Nick Wilson among 11 remaining ‘Survivor: Winners at War’ contestants as merging of the tribes looms

Whitley County’s Nick Wilson’s Sele Tribe was sent to tribal council for the second consecutive week on CBS’s Survivor: Winners at War, but he survived another week and will make it to the traditional merging of the tribes next week.

Week seven saw another first in the game, as two-time Survivor champion Sandra Diaz-Twine became the first of the 20 contestants to leave the game.

Sandra along with Parvati were each voted to join the outcasts at the Edge of Extinction where Natalie, Ethan, Danni, Tyson, Amber, and Rob have previously been consigned.

Upon Sandra’s arrival, the group gave her a rundown of how things worked, which included each contestant trekking to the top of a mountain to obtain a small cup of rice for the day.

“This is not for me!” Sandra announced, explaining she was not going to suffer through the ordeal for 23 days in hopes of getting back in the game.

“I don’t want to deal with it,” she added.

“I got voted out. It is time for me to go!” she said explaining that she had accomplished a lot in her Survivor career.

Sandra raised the flag to summon the boat to take her from the island and end the game for her.

Back at the Sele camp, Yul and Wendell discussed Wendell’s attempt to make a deal with Parvati not vote for her.

Wendell told Yul that he respects his honesty, but Yul confessed that he would have to watch out for Wendell.

As she left the tribal council last week, Parvati had bequeathed her two fire tokens to Michelle. Michelle, whose relationship with Wendell had ended with an ugly breakup, admitted she had given Wendell one of the tokens as a peace offering.

Back on the Edge of Extinction, Ethan found a small box in the group’s treasure chest with instructions that it should be opened in front of the entire group. Inside were small scrolls for each contestant with clues to help them find one of four fire tokens hidden around the island.

Tyson found one of the tokens and showed them to the others so they would know what to look for.

After a thorough search, the group came to the consensus that they had not been found.

However, Rob confessed to the camera that he had found them, unbeknownst to the others

“I’m batting.750!” The Boston Red Sox fan said.

The other members searched Rob and Tyson, but Rob was able to hide the tokens.

The three tribes, now down to four members each, arrived for the immunity challenge.

Host Jeff Probst explained that the teams would race through an obstacle course to get a large saucer. They would then carry their saucers back through the obstacle course to a water tower where they would fill the saucer. They then had to carry the saucer back through the obstacle course and dump the water into a well. When a team got enough water in a well, a bag containing puzzle pieces would drop down and two team members would work to solve the puzzle.

The first two teams to complete the challenge would win immunity.

“Nick did this in his season and it was one of his worst performances,” Probst noted.

Dakal got off to a lead, but Sele closed the gap as the teams got their saucers to the tower. However, as they worked the loaded saucers through the obstacle course, they lost too much water to drop the bags on the first trip and had to go back for a second.

While Yara was initially behind, they were able to fill their saucer and keep enough water in it while negotiating the obstacle course to drop their puzzle pieces with one trip.

From there, Yara cruised to victory, bringing it down to a neck-and-neck race between Dakal and Yara to determine who would go to tribal council.

With five pieces remaining, the teams were tied, but in the end, Dakal pulled out the victory by a second.

“This is the most brutal loss I’ve ever had on Survivor,” Nick told Probst.

Back at the Sele camp, the team members began maneuvering in the leadup to the tribal council.

“I’m so frustrated with Wendell,” Nick said. “He should be focused on the puzzle. Not showboating and trash talking.”

Michelle offered her apologies, but Nick and Yul appeared ready to vote out Wendell.

“If it wasn’t for Wendell screwing up the challenge, we would have won,” Nick confessed. “My goal was to keep these four together to the merge.

“If it wasn’t for Wendell we would have done that!” he added.

Yul and Nick talked as Michelle and Wendell went down to the beach to wash the sand off.

Yul and Nick seemed to be in agreement to vote out Wendell, knowing that Michelle would go along to save herself.

Wendell and Michell agreed to band together and vote for Yul.

However, Yul talked with Michelle and Nick about a plan to vote out Wendell and get him to leave them his fire tokens.

“Yul wants to backstab Wendell. I’m learning that siding with Yul is kind of a dangerous thing,” Nick confessed.

Nick and Michelle talked about whether it should be Wendell or Yul who is voted out.

Michelle admitted that while she would love to vote her ex–boyfriend out, it made more sense to vote out Yul.

At tribal council, Yul admitted to lying more in the current game than he did in season 13.

Nick told the others that even if he was the one voted to the Edge of Extinction it would not burn the bridges with them.

Wendell and Yul’s votes were shown and, as expected they voted for each other.

When the votes were revealed, three were for Yul, making him the ninth person sent to the Edge of Extinction.

Yul left a fire token for Sophie and another for Sarah.

The scenes from next week showed the merging of the tribes, and Nick’s name coming up in conversations about who to vote out next.