Survivor: Edge of Extinction got real for Lauren O’Connell when the castaway dropped unconscious to the ground during an immunity challenge.
In Wednesday’s all-new episode of the CBS reality show, while challenged to balance a block on their head standing on a thin beam, Lauren began to complain she was feeling dizzy 25 minutes in, before stating, “I can’t see anything, I’m about to black out,” before falling off her beam unconscious.
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With emergency personnel rushing over to the collapsed castaway, Victoria Baamonde and Aurora McCreary held nervously as they balanced their need for an immunity idol with their instinct to turn and see what had happened.
Eventually, the EMS team was able to revive Lauren, who was frustrated upon finding out she fainted, telling host Jeff Probst she was O.K. to continue on, “just embarrassed.”
“I’d say that’s the sign of a warrior,” he told her.
Returning to camp without an immunity win (but a hidden immunity idol from earlier in the game), Lauren was more frustrated than scared about her medical emergency.
“It was really scary when I passed out,” she told the camera later. “But I was even more pissed that I was on the ground, because that means I didn’t win, and it leaves me very, very vulnerable.”
Prior to the shocking twist to the immunity challenge, Lauren, Kelley Wentworth, and Dan “Wardog” DaSilva were feeling the pressure coming off the joint tribal council last week, with former tribe member Rick Devens back from Extinction Island and linked up with the dominant Kama Tribe.
While Wardog tried to win Devens back, the former Lesu was shocked to be come at so aggressively after the Lesu voted him off successfully once, then tried to send him packing again after his return.
“Why would I work with you guys?” he told a shocked Wardog. “You guys stabbed me in the back over and over again.”
With Devens’ closest ally, David Wright, planning to realign with the Lesu as part of his effort to break up Kama, the two had a difficult discussion in which they realized they simply couldn’t move forward as a duo in the game — something made more complicated by the two-person idol they both shared.
Heading into the tribal council, it was unclear if Kama would turn on their leader Eric Hafemann and take him down before he could become a threat, or take down one of the Lesu, such as the athletic Wentworth, as an easy target.
In the end, they decided to go for a big move, taking out Eric with six votes before he made his way to Extinction Island for another chance at getting back in the game.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Photo credit: CBS
