Xander Hastings was a UChicago student and die-hard superfan who hit the ground running in Survivor 41 — finding a hidden idol and an extra vote within the opening days. The haul made him the obvious target on the snakebitten Yase tribe, which kept losing and getting picked apart around him.
He survived by shrinking: playing for self-preservation, staying cordial, and slipping through vote after vote until he'd outlasted almost everyone to reach the Final Tribal Council. The jury liked him but read his caution as passivity, and he finished third without a vote — a superfan's dream run that stopped one argument short of the title.
