Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 49 as they list their top moments in various important categories. This includes the most essential information, the stand-out castaways, and the key moments from the week.
Here, Christine and Gia break down all the action from the latest episode.
Top 3 Moments
Nate is with the Times (Maybe…)
Christine: Many have noted in recent years that Survivor casts tend to skew heavily towards the mid-20s to mid-30s age range, with just a handful of “older people” to round out the cast. Nate is one of those players on this season, and we got to see that generation gap play out in this episode when he found himself baffled by his tribemates’ excessive use of the word “fire,” among other young millennial/Gen Z-isms. It’s a fun callback in some ways to Borneo when Rudy didn’t know what MTV was. The times have changed, but this classic Survivor social dynamic will always return in some form or another.
Jawan Gets a Win
Gia: As the Survivor gods have decreed, so it shall be done. If a person is at the bottom of their tribe in the pre-merge, we can expect to see them on an advantage journey. This is what happened to Jawan this episode, and even better, he won the challenge against Matt and Jake. As a result, he was given the option to choose between an advantage for himself or a disadvantage against another tribe. He chose the latter, much to the delight of his fellow Uli members and the distaste of Hina.]
Hina Gets a Disadvantage… Kele Still Loses
Gia: With Jawan choosing the tribe disadvantage, it was up to him to decide which of the other two tribes it would be bestowed upon. Since Kele was already down a number, he figured it made sense to give the disadvantage to Hina. This meant that all of Hina’s tribe members would have to carry twenty pounds of coconuts through the obstacle course, then work through ten keys instead of one. The rationale for Jawan’s choice makes sense… only it didn’t work out the way he was hoping. Hina still won the challenge by a large margin, and Kele once again lost. Unfortunately for Jawan, hindsight is always 20/20.
Tribe Breakdown
Kele
Gia: Can Kele win anything? History indicates that the answer is a resounding no, not even an Advantage Journey. While we had hoped for a better outcome in this episode, the results were the same. On the plus side, we’ve seen more of them than any other tribe as a result. There’s no denying that the blue tribe is playing hard, and the majority alliance has managed to stick together through the first two votes. Now the question is, what happens now that the easy votes are gone? Is a tribe swap really the best they can hope for?
Uli
Gia: If Kele is the disaster tribe, and Hina are the challenge beasts, does that mean Uli are the “Vibes Tribe” by default? (Side note, please don’t ask Nate this question; he’s been through enough.) In actuality, it’s a little more complex than that. Nate, Savannah, Rizo, and Shannon have secured the majority against Jawan and Sage, though who would be the first of them on the chopping block varies by the day. They didn’t have to make that decision in episode two, but I’m excited to see this tribe in action if they do lose immunity.
Hina
Christine: When Hina got the disadvantage, it looked like we might finally get actual insights into a tribe other than Kele. Alas, Hina is just simply too goated. Beyond being good at challenges, we at least got to see a bit of what was going on in the yellow tribe with the solidification of the core three of Matt, Steven, and Kristina. Their attempts to pull in MC as a fourth were…painfully obvious, but in the meantime, they should be able to remain in control with Jason as an easy boot if they go to tribal.
Top 3 Players
Alex
Christine: Alex had a big week, being placed firmly in the middle of the dynamics of the dwindling Kele tribe and finding an idol. Even the doomed Annie believed she had a close ally in him, which speaks to his social positioning. The big question going into Tribal Council was whether Alex would play his idol to help Annie take out Sophie, thereby bringing Jake closer to him, which he ultimately decided against. This was absolutely the right call for Alex, especially given how public his idol hunt was. Playing it on Annie would likely do nothing more than make Jake wary of him, and if Kele lost again, he would be in a very dire situation. Now that he’s kept his idol, Alex has a lot of safety even if Kele keeps losing.
MC
Christine: After a quiet first episode, MC had a strong showing this week. Matt, Steven, and Kristina approached her for an alliance, which is all well and good, but Matt made the critical mistake of saying she would be their “fourth,” making it abundantly clear that she’s a fourth wheel to an established trio. She then approached Sophie and gave her the heads up that her name was on the chopping block, which was a great bit of social manouvering on MC’s part. If this tribe goes to tribal, MC can easily get the vote on Jason as the other person “on the outs” and keep Sophie in her back pocket so she has room to manouver around this trio, putting herself in a great spot both on this tribe and giving her options in an eventual merge situation.
Jawan
Gia: Is it possible to have both a great and terrible week? Because that’s the only way I can think to describe Jawan in this episode. On one hand, he was clearly on the outs of the majority alliance in Uli, and would’ve very likely been voted out had they lost immunity. On the other hand, he won the Advantage Journey challenge and, more importantly, made the correct decision to choose the advantage for the tribe over the extra vote for himself. On a third, unprecedented hand, he made six enemies via Hina when he gave them the disadvantage, and they still won the immunity challenge by a landslide. In short, Jawan did a lot right for his game this episode, but he also did a lot (probably more) wrong.
Fallen Comrades
Annie
Christine: Annie never found her footing in this game, and it seemed less due to her age and more due to isolating herself early on and rubbing her tribemates the wrong way. Her laser focus on taking out Jake because he’s an individual immunity threat was misguided. When you’re on a tribe losing this bad, you can’t afford to think about what happens at the merge if your day-to-day survival is constantly threatened. Additionally, her misreads of tribe dynamics, particularly the closeness between Sophi and Alex and Jake, made it impossible for her to craft a pitch that would give her the best chance at survival.
Gia: Another day, another blindside, another blue tribe diva is down for the count. Annie thought she was running the show, but she was sadly mistaken. Her only true possible ally was Alex, but even he wasn’t willing to stick his neck out for her and go against the majority alliance’s wishes. Despite her early exit, Annie left her mark as a strong-willed woman who wasn’t afraid to play the game, even if the way she played rubbed some of her tribemates the wrong way.
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