in a row to be voted out of Survivor 51.
So what were Alexis and Linnea thinking after they left, especially regarding the gender pattern on Survivor 51? Here are several notable tidbits that both shared about their Survivor 51 game.
For starters, in her interview with GoldDerby, Alexis said she had no idea about the Helicopter Alliance and was blindsided when Jelly voted her out after she said she didn’t want another woman to leave the game, and then by Ori when he turned against her after being so close since their OG Savu days. As for who she’s rooting for to win, Alexis mentioned Ori and Eric.
Regarding why she asked Jenna Doore for her shoes in episode 4, Alexis clarified that she didn’t want or need Jenna’s shoes, as some people mentioned online. It was more a sign of trust and collateral in case Jenna flipped against her.
In the same interview, Alexis shared her thoughts on the fact that only women have been eliminated from the game so far. She stated, ‘’I don’t want it to be this notion that women were just voted out because everyone on our cast hates women or something. It’s not that. I actually think that Survivor did a really good job in casting amazing women this season… I had a big role in voting Ana Sani out, and I did it because she is smart, she is socially strategic — not because I didn’t like her or because she’s a woman. So it is a lot more nuanced than just six women have been voted out. Maybe the women on this cast are just a lot more fierce than the men.’’
As for Linnea, she said in an Entertainment Weekly interview that she was heartbroken that her former Savu allies had turned against her. She also said Alexis would’ve gone to rocks for her, as they were very close in the game.
Linnea also revealed that the person she had bonded with the closest at the marooning was Kilby himself, which made his betrayal even more impactful, and just before she left, Kilby’s exact words to her were, ‘’I screwed up. I f***ed up.’’
Lastly, regarding her thoughts on why only women have been eliminated, Linnea replied, ‘’I guess first we need to stop assuming that beefy men are essential to our tribe for these challenges. That is absolutely a factor. And historically throughout Survivor, women are a little bit unluckier in the first half. That’s just how it’s been… It’s rough to be the sixth woman out. It’s sad. I wish the women united forces a little bit more. And I’m good at challenges! We don’t need all the beefy men. Not everyone is a good swimmer or good at balancing. I am. So I don’t know. Men get to run their mouths and be a little bit louder in the first half of the game without being as threatening because we need them for the challenges. So that does play a role in women going home first.’’
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