Well, normally I’d be expecting to write a merge recap this week. But it turns out the season is actually changing stuff up and going for a second swap instead, something actually unpredictable for once! A welcome shift from the same format we’ve seen eight times in a row, but first, we have to put these two swapped tribes to rest.
On Hina, it’s been a straightforward story as Matt and Jason took the fall under Uli’s control. So now these four Ulis plus Sophi are a lockstep five, assuming they don’t have to cut Sophi along the way. Last in, first out. Nothing personal. But what is personal is Savannah’s dislike of Jawan, which has only gotten worse and put him at the bottom of Savannah’s pecking order.
But the pecking order is quickly uprooted by another swap, from two tribes to three tribes. Jawan, Sage, Shannon, and Steven form the new Kele. MC, Savannah, Sophi, and Rizo form the new Hina. And Alex, Kristina, Nate, and Sophie form the new Uli. Three tribes of four, and a far more interesting spread than the last swap we got, especially when the heat and panic result in a surprise medical intervention for Kristina. But the game goes on, and up next is a reward challenge for sandwiches, chips, tea, and brownies. Hina and Uli take the wins, leaving Kele hungry and hot for another day.
On Hina, Sophi finally gets a meal in her stomach and is energized to play the game again. There might not be anywhere to hide in a tribe so small, but with Rizo and Savannah here, she’s feeling good. MC though? Definitely on the bottom, but still with a beware advantage in case they lose. Not wasting any time in building bonds, she links up with Rizo and reveals his idol is public info. Not surprising to hear, but not the worst-case scenario, since Rizo can use this info to strike fear into people’s hearts. For now, all Rizo can really accomplish is failing miserably at fishing, falling flat on his face before he can even get in the water. Rizgod, I fear your title might be revoked.
While Rizo bumbles around, Savannah’s out for blood, trying to find Hina’s idol before MC can get to it, just in case it’s available for the taking. With Rizo and Sophi in tow, it’s Sophi who finds a Knowledge is Power in a tree. Yep! We’re just giving out this busted, broken, overpowered advantage for free, and in a situation where it basically guarantees someone would get swap-screwed even with an idol. I take back some of what I said about improved game design this season. This is a big swing and a big miss, and I thought we left this advantage to die a few seasons ago.
On Uli, Kristina recovers from her medical emergency as they enjoy their second-place prizes. But finally away from the power structure, Nate’s in trouble and has to get in good with these people with a bit of honesty… followed by a lie. Matt’s vote was easy (true), but Nate got blindsided by Jason’s elimination (false). So maybe he’s not Uli strong after all, but the others see the writing on the wall: this is probably a ruse, and they can’t get played into letting him slip through for free.
However, the original Hina isn’t as tight as you’d first think, because when it’s time to figure out how to convince Nate not to play his Shot in the Dark, Kristina says they should just throw out Sophie’s name. Sophie is livid. She’s always felt on the bottom of all her alliances, and now it’s being proven to her face! But she’s good with Alex from their time together on swapped Kele, and together they decide Kristina might have to go next if need be, since Hina’s in shambles already.
On Kele, the chickens are loose, but the real mess is the mounting drama between Sage and Shannon as the former groans at the thought of spending another day with the latter. With three Ulis, it might seem like a 3-1 situation with Steven on the bottom, but he’s hard at work bonding with Jawan over cheesy dad jokes and nerdy interests. Unfortunately for Steven, Jawan’s not down to party with Hina at Uli’s expense while there’s a war going on, so it’s another immunity or bust situation.
Nobody is pushing harder than Shannon, who wants total control over everyone on that beach. She’s tight with Steven from the first swap, where she tried to force that six-person alliance. Now she’s feeling really good with Sage as though destiny itself set them on this swapped path twice in a row… even though Sage is sick of the forced positivity and wants this snake out of the game already, as long as the others can see what her strategy’s really about. As Sage says, karma’s coming, and it’s gonna be a bitch if they lose this next challenge.
As though destiny itself demanded some actual strategy this season, it’s Kele that walks away the losers after Hina dominates and Uli pulls off a comeback. One last dose of the Kele curse, huh? So now it’s either Steven’s swan song if Uli decides to stick together… or someone like Sage makes a huge move and goes for a friendly fire blindside against one of her own tribemates, namely Shannon, who’s excited for her first Tribal.
The plan is simple: Uli sticks together and feeds Steven a name just in case. But Shannon the shark is ready to muck this up and take Steven to the merge as a number with connections, sacrificing Jawan because he brings nothing to the table: no alliances, no connections, no power. And while Steven likes Jawan as a person, he won’t just throw away this lifeline for him.
But once Shannon breaks the news to Sage, another wrinkle is added to the night when Sage sets out to take out her fellow soul sister instead, roping in Jawan and leaking Shannon’s plan to solidify a bond. Shannon’s been throwing out names left and right, so now it’s time for her to get a taste of it herself. The huge risk is that Shannon going home would set off alarms with the rest of Uli and send Jawan and Sage to the bottom again, so the plan might not get beyond Sage’s head here as Tribal looms.
When the dust finally settles, it’s a Shannon blindside, 3-1. Game respects game, and Shannon offers some hugs on the way out (though Sage can’t genuinely give more than a handshake at this point). She might’ve been characterized as a phony shark in the edit, but Shannon was one of the harder players in this snoozer pre-merge and delivered some of the best content we had, so I’m gonna miss her, especially the awkward one-sided rivalry between her and Sage that genuinely played out perfectly as a recurring storyline. In her place, Sage has stepped up as a player to watch with this power move, even if she finds herself in the crosshairs moving forward.
Anyways, that pre-merge was rough. It took seven episodes and two swaps to give us a genuinely interesting vote, and it still didn’t feel like an amazing episode. Just sums up the season so far to be honest: not awful, but so, so mid, like watching a Brantsteele simulation in slow motion. We had to sit through the most uninteresting disaster tribe yet, only to get some genuinely good format changes that didn’t feel too impactful because the cast just wasn’t delivering much for a variety of reasons.
But we DO get a merge next week —an actual merge, not another Earn the Merge that’s literally just a merge with Jeff’s convoluted fine print stapled to the bottom. Will the rest of the season deliver? Or will we keep on holding out for the exciting gameplay Jeff teased until we’re staring down finale night and nothing’s happened? It better be the former, because I don’t want to live in the timeline where the Season 50 trailer at the end of the aftershow is the highlight of the season.
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My winning prediction is Sophi. This is because I’m hearkening back to Survivor 44, when Tika was down to three players, yet all of them made it to the finale, and one of them (Yam Yam) won.
I think that’s going to happen. The reason I pick Sophi is because Alex has had a less interesting storyline throughout the season.
Go Rizo,
Arlin
Your observations and commentary matches what I have concluded about this season. I did wrestle with whether or not voting out Shannon at this point was a wise move. It remains to be seen. I share your conclusion that this is a mid season for Survivor. The blindside pre-COVID frenzy seems to have cooled, leaving more loyalty to alliances. I think this is a good reflection on society, but boring in the game.