Welcome to Season 49’s Next Time On Survivor weekly feature on the Inside Survivor site! If you’re new around here, I’m Steph from sunny, tropical, humid Singapore. This is a tiny space where I give my best attempts at understanding preview trailers and make my predictions for the show’s next episodes.
We’ve reached the midpoint of the season—the tribes are merging! In the trailers, we see the usual celebrations of players meeting new people and reuniting with former tribemates. Typical of a new era merge as well, we then see the players set off from the beach, likely scrambling for a new advantage.
This seems to be a close fight as there’s a scene where Savannah makes a mad dash to grab something at MC’s feet. Whether it’s the merge advantage or another part of the beware advantage MC found earlier, it’s definitely revealing that the two aren’t going to be working with each other any time soon.
Next in the NTOS trailer, Jawan and MC, who have never been on a tribe together before, discuss game strategy, which ends with a fist-bump agreement. Jawan’s “let’s take the shot tonight” and “flip the script” suggest he’s pitching an original Uli player to target, since the Uli versus Hina lines have been clearly demarcated prior to this. At the same time, I can’t see MC doing something that’ll reduce her already diminished Hina numbers.
That said, I’m still skeptical that Jawan will turn on an original Uli player, as he was super set on playing with his former tribemates. I’m more inclined to think this interaction is just a quick discussion to test the waters about forming new backup alliances at the merge.
Finally, the NTOS trailer reveals Sage telling Alex, “I want her out first,” with the shot immediately cutting to Savannah. I can see Sage following through with this as she was never part of the tight original Uli alliance consisting of Savannah, Nate, and Rizo. In the previous episode, Sage already took a shot by voting out Shannon, who had spent the longest time on the same tribe as her, so it’ll not be her first time playing against an original tribemate.
I predict that this isn’t going to bode well for Sage because the Uli alliance is just so dominant and tight right now. The three of them also have Sophi quite firmly voting with them. I won’t be surprised if Alex reunites with Sophi (both being the two remaining Kele survivors) to inform her of Sage’s plan. It’ll then be a matter of time before enough people get mobilised to target her. As such, my guess for the next episode is that Sage will be voted out as the first post-merger player of Survivor 49.
What do you think will happen in Episode 7? Leave your predictions in the comments!
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I really enjoy this series. It comes out far too late though. Can you publish it earlier in the week, or at least by Tuesdays?