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.
It’s the finale of the season! For the final NTOS trailer of the year, we got lots of soundbites of the final five players talking about their motivations and that they’re ready to take on the last lap of the game. This is rather typical of the trailers hyping the season finale and the remaining challenges and fire-making that we’ll see in the upcoming episode.
Personally, what stood out for me was Savannah sharing how people are gunning for her, but she’s still confident in her game. Over the last few episodes, we’ve seen a range of her self-confidence: from being extremely concerned about being voted out, to just pretending to be vulnerable while having great control over the votes. I feel that she’s in a good position heading into the finale, poised to win the upcoming challenges and secure her alliance.
We see in the sneak peek scene how Rizo, Savannah’s clear number one ally throughout the season, is also confident of his game in this last stretch. Right before this post-tribal council night scene, Rizo had just revealed that his hidden immunity idol is good for another tribal council, guaranteeing himself to the final 4 if he plays it. Whether he’ll play the idol or not seems inconsequential now, as I don’t think the other players will risk a move that’s dependent on Rizo’s idol at this point.
While I do think he rightfully believes he’s making it to the final 4, I think Rizo will have a tough time justifying his game to the jury if he makes it to the final 3. The players on the jury just don’t seem particularly impressed by his theatrics at tribal council so far, probably tired of seeing him declare he’s playing his idol, but not doing so time and time again.
As such, here are my overall predictions for the finale episode. Seeing how confident Savannah is, I believe she wins the immunity challenges. At the final 5 tribal council, I think we’ll see Sophi as the potential swing vote between Sage and Kristina versus Rizo and Savannah. As I’ve shared previously as well, I feel that Sophi’s not turning on Rizo and Savannah, despite the discussion and deliberations she’s had about it. I think we’ll see Sage voted out first to eliminate a potential challenge threat who could win the final immunity challenge.
Next, I predict the final 3 will be Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi, as the idea of this trio voting together and successfully surviving as the minority has been hammered home regularly over the last few episodes. In the finale promo trailer, though this could be an out-of-context soundbite, Rizo even mentions, “We’ve gone as far as a trio can go.” I predict this trio will be the final 3, with Savannah ultimately winning after garnering the jury’s votes for a respectably fierce, pretty intense, and ultimately effective gameplay.
What do you think will happen in the finale? Leave your predictions in the comments!
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