Ethan

Tribe(s): Boran, Moto Maji
Finish: Sole Survivor/24
Days Lasted: 39

Ethan is a contestant from *Survivor: Africa*.

## Survivor: Africa

Ethan began *Survivor: Africa* originally on the gold Boran tribe. There was a number of pairs that developed over the course of the first few days on Boran, but Ethan formed a five person alliance with Dean, Palesa, Sophie and Tom against these pairs. When the tribe lost the second immunity challenge on Day 6, Palesa and Tom argued about who they wanted to target and forced the alliance to pick a side. Ethan and the others ended up voting with Tom for Palesa, but the rest of the tribe split the votes between Dean and Ethan in order to eliminate Dean. This move left Ethan in the minority with Sophie and Tom, though tension was growing within the majority. On Day 12, Boran and the rival Samburu tribes were forced to attend a Double Tribal Council. Benji approached Ethan's trio with a plan against his own alliance and they readily agreed to ensure their own safeties. At tribal, the trio voted for Shonee as part of a split vote plan whilst the majority blindsided Tegan.

At the tribe switch, Ethan remained on Boran along with David, Palesa, Sophie Tom whilst being joined by Colby, Curtis, Maria and Shelby from the original Samburu tribe. Despite their differences, the original Boran castaways agreed to work together because they had the numbers. At the tribes first loss on Day 18, Ethan voted with the rest of Boran to eliminate Colby. Their alliance then planned on voting for an original Samburu when Boran lost again on Day 22. However, David, Ethan and Sophie were told by Curtis and Shelby that Palesa and Tom were trying to turn on the original Boran players. As a result, this new group of five decided to work together and Tom was blindsided. At the Final Twelve on Day 25, Ethan made the merge. The seven original Boran castaways reunited and agreed they should work together to systematically eliminate the five original Samburu players. However, Maria soon told the Boran castaways that Palesa was trying to force a 6-6 tie by flipping to work with Samburu. Ethan voted with Boran and their new ally Maria to blindside Palesa at the first merged tribal council.

At the Final Eleven, Ethan and Sophie realised they needed to start making selfish strategic decisions in order to build a resume for the Final Three. The Boran Alliance used their numbers advantage to split the votes between Curtis and Ryan but a tied vote occurred between Curtis and David, who Samburu voted for. The plan was for Boran to vote together to eliminate Curtis, but Ethan and Sophie switched their votes to David because they realised he was more tightly aligned with Benji, Sharn and Shonee. The trio appeared unaffected by this move and agreed with Ethan and Sophie that David appeared untrustworthy because he was so charming. Boran continued to work together to vote for Sarah on Day 30, though Benji told Ethan and Sophie to vote for Curtis in case Sarah had an idol. At tribal council, Sharn saved herself from elimination by playing her idol and Sarah was voted out with the second highest number of votes. The pair continued to vote with the Boran majority, leading to Shelby and Curtis' elimination at Moto Maji's next two tribal councils.

With only seven castaways remaining, the Boran Alliance planned on voting out Ryan as the last player from the Samburu minority. Ethan and Sophie were hesitant to follow this plan because it would leave them on the bottom of Boran with Maria, who flipped on Samburu at the merge. The pair approached Maria and Ryan with a plan to blindside Shonee. At tribal council however, Maria still voted with Boran and Ryan was voted out. As expected, there were murmurs around camp that Ethan was the next target. Sophie and Ethan spoke to Maria and tried to explain that she was being used by Benji, Sharn and Shonee as their fourth place ally. They also told Sharn that Benji was the fifth vote against her when she played her idol and he was not completely loyal to her. The girls decided to shake the game and voted with Ethan and Sophie to blindside Benji on Day 36. Their next course of action was to vote out Shonee, but Maria and Sharn decided to flip back to their original alliance and eliminated Sophie.

Ethan felt extremely vulnerable as the outsider of the Final Four, though he felt confident in his social skills and his belief that the women weren't as tightly aligned as first thought. Ethan originally pitched to Sharn and Shonee they should work together to eliminate Maria as the last original Samburu player in the game, though she ended up winning the final individual immunity challenge. He then pitched to Maria and Sharn that Shonee was a stronger communicator than them and would easily win the jury over on Day 39. This seemed to scare the women, who voted with Ethan to eliminate Shonee. At the Final Tribal Council, Ethan recognised that he was not in control of many decisions that were made by his Boran Alliance but argued that this worked to his benefit because Benji was identified as the leader and quickly voted out. He focused on explaining his social game with the jury and the fact that he and Sophie controlled the votes to eliminate David and Benji. In the end, Ethan was crowned the title of Sole Survivor after winning 4 of 9 jury votes from Curtis, Shelby, Ryan and his closest ally Sophie.

## Trivia

* Curtis and Ethan hold the record for the most votes cast against them during *Survivor: Africa*, with 17.
* Ethan was the highest ranking member of the original Boran tribe.
* Ethan, Skye, Winston, Mandy, Ashleigh (during *Heroes vs. Villains*) and Mikey all won with the least amount of jury votes, with 4.
	+ Additionally, Ethan, Mandy and Ashleigh (during *Heroes vs. Villains*) are the only Sole Survivors to have less jury votes than the combination of their fellow finalists.