On Survivor 43, the jury was critical of Cassidy Clark's gameplay, and fans are not happy about it. After 26 days of manipulating and backstabbing, Cassidy made the final three with Mike Gabler and Owen Knight, where she received a single vote from James Jones. Instead of rewarding Cassidy's ability to always be on the right side of the vote and control her own destiny through individual immunity wins, the jury chose Gabler as the winner. They cited his hiding in plain sight strategy as well as his likable social gameplay as the reasons for the win.
Cassidy won the final immunity challenge, which allowed her to proceed directly to the final three and then select two people to go head-to-head in Survivor's fire-making challenge to make it into the final three with her and Owen. During the jury questioning, Karla Cruz Godoy interrogated Cassidy over her decision to put Gabler into the fire-making challenge against Jesse Lopez instead of putting herself in. Karla and other jury members argued that Cassidy would have shown better gameplay by giving up her immunity necklace and facing off against Jesse herself. That would help her to retain sole credit in his elimination from the game since he was the biggest threat to win.
Survivor Fans Call Out The Jury
Reddit user u/isselperry started a thread shortly after the Survivor 43 finale denouncing the jury's treatment of Cassidy by saying, "this is so annoying to me. cassidy said it best: she won the final immunity fair and square. she can't be crucified for not giving up immunity." Cassidy had already defeated Jesse in the immunity challenge, so there should not be a reason to make her battle him again in fire-making simply to prove her gameplay. Fans contend that instead of looking at Cassidy's moves throughout the season, they made their decision based on who won a single competition at the end of the season.
Survivor's Double Standard At Final Tribal Council
This furthers the debate of a double standard for women who make the Final Tribal Council, where viewers say their gameplay is inherently devalued over that of a man. In this case, Gabler was given the credit for eliminating Jesse. However, Cassidy was the one who held the power and chose to put Gabler in that position since she knew he could make fire faster than Jesse. One Reddit user bluntly replied, "She's a woman. That's why" as the reason why Cassidy's game was undervalued.
Although Gabler's gameplay at the merge should be commended, Cassidy's ability to not only survive multiple targets, but then vote out those that did so felt like a winning game to fans. The jury's critique of Cassidy's decision has only furthered the public's opinion on Cassidy and the belief that she should have been considered more for the win. Whether she won Survivor 43 or not, Cassidy has gained many fans as they debate who should have taken home the title in the years to come.
Source: u/wisselperry/Reddit, Cassidy Clark/Instagram