In the aftermath of Jawan’s surprise elimination, Bottoms Up has been broken and sent back to the bottom, and nobody’s feeling it harder than Sage. She’s furious at Sophie for flipping and handing Savannah the game with a cocky grin on her face. Revenge is the name of Sage’s game now, and Sophie’s at the top of the hit list.
Meanwhile, in terms of idols, Kristina wasted hers on Steven, Rizo saved his yet again, and he played a fake for the fun of it, even though it was meant to scare Kristina into playing hers… which she did on her own. And with the jury eating it up, his Temu Tony act might net some votes at the end, even against stiff competition.
The following morning, Soph analyzes her game and reminds herself she’s third in that alliance of hers. Pretty obvious to everyone, right? So she needs to flip on Savannah and Rizo before it’s too late, and with everyone focused on eliminating bottom feeders, now’s the time to strike. Starting with Sage, Soph appeals to both her gamer side and her intense dislike of Savannah to rally a reliable number for the cause. But Sage doesn’t buy it as long as Sophie’s still in the game as her current nemesis, so Soph might as well look elsewhere.
But this won’t be a clean round of Survivor without any wrinkles, because there’s another Journey incoming, and bottomfeeder Steven takes the opportunity head-on. Fearing the worst-case scenario in which Steven gains power, Sophie and Soph team up and commit to the Savannah/Rizo plan. But that all hinges on Steven’s performance this episode, and first, he has to deal with a strenuous solo challenge: circumnavigating an entire island to find the numbers to unlock a chest, allowing him to break a pot containing an advantage. If the tide takes the pot before he can reach it, he loses his vote.
I’d be mad about more forced lost vote nonsense, but he volunteered for this, so the downsides are on him. But no votes lost here, because Steven dominates the challenge with ease and wins a Vote Blocker. Not the greatest advantage ever, but with numbers so tight, it’s pretty powerful.
While the rest of the tribe struggles to catch some chicken dinner, Steven returns and tells most of the truth: he kept his vote, got an advantage… and he won’t tell them exactly what it is. Not the worst move considering Rizo immediately spirals into thinking about every single possibility, honing in on the cataclysmic Vote Steal option, and eventually trying to cut deals with Steven to not use it against him.
Soph’s not worried, though. If she’s sketched out at Tribal, she can just steal whatever it is and leave Steven defenseless again, no sweat. But with Steven needing to play it before Tribal, that plan might go horribly awry (and I kinda hope it does because 1) that’d be funny, and 2) please let Knowledge is Power flop again).
After Steven does a bad Jeff impression and Jeff does an even worse Italian impression, Steven proves his block stacking skills are better than his impressions and takes his second necklace of the season. Perfect timing to ruin a lot of plans, and he can hurt a few more feelings by taking two people on a spaghetti dinner reward. First up is Kristina for obvious reasons, and second is Rizo because the guy hasn’t eaten in ages. Easy picks. Sage, Sophie, Soph, and Savannah get nothing but a scramble with almost all their names due to be on the chopping block.
At the reward, Rizo plans to paint Sophie as the common enemy to protect Soph and Savannah, citing her threat level across the board now that she’s totally vulnerable. Steven likes the plan because he can save his Vote Blocker for the final six, but Kristina’s not feeling it. At all. Savannah’s the bigger threat to her game and everyone else’s, so why waste this round on Sophie, who might actually be useful in beating bigger threats in immunity challenges?
Speaking of Sophie, she meets up with Soph and Sage to solidify the Savannah blindside. Now’s the time… but not for Sage. Ironically so, because after so many days of Sage wanting the “mean girl” out, there’s an even more annoying presence to direct her emotional gameplay against, and Savannah’s more than happy to fan those vengeful flames to protect her own butt tonight.
Back from the reward, Rizo, Soph, and Savannah solidify the Sophie boot even further while Sage puts on the acting hat to keep Sophie totally in the dark. At this point, Sophie believes Steven and Kristina are the key votes she needs. Still, while getting Savannah out sounds tempting, Steven knows voting Sophie out and keeping his Vote Blocker has its own benefits, so he’s up in the air about it (no rocket pun intended).
But low-key, the real swing vote is Soph, who sees the numbers for what they are. Steven, Sophie, and Kristina are voting for Savannah… maybe. Sage, Rizo, and Savannah voting for Sophie… definitely. If she wants to take Savannah out and stamp her name on that huge move, the chance is there to take. But Sophie’s not her closest ally, and making this move now might blow up in her face if she finds a target on her back in the endgame without the tools or the allies to defend herself.
Never mind anything about a tense vote, though, because the threat of Sophie winning out in challenges after throwing names around and floating with the wind on every vote is too much, and off she goes in a unanimous vote. Honestly, though, for someone who started as the most irrelevant player in the cast for almost the entire pre-merge, Sophie came alive in the post-merge and became one of the stars this season. Not enough to earn a spot on Season 50, but I don’t know, give it another few seasons and see what she’s got going on around the time of Second Chance 2 or something?
Anyway, that was certainly another episode of Survivor 49. Stuff almost happened. Definitely not a continuation of last week’s momentum, but not a total crash either. Back to the old grind we go with this season, a paint-by-numbers adventure that can’t even serve as a solid commercial for Season 50. The magic’s not gone, but it’s faded. But with next week promising a showdown between both factions, maybe there’s some sparks left in what feels like a largely ho-hum endgame.
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