Polina Sokolov

**Polina Sokolov** was the second runner up of*Survivor: Honduras - Fans vs. Favorites*.She was originally a castaway on *Survivor: Chad - Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty.*

In *Chad*, Polina was targeted early for being an older castaway, yet her social game and the connections she forged assisted her in surviving the pre-merge stage of the game. These strong social bonds, along with her decent physical strength, helped her greatly. Although in the majority at first post-merge, she soon fell into the minority, but did her best to fight her way out of it. Eventually, she succeeded, but her return to the top was foiled by Nick Wilkins's idol play, which sent her home in 6th place. Her lovable personality and good gameplay earned her the Fan Favorite award.

Polina was brought back to *Honduras* as a returning Favorite. She struggled to make social bonds with her fellow Favorites and overall fell under the radar early in the game in order to survive. However, after the swap she connected with the Fans alliance, primarily Nichole Tarquin, and joined them. Initially in the minority post-merge, the alliance was able to flip some votes and gain the majority, and Polina was able to navigate to the Final Tribal Council. However, her game was seen as too complacent and under the radar, and she gained only a single vote to win, becoming the second runner-up.

## Bio

### *Survivor:* *Chad - Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty*

**Name (Age):** Polina Sokolov (56)

**Current Residence:** Kenosha, WI

**Occupation:** Masseuse

**Tribe Designation:** Brawn (Qawiun)

**3 Words to Describe You:** Tender, Determined, Spirited

**3 Things You’d Bring on the Island:** I would bring my massage table and oils to work all of my tribemates out after the intense physical challenges, and to help them relax and want to spill their secrets to me! I’d also bring my magic 8 ball to try and emulate one of my favorite Survivors ever, Rob Cesternino!

**Why are you a Brawn?:** I may not look like I’m strong, but don’t underestimate me! Massage has taught me how to soothe the toughest of muscles, and my arms and hands are strong from that. I was a thrower in my youth, doing shotput, discus, and javelin, so I’m also still pretty fit from that and I coach throwing at the local community college. I may be older but I’ve still got it!

**Why are you the next Sole Survivor?:** I do look like a granny, and I plan to play up that role, cuddling up to my tribemates and giving them massages and playing a mainly social game at first. While I fly under the radar, I’ll start making moves and towards the end I’ll blow up and win challenge after challenge and surprise them all. I’m a threat but they won’t see it, not at all!

### *Survivor: Honduras - Fans vs. Favorites*

**Name (Age):** Polina Sokolov (57)

**Previous Season/Finish:** Chad, 6th

**Tribe Designation:** Favorites (Vuelta)

**Favorite Past Moment:** Winning the Immunity Challenge at the Final 9! While I was safe either way and it didn't really matter, I proved to everyone that I could compete with them and that I wasn't just the weak older lady that many of them had written me off as. While it did make me a little more threatening, it was a glorious moment and I relive it all the time.

**Biggest Regret:** Not talking to Jakob and Nick more the day they idoled me out and before then! If I knew they'd had the idol, which I could've found out about if I hadn't not really talked to them much, we could've worked out a plan and maybe even gone to the Final 3 together, where I would've had a fair shake to win it all!

**Previous Player You Respect the Most:** Honestly, either Kaguya Sato or Maura Phipps. Kaguya is one of my great friends; while I've made other friends from the show (Saanvi, Viviana, Nick, Stephine, Roger, and more), she's the closest, and I wasn't lying when I said I voted for her at FTC because I respected her game. Also, Maura just for being an older woman and stepping up to the plate and playing a cutthroat game; in my opinion she surely should've won *Barbados*!

**Previous Player You Respect the Least:** I'm not the kind who likes to talk about people behind their backs, but I did watch some of the original Survivor seasons, and boy is that Jeff Varner man from the Game Changers season so despicable! I picked that season because it had an interesting name, and I was horrified! A pretty bad season and with that terrible event! How shameful.

**Why You're Back:** This is something almost anyone who was on Survivor will tell you, but it is truly a transformative experience! I always knew I was tough and I was always pretty confident, but the game instilled a new sense of life into me. It was just a wonderful time and it's made my life so great; of course I have to try again!

