Aria Anderson

***Aria*** was a castaway on Essential Survivor: Saint Martin. She later returned for Essential Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites

## Saint Martin

From no screen time to major screen time. Aria’s adventure in Saint Martin was definitely worthwhile. And being a spectators’ favorite. She had a lot of people counting on her to win it all. But while it didn’t happen, she left Saint Martin with her head held high and proud at her long run.

From the very beginning, Aria had an easy advantage over the others. She immediately clicked with Georgy and it looked like they’d ride for each other the whole way out. But when Will noticed this, he brought in Georgy, (and by extension Aria) into the majority alliance, going successful in voting out Brooks. At the Final 15, this put Georgy and Aria in the middle of two alliances, giving them early power in the game.

But as quick as they got power, a swap occurred, breaking up Aria and Georgy. However, losing her main ally wasn’t gonna stop Aria. A 4-3 divide didn’t scare her, so she immediately got to work.

She took advantage of the minority split and used it as an excuse to get closer to Lindsay and Will. But she didn’t trust either of them too much. Lindsay, because she had just turned on her. And Will because he came oddly close with Jayden, an OG Gonzalo. But unlike Will, Aria became immediately wary of Jayden. Always questioning his motives frequently and expressing her distrust for him to Will, who didn’t agree and continued to buddy up with him in fear of being voted off.

So all of this building up on the New Irma tribe caused Aria to go extremely hard at the challenges, single-handedly winning the first two challenges for her tribe. And although it painted a small target on her back. She knew that Lindsay and Will were more on people’s radar rather than herself. But after Irma lost the 3rd post-swap challenge, Aria was finally on the chopping block. A reoccurring strategy Aria used was her ‘timezone’ excuse. It worked for this vote, as her name didn’t come up in anyone’s plans.

Due to Kiibo being a key member of the OG Gonzalo tribe. Aria pitched her idea of turfing him to Lindsay, Will and Jayden. Of course, Jayden didn’t comply and voted out Lindsay, but Lindsay also didn’t listen for some reason. Sealing her fate in the game.

Aria was ecstatic once the merge came around, eager to reunite with her former tribemates. But planning to stay under the radar, she had Will explain everything that happened post-swap to the rest, only giving subtle agreement. She immediately noticed how good of a player Jayden was once Tyler began to trust him. But since she didn’t want to be left out of it, she merely followed along. And going along with the two medical evacuations, Jayden’s target became bigger and bigger, allowing Aria to shield herself with Tyler and Jayden.

Now it’s the Final 6; Jayden wins immunity. Now leaving Jennifer as the only option to vote out according to tribal lines. During the Jennifer blindside, Jennifer’s real colors came out as she lashed out on everyone. With Aria commenting that if Jennifer did not accuse her of voting her previously, she would’ve attempted to keep her in. At the Final 5, Aria easily won immunity, but noticed that Jayden didn’t even try at it, knowing that he’s a goner if he doesn’t win. So while that raised questions, he along with Tyler played items at Tribal Council. Making everyone but James safe. As a result, James was eliminated from the game. Finally on Day 36, the Final Four… Aria began to think about the FTC, thinking of voting off Tyler, knowing that she won’t win with him there. But that was only the plan if Jayden won immunity… which he ended up winning. Being confident about staying that night, Aria began to concoct a plan for her to win once Tyler goes to Ponderosa. Unbeknownst to Aria, Tommy didn’t vote with her and Jayden, causing a tie between Aria and Tyler.

And in a close race, Aria lost the tiebreaker to Tyler. Having her whole plan blow up in her face. Regardless, she congratulated the Final 3 and accepted her defeat.

## Fans Vs. Favorites

Aria began the game on Punahele. She started off the game pretty well, making decent connections and getting herself into an alliance of 5 with the Era 1 players. Aria also found an idol after Will shared his clue with her, setting her up extremely well. Once their first tribal hits, Aria isn’t opposed to voting out Jayla as she cost them the challenge. But as she brought this idea up to Will, he wasn’t receptive. Resulting in Aria’s consistently trying to sway him, but Will simultaneously would snitch to Jayla about whatever Aria told him. Despite all the behind-the-scenes havoc that went on this round, Jayla was still voted out nearly unanimously, with Aria now in the majority alliance.

