"Survivor 48" Finale Recap - A Pair of Pairs (and Mitch)

Who's taking home the big bucks?

“Survivor 48” (CBS)

Every Wednesday after the “Survivor” episode airs you’ll find a full recap along with individual player grades right here. The next day I’ll have an exit interview with the latest castaway on my YouTube Channel.

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Last Week: Kyle and Kamilla made up a fake story about Shauhin having a fake idol. And, Joe thought it was real.

39 26 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog…

Alright, let’s check out the tribes as they currently stand…

The Niu Nia Tribe (wearing blue)

Eva, 23 - PhD Candidate

Joe, 45 - Fire Captain

Kamilla, 30 - Software Engineer

Kyle, 30 - Attorney

Mitch, 34 - P.E. Coach

Post-Tribal Shenanigans

Kyle and Kamilla are pretty psyched about their plan to get rid of Shauhin going smoothly. Although, Kamilla is surprised that Joe never straight up confronted Shauhin about the fake, fake idol. Yeah, you and me both.

Kamilla think she deserves an Emmy for her acting, but those tend to only go to “The Amazing Race.”

Meanwhile, Joe is a little concerned that he was just duped. Nawww…

Eva isn’t worried at all because she’s still got another Tribal on her immunity idol.

Maybe Mitch is around? We don’t hear from him.

The next morning the tribe is greeted by individual podiums with cryptex locks for each of them. The first person to figure out the code will get an advantage in the next challenge.

Around camp are a variety of icons that feature little dots. Kamilla quickly figures that the dots represent letters in the alphabet. However, Eva is the one to break the code with the term “Secure.”

Immunity Challenge Time: The players will race over and under some obstacles. They’ll throw a ball at a target, then maneuver it through a muddy net. They’ll then toss the ball in a basket that will give them a combination. They’ll use the combination to release a key. They’ll race up a ramp and unlock puzzle pieces. The first person to complete the puzzle wins immunity and a trip to the Sanctuary for pasta and chocolate cake.

Probst also points out that Joe is one win away from tying the all-time single-season immunity record. Also, Eva’s advantage is that she won’t have to shoot the ball into the basket, she can just place it in.

Result: Joe is the first person to the puzzle, but it’s so tough that everyone else is able to catch up. Kamilla, who got to the puzzle last, manages to win the whole thing! She’s allowed to share her reward with one person and she goes with Eva.

Eva again? Is she having her mail delivered to the Sanctuary at this point?

Pre-Tribal Politicking

At the Sanctuary, Kamilla is giddy because her family thought she’d get voted out first, and now she’ll never be voted out.

When they return to the beach, Kamilla explains that Kyle and Mitch are the biggest threat to her winning, but she hates the idea of Kyle going home, followed by her, and then neither of them gets to the final three.

Mitch pitches to Kyle that it’s time to take a shot at Joe. While Joe wants to get rid of Mitch because he doesn’t have any blood on his hands.

Kyle and Kamilla are leaning toward Mitch because they think he’ll be a jury vote for either one of them.

And, Kamilla has no problem telling Mitch that it’s his time. He’s devastated, but Eva confirms that it’s because they all like him so much and assume the jury feels the same way.

A frustrated Mitch says he, “Should have made a move.”

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!

Tribal Time

Kamilla says there was a voice inside her saying to keep going during the immunity challenge. Yeah, and Probst was screaming it too.

Kyle admits that things were different around camp because they were open about Mitch being voted out.

Mitch is emotional, but he seems to have come to terms with it and takes the vote as a compliment.

Voting Time: Joe and Kyle vote for Mitch, and the rest of the votes aren’t shown.

JPro tallies and returns, he asks if anyone wants to play an idol or an advantage. Eva plays her idol for herself just for funsies. We’ve got one vote for Mitch, one vote for Kyle, one vote for Mitch, and the fourteenth person voted out of “Survivor 48” and the seventh member of the jury is…Mitch.

Just as it was prophesied in the CBS trailer…

Post-Tribal Shenanigans

Kyle makes an interesting point that there are two pairs in the final four who have played very different games. Joe and Eva as a very public couple and he and Kamilla who kept things secret.

Something else that is different is that Eva and Joe will both take their partner to the end. While Kamilla tells Kyle that she can’t win if she takes him to final three. Kyle says he’s been thinking the same thing.

Honestly, I think that’s the best move for all four of them.

Although, I’ll admit that a Joe vs. Eva fire-making challenge would be epic.

Immunity Challenge: The players will place a ball on a track. As the ball comes out of the bottom, they’ll have to catch it and put it back into the top. As time goes on, they’ll add more balls. The last person with all of their balls in motion win immunity.

Ugh…Simmotion again? Yawn.

Kamilla also isn’t psyched to see this challenge.

Result: It comes down to Kyle and Joe with…Kyle winning!

Pre-Tribal Politicking

Kyle tells Joe that he’s going to take him to the end. I think this is very savvy, because it somewhat weakens someone who has slowed down in challenges and who has a very questionable strategic story to tell.

He then tells Eva that she’d better start practicing fire.

Kyle is scared to death to face Kamilla in the end. Well, he’s not wrong.

Quick Aside: Maybe a twist for 50 is they could let the jury have Super Soakers during the challenge.

While Eva is practicing, she seems to be having one of her episodes. Joe goes to check on her, but this makes Kyle wonder if it’s the wrong move to subject her to the stress of the challenge.

Well, I’m sure Eva wants to be treated like any other player.

However, this makes Kyle consider stepping up to face Kamilla himself.

Joe gives Eva a big hug to calm her down, and even offers to step in for her during the challenge. And like I said, Eva refuses because it’s her responsibility.

