Sandra Diaz-Twine

Sandra Diaz-Twine (born July 30, 1974 in Stamford, Connecticut) was the winner (aka "the sole survivor") of Survivor: Pearl Islands. She currently lives with her husband and two children while working as an office assistant in Fayetteville, North Carolina.^[1]

Survivor: Pearl Islands

As a member of the Drake tribe, Sandra made use of her communication skills by speaking to locals in the small fishing village in Panama in their own language, Spanish at the beginning of the game. It was a marked contrast to the behavior of the opposing tribe, whose members appeared not to have a rudimentary understanding of the language. Sandra aligned herself early with the provider for the tribe and popular contestant Rupert Boneham as well as Christa Hastie. The older and more physically weaker players, to which Sandra was a part of, targeted the younger more physical players such as Burton Roberts and Michelle Tesauro, whom were voted out. In Episode 6, Sandra heard of an impending plan to kick out alliance member Rupert and decided to vote out the instigator of this plan Trish Dunn.

With the Drake and Morgan tribes even at five apiece, they were shocked when those six previously voted out came back into the game as a third tribe and to win a competition that enabled two of these "outcasts" to return into the game. In a controversial move, Sandra, Rupert and Christa, not knowing who to send home, asked fellow Drake tribe members Shawn Cohen and Jon Dalton, a.k.a. Johnny Fairplay, to publicly campaign for their spot. The alliance eventually targeted Shawn, and received Burton as a replacement from the outcasts group.

As the tribes merged into Balboa at 5-5, the Drake tribe, with the help of outcast Burton, were able to sway Morgan outcast Lillian Morris to vote with them, controlling the game and subsequently voting out Andrew Savage and Ryan Opray from the previous Morgan tribe. But the game took a major shift when old Drake members Jon and Burton aligned together with Lillian and recruited Tijuana Bradley and Darrah Johnson previously of Morgan in their alliance. This new alliance successfully targeted Rupert and he was voted out.

At the final 7, it seemed Sandra and Christa were doomed by this newly created alliance, instigated by Burton and Jon. But Sandra enlisted Tijuana and Darrah and took them to spy on Burton and Jon showing them their true intentions. But when Burton and Jon wised up to this impending problem, they regained the trust of Sandra and Christa to successfully eliminate Tijuana. But soon after they were betrayed once again when Christa was voted out at the subsequent tribal counil.

At the final 5, it seemed Sandra was doomed once more, but Lillian, who was aligned with Burton and Jon, had her suspicions about her alliance. After talking with Sandra and Darrah when the two guys were away enjoying a reward, she joined with the two girls to vote out strong link Burton Roberts, much to the dismay of Jon who had believed that the three girls were too stupid to even think of the move, yet put it into action.

After Sandra had made it to the Final 4, she was no longer a target, with Lillian targeting physically strong Darrah and Darrah targeting Lillian, believing that no one could win against her in the Final 2. Sandra and Jon decided to side with Lillian and vote out Darrah, propelling them into the Final 3. In the Final 3 endurance immunity challenge, Lillian won her first immunity and was in a dilemma on who to take with her to the final 2. She eventually sided with Sandra, a fatal error that led to Sandra's ultimate win.

In the end, previously stating that no one could ever win against Lillian because she was to nice, Sandra Diaz-Twine annihilated Lillian Morris in the final vote, winning 6-1, to become the Sole Survivor. She gained the votes of Ryan Opray, Rupert Boneham, Christa Hastie, Burton Roberts, Darrah Johnson and Jon Dalton.

Trivia

• Diaz-Twine was asked to appear on Survivor: All Stars but declined as she was recovering from parasites she developed while filming the Pearl Islands season.

• Over her season of Survivor, Sandra never received a vote against her. Other winners who have accomplished this are Tina Wesson of Survivor: The Australian Outback, Ethan Zohn of Survivor: Africa, Brian Heidik of Survivor: Thailand and Tom Westman of Survivor: Palau

• Jeff Probst once called her "the lippiest mom in Survivor history."

• She won no individual challenges but still became the sole survivor

• The DVD box art for Survivor: Pearl Islands somewhat dubiously features contestant Rupert Boneham at its top center, a spot typically reserved for the season's winner. Sandra is directly to the left of Rupert.

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