Survivor is a game of many little decisions and a few big decisions. You spend weeks on an island, doing all of the little things to build relationships, forge alliances and put yourself in a position to be on the right side of votes, and then, at some point if you make it far enough, these successful little decisions bring you to a fork in the road that forces you into a big choice. How you play that can be the difference between winning a million dollars and not even making the finale. No one knows that better than Survivor 45 contestant Katurah Topps, who could have put herself in a position to win the game but instead, voted the wrong way and found herself on the jury and unable to plead her case.
Fortunately, she has a good sense of humor about the whole thing. With the finale finally in the rearview mirror, Katurah Topps hit up Twitter to joke about her decision to mistakenly vote out Julie instead of Dee. Apparently people keep telling her she fumbled the bag, and she’d like everyone to know no one realizes that more than her. Here’s her tweet…
Yal: Katurah fumbled the bag. She gave away a million dollars. Me: guys, I literally think about this EVERY time I pay rent. 😭🙃#SurvivorDecember 22, 2023
Deep down, Katurah knew she needed to vote Dee out. She was the biggest threat to win the game left, and she knew breaking up Austin and Dee, who would be very unlikely to betray each other, was an absolute must. But doing so would have meant trusting Jake, who, despite being one of the most lovable players on the season, failed pretty much every single time he tried to scheme. So, when Jake approached her with five people left to blindside Dee, she couldn’t bring herself to trust it and changed her vote to Julie at the last minute in a mistake host Jeff Probst later called the "biggest unforced error" of the game. Had she followed through, Dee would have gone home, and Katurah, with very strong interpersonal relationships with many jury members, may have been the favorite to win.
That’s Survivor though. Every season, there are like four or five total people that put themselves in a position where they can actually win. They build really strong relationships. They maneuver between voting blocks to at times defensively save themselves and at times offensively eliminate rivals. They’re right there, and after all those little decisions, they need to choose correctly on a few big ones.
Unfortunately for Katurah, she clearly did not choose correctly, but fortunately for her, she was extremely well-liked by both her fellow players and viewers at home. Her story of overcoming a difficult childhood to perservere and become a lawyer has resonated with so many people. I have no idea if she’ll ever return to play Survivor again. I hope she does, though, because she clearly has the mind for it and next time, she might not fumble the bag.
Survivor will return with Season 46 on February 28th. The first two episodes will be two hours, and then after that, the show will settle into a weekly routine of the longer ninety minute episodes we saw during Season 45, which is a huge win for fans. Fingers crossed it's as wild and fun as Season 45.
