Spoiler alert: Here’s how Eagan native Eva Erickson fared on ‘Survivor’ finale

Eagan native Eva Erickson made it all the way to the final three in Wednesday night s Survivor finale But she fell short of winning the million and placed second behind lawyer Kyle Fraser The episode opened with a final five of Erickson her day-one ally Joe Hunter Fraser Fraser s secret ally system engineer Kamilla Karthigesu and physical mentoring coach Mitch Guerra Erickson who is the first openly autistic person to compete on Survivor went into the combined reward and immunity challenge with an advantage in the meeting she won earlier in the episode After an intense battle Erickson came in second to Karthigesu who spent most of of the challenge in last place but surged at completing the final puzzle In addition to immunity Karthigesu won a reward of a meal including pasta and chocolate cake and could bring one fellow castaway She chose Erickson who was thrilled at yet another chance for her to eat Given the open relationship between Erickson and Hunter and the secret one between Fraser and Karthigesu it was no surprise when Guerra was voted out The final four then went on to compete in the final immunity challenge which Fraser won That left him guaranteed with a spot in the final three and faced with the decision of picking one member he wished to take along with him leaving the other two to battle for the final spot in a fire-making challenge Fraser and Karthigesu realized that despite their close alliance neither required to take the other to the final three which meant Karthigesu was going to make fire He then notified Hunter he was choosing him That left Erickson as the other fire maker The two women spent the afternoon practicing fire making As Erickson repeatedly failed at generating a flame she began getting frustrated and starting crying Fraser heard Erickson s wails and explained Hunter that he would instead take Erickson if it was going to be traumatic for her to compete in the fire challenge As he did the previous time Erickson had a breakdown on the show Hunter ran over hugged her hard and calmed her down He reported Erickson he would take her place in the fire-making challenge Despite her tearful breakdown Erickson committed herself to going ahead with the challenge Joe is the majority of amazing human he s so selfless she disclosed But this has to be me I have to learn to do this myself Hunter sat down and went through the basics of how to build a fire with Erickson who eventually got a flame going and then right away proceeded to try again and spent the rest of the afternoon practicing At tribal council Erickson right away noticed the fire making station had different types of tinder than the ones she practiced with and she openly stared at it trying to take in all the new materials She later notified host Jeff Probst that prior to competing she practiced making fire in the backyard of her apartment every day Once the challenge began Erickson got off to a quick start and got a flame going The idea was to build a fire strong enough to burn through a string stretched out about two feet above the base Erickson methodically built and tended her fire and watched it grow almost to the point of a win But it died down and after particular panicking Erickson got back on track and built the fire back to a winning strength Karthigesu meanwhile never even managed to get a flame going The final day of Survivor opened with the final three indulging in a feast Erickson explained competing exhibited her countless things about herself that she never expected Despite bringing an emotional toll she reported the show also brought her great friends and great happiness If there is anything I have contributed to season it is heart she disclosed Erickson had notified her fellow contestants she was merely a hockey playing college scholar She revealed to the final three that she s also presently pursuing a Ph D at Brown University School of Engineering which led Hunter to say that Erickson is almost a medical expert at this point Fraser who had previously reported everyone he was a tutor came clean and revealed he was a lawyer Erickson was all smiles when she arrived at the final tribal council and held her own in the interrogation from the jury that followed When urged what her weakness was in the contest she disclosed she didn t think of her autism was a weakness but it caused weaknesses in herself When discussing voting based on relationships she explained she came into the show not expecting her social challenge would be so crucial She went on to say that her alliance with Hunter is one of the strongest duos to ever exist in Survivor history In her final address to the jury Erickson noted that it was an unprecedented season of Survivor and she deserved to be the unprecedented winner In the final vote Erickson picked up nods from substance abuse counselor Mary Zheng and sales expert Star Toomey Surgeon Cedrek McFadden voted for Hunter with Fraser picking up the remaining five votes and winning the cash prize 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