Sophie Georgina Clarke[1] is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: South Pacific. She later competed on Survivor: Winners at War.
Known for her blunt, witty disposition, and sharp-tongued confessionals, Sophie played an under-the-radar game and relied on her challenge prowess in South Pacific, as well as a tight, dominating five-person alliance formed on Night 1 to advance in the game. She is also remembered for swaying ally Coach Wade into backstabbing Brandon Hantz in a well-crafted "Ozzy's Pleasure Dome" argument. After winning the critical Final Immunity Challenge against Ozzy Lusth, Sophie won over Coach and Albert Destrade in a 6-3-0 vote.
Sophie played a more actively strategic and social game when she returned in Winners at War, forging several relationships, notably turning the tables on Rob Mariano after being relegated to the minority with Sarah Lacina following a Tribe Switch, and finding a Hidden Immunity Idol. She spent most of her game in a comfortable position and became a key member of the majority alliance following the merge, where she used her influence to orchestrate the elimination of Wendell Holland. However, Tony Vlachos grew wary of her relationship with Sarah and spearheaded her blindside at the final nine. She eventually lost the second Edge of Extinction re-entry duel and was eliminated in 10th place.
Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com
Name (Age): Sophie Clarke (22)
Hometown: Willsboro, New York |
Survivor
South Pacific
Sophie, like several members of the Upolu tribe, was skeptical about the addition of Coach Wade to their tribe. This skepticism was furthered when Coach lost the first Reward Challenge over fellow returning player Ozzy Lusth. Upon reaching camp, Sophie introduced herself as a Russian and Economics major who "graduated four days ago." Knowing his "Dragon Slayer" baggage would be hard to release, Coach opened a conversation while stargazing at their first night, with the conversation concluding with the recruitment of Sophie to his five-person alliance, which also consisted of Albert Destrade, Brandon Hantz, and Rick Nelson. Coach fortified his alliance of five by adding a sixth member, Edna Ma. While Brandon kept his secret of being a relative of the infamous Russell Hantz from his tribemates, Sophie was observant enough to suspect he might be hiding something. Sophie was also seen as a strong competitor, being called "insane" by host Jeff Probst during the first Immunity Challenge, in which Upolu narrowly won.
After the Immunity Challenge loss on Day 5, Sophie received a vote coming from Stacey Powell, but Sophie's majority alliance eliminated Coach's biggest threat, Christine Shields Markoski. Days later, alliance partner Albert found the hidden clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, but could not find the Idol itself. With Sophie and Coach's help, the three found the Idol, which was secretly kept by Coach, even from Rick and Brandon. The Upolu majority alliance successfully eliminated Stacey and Mikayla Wingle at their next Tribal Councils, entering the merge with the entire alliance intact.
When the tribes merged on Day 19 into the Te Tuna tribe, Sophie stuck with the Upolu alliance, and, along with Savaii member John Cochran, eliminated the five other Savaii members: Keith Tollefson, Ozzy, Jim Rice, Dawn Meehan, and Whitney Duncan. During the process of this "Pagonging," Sophie was able to win two consecutive Immunity Challenges, the second win which was especially key since she narrowly beat out Whitney.
After the ex-Savaii members were voted out, the original Upolu alliance of five decided to stick together and eliminated Cochran and Edna. The next round of the game saw the alliance turn against each other. Sophie was able to make Coach and Rick turn against fellow alliance member Brandon because of his antics and his unpredictability. However, when Brandon won immunity, they had to switch their target to Albert. Their plans changed again at Tribal Council when Brandon gave the Immunity Necklace to Albert. In the end, Coach sided with Rick and Sophie voting out Brandon and she narrowly escaped being sent to Redemption Island in a 3-2 vote.
