The next step in our lookback before season 40 is the winner of Ghost Island.

Premerge

Wendell’s premerge write up is gonna be short due to Wendell only going to tribal once that whole part of the game. He started on the dominant Naviti and quickly bonded with his tribe. On Day 1 Wendell makes one of his most important connections in Domenick. His partner for the whole game. He also bonded with most of his other tribemates and was in the majority. At the swap, he stays on Naviti with Dom, Morgan, Chris Noble and Angela. Joining Naviti was James, Libby, Laurel and Donathan.

For the first time in the game Wendell’s tribe loses. The plan was to target Chris Noble but due to the season’s twist, Chris was safe on Ghost Island. The target became Angela because she was associated with Chris. I personally think that this was Wendell’s worst decision since it woukld have killed the Naviti strong mentality early which Wendell benefited from later. Wendell, Dom and Morgan enlist the Malolos to get her out but the Malolos had another plan. James saw this trio and wanted to break it up. Wendell was on the table for the Malolos target but Laurel tells him to go for Morgan instead. This establishes early that Laurel trusts Wendell which will be a big theme for his game. Wendell’s bonds help carry him through the game along with his strategic gameplay. Wendell gets blindsided and Morgan leaves.

Even though he was blindsided, Laurel and Donathan still wanted to work with him. This shows Wendell’s great social game. Also, Dom shows his idol to him solidifying their duo status. New Naviti wins the next couple of challenges until another swap happens. So many swaps! Wendell ends up on the new Yanuya tribe consisting of Wendell, Laurel, Sebastian, Chris and Jenna.

Wendell was safe on this tribe due to Chris rubbing people the wrong way. Wendell and Chris did bond a bit on the tribe despite Chris being Dom’s rival. Yanuya also gave Wendell the oppertunity to bond with Laurel even more. The tribe survives every challenge but in that time Wendell finds an idol. Up to this point Wendell has played a more quiet game due to the lack of tribals but he steps it up at the merge.

Merge

Wendell’s priority at the merge is to get Chris and Dom on the same page. He tries to mediate between the two parties but Chris later brings everyone but him and Dom to the well to talk about spliting the vote between the two. Chris becomes the consensus vote and Wendell destroys Chris in his voting confessional by ending his whole rapping career.

Next vote, Naviti unites to take out the remaining Malolos. They split the votes between Libby and Michael intending for Michael to go but he plays an idol sending Libby home. Guess who was also getting votes in that tribal.. Wendell. For some reason whether it was Wendell being seen as easier to get out or being more threatening.

After this vote, Desiree decides she wants to get the remaining Malolos together to overthrow to Naviti majority. Des makes the mistake of trying to sway Laurel but Laurel tells Dom who in turn tells Wendell and the whole tribe except Chelsea vote out Des.

The next tribal was interesting because they decided to split the merge tribe in half and have a double boot round. Wendell barely loses to Dom for immunity and goes to tribal with Dom, Laurel, Michael and Kellyn. The plan is to finally get out Michael but Kellyn was trying to get Laurel out with her double vote. At tribal, Kellyn blows up her spot with her attempt to get Laurel out and the vote ties between Michael and Laurel. Michael is voted out in the revote and Wendell keeps his number two ally.

Wendell makes it to the loved ones visit and sees his dad also named Wendell. Sea Bass wins the visit and chose Wendell, Dom and Donathan to go with him. There is a twist where Jeff asks one person to go to Ghost Island and give up reward. Wendell gives up a visit from his dad and gets a challenge advantage. Wendell plays the advantage but he does not win immunity. Dom wins immunity so they target Chelsea. The girls attempt to target Wendell but Laurel once again stays loyal to Wendell and Dom and Chelsea is voted out.

The next round, Wendell and Dom win reward and bring Laurel with them. Later, Donathan tells Wendell that he is voting Dom over him at the end to get them to turn on eachother but Wendell sees right through it. At the immunity challenge, Wendell has a mental lapse and does not call Jeff to win immunity so Laurel wins it. Wendell tries to fight it but he concedes. This was not the best look for him. Donathan’s paranoia puts him in Wendell’s crossheirs but ultimately Kellyn is sent to jury.

Endgame

At final 6, Wendell wins his first immunity and calls out to Jeff. Dom finds out a plan to target the duo from Angela so they take out Sea Bass. At tribal, Wendell makes a cocky move by offering Donathan his idol with no intention to use it on him. Wendell wins again and wants to take out their final naysayer, Donathan. Wendell plays his idol on Laurel winning her loyalty over Dom. At final 4, Dom wins immunity and sends Wendell in the firemaking challenge along with Angela. Wendell smokes her and makes it to final tribal.

At FTC, the discussion was Dom vs Wendell. Wendell had to prove that he played a different game than Dom because Dom was the loud one so the jury saw Dom as the dominant one in their duo. The votes are casted and it’s a tie! Laurel now has to cast the deciding vote. Laurel votes for Wendell and he wins by 1 vote.

Overall

Wendell played a dominant game. He was always in the driving seat with Dom. Wendell differs from Dom due to his social game. It is interestng how all of his votes came from the second half of the jury. Wendell’s biggest strength is his social game as it got him the winning vote. Wendell’s game was aided by the lack of competition outside of Dom. It will be interesting to see how he plays without Dom and with better players.

Rating

Strategic – 8/10

Physical – 8/10

Social – 9/10

Overall – 8/10

Winner Scores

Wendell Holland – 8/10

Nick Wilson – 7/10

Next Time, we look at the most contraversial winner before Chris, Winner of HHH, Ben Driebergen

Grab your stuff and head back to camp!