Our next winner is the most recent female winner and our first returnee winner that is being covered.

Pre Merge

Going into this season, Sarah had one of the smaller targets due to her nosedive at the merge in Cagayan. Sarah started on the Nuku tribe and was in the majority until the swap at final 18.

She was put on the Tavua tribe with Zeke, Cirie, Troyzan, Andrea and Ozzy. They were the only tribe to not lose throughout the swap. Sarah did declare her most famous line on this tribe. She played like a cop before and now she is playing like criminal. After 3 votes, she swapped back to Nuku with Ozzy, Zeke, Varner, Sandra and Sierra.

The tribe threw the next challenge to get out Sandra and gained Debbie to replace her after Debbie got the Cochran exile. Then Varner destroyed his life inside and outside the game by outing Zeke as Transgender. We are gonna move on to the merge since I don’t want to talk about this moment.

Merge

Here is where Sarah really ramps it up. After a standard merge vote of Hali due to Cirie, Sarah is brought into Ciries alliance of Sarah, Cirie, Andrea, Aubry, Michaela, Ozzy and Zeke. At that same vote, Sarah is also brought in a group of Tai, Brad, Sierra, Troyzan, Debbie and herself. This put Sarah perfectly in the middle which is a position she knows well. Unlike Cagayan, Sarah plays it perfectly and votes out Ozzy with the Brad group as Zeke takes the heat for the vote.

At the next reward challenge, Michaela is not chosen so she sits out but an advantage is at her feet. Unlike Michaela, Sarah notices this and grabs it as they leave the challenge. She gains a vote steal. After the immunity challenge, the majority wants Andrea out but Sarah is not on board and feels that she had no input on the decision so she and Zeke think about switching sides. Sarah is offered a final 3 with Debbie and Sierra but once Aubry tells her of Debbie wanting Aubry to vote Michaela Sarah is firmly against Debbie and Debbie goes to jury.

Sarah reveals to Brad and Sierra that she did flip but they take it well considering they trust her later. The initial plan is to vote out Sierra but Andrea is still feeling betrayed by Zeke and she wants blood. Sarah is apprehensive about give the other side wiggle room but she goes along with the Zeke plan and he is voted out of the game.

The next vote is Sarah’s most impressive move. Sierra tells Sarah about her legacy advantage so Sarah decides that she wants it so she has to vote Sierra out without tipping her off that she voted for her. Sarah is taken on the loved ones visit where her husband confirms that she should do it. Sarah acts shocked when Sierea is voted out and Sierra wills her the advantage. Sarah now has a vote steal and immunity at final 6. This move is an all time great move and gives Sarah the tools to win.

The downside of the move was Andrea and Cirie getting suspicious of Sarah for her reaction. Sarah fills in Sierra’s spot in the Brad and Troyzan trio and they along with Michaela vote out Andrea. Next vote, Tai wants Sarah out but Cirie tells Officer Sarah about the plan. Sarah gives Cirie the vote steal as trust but Cirie turns it around on her by trying to play it. Turns out the advantage is non transferable and Sarah uses it to steal Tai’s vote to send out Michaela. How Michaela was the target I will never know.

Endgame

At the next reward, Brad takes Sarah and Troyzan and they solidify their final 3. Then Advantagedden takes place causing Cirie to go home with zero votes all game. Sarah did have the majority against her but her legacy advantage saved her. This is the biggest knock against Sarah’s game but she earned that advantage and it is really the shows fault for allowing this to happen. Now there is no idols and Sarah, Troyzan, Brad are the majority. They vote out Aubry and then Tai leading to first new format final tribal.

Sarah argued for her good strategic game and her social game but the jury felt she manipulated their relationships to the point that Andrea was crying. Thankfully, her opponents were wrecked at tribal by the jury and Sarah wins by a vote of 7-3-0.

Overall

Sarah played one of the best winners games. Her game looked boring on the outside but so much of her villainess actions like using Brad’s wedding ring as ransom were cut from the edit so the audience didn’t hate the winner. I wish they went all in on the criminal side of her but Game Changers editing is a different issue all together. Her social score will be hard since the jury did not like her at the end but in the game they trusted her despite her constant flipping between alliances. She has a greater target for season 40 since she was so dominant but she might be ok with other legendary winners in front of her.

Rating

Strategic – 9/10

Physical – 7/10

Social – 8/10

Overall – 8/10

Winners Ranking

1. Sarah – 8/10

2. Wendell – 8/10

3. Nick – 7/10

4. Ben – 5/10

Next time we look at the winner of Millennials vs Gen X, Adam Klein.

Grab your stuff and head back to camp!