Survivor December 15, 2021 Winner Revealed In Finale Episode (Recap)

Hey, “Survivor” fans. Tonight, December 15, 2021, the finale episode of Survivor season 41 did indeed air, and we finally found out who won this darn thing.

Tonight’s episode kicked off with conversation footage that took place after the last tribal council meeting, which sent Danny to jury. Xander told the private cams, “We gotta start over, and that’s perfect for me.”

Erika expressed to Deshawn that she was very upset about him blowing up her game during the the last tribal council. During that tribal council, Deshawn revealed that Erika made plans to not take her partner Heather to the end.

Deshawn told the private cams, “What can I do. You guys were on the top, and I’m just trying to bring you down to my level.” Erika told the private cams, “I’m never gonna trust Deshawn again. I’m still in it. I still have a shot.”

Ricard told the private cams, “Deshawn thinks he pulled a great move by ratting out Erika’s plans, but he just made it impossible for other people to want to work with him again.” Erika told the private cams that Heather was upset with her to the point that they couldn’t even have a conversation.

Deshawn told the private cams, “Ricard has to go.” Erika told Deshawn she was hurt by what he did to her at tribal council. Deshawn told Erika, “That was not my intent to hurt you.”

Next, everyone was given a phrase to solve to find an advantage. They had to solve the phrase before they could look for the advantage. Xander solved the phrase ,first, followed by some of the others, and they went searching for the advantage. Although Erika was the last one to solve the phrase, she was the one who ended up finding the advantage. She immediately told Ricard that she found it, and he told her to hide it.

Next, host Jeff Probst showed up with the next immunity challenge. Erika revealed her advantage at this point because it gave her an advantage in the immunity challenge.

During the immunity challenge, they had to go collect pieces of rope to build a rope latter, which allowed them to get up on a platform. Then, they had to go climb another latter to go put together a 75 piece, Survivor puzzle for the win.

Erica’s advantage gave her a head start in some parts of the immunity challenge. Those advantages allowed Erika to get to the puzzle ,first, and start working on it. The others eventually caught up, especially Ricard, but Erika just had too much time and was able to complete it ,first, for the win and a guaranteed spot in the final 4!

Erika also won a reward to go along with immunity. The reward was steak, veggies, bread and wine. Erika got to invite one more person to the rewards feast. She chose Heather. Xander told the private cams, “We’re gonna try to get Ricard out next.”

Erika definitely used her rewards feast with Heather to try and make amends by apologizing to her for not planning to take her to the end. It seemed to go great as Heather started feeling a lot better about things. They even made a toast to getting to the end at one point. They both said they are ticked off at Deshawn, and they can’t work with him. They decided to target either Deshawn or Ricard at the next tribal council meeting.

Erika told Ricard that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to vote out Deshawn over him. Ricard told the private cams he was shocked that Erika wasn’t sure if she wanted to vote out Deshawn after what he did to her at the last tribal council meeting.

Heather told Ricard, “You are a big threat. So, it’s complicated.” Deshawn told Erika, “If I win the last immunity challenge, I will take you to the end.” Erika told the private cams, “Someone like Deshawn doesn’t deserve to go to the end in my opinion.”

Ricard told Xander that he has a child on the way back home. That seemed to make Xander feel some empathy for Ricard, and he started contemplating using his idol on Ricard.

At the tribal council meeting, Ricard brought up that his baby is do next week, and he’s been struggling with the emotions of it. Xander said, “It’s hard to know that Ricard is in this position with his back against the wall, and I feel for him.” Ricard tried to pitch out that he thinks Deshawn could get more votes in the final than him.

Before the votes were read, Xander decided to play his idol, but he played it for himself, not Ricard. After that, Jeff revealed that Deshawn got 1 vote, and Ricard got 3 votes. So, with the 3 votes, Ricard was indeed voted off the island.

Next, we got footage of Xander, Deshawn, Erika and Heather practicing making fire in case they have to compete in the fire-making challenge at the next tribal council meeting. Deshawn said, “I’m not good at making fire. So, I need to win the immunity challenge.”

During the last immunity challenge, they had to walk on a narrow platform and stack block puzzle pieces on top of each other to spell the word, final3 on a wobbly platform that they were balancing at the same time for the win. If the block pieces fell before they spelled the word final3, they had to start all over again. Xander ended up winning it for a guaranteed spot in the finals!

