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
Kristina breaks down
Gia: It’s been a rough few rounds for Krisitina, who hasn’t been on the right side of the vote since the first round of the merge. Losing Alex after Sophie flipped on their alliance was the final straw, and she had a breakdown right before the reward challenge. The pain from losing her mom and not being able to talk to her about this difficult time made this struggle all the more real to her and added another layer to the emotions she was feeling. She was able to rally back after this brief loss of composure, and frankly, I’m glad she had a much-needed moment to process her feelings.
The Tribe Scrambles
Gia: Who was going home tonight? Frankly, I had no idea up until the votes were read, and that’s in part to the fact that the castaways insisted on scrambling as soon as Sophie won immunity. Savannah and Rizo were confident in their plan to vote out Steven, only to be told by Sophie that Sage and Jawan were flipping back to the other side to vote her out. This led to a scramble by everyone to figure out who to vote for and what advantages to use. In the end, Kristina decided to play her idol on Steven, Savannah used her extra vote to take out Jawan, and Rizo played a fake idol for the drama of it all.
Rizo puts on a show
Christine: After weeks of holding onto his idol despite threats against his life in the game, Rizo finally stood up at tribal, delivered a monologue, handed Jeff his idol, and played it on Savannah…only for Jeff to announce it was a fake. Rizo’s play here seemed to have been a variation on Rachel’s “play the Shot in the Dark to gauge reactions to see if you need to idol yourself” move, and the reactions he got indicated he didn’t need to play the real thing. The votes were read, with Jawan and Savannah exchanging looks that harkened back to the Eliza-Ami dynamic during the Leann blindside in Vanuatu as Jawan slowly realized he was the one getting blindsided here. Rizo then proceeded to stand up and more or less publicly take credit for the blindside once the votes were all read, which was a bit much, but he certainly brought some entertainment to this vote.
Advantage Watch
Idols
Gia: It was an interesting round for idol plays, that’s for sure! Just as she promised, Kristina played her idol on Steven after hearing that the other side would be voting for him. Rizo, in turn, played a fake idol on Savannah. In the end, it was all for naught, as Savannah’s extra vote was enough to send Jawan home, who was the real target for the night.
Knowledge is Power
Christine: Despite rumors of Kristina’s idol (and a secret scene that showed Sophi discovering it in Kristina’s bag), Sophi chose not to use her Knowledge is Power advantage and instead let Kristina waste her idol on Steven. Some will criticize Sophi’s lack of action here, but the biggest strength she has right now is that people aren’t looking at her as a threatening player, especially compared to her allies Savannah and Rizo, who are constantly in the hot seat. Stealing Kristina’s idol publicly would’ve put Sophi in the limelight unnecessarily and would be a net negative for her game, even if it gave her something for her “resume.” Just because you have an advantage doesn’t mean it’s always the right decision for your specific game to play it.
Extra Vote
Christine: Savannah used her Extra Vote this week to ensure Jawan was sent packing, resulting in a 5-3-1 vote. It didn’t turn out to be necessary since Sophie voted with the Rizo/Savannah/Sophi trio to secure a plurality even without an Extra Vote, and Kristina threw a vote on Rizo. The play was the right move to ensure Jawan went home and avoid a 4-4 tie in the scenario where Kristina votes with the rest of the tribe.
Top 3 Players
Rizo
Gia: Rizo is a player who isn’t just content to be at the top of the tribe; he treats the game as one big performance. This was never clearer than in this episode with his grandstanding at tribal council before playing a fake idol. It makes for excellent confessionals, but will his behavior rub the jurors the wrong way? What about the players left in the game? I’m intrigued to see what the immediate fallout from this vote is, and whether Rizo still having his idol will put a target on his back. Either way, you can’t deny that the season has been more entertaining with him in it.
Sophie
Christine: It’s a shame Sophie was so invisible in the pre-merge, because she’s shaping up to be one of the most consequential players of this merge with her dominant challenge performances and swing vote positioning. When we look back to the little we saw of her on OG Hina when she was excluded by the early majority alliance on that tribe, Sophie’s season-long story has been about responding to being shafted by her original tribe time and time again, most recently when they were shocked and disappointed to see her survive the split tribal over MC.
She’s gotten herself in with the minority alliance with all sorts of advantages, an alliance that’s willing to defer to her desires, given her power and immunity wins. Sophie’s one problem is that she’s built up quite the reputation for herself in terms of challenges, and it’s hard not to imagine her becoming a late-game challenge beast boogeyman who needs to be taken out as soon as she’s vulnerable in the minds of the players. But for now, she’s worked herself into a strong position.
Sage
Gia: Sage has been playing an incredibly entertaining game, constantly shifting between the two alliances under the guise of poop jokes. I was excited to see that she was ready to take a shot at the trio of Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi, but it turns out that she picked the wrong person to trust for her coup. This led to her losing her closest ally, Jawan, and a very touching goodbye between the pair. Sophie may have turned on her this round, but she’s not out of the game just yet. I have confidence in Sage’s strategic capabilities moving forward. Even if she is voted out next, I know she will pull out all the stops before her departure. Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about that anytime soon, and we’ll get to see her turn the game around once more.
Fallen Comrades
Jawan
Christine: Jawan left this game the way he played it: by accidentally taking people’s things. The Rizo torch snafu was a hilarious end to his story, which saw him claw his way up from the bottom of the Uli tribe, survive a swap where he was very much in danger of being taken out by his own allies, and make a game-defining move in teaming up with Sage to take out Shannon just before the merge. That move set him and Sage on the path to being swing vote power players in the merge, but their games finally caught up to them when they were targeted for being some of the most dangerous players in the game. Though he had some rough moments, Jawan really turned things around and made a deeper run into the merge than ever seemed possible on his original tribe.
Gia: In terms of quintessential “Survivor” experiences, Jawan has run the gamut during his time on the show. He’s been a part of a winning tribe and a losing one, he’s been in the majority alliance and on the outs. He was given a reward, and he went hungry. There hasn’t been much that he hasn’t experienced in his tenure on season 49, but his partnership with Sage is when his game really kicked into high gear. The highs and lows of his game leave him as one of the more memorable contestants this season, and now he joins the jury. As someone who played both sides repeatedly in the merge, I think he will bring an interesting perspective when voting for a winner.
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