Spoilers ahead for Survivor: Winners at War's March 11 episode on CBS.
Survivor brought the best of its best champs together (mostly) for the Winners at War season, and all eyes have been on Boston Rob Mariano to control the game since wife Amber Mariano was eliminated early on. The Robfather is a powerhouse player who brought his considerable powers of persuasion to Winners at War, and he kept a tight enough leash on the other players that it was hard to imagine him being overthrown. And that wasn't working for me. Boston Rob running the game week in and week out wasn't interesting to me. Thanks to the March 11 Boston Rob twist, however, I'm all-in on Winners at War.
Boston Rob got voted out! He wound up on the bottom due to the Winners at War tribe swap that resulted in the creation of Yara to go with Dakal and Sele, with Yara comprised of Boston Rob Mariano, Sarah Lacina, Sophie Georgina Clarke, Ben Driebergen, and Adam Klein. Boston Rob quickly rallied Ben and Adam to join him in teaming up on the women, and they agreed despite the lack of trust in Boston Rob. It's at this point that I think Boston Rob went too far and wound up getting himself eliminated.
Boston Rob went full Robfather on Yara, more or less dictating that there would be no strategizing and none of the men would even give Sarah and Sophie the chance to talk. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but Adam and Ben clearly didn't feel good about it, and Sarah and Sophie picked up on it. At Tribal Council, Boston Rob went his usual route of bullying and reminding the group that Survivor is a game of numbers, clearly confident that he had Ben and Adam backing him up to vote out Sarah.
Fortunately (for me, anyway), Sarah and Sophie were prepared for tribal council and pitched the possibilities of new relationships and strategies, not-so-subtly pointing out that Adam and Ben were just letting Boston Rob control everything. Their words convinced at least one of the other guys, because Boston Rob was voted out, and I sat up straighter in my chair.
This whole episode, I kept asking myself why Yara wasn't voting him out, just like I spent previous episodes of Winners at War wondering why people weren't making Boston Rob a priority to vote out. I watch a lot of TV for my job, and Boston Rob was beginning to feel like a villain who stays too long on a TV show because he has fans but doesn't really add much to the entertainment value.
Of course, I'm also a relatively newcomer to Survivor, so my scripted drama and Bachelor leanings aren't super applicable to Survivor just yet. Still, I wasn't enjoying Boston Rob and his confidence being rewarded over and over, and Survivor is more unpredictable now that he's gone. He left his fire tokens to Parvati Shallow, and that could well be it for Boston Rob Mariano in Winners at War! Now, is Sandra Diaz-Twine the one to watch?
See what happens next on Survivor now that Boston Rob has been voted out with new episodes airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
