The third episode of Survivor 42 was a doozy, thanks in large part to the antics of Daniel Strunk, whose chaotic Tribal Council maneuvering might have completely tanked his game. Daniel is a movie-obsessed, Ivy League-educated lawyer with an impressive background. Originally from Ohio, Daniel’s educational endeavors brought to him to Duke University, Trinity College Dublin, and ultimately, Yale Law School. In addition to his law career and work for the 2016 Jeb Bush campaign, Daniel is a survivor of childhood leukemia, speaking openly in the Survivor 42 premiere about how his cancer battle inspired him to tackle the challenge of Survivor.
Daniel is a member of the Vati tribe, and until his already-infamous Tribal Council performance in episode 3, he was in a good spot in the tribe. With the six-person Vati being comprised of three pairs of tight allies, Daniel forged a close strategic partnership with Chanelle Howell. He and Chanelle decided to join forces with another tight pair, Jenny Kim and Mike Turner, to form a majority against Hai Giang and Lydia Meredith. Unfortunately, Mike lost his vote due to the Beware Advantage while Chanelle lost hers because of a major blunder on “Shipwheel Island,” leaving Daniel, Jenny, Hai, and Lydia as the only voting tribe members in a tumultuous Tribal Council that ultimately led to Jenny being voted out.
The utter chaos of the Tribal Council was the result of Daniel’s paranoia and frenetic desperation after the original vote didn’t go according to plan. In a very complicated voting scenario, the Tribal Council eventually came down to Daniel and Hai having to decide between unanimously voting out either Jenny or Lydia or risking a one-in-four chance at immediate elimination in a rock draw. This is where Daniel’s game fell to pieces, as he not only exposed his alliance with Mike, Jenny, and Chanelle to Hai and Lydia, but he also angered Chanelle by blaming her for the vote result. He also gave Hai immediate leverage in the negotiations by stating that he didn’t intend to go to rocks, providing Hai the sure footing to stand his ground and vote out Jenny, a power play that caused Daniel to finally acquiesce and follow suit.
The Tribal Council fiasco was utterly disastrous for Daniel’s game. In addition to losing an ally in Jenny, he also alienated his closest ally, Chanelle, by throwing her under the bus to Hai and Lydia. He also betrayed Hai and Lydia without weakening their numbers, as they believed he was on their side going into the vote, and it was all completely unnecessary. Once the tie was revealed, Daniel could have simply switched his vote or voted Jenny out with Hai immediately upon beginning negotiations. It was incredibly poor strategy for Daniel to get in a verbal spat with his closest ally after drawing a line in the sand against Hai and Lydia through his original vote.
It’s difficult to see an avenue for Daniel to survive on the Vati tribe for much longer. In one fell swoop, he lost trust with every member of his tribe and showed himself to be undependable as an ally. Hai and Lydia, despite assuring him strategic clemency moving forward, have no incentive to work with him, and Chanelle likely won’t trust him either. It’ll be tough sledding for Daniel to survive another Vati Tribal Council, but stranger things have happened on Survivor.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
