Eva Erickson prides herself on her strength. She’s crushed through barrier after barrier — not just as a person with autism, but as a woman competing against men on their own turf… or, when it comes to hockey, ice. So what happens when that strength begins to fade?
In an exclusive deleted scene from the penultimate episode of Survivor 48, which can be watched above, we see Eva struggling with her body deterioration in the game, leading to tears.
“Coming into this game, I thought that I could be one of the strongest females to ever come out here,” Eva explains in a confessional interview. “I know that I am so strong. I play men’s hockey. I’m constantly battling against people who are bigger than me and think that they’re better than me.”
Related: Survivor 48 recap: Did Kyle just win the game?
Which is what makes her current condition so difficult.
“Now I’m at a point where I have lost so much of my physicality and I’m not performing in these challenges, and I feel like I’m the weakest I’ve ever been,” Eva continues through tears. “I’ve never been so low physically in my life, and that low physical state is definitely destroying my mental [state] too, because I don’t think that I can do anything in this game other than just wait and hope.”
Fortunately for Eva, she does have a support system on the island, and that support extends beyond her ride-or-die in Joe Hunter. The scene also shows Eva talking about her difficulty with Kamilla Karthigesu and Mitch Guerra in the shelter.
“In my head, I’ve been like, ‘Well, when I get older, I’ll lose everything, all of my strength,’” she tells the players. “I’ve lost everything that I’ve worked so hard for at this point in this game. And it’s not like a how you look thing. It’s a how you feel and what you can do. I don’t care that I don’t look like how I want to. It’s that I don’t feel strong, and strength is so important to me.”
Eva has always felt comfortable as a competitor, but it seems that comfort has started to fade while going through the health juggernaut that is Survivor.
“To be leading a team of guys, I need them to respect me and see me as much of a competitor as the rest of them, which has never been an issue,” she explains to Kamilla and Mitch. “But now I’m worried that it will be.”
Kamilla and Mitch do their best to assuage that worry and show Eva that she has other positive attributes to share.
“I think it’s just your outlook and everything is just so positive and that helps a lot of people,” explains Kamilla.
“I just want you to make sure you know and you see it for yourself that the reason you’re the team captain is because who you are as a person is making everyone else around you better,” adds Mitch.
CBS
Eva Erickson on ‘Survivor 48’
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In the end, Eva’s tank may be close to empty, but even after hitting a low, she still has more to give.
“I’m so close to the end and I’m going to work so hard,” she tells us. “I’ll put my entire body — as skinny and weak as it has gotten — on the line, and I’ll put my entire heart out. I have this whole game. I’m going to battle through it. I know that I can.”
That battle for the million dollars concludes with next week’s finale of Survivor 48. To check out the full deleted scene for yourself, watch the exclusive deleted scene above, and also make sure to read our full episode recap.
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