CBS The "Survivor 42" "Taku 4" – Jonathan Young, Omar Zaheer, Maryanne Oketch, and Lindsay Dolashewich.
With T-minus 10 days before the “Survivor 42” finale on May 25, fans are anxiously predicting which of the six remaining contestants has the best chance of taking home the million dollar prize.
With speculation running wild, none other than Drea Wheeler, the Texas-born Montrealer who was voted out in last week’s episode and is now the 5th member of the jury, has weighed in about what we can expect to see in the final 2 episodes.
Here’s what you need to know:
Drea: Omar Was ‘Getting a Bit Sloppy’ Near the End
It may be hard for fans not to have noticed that the Taku 4 – Omar Zaheer, Maryanne Oketch, Lindsay Dolashewich, and Jonathan Young – have made it to the final 6 completely intact, while the other two former tribes, Ika and Vati, have been decimated to the point where only one of each remains. However, all of their fellow contestants seem to have been so preoccupied with eliminating each other that they seem to have missed the coming threat of the Taku 4. And, despite her strategic prowess, that included Drea.
In an ET Canada interview with “Survivor 41” winner Erika Casupanan, Drea revealed the truth behind her famous “always observing” monologue on Wednesday night’s Tribal Council. When asked by Erika if anything tipped her off to the fact that she might be on the chopping block, Drea responded, “I knew that Taku is closer than we thought. They were starting to reveal it a bit more.”
Though she did not reveal much more about the Taku 4 in particular, she added that she knew that both Lindsay and Jonathan were close to Mike Turner, the last remaining Vati member, which is why she knew it would likely be her that night after her attempt at playing the Knowledge Is Power advantage failed.
When it came to Omar, whose betrayal of Drea is the main reason why she went home, Drea emphasized that the reason why she, and so many others, trusted him so much was because he played a very “emotional game.” “He got close to us on a personal level to the point where we never thought that he would even use these things against us,” Drea said of her fellow Canadian. “So I wanted people to know that … he uses that trust against you.”
In her exit interview with EW, Drea expounded on her reasoning for telling him about the advantage in the first place, describing his gameplay near the end as “sloppy:”
Omar was panicking. He was panicking. He was going everywhere, talking to everyone. And he was just getting a little sloppy. So people were starting to notice that he was talking to everyone. I think he was becoming a bit aware of the fact that people were watching him as well.
Drea Reveals What She Is Looking for as a Juror
In an interview with TVLine, Drea gave a surprising answer when asked who she believed was the main player “to watch out for:” her old Ika ally, Romeo Escobar (despite her comments about him in last week’s episode). “I think Romeo is an underdog,” she explained, adding that she hoped her parting words would “[spark] a light under him,” and get him to play a more flashy game before the end.
“Seeing him in his confessionals was a totally different player than what I actually saw in the game,” she said. “I hope that he brings some more of that out and that we see him bloom because I thought he was dying!”
When asked by Erika in ET Canada what she was mainly looking for as a juror, Drea replied: “Gameplay. I want gameplay. I want to know what you did. What were your moves? Even if I wasnt privy to it, tell me how did you make big moves in this game … It’s a game that I respect … and I want the best player to win.”
Will that person indeed be Omar – or Romeo – should they make it to the end? Well, perhaps her parting words really do reveal more than meets the eye…then again, anything could happen in “Survivor.”
“Survivor 42” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS. The three-hour finale airs Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
