Survivor 50, the most anticipated Survivor season possibly ever, is off to a fantastic start. There is something for almost every Survivor fan in this premiere. A beautiful montage at the start of the episode recapping the history of the entire show, players from different eras of the show interacting with each other, and perhaps most importantly, the return of the Ozzy vs Coach rivalry! Everything was amazing from start to finish, and even with two devastating eliminations, this season has potential to be one of the best ever..
The marooning challenge was nothing special. Honestly, the whole time I was just in awe that I was finally watching this season after two years of anticipation. The magenta Vatu tribe does pull out the victory though, shocking considering how many people had predicted they would be the disaster tribe. After the marooning is when the true magic starts though…
The Kalo Tribe
Kalo unfortunately got the least amount of focus in the premiere due to their tribe being the only one not to lose a member, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have any amazing moments. First of all, as mentioned before, it is just amazing watching all of these players from across the show’s history interacting with one another. One of the most memorable was Coach honoring Charlie by allowing him to wear his toe ring for a couple seconds. It’s these character moments that really make the show, and it’s clear Coach has not lost a step since his last appearance on South Pacific. Also, a New Era women’s alliance seems to be forming between Kamilla, Dee, and Tiffany. These three women are all fierce strategic forces and could be a deadly alliance. I am especially excited to see Kamilla finally get to play a more strategic cutthroat game after having her gameplay neutered on 48. That dig at honesty and integrity is well appreciated, by the way! It was somewhat shocking to see Dee be a big target right off the bat for Chrissy and Jonathan, but this could be her chance to showcase her skillset and ability to adapt. One last thing, Mike White has abs! Who would’ve known?
The Cila Tribe
The surprise disaster tribe seemingly, Cila was a beautiful mess to watch from start to finish. First of all, a bromance between Christian and Devens starts almost immediately. Two strategic stars from the late 30s of Survivor teaming up feels so perfect. They’re seemingly at the core of their tribe too, forming the majority alliance with Emily, Joe and Savannah. We also have Jenna’s glorious flame out, going after Cirie almost right out of the gate. She tries getting everyone on board to vote out Cirie before the first immunity challenge even begins! Unfortunately for Jenna, Devens rats her out to Cirie almost immediately, starting their one episode rivalry. Speaking of Cirie, she is in general is such a star in this episode. Her beautiful mat chat at the marooning, tight partnership with Ozzy, and somehow surviving the first vote even after her horrific challenge fumble. Jenna aimed at the queen and missed.
Also, I was so wrong about Ozzy. I was initially disappointed that he was on the cast, but he stuck true to his preseason words about wanting to play a different game this time around. He was such an integral part to making this episode great. His rivalry with Coach is something I’ll save for later, but he provided so much entertainment. First of all, convincing Q to practically give him his vote at Exile Island proves he has a much stronger strategic mind this time around. Even if he is currently on the bottom, he can pull himself out with the extra vote and idol gifted by Genevieve. Also, his partnership with Cirie is so nice to see and I can’t wait to see how it plays out. The two have had a complicated history. Cirie was a big part in orchestrating Ozzy’s blindside on Micronesia but was blindsided alongside him when he was voted off of Game Changers. Now, on their third season together, the two are in lockstep. He deserves his spot on this season.
The Vatu Tribe
Vatu had so many interesting dynamics and a complete shake up to those dynamics at the end of the episode with Kyle’s medical evacuation. First, of all, Colby and Rizo’s dynamic is everything. At first, Colby is put off by Rizo and sees him as annoying, only to grow a soft spot for him minutes later. The two’s heart to heart was heartwarming and I hope they both make it deep together. Seeing Rizo on this season in general is great. He is such a superfan and seeing him react to being able to play with all of these legends is amazing. Genevieve, despite being one of the biggest targets in the preseason, is in the majority alliance and even finds the highly anticipated Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol. Speaking of which, thank goodness the celebrities aren’t playing a major role for the most part. This idol is interesting, as Genevieve can’t keep the idol for herself and must send it to someone on another tribe. Only if they get voted off does she get the idol. Not as powerful as imagined, but still has a lot of intrigue. She was in such a great spot, it sucks that by the end of the episode two of her allies have lost their votes and one is pulled from the game. That confessional after Kyle’s med evac gutted me. On a more positive note, her ‘Girl, so confusing’ moment with Rachel from 47 is recreated day 1 with Aubry. I’m excited to see how this potential rivalry will play out.
The Journey
There can’t be a modern Survivor premiere without a journey, and Survivor 50 follows that rule. On day 4, each tribe must send one tribe member on the journey. Mike White, Savannah, and Colby are all selected. Colby being selected for the journey was everything I could have asked for. Going into 50, one of the things I was most excited about was the potential of Colby going on a journey and being confused the whole time. This journey was one of the better ones. After arriving, it is revealed that only two people will participate in the journey challenge. And Mike White, ironically the one who was most excited about going on the journey, is immediately sent back to camp. Not before Savannah tells him what Ozzy said about Coach though…
Savannah and Colby must compete in a Jenga-like game to determine who keeps their vote and who loses it. Unfortunately for Colby, who was initially unenthused about the journey, he loses the game and his vote. After Colby’s boat leaves, Savannah receives an envelope that reveals she’s earned a block-a-vote and that fans voted for dynamic advantages (which fans?). Although she wants to hide this, once she returns to camp, Devens is convinced she must have some kind of advantage. After seemingly being in a decent spot, this journey could be what sinks Savannah’s game.
The Return of Ozzy vs Coach
On Survivor South Pacific, Ozzy and Coach were pitted against each other from day 1, being the two returning captains on the season. After Coach’s tribe gained the numbers at the merge due to Cochran’s flip, Ozzy’s side was Pagonged. Ozzy fights his way back from Redemption Island though and Coach tells him he wants to go to the end together. However, after Ozzy loses final immunity, Coach goes back on his word and votes him out. Then, Ozzy doesn’t vote for him to win at final tribal council and Coach thinks he poisoned the jury against him. Now, the two are on 50 together and want to turn over a new leaf. They have that chance when, alongside Q, both are selected to do a challenge for supplies by their tribes. Once they arrive on the island, they indeed make up… For 3 minutes maybe. After the challenge begins, Ozzy gains a huge head-start over Coach and Q. For the final part of the challenge, each player must build a stick long enough to reach and retrieve a key from behind a bamboo wall. This is something Ozzy has done before, but this time, he’s struggling, allowing Coach and Q to catch up. The three try and fail to retrieve the key for nearly an hour. Ozzy eventually tells Coach and Q he promises not to steal the key from whoever knocks it off, but neither say anything. Ozzy then knocks off the key, only for Coach to steal it to Ozzy’s dismay. Ozzy is pissed and thinks that Coach broke his honor and went against everything they had talked about before. After Coach leaves, Ozzy and Q find out that they are stuck on Exile Island for the night. Once Ozzy finally returns to camp, he tells everyone about what Coach did, which Savannah reveals to Mike on the journey and Mike then reveals to Coach, who is now pissed as well. Their rivalry is back in full swing and Coach will seemingly call out Ozzy at the next immunity challenge based off the preview. Survivor has never been more back!
The Two Boots
In the premiere, we lost both Jenna and Kyle. Jenna, one of the original 16 castaways, has been a fierce and aggressive player since All Stars. While on that season, she successfully led the charge against all of the winners and almost won the game, on 50, that gameplay style was her demise. It sucks that she’s the first boot, knowing she’s been itching to play again for over 20 years, but her vote off was almost entirely self-inflicted. She came out swinging, gunning for Cirie but not putting much effort into actually forming bonds with the rest of her team. The result? None of them really trusted her and they all voted her out even after Cirie’s poor challenge performance was the reason they lost.
In a way, Kyle and Jenna parallel each other. While Jenna aggressively targeted who she perceived to be threats right off the bat without forming any bonds, Kyle made sure he was well insulated in the game by forming bonds before trying to make any moves. Despite only lasting one episode, he proves himself to be maybe the best player of the new era. He’s at the center of the majority alliance with Stephenie, Colby, Genevieve, and Q. Within that alliance, he’s good with Colby and Stephenie and separately tightly aligned with Genevieve and Q. Even outside the alliance, he’s in a trio with Angelina and Aubry, something that was not shown in the episode. This is despite everyone having just watched him win days before they flew out to Fiji. Without that torn Achilles, he very well could have been the third two-time winner. Even with it, he was determined to stay in the game despite the risks and it seemed his tribe would have kept him around despite his injury. The silver lining is he is now one of only 3 winners to play multiple times and never get their torch snuffed. Kyle for the next all star season?
A 10/10 Premiere?
The Survivor 50 premiere was a captivating watch throughout all of its three hour runtime. It sets a strong tone for the rest of the season and I have very little gripes with it. If the rest of the season is as good as the premiere, Survivor 50 has potential to enter the upper echelon of Survivor seasons. Let’s hope Jeff Probst was right about calling this season one of the best of all time…
The Survivor 50 casting process was a bloodbath. So many iconic players like Jerri Manthey, Abi-Maria Gomez, and Carolyn Wiger were cut from the cast despite seeming like obvious locks for the season. These players were not only cut, but were very vocally upset and disappointed online. These legends were cut despite Survivor 50 having the largest cast size ever for a US season of Survivor at 24 players! So, what did the 24 selected players do on their prior appearances to be chosen for a spot that so many legends craved? Do they have incomplete storylines that a return could satisfy? A completely new approach to the game? Or do they just make for entertaining television? Well, on this post I will be attempting to create a storyline for every single player on this season based off their preseason interviews with Mike Bloom and their short player intros on the official Survivor account’s Instagram and TikTok accounts.
