Every week here at Inside Survivor we will be gathering a selection of behind the scenes information relating to the latest episode. Most of this information comes from the exit interviews of the recently eliminated castaway. The information is linked to the original sources within the article, but the majority comes from Parade, People, Entertainment Weekly and Xfinity – with a little bit of Redmond sourced info sprinkled on top.
Peih-Gee’s Downfall
Once again, another castaway fell at the hands of Abi-Maria, but how did the target suddenly switch from Jeff Varner to Peih-Gee? Was it all because Abi decided to flip to Tasha and Savage? Or was there more to it that we didn’t see in the edit? Let’s break it down.
Savage and Tasha on the Outs – on Day 7 the Bayon and Ta Keo tribes were shuffled into three new tribes. The newly formed Angkor tribe consisted of Abi-Maria, Peih-Gee, Savage, Tasha, Varner, and Woo. Upon hitting the Angkor beach, the four former Ta Keo members swore to stick together and vote out Tasha and Savage should they lose the immunity challenge. There was even a brief talk between Peih-Gee and Varner about potentially throwing the upcoming immunity challenge so that they could vote out Savage, and therefore keep their allies on the other tribes safe, but Peih-Gee refused.
Savage and Tasha were clearly on the outs – so much so that on their first night on the new Angkor beach, they slept separately from the former Ta Keo members in the little circular boat that the tribe was provided with. In a case of miscommunication, Savage and Tasha thought they weren’t welcome to sleep with the others. While the former Ta Keo members felt slighted by the fact that Savage and Tasha refused to sleep with them.
Jeff Varner Paranoia – despite the initial division between the former Bayon and Ta Keo members, Peih-Gee wanted to develop a working relationship with Savage. She approached him and told him she was willing to work with him. Varner witnessed this conversation, and it kicked his paranoia into overdrive. He approached Savage himself, and Savage subsequently threw Peih-Gee under the bus – Varner then made his own deal to work with Savage.
Tasha Whispers Sweet Nothings – while paranoia was running rampant, Tasha went to work on Abi, subtly bringing her on side with her stellar social game. “Tasha was braiding her hair and using her church voice on her, and Abi-Maria was loving it.” In fact, by the end of Day 8, Abi had already flipped on her former Ta Keo members and was happily willing to vote for whomever Tasha and Savage wanted. Tasha and Savage wanted to target Varner because they felt he was the weakest physically. Abi agreed because she thought Varner was “unpredictable,” after already flipping on alliances at Ta Keo, and she also believed she was on the bottom of his alliance. This was all pre-challenge meltdown.
Peih-Gee vs. Savage – the Angkor beach had the worst conditions of all the camps – not only did they have to start from scratch building shelter, but they had no supplies and no food. The terrain was rough; it was an uphill trek to and from challenges. Also, the sea was full of rocks. To say the Angkor tribemates were stressed would be an understatement. Peih-Gee worked hard around camp and would get argumentative with people about not helping enough. Sometime before the immunity challenge, she got into an argument with Savage regarding this matter. So while Abi was viewed as crazy, she was actually on her best behavior with Tasha and Savage, while Peih-Gee was seen as argumentative.
Challenge Meltdown – heading into the challenge, Varner was definitely a target, at least in the eyes of Tasha and Savage, and they had Abi on board to vote whoever they wanted. When Varner got caught passing a message to his former ally Kelly Wiglesworth, about her working with Kimmi and Monica, it only painted a bigger target on his back. Varner then had his emotional meltdown where he threw everybody under the bus. He called out Savage and Peih-Gee for making deals (the one mentioned earlier).
Woo Out of the Loop – after realizing once again that he was out of the loop, post-challenge, Woo was willing to vote out Varner. Savage tried to convince both Peih-Gee and Woo that this was the way to go. Peih-Gee and Woo had a separate talk, and while Woo was willing to vote out Varner, Peih-Gee had reservations.
Varner Going to Work – despite the episode making it appear that Varner just laid down and slept all afternoon, he did in fact scramble to save himself. He spoke to both Peih-Gee and Woo and told them that Abi was trying to get Peih-Gee voted out. This is what led to Peih-Gee talking with Abi – as we saw in the episode – where Abi confirmed that she was with Tasha and Savage and would be voting however they wanted. From that moment Peih-Gee refused to vote out Varner because she realized she would be down on numbers.
The Vote Change – with Peih-Gee unwilling to vote out Varner it would have meant a 3-3 tie (as Woo was close to Peih-Gee and would vote however she wanted). Tasha and Savage didn’t want a tie, and of course, neither did Varner. Tasha and Savage then decided to vote out Peih-Gee, with Abi and Varner agreeing to do the same. Woo was kept out of the loop.
Tribal Council Shenanigans
As a further demonstration of just how much Varner was on the chopping block last week, after Peih-Gee was voted out, Tasha yelled out: “It shouldn’t have been you tonight. It should have been Jeff.” If Peih-Gee had been willing just to vote for Varner, she could have still been in the game.
So the edit this week was a pretty accurate depiction of why Peih-Gee was booted. The main things it left out where her argument with Savage and Varner’s scrambling post-challenge.
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