Lea Mueller

**Lea Mueller** was the 1st Runner-Up of Survivor: Blood vs. Water: Redemption Island.

Playing a quiet and under the radar game at first, Lea would eventually align herself with the right people at the right times to guarantee herself safety throughout key points in the game, garnering much respect from the jury at the end alongside her social game.

## Survivor: Blood vs. Water: Redemption Island

Lea would begin the game by being separated from her boyfriend, Cody, and she would end up immediately competing in the first immunity challenge of the season on Tribe Tyson alongside Christian, Grant, Jack, JP, Kathy, and Vin. At camp, Lea would immediately align with Christian, Kathy, Jack, and Vin, and she would agree to help her new allies vote out JP, seeing him to be a threat due to his prior gameplay in *Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains*. However, as she searched for the hidden immunity idol alongside her tribemates, Lea's name was also being thrown out, as some people saw her as a weak link and an easy voteoff. In private, Lea would reveal that she had become aware of this occurring and stated that she was now going to target JP, hoping that the best one would make it out alive. At Tribal Council, Lea would become the best one in this situation, as despite getting JP's vote, her target would be eliminated in a unanimous 6-1 vote, sending JP to Redemption Island.

Back at camp, Lea would attempt to help her allies by searching for the hidden immunity idol to ensure that they would have possession of it, but would ultimately come up unsuccessful. Her trend of failures would continue on to the next immunity challenge, as they would lose it and would have to prepare to go to Tribal Council once more. At camp, Lea would privately stated her disappointment at her tribe losing immunity again, and seemingly was planning to go with the flow. Lea would then scramble to try to find the hidden immunity idol but would ultimately come up short again as Grant would end up finding it, putting a target on his back as she would get intel from Jack that Grant would be the next one to go. This would not stop Christian from throwing her name out when talking to Grant though, with him wanting to ensure his safety if Grant did use the hidden immunity idol. At Tribal Council, Lea would get lucky, as she would have been sent to Redemption Island over Grant had he used his hidden immunity idol as he was voted out in another unanimous vote of 5-1. Upon returning to camp, after seeing Grant win the first Redemption Island Duel of the season, Kathy would approach Christian and Lea about who they would vote off next if they lost the next immunity challenge, and Lea would be all but hesitant to suggest they should vote for Jack. Her ideas would go into consideration later on as they would end up losing their third immunity challenge in a row, and despite her name being thrown around as an easy vote once again, she would become more solidified with her allies. In private, Lea would plan to vote for Jack, but was fearful that all of their names could be on the chopping block that round. Lea would be more right than she knew, as her tribemates started to grow concerned with her presence in the game due to her loved one in the game being Cody. At Tribal Council, Lea would once again be spared, as she would help to send Jack to Redemption Island in a 4-1 vote and would also secure that she would make it to Day 2 as Night 1 would wrap up.

At the start of Day 2, Lea would get major surprises in the game as she would not only see Jack successfully beat out Grant at the second Redemption Island Duel but would also be involved in a Tribe Swap that would end up sending her to the *Solo Room*. This would mean that she would be safe for the rest of the round and would join the losing tribe after they would vote someone off. In the Solo Room, Lea would have an opportunity to randomly receive 1 of 3 advantages, and she would end up receiving the *Slip-Up* disadvantage, meaning that she could play this against someone the first round of the merge, and if they did not perform to a predetermined expectation, they would receive a vote against them at the first Tribal Council of the merge. Lea would go on to join the new Tribe Natalie, consisting of herself, John, Kathy, Nathan, and Vin, and would resume her losing streak as Tribe Natalie would lose the next immunity challenge, sending her back to Tribal Council. At camp, Lea was already at risk, as her tribemates had already made a pact to vote her out next. However, Vin, who had began to concoct a scheme to vote Kathy out instead, approached Lea with his ideas with the claim that she would have control of the game if she linked up with Christian and Cody at the merge. During their conversation, they would be interrupted by Nathan, who would attempt to convince the two to vote against John. No matter how hard she attempted to sway Nathan, he would refuse to vote for Kathy, and he would end up pushing his plan to oust John onto her more and more. In private, Lea struggled with her game in the context of eliminating someone who is a current threat or someone who could become a future threat, with her thoughts leaning towards voting against either John or Kathy. Lea would converse with Vin once more and would be told that she would be voted out by Kathy if she did not vote to help get Kathy out of the game. At Tribal Council, Lea would vote for John, causing a tie. However, she would once again scrape by as John and Vin would save her on the revote, granting her passage to the next phase of the game, the merge. However, before the merge would come the Final Redemption Island Duel of the season, and she would be shocked, like the others, to see Breanne return to the game after defeating Kathy in a very narrow finish.

