‘Survivor’ Finale Recap: The Winner Of Season 42 Is Revealed

Season 42 of ‘Survivor’ comes to a close with the May 25 finale. Follow along here as one of the five remaining players is crowned the winner!

The Survivor finale began with five contestants left: Mike Turner, Maryanne Oketch, Romeo Escobar, Jonathan Young and Lindsay Dolashewich. Lindsay was blindsided at the last vote when Omar Zaheer was sent home thanks to an epic move orchestrated by Maryanne. The finale begins with the players stranded on a new beach. Lindsay is pissed that one of her allies, Jonathan, didn’t fill her in about the Omar vote, while Jonathan is angry that Lindsay voted for him at the last tribal.

‘Survivor’ Season 42 Final 5

Romeo decides to lie to the other four players and make a fake hidden immunity idol to try and survive the next vote. Meanwhile, Mike makes promises to both Lindsay and Maryanne that he’ll use his hidden immunity idol for them if he’s safe at final five tribal. Before the next immunity challenge, each player receives a riddle in tree mail for a final advantage clue.

Lindsay figures out the riddle first and secures the advantage, which will come into play at the immunity challenge. The advantage allows her to untie less knots than her competitors in the massive challenge obstacle course. The puzzle ends in a showdown between Mike and Lindsay, with Mike pulling out a victory. Mike also earns a massive food reward, and chooses Jonathan to join him.

Since Mike has immunity, he has the choice of who he wants to save with his hidden immunity idol. After earlier promising his idol to Maryanne AND Lindsay, he also tells Jonathan that he’d play the idol for him if needed. Lindsay seems to be a sitting duck heading into tribal council, and she works hard to plead her case for why she shouldn’t go home. Mike plays his idol for Maryanne to repay her for her “loyalty,” not knowing that she had an idol of her own. Lindsay is eliminated unanimously at the tribal council.

‘Survivor’ Season 42 Final 4

After Lindsay’s elimination, the final four is Mike, Maryanne, Jonathan and Romeo. Mike is out of the challenge first, followed by Maryanne. After a showdown between Romeo and Jonathan, Romeo wins his first ever immunity challenge, putting him in the position of power. Now, he’ll get to choose who he takes to the final three, and which other two players will have to make fire for the third spot.

Ahead of tribal council, Mike, Maryanne and Jonathan all plead their cases to Romeo. Mike knows he’s one of the strongest players and will be making fire either way, so he urges Romeo to put him up against Maryanne so he has a better chance to win. However, Romeo wants to put Mike up against the person who has the best chance at beating him, so he brings Maryanne to the final three.

Mike gets a flame first, but Jonathan is close behind. Mike’s fire also starts hitting the rope first, but Jonathan is right behind him the whole time. In the end, Mike burns through his rope, earning his spot in the final three. Jonathan is eliminated.

Who Won ‘Survivor’ Season 42?

Mike, Maryanne and Romeo are in the final three and they will each get to tell the jury why they think they deserve to win. At final tribal, Omar urges all the players to prove that they played the best strategic game and insists that all of the jury member’s votes are “up in the air.” Maryanne explains to the jury that she purposely acted like she wasn’t strategic at the beginning of the game so that her strategy could shine later on.

Omar calls Mike out for not always being as honest as he claimed to be, and he’s called out for not owning up to it. Mike defends the moves he made, but he has a battle of words with some of the jury members, including Hai. Drea winds up standing up for Mike, pointing out that he played an “on-point” social game all season.

Maryanne also takes the opportunity to defend her social game after being called out for it not being the strongest part of her game at the beginning. Of course, she also touts the fact that she orchestrated the vote out of Omar. In defense of his social game, Romeo defends his ability to have one-on-one conversations and relationships with everyone.

During the strategy portion, each of the players has a chance to explain the biggest move they made on their own during the game. Mike defends his big move of organizing the blindside of Hai, and Maryanne reiterates how big of a deal it was for her to vote out Omar. She explains how, at that point, she set herself up to be in the final three with any combination of people who were left. She also makes sure to show the jury her hidden immunity idol that she never even had to use.

Finally, it’s time to announce a winner, and the contestants are shocked to find out that Jeff Probst is reading them on the spot. The first vote is for Mike, followed by one for Maryanne. Maryanne earns the rest of the votes, making her WINNER of Survivor season 42!