In Episode 3, Punahele lost another challenge. But with Aria in the majority Era 1 alliance, she wasn't too worried. When Will voiced to her that he wanted John or Brittney gone, she urged him to speak out on it so he’d get the opposing votes rather than her. Soon into downtime, the vote shifted to John. Aria wasn’t fond of that as it’d ruin bonds she had with Alison and Bradley, preferring to vote out Brittney instead. It was a shock to Aria when both stayed, as Tae flipped sides and booted Travis.

Fast forward to the Joint tribal, and a lot was getting ready to go down. Aria used this round to salvage her relations with Tae after the sudden flip. After meeting the fans, Aria wasn’t confident that she’d flip but was definitely leaving the option open… until she realized how much of a tight group they were. The favorites were voting out Jaylen due to his great challenge performance during the second day, but the vote was tied between him and Will 8-8. Not to mention, after seeing Kip play his idol, Aria played hers. Evidently, both wasted them.

Aria was a huge person in the corner of going to rocks (of course, she was immune from them) and seeing her tribemates attempt to flip angered her. But she folded and flipped as well when no traction was being made. Saying goodbye to Will. And Bee right after Punahele lost the next challenge. By episode 7, Aria was completely alone and was next in the pecking order but things weren’t over just yet.

Before the challenge, Bradley proposed that he and Aria should work together. And by now, her bonds with Tae were rebuilt. This allowed for a trio between the aforementioned to form. But this was under Bradley’s assumption of Aria playing her idol to backdoor Alison (their target). But Aria never had an idol, so when the vote tied, Bradley was sent into a spiral. But he was able to calm down and stick to the plan along with Tae. They managed to flip Brittney as well to avoid rocks, sending Alison home.

Coming into the merge, Aria was faves-strong due to her perception of the unit that was the fans. But with a little detective work, she and Tae figured out some large cracks within the group… even figuring out YEG. Aria wasn’t completely safe however, as her previous challenge performances made her a huge threat in Kahu’s eyes. But four fans flipped to the favorites to send Karmynn packing, sparing Aria. One thing Aria is extremely underrated for is her reads. They’ve been mostly spot-on this season, and continued to the F12 when she started to put together a Matthew/Brittney partnership. During this vote, the favorites weren’t in nearly as much solidarity as before. Everyone was scared to throw out a name, which led to some favorites flipping, and a last-minute decision to try and blindside Kip which fell flat on its face when Bradley was voted out.

9 people down, 11 left. Aria figured that at this point of the game it was best to chill out, play UTR, and collect information. And she was able to collect a LOT after winning this round’s immunity. There was a split vote in motion between everyone except YEG. Using this information, Aria was able to figure out who was playing the middle, and was even tempted to report back to YEG to cause even more chaos. She kept it to herself in the end, and Kip was voted out.

Coming into the Final 10, the castaways were met with a demerge. Aria was on a tribe with Brittney, Cole, Matthew and Mark. Even though she won immunity again, she wasn’t feeling great as Mark, Matt and Britt had the advantage numbers-wise while continuing to pry for information off her. She knew Cole was a goner and accepted it heading into the Final 8.

Despair, Tae and Aria were in the clear minority. But to say they fought for the whole time is an understatement, they worked tirelessly on Mark and Kristin to try and get them to flip and vote out John. While it didn’t work for Kristin, Mark *did* flip which would’ve caused a tie. But unfortunately, John had a heads-up about incoming votes, which made him steal Mark’s vote. Sending Tae home 5-3. The next vote wasn’t anything special either, the majority used their numbers to form a split vote, booting Despair next.

As soon as she was the last person remaining in the minority (again), Aria won individual immunity. Knowing she didn’t have much influence, Aria threw her vote onto Brittney just to ruin her perfect game. She also told Kristin also her suspicions of Brittney/Matthew being a duo. But she voted for Mark with the majority regardless.

At Final Five, Aria knew that if she didn't win immunity, she was going home. And Kristin won it, so it was no shock that Aria left 4-1, but not without ruining Matthew’s perfect game.