At the start of the merge, Lea would be involved in a conversation with Christian, Em, Lita, and Vin, where they would all speculate that Breanne returned to the game with a special advantage or hidden immunity idol and wanted to tell Breanne it was her to see if she would reveal anything to them. This would be ironic considering that Lea would be the one with the advantage, with her having to finally play the *Slip-Up* disadvantage this round, and she would reveal this to Em and Lita once the men left. During the women's conversation, the two women would convince Lea to play her disadvantage against Nathan. After playing her disadvantage against Nathan in a confessional, Lea would be approached by Breanne, Lita, and Nathan, who called out Christian's and Vin's alliance, with it becoming the New Jersey Alliance, for them wanting to control the game and make it difficult for the others to have a chance. Lea's options would start to become limited as Breanne would win the first individual immunity challenge of the season, and she would be told that the entire tribe would immediately be going to Tribal Council, with Lea secretly knowing that Nathan would be getting a vote against him due to her disadvantage. At Tribal Council, Lea would decide to vote against Christian, and would be on the right side of the vote as he would end up being eliminated in a 6-3-1-1 vote and would become the first member of the jury. After Tribal Council, Lea would immediately be thrown into the next individual immunity challenge, of which she would continue her losing streak as she lost to Corey. Back at camp, Lea would converse with Breanne, John, Lita, and Nathan, with Breanne initially leading a campaign against Em due to her winning an advantage by sitting out of the last individual immunity challenge. However, minutes later, Lea would be approached by John, Lita, Nathan, and Vin with a plan to vote out Breanne. At Tribal Council, Lea would end up voting with the majority to vote out Breanne in a 6-3 vote, seeing her as the biggest threat to her own game.

Lea would be immediately thrown into the next individual immunity challenge, of which she would lose to Cody. Back at camp, she would quickly be told by Nathan to listen to what people were saying around her, with the intent being that she would tell him later what was going on. Lea would be approached by Cody, John, Lita, and Nathan, who would end up dubbing themselves at one point as the Whitewater Alliance, to vote against Corey but to tell the New Jersey Alliance that they were voting against John, which Lea would agree to, seeing it as her best option. In a confessional, Lea would state that she was still helping the others to target the New Jersey Alliance while utilizing John as a scapegoat, with her revealing that John was still being seen as a swing vote between both alliances. At Tribal Council, Lea would cast her vote against Corey, only for it to be negated when he played a hidden immunity idol on himself, causing a revote between her and John, with each receiving one vote. However, like every round so far, she would be spared, and John would get eliminated on the revote. Back at camp, tensions continued to rise as she watched her boyfriend go against Corey once more as Cody would tell Corey about why they all voted against him the previous round. Lea would then go on to lose the next individual immunity challenge to Lita, keeping her losing streak alive. Back at camp, Lea would strategize with Cody, Em, Lita, and Vin about voting out Corey, with Lea agreeing with them that Corey was one of their biggest threats left in the game. Lea would then continue to linger around people's conversations, with her getting the same intel that it was Corey going home. However, Tribal Council would tell a different story, as despite her voting Corey, he would pull out another hidden immunity idol, keeping himself safe once more as Cody would get taken out by the New Jersey Alliance, leaving her alone in the game once again.