Jenna Lewis-Dougherty (Borneo, All Stars)
Jenna Lewis now holds the record for the largest gap between seasons played, having last played on season 8, All Stars, an over 20 year gap! And she is coming into this season hungry to play again. In her interviews, she is coming off strong, wanting to target huge threats like Cirie Fields right off the bat. She is willing to adapt to New Era gameplay, something she did on All Stars, immediately targeting the winners and making alliances. She’s going to give Survivor 50 her all and seems to have a lot of people wanting to be friends with her preseason. The question is, will she play too hard too fast and burn all of those potential relationships?
Colby Donaldson (Australian Outback, All Stars, Heroes vs Villains)
Colby Donaldson, once the Golden Boy of Survivor. The first challenge beast and an honorable player, giving up the million by taking his close ally Tina to the end. However, diminishing returns on All Stars and Heroes vs Villains gained him the reputation of “Superman in a fat suit.” Heading into 50, Colby is ready to redeem his image. He has kept up with recent Survivor seasons, something he infamously hasn’t done in the past, and is willing to adapt. Although this is his first season without his rival turned friend, Jerri, I believe this could be his most interesting run yet. He will prove on 50 that he’s not an out-of-touch grouch from the early days and that he still has it.
Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick (Palau, Guatemala, Heroes vs Villains)
Most known for being the only Survivor player to ever be on a tribe of one, Stephenie disappeared from the reality TV scene after her lackluster appearance on Heroes vs Villains. However, she recently sprung back up, competing on Snake in the Grass and The Traitors not that long ago. She’s played both of those shows alongside Cirie Fields, who has outplayed her on both. Now, she’s back to Survivor, also with Cirie. Will she work with Cirie, or try to be the one to outplay her this time? And how will she approach the game now that her life is so radically different from the last time she played?
Cirie Fields (Panama, Micronesia, Heroes vs Villains, Game Changers)
Cirie is widely considered the best player to never win in Survivor. Famously, she has never been naturally voted out of the game with a majority of the votes: losing a fire-making tiebreaker in Panama, being voted out with 1 vote due to a surprise last-minute final 3 in Micronesia, getting idoled out in Heroes vs Villains, and being voted out with 0 votes on Game Changers. And despite having a Traitors win under her belt, Cirie is still itching for the Survivor crown. She still has lots of people on this cast willing to work with her and her natural skills for the game should get her far. Will she finally get that victory or heartbreakingly fall short yet again?
Ozzy Lusth (Cook Islands, Micronesia, South Pacific, Game Changers)
Ozzy, the ‘Jungle Boy,’ of Survivor, has had a wild Survivor journey. Falling one vote short of winning on Cook Islands, getting brutally blindsided in Micronesia by the Black Widow Brigade, and falling one immunity challenge away from winning on South Pacific. However, his lackluster Game Changers performance leaves many worried he’ll just do more of the same on 50. Be a provider in the pre-merge, only to be voted out early in the merge as a physical threat. This time around though, Ozzy seems to be aware that that kind of gameplay doesn’t work. He and Cirie seem to be locked in allies from day 1, even starting on the same tribe. The question is, will he actually adapt and change up his game or just fall into his same old ways?
Benjamin ‘Coach’ Wade (Tocantins, Heroes vs Villains, South Pacific)
Coach, the Dragonslayer, is someone who needs absolutely no introduction. One of the most entertaining and whacky people to ever be on Survivor. He’s had a tumultuous Survivor journey, with nobody really taking him seriously on his first two appearances only for him to completely dominate the game on South Pacific. This time around, almost everyone wants to befriend the Dragonslayer. He has potential to win the game this time around, but will he actually try to play strategically, or is he just back out on the island for a good time?
Aubry Bracco (Kaoh Rong, Game Changers, Edge of Extinction)
Aubry by far has one of the most interest trajectories out of anyone in this cast. She was a star on her first season, controversially losing the game to Michele Fitzgerald. She was quickly brought back two more times, but was not able to live up to her first appearance. Her appearance on Edge of Extinction was especially difficult, as she describes herself as being on ‘autopilot’ during it. Her early blindside and overall poor showing on that season ended her Survivor experience on a sour note. She never thought that she would get another opportunity to play Survivor again. She was surprised to get a call for 50! Now that she’s here though, this appearance is about healing her relationship with Survivor. She’s coming into the game with a completely new outlook and a much more positive mindset. She is looking for redemption and closure.
Chrissy Hofbeck (Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers)
Chrissy was famously one of the first victims of Final Four Firemaking. While she still made it to final tribal council, FFF allowed for the huge jury threat Ben to survive the final 4 round and win. After her season, many fans believed that Chrissy should get another chance to play. However, after 40 was revealed to be Winners at War (which she wasn’t eligible for) and more time passed without any returnee seasons, fans worried production would forget about her. Luckily, she’s here. and after a huge health scare and worry that her body wouldn’t be able to handle Survivor anymore, she’s more ready to play than ever. She will make the most out of this second chance and have a great time doing it.
Mike White (David vs Goliath)
Mike White has a very successful life outside of Survivor. He is a famous, prolific writer and the creator of the hit show ‘The White Lotus.’ Yet, he is still ecstatic to play this game as a ‘vacation’ from his busy career. Mike White is aware that he has little chance of winning, and is instead determined to make the season as entertaining as possible. While it unfortunately is looking like many people are itching to target him because of his out-of-game success, he should provide a fun time no matter how short his stay could be.
Angelina Keeley (David vs Golliath)
Angelina provided some of Survivor’s most entertaining moments on her first appearance. Asking for Natalie’s jacket before her exit, starting rice bargaining in Survivor, and risking her life by climbing a ladder for an idol. While she is looked at similarly to how Coach was on his first return, a whacky player who’s not a serious threat, Angelina is looking to shock people. She is coming into this game as a literal mother with more life experience and maturity than her first time around, ready to play strategically. She could become a serious threat to win if it works out. However, will her reputation be too much to overcome?
Christian Hubicki (David vs Goliath)
Christian was one of the breakout stars of David vs Goliath. A lovable underdog who became a threat for being too likable. He seemed like a lock for the next returnee season immediately after DvG ended. He also seemed like an immediate target on whatever season he was on next. However, now that 8 years have passed since David vs Goliath, much bigger targets have emerged. That doesn’t mean that Christian isn’t prepared to become a huge target again, though. Christian is well aware of the perception he has and has played the preseason optimally, with an innovative strategy for the season. He hid the news of his newborn baby from everyone in the Survivor community, even his close friend and interviewer, Mike Bloom. He created a theory on the way the season was casted and wants to create ‘narrative warfare’ to avoid being targeted. He is doing everything he can to set himself up well in the game. Will his amazing mind for the game allow him to outrun his threat level?
Rick Devens (Edge of Extinction)
Rick Devens was the main character on Survivor Edge of Extinction. His underdog run after coming back in the game and his advantage plays were grappling to watch. However, instead of being the hero who takes it all, Devens was the final boss, as Chris Underwood swooped in after returning from the Edge of Extinction to take down Devens at final 4 fire-making and snatch the victory. After his incredible run, Devens seemed like a lock to return on a future season. To the shock of everyone though, Devens revealed to Mike Bloom that he was originally an alternate for 50 and only made the cut late into the casting process. Almost not even having this second chance put a fire under Devens to play as hard as he can. He’s going to take all of the risks he can to make a splash. He’ll either go down in flames or give us one of the most chaotic winning games of all time.
Jonathan Young (42)
Jonathan’s most memorable moment came early in Survivor 42. During the pre-merge, he carried an entire ladder and his teammates all by himself despite ocean tides so heavy Jeff had to call off the water portion of the challenge. Beyond that, he also proved himself to be somewhat of a competent strategic player, having a solid alliance that got him to the final 4. However, he had little win equity. It seems that for 50 almost everyone wants Jonathan on their starting tribe for his challenge strength. He seems practically guaranteed to make the merge at least. The question is, will he prove that he is more than just muscle or become the new Ozzy?
Dee Valladares (45)
The first of 3 winners on 50, Dee is widely considered the best winner of the New Era. She was in a dominant position the entire game, with her alliance, the Reba Four, managing to make it to the final 6 together. She consistently betrayed her closest ally Austin yet he was still loyal. Her decision-making and strategy got out the biggest threats to her game (Kellie, Kendra, Emily). And when the Reba 4 did turn on each other, she was the one in control, plotting Drew’s demise. However, on 50, Dee is likely to start off the game with a massive target on her back. She will have to adapt her gameplay and play from the bottom. If Dee is able to make it deep despite her massive target and somehow find herself in another strong alliance, she could become one of the best Survivor players of all time.
Emily Flippen (45)
Emily had one of the greatest one season arcs of the New Era. Before the marooning challenge even began, she had already called out Bruce for having an advantage over everyone else and “talking with authority.” She was almost the first boot of her tribe but ended up coming into the merge as one of its only two survivors. She then became a serious contender, orchestrating the Bruce blindside only to be idoled out the next round. Coming into 50, Emily wants to completely rewrite how her story ended. The reason she is ever out on the beach again after notably saying she didn’t want to play again is because she hates that she left the game describing herself as having softened. She’s ready to cause some chaos on 50 and not shy away from her abrasive personality. Her Survivor legacy will drastically change, one way or another.
Charlie Davis (46)
Charlie is coming into Survivor 50 similarly to how Rob Cesternino came into All Stars or Aubry came into Game Changers. He is the guy who many people believe should have won his season. Coming one vote away from winning 46 and that vote being from his closest ally throughout the entire game must have stung. He is definitely coming into 50 seeking redemption for that. However, coming into a returnee season shortly after nearly winning has spelled disaster for players in the past. Unfortunately, it seems Charlie is not aware of how much of a target he is coming into the season and that could spell danger for him. He will either come out of 50 having proven himself as one of the greatest players of all time or an early casualty like Rob C.