Tribal Time

We very quickly get to Kyle’s choice to take Joe to the end.

Eva is concerned because she practiced with coconuts, and there are no coconuts at the fire stations.

Fire-Making Challenge: The first person to make a fire that is tall and strong enough to burn through a rope will become the last member of the final three.

This challenge is always fun because Jeff explains how fire works.

Result: Kamilla has a real rough go of it as she tells us that his legs and hands are cramping. Eva’s fire is doing really well, but the wind takes it back down. Eva loses it for a bit, but manages to compose herself and build a higher fire that wins her the challenge. The fifteenth person eliminated from “Survivor 48” and the eighth member of the jury is…Kamilla.

Final-Three Feast

Kyle says that he tried to play a person-first game.

Shauhin believes that Kyle played the most strategic game. Kamilla says that he had good connections with everyone and was a good liar. Mitch says that Kyle needs to own his cutthroat game.

Eva is proud of the way she’s battled through some challenging mental situations.

Mary has never seen someone like Eva who has played a game completely based on trust. However, sometimes that trust was misplaced. Cedrek respects her physical game and she aligned with people who had her back. Kamilla thinks Eva is smart and she may have done things to lower her threat level.

Eva also opens up to Kyle and Joe by admitting that she’s actually a PhD candidate. Which encourages Kyle to tell them that he’s a lawyer.

If I was Joe I’d be like, “I’m actually a rocket scientist.”

Joe tells us that he’s tried to play a loyal game and didn’t want to make big moves just to build a resume.

Chrissy thinks Joe is a stand-up guy and David appreciates his challenge skills. However, David feels like Joe broke a lot of promises. Star is impressed that his name wasn’t written down that often.

My Thoughts: Heading into this, I could really see Eva and Joe splitting votes and Kyle winning it. Especially if Kamilla spent the previous night selling Kyle’s story at Ponderosa.

Final Tribal Time

Cedrek wants to know what everyone’s weakness was and how they minimized it. Eva doesn’t think of her Autism is a weakness, but it does cause weaknesses in her. She talked about how she gets overwhelmed, so she chose an ally who would never lie to her. And if she showed openness to others, they’d show it back.

Joe’s weakness is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve, but he was able to harness that and turn it into empathy that helped him build an alliance.

Kyle thinks overconfidence is his weakness. On day one he volunteered for a challenge when he had a stuntman on his tribe. He thinks that humbling moment encouraged him to pivot to a more social game.

Mitch thinks a lot of the votes were based on deep relationships, so how did they leverage relationships to propel their game forward. Eva didn’t expect the social game to be so important, but it obviously was. But her relationship with Joe was so strong that he risked his game to help her. She believes they’re one of the strongest pairs in “Survivor” history.

Obviously not THE strongest pair…Rob and Amber have four daughters.

Chrissy points out that they both can’t win, so when will they turn on each other? Eva thinks they can compete at final tribal without tearing each other down.

Joe says he will try to win based on his game, but he won’t take jabs at Eva.

I think Star just said this was “Survivor 26?” She wants to know about some secret moves. Eva talks about the Safety-without-Power advantage that she managed to keep quiet and never use.

Kyle says that he spent months of his life incarcerated and turned his life around and became a lawyer. This encourages Eva to open up about being a PhD candidate.

Mary wants to know how they think they’re perceived by the jury. Eva is worried the jury thinks she’s Joe’s plus one. She says they collaborated and made their moves as one. David points out that they didn’t see that.

So, Eva says that she worked to get rid of Shauhin because he was coming after her. Oh…get ‘er, Kyle.

Shauhin points out that he voted for Mitch at the Tribal.

Kamilla sets up Kyle by asking for his perspective on the Shauhin vote. Kyle breaks down the plan to lie about Shauhin having a fake idol and how that got Joe and Eva to target Shauhin. Thus spilling the beans about the Kyle and Kamilla relationship. He even says that Joe and Eva aren’t the best pair in the game, they’re just the most visible.

Then…David says, “Knock knock.”

Kyle and Eva say, “Who’s there?”

And David says, “Not me.” He finally lightens up. Apparently, he’s been pretending to be pissed off this whole time.

Uh…good one, David.

Probst gives the final three a chance to make their case; Kyle says that he’s average at everything and he performed well in every facet of the game.

Joe was a threat the whole time, but only had his name written down once.

And finally, Eva said that this is an unprecedented season, and they should pick an unprecedented winner who wasn’t afraid to show who she was. And, she’s also carried more wood than anyone else on the show and she made Probst cry.

My Thoughts: Wow, I feel like we barely heard from Joe. I think Eva did a great job, but that Shauhin vote discussion hit like a sledgehammer. Gotta be Kyle, right?

Voting Time: Cedrek votes for Joe, Mary votes for Eva, Kamilla votes for Kyle, and the rest of the votes are lost to the magic of editing.

All three players got votes! Huzzah!

JPro tallies and returns. We’ve got one vote for Joe, one vote for Eva, one vote for Kyle, one vote for Eva, two votes for Kyle, and the winner of “Survivor 48” is…Kyle!

Verdict: Umm…that season certainly happened.

I like the cast, I’m happy with the winner, but I’m not sure what I’m going to remember about this a few years from now.

Eva and Joe’s relationship? Kamilla’s sleeper agent storyline? Not much else.

And with Simmotion as the final four challenge? Sometimes it feels like the new era of “Survivor” is like a fantasy camp where they run new people through the same schedule with minimal changes.

It’s an adventure show! Switch it up some!

Welp, that’s it! Check out my exit interviews with the final five on YouTube tomorrow.

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And, be sure to check out the official “Survivor” podcast - “On Fire with Jeff Probst”