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
MC Finds the Beware Advantage
Christine: Very few things have happened on Hina so far this season. To be fair, very few things were shown to have happened on Hina so far this season. This episode was no exception, with all the drama of the medevac. Still, we did at least see some movement on the advantage front when MC located her tribe’s Beware Advantage and pulled in Steven as her accomplice. The advantage, of course, is no good until her tribe attends Tribal Council. Until then, she has no vote and no idol.
Sea Krait Bites Back
Gia: You would’ve thought we had seen it all with medical evacuations on Survivor. We’ve seen players fall in a fire, get infections, and collapse from exhaustion at challenges. And yet 49 seasons in, we’ve gotten another Survivor first… with Jake being bitten by a Sea Krait, a venomous snake that the Survivor guidebook specifically tells players to avoid. Not only that, but we got to see the medical tent where Jake was immediately taken for treatment. Good news, the bite was a dry one, meaning no venom was released. Bad news, the doctor still could not clear him to return to the game due to the physical and mental toll the incident caused him. With that, Jake was officially pulled from the game, and Kele went from a tribe of 4 to 3.
Kele is Down to Two
Gia: Did you think we were done with Kele just because they had a medevac? Think again! Due to the timing of Jake’s exit, we still had an immunity challenge and tribal council this episode. Now more invigorated than ever, the remaining Kele members were determined to win in honor of Jake. Sadly, they ended up finishing last once again, falling short on the puzzle. After much back and forth between all three teammates, it was Jeremiah who was voted out fourth, leaving Alex and Sophi as the final Kele representatives.
Tribe Breakdown
Kele
Gia: Move over Lulu, step aside Ua, and take a lap Yanu… there’s a new disaster tribe in town. Between having a 0% win rate in challenges (team and individual) and dealing with a first-of-its-kind medevac, this is a tribe at the absolute end of their rope. Perhaps the only reprieve Alex and Sophi have at this moment is that the worst is behind them, as a tribe swap is coming in the next episode. History has proven that the remaining players of disaster tribes often do pretty well in the merge phase of the game, but will this pattern include Alex and Sophi?
Uli
Gia: The status quo remains pretty much the same on Uli as it has always been. Savannah, Shannon, Nate, and Rizo are the core four alliance of the red tribe, with Jawan and Sage on the outs. However, Sage did no favors for herself by throwing Savannah under the bus to Shannon, who has no plans to turn on her number one ally. For Sage’s sake, perhaps the upcoming tribe swap will be the best for her game.
Hina
Christine: Even though Uli hasn’t gone to tribal either, we at least still get some insight into the drama on their tribe. The same can’t really be said for Hina, where we barely even got confessionals from them this episode. Apart from MC finding the Beware Advantage, it’s hard to know what’s going on with this tribe, aside from them being strong and winning challenges. Here’s hoping the upcoming swap gives us some insight into more of these Hina players!
Top 3 Players
Sophi
Christine: It’s not easy surviving a disaster tribe down to the last two players, so kudos to Sophi (and Alex) for getting there. Sophi had a tricky situation to navigate with this vote, given that Alex had a public immunity idol. Sticking with Alex was the safest option for Sophi, as he would have full control over the vote if she and Jeremiah voted for him and he played his idol. Her close relationship with Alex paid off, and Jeremiah was sent packing, with Alex’s idol taken out of play on top of it all.
MC
Gia: Everything is coming up MC on Hina! With the merge on the horizon, the yellow tribe decided it would be a good idea to do a group idol hunt in preparation against Uli. MC was not down with the group advantage, but still wanted to find the advantage. She did, but only told her closest ally, Steven, about it. Now I wonder if the tribe swap will impact her safety in the game, and whether or not she will have a vote going into the new tribe dynamics.
Savannah
Christine: Savannah remains in a power position on Uli. She’s in such a strong position that the second Sage even thinks about turning the tables against her, Savannah is already in the know thanks to her tight connection with Shannon. We won’t get to see this drama play out fully due to the swap next week, but this episode certainly drives home the point that Savannah, Rizo, and Shannon are running this tribe with an iron fist.
Fallen Comrades
Jake
Christine: A lot was said about Jake’s physical strength in the pre-season, but he definitely proved he’s an apt social player, too, in his short time on the island. I know there was a lot of confusion and frustration about him being medevaced since his bite was only a “dry” bite, but to me, that decision felt less like a purely medical decision and more like a legal decision. I’m no expert, but I have to imagine someone from legal was looped in as this was all happening, and a calculation was made that it was too risky to send him back into the game, given the rarity of these bites and the difficulty in definitively proving clinically that it was indeed a “dry” bite. It’s a bummer for Jake, but the silver lining that he made it home in time for his son’s birth is great news.
Gia: Love him or hate him, you’d be remiss to admit that Jake was nothing less than a dominating force on the disastrous Kele tribe. From stealing shoes to refusing to choose between both of his final twos, he made sure to make his short tenure a memorable one. The way he went out of the game was brutal, with a first-of-its-kind medevac that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Luckily, despite the heartbreaking departure, it all worked out in the end, as he made a full recovery and made it back home in time for the birth of his son.
Jeremiah
Christine: Jeremiah played a perfectly solid pre-merge game, laying relatively low and keeping his target small while still getting himself into an alliance early on. But Jeremiah was placed on a disaster tribe, and that perfectly solid pre-merge game just isn’t enough to survive a tribe of three. There just isn’t much you can do defensively as a player when you’re on a tribe of three with someone who has an idol. On just about any other tribe you can imagine, Jeremiah very likely makes the merge. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of him, because he had a lot of “likable villain” potential, especially with that laugh of his.
Gia: Despite Kele receiving the most screentime thus far, I feel like we didn’t get to know Jeremiah as much as I would’ve liked. He was clearly a fun presence with an amazing evil laugh, but it was clear that he would have an uphill battle ahead of him once Kele’s outsiders were voted out. He was well aware of his positioning within the blue tribe’s core alliance, and only a challenge win could’ve saved him from going at that point. Sadly, a win wasn’t in the cards for Kele, and Jeremiah has his torch snuffed as a
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