Survivor Season 49, Episode 8
"Hot Grim Reaper"
Host: Jeff Probst
Cast: Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Sophi Balerdi, MC Chukwujekwu, Savannah Louie, Kristina Mills, Alex Moore, Jawan Pitts, Steven Ramm, Sophie Segreti, Rizo Velovic
Sorry I missed last week’s recap. Here’s a brief rundown of what happened:
The tribes merged! Sage and Jawan pretended to be with the old Uli members, but were lying. There was a debate about whether to vote out Rizo or Savannah, thinking that it might be the only time the former won’t play his idol. MC played her idol, but Rizo didn’t play his own. The majority voted out Nate, and he became the first member of the jury.
Okay! All caught up! Onto this week’s episode.
Much of this week’s episode was about how there are some very obvious people who should be voted out next but for a litany of reasons, that doesn’t happen. Those people are Rizo, Savannah and Sophi, all of whom were on the wrong side of last week’s vote.
While Steven begins the episode by telling us that the first mission of this flight crew (himself, MC, Kristina, Sophie, Alex, Sage & Jawan) was a success, there’s already some trouble brewing. The next mission for this team is to find the idol that was re-hidden when MC played hers. Alex, Steven and Kristina go hunting and it’s the latter who finds it. While this is great for Kristina, we also hear that it’s great for Alex. First, he knows who has it and it’s not with anyone he wants to get out immediately. However, if he thinks he needs it, he thinks he can persuade Kristina to use it. And worst case scenario, he says he can throw her under the bus by telling others that she has an idol. Not sure I’m ready to get on the next flight with this crew.
Alex & Sophi had seemed like they would be tighter than anybody else in the game, having survived the trainwreck that was the Original Kele tribe. But they were on opposite ends of the votes last week. Sophi seems worried it’s put a target on her back but Alex re-assures her that Savannah & Rizo are bigger threats.
One of the real storylines of this week’s episode was MC’s decision to play her idol. She explains her decision: she had never voted with that group before and she had to be sure she’d survive another day. Turns out they did want to work with her, but her idol play may have been a sign that she didn’t trust them. It lingers with Jawan and it’s ammo that Rizo will use later in the day.
Meanwhile, Sage continues to be highly relatable in that she’s found someone new to annoyed with. Girl, if I had a nickel. With Shannon gone, the new bane of her existence is Savannah. She feels she’s condescending and brings up nicknaming the chickens. But we get the other side of the coin here, too. Being on the outside has brought up old trauma from Savannah. She says that at a previous job, she was iced out. It led her to be hyper-stressed to the point where she’s dealt with hormonal imbalances ever since. It’s pretty gutting to see the emotions it brings out of Savannah to have even just a few moments that resemble such a terrible situation she dealt with in the past. It’s moments like these that make you understand just how gruelling the game of Survivor is mentally.
The tribes arrive for the immunity challenge and Jeff has a twist. Typically we’ve gotten a split merge vote as the first Tribal Council of the second half of the game, but it’s just been delayed slightly here. The tribes are put onto two teams. The winning tribe is safe and gets a reward (in the form of deli sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies). They also won’t go to Tribal Council. The losers will go and none of them will have safety. It ultimately ends up being a showdown between Sophie and Savannah. The former can’t pull out a second straight Immunity win and thus, the group of Sophie, Sage, Jawan, Rizo and MC is headed to Tribal Council.
But there’s a twist! After enjoying the reward, Savannah learns that the advantage she won for being the last person in the challenge is an immunity necklace. She’ll head to Tribal with the losers and can either vote tonight or keep it for a future Tribal Council.
Rizo would seem to be the obvious boot here if he didn’t have an idol he flashed at the last Tribal Council. In a staggering bit of bravado, Rizo says he is not playing it. He wants to win this game and playing his idol might just mean he goes home next anyway. Despite this, it seems that the four (Sage, Jawan, MC and Sophie) are just going to vote him out anyway.
But Sophie is playing hard and she tells MC she’ll throw a hinkey vote on Jawan. That way, if Rizo plays his idol, they can vote out Jawan on the re-vote. MC doesn’t love the plan as she wants to work with Jawan, so she shares the plan with him. Eventually, everyone at camp knows about Sophie’s plan.
This is where things take a bit of a turn. Savannah shows up and now Rizo is feeling extra confident. He begins driving a plan to get rid of MC. He thinks she is more connected and that would leave Sophie as a number for himself. Suddenly, Jawan and Sage feel like they have to make a choice between Sophie or MC. In my favourite conversation of the episode, MC and Sophie realize this is the case too. Even if they vote Rizo, the other votes are coming for one of them.
What made all of it so compelling is that this could have been setting us up for an epic blindside of Rizo. Unfortunately, it’s not how it went. Despite some Tribal Council whispers, MC voted for Sophie and the rest of the votes were for MC. Last week felt like a genuine shock to see Nate go home. The show seemed to have painted Rizo, Savannah and Nate as a powerhouse trio and to see one of them voted out was surprising. But alas, it might have just been a glancing blow as Rizo & Savannah survive tonight and head back to camp with an idol and an extra vote.
While I found the dynamics of the twist this episode (Savannah eventually going to Tribal Council) a little much, I honestly think this was a fun episode. I’m disappointed MC was the casualty of it, but Tribal Council felt like it could have been any of her, Sophie or Rizo going home. In a game that has felt fairly straightforward, I’ll take a little bit of the unexpected.
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