At the final Redemption Island duel on Day 36, Ozzy defeated Brandon and came back in the game with an apparent target on his back. At the following Immunity Challenge, which required balancing wooden blocks, Sophie made an unattractive gesture—outright asking Albert to help her get her blocks, which was intercepted by Jeff. Her move failed, however, when Ozzy won Immunity. With Ozzy immune and Coach having his Hidden Immunity Idol, Sophie was on the hot seat at Tribal Council, being told by Ozzy that she was a "pretentious, spoiled brat" after her gesture at the Immunity Challenge, reducing the medical student to tears and anxiety, stating that her bluntness was natural to her. Despite this, Sophie dodged elimination once again after Rick was voted out for his quieter gameplay in a 3-2 vote.
At the Final Immunity Challenge on Day 38, a closely-contested battle between Ozzy and Sophie commenced. But at the puzzle-building part, Ozzy struggled, giving leeway to Sophie, who eventually won the challenge. As the last remaining Savaii member, Ozzy was voted out, leaving Sophie (declaring herself "the new Dragon Slayer"), Albert, and Coach as the Final Three.
At the Final Tribal Council, while castigated by the jury for coming off as acerbic to others, Sophie used her frankness to her advantage by calling Coach "a little girl" and exposed all the lies he created. She also stated that she would change her perceived rudeness after Ozzy brought the topic up days ago. In the end, Sophie was rewarded the title of 23rd Sole Survivor and the million dollar prize, beating Coach and Albert in a 6-3-0 vote, receiving the votes of Brandon, Dawn, Jim, Keith, Ozzy, and Whitney.
After the game, at the Reunion Show, she stated that it was hard for her to "act dumb", but she had to in order to advance herself in the game.
Voting History
| Episode | Sophie's Votes |
Voted Against Sophie |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Stacey | Stacey |
| 3 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Stacey | - |
| 5 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Edna | - |
| 7 | Upolu Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Keith; Keith1 |
- |
| 9 | Ozzy | - |
| Jim | - | |
| 10 | Dawn | Individual Immunity |
| Whitney | Individual Immunity | |
| 12 | Cochran | - |
| 13 | Edna | - |
| 14 | Brandon | Albert, Brandon |
| 15 | Rick | Ozzy, Rick |
| Ozzy | Individual Immunity | |
| Jury Votes for Sophie |
Brandon, Dawn, Jim, Keith, Ozzy, Whitney | |
| Sole Survivor, Day 39 | ||
^1 In "Double Agent", the vote ended with a 6-6 tie between Keith and Rick, forcing a revote. Sophie did not change her vote on the revote.
Winners at War
Sophie returned to play in the all-winners season Survivor: Winners at War. Initially placed on the Dakal tribe, Sophie quickly found herself in a power position as she aligned with other one-time players who were perceived to be relatively disconnected from the Survivor social scene. She quickly formed a bond with Yul Kwon, who she wanted to prop up as a "nerd-shield"—someone who would protect her from being perceived as the most intelligent player on the island. When Dakal lost the second Immunity Challenge on Day 3, Sophie and the other 'disconnected' one-time players, Yul, Nick Wilson, and Wendell Holland, found themselves with all the leverage on the tribe, and which had narrowed their targets down to Amber Mariano, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, and Tyson Apostol as they feared that the three, along with Jeremy Collins and Rob Mariano on the rival Sele tribe, had a "Poker Alliance" after appearing in a televised poker tournament a year prior. Eventually, the tribe decided on Amber as the best option to go, given her marriage to Rob.
When Kim found a Hidden Immunity Idol that required two people to activate the following day, she gave half of it to Sophie because she felt that she and Sophie could work well together. Sophie was happy that Kim shared the idol with her, but remained apprehensive about Kim due to her threatening reputation. When Dakal lost immunity again on Day 11, she joined the tribe in voting out Tyson, who had been throwing many names out and was perceived as a big threat due having played the game four times, as well as his connection with Rob outside the game. At some point during this time, Sophie gave back her half of the idol to Kim.
