Despite being 37 seasons in, Survivor never fails to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Between the weather, a medical evacuation, a castaway quitting, and a few blindsides, this has been a whirlwind of a season.
This week’s episode proved to be just as intense as the rest of the season has been as severe cyclones forced the cast to evacuate from their beaches to safety.
Warning: Article contains spoilers.
“We’re all Davids today. That’s the Goliath,” Christian said, as he and the other castaways were evacuated to safety.
When the cast members later returned to their beaches, both they and the viewers watching at home understood exactly why they were evacuated in the first place as their entire camps were destroyed.
“We get back from being evacuated, and our shelter is obliterated. Had any of us been inside of that, I mean, it would have been game over, for sure,” Angelina exclaimed shortly after they returned to their camps.
Alec added, “I think everyone’s mood was like, oh God. It looked like a bomb went off… It’s pretty intense.”
“Two cyclones, a medical evacuation, a person quitting. It just speaks to the crazy nature of this game,” Alison chimed in as she opened up about how it felt as though they had been in Fiji for a “lifetime.”
While everything happened in the blink of an eye for those watching the episode at home, Jeff Probst revealed during an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the castaways were pulled from their beaches for two days to ride out the storm.
Jeff Probst explains what happened to the #Survivor contestants after they were medically evacuated for 2 days due to the cyclone. https://t.co/5w8kgu3qs7
— Dalton Ross (@DaltonRoss) October 25, 2018
Jeff explained the three tribes were housed separately in very basic areas with no form of comfort. He believed the conditions were even worse than on the beach as the castaways had no control over the situation. They were also under a “no talking” order until they returned to the beach. Once the dangerous storm passed, they returned to the beach and the game continued like clockwork.
During the interview, Jeff also opened up about exactly what goes into tracking storms and making the decision to move the castaways off their beaches to a safer location.
You would think a shelter-evacuating storm would be the worst thing to happen to the #SurvivorDavidvsGoliath tribes. On the contrary; another storm was brewing days later. Our recap: https://t.co/eNfSn0FsoG #Survivor
— Surviving Tribal (@SurvivingTribal) October 25, 2018
“In this case, we had three different weather models we were following and they all predicted the same thing — the storm would hit us hard. Pulling tribes off the beach is a decision that we only make out of true necessity. But their safety is our number one concern every day we are out there. The drama of the show is paramount but it is always secondary to making sure we look out for them,” Probst explained.
Jeff added that they had been watching the storm for several days and had already informed CBS there was a good chance they would need to evacuate.
