One of the final three castaways of Survivor 41, Xander Hastings, opened up about receiving no jury votes during the last tribal council. Returning from a brief hiatus due to COVID, the 41st season of Survivor featured numerous changes and unexpected twists. Beware advantages, decreased rations, and shared immunity idols were just a few surprises survivors faced. Castaways spent 26 days on the island due to a two-week cast and crew quarantine, another twist from the standard 39-day competition.
While Survivor 41 castaways spent less time on the island, Probst spiced things up with more twists than ever. Castaways began the game as the Yase and Luvu tribes. Luvu dominated the early game, winning each immunity challenge until the merge. Yase's constant loss caused Xander, a physical threat to the rest of the Yase tribe, to spend the majority of the game scrambling to avoid elimination. Xander succeeded, eventually winning the last immunity challenge and the ability to choose the final three. Xander decided to bring along Survivor 41’s winner, Erika Casupanan, and sent Deshawn Radden and Heather Aldret to the fire-making challenge.
In an interview with EW, Xander shared his feelings about how it felt to be blanked by the Survivor 41 jury. “I was surprised at no votes,” Xander admitted. “I wasn't surprised at the loss.” Xander received criticism for choosing Erika for the final three, his biggest competition. The jury also felt that Xander could make more moves, specifically with his promises to use his idol to save alliance members. “People just didn't like that I blended that like, 'Hey, I care about you, and I want to get to know you, and I want to learn what makes you tick and figure out what's important to you in life. But I'm also going to do whatever's best for me because I'm out of here playing my game,'" Xander explained. He continued by confiding that by the end of the competition, Xander felt the jury was simply not going to vote for him as the winner.
While Xander won the final immunity challenge, he contemplated stepping in for the fire challenge due to his experience and the potential influence on the jury. “But I was so afraid. And that's the fault in my game is that I showed the fear of not stepping in… I won the challenge. I shouldn't have to, but I understand that the jury wanted me to step in and show that confidence.” Xander ultimately decided that stepping in was a risk he was unwilling to take. Xander reflected on the many almost-winners to have fallen so close to the finish line in Survivor history. Xander refused to choose that fate for himself. “I needed to know whether or not I was going to win… I gambled. I gambled every time, and I always went all in, balls to the wall. So for me, it was like, it's all or nothing.”
Xander doesn’t believe there was a scenario where he'd win Survivor 41. Many Survivor fans enjoy contemplating the different avenues castaways could have taken to victory, and Xander is no exception. All too often, fans watch as the charmingly athletic contestant gets voted off as soon as the merge occurs, but Xander fought his way to the end. But the jury felt Xander's choices to get to the final three were sloppy, which ultimately led to Xander’s downfall. While Xander was unable to take home Survivor 41’s million-dollar prize, he undeniably proved he was able to outwit, outplay, and outsurvive to get to the very end, no matter what it took.
Source: EW