Utahn, Mormon feels the ire of fellow player on 'Survivor: Caramoan - Fans vs. Favorites'

Utahn Dawn Meehan felt the brunt of Brandon Hantz’s volatile ire after the first tribal council on “Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs. Favorites” when 38-year-old Francesca Hogi was voted out first.

Hogi had been the first voted out when she initially played on “Survivor: Redemption Island.”

Hantz, 21, had aligned himself with Hogi and two others and Meehan and 25-year-old John Cochran had swung their votes to a different alliance targeting Hogi.

Meehan was in tears the night after tribal council.

“I try so hard to not disrespect people … I would never do that to someone,” a teary Meehan said. Meehan and Hantz both were previously on “Survivor: South Pacific.” “And so to have someone do it to me, it’s like my brain can’t process it.”

But in the end, Meehan said that it doesn’t matter what Hantz thinks of her.

“If he treats other people like that, it’s like pollution,” said Meehan, who is a South Jordan mother of six adopted children and an English professor at Brigham Young University.

Meanwhile, Hantz said he wanted to mess with things around camp, with the attitude similar to that of of his uncle, the infamous "Survivor" villain Russell Hantz.

“This is a game and I want to play it dirty to the core,” Hantz said. “I want to go out with a bang.”

But by the next morning, Hantz had a clearer head and decided to not be a mischief-maker around camp — at least not yet.

“The only thing I can predict about Brandon is that he is going to be unpredictable,” Cochran said. “And that gives me very little solace in this game where predictability is everything.”

The team of returning players handily won the immunity and reward challenge, which included releasing submerged rings, taking a raft back to the beach and tossing the rings on poles. The reward was a variety of fishing gear.

“It’s pretty exciting,” a smiling Meehan said after the challenge. Meehan is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Founders Park 8th Ward, South Jordan Utah Founders Park Stake.

The team of fans went to tribal council, where 25-year-old Alexandra “Allie” Pohevitz was blindsided.

Shamar Thomas, 27, was also targeted at the tribal council vote, but his alliance of six all voted for Pohevitz.

Reynold Toepfer, 30, who was in an alliance with Pohevitz, found the hidden immunity idol, but didn’t hide it nearly as well as he thought as he was called out on it at tribal council.

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