Quintavius ‘Q’ Burdette (46)
Q is one of, if not the most entertaining and chaotic players to come out of the New Era. He was such an entertaining and unique personality that Jeff called Q a lock for 50 before the casting process even properly began. However, because of how whacky of a character Q is, he is coming into 50 similarly to how Coach came into Heroes vs Villains. He’s an erratic player who most won’t want to work with or take seriously. Luckily for Q, he is fully willing to lean into his personality and already has in the preseason, saying he’ll target Emily for “eating beef, drinking coke, and being left handed.” He wants to have people joining the ‘Q wagon,’ whatever that means. No matter how long or short of a stay Q has, he will provide for an entertaining time.
Tiffany Nicole Ervin (46)
Every Survivor returnee season has at least one confusing, seemingly random pick on the cast, and Tiffany seems to be that person for Survivor 50. However, many questionable returnee picks like Amber Brkich in All Stars, Kelley Wentworth in Cambodia, or Sarah Lacina in Game Changers have cemented their spot in Survivor history on their returns. Tiffany has the potential to follow in this line of players. She is a very capable strategic player from the mess of Survivor 46 and doesn’t seem to have anyone wanting to target her early on. She has tons of potential and a lot to prove.
Genevieve Mushaluk (47)
The sole representative from Survivor 47, a player with one of the most interesting arcs of all time, and Twitter’s favorite player, Genevieve is coming into this season with a lot of hype and a huge threat level. Genevieve proved herself early on in Survivor 47, orchestrating Kishan’s blindside in the pre-merge. However, she encapsulated the emotions and feelings that come with playing a ruthless game when she opened up about purposefully closing herself off from everyone else so that they wouldn’t be as hurt as Kishan or Teeny were when she betrayed them. She helped orchestrate one of the best New Era moves with Operation Italy and became the eventual winner, Rachel’s, biggest rival. Coming into 50, Genevieve is just as willing to lie, backstab, and betray people. She’s leaning into her image of being a ruthless strategic player to have people come up to her whenever they want to backstab an ally. She’s not going to close herself off this time, instead forming those connections with others until she needs to vote them out. Lots of people are after her because of her ruthlessness. Will she be able to outsmart them?
Kyle Fraser (48)
Mere days before everyone flew out for Survivor 50, the cast members had just watched Kyle win Survivor 48, having outwitted Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson alongside his secret partner in crime Kamilla Karthigesu. Now that he’s on 50 with Joe and Kamilla, he is in deep danger early on. At least one of him or Kamilla will not survive the pre-merge. Already having that victory under his belt means that Kyle is willing to take more risks on 50 than 48. He’ll have to take those risks if he wants to survive.
Joe Hunter (48)
For most of Survivor 48’s run, people had assumed that Joe would easily run away with the million. He was seemingly the biggest threat in the game yet not enough people wanted to target him. His gameplay style of ‘honesty and integrity’ shaped the strategy of the season, for the better or worse. However, he shockingly lost and was actually a final tribal goat. Coming into 50, that mantra of honesty and integrity is still attached to him. He’s seemingly not going to change up his strategy that much, calling practically everyone on the cast a friend. People definitely want to work with him, knowing he would be a loyal ally. It could get him far yet again, but it could also fail to gain him any respect from a potential jury.
Kamilla Karthigesu (48)
On a season with a mantra of honesty and integrity, Kamilla was one of the few players actively willing to lie and deceive. Her snarky confessionals and refreshing strategic talk compared to the rest of her cast made her a fan favorite on Twitter. On a season like 50, which is much more likely to incentivize strategic, cutthroat gameplay, Kamilla could have a chance to play the game she wanted to play in 48. However, being on the season with Kyle puts a huge target on her back, as does the fact she almost won. In her interviews, she is notably pissed that Kyle is also on 50, knowing it could sink her game. She has lots of potential to blossom as a strategic force if Kyle leaves early, but if he survives long enough, he could become a burden that sinks her chances.
Savannah Louie (49)
The first ever winner to play on back to back seasons, Savannah has potential to become the first back-to-back winner. Unfortunately, her chances are not looking great. Practically no one trusts her or wants to work with her. People are already suspecting her to be a winner in their preseason interviews, forcing her to come clean about it. She could be an easy first boot if her tribe loses a challenge early. Savannah has a lot going against her on 50, quite possibly the biggest target on the entire cast. If she is somehow able to survive even to the merge, it will be a miraculous performance.
Rizo Velovic (49)
A player who is willing to take risks and never take the easy route, Rizo is a dangerous strategic force. However, the only impression the Survivor 50 cast has of him is him calling himself ‘Rizgod’ in the Survivor 49 trailer. While that alone is already causing many people to look at him as a target, it is also something that he can and is willing to play to his advantage. He wants to create a perception of himself as just a goofy guy with a silly nickname. He will have an easier time hiding his strategic ability than Savannah. If he succeeds, he could make another deep run and force people to start seriously considering the ‘Rizgod’ as one of the greatest players of all time.
Survivor 49 is not a bad season of Survivor. It is a season that— despite a slow start— picks up a lot of steam during the merge, which is genuinely unpredictable the whole way through. Yet, the conversation surrounding the season was largely negative throughout its entire run. And unfortunately, the season’s negative rep has less to do with the castaways or the content of the season itself, and more with the place it takes in Survivor’s run. It comes right before the monumental 50th season that has been hyped up for years and after 8 straight seasons of the repetitive New Era Survivor format. Add in the fact that the season’s winner, Savannah, and final four fire-making loser Rizo were leaked to be on 50 long before the season even began airing and you realize way too many things were working against the season for it to ever be given a fair shot.
The premiere unfortunately fails to start the season off strong. Like most new era seasons, it starts with a largely unremarkable marooning challenge that the Hina tribe wins pretty handily, followed by a duel between Alex and Rizo for camp supplies. Admittedly, the duel is the highlight of the episode, as after Alex gains a massive lead in finding the puzzle pieces and completing the puzzle, Rizo simply copies off Alex’s board as Alex struggles to find the ship wheel needed to complete the challenge. He snatches the victory, although this was an omen for his poor puzzle and challenge abilities. We see the tribe dynamics, with the Hina tribe initially seeming the most interesting as Matt builds himself up to be the camp provider while Steven quickly becomes paranoid and we learn more about his imposter syndrome. If only this tribe were properly edited following this! On the Uli tribe, the core four of Nate, Savannah, Rizo, and Shannon quickly forms and we get to see Savannah’s perspective on Shannon’s deceiving gameplay and the tribe as a whole. A strong edit right off the bat! The soon-to-be disaster tribe Kele has the most boring dynamics though, a shame since they’ll take up most of the screentime for the first three episodes. Alex and Jake quickly form a bromance and Blue Sophi aligns with them as the perfect meat shields. Jeremiah sees potential in Jake, Sophi, and Alex as allies, forming the core four and leaving the two challenge liabilities on the bottom. Jake also dubs himself the ‘Shoe Bandit,’ stealing Nicole’s shoes, seemingly out of boredom and a desire for screentime. Then comes the challenge, which Nicole and Annie play a large part in losing for the Kele tribe, making it pretty obvious one of the two will be voted out. Back at camp, its obvious to everyone that either Nicole or Annie will be voted out and the two scramble to save themselves. The core four quickly decide to save Annie, partly due to Alex’s bond with her, but she almost ruins it with her messiness in telling Blue Sophi her plan to target Jake in the following round. At tribal council, Nicole is voted out in a straightforward 5-1 vote, largely due to her weakness in challenges. It’s a shame because with more time, Nicole could have become a great character with dynamic and interesting gameplay. Unfortunately though, her Survivor legacy is reduced to her spitting in Jeremiah’s face after the immunity challenge and throwing up at camp.
Episode 2 does little to pick up the slack that the premiere had. An Annie downfall is set up from the very first scene, as she delusionally believes that she is in control of the tribe and plans to blindside the clear leader Jake. On the Uli tribe, we get the start to Jawan and Savannah’s rivalry after he accidentally steals her bag to collect firewood, a plot that does not reach its resolution until the final 8. On the under-edited Hina tribe, an alliance of four is formed between Matt, Steven, Kristina, and MC, but Matt makes it painfully obvious to MC she’s on the bottom, causing some doubt within the alliance. If only we ever got to see any of these dynamics play out! The obligatory journey is slightly better than usual, with no one guaranteed to lose their vote between Jake, Jawan, and Matt. Instead, the winner of the journey challenge, Jawan, gets to choose between stealing one of the other two’s votes in exchange for an extra vote or penalizing one of the tribes at the next immunity challenge. A welcome change that makes the journeys a less infuriating part of the show. Jawan opts to penalize an opposing tribe in hopes of building goodwill with his tribemates. Back to the snoozefest Kele tribe, Jake continues his pointless ‘Shoe Bandit’ schtick by stealing Annie’s shoes and Alex finds the beware advantage, which he can’t unlock unless his tribe loses, which we know they will. At the immunity challenge, Jawan delivers a penalty to the Hina tribe, only for them to still get first place and his Uli tribe to be bailed out by Kele’s disaster puzzle performance. Back at camp, it is painfully obvious that Annie is getting the boot to everyone except Annie herself. The main intrigue is Alex’s idol search. Blue Sophi and Jake help him look for it and Blue Sophi delivers the only real entertaining moment of the episode by attempting to snab Alex’s idol. The show pretends there is a chance Blue Sophi will leave due to her poor challenge performance, but obviously that doesn’t happen. Annie is somehow blindsided when she gets voted out in a 4-1 vote in boring fashion. Annie was never able to gain footing in the game and her early departure was not shocking at all, but at least she was willing to play the game and give it all she had.
