‘Survivor 47’ winner revealed

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Survivor 47.

Four players entered Survivor 47 finale Wednesday night on CBS, but only one would walk out of Tribal Council a $1 million winner. Rachel LaMont, Sam Phalen, Sue Smey and Teeny Chirichillo were the last people not to have their dreams dashed and torches extinguished from the group of 18 that started the season.

Rachel was the clear favorite going into the finals with three individual immunity wins and a blistering idol game at Tribal Council under her belt. Rachel had also been recognized as a strong strategic and social actor and was considered to be an expert on brand. So the big question became: Was there any way she could lose?

In a word, no.

Rachel began the finale by winning her fourth Immunity Challenge, joining Kelly Wiglesworth, Jenna Morasca, Kim Spradlin, and Chrissy Hofbeck as the only women to win four individual Immunity Challenges in one season. While Kelly and Chrissy still lost even after dominating competitions, Rachel’s victory seemed pretty certain at this point, with the only real question: Who would lose to her at the end?

Rachel finished off Sue, forcing Sam and Teeny to face off in a final four competition. Amazingly, Sam revealed that not only had he never practiced making fire, but had only held a flint “maybe once” in his 25 days on the island. With Rachel tutoring Teeny and Sam struggling to make a spark himself, his chances seemed slim, and in fact he seemed doomed when the competition began.

Teeny was the first to get a flame and built their stack with coaching from Rachel, while Sam initially came up empty. But Sam finally got his flint working and the wind began to blow Teeny’s flames away from the rope to burn. As the jury looked on with tense, twisted expressions, Sam pulled off an unlikely come-from-behind victory, leading a despondent Teeny to rue “losing to the big handsome jock”.

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That made the final three of Rachel, Sam and Sue, who finally revealed her real age of 59 – on her birthday, no less! But the main battle seemed to be between Rachel and Sam, who politely yet firmly took each other on – often correcting the other’s CV with their own narrative. At one point, Sam tried to blunt Rachel’s momentum by noting that “It was immunity and an idol in fries that got her to the end of this game.”

While Sam tried to sell his opponent as a player who relied solely on challenge wins and luck to get to the end, the jury wasn’t buying. They overwhelmingly voted for Rachel to win in a 7-1-0 vote, with Sam getting the one non-Rachel vote from Kyle Ostwald.

After men won 12 of 15 seasons (including six in a row) from seasons 26 to 40, five of seven new eras Survivor seasons have now been won by women, including the last three.

See what the final four had to say in our exclusive finale interview, and stay tuned for tons more finale coverage, including our full recap, an exclusive deleted scene, exit interviews with the final four, and our first look at the next season of the show.