I think I’ve been looking at Cedrek McFadden completely wrong. Survivor Season 48 is finally at an early but well-deserved merge. McFadden’s decisions throughout this season of the reality competition show so far have been baffling and seem to be setting him up for failure, and yet there is another way to look at his game. While his moves still might get him voted out, McFadden ran the pre-merge portion of Season 48.
McFadden was on the unlucky Vula tribe. McFadden was always struggling with challenges. Every week, Vula went to tribal council, and McFadden would flip his vote, and the dynamics of the tribe would change. Despite not being good at challenges, not telling people his vote, and voting to keep significant threats, McFadden has scraped through pre-merge with only one vote and has made allies with his kind and human moments with some of the other castaways.
Cedrek Is Not A Competition Beast
There is no doubt that McFadden struggles during challenges. While the tribes were still split, vying for immunity each round, McFadden was a liability. It would be easy to have voted him off to allow the tribe to be strong enough to win an immunity challenge, but this was never brought up, and for a good reason. Now that Survivor 48 has reached the individual portion of the game, McFadden’s problems in immunity challenges will make it easier to be voted out. However, because of this, McFadden will be pulled further along as an “easy vote” and could make it to the finale on this alone, but there is so much more to his game.
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Even with the vote flipping and interesting voting decisions, McFadden has ultimately been on the right side of every vote. Not only that, but he was either the deciding vote or orchestrated the elimination. During the tribal council that Justin Pioppi was voted out during, McFadden refused to change his vote off of Saiounia Hughley. Initially, this was confusing, and people online, myself included, were wondering why he did not just switch his vote and make it easier for everyone. However, by not changing his vote, McFadden secured the sole vote and put fate in his own hands. Later, after a tribal swap onto Civa, McFadden worked with Chrissy Sarnowsky to vote out Bianca Roses after Roses admitted she had lost her vote. McFadden uses all his information at tribal council and does not stop thinking about the outcomes.
Tribal Council on ‘Survivor’ Changes Everything
I thought keeping Saiounia Hughley over and over again seemed like a big mistake on McFadden’s part because she does not trust him, wants him out, and now has cast the only vote against him, Hughley has also managed to rub castaways the wrong way with her brutal honesty and passion for playing the game. Although McFadden might be able to organize the game the way he wants, Hughley will always be the bigger, more obvious target.
Cedrek Has New Friends
Survivor is all about allies and trust that McFadden can find some. McFadden has already bonded with other castaways, and I see no indication that he will stop trying to make new friends. Strategically, he worked with Chrissy Sarnowsky to get Bianca out, which saved Sarnowsky and created trust between them. Although Hughley and Mary Zheng are wary of him, McFadden helped get out Pioppi and Kevin Leung to save both women. On a social level, McFadden has bonded with Mitch Guerra over shared experiences and has worked to encourage other castaways, like Star Toomey. These endearing moments will help them to trust him moving forward.
Despite all of these benefits, McFadden is still at risk, especially with Hughley finally being so irritated at him that she voted for him. Yet, McFadden has proven that he knows what he is doing. As a surgeon, McFadden knows how to cut what is unnecessary, and even though his choices seem random and potentially dangerous, McFadden knows what he is doing. I am kind of obsessed with the sophisticated chaos McFadden has brought to Survivor Season 48. Survivor is available to stream on Paramount+.
- Release Date
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May 31, 2000
- Network
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CBS
- Showrunner
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Jeff Probst
- Directors
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Jeff Probst
- Writers
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Jeff Probst
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