A Tribe Expansion occurred on Day 12, with Sophie and Sarah Lacina were sent to the new Yara tribe, finding themselves at a numerical disadvantage against original Sele members Rob, Adam Klein, and Ben Driebergen. Despite this, the clearly fractured nature of the three men left Sophie and Sarah with options moving forward. While Sarah and Sophie were apprehensive to divulge information, the Sele men revealed their tribe dynamics and the tensions between them. When the whole tribe began searching for a potential new idol at their new camp, Sophie was quick to find it and hide it from the rest of her tribemates. Similar to the idol she shared with Kim on Dakal, Sophie needed to give half of the idol to a tribemate to activate it, choosing to give it to Sarah and leaving the two closely bonded. After Yara lost the subsequent Immunity Challenge, Rob became the target for the girls due to his dictatorial attitude and reputation. Despite Rob trying to implement his "buddy system" strategy, leaving the girls unable to confirm their plans through conversation with Adam and Ben, Sophie felt confident that Rob would be voted out. Before Tribal Council, Sarah gave her idol half back to Sophie, before the two were joined by Adam and Ben in successfully blindsiding Rob.
Sophie and Sarah became closer to Ben over the next few days, with Adam being their next clear target. When Adam raised suspicions to Sophie about Ben or Sarah having an idol, Sophie decided to tell the two about Adam's suspicions in an attempt to solidify her alliance with them. Yara won the next two Immunity Challenges, sparing them from Tribal Council. However, her ally, Yul, was voted out on Day 18, bequeathing a Fire Token to Sophie.
When the tribes merged into the Koru tribe on Day 19, with Tyson returning from the Edge of Extinction, Sophie found herself in a large majority coalition comprised of herself, Adam, Ben, Jeremy, Kim, Sarah, Denise Stapley, and Tony Vlachos. After Denise and Jeremy won the first individual Immunity Challenge, the tribe wanted to target Nick, but Sophie attempted to drive the vote towards Wendell, fearing his friendship with Jeremy, who she perceived to be the most influential player, as well as fearing the possibility of the "big guys" coming together. She successfully led the charge in getting Wendell out, then joined the majority in voting Adam out at the next Tribal Council.
When Tony won the next Immunity Challenge, Jeremy campaigned to break up the duo of Sophie and Sarah, although Sophie's allies wanted to target Jeremy in return. The scrambling divided the tribe into two five-person alliances: Sophie, Ben, Nick, Sarah, and Tony, with the group targeting Jeremy, against Denise, Jeremy, Kim, Tyson, and Michele Fitzgerald, who wanted to target Sophie. After more scrambling at Tribal Council, where Jeremy used his Safety Without Power advantage to abstain from the vote at the cost of leaving his allies down a number, Sophie gathered her own allies, now firmly in control of the majority of the votes, to target Tyson, who they saw as a pressing threat. With Sophie's alliance now in the majority, they decided to split their votes between Jeremy and Michele at the next Tribal Council. However, Tony, fearing Sophie's relationship with Sarah and her influence on the tribe, decided to take advantage of the majority splitting the vote and target Sophie, recruiting Jeremy, Michele, and Nick. At Tribal Council, Sophie was blindsided with her idol in her pocket. She bequeathed a Fire Token each to Kim and Sarah before heading to the Edge of Extinction.
The following day on the Edge of Extinction, Sophie earned two Fire Tokens by coming second in a coconut-carry effort task, which she used to purchase a jar of peanut butter.[4] Sophie lost the second re-entry duel to Natalie Anderson on Day 35, resulting in her permanent elimination from the game and officially becoming a member of the jury.
Sophie was not present at the Day 38 Tribal Council as she was not feeling well, but returned to serve on the jury at the Final Tribal Council the following day. She was among the twelve jurors that voted for Tony to win, crowning him the Sole Survivor and second two-time winner over Natalie and Michele in 12-4-0 vote.
