Zach Wurtenberger was the first person voted out of “Survivor 42” Wednesday night, following production’s decision to medically evacuate 47-year-old Jackson Fox. Although the episode made it appear as though Zach was eliminated because of his poor performance on the puzzle at the immunity challenge, editing can notoriously be deceptive, and only so much can be shown on a 90-minute episode covering a timespan of three days.
Luckily for fans, Zach recently opened up about what really happened on Ika that led to his torch being snuffed. Here’s what you need to know:
Drea Was Almost Voted Out, But Romeo Stopped That
On a small tribe of six, each relationship is vital, and that was demonstrated no more than in the “Survivor 42” premiere which, after much scrambling and strategizing, saw Zach sent home in a unanimous 5-0 vote. Although this came after his and Swati Goel’s inability to pull off a comeback in the puzzle portion of the immunity challenge, Zach revealed in an exit interview with Rob Cesternino that the puzzle really had nothing to do with it, and that there were other, more interpersonal dynamics which came into play as the votes coalesced against him.
“[The puzzle] was an excuse obviously,” Zach said. “And that’s what ‘Survivor’ is, like obviously I didn’t actually lose the challenge for my tribe with that puzzle, but I knew that was going to be the narrative because it’s a very easy thing [to] point to.”
In an ET Canada interview with “Survivor 41” winner Erika Casupanan Thursday, Zach mentioned how fellow tribe member Drea Wheeler was actually much more of a target than was shown on-screen, but it was actually because of Romeo Escobar that Zach and his younger allies, Swati and Tori Meehan, were unable to rally a majority against her. “Drea definitely did have a target on her,” Zach explained. “She was one of the most talked-about people for the first few days, actually … The real stopping point, unfortunately, was Romeo, because we didn’t realize at the time that Romeo was so close with Drea, and thanks to that it would’ve been really difficult to sway [votes against her].”
The ‘Skinny Guys’ Alliance’ Had ‘No Potential’ for Existing
CBSRomeo Escobar and Zach Wurtenberger in episode 1 of “Survivor 42.”
While he and Romeo did have a close bond, as shown in the episode, Zach revealed in ET Canada that in reality, there was “no potential for that [alliance] ever existing,” because Ika was already a physically weaker tribe. And “for a tribe that was so severely undermanned,” he explained, “it was going to be really difficult for both me and Romeo to stick it out.” After they lost the first immunity challenge, he and Romeo would naturally be the first two people the others would consider eliminating. However, “unfortunately Romeo just had better connections than me,” Zach said.
Zach went on to say that Romeo did genuinely try to save Zach in the end, but he was unwilling to vote off Drea instead, leading to Zach’s elimination, essentially by default.
Zach added that he didn’t realize “how much power [Drea] really had out there,” specifically with Romeo and Rocksroy Bailey, a bond which the three of them actually kept very well under wraps. It was because Drea’s name was thrown around so much during those three days, in fact, that Zach didn’t bond with her as much. As he put it, “I didn’t want to align myself with a sinking ship.”
The younger alliance with Tori and Swati was real, though in the end it didn’t matter, as they simply didn’t have the numbers. He explained:
I aligned with Swati and Tori very closely, but they didn’t really have any power in the game, unfortunately. It was really Drea and Romeo [who] really had control of the tribe in that moment, and while I had a good relationship with Romeo, I just wasn’t close enough with Drea, unfortunately.
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS.
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