## Game

### *Survivor: Chad - Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty*

At the beginning of *Chad*, Polina found herself on the chaotic Brawn tribe. She quickly bonded with and later aligned with Roger Garrison and Stephine Gaul. At the first Tribal Council of the season, Polina received votes from Helix Foster and Ivonne Chimwell due to being the oldest and slower. Her alliance voted out Luciano Hidalgo due to his threatening status while he thought they were all voting out Helix. She also lost Roger at their second Tribal Council when Helix idoled him out. After that rocky start, her game became more solid. After the first swap, she aligned with older women Saanvi Reddy and Kaguya Sato and kept herself out of harm's way, playing a strong social game. She lost Stephine after the second swap when she was too idoled out, this time by Jakob Sobol. However, by this time Polina had built up a strong pool of allies, and after the merge she found herself in a majority alliance consisting of herself, Ivonne, Helix, Saanvi, Kaguya, and Viviana Rodriguez. She also won an Immunity Challenge soon after the merge, and her game was in tip top shape. However, at the Final 8, Jakob and his closest ally, Nick Wilkins, were the only minority members left. They convinced Ivonne, Helix, and Kaguya to vote off Saanvi with them, blindsiding her and Polina, leaving Polina and Viviana in the minority. While Kaguya rejoined them, they lost Viviana at the Final 7. At the Final 6, Polina finally convinced Ivonne, Helix, and Kaguya to all vote off Nick with her. However, he used his idol to save himself, and he and Jakob put his votes on Polina, idoling her out of the game just like her earliest allies, Roger and Stephine, were. At Final Tribal Council, Polina gave her vote to her close ally Kaguya due to their strong bond. Due to her lovable personality and strong game skills, she won the Fan Favorite award for *Chad.*

### *Survivor: Honduras - Fans vs. Favorites*

Polina started the game on *Honduras* hesitantly, not wanting to stand out on a tribe of legends. Not only did this hurt her edit and airtime, she also faded into the background and missed her chance to join the majority alliance. While she maintained a relationship with her *Chad* castmate Nick Wilkins, she floated outside of any alliances or feuds and sort of was just a bystander. However, she was in no trouble on the Favorites tribe. After the swap, she found herself on a tribe with five Fans, Kit Prichard, and Alondra Sanchez. She didn't trust the Favorite girls, and she quickly bonded with Fan Nichole Tarquin. Therefore, she assimilated into the Fans majority alliance, and helped eliminate Alondra and Kit. The vote before the merge, Polina and Nichole threw votes onto their ally Christopher Holt in fear of Kit using an idol, but it was just a needless precaution. Once the merge came, she had the trust of the Fans alliance fully and was with them. However, her alliance could not get Fans Uriah Masterson and Pia Chavez that had been on the other post-swap tribe to side with them, and it became the minority alliance. Nick tried to keep in contact with Polina and considered flipping but didn't do so. However, at the Final 10, Pia rejoined Polina's alliance, tying the vote 5-5. On the revote, Nick and his ally Lorine Ito also flipped, and Pasqual Vargas was taken out, tearing down the majority alliance. From there, Nick joined Polina's alliance and they eliminated the rest of the ex-majority alliance until it was only Nick, Polina, Nichole, Pia, and Cressida Anube, one of Polina's Fan allies. Polina then won Immunity at the Final 5. Nick tried to get Polina and Nichole to side with him and take out Cressida, but they chose Pia and Cressida over him due to thinking he was the biggest threat. Then, Pia won the Final Immunity Challenge. Cressida was desperate, knowing she was the biggest threat besides Pia, and hoped to turn Pia against Polina. However, this initiative failed; while Cressida voted against Polina, the other three voted her out. At Final Tribal Council, Polina was slammed by numerous jurors for "betraying" the Favorites by siding with the Fans from the beginning, and for riding Nichole and Pia's coattails, along with others. Her passive nature to stay out of trouble had gotten her to the end, but the jury was rather bitter against her and viewed her as too passive. This lost her the game, and she only earned Nick's vote due to their friendship and him thinking the rest of the jury was underrating her gameplay. While Polina was one of the few Favorites to improve her placement, her showing wasn't quite what one might hope for, and she was not quite the Fan Favorite Polina Sokolov that had dominated the airwaves in *Chad* as she became the second runner up of the season.

## **Career Stats**

**Average Finish:** ~5th Place

**Total Votes Against:** 6

**Total Challenge Wins:** 10

**Total Days Lasted:** 74