Coming in at 58 years old, Sue Smey is the oldest castaway to stem from Survivor 47, eager to take home the million-dollar prize and the title of “Sole Survivor” at the end of the show.
For those who are unfamiliar with Sue, the “badass, fearless, adrenaline junkie” is born and raised in New York, owning her own flight school as a career, as well as enjoying racket ball, tennis, snow skiing, ice skating, building stone fireplaces, making mantles or wood columns, and more in her free time. Is there anything she can’t do?
Not only does she want to win Survivor 47 to better the lives of her and her family, but Sue is eager to shock her tribemates when she becomes the oldest winner in Survivor history. In her eyes, nobody will see it coming, but it looks like her deception skills might not be as strong as they seem…
You may be wondering why would becoming the oldest winner in Survivor history be a shock, exactly. Well, in episode 4 of the Emmy Award-winning series, Sue made the bold choice to tell her fellow Tuku tribe members—Caroline Vidmar, Gabe Ortis, Kyle Ostwald, and Tiyana Hallums (and formerly TK Foster)—that she is 45 years old, chopping a whopping 13 years off of her age. How wild is that?
Needless to say, fans of the show were infuriated by this sloppy gameplay, taking to social media (specifically X) to share a series of memes that poke fun at the situation. After all, based on looks alone, there’s no way the flight school owner is actually 45 years old.
Not only does lying about her age make her seem untrustworthy — especially since her lie is nowhere near believable—but it also goes against how Sue wanted to be perceived on Survivor 47 prior to filming. After all, in a pre-season interview with Parade, Sue told longtime Survivor writer and reporter Mike Bloom that she wanted to be viewed as the “older lady” of the show, among many other things:
“I’m the older lady… Obviously, they’re already looking, saying, ‘Okay, this is the older lady.’ I’m bubbly. They’re going to think I’m ditzy, that I’m just here for the fun of it or whatever. Little do they know I aced the boards in the medical industry. I’ve aced the FAA exams in the aviation industry. And, my greatest schooling is my street smarts, school of hard knocks. I grew up in a difficult time, different era, and I feel like I’m very rounded in all of the aspects.”
Needless to say, Sue’s strategy is all over the place—contradicting some of the things she said in her pre-game press—but will it be enough to get her to the merge nevertheless? The only way to know for sure is to tune into brand new episodes of Survivor 47 each and every Wednesday via CBS, with next-day streaming via Paramount Plus.
Already being caught red-handed—but simultaneously earning herself a coveted Hidden Immunity Idol—in episode 4, episode 5 could either make Sue public enemy number one, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Only time will tell what the rest of the game will look like for the 58-year-old (AKA 45-year-old).