Cedrick Holden

***Cedrick*** was the Runner-Up of Essential Survivor: Yemen and Essential Survivor: Peru.

## Yemen

Cedrick is a very opinionated person. During his stay in Yemen he was unapologetically himself. And while that’s a great quality to have, it didn’t do him too many favors in and outside of the game, which he recognized could happen. Regardless, Cedrick played a very shaky game. A bunch of ups and downs that all accumulated to a 2nd Place finish.

Beginning on the introverted tribe, Cedrick integrated himself well with a majority of people, specifically Zak and Abby. But one person Cedrick just couldn’t handle was none other than Neil. Between Neil’s extremely blunt personality, compared to being actively targeted *by* Neil, it was hard for Cedrick to keep his composure around him, but he wasn’t alone as most of the tribe felt this same way. Along with Neil, Cedrick wasn’t too happy with Nic and essence either. There was no real bond connected between Ced and Nic, which resulted in him being expendable in Ced’s eyes. And with Essence, he didn’t like how he always tried to be the peacemaker in stressful situations.

During episode 3, after Nic was swiftly idoled out, Cedrick began to think ahead. Besides Neil and somewhat Seal, the rest of the tribe was in an alliance. But Neil wasn’t the only person on Cedrick’s hit list. He wanted Essence and Preston out as well, Essence now began to hold the tribe back tremendously in challenges while Preston always had a sketchy vibe about them to Ced. He never shared this with anyone however, which saved his face as the tribe most likely wouldn’t have taken that well. The challenge losses were added to yet again when Mahjuz lost Episode 5’s challenge. By now, it was clear (to at least Cedrick) that Essence had to be the one to go. So when his alliance began to consider a Seal option. Cedrick questioned the intelligence of his fellow tribemates.

After Essence’s timely departure, Cedrick had to face the tribe swap. He got a lucky draw when he was swapped with Josh and Preston in a 3-2 majority. Happy about the outcome, a confident layer was just added to Cedrick as his confessionals now had some sort of entitled feel to them. Not soon after getting accustomed to the smaller tribe, Cedrick gathered his two previous Mahjuz tribemates and consulted them about throwing the next two challenges. While Josh was indifferent about the endeavor, Preston was extremely against it but was actively trying to hide the intensity of it. However Cedrick managed to realize it, and began to back down, not wanting to pressure them into it. But this didn’t stop him from subtly throwing challenges himself. Meanwhile, as he’s getting to know Terry, he begins to underestimate his abilities, saying that he’s probably easy to manipulate, etc. However not even 2 challenges later, Cedrick’s view on him did a complete 180. He recognized how threatening he could be should they let him get by. But when they finally DID lose a challenge, Cedrick was surprisingly torn on who to vote for. They ended up deciding on Cass as she was a far bigger challenge liability than Terry.

So much for getting rid of dead weight though, because they lost the very next challenge. Once again, Terry wasn’t the clear target here as Cedrick considered a Josh vote as well… until Terry informed him of the 2-1-1 plan Preston created to take Cedrick out. This caused Cedrick to be fully against Preston, even more than Neil. Shocking right? As he told Josh about the Preston vote, Cedrick’s main concern was Josh telling Preston about the vote which would result in him playing his idol. Preston did end up playing his idol, but instead of taking out Cedrick (he was poaching his bags as soon as he saw the idol) Preston voted for Terry, saving Cedrick. Which cedrick wasn’t thankful for at all.

Come the merge, the Cedrick v. Preston feud was still going strong, but ended very abruptly as Preston quit the game. Reuniting with former tribemates Zak and Abby, Cedrick wasn’t too comfortable with his positioning which made him gun hard for immunity. As the old saying goes, hard work pays off, Cedrick did win immunity! After talking around with the tribe, Cedrick noticed that some people had suspicions of Alison having an idol, and quite frankly Cedrick did as well. So he got to work and began to try and orchestrate her blindside, he ended up telling the wrong person in James who informed her of the plan soon before tribal, prompting her to play an idol and take out Josh.

Despite his plan shattering in pieces, Cedrick felt far more secure in his spot(even though he still campaigned to stay) compared to the last round. James came to him during the night proposing a plan to take Felix out and not to tell Zak because of their bonds. Cedrick was eager as he just wanted A name to be thrown out, but didn’t buy James when he said Zak and Felix were close. So Cedrick immediately reported this info back to Zak as if James was telling the truth, Felix and Zak would be voted out back-to-back, which would hinder his game. After several thought out plans and several of them left on the cutting room floor, Cedrick and Zak began to think about the power James held over the game. So in an attempt to cause a 4-3-2 vote, they planned to rope in two more people to vote James out by plurality. But that plan was foiled when Felix told Matt who panicked and told James/Alison. This ended with Zak getting mad at Matt for ruining the plan and organized the vote onto him instead, still managing to pull off the 4-3-2.

At the Final 8, Cedrick was still fixated on getting James or Alison out of the game. This time was Joshua at Number 3 as he was growing to be a physical threat more and more. And to make matters worse, suspicion of Alison having ANOTHER idol erupted yet again. So the current plan was to make Alison flush her idol on herself with James getting the boot. Unfortunately, a voting bloc of 5 came together and took out Ced’s #1 in Zak. With him gone, it was hard for Cedrick to think realistically positive.

Come Final 7, when Abby won immunity (and consequently gave it to Felix), he began to campaign towards both Joshua and Felix. But Joshua’s dismissive attitude towards his plea began to piss off Ced. So when they gave no answer, he dreaded it but began to campaign towards James and Alison. They shockingly accepted the offer, extending an olive branch where the 3 of them would be voted Joshua. Coupled with James’s vote steal, they would have the majority to take out Joshua. This plan worked, but right after Abby quit the game after no one fulfilled her request to be voted off. Cedrick specifically being appointed as the bad guy since he was Abby’s ally. But his determination to win clouded his judgment, feeling no remorse.

Come Final Five, Cedrick was in a weird position. He was positioning between two duos -- James/Alison and Felix/Neb. Both duos were trying to take shots at each other. Cedrick took the side of Felix and Neb when Alison won immunity. The three of them voted for James, but Alison played her 2nd idol (like Ced predicted) on James. Idoling out Neb. At the Final Four, James won immunity and from there it was painfully obvious that Felix needed to be voted off here. But in an attempt to save face and have good jury management, he voted with Felix and sent him along with Alison to fire. Alison beat Felix in a blowout.

Happy to make it to the end, Cedrick was pretty confident that he wouldn’t be winning the game. He just soaked in the fact that he made it there. He ended the game officially with one FTC vote from Neb in the end, placing 2nd, 4-1-0.