Survivor Season 49, Episode 11
"Cherry on Top"
Host: Jeff Probst
Cast: Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Sophi Balerdi, Savannah Louie, Kristina Mills, Steven Ramm, Sophie Segreti, Rizo Velovic
Survivor 49 is coming off the heels of its best episode of the season, and while “Cherry on Top” might not beat it out, it’s at least a fittingly titled name for a 90-minute follow-up. While the most potent force left in the game remains intact by the end of the episode, we see them successfully neuter the threat against them.
We start the episode with the fallout from the Jawan vote. Rizo says he wanted to play his fake idol in the hopes that Kristina would play her real one, but she beat him to the punch. Meanwhile, Sophie tries to make amends for duping Kristina and Steven, her former Hina tribemates. They seem to distrust her, but they might need her. Sage is the real problem to deal with. The apology tour doesn’t go well. Clearly, Sage isn’t going to let this lie.
The audience gets some insight into Sophi. She realizes that she is #3 in the trio of herself, Rizo and Savannah. It’s just a matter of when she’ll do it. Seven might be the number to do it. She starts with Sage, hoping to begin painting a target on Savannah. Sage doesn’t buy it. Unfortunate, since this would be a lovely two-thirds of the final three seats at Tribal Council.
The tribes learn that a journey is on offer. It's a little late for this, but whatever! Steven seems eager to go, considering he’s a likely candidate to be voted out. No one appears super keen to go on what’s advertised as a “strenuous” journey, but ultimately Steven offers himself up. The others hope he loses his vote rather than return with an advantage.
His challenge is to race around an island before the tide rises too high. He does it, earning himself a Block a Vote. Ultimately, it seems a bit light for such an endeavor, but better to have it than not. Later, we’ll see Steven hope he can avoid using it this week to increase its power when there are just six people left. Note: I love the part where Steven says his advantage will be secret, as if he didn’t just go on a journey where everyone assumed someone could win an advantage.
While Steven’s away, the others make backup plans. Sophi wonders if this opens a door to backstab Savannah, though she might want to wait. However, Sophie brings up getting rid of either Savannah or Rizo, opening the door for Sophi to weigh her options.
When Steven returns to camp, he admits he won something, but he doesn't reveal what it is. Rizo guesses it’s a Steal-A-Vote. I’m desperately hoping that Sophi tries to steal it with her Knowledge is Power at some point, only to fail when she doesn’t try to steal the Block-A-Vote. I genuinely loved the back-and-forth here. It feels like two people playing a board game where they know the rules well. They each know what the other is trying to do and have to figure out how to play around each other.
The immunity challenge is a classic. You have to stack your blocks without knocking them over. Despite exhausting himself on the journey, Steven pulls out the victory. He also wins a spaghetti dinner. He repays Kristina for playing an idol on him, taking her along with Rizo. At the reward, they talk about taking a shot at Sophie. She’s a threat to win the game and consistently places in at least third in the challenges. They seem game.
Sophie begins gunning for Savannah, hoping to break up the most dangerous alliance in the game. But Sage has a vendetta against Sophie for voting out Jawan. Sage admits she's wanted to get rid of Savannah, but she’s hoping to serve up some revenge.
When returning from the reward, Sophie offers up Savannah as a name to Kristina and Steven. They seem on board. Sophi realizes that she’s now in the middle. She could vote with her original allies to get rid of Sophie or vote with new ones to vote out Savannah. The question is whether it’s worth adding a big line to your resume at the risk of keeping people you don’t trust as much in the game. It’s a great instinct from Sophi, who, since her original tribe dissolved, has felt like she’s taken a back seat.
However, all seems somewhat for not when at Tribal Council, Sophie is voted out unanimously. No idols or advantages are played. We’ll wait another day for an explosive tribal. Jawan roots on Sage from the jury bench, which is nice to see, but potentially dooms Sage from being able to make it to the end. It also feels like, if Kristina was never even considered for the vote-out once Steven was safe, her win equity is pretty low.
It does feel like this is Rizo, Savannah or Sophi’s game to lose. An immunity run from Steven could be in the cards, too, though that feels less likely. But realistically, this felt like the time to get rid of Savannah or Rizo, but the opposition was throttled, though that does seem to be the theme of Survivor 49. That was kind of the theme of Survivor 48, as well, only for someone not at the top (Kyle) to be able to reveal himself as the game’s winner. If this is an echo of last season, then Sophi could be our Kyle.
So while tonight’s episode wasn’t as strong as last week’s, it was a good enough follow-up to last week. If we got the ice cream sundae last week, we got the cherry on top this time around.
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