Voting History
| Episode | Sophie's Votes |
Voted Against Sophie |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakal Tribe Immune | |
| Kim | - | |
| 2 | Dakal Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Dakal Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Tyson | - |
| 5 | Rob | - |
| 6 | Yara Tribe Immune | |
| 7 | Yara Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Wendell | - |
| 9 | Adam | - |
| 10 | Kim, Tyson | |
| 11 | Jeremy | Jeremy, Michele, Nick, Tony |
| Voted Out, Day 28 | ||
| 12 | On Edge of Extinction | |
| 13 | ||
| 14 | ||
| Eliminated, Day 35 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Tony | |
^1In "The Full Circle", Kim used a Hidden Immunity Idol on Denise, negating Sophie's vote against her.
Post-Survivor
- After her win, Sophie used her winnings to pay off her student loans.[5]
- Sophie returned to her hometown of Willsboro, where she discussed her Survivor experience at the Willsboro Central School. She continues to pursue her medical career, studying to become an OB-GYN.[6]
- On March 9, 2017, Sophie, along with Courtney Yates, appeared on an episode of Pen Fan Forum hosted by Andrea Boehlke to discuss the first two episodes of Survivor: Game Changers.[7]
- On May 12, 2017, Sophie graduated and became a medical doctor.[8]
- Sophie attended Stephen Fishbach's wedding on June 9, 2018.[9]
- Sophie married Robert Shady at her parents' house in Willsboro on August 24, 2019.[10]
- In March 2020, she and her husband had COVID-19.[13]
Trivia
- Her father is journalist Thurston Clarke.
- Sophie is the youngest woman on South Pacific.
- Sophie revealed in "I Need Redemption" that she knows how to speak Russian and is also an Economics major.
- On Day 27 of South Pacific, Sophie became the first and so far only contestant to win two Immunity Challenges in one day.
- Sophie is the only contestant on South Pacific to win consecutive challenges, excluding duels.
- Sophie won the most individual Immunity Challenges in South Pacific, with three wins.
- Sophie is the second of three first-time players to defeat a returning player at the Final Tribal Council, following Danni Boatwright in Guatemala, and later followed by Denise Stapley in Philippines.
- Sophie is one of three winners, and the most recent one, to receive a vote against them at the first Tribal Council they attended, following Jenna Morasca and Chris Daugherty.
- Sophie is the youngest woman on the original Dakal tribe.
- Sophie is the only contestant in Winners at War to have never participated in a Tribe Switch in any of their prior appearances.
- Sophie is the first Survivor castaway voted out with a Hidden Immunity Idol in their possession during a failed split vote.
- Sophie is the second juror who was unable to attend a Tribal Council due to medical reasons, following Paschal English in Marquesas. Coincidentally, they both missed the Day 38 Tribal Council.
- Sophie lost 10 lbs. during her time on Winners at War.[14]
References
- ↑ https://twitter.com/sophieGclarke/status/863134321191911426
- ↑ https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/62893/
- ↑ https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/216315/
- ↑ Ross, Dalton (May 13, 2020). "Survivor: Winners at War finale recap: Dominance is rewarded". Entertainment Weekly. https://ew.com/tv/recaps/survivor-season-40-episode-14/. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ↑ http://www.americanownews.com/story/16354906/survivor-south-pacific-winner-sophie-clarke-im-trying-to-be-a-little-sunnier
- ↑ http://www.wcax.com/story/16408821/sophie-returns-to-willsboro
- ↑ https://twitter.com/andreaboehlke/status/839843233362554880
- ↑ https://twitter.com/sophieGclarke/status/863134321191911426
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/8q177k/survivor_alum_at_fishbachs_wedding/
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/fashion/weddings/sophie-clarke-robert-shady.html?rref=collection%2Fspotlightcollection%2Fwedding-announcements
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CNLLm2Isote/
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CQZuF2fsC9-/
- ↑ https://youtu.be/gekBoT9t7y8?t=7720
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij6WXsag3h0
| Preceded by Redemption Island  Rob Mariano |
Sole Survivor Titleholder South Pacific  Sophie Clarke |
Succeeded by One World  Kim Spradlin |
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