Blood is thicker than water — except in the game of “Survivor.”
Ciera Eastin proved that on Thursday when she voted out her own mother, Laura Morett, to help further herself in the game.
“If you weren’t in the game right now, I know I’d be in the final three,” Ciera had told her mother during a pre-Tribal Council chat. “I don’t know if I would win but I think I have a better shot at winning than you would.”
While it was a strategic move, the decision to literally write “Mom” on the parchment paper weighed on the 24-year-old, who teared up as the votes were read, and sobbed when she said goodbye to her mother.
Mom took the betrayal in stride, even telling her daughter, “I’ll come back for you” as she left for Redemption Island. In her post-vote interview, however, she admitted to having conflicting feelings about being taken out of the game by someone she had brought into the world.
“I’m having a hard time defining how I’m feeling about Ciera writing my name down because it sucks that I’m here, it sucks that Ciera had to do that, it sucks that she did that,” she said.
The 24-year-old's move resulted in her taking a verbal beating on Twitter during Thursday’s episode. Several former “Survivor” castaways expressed their surprise that a daughter could turn on her own mother.
Morett was quick to jump to her daughter’s defense, repeatedly telling nay-sayers that she was proud of her daughter for making such a strategic move.