Episode 3 is a weird episode. It was foretold through the episode’s preview and trailers leading up to it that Jake would be medically evacuated from the game due to a snake bite, taking a lot of the suspense out. So coming into the episode, a lot of fans were anticipating the sea krait’s attack. Before we can get to that though, we must see Hina look for their idol together as a tribe. MC finds it and only tells her closest ally, Steven, luckily keeping this scene from being completely kumbaya. On Uli, Sage deduces that she’s on the bottom of the tribe and connects it with her life outside of the game. She tries getting Shannon to flip only for Shannon to immediately tell Savannah and Sage to accidentally solidify her spot on the bottom. Finally, we get to the sea krait’s attack. As Jake sits by the shore, a sea krait bites him unprovoked, leading him to get taken to a medical base nearby. Luckily, the bite is likely non-venomous, but not wanting to take any risks, the medical team still pulls Jake from the game. It sucks that Jake had to be taken out of the game this way, but him being taken out here is better for the season, as his stale loyalty-based gameplay would have turned the merge into a bore. We did not need anymore honesty and loyalty after the snoozefest of Survivor: Fried Chicken and Waffles. Morale for the Kele tribe is completely destroyed after Jake’s departure and they lose the immunity challenge so badly that Hina and Uli can’t even celebrate. Post-tribal, an Uli scene shows them hunting for the idol together in preparation for a Uli vs Hina war. Rizo finds the idol, which he is determined to use in epic fashion. On Kele, Blue Sophi is the star. Even with her closest ally gone, she manages to have both Alex and Jeremiah trust her enough to not write her name down. She even spies on Jeremiah and Alex’s conversation to gain insight. She realizes that she must vote out Jeremiah because of Alex’s idol, even if she would rather work with Jeremiah. At tribal council, Alex uses his idol and Jeremiah is voted out in a 2-1 vote. Jeremiah feels like he would be an iconic new era character on any other season, but unfortunately, on this season, the only iconic thing he blesses us with is his laugh. And while we’re still on the topic of the Kele tribe, disaster tribes are so tiring on Survivor. The New Era has made this such a prevalent issue because of the three tribe format and the often unbalanced tribes. Disaster tribes force us to spend so much time with people who don’t even matter to the story of the season! Annie, Jake, and even Jeremiah all get so much focus despite their small impact on the season because they were on a disaster tribe. It takes away from seeing dynamics that will actually matter later on, mainly the Hina tribe, who are supposed to go to war against Uli at the merge. Yellow Sophi and Kristina, two of the most important players for the merge, are completely purpled early on because the editors are forced to show the dismantling of the Kele tribe. All we can do is hope that this will finally force the showrunners to change up the stale New Era format.
Episode 4 brings us two tribes instead of three for the first time since Winners at War! A refreshing change for the New Era, in which the three tribe format has become extremely stale. Before we can get to that though, we get the obligatory Alex and Blue Sophi scene. Blue Sophi loses her shoe to the sea, a sign from above from Jake, and luckily finds it washed back to shore by the morning. The two pledge allegiance to each other as the last two Kele members and Jake’s angels, a duo which will surely matter to the rest of the season… The swap unfortunately plays out in the worst way possible. The new Hina tribe consists of a clear original Uli majority with Nate, Savannah, Rizo, and Jawan outnumbering Jason and Matt. The opposite is true on the new Kele tribe, where MC, Steven, Kristina, and Yellow Sophie outnumber Sage and Shannon. Blue Sophi and Alex are separated as expected, although neither is necessarily a key swing vote on their respective tribes. To make matters worse, with all of the beware advantages found and advantage holders Rizo and MC both already in the majority on their respective tribes, there really is no suspense on which original coalition will win out on both tribes. On the new Hina tribe, Sophi quickly integrates herself into the Uli structure, building a bond with Savannah as the only two women and Nate as his island daughter. Savannah is instantly distrustful of Matt after he reveals he’s in the finance industry, setting up his eventual boot. On the new Kele tribe, Sage and Shannon take different strategies to survive their dire position. Shannon guides her tribemates through group meditations and a kumbaya attitude, which Sage calls out as performative. Sage tells everyone about her blackhead jar and is prepared to completely throw Shannon under the bus. Steven sees through Shannon as a more dangerous player than she lets on even as Kristina bonds with her over the loss of her mother. At the immunity challenge, a poor balance beam performance sinks the Hina tribe, sending them to tribal. Matt tries everything to stay in the game, adopting an anybody but me strategy that he apparently hates. He pulls everything out, trying to form an alliance between him, Blue Sophi, Jawan, and Jason to blindside Nate, but Jawan rats him out to his Uli allies. Jason’s reluctance to write Matt’s name down and clear Hina strong mentality ultimately sink him for the future. Not for this episode though, as Matt is voted out unceremoniously in a 4-2-1 vote. Unfortunately for Matt his biggest impact on Survivor will be upsetting Sandra fans after discrediting her victories.
Episode 5 is yet another lackluster episode. We get more of the same content that we’ve been getting throughout the entire pre-merge: Jawan accidentally taking Savannah’s stuff, Sage and Shannon’s rivalry, the obligatory journey. At this point in the game, Jawan is still Uli strong, rigging the rock draw to determine who goes on the journey against Jason and never once wavering away from his allies. On the new Kele tribe, Shannon completely underestimates Sage, who tells Steven about Rizo’s idol and buries Shannon. MC and Nate are chosen to go on the journey, during which, Nate subtly tricks MC into not looking for the advantage, so no one gains anything but no one loses anything either, perfectly balanced. At the challenge, the new Kele tribe wins immunity and three chickens, sending new Hina back to tribal. Savannah does great work with Jason, convincing him he was safe and to not use the shot in the dark. Even if she is annoyed with Jawan, how blatantly Hina strong Jason was in the last episode completely sunk all his chances. Come tribal and Jason is voted out in a 5-1 vote to the surprise of nobody. Happy he got his shot to play after initially being an alternate, but he was boring during the short run he had.
Episode 6 picks up after one of the most boring pre-merge sections of all time, being the downfall of Shannon that was teased up until this point. Firstly though, we must discuss the second tribe swap, this time back to three tribes! Three tribes of four leaves such little room to maneuver, but it does play out in a pretty interesting way. The new Kele consists of Jawan, Steven, Sage, and Shannon. The new Uli consists of Alex Kristina, Nate, and Yellow Sophie. And the new Hina consists of Savannah, Rizo, Blue Sophi, and MC. Steven and MC seem completely screwed on their new tribes, but with MC’s beware advantage and the Shannon vs Sage rivalry, both might have an escape. The show leads us to believe that MC told Rizo that Sage ratted out his idol, when in reality MC said it was Shannon who ratted him out. Also, for some reason, the Knowledge is Power is reintroduced after many believed it to be dead. Blue Sophi finds it randomly in a tree and I’m sure it will be used successfully this time, 100%. So now, MC really is screwed even if she gets her idol! Luckily though, we don’t have to worry about that given how the challenge plays out. On the new Kele, Sage is annoyed to still be on the same tribe as the performative Shannon, who is still unaware of Sage’s dislike for her. On the new Uli, Nate lies to his new tribemates that he was blindsided by the Jason vote, but no one believes him. It might not be completely over for him though, since Yellow Sophie is pissed when Kristina suggests throwing her name out to trick Nate. Then comes the challenge, in which the new Kele tribe loses. While Steven is initially down, he refuses to lie over and die, determined to stay in the game. Shannon kind of blows up her own game, deciding she would rather keep Steven than Jawan, a plan Steven is pleased to hear but Sage is furious to learn about. Sage tells Jawan about Shannon’s plan, solidifying a bond between the two and finally making Jawan aware of the fact he’s on the bottom of the Uli structure. She also ropes in Steven, meaning Shannon is blindsided at tribal in a 3-1 vote. Sage gives us an iconic moment, for the New Era at least, as she rejects Shannon’s hug and only gives her a handshake on her way out. Shannon is definitely the best of the pre-mergers, providing us with one of the only entertaining storylines of the pre-merge in her rivalry with Sage and being the final boss before the merge.
The slow pre-merge did nothing to fix any of the problems that this season has faced since before it even started airing. Many people including myself had already written off the merge as entirely predictable given the allegedly spoiled final 3 of Rizo, Savannah, and Blue Sophi. However, the merge episode was the first to truly shake up people’s expectations, with Nate getting the boot after being largely predicted to reach the endgame. It was sad to lose Nate, though. An older player who was not written off by his cast, instead being seen as a legitimate threat and strategic force. Sage and Jawan fully turning on their former Uli tribemates, Yellow Sophie suddenly becoming one of the biggest threats on the board, and the spoiled endgame players finding themselves on the bottom. People who were spoiled were now scratching their heads at how Savannah, Rizo, and Blue Sophi would claw their way out of a 7-3 disadvantage. People who had remained unspoiled had absolutely no idea how the rest of the game would play out now with a complete power shift. This episode is what the season needed to finally have some life. Did it come too late, though? Probably.
It’s time for a split-tribal, everyone’s favorite twist! Although this time, the split-tribal does lead to an interesting outcome. Out of nowhere, Kristina finds an idol. Who could have seen that coming! Savannah wins immunity and reward for herself and her side of Blue Sophi, Kristina, Steven, and Alex. Rizo must use his idol to stay alive though, or at least, so it seems. The other four of Sage, Yellow Sophie, Jawan, and MC all agree Rizo has to go, but the fear of an idol play is still on their mind. Yellow Sophie risks her game by telling MC she’s casting a rogue vote for Jawan in case Rizo plays his idol, which MC leaks to Jawan. As a result, the tables turn on MC as Jawan tells this to Sage who gets the word back to Yellow Sophie. Now they don’t trust MC at all and Jawan is itching to make another big move. So at tribal, with MC having wasted her idol the previous episode, the majority alliance turns on her, voting her out in a 4-1 vote. Oh, also Savannah won the advantage of being able to go to camp with the immunity losers and either cast a vote at tribal or get an extra vote, of which she chooses the latter. And Rizo keeps his idol, a trend for the rest of the season! As for MC, she was a likable presence who unfortunately played her hand wrong. She was kind of screwed though, with the split tribal and not having her closest ally Steven there.
