Why Some ‘Survivor 41’ Fans Think Shantel’s Betrayal Was the Wrong Move

Sometimes castaways choose between playing as a hero or a villain on Survivor. The newest episode showed a huge betrayal. This is why some fans think Shantel Smith’s big move might have been the wrong one.

[Spoiler alert: Survivor 41 Episode 4 spoiler ahead.]

Shantel Smith made a big move on ‘Survivor 41’

Last week, Shantel caught Jairus “J.D.” Robinson with an advantage. They’re in an alliance with Ricard Foyé, so they saw J.D. hiding this from them as a sign that he doesn’t trust them. Shantel convinced J.D. to give her the advantage before the Tribal Council to build trust. They then voted out Brad Reese.

The fourth episode showed Shantel giving J.D. the advantage back. But this was after she let it slip, she knew Brad had an advantage to Genie Chen in front of J.D. J.D. saw this as a betrayal because Shantel didn’t tell him that.

Once again, the Ua tribe had to go to Tribal Council. Shantel told J.D. that she felt like he was going to vote her out. She once again asked J.D. to give her his advantage as a sign of trust, and he surprisingly did it. 

Shantel said in her interview that she might keep the extra vote for herself and vote him out. She said she didn’t want to be a villain but an assassin. The tribe voted him out.

Why some fans think Shantel’s betrayal was the wrong move

Shan’s decision led to dramatic television. But was it a good or bad move? It looks like fans are divided and shared their reactions on Reddit.

“That was not a good play by Shantel,” one fan wrote. “Not only was it a jerk move, but, more importantly, it was a bad move. If somebody were to trust me with their advantage, I would know they’re an extremely loyal ally, and I would be almost 100% certain that they’d vote every way I would. Would you rather take out your number 1 ally so you can get 1 extra vote or keep your ally that provides you with an extra vote basically every night? Shantel is either blind, or desperate for blood and neither is going to win her the game. It was both a butthole move, and strategically, a bad move.”

Another fan wrote, “I’m not getting Shans logic, why is she backstabbing literally everybody that is loyal to her. I’m this doesn’t come back to haunt her.”

But some fans did see some logic in voting out J.D. “I’m thinking Shan did that because if they went to tribal again, J.D. would have complete control over who went home since he had an extra vote,” one fan noted. “Not voting him out would’ve left Shan with a 50% chance of going home with the only other possibility being her number one going home if she didn’t vote him out. This is an example of a good move, not just a big move.”

Shantel just has Ricard as her ally now, and they still have Genie in their tribe. Time will tell if this move will help or hurt her game.