Survivor Season 50, Episode 4
"Knife to the Heart"
Host: Jeff Probst
Cast: Angelina Keeley, Aubry Bracco, Coach Wade, Charlie Davis, Chrissy Hofbeck, Christian Hubicki, Cirie Fields, Colby Donaldson, Dee Valladares, Emily Flippen, Genevieve Mushaluk, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, Kamilla Karthigesu, Mike White, Ozzy Lusth, Rick Devens, Rizo Velovic, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Tiffany Ervin
Up until the 60-minute mark of the episode, I thought this might be the worst episode of the show I have seen in a long time. Granted, it might have been the best Zac Brown commercial. Or maybe it was the worst Zac Brown commercial. I don’t know. What I do know is that there was far too much Zac Brown on my television screen. And I say that as a fan of Zac Brown! Luckily, we were saved by what was a genuinely compelling tribal council, where the history of Survivor once again reared its head in a way only a returning-player season can.
Having voted out Q, the Vatu tribe tries to appease with Stephenie. She seems like the person who will go home next if the tribe loses immunity, but somehow she manages to avoid the target. Emily is pleased that they not only got rid of Q, but she managed to convince Ozzy to vote him out. He states that the David vs. Goliath trio could take either of them out instead, so they need to target Angelina next.
Angelina thinks she needs to assuage Stephenie of her fears, mostly so that she won’t play her Shot in the Dark. Little does she know that arrows are pointed at her. Ozzy wants to keep Stephenie, but also wants to be Mike White’s closest ally. Right now, that’s Angelina, so she needs to go.
It feels as though Q going home has created a shift in the game. While Jenna and Savannah were on the outside of their tribe's dynamics from the beginning, Q wasn’t. The players now see that alliances and bonds are shifting, meaning that a simple vote out of Stephenie isn’t going to be possible. Everyone has different ideas about who they want to keep and who they need to keep.
The Cila tribe has a talent show. We get Rick juggling, Rizo doing Mickey Mouse impressions, and a fake fight between Charlie and Jonathan. The best part of this is that it only burns Charlie even more when he loses to Rizo. Charlie calls him his mortal enemy. This is one of the best feuds in recent memory, aided by the fact that Rizo doesn’t even really realize he’s in it.
Speaking of feuds, Aubry and Gen continue to fuel theirs. Aubry knows she is on the outside of her tribe, so she goes hunting for an idol. Seeing that she is out hunting, Gen goes on a search mission for her. In doing so, she finds her second idol. In a real monkey’s paw situation, Gen finds her second idol, but learns that she has to give it away. This time, she sends it over to Rizo. While she says her first idol was about building trust (she sent it to Ozzy), she’ll use this one to betray someone who will never see it coming. I hate that Aubry and Gen are out for each other (it’s my nerd queen versus my Canadian queen), but the fact that they are both armed heading into battle makes for fun future TV.
Okay, so then we get the Zac Brown portion of the episode. He is a huge fan of the show and wants to treat a tribe by catching some fish for them and then performing a few of his songs. Honestly, that reward sounds super great on its own. It’s not my cup of tea for a Survivor reward, but it would be good for the players and genuinely very cool for a few of them. But what we end up with is a montage of Zac Brown spearfishing, followed by the winners (the Kalo tribe) listening to him perform two songs.
The problem with the section of the show was that it had nothing to do with the show. Sure, we got a couple of moments where Coach and Colby talk about the songs and relate them to their experience on the show. But overall, this felt more like a promotion for Zac Brown than great storytelling for the show. There have been moments on Survivor that have felt boring, redundant or aimless, but they rarely feel completely pointless.
The best we get is Dee, who was not on the winning or losing tribe, and her regret about not getting the experience. Dee is a Survivor winner, and this moment felt like the first time she’s really lost since she’s been back on the show. This is an insightful moment, and why there are pluses to having winners return to the show. How does Dee fare when she’s not winning?
Meanwhile, the real losers of the challenge is the Vatu tribe, who are headed back to tribal council. This is exactly what Ozzy was worried about when they lost Q. So, it seems fitting that he’d be reluctant to vote out Stephenie, arguably the strongest woman on their tribe. But to give him credit, it’s not just about that. He also wants to get rid of Angelina so that he can be a closer ally to Mike.
But Mike doesn’t want to get rid of Angelina. He starts shifting the vote to Emily. When Christian seems hesitant, Mike tries to use his persuasive skills to convince him. The last time Christian played, his fatal flaw was trusting in the nerdy women he thought he could rely on. Christian does know he got burned by Gabby, but hearing Mike articulate that seems to give the professor clarity into one thing: Mike White is a dangerous player. And so, Christian puts a plan in motion.
He talks to Stephenie first, who seems agreeable to getting rid of Mike. Then he talks to Emily, though he notes one important detail: they cannot tell Ozzy. The whole point of getting rid of Angelina was because of Mike, so getting rid of Mike is the worst-case scenario for Ozzy. But Emily has been courting Ozzy herself, and she worries about leaving him out of the vote. Emily betrays Christian’s trust for the second time (the first time revealing that Aubry has the idol he gave her). Now, she tells Ozzy that Mike and Angelina are coming for her. Christian, in response, gives me my favorite GIF of the new era.
And so, Mike White gets blindsided. Ironically, it was him telling Christian that trusting in someone like Gabby would be his downfall, when you could argue Mike saving Angelina is what cost him both games. I’m sad to see Mike White go so soon, but in good news, this vote-out did seem to be the inspiration for the next season of The White Lotus. Thank god for this tribal council and vote out or else I’d be lamenting this as the actual worst episode of Survivor in years. Instead, we got a truly boring segment in the middle before getting a compelling vote out.
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