After 2 strong merge episodes, I started this blog to jot down my thoughts about the following episodes and reality television in general. Unfortunately, the Alex boot was not as intriguing as the previous two votes. This was not the fault of the editors or players, but the fact that Rizo, the other possible target for this episode, was leaked to be on Survivor 50, taking away all of the suspense. It was a more straight forward vote than the previous two, as the Hina side just turned on Alex for being untrustworthy, partly due to Rizo’s actions. There’s not much to say about Alex though, an affable personality who never really got a chance to shine, even despite being part of the disaster tribe.
The Jawan vote out was the most interesting vote of the season by far. Despite the vote out being predictable because the only other target, Savannah, was obviously not going home, the events that led up to the vote were fun and engaging. Sage and Jawan, the most powerful duo in the game, have a glorious downfall. Rizo and Savannah begin trusting Sage and Jawan again only for Yellow Sophie to blow everything up. After this, the two of them put on a show at tribal, with Rizo creating chaos with his public idol Savannah pretending to be blindsided as the votes are read. Jawan is a good sport in all of this and consoles Sage right before leaving the game. Jawan is one of the more polarizing players this season, but his enthusiasm for the game and great attitude cannot be overlooked. He was a great addition to the cast. Unfortunately, the online fandom, including myself, were still writing off this season and thought that we knew where it was headed. We were wrong, though.
Yellow Sophie, despite seeming like a locked ally for Savannah, Rizo, and Blue Sophi, turns on Savannah in episode 11, resulting in her own downfall. Sage is pissed at Yellow Sophie for not voting out Savannah and now, Yellow Sophie is her target. Besides Yellow Sophie’s downfall, this is also Steven’s breakout episode! Two episodes away from the finale! He easily convinces everyone to let him go on the journey despite being the clear target and scores a Vote Blocker. He also wins immunity and reward, taking him off the board for possible targets. He shares his reward with Rizo and Kristina, who agree to target Yellow Sophie at their Italian feast. Although there are inklings that Blue Sophi will flip on Savannah, it is not meant to be and everyone eventually agrees on booting Yellow Sophie. And so Yellow Sophie goes out unanimously and unceremoniously. It’s so disappointing she was purple throughout the entire pre-merge, as Yellow Sophie is one of the breakout stars of the merge. How could the editing still be so unbalanced even with 90 minutes?
I did not cover episode 12, but it was an engaging episode. The group dynamics coming in are intriguing, a perfect 3-3 split with Blue Sophi inching towards flipping on her longtime allies. Steven has a vote blocker, seemingly the only thing he needs to lock in one of Rizo or Savannah finally going home. A wrench is thrown into the plan when Savannah wins the reward challenge and takes Rizo and Blue Sophi with her to a Mexican feast, complete with complimentary giant sombreros! Here, Blue Sophi flips back to her alliance, telling them about her knowledge is power. Meanwhile, back at camp, Steven tells his allies about his vote blocker. Both sides think they have complete control! Also, Rizo, Savannah, and Blue Sophi finally give their alliance a name, the Tres Leches alliance! After Savannah wins her third immunity, Blue Sophi becomes the Hina side’s target due to Rizo’s idol. However, Sage and Kristina recognize that Steven is a huge threat and hinge their bets on Blue Sophi flipping on her allies at the final 5. So, at tribal, despite Blue Sophi incorrectly playing her Knowledge is Power due to a wonky rule with Steven’s vote blocker and Rizo not playing his idol yet again, it is Steven who is blindsided in a 4-1 vote. This was a fun episode and probably one of my favorites of the season. Steven was the analogy king of this season and the star of the Hina tribe, yet he still felt so underedited compared to everyone left besides Kristina.
We finally enter the finale, which has one final shakeup. Remember the allegedly spoiled final 3 of Savannah, Rizo, and Blue Sophi? A spoiler that was largely supported by a photo a crew member took after the finale, standing in front of a giant Survivor 49 logo with signatures from all of the merged tribe, and those 3 with a heart next to their name? Well, that ended up being wrong. Before that though, the five remaining players must compete for an advantage in the immunity challenge. Rizo brings us back to day 1 by copying Savannah’s puzzle for the advantage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this time, as Blue Sophi claims the advantage. None of it matters though, as Savannah manages to win her fourth immunity anyways and a reward alongside it. She takes Sage since she hasn’t eaten real food in a while and Sage puts in work to repair their relationship and paint Kristina as the target! Who knew, Kristina is the greatest fire-maker of all time apparently! There is a bit of conflict between the Tres Leches alliance, as Savannah now wants to keep Sage while Rizo and Blue Sophi want to keep Kristina. The two eventually concede to Savannah though and Kristina is voted out unanimously. Oh also, Rizo finally plays his idol. It was nice to see Kristina and Sage both fight for their games, especially after last season where Mitch just gives up at the final 5 and the entire lead up was a eulogy for him. Kristina never really got much to do on this season, doomed to the Hina curse. It’s a shame because she seems like a great person, just doomed by the narrative. Moving into the final four, Blue Sophi has a huge comeback in the final immunity challenge and clutches her spot in final tribal. With the immense power to decide who goes into firemaking, she realizes she must turn on her alliance to win. Savannah feels betrayed, even as Rizo is itching to be the one to take Savannah out and snag the million. At tribal, Blue Sophi takes Sage to the final 3, pitting her allies against each other. Savannah wins, taking out the Rizgod and forming the third all-woman final 3 in Survivor history. This was one final shakeup after Rizo had been assumed to be a finalist for so long! Blue Sophi was not just Savannah and Rizo’s third wheel. The Rizgod, despite not making it to final tribal, certainly brought so much to this season. He is a player who is determined to have a good time and make sure people are entertained. His ideology of rather being the first boot than just get dragged to the end, making bold plays with advantages in the process, is so refreshing. I was iffy on him being included on 50 when the only impression I had of him was him unironically calling himself Rizgod in the season trailer, but after watching this whole season, he earned his spot! The final 3 all have strong cases to win. Savannah is the challenge beast who overcame a massive 7-3 numbers deficit and displayed strong strategic gameplay the entire season. Blue Sophi just betrayed her closest allies and survived the disaster tribe, coming out of it as one of the stronger social players. Sage had a lot of power throughout the game and managed to maneuver her way even after losing her closest ally, flipping multiple times. And at final tribal, Savannah gets criticized for her poor social play by Kristina after she couldn’t name one family member for every jury member. And Sage unfortunately did not seem to be respected by anyone. The end result was never in doubt, though, as Savannah becomes the Survivor 49 winner in a 5-2-1 vote. It was nice to see the winner not be painted in a completely positive light. Savannah was more reminiscent of a classic Survivor villain despite being a loyal player for most of the game. I’m excited to see her return on Survivor 50, even if I doubt it will go particularly well. As for the runner-ups, they were two of the star players of the season. Blue Sophi was the final Kele tribe member and certainly the star of the team, being a rootable presence throughout the entire season. Sage was the entertainment throughout the pre-merge, merge, and even the post-season! It sucks that she seemed to have a negative experience on the season and she is strong for being completely honest about it and her issues with the season.
There is one final elephant in the room before we can get to this season’s final verdict… Sage, in a 44 minute long YouTube video, exposed that both Blue Sophi and Jake heavily pregamed at Ponderosa before the beginning of the game. It had already been known before the season had begun that there was heavy pregaming. Two people supposed to be on the Hina tribe were kicked off the cast before the season began for cheating and were replaced by MC and Jason. Speculation about other cheaters ran rampant all season, with people suspecting Yellow Sophie due to her purple edit. However, she was cleared and turned out to be the best rule follower. It also came out that Kristina had told production about the cheaters who got kicked off after she found out they were targeting her. Nothing as major as this had come out though, and it changes a lot about the season. The Kele tribe’s stale dynamics make all the more sense, they were set in stone before the game began. Nicole and Annie’s fates were set in stone before the game even began. Even if they were going to be the first two out anyways, this put them at such an unfair disadvantage. It’s also another of the many obstacles that this season faced before it even began.
All in all, Survivor 49 is a season that was plagued with so many issues. It’s entire run, it was in the shadow of Survivor 50. Pregaming likely set many important dynamics in stone and doomed people’s games before anyone stepped foot on the beach. The Kele tribe was the worst, most boring disaster tribe yet. The pre-merge was overall boring and soured people on the season. The cast member photo that spoiled who was out premerge and who made the merge certainly didn’t help. Rizo and Savannah being widely leaked to be on Survivor 50 made their underdog run completely predictable. Savannah was possibly the most spoiled winner in Survivor’s history due to her awkward tribe placement in Survivor 50. More people were excited to watch the Survivor 50 trailer than the 49 finale! All of these problems meant that Survivor 49 was never going to be well-received. No matter how unpredictable or engaging the merge was, this season would never outrun its problems. Because while Survivor 49 is nowhere near a top-tier season, it has strong moments that will unfortunately be lost in time: the Jawan blindside, Sage’s entire arc, Rizo’s idol shenanigans. And it’s already being forgotten as the Survivor 50 preseason is officially underway.
Coming into the eleventh episode of Survivor 49, I believed that I had a good idea of how the rest of the game would play out. I assumed that the trio of Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi B. would be able to coast through the rest of the game together with their advantages and Sophie S. as a loyal number. But I was wrong, and by the end of the episode, those four had turned on each other, the trio of Steven, Kristina, and Sage seem to be in a stronger position with a block-a-vote, and the game is completely up for grabs. Yet, I still felt underwhelmed by the episode and know that the Hina side of things cannot win the war. It all circles back to the unique problem of Survivor 50 that this season faces and a long-standing New Era problem: journeys.
