Reality TV Thoughts

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.