Survivor Season 50, Episode 6
"The Blood Moon"
Host: Jeff Probst
Cast: Aubry Bracco, Coach Wade, Chrissy Hofbeck, Christian Hubicki, Cirie Fields, Colby Donaldson, Dee Valladares, Emily Flippen, Genevieve Mushaluk, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, Kamilla Karthigesu, Ozzy Lusth, Rick Devens, Rizo Velovic, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Tiffany Ervin
It’s been a couple of weeks! Last week saw two tribes head to Tribal Council. Christian gave his Shot in the Dark to Ozzy as a gesture of good faith, then voted off his David vs. Goliath teammate Angelina. For such a memorable character, it was a rather quiet outing for Angelina, even if she did delight us with a memorable jacket moment as she left. Charlie’s vendetta against Rizo ended with his own torch being snuffed.
And so, 17 players remain and even with that many people left in the game, it’s time for the merge.
Kind of, sort of, maybe.
Jonathan and Rick ended up being on the wrong side of the vote. Dee thanks Jonathan for taking the blindside so well. It’s never happened to him in Survivor, but he does well to rebound. Specifically, he still wants to work with Dee and Kamilla.
A boat arrives on the beach and tells them that they have merged. They gather on Vatu beach as the largest group assembled at this stage in the game. Before the others arrive, Ozzy tries to mend fences with Emily and Christian, telling them he has an idol. Christian, in particular, seems to see this as the result of him re-building trust together.
We see just how quickly information moves in the new age of Survivor by seeing almost everyone on the beach share knowledge about idols and advantages. Seemingly everyone knows that Ozzy has an idol courtesy of Gen and that Aubry has an idol thanks to Rick Devens (though it was actually from Christian). It’s fun that this pits Gen and Aubry against each other even further, though the former has a second boomerang idol floating out in the world that she gave to Rizo, though she doesn’t even tell him that she gave it to him.
While we saw Jonathan regroup after a blindside, we see that he seems to be a central figure in the old school players' games as several people say they want to work with him. The only looming figure is Cirie, who sees that the old schoolers are mobilizing, but thinks their rigidity in alliance building could be their downfall.
Basically as soon as we got this many people on a tribe together, we send two of them to Exile Island. Ozzy finds an “advantage,” which he hilariously hopes isn’t being sent to Exile Island, only for it to reveal exactly that. He has to bring someone with him. He chooses someone he doesn’t think people will deem as someone he’s either working with or targeting and takes the biggest question mark of the game, Rizo.
Meanwhile, the other 15 players arrive for the first individual immunity challenge of the season and are promptly split into three groups of five in what Jeff describes as Survivor’s version of a Blood Moon.
THEN WHY DID WE SAY WE MERGED, JEFF!?
Anyway ... the winner from each group is safe and three people are going home tonight. Also, we got an Applebee’s commercial narrated by Probst. The three groups are as follows:
Genevieve, Aubry, Christian, Rick and Joe. Immunity is won by Christian.
Cirie, Emily, Colby, Coach and Dee. Dee wins immunity.
Jonathan, Stephenie, Tiffany, Kamilla and Chrissy. Stephenie wins immunity and outlasts everyone else, winning reward for her team, too.
The final group eat their Applebees and while they say they put a pause on strategizing, Tiffany is sizing up the competition. She thinks that along with Kamilla and Jonathan, they can get rid of Chrissy. She states that the Season 35 contestant has not tried to strategize with her and needs her gone. Seems a bit too easy, especially since she’d need Jonathan who seems to be close with Chrissy from what we’ve seen.
At Exile Island, Ozzy does actually take the opportunity to connect with Rizo. Earlier in the episode, Cirie said that she was in a polyamorous relationship with both of them, so they share info about their advantages. Rizo tells him he has the third idol. This is brilliant by Cirie. I think both Ozzy and Rizo have low win equity against Cirie, so it’s smart for her to try and bring them with her later in the game.
Things seem set up for an Aubry vs. Genevieve showdown. Aubry says she is playing her idol regardless, but thinks that Rick and Christian need to join with her to take out Gen. That would leave Rick as the only person who isn’t safe, so they need to make sure they blindside Gen. Gen sits with Joe and says they will vote for Rick, though she needs Christian to join them. She tells Christian that he’s being lumped in as being close to Rick and that he needs to cut him to free up his own game. Christian knows he needs to sell her on the plan so she doesn’t play her Shot in the Dark. Rick wonders if they should vote out Joe instead, since it’s more likely that Gen has something more than Joe. It doesn’t hurt that Rick and Joe had some awkward interactions earlier.
At the last group, Dee is pretty happy that she won. It leaves Colby and Coach up for grabs as she is close with Cirie and Emily. Colby lost his vote when he lost a challenge to Savannah, so he can’t even play his Shot in the Dark. Coach suggests that Colby is a lame duck, but that Colby can wait to be voted out. He pitches they vote for Emily because she threw Dee’s name out. Dee picks up that Coach didn’t tell her sooner. He quickly realizes he made a mistake. Dee runs and tells Emily. They think that Colby might get med-evac’d, so they could just get rid of Coach.
Enter Cirie Fields. She tells Dee that it’s wrong to take out Coach over Colby. She says the latter is the head of the snake, so they need to get rid of him. She argues he’ll never be taken out of the game. Colby tells Dee that if she saves him, he’ll vouch with the people he is connected to. It might work, but it also shows how much influence he has. But Dee is vibing with Colby more than Coach.
Chrissy tells Kamilla and Tiffany that she’s okay to be voted for tonight, but she secretly tries to work with Stephenie to swing Jonathan against Kamilla. In the end, Jonathan decides to vote with Dee and Chrissy, sending Kamilla out of the game. She gives him a parting shot, calling him out after she’s voted out of the game.
At the next tribal, Gen figures her odds of getting a successful Shot in the Dark play is better than the chances that Christian wants to work for her. The parchment reads not safe, which leads to Aubry choosing to save her idol. On her way out, she gives Aubry her jacket. A pretty classy move (though to be expected from a Canadian).
The last Tribal is a bit of an emotional one. Colby, Coach and Cirie are acknowledged for the way they shaped and influenced the show. Colby is grateful for having gotten to return and the way the show has weaved through his life. He’s voted out in a 4-0 vote and leaves them with some final words: “Find the joy”.
I think it’s what I try to do when I watch each episode of Survivor. For as much as I hate Zac Brown segments and fake merges, there’s a lot of joy to find in these episodes, even 50 seasons later.
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