‘Survivor’ 44: Who Was Voted Out at Tribal Council This Week?

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Season 44, Episode 6 of Survivor.Every fan of Survivor knows that the game doesn’t truly begin until the tribes merge. The wait for that is over as the latest episode sees the buffs being removed and all the players heading to one beach. When the tree mail arrived with the big news, everyone had 10 minutes to grab their belongings and head for the boat that took them to their new home. The official merger didn’t occur until after the challenge, where two randomly selected teams of six competed with the winners earning safety and their spots post-merger. The remaining five players from the outcome of Tribal Council rounded out the group that moves to the next stage. There were more conversations than ever, as players sought alliances in an effort to not end up on the wrong side of the vote. With all of this running around going on, an intense tribal council ensued as a verdict was made on the seventh person to be voted out.

Related: The 10 Most Grueling ‘Survivor’ Challenges, Ranked

Josh Runs Out of Lives After Many Narrow Escapes

There’s been no one to this point in the season that has had more luck go his way than Josh Wilder. As was said during the episode, he’s been fortunate to have nine lives, especially when he survived the tribe swap that sent him to Tika. He was able to buy himself more time by playing an Idol two episodes ago that would have sent him home. After Tika lost in the challenge again last episode, Yam Yam Arocho and Carolyn Wiger were set on sending him home — especially after learning he had crafted a fake idol. However, Josh was saved in the nick of time when Jeff Probst shared the news that Matthew Grinstead-Mayle would be going home with an injury.

Josh was able to fend off two straight tribal councils that would have sent him packing, but was unable to do so for a third time with the tribes merging. There was a clear setup being done by the show in pinning Josh and Yam Yam and the two most likely to face elimination when it came time to vote. When Josh caught wind that some members wanted to send Kane Fritzler home, he swallowed his pride and proposed to Yam Yam that they say his name and put their beef aside. Speaking to the camera, Josh admitted it would be a necessary move, “I can save my personal vendetta (against Yam Yam) for another day.” While the theory made sense, it ultimately fell flat, as the rest of the group was prepared to say Josh’s name. While all three — Josh, Yam Yam, and Kane — received votes, it was a decisive elimination (with no Idols being played) that sent Josh out right before the official merger.

Carson Sets Himself Up in a Strong Position

While much of the episode was spent highlighting the feud between Josh and Yam Yam — as the former was the eventual vote — there was a good amount of time spent on Carson Garrett. The Peter Parker-esque player is using his adolescent glow and social game to position himself for success post-merger. We see Carson telling his old Tika tribe mates, Carolyn and Yam Yam, that they’re a solid three, and they all seem to be in on this alliance. Carson also has an ally in Kane as they bond over their nerd culture fandom. There’s not a lot of people who don’t like Carson, and the ones who may not feel one way or the other with him also don’t view him as much of a threat.

As we saw in the competition, though, his smarts make him a lethal player. We saw earlier in the season that Carson has the fortunate ability of 3D-printing common puzzles seen on Survivor. That experience gave him a major advantage in this challenge, as he mentioned this was a puzzle he has practiced numerous times at home, and it showed in the ease at which he solved it to secure the win for his side. We’ve seen Carson perform well at challenges before this, so with each passing competition that he excels in, he will start to pop up on the radar. That being said, Carson is playing chess while the others are playing checkers, “The best move for me is to sit back.” From this, he tells the camera that he then “can take control when I need it.” So far, everything is going his way, and there may not be another player on the island whose in a better position.

Survivor releases a new episode every Wednesday night on CBS and each episode is available to stream on Paramount+.