What just happened?
That was the question on the mind of Survivor 48's most recent casualty, Justin Pioppi, the other three members of his tribe, and the millions of people that just finished watching Episode 3. Over the latter third of the episode, a lost vote from a journey and the third successful Shot in the Dark play in the show's history kicked off a calamitous and historical series of events. Votes were lost and regained. Three trips to the urn resulted in a deadlock. And Cedrek McFadden ended the night somehow voting for every other person in his tribe.
Understandably, many have been left confused by everything that went down. Luckily, Jeff Probst did the beat-by-beat breakdown of what happened on the official Survivor podcast "On Fire," and how the result bore out.
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"There was a lot going on because of lost votes and votes that were sacrificed,” he outlines. “So let me just take you through the big points. You get to Tribal and you start with this: Justin doesn't have a vote, so he's not voting tonight at all. Then, Mary decides to sacrifice her vote to play the Shot in the Dark and she gets it. So she's now safe, but doesn't have a vote either."
Mary's successful Shot nullified all the votes against her from the rest of the tribe, completely wiping the slate clean. This is the second time since the Shot's introduction that it has saved a player from getting voted out (and third time the "Safe" scroll was pulled overall). With all of the votes cleared out, the other three tribe members–Justin, Cedrek, and Sai Hughley–went up to revote.
Only, the rest of the tribe was shocked to find out another twist: There weren't three votes in the urn; there were two. That's because Justin had lost his vote in a game of chance earlier that day on the journey. The pizzeria manager had elected not to tell his tribe to avoid being put on the chopping block. Unfortunately, it was a position he found himself on anyway. Sai voted for him, while Cedrek voted for Sai. Without Justin or Mary's vote, it was tied 1-1. And this is where things get controversial.
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Ordinarily, in a tie vote, the people who are involved in the tie do not get to vote again. That's because, in theory, they can only vote for each other. If myself and Jeff, for example, are involved in a 3-3 tie, I can only vote for Jeff, and he can only vote for me. Since the votes cancel each other out, there's no need to count it in the total. That's why, back in the days where Survivor ended with a Final 2, the two people who were not immune did not vote at the Final 3.
What makes this situation different, however, is the vote that Justin lost. Even if him and Sai had the chance to vote, he would not be able to vote for her. Therefore, the votes would theoretically not cancel each other out. Since the balance is thrown off, Sai is able to vote in the revote, as that could affect the numbers. The precedence for this was actually set last season when a tied vote occurred between Sierra Wright and Sam Phalen, the latter of whom had lost his vote in the auction.
So, in an unconventional move, Sai had the chance to vote in a tie where she was one of the people involved. Predictably, she voted for Justin. And Cedrek, once again, voted for Sai. This forced things into an outright deadlock. And it was at that point that Probst sat back down on his stool and broke down what was about to happen.
“Once we are deadlocked, then this is where the rules change the game,” he explains on the podcast. "The voting is over. There is no more voting. So Sai, even though she had a vote tonight, she didn't get to vote. This is now a decision that will be made between the remaining members of the tribe. So you have Justin and Sai, they're sitting over there both tied with a vote. And the question is: What will the rest of the tribe decide? Who are they going to send home? Because they got to send somebody home, because if they don't send somebody home, then Justin and Sai are safe and everybody has to draw rocks and somebody goes home."
Related: Meet the Full Cast of Survivor 48
Ordinarily, the discussion would be among the people who could cast a vote to break the deadlock. Indeed, we have seen this moment happen a handful of times before. All three times the infamous "Purple (or Black or White) Rock" twist was implemented in Seasons 4, 27, and 33, the voters had time to talk amongst themselves, only to ultimately not come to a consensus. A consensus was reached during climactic moments in Survivor: Cambodia and Survivor 42, as at least one person flipped their vote verbally to avoid drawing rocks.
Of course, this situation ended up being a little different. Ordinarily, Sai and Justin, as the people involved in the tie, would not be able to be part of the decision. Instead, it would be Cedrek and Mary trying to come to a consensus of who would go. However, Mary gave away her vote in the Shot in the Dark play. And therefore, it seemed, she had no say in the consensus either. So it all fell squarely on Cedrek's shoulders.
“What made tonight historic is the rest of the tribe was composed of two people, Cedrek and Mary,” Probst says. “But, as discussed, Mary doesn't have any say in this because she sacrificed her vote. So the rest of the tribe is Cedrek. So Cedrek now has this big decision because he's the only voice.
"So he decides: Do I send Justin home or do I send Sai home? And if, for some odd reason he was so conflicted he couldn't decide, then yes, we would technically go to drawing rocks and there would be one rock in there. And it'd be Cedrek going home. So we all knew that wasn't going to happen. The big question then became: Is he going to trust Sai and try to forge ahead with something, or is he going to get rid of Sai and keep Justin? And you saw what happened.”
Indeed, after a lot of back-and-forth–and a promise from Sai to try to squash her beef with Mary–Cedrek chose to flip his vote and take out his closest ally in Justin. Justin's torch snuffing concluded one of the wildest Tribal Councils in Survivor history, involving a life-saving Shot in the Dark, a deadlock vote, and the possibility of a one-man rock draw.
Survivor 48 is approaching a much-needed swap next week, what with the Vula tribe now half the number of the others. But, while the players are eager to move on to the next phase of the game, it will be a long time before we forget the Tribal Council that made players and fans' heads spin.
Related: What Really Happened in 'Survivor 48' Medical Emergency That Cameras Didn't Show (Exclusive)
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