If there is one thing we’ve come to expect from Survivor, it’s that everything is not always as it seems.
With so much footage and only so many episodes each season, the Survivor creative team often has to leave a lot on the cutting room floor. This often results in certain key moments in a player’s game not making it into the show, often due to footage not fitting into the narrative of the season. This has once again been the case in Survivor 48, in which key pieces of various players’ games were not included in the show.
In each exit interview, the Survivor 48 cast has revealed the events of the season they wish had made it into the show. There have been some interesting revelations to come from these interviews, but we have to admit the latest confession from Survivor 48 runner-up Eva Erickson most certainly took us by surprise!
Following the Survivor 48 finale, Eva was asked by Entertainment Weekly about what she was most disappointed to see that didn’t make it to TV. She was understandably disappointed that the show didn’t really spotlight some of her strategies, but the thing that she really wished had been featured was her relationships in the game.
We all know that Eva and Joe were incredibly close, with their relationship being at the forefront of the season. Because of the way the show edited things, it looked like Joe was Eva’s primary – and at times, only – relationship in the game, but it seems she was actually close with several other players in the game. We just never got to see these relationships spotlighted in the episodes as the show surprisingly chose to gloss over her many other connections in the game outside of her relationship with Joe.
Among those Eva was incredibly close to was the season’s winner, Kyle, with Eva calling him a brother to her in the game.
“The only relationship they really showed was me and Joe, but Kyle and I were extremely close. He's a brother to me. I shared things with him out there that I do not talk to anyone about. And he shared things like that with me. We are extremely close.”
It wasn’t just Kyle that Eva was close with, though. It seems she also had a really good friendship with Kamilla that was never seen in the game. While Eva confirmed she and Kamilla didn’t talk strategy, they bonded strongly during filming over their many shared interests and formed a strong friendship.
“Kamilla and I, while we did not work strategically together, the two of us talked nonstop about food and about hockey. She's a Leafs fan. These were people that I was very close with, and they showed none of that.”
But wait, there’s more! Remember when we all thought it was so odd that Eva made such a big deal about distancing herself from Mary after David was eliminated? It seemed out of place as Eva and Mary weren’t exactly depicted as being close during the game; however, it seems they were incredibly close, and that’s why she put distance between herself and Mary after the David vote.
“Mary and I were soooo close, very, very close friends, and they show me breaking up with her after David was voted out. And nobody understood why, but it's because Mary and I were very, very close friends and I love that girl. So it's these relationships that characterize how I made it so far in this game that were not shown that I'm like, my social game was my biggest game and you don't show it.”
Honestly, this makes so much more sense, and we wish the show had given us the context in allowing us to see the friendship between Mary and Eva during the game! We had no idea they were so close as the show never really gave us any indication that they were friends in the game. The same honestly goes for Eva and Kamilla as well, as we never got the chance to see the pair bonding on the beach and only ever really saw them as adversaries.
We get that there is only so much time in an episode, and the show selects the narratives it wants to tell when editing the season, but it’s definitely annoying when we read post-season interviews that reveal such key aspects of a player’s game were hidden from viewers.