‘Survivor 47’ star Anika Dhar: Sierra’s betrayal ‘stings’ and is ‘the hardest thing to watch back’
Anika Dhar was on the receiving end of the most shocking blindside so far on “Survivor 47.”
The 27-year-old marketing manager was in disbelief after her allies Sam Phalen and Sierra Wright sided with Andy Rueda and voted her out of the game on Wednesday’s episode.
Dhar exclusively told The Post that she’s had a hard time watching the show back and seeing the reality of Wright and Phalen’s betrayal.
She also revealed if she ever considered targeting Phalen, what her plan was for the merge, and more.
New York Post: You were so shocked the moment you got voted out. Did you fully process exactly what happened and that Sam and Sierra betrayed you?
Anika Dhar: I was so shocked. Everything they had told me up until that moment, they really solidified our core four and our alliance. They reassured us and kept on having so many comments about how they don’t want to work with Andy and how crazy Andy is. Sierra kept on coming to us, me and Rachel, almost crying a little bit, being like, ‘We’re good, right? We’re solid?’ Almost like forcing me and Rachel to reiterate that we’re solid. And we were.
So it was very, very hurtful. And it stung so badly. Both of us were completely left in the dust. It was a true shock. It was a true blindside. My mind went completely black. You see my reaction and that was just like genuinely… I have no filter. It was interesting to see all of their reactions how happy Sam and Andy were. And Sierra couldn’t even look me in the eye. Like, literally couldn’t even look up at me. And then you just see the utter shock on Rachel’s face.
Did it hurt on a human level that Sierra said she was with the girls, but then chose Sam?
It stung. And it’s probably been the hardest thing to watch back. I had no idea that she knew that my name was on the chopping block since Episode 2. Like, that was huge news to me, right? And that stings so badly because the whole entire time while we’re out there, I’m building closer relationships with all of these people. And there’s a moment where she even says it, too. Like when I look into her eyes, it hurts, she knows what she’s doing. And whether it’s good for her game or not, we’ll find out. But again, I just really thought… as a fan of the game, I understand why it would be compelling to keep Andy. He’s a nonthreat. We saw it out there. But we were having so many discussions about how solid we were. I thought that it would be more valuable to move into the merge with a strong ride-or-die loyal alliance where we knew we were sticking by each other.
So that’s why I think I was so confident in them choosing to work with us. It’s not like we were random two and two, we really did talk as a four so many times. And also I just heard from them that they didn’t want to work with Andy so many times. Like Sam would constantly complain about how Andy’s being a doofus and how he’s hurting us in challenges. And Sierra also continuously said, ‘I just don’t want to work with him.’ It gave me the confidence and, unfortunately, I was very blindsided.
Were you aware Sierra leaked the name of the girls’ alliance?
I had no idea. I’m trying to think what strategy is that? I just don’t understand it even if you’re playing the middle. It’s very interesting to me. Her giving away the alliance kind of solidifies who she wanted to work with or where her head was going. Because once you kind of give that up, it’s hard to switch it up. Again, another thing that just really stung to see back.
Andy was told the fake plan that Sam was being voted out. But were there ever genuine conversations of making that actually happen?
No, and that’s the thing. Me and Rachel were so solid with the four. It really is crazy to look back because it’s also premerge. Like we’re not playing that hard. It’s common knowledge in the realm of ‘Survivor’ that if you play too hard in premerge, you’re marked as a threat, you’re marked as suspicious. So again, me and Rachel had just such a different perception than Sam did. It makes sense for Andy in his own game to kind of cling on to whatever was working.
What was your overall game plan once you got to the merge? Was it to stay strong with the four?
Yes, and we had talked about it too. The only addition is that we were like, ‘What about the three Tuku women?’ Like maybe the three Gata women pair up with three Tuku women. They seemed like a really strong three. And we see Rachel kind of set that in motion a little bit, or try to before I go home, with Sue and Caroline. So that was another thing that we had kind of been like, ‘That would be really cool.’ And even Sam. Sam was saying how much he thought Sue was cool out there and wanted to work with her. So was that was also in the works.
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
