Reality TV Thoughts

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?