Sash Lenahan

Matthew "Sash" Lenahan was a contestant in Survivor: Nicaragua. He finished third.

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CBS Profile

Name: Matthew "Sash" Lenahan (30)

Tribe: La Flor

Current Residence: New York, N.Y.

Occupation: Real Estate Broker

Personal Claim to Fame: Being one of the fastest distance runners in the country and one of the youngest brokers ever on Wall Street.

Inspiration in Life: My Mom

Hobbies: Extreme Adventures, Running, Dating Beautiful Women

Survivor Contestant you are Most Like: Tyson, because I have some great one-liners and because I'm awesome.

Reason for being on Survivor: For the adventure and for the glory of winning the greatest game in the World.

Why you think you will be the sole SURVIVOR: This game is something people have in their blood. Either you've got it or you don't. Count me in!

Survivor: Nicaragua
Lenahan was put at the La Flor tribe, the tribe that was comprised by contestants aged 30 below. Sash immediately began playing the game, and made an alliance, starting with feisty and outspoken NaOnka Mixon, telling her that he is half black and that the two of them and Brenda Lowe should make an alliance. Lowe and Lenahan would then recruit Kelly Shinn to their fold. On the other hand, Brenda's closest friend Chase Rice was also invited to join them, but he was torn between her and Shannon Elkins, who also befriended him, but wanted to get rid of Brenda. When La Flor lost the Day 6 challenge, the two alliances brought their conflict to Tribal Council, where Elkins blurted somewhat derogatory remarks against the LGBT community, even asking Sash outright if he was gay. This gesture made Rice and some of Shannon's alliance members to turn on him, sending him home. After Shannon's departure, the remnants of his alliance found themselves at the mercy of Sash's, where his ally, NaOnka found a Hidden Immunity Idol at their camp, thus fortifying a strong foothold within the tribe, though any elimination were put on hold, as La Flor went on winning two successive Immunity Challenges. After the Day 12 tribe shuffle, Sash, Brenda, both Kellies and Fabio remained on La Flor, with new members Jill Behm, Marty Piombo and Jane Bright. Bright, who easily bonded with their new tribemates, warned the majority alliance that Behm and Piombo could not be trusted, while also spoiling that the latter owned the other tribe's Hidden Immunity Idol. Learning this information, Sash regrouped his remaining alliance partners to plot against Marty and Jill and prepared to vote them off. They would get their chance during the Day 15 double elimination, where Sash made a plan to split the vote 3 to 3 against Marty and Jill, since Marty has an idol. But Jill won individual immunity, so the plan shifted to Kelly Bruno instead, whose prosthetic leg could be a strong case if she makes it to the end and is also a member of Shannon's dismantled alliance. Marty decided not to use his idol, with the vote resulted in a tie between Marty and Kelly B., so Sash and the other younger players decided that they could handle Marty later so Kelly B. was voted off 5-1.

Following Bruno's elimination, Sash cornered Marty by telling that, if he gave him the idol, he would be safe for the upcoming Tribal Council and if La Flor lost again, Sash would give the idol back to Marty. Marty gave him the idol, so Sash switched his vote from Marty to Jill and voted Jill off 3-2-2. He did kept his promise of keeping Marty, he reneged at the deal of returning the idol.

Sash's alliance continued to expand post merge, involving Jane and Holly Hoffman, although Jane and Holly seemed to only have joined because they had a connection with Chase, for all three of them are from the South.

The alliance's prime targets were Alina Wilson (one of the three remaining members of Shannon's allinace, the other two being Ben Henry and Fabio) and Marty (who made an all-male alliance). Sash decided to keep his word to keep Marty, with the two alliances joining forces by sending Wilson to the Jury.

Later, Marty made a plan with Benry, Dan, Fabio, and Sash while on reward to feign a vote towards NaOnka but instead blindside Jane and flush out NaOnka's idol. Sash thought about it and getting Chase involved, but Chase had his doubts, so Sash went against Marty and he was voted off 7-4. The following cycle, Brenda made a swerve by ousting his Sash, informing NaOnka first. NaOnka was displeased with the plan, and along with Holly, she informed Sash about Brenda's rebellion, causing paranoia within the alliance. Brenda decided not to forgo with her plan and asked Sash if she could be forgiven. At the next Tribal Council, Brenda had already assumed that she was forgiven and Sash would give her his idol to save her, but for naught, as Sash had turned the alliance on her, sending her home.

Brenda's elimination, along with NaOnka and Pruple Kelly's sudden voluntary exits proved fatal to Sash, as the alliance crumbled, with Chase, Holly and Jane build their own smaller alliance. But when Sash won the subsequent Immunity Challenge, he regained control by now being the swing vote between Chase's alliance and the remaining members of Marty's all-male alliance (Dan Lembo, Benry and Fabio). Sash decided to reunite with his old alliance, and selected to vote out Benry, who was seen as a physical threat.

Fabio was the next intended target, but won immunity, so Sash, Chase, and Holly figured that they should vote off Jane (a popular candidate among the current Jury members) while they still can. This greatly upset Jane, an she flipped off Sash and even voted against him at Tribal Council, although Sash used his idol and Jane was voted off anyway.

Fabio won immunity yet again on Day 37. To save his last ally, Dan, Fabio tried to convince Sash to vote Holly off, saying she would get more jury votes than Dan. But Sash did not wilt and Dan was voted off. On Day 38, it was a close finish between Fabio and Sash in the final Immunity Challenge, in which Fabio ultimately won, shattering Sash, Chase, and Holly's final three plans. Although Chase and Holly were nice enough to tell Fabio the truth that he was next to go, Sash was Sash and told Fabio he would be safe either way. Despite Sash's exposure as a liar at Tribal Council, Fabio found Holly a bigger jury threat and Chase stuck with the agreement he made with Sash and Holly was voted off.

Although Sash made the final three, the jury made it obvious that his chances of winning were non existent because of his numerous deceptions. During Brenda's speech, Sash tried to throw Chase under the bus by stating that Chase did not do enough to save her, but Brenda rebutted that he could have given his idol. Jane made a tirade against Sash after her elimination. In the end, Sash went on not having votes, losing to Fabio's unconventional strategy of not joining any effective alliances and just built relationships to people without hurting them, earning him the title of Sole Survivor.

Voting History
In Worst Case Scenario, the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Marty and Kelly B., forcing a revote, where the only eligible for elimination were Kelly B. and Marty. At the revote, Sash changed his vote from Marty to Kelly B.

Controversy
During Jane Bright's final Tribal Council, something happened that caused Jane to inexplicably change her vote from Holly to Sash. Speculation states that, earlier in the game, he had secretly offered to pay-off Bright's mortgage if she helped him win. According to Survivor rules, conspiring to share prize money is absolutely prohibited and the incident could have been a ground for disqualification from the competition. When Jane revealed this at Tribal Council, Sash adamantly denied, with Jeff having no way of knowing who was lying. Rumors circulated about CBS editing the scene out under the premise that Jane's abrupt elimination was caused by an off-screen, last-minute strategy change, telling the contestants not to discuss it. Nothing else was done, however, it is also assumed that they didn't want two more people being ejected after NaOnka Mixon and Kelly Shinn had both quit simultaneously, which already caused an uproar from the Survivor fan community.

Trivia

 * Sash is half-Caucasian, half-African.
 * During pre-show interviews, Jeff Probst predicted that Sash would go early in the game. But the latter's perseverance earned Probst's respect.
 * He is the seventh contestant to not receive a jury vote in the Final 3 following Becky Lee, Dreamz Herd , Cassandra Franklin , Sugar Kiper , Mick Trimming , and Russell Hantz.