Gabe explains what he meant when he told Survivor host Jeff Probst ‘I’ll be back’

Survivor 47 said goodbye to Gabe Ortis (as a player) during the latest episode. He was eliminated by a 7-2 vote at the Tribal Council.

As host Jeff Probst was snuffing Gabe’s torch, the outgoing castaways made a statement that fans have been debating about on social media.

“I’ll be back,” Gabe told Jeff right before he walked off.

“Time for you to go,” Jeff said out of habit, as Gabe was already walking away.

Gabe seemed very confident in his abilities to play Survivor, and he seemed surprised about getting eliminated on Episode 10.

Luckily, Gabe can now speak to his mindset and why he said that since he is home watching the episodes.

Why did Gabe tell Jeff ‘I’ll be back’ on Survivor 47?

Gabe was asked about his statement during an exit interview and whether or not it was planned.

“Total spur of the moment thing. I didn’t even know what I was going to say or if I was going to say anything when I got up there, I had no idea,” Gabe revealed to Entertainment Weekly.

“And when he goes and he snuffs my torch, and you can see I’m looking at it the entire time, I just had this image in my head of he pulls the snuffer off and the fire just comes back up,” Gabe added.

That image he saw was a mental one where he pictured his torch getting lit again. Gabe is confident that he deserves another chance to play Survivor and wants Jeff to know it.

“I just looked Probst dead in the eyes and said, ‘I’ll be back’ and got out of there. So yeah, total spur of the moment thing,” Gabe elaborated.

Gabe got very specific when asked if he thinks he will be invited to play Survivor again.

“Oh yeah. I mean, come on. If I’m not, somebody should get fired,” he noted.

So what do you think? Should Gabe Ortis get another shot at playing Survivor? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Either way, we will see Gabe return as a member of the Survivor 47 jury.

More Survivor news and notes

Here are the details on the Survivor 47 season finale. CBS is doing things differently this year, with the finale advertised as a two-night event.

A preview for The Traitors 3 features four Survivor alums. A new season of The Traitors arrives this winter and stars several Survivor legends.

CBS revealed the Survivor 48 start date. A new group of players was invited to Fiji to compete for that $1 million prize.

Previous episodes of Survivor are streaming on Paramount+.

Survivor 47 airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

All episodes of Survivor are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!

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