Once again, Lea would immediately go from Tribal Council to the next individual immunity challenge, and would lose to Vin, despite her best efforts. Back at camp, Lea would talk to Lita and Nathan, with the latter attempting to convince the two women to vote against Em. However, what he did not know was that Em, Lea, and Lita had formed an all-women's alliance with the intent to run the game as they plotted to take Nathan out as they both told Em everything he had told them, and Corey would nickname their alliance the Black-Widow Brigade, a reference to the all-women's alliance that was very prominent within CBS's *Survivor Micronesia*. In private, Lea would talk about how she wanted to vote against Nathan, but was concerned with how her friends, most likely referring to the jury, would react to the move. The Black-Widow Brigade would then discuss the lies they had been told by some of the men regarding how they claimed the women were targeting each other, and they solidified a plan to vote out Nathan, and then Corey. Lea would then bond with Em over their perceptions on women in the game being underestimated and with how they believed that no one would have thought that they would be running the game at that point. Lea would then ask Em if she was fine voting for her boyfriend, Vin, of which she got a surprising yes to. The two women would then solidify the plan with Vin to vote out Nathan, and then Corey during the next two rounds. At Tribal Council, Lea would vote for Nathan to help vote him out in a 4-1-1 vote, but would receive a vote against Vin, with him not wanting to vote against Nathan for his social game. After Tribal Council, Corey would approach Lea and Lita to try to convince the two women to vote out Em, as he was aware that the end, of his game, was near. Lea would then go on to lose the next individual immunity challenge to Lita. Back at camp, Corey would do everything in his power to attempt to convince the women to target Vin over him, with Lea making snarky comments to Corey at one point when tensions started to rise between them. In private, Lea would state that she wanted to vote out Corey to prevent him from getting an easy win, and mentioned how he was annoying her and how she wanted to go to the end with the women. Corey would continue to try to push for Lea to vote with him, and Lea would stand her ground and would openly tell him that it would be a bad move to keep him in the game. At Tribal Council, Lea would help to vote off Corey in a 3-1-~~1~~ vote, with Vin's vote against Lea being negated when Lita played a hidden immunity idol on her. Right before the Final Individual Immunity Challenge, Lea and the women would celebrate their successes at getting to the Final 4 together, with them taking pride in their work. But now, a surprise would enter the game, as Lea would finally end her losing streak and would win the Final Individual Immunity Challenge of the season, guaranteeing herself a spot at the Final Tribal Council as well as a 1/3 chance at winning the game. Back at camp, the two options came down to Lita and Vin, both of whom were seen by Em and Lea to be massive jury threats. In private, Lea would talk about her surprise to get this far into the game, with her being concerned with losing votes over taking Em and Vin to the end considering they were the last remaining couple in the game. Lea would continue to bond with the other women as she knew what she had to do in order to have a chance at winning the game. At Tribal Council, Lea would make the difficult choice and would vote against her former ally, sending Lita to the jury in a 3-1 vote, successfully making it to the end of the game.

At the Final Tribal Council, Lea would campaign heavily on how, unlike most of her opponents, she had to learn the game as a first-time player and stuck around despite people voting her, and talked about how she grew as a player and began to learn the ins and outs of the game and would claim that she wanted Christian out the most due to him having the biggest voice. Cody would give her credit for Christian's voteoff, saying that their alliance was going to target Corey before Lea convinced him to go for Christian. Lea would also go on to mention that she "flipped the switch" to control her fate in the game around Nathan's elimination, and she campaigned that she was used as a scapegoat so that Vin could keep his alliances. Additionally, she would also campaign on her loyalty in the game and apologized to Lita multiple times during the Final Tribal Council for betraying her at the previous vote, with Lea correctly reading that Lita felt burned by her. Even though people did have some level of respect for Lea's under-the-radar game, it was not at the same level as their respect Vin's game was, and she would lose the game in a 4-2-1 vote, receiving Breanne's and Cody's votes to win. Lea would become the first Runner-Up of the season, placing 2nd out of 14th.

\*In the Solo Room, Lea got the *Slip-Up* Disadvantage, which stated that she had to play it the first round of the merge, and that if whoever she played it on did not perform to a predetermined standard at the first individual immunity challenge, they would get an extra vote casted against them at the first Tribal Council of the merge. Lea would play this against Nathan, and he would end up getting a vote casted against him at the first Tribal Council of the merge.

## Trivia

* Every time Lea was in a tiebreaker vote, she would get a vote from Nathan on the revote.
* Lea received the same amount of votes casted against her as challenges she had competed in throughout *Survivor: Blood vs. Water. Redemption Island*.