Post-tribal, Sage feels completely blindsided and betrayed by Sophie S. because of the Jawan vote. Ironically, she tells Sophie S. that she is handing the game to Savannah by keeping her around, now making it her mission to get revenge by voting out Sophie S. and keeping Savannah another round! Then comes the dreaded journey, a New Era tradition that takes away player’s votes for no reason and wastes runtime on the show! Yay! But wait, if you complete your journey task, you get a power that can range from completely game-changing to useless! Steven knows how much danger he is in with his side down in numbers and makes it his mission to go on the journey. Luckily for him, no one puts up much of a battle. But why would everyone so easily allow Steven to go on this journey without a fight? Because production decided to make this journey so physically strenuous that no one else wanted to do it! And the strenuous challenge was one of the most boring yet! It just consisted of Steven running around an island alone, finding numbers for a combination lock. The entire segment is just a slog in the episode that drags the entire product down.
The episode picks up slightly once Steven returns to camp. Steven decides to tell the truth about everything that happened on the journey, but does not reveal what advantage he got from the journey to leave the other side guessing. This leads to some entertaining Rizo content, where he is confidently incorrect about Steven having a steal-a-vote and even tells him that to his face. Sophi also begins wondering if betraying Rizo and Savannah or staying loyal to them is best for her game. It seems whichever decision she makes could win or lose the game for her and that how she navigates her Knowledge is Power will determine how her game plays out. I am genuinely interested to see what she chooses to do with it, steal Rizo’s public idol or try to steal Steven’s advantage somehow. Or secret third option: never use it at all and keep it a secret.
The immunity challenge was whatever. Just stacking letters to spell out immunity with extra obstacles attached. Steven wins the immunity necklace and the reward, choosing Kristina and Rizo to experience a little bit of Italy in Fiji! At the reward, Rizo tells Steven and Kristina that he is fully willing to vote Sophie S. out of the game. Unfortunately, this is where the episode’s suspense comes to a halt…
The decoy target for the viewers is Savannah, someone who we know is on Survivor 50 alongside her close ally Rizo. So, when the vote is between Savannah, someone who must have made a big enough impact to end up on one of Survivor’s most anticipated seasons and has received plenty of screen time all season, and Sophie S., someone who has been purpled up until the merge, one becomes the obvious boot for this episode. As the show attempts to build suspense around who will lose the battle between Savannah and Sophie S., it falls flat with the large portion of the audience that has been spoiled on the Survivor 50 returnees. Luckily, we do get one final entertaining moment, where, at tribal council, Kristina and Savannah put their rivalry on full display, although Kristina seems to have way more hatred for Savannah than vice versa. She makes a comment about strongly disliking Savannah to the shock of the players, viewers, and even Jeff Probst! The two later revealed this moment was just a ploy to trick Sophie S. into thinking she was safe before her 6-1 blindside, an innovative strategy.
Sophie S. unfortunately exemplifies a lot of what is wrong with this season. She was genuinely entertaining, when she was shown. But most viewers had no idea who she was for the entire pre-merge because she never went to tribal council until the merge and was part of the highly under-edited Hina tribe. Outside of calling out the lame fruit reward, she had little to stand out from the rest of the cast. But at the merge, we saw what a force she was, seemingly dictating the Jawan blindside and being a huge threat in the immunity challenges. She also just has a fun personality that we were never able to see. She deserved better from the editors, and so did the season as a whole.
It is such a shame. If the Hina tribe weren’t so under-edited in the merge and the mystery of the two who return for Survivor 50 were actually a mystery, this merge could have been an all-timer. But knowing who returns and how under-edited one of the sides going into the 3-3 final six war is, it is obvious who will win and the suspense is removed. The results of the merge episodes have been unpredictable, but if the end result is still practically set in stone, how much does that truly matter?
Survivor 49’s tenth episode should be exciting, dramatic, and unpredictable. A battle between the four remaining original Uli members that results in a dramatic 5-3-1 Jawan vote out at the final eight. A vote that leaves half of the remaining Survivors completely blindsided and has fun tribal antics from Savannah and Rizo. A wasted idol, successful extra vote usage, dynamic gameplay right before tribal. It follows a solid string of decent-good merge episodes after quite possibly the most boring pre-merge stretch of the New Era. And coming into the episode, the game was split right by the middle, yet, which side would win by the end was never in question. Unfortunately, that is the main issue with this season as a whole. It feels like the storytelling of the season is meant more to set up Rizo and Savannah’s return for Survivor 50 than to actually tell a compelling story.
So much of this season’s overarching content has revolved around the original Uli tribe members and Sophi B. With the early episodes being forced to focus on the disaster Kele tribe, despite most of them not mattering to the story of the season at all, the original Hina tribe was completely under-edited. That’s a problem when three of them are now in the final 7 and we are supposed to believe that any of them have a serious chance of winning the game. Of the three, Steven has consistently had the most screentime and development, yet his content after the MC boot has mainly focused on his relationship with Kristina and his mistake of telling Sage about her idol to bolster the Bottoms’ Up alliance. Sophie S. wins her second immunity this episode, something that was accidentally spoiled in the trailer, and seems to dictate who the underdog trio (Sophi B., Savannah, Rizo) votes between Jawan and Sage. And Kristina finally gets substantial content. Of course, there is her emotional moment at the reward challenge that was hyped up all week. It’s a touching moment surrounding grief that makes you empathize and relate with her, but the way Jeff tries to milk it afterward and turn it into a grand Survivor moment sours the authenticity. It exemplifies the problem with Jeff in the New Era. He always tries to turn Survivor into this grand journey of growth and make it more than it has to be. Of course, Survivor can be the catalyst for great emotional moments and growth for it’s contestants, but it has to come naturally and not squeezed out by Jeff Probst whenever he sees an opportunity. As for Kristina’s other content, it revolves around her idol. The build-up before tribal council involves her decisions on if she should use her idol for Steven and throw a vote in Rizo to guarantee one of him or Savannah goes home. Ultimately though, it feels so unimportant because the vote shifts away from Steven and it becomes clears that whatever Kristina does won’t matter, as the underdog trio and Sophie S. are dictating who goes between Sage and Jawan. After the blindside, Steven and Kristina are just happy to still be there, despite seemingly being sitting ducks. Unfortunately, even in her most substantial episode yet, Kristina still feels so irrelevant to the trajectory of the season.
This is Sage and Jawan’s downfall episode. And it feels like a self-inflicted downfall, as they had the tools to flush Rizo’s idol but just didn’t, for some reason that I feel must not have been shown in the episodes. They start off seemingly positive, managing to gain back Rizo and Savannah’s trust, only for that to come undone by Sophie S. After that, it all goes downhill, as the two are completely unaware of their impending blindside. With the end of Jawan’s game, so ends his rivalry with Savannah, who has, as expected since the first episode, come out on top. He had a fun run on the season, starting off unknowingly on the bottom on the original Uli tribe, then waking up and climbing his way to the top, only for a series of errors to cause him to fall right out of the game. Him accidentally taking other people’s stuff also culminates in a fun way, taking Rizo’s torch as he leaves the game. He clearly came to play the game as hard as he could and make big moves, and for that, you have to respect him.
The underdog trio was by far the best part of the episode, and it is becoming clearer why Savannah and Rizo were brought back for Survivor 50. Rizo is someone who is willing to risk his life in the game for more power. He would rather make high risk moves and decisions that could backfire and land him an early boot than ever be dragged along to the end with no real potential. He came to play and it shows. He is playing with his food by continuing to keep his idol despite being in danger round after round, with his latest stunt being playing a fake idol to cause confusion within the tribe. Savannah was great at tribal council as well, acting as if she was completely blindsided by Jawan’s betrayal as the votes were read, despite knowing she had the numbers. The two are definitely putting on a show and that makes me more confident that their likely steamroll of Sage, Kristina, and Steven won’t be too boring to watch unfold. Unfortunately, for Sophi B., this episode continues to place doubt in her win equity, now from a game perspective rather than just edit. She finds out about Kristina’s idol before tribal council and discusses using her Knowledge is Power on her, but decides not to by the end of it. It feels like a missed opportunity and puts worry that she might just never use it. She could be voted out with it still a secret or reveal it in the final 3 only for no one to be impressed. The jury might knock her for never using it to make a power play. Besides, she has been with Rizo and Savannah ever since the swap, but is it actually in her best interest to go with them to the end? She knows about Rizo’s idol and could swipe it out from under him, but unfortunately, I cannot see that happening, especially with the added context of Survivor 50.
And ultimately, that’s the problem with this episode. The two power players in Sage and Jawan have a big, glorious downfall in this episode, yet, it feels foretold and like an inevitability. Knowing that Savannah and Rizo return and given just how under-edited the Hina side of things are, there is just little suspense surrounding how the rest of the game will play out. Everything that should feel bold and exciting instead feels like an explanation for Savannah and Rizo’s return. Hopefully we get good Sage content with her seemingly being pissed at Sophie S. for voting out Jawan and her rivalry with Savannah still at large, but it feels like whatever happens will just end with her going down in flames. Hopefully, there is more scrappy gameplay from the underdog trio or some betrayal along the way from anyone. I am grasping at straws, hoping that there is something that I am seriously wrong about, because otherwise, it is looking pretty straightforward how the rest of the game will play out, despite there being a split right down the middle with Sophie S. as a swing.
