Tommy Shadow

***Tommy*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Saint Martin

## Saint Martin

In the casting process, Tommy’s interview showed big things, he was even the oldest in the cast. But while he did end up going far into the game, his presence in the later episodes began to dwindle tremendously and he became a background castaway. Now let’s talk about his game.

Approaching his first Tribal Council on the original Irma, Tommy was on the minority side of the votes with Will and Tyler. Unfortunately, his ally Will roped in two people (Georgy and Aria) into what was a minority alliance. Giving them power and ultimately voting off the mastermind of the opposing alliance, Brooks. But due to his straightforward demeanor and attitude, Tommy was mentioned a lot in confessionals in a clear negative tone.

Fast forward to Day 7 and we see that the tribes have swapped. Tommy selected a green buff, which transferred him to the New Gonzalo tribe. But not all hope was lost because three other OG Irma members went with him. Putting OG Irma in the majority of the New Gonzalo tribe. And by the time they lost their first post-swap challenge, Tommy and the others easily voted out Steph with no problem. Albeit, the problems arose in the next couple of days.

When New Gonzalo lost their second Immunity Challenge in a row, it was looking like it would be a unanimous vote against James. Just in the heat of the moment and wanting to make a move, Georgy went up to Tommy and informed him that Tyler was planning on targeting him. Which was obviously fake because Tyler was Tommy’s #1 ally. So when word got back around of Georgy’s doing, he was abruptly blindsided, 4-2. This vote right here was one of the more notable things Tommy had done. He eventually takes a backseat for a while. Evidence for this would be the following Tribal Council they attend, where they all vote out Derek as a tribe consensus.

And now we’ve reached the merge portion of the game. He obviously sided with the rest of the OG Irma on the following Tribal Council, where Will told everyone to target Shai. Yet on the opposing alliance, It looked like Tommy was going to be the clear target because of his growing social skills and his above-average physicality in the challenges (and the fact that there was a huge rumor of him having an idol). He knew this and accepted that someone was going to flip and he’d be gone because of it.

Well he was partially right, someone did flip… but in his well-needed favor. By the hands of Nick, Tommy stayed another day while Shai got blindsided by his own original tribemate. Which shocked everyone, (excluding Nick himself). But although he stayed, not everything was sunshine and peaches. During Tribal Council a vote for Tommy said ‘Happy Birthday’ on it. Tommy took major offense to that, due to his birthday being the day before. He lashed out on the OG Gonzalo tribe, stiffening the tension and shutting them up.

The following couple of days, Tommy’s name came up less and less, although his name would be thrown out sometimes, it’d be countered with someone else’s name, usually Tyler. That first merged vote really solidified his trust within his alliance, evidenced by his votes for the next couple of Tribal Councils. Voting out Kiibo, and Jennifer.

At the Final Five, it was clear that within everyone left, Tyler and Tommy had the closest bond. Which did somewhat work in his favor because Tyler and Jayden were the two biggest threats left in the game. But at the Final Five when Aria won immunity. Instead of an easy Jayden vote, several items were played including an idol from Tyler, which went to Tommy. By the end of all that, James was the only one left, resulting in his unprecedented elimination.

Coming off the previous vote-out, the three original Irma were looking to do anything for Jayden to not reach the Final Tribal Council. Unfortunately, their efforts were meaningless when Jayden won the Final Immunity. This left the two biggest contenders, Tyler and Aria , to fight for Jayden and Tommy’s vote to stay in.

Jayden’s vote was already locked in on Tyler, which left Tommy to be Tyler’s saving grace. And due to being allies from the beginning, Tommy fulfilled Tyler’s wish. Ultimately, Tyler beat Aria in the tiebreaker, allowing for himself, Jayden and Tommy to advance to the Final Tribal Council.

This FTC is legendary because of its near silence. But in the end, Tommy became the second runner-up due to his lack of gameplay and similarities to coasting.