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And then there was one.
The redemption stories for two of our Central West trio starring in this season of Australian Survivor have now come to a close.
In back-to-back Tribal Council votes, our own Faith Setiawan became the 11th person voted off the show in episode 12 last Tuesday night (17 March), and out of the running to be the sole survivor who will ultimately win the prize of half a million dollars.
She was the last person voted out before the two tribes merged during Sunday’s episode 13, where Lottie Rae from Trangie was eventually the 12th person to go.
Both women played a strong game as first-time Survivor competitors, establishing their dominance early in separate tribes.
Jackson Goonrey remains our only local player - who is from Cobar but spent his teenage years in Parkes.
His odds were almost stacking against him in episode 13, but he managed to escape elimination when the majority of the tribe wanted a big player gone.
Survivor, with a focus on the theme redemption, began with 24 players on 23 February and is now down to 10 players.
Faith was voted out by her first ally from day one Mark Warnock, describing it as an almighty blindside and “core wound”.
In a video shared to Faith’s Instagram account shortly after she was voted out, Faith said she felt really proud of her game.
“I played really hard. I aligned myself with really good people,” she said.
“The one thing I wanted to do was win immunity, especially a solo immunity. To do that with Simon (Mee) was absolutely epic and I will remember it for the rest of my life.”
After five weeks away, Faith was looking forward to coming home to Parkes to her husband and five children.
“Survivor has been a very, very challenging experience,” Faith said.
“I don’t know if I have the words to really describe but the friendships that I have made will be so close to my heart forever.”
Faith told TV producer Hayley Ferguson in an interview for the beyond reality podcast that Survivor is a reality TV game show where viewers are seeing people “not in a normal circumstance”.
“It’s a game, we’re there to deceive and lie,” she shared her thoughts on how people may perceive the contestants.
Faith has been a long-time fan of the show and for 10 years has wanted to apply.
“Confidence is a great thing in Survivor, I don’t think you can actually play this game without it,” she said.
“And to be honest… you have to have a pretty big ego to go out and think you can play Survivor and deceive people. So all 24 people are going [in] with huge egos, and that’s what makes a great cast.”