Big Brother’s production team is no stranger to adding twists into their game that range from completely pointless to season-killers. Just two years ago, we saw Big Brother 25, a season with a dynamic and fluid pre-jury section, lose all of its momentum due to Zombie Week– an entire week where almost nothing happens, created purely to extend the runtime of the season, all for Cameron (who had been creepy toward the women in the house) to return to the game. Luckily for Zombie Week, it has been bested in the worst twist category by the White Locust, a twist that unceremoniously took out the star of the show up to that point– Rachel Reilly– through a single competition without a single vote cast. The White Locust is is now undoubtedly the worst twist Big Brother production has ever concocted and a stain on what could have been a top 5 Big Brother season. The only reason the season was not immediately killed in a similar fashion to Big Brother 25 is because Vince and Morgan put on a show, turning the typically stale endgame into a soap opera with their endless drama about what to do with all their HOH reigns. It also does not hurt that despite production’s attempts to replicate The Challenge with how many competitions they dumped onto the cast this season, Ashley Hollis, the player who maneuvered the social and strategic aspects of the game the best (only winning two competitions throughout the way!), won the entire game.
Before the season premiere, vibes in the Big Brother community were off. BB27 was the first season to abandon the 50% BIPOC diversity mandate established in 2021 (although diversity was definitely still higher than pre-mandate) and it was announced that live feeds would be off until after the 7/12 Sunday episode, meaning we would miss most of the crucial first days inside the house. The premiere was rather unremarkable, with the only things of note being Vince winning the first HOH, Rachel entering the game, and Zach winning a $10,000 secret power. Heading into the Sunday episode, I was extremely pessimistic of the editor’s ability to accurately depict what had happened in those first days, given their tendency to shield problematic figures and behaviors in the past and overall poor ability to depict events accurately. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the episode was entertaining the whole way through. Not without faults though, as the overblown reaction to Ashley’s infamous ‘Showergate’ incident gave me war flashbacks of the ostracization of Taylor Hale. Luckily, it did not turn out to be anything like that, even if some of the other houseguests’ conversations about Ashley raised some eyebrows. The rest of week 1 was a solid start for the season. Ashley wins a clutch veto after being the initial target, Kelley begins her role as perpetual pawn, and a fight between Rachel and Zae occurs the night before eviction day. We also see the return of the BB26 A.I Arena, now the BB Blockbuster, quite possibly the best received twist since the Power of Veto was introduced in BB3. Personally, I was initially excited to see the Blockbuster, as I believe it does help keep intrigue throughout the entire week, helping the three day stretch between the Veto meeting and eviction feel more interesting. However, like most good things, the BB Blockbuster dragged on way too long (final 6, seriously?!), to the point that when it finally ended, I felt way less positively about it. Week 1 ends rather poetically, with Kelley winning her first Blockbuster, sealing Zae’s fate, funnily enough Vince’s worst case scenario, which is something that Vince brings on himself time and time again. Zae is the perfect first boot for this season, a jock without much game ability (using ChatGPT for game advice, really?) bested by Rachel Reilly.
After week 1, the rest of the pre-jury phase provided plenty of entertaining, satisfying, and iconic moments. However, one thing became clear: almost every houseguest was awful at the game. In week 2, Jimmy was forced to nominate five people, culminating in him targeting someone that would have been a number for his side in Amy. Week 3 began Lauren’s reputation as indecisive and too passive, choosing Adrian as a replacement nominee over Ashley, despite Adrian being a loyal ally for her, after days of both sides of the house trying to control her, resulting in Adrian’s eviction. Then Mickey and Zach, two of the early frontrunners made catastrophically bad mistakes. Mickey stole Rylie’s HOH reign in week 4, then proceeded not to target him or his grossmance partner, Katherine. Sidenote, that relationship was so disturbing that it had the BB community united in hating Rylie for his controlling and manipulative tendencies. Instead, after the house target Keanu won the veto, she was convinced by Morgan that she should target their close ally, Jimmy, instead! After doing just that and going on a power trip, Mickey was not able to recover and became herself the house target until her exit right before the beginning of the jury phase. Then, Zach, who had everything necessary to run the game, chose not to use his get out of jail free card in his $10,000 secret veto after Ava nominated him in week 5, the main reason being that he did not want to give her the money, even if he claims otherwise. After Keanu won the Blockbuster that week, Vince and Zach were left on the chopping block, and Zach’s own potential showmance, Lauren, and apparent closest ally, Morgan, chose to evict him!
You can’t talk about the pre-jury phase without talking about Rachel Reilly. She is integral to how this entire phase plays out and was playing her best game yet! She was a huge character and presence on the live feeds and her on-again-off-again frenemy situation with Keanu was fascinating. And her week 6 HOH reign will go down in history as one of the best of all time! It came in clutch too, as by that point, over half of the house was after her. She initially targeted the trio of Vince, Morgan, and Mickey after realizing they were the loudest voices against her, powerful nominations that shook up the game. Yet, the best was yet to come, as after Lauren won the iconic OTEV competition, Rachel spent days trying to convince her not to use the veto. Yet, after painstakingly going back and forth on a decision, Lauren decided she had to save Vince, despite him being the most safe out of the three nominees if it came to a vote. In a Hail Mary, Rachel told Lauren she would put up her close ally Rylie as the replacement if she saved Vince, but Lauren foolishly thought she was bluffing and used to veto anyways, leading to the Oklahoma creep sitting on the nomination seats. Unfortunately, it seemed that Rylie was unlikely to be evicted in any Blockbuster scenario. The only glimmer of hope was if he sat against Morgan. At this point, Vince and Morgan’s relationship was ramping up, thanks to Zach’s eviction pulling them closer together. Furthermore, despite Morgan and Rachel’s previous spats and Rachel nominating Morgan, it seems she had a change of heart and wanted to fix her relationship with Rachel. Knowing this, Ashley and Will talked Morgan into creating the Judges alliance, with them three plus Vince and Rachel. However, the Judges were still only three out of five votes needed if Morgan was still sitting up for eviction against Rylie by Thursday night. They would have to rely on the main target, Mickey, winning the Blockbuster and then Ava, who talked of targeting Morgan during her HOH reign, somehow voting to keep her. Everyone else was a locked vote to keep Rylie. It seemed so implausible, that I gave up hope. Even Vince backtracked and was thinking about keeping Rylie. Yet, on eviction night, a miracle happened. Mickey won the Blockbuster, a carnival game of who could roll their ball down a narrow pathway the furthest within three minutes, seemingly because both Morgan and Rylie misunderstood the rules. Then, despite her erratic tendencies, she indeed voted to keep Morgan. Vince and Ava convened minutes before the vote and, miraculously, agreed to evict Rylie. With Ashley and Will’s locked in votes, it was a 5-4 vote to get Rylie out, leaving half of the house blindsided going into the iconic wall camp. The final two pre-jury weeks see Rachel somehow survive a second Vince HOH reign by the skin of her teeth after house target Mickey won the veto. Vince nominates Katherine instead of Rachel, who was then evicted after Kelley’s third blockbuster win, her run on the show sadly overshadowed by the Rylie situation. Then, Keanu wins HOH and gets revenge on Vince for all of his betrayals by nominating him against Morgan and Mickey only to regret it immediately after. Morgan begins her competition streak with her first veto win, leading to Ashley being the replacement and a chaotic Ashley and Rachel vs. Keanu fight. Mickey is finally taken out to cap everything off, a core personality for the pre-jury that provided plenty of entertainment with her terrible gameplay.
Going into the jury phase, the game was wide open and practically everyone was being targeted by at least one other person. Of course production had to blow all of that up though. Everyone goes to the backyard shortly after Mickey’s eviction to find out from the Mastermind (a ridiculous inclusion to the season) that one of them will be leaving in the next hour, not through vote, but through the Hamster Wheel competition from the BB Reindeer Games. It was great there, because that spinoff was meant to be about competitions, but not here! Ava wins a weird shuffleboard competition to decide the first person to play in the hamster wheel. Frustratingly, she picks Vince for some reason, despite the two openly targeting each other! She also has a heel turn from being ride or die with Rachel to completely trashing her. As much as Ava’s gameplay is frustrating from here on out, it is unfair to scapegoat her for Rachel’s untimely exit. All blame should be placed on production for ever thinking this was a good idea. Nobody should ever be taken out of Big Brother without a proper vote and eviction (unless it’s an expulsion or quit), but especially not the star of your season! By doing that, you risk leaving so many unresolved plots and storylines because they were never properly evicted! In Rachel’s case, her frenemies storyline with Keanu is cut short, the Judges lose one of their core members, and the person whose eviction would have been a potentially game winning move for someone is taken out by a carnival game! To make matters worse, after Rachel’s eviction, it is revealed the person with the fastest time in the hamster wheel will become the new HOH. Only three people (Vince, Morgan, Lauren) even completed that competition in the first place! You are completely screwing over Kelley, Keanu, Ashley, and Will, who never even got a chance to compete! That week was the low point of the season. Morale not only within the community, but in the house as well, was at a low point. It seemed no one wanted to play if they could just be taken out by a single competition. Lauren nominated Morgan, Ashley, and Will, with a plan to backdoor Keanu, but almost no one cared anymore. After Morgan wins her second veto, Keanu is backdoored, but wins the Blockbuster, which is still here for some reason. That leaves Ashley and Will, who had played the best social-strategic games up to that point, on the block, even though they never even got to compete in the HOH competition! Ashley had successfully managed to flip the vote on Will though, and in a 3-2 vote, Will, who had captured the heart of most of the community for just being a rare genuine, kind man on Big Brother, was unjustly taken out with an injured knee.
