Episode three was an amazing night for Berks County local, Debbie Wanner. Despite a hairline loss at the immunity challenge which secured their fate at tribal council, Debbie came out on top this week. By the end of the night, one of them would be sent home with no chance of winning the $1 million prize and it wasn’t going to be her.
If you were to believe Jeff Probst’s commentary from the past couple weeks, it would look like Debbie is in trouble. As an older woman on her tribe, she appeared to be on outside of the majority alliance. Confessions by Liz Markham and Peter Baggenstos painted a picture of a tribe divided by age. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Peter openly boasts that he and Liz are the smartest, best looking members on the tribe. Believing the other tribe members have no game, he and Liz have convinced themselves that their opinions will dictate how the vote will turn out. Who they’ve written off most of all is Debbie, who Peter revealed last week that he’d like to keep around as a goat because she has no strategy.
The two decide to take out Neal Gottlieb, an ice-cream entrepreneur from California. To them, Neal is the biggest threat and they believe Debbie and Joe Del Campo won’t question their decision. To blindside Neal, they tell him (and his alliance member Aubry Bracco) to vote for Joe. What they hadn’t seen coming was Debbie and her plan to blindside Liz.
“I just knew it was going to be a spectacular blindside. They never saw it coming,” Debbie tells BCL. “Peter and Liz thought they were as smart as Einstein,” but “I was in control the entire time.”
“The edits just wanted me to be the kookie, eclectic, old lady with no game play. So they were really setting it up to make it almost a big reveal, a big surprise. [But] actually it was in the planning from the first 15 minutes; I was in control the entire time.”
The display of self-confidence Liz and Peter put forth not only in their confessionals but in conversations with one another and at tribal council as well was astounding. Blindsides aren’t a rare occurrence on Survivor, but a disconnect this large may be a first in history.
“It was amazing how I was really the only one who was in touch with the true emotional vibe of the game at the time,” Debbie says. In a confessional within the episode she reveals that being underestimated was exactly where she wanted to be. “I overheard them talking about taking out Joe. Sound travels really well on water. Peter had wanted to take out Neal and that just wasn’t going to happen with me in charge.”
Debbie, Neal, Aubry, and Joe blindsided Liz in a high tension tribal council. While Debbie is now in a great spot strategically, possibly in the key leadership position on her tribe, trouble will strike at the next immunity challenge.
“This week, I will tell you this,” says Debbie. “When I walked out onto the set, [and saw the immunity challenge], I said somebody is going to die here today.” Tune in Wednesday, March 9 at 8pm on CBS to find out what Debbie’s chilling warning is all about.