Desawn told Xander, “You would decrease your chances of winning if you brought Erika to the end.” Erika told Xander, “There’s merit to you taking me to the end.” Xander told Erika, “I am taking you to the end.”

Xander explained to the private cams why he’s taking Erika to the end saying, “Erika’s made a good resume for herself. So, why would I give her the opportunity to make it better by having her win a fire challenge? She’s very good at making fire.”

Xander went and told Heather and Deshawn that they will compete in a fire challenge to get into final 3. So, they started practicing.

Deshawn was definitely having trouble getting his fire high enough during practice. Xander saw that Erika didn’t actually know how to make fire as well as he thought. That gave him second thoughts about taking her to the end. He told Heather about Erika’s inability to make fire, and started contemplating possibly giving up his immunity to beat Erika in a fire challenge.

At the tribal council meeting, they talked about the conversations they had leading up to it. At one point, Xander said he thinks people underestimate Heather in this game. Ultimately, Xander ended up saying, “I’m taking Erika with me, and Deshawn and Heather are making fire.”

So, Deshawn and Heather went head-to-head in a fire-making challenge. Deshawn got off to a great start, but he eventually started to smother his fire, and it went completely out! Meanwhile, Heather finally got her fire going, and she quickly got it blazing high enough to start burning the rope.

At this point, it looked like Deshawn was a goner, but Heather’s fire started falling significantly. So, she had to build it back up. This gave Deshawn enough time give it another go. This time, Deshawn didn’t make the same mistake, and he was able to build this round of fire up very quickly to the point that it was burning the rope.

Heather got her fire burning the rope again too. So, it was a complete showdown at this point. Somehow, someway, Deshawn’s fire was just able to snap that rope before Heather’s fire, which had been burning the rope for quite some time. So, Deshawn pulled off a miraculous victory to claim his spot in the finals! It was epic, guys. Everyone thought it was amazing, and it was. There was a definite argument made for this fire-making challenge being the best one in the history of Survivor.

After all of that, the final 3 had a big breakfast, and they took a look back at their season. Next, the final tribal council meeting took place. During it, the final 3 pleaded their case to the jury and answered questions from the jury.

Xander said, “I played a Xander style game. I tried to take big risks and do something unique. I marketed myself as a vote number once everyone new about my immunity idol. I had to turn on Ricard to get to the end. I played the game paranoid because paranoid people are always thinking of every option.”

Erika said, “I teamed with Heather. I flipped the game during the merge while in exile. I set myself up with enough potential allies to set myself up to get to the end of the game. My relationship with Heather was very valuable.

I wish I had gotten to know other people better, but I knew what I was socially capable of, and I stayed within that. I was never out in front, but I was never quite at the bottom.” At one point, Danny told Erika, “You played the game I wanted to play.” A lot of the other jury members agreed. So, that was huge.

Deshawn said, “I had good social relationships. I kept everyone together. I used social capital to get to the end.”

After all of that, the jury casts their votes for the winner of season 41. Then, Jeff Probst revealed another new twist. He told them, for the first time since the first season in 2000, they will be announcing the winner right there on location. So, Jeff read the votes. Deshawn got 1 vote, and Erika got all the rest of the votes. So, Erika Casupanan did indeed win Survivor season 41 and the $million dollar grand prize!

They did the Survivor aftershow right there on the spot. Erika said, “My game didn’t look pretty. I didn’t need to look like I was the one always in charge. I just needed to get to the end.” They toasted to Erika’s win. Jeff pointed out that Erika is the first ever Canadian winner.

Xander said,”I’m very appreciative of this whole experience. I honestly didn’t see how much everyone respected Erika’s game. So, I do have more things to learn and work on.”

Deshawn said, “I’m really excited to watch this back, reflect and grow from this experience.” They also drank wine and ate pizza. They talked about various events that took place during this season.

To cap it all off, they showed a preview clip of the next season 42. It will feature 18, new players. The clip said season 42 will be the most dangerous version of Survivor ever seen. It will have similar twists to the ones in season 41.

It’s scheduled to premiere in the Spring 2022. They didn’t give an exact date yet. So, we will see you guys again when season 42 starts up next year. How do you guys feel about Erika Casupanan winning season 41 of Survivor? Let us know in the comments section.

Alright guys. That’s all we’ve got for this latest “Survivor” TV show report, but definitely stay tuned for more.

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