The game sped up significantly during the jury phase, with two evictions every week leading up to the finale. This was a welcome change, as most Big Brother seasons unfortunately fall off in terms of entertainment during the last weeks of the game. The change prevented the season from ever losing the steam that it had during the pre-jury phase despite production’s best attempts to do so with the White Locust. We also have to give credit to the remaining cast members for an entertaining endgame, as heading into week 10, the remaining houseguests, even Lauren, put on a show for double eviction week. Vince wins his third HOH to start off the week, although it was practically Morgan’s HOH given how the week plays out. He betrays Keanu for the millionth, but not final, time by placing him on the chopping block alongside Kelley and Ava. Morgan wins the veto yet again and somehow forces Vince’s hand to nominate Lauren as a replacement, despite his hatred for Ashley, the only other viable replacement nominee. Even worse for Vince, Morgan has almost no reason to even use the veto in the first place, with her reasoning being that she needed Vince to prove to her that he would pick her over Lauren. Vince’s game completely unravels here, as despite wanting to take Lauren to the final 2 over Morgan, he for some reason agrees to nominate Lauren, despite a very real possibility she gets voted out. Morgan takes Ava down from the block with the veto, resulting in a weird little dance from Ava, and Lauren is nominated as planned, despite Lauren’s pleading with Vince that this was a horrific move. Immediately after the veto, more drama ensues between Vince and Morgan, with Vince pissed that she “forced” him to nominate Lauren and Morgan agreeing to not vote Lauren out. Coming into double eviction night, the vote was wide open and every nominee had a chance of going home. Lauren beats out the Blockbuster queen and king, Kelley and Keanu, in the final Blockbuster, ending their reign of terror once and for all. At the first eviction of the night, Lauren and Ava vote to evict Keanu because of their newly established trio with Kelley, while Morgan and Ashley vote to evict Kelley, sensing the threat of that trio. Vince is forced to break the tie (first one since BB24!) and evicts the person who was once his closest ally, Kelley. Kelley somehow immediately becomes way more likeable than she was inside the game after being evicted, having some choice words for Vince and a genuinely charismatic exit interview. Morgan wins her first HOH during the double eviction and sets her sights on Lauren, with Keanu as a backup target. However, Keanu wins veto, sealing Lauren’s fate, as Ashley and Keanu, scorned due to Lauren’s betrayal of him during the final 8, evict Lauren, who had won a Blockbuster not even 30 minutes prior. A great end to the week that rejuvenated the season after the disaster at the White Locust. And Zingbot was great too!
The final 5 round starts off with an endurance competition that barely lasts over an hour, with Ava and Ashley dropping early and Keanu losing to Vince in embarrassing fashion. With his fourth HOH, Vince finally decides it is time to cut Keanu, who somehow still trusted him after all of his betrayals. Ava and Keanu are nominated, with the Judges somehow becoming a completely real alliance despite how absurd it seemed early on. Morgan wins her fourth veto, sealing Keanu’s fate. The vote is some sort of voodoo doll ritual in which both Ashley and Morgan stab Keanu’s voodoo doll to evict him. And so ends Keanu’s legendary run. Despite his terrible gameplay and reads on the house, he was a genuinely nice underdog who had managed to scrape by through veto and Blockbuster wins, turning him into the easy fan favorite of the season. That’s not the end of the week, as a two day final four round is next, with Morgan winning the HOH and final veto, giving her full control over the week. With Morgan set on a Judges strong mindset, Ava has no chance and merely tries a weak attack on Vince to save herself to no avail. Ava’s run on the season is one that starts out with her being seen as an authentic and lovable person, only for many to lose respect for her once it became clear she was only playing for the $50,000 America’s Favorite Houseguest prize. A disappointing end to what could have been a great run.
Heading into the finale, Morgan was the clear frontrunner, the most likely to win the final HOH competition and the biggest jury threat. With Vince likely to take Morgan to the end as well, it seemed like the only way Morgan would lose was if Ashley won the final HOH and cut her. But Ashley hadn’t won a competition since week 1, so that would never happen, right? Well, Morgan won the first part of the final HOH as expected, leaving Vince and Ashley to battle it out in part 2. Most including myself expected Vince to win this part and Ashley to be locked out of the final part of the HOH competition. However, somehow, Vince had one of the most colossal challenge mistakes and meltdowns in part 2, allowing Ashley to come from behind and win part 2, giving her a fighting chance. Even better, Ashley had somehow managed to convince Morgan that her best move was to cut her closest ally Vince and take her to the final 2, meaning Ashley went from likely 3rd place to guaranteed final 2. Morgan and Vince continued their late-night soap operas until the final day of the feeds, with Vince slowly realizing there was a chance Morgan would not even take him to the final 2 after everything he did to prove his loyalty. Those late nights caught up to Morgan, as Ashley easily won part 3 of the final HOH competition. Ashley gauged that Morgan was the biggest jury threat and cut her at the final 3, leaving the final 2 of Vince and Ashley. An absolutely insane final 2 by the way, considering how the game first started. Vince literally got laughed at by the jury as Ashley gave convincing answers. With her jury speech, Ashley articulated her gameplay well, how she lowered her threat level by playing dumb and was like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, sweeping the jury in a somewhat controversial 6-1 vote and victory.
The final 3 all played drastically different games. Morgan was the prototypical big threat that would easily sweep a jury vote against most players, but who could not keep their threat level hidden and was cut right before the end. Vince had all of the tools to run the game. He had allies who were undyingly loyal to him like Keanu and had all of the HOH reigns needed to build his resume and run the game. Unfortunately for him, he made the wrong moves at almost every opportunity and pissed almost everyone on the jury off, ensuring it would be nearly impossible for him to ever win a jury vote. Ashley was never out in front as the biggest threat or best player, in fact, it was the opposite. Many players inside the house and even fans online never saw her as a serious contender to win the game. In truth, though, Ashley’s game is one of subtle social and strategic moves that would help her get all the way to the end despite a lack of competition skills. She built relationships with people like Morgan, Rachel, and Mickey, who were willing to advocate for her to make sure she was safe. She helped create the Judges, which would be instrumental to her survival throughout the jury phase. Because of her purposefully lowering her threat level, no one ever thought to target her with their HOH reigns. People like Kelley, Keanu, and Ava went from disliking her to happily voting for her to win the whole game. She was playing behind the scenes the whole game to insulate herself as her allies were out in front getting blood on their hands for her.
Let it be known, Big Brother 27 was a great season, but not because production actually knows how to run their own show. The houseguests made this season great. They made the most out of the poor hand production dealt out, like keeping the Blockbuster until the final 6 and the White Locust, delivering an unpredictable and drama-filled season. The future of Big Brother is still concerning, though. Production clearly learned nothing from their mistakes this season, as they are considering bringing back the White Locust twist for future seasons due to the massive success of this season. But they may not be so lucky next time, and the White Locust might actually become a season-killer.
Survivor 49’s ninth episode saw the underdog trio of Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi B. miraculously survive yet another round, seemingly taking outsider Sophie S. under their wing. Their underdog story should feel exciting and exhilarating to watch live, reminiscent of the Foa Foa Four in Survivor Samoa exactly 30 seasons prior. Yet, the worst-kept secret of Rizo and Savannah’s return for Survivor 50 spoils that excitement.
Throughout the episode, Rizo planted seeds to the power duo of Sage and Jawan and, separately, Sophie S., that the eventual boot, Alex, was playing all sides. He managed to convince all three of them, even as Kristina and Steven tried to rally them all together to flush Rizo’s idol at the same time. Going into tribal, the edit painted this vote as a battle between Alex and Rizo in which only one would survive. For lots of fans, including myself, though, the intrigue is taken away because of Rizo’s return for 50, which almost guarantees he won’t be unceremoniously voted out with an idol in his pocket at the final 9, leaving Alex as the obvious boot. Now, with his idol still in play, alongside Savannah’s extra vote, Sophi B.’s Knowledge is Power advantage, and Sophie S. as shield and number, the underdog trio is poised to run the game together, likely pulling off huge moves and blindsides along the way. At least, that must be what justifies Savannah and Rizo being in the milestone 50th season, snatching spots from 42’s winner, Maryanne, and 47’s scrappy underdog, Andy. It has to happen so that their inclusion in the season is worthwhile, right?
Rizo, Savannah, and Sophi B. are playing impressive from-the-bottom games, that cannot be denied. However, it is also true that the majority of Jawan, Sage, Kristina, and Steven have played everything after the Nate blindside awfully. We had that whole mess with the MC boot last episode, which allowed Rizo to keep his idol despite being heavily outnumbered at the split tribal. However, Kristina and Steven’s immediate reaction to seeing MC gone and Sophie S. still in the game may be worse than anything that happened that round. Their shock and confusion after learning what happened alerted Sophie S. that she was at the bottom of the Hina power structure and eventually led her to side with the underdog trio instead. Then, Steven leaked Kristina’s idol to Sage, opening a can of worms to the idol potentially becoming just as public as Rizo’s and getting snatched by Sophi B.’s Knowledge is Power. I will cut Steven some slack though, since, at this point, no one knows about Sophi B.’s K.I.P, which may lead to the K.I.P finally being used successfully after 4 years of failure (yay for keeping your advantages a secret!). Finally, you have Jawan and Sage completely abandoning the vote split plan between Rizo and Sophi B. and voting out Alex instead. One has to wonder, why not just throw your votes on Rizo or Sophi B. since Alex was already getting votes anyways? Unless there is something that we are missing and Jawan and Sage did not want to risk Rizo going at all despite seemingly targeting him and Savannah for the entire merge?
There is not much for me to say about the boot of the episode himself, Alex. He was a fine personality on the show, but nothing in particular stands out for me. Despite all of the content he received, being one of the main narrators for the pre-merge, he just sort of fizzled out after the merge and went out with a whimper. Unfortunately, he is just another slightly above-average player in the new era that was voted out for not being able to maintain his threat level.
The Alex boot feels like a game-losing move for Sage and Jawan, who had all of the tools to run this game and have now unknowingly ceded power to the underdog trio. We seem set up for a dynamic rest of the game and a hopefully exciting ending, even if that excitement is partly spoiled by Savannah and Rizo’s return for 50. Honestly though, we deserve a fluid merge after how much of a boring slog 48’s merge was.
Reality TV Thoughts 