Survivor 49 | Ep. 3
KELE - DAY 6
Wounded, underdogs, and loveable losers is how Alex opens the episode describing the KELE tribe. He’s right. They have zero wins, no flint, no supplies, no fire, and morale is zero. They are down to their “core 4” with nowhere to hide and if they continue the losing, they have to take each other out. That’s the bad news.
The good news?
They have “played” the game more than the other tribes and established a core four through votes and eliminations. There is real trust. If they could ever get a win, this is the episode to do it.
HINA - DAY 6
At HINA the upbeat music has morale way up but the suspicion is lurking. Jason throws it out to the feel good tribe to search for the Beware Advantage as a tribe to make sure that this tribe has one. I hate the group search because it feels so fake and is. Like, come on players. Is there anyone that can do it on their own.
I know it is an opportunity to gain trust with another player. I respect MC and Steven making that known to each other, but no matter how good the vibes are, and no matter how tough or stressful or seemingly improbable it seems to obtain the advantage, I still contend that you have to try. If you try and you need the help, then go to someone else. I know it’s a risk and I know it could scare some players, but I got to believe that my judgement of who I tell will not leave me vulnerable by withholding the info and waiting til a “break glass in case of emergency” situation.
That said, MC finds the Beware Advantage (same as the one at KELE) and enlists the help and trust of Steven from it. I don’t hate it, but would just much rather see someone try to do it solo.
ULI - DAY 6
The “vibes” at ULI are mirroring HINA’s and the core 4 of Nate, Savannah, Rizo, and Shannon are primed and ready. That leaves Sage and Jawan on the outs and we get brought into Sage’s inner thoughts. She opens up about her childhood struggles of connecting with people and letting them in and those feelings are being unearthed under the skin of ULI.
Sage’s symptoms of paranoia lead her to make herself vulnerable and talk game with Shannon. Sage’s move was to throw out an observation of Rizo and Savannah conversing and getting closer. No big deal, nothing crazy, right?
Wrong.
This is the Gordon Bombay defensive advice to Charlie Conway of “make him make the first move Conway!” meets Survivor. Sage’s paranoia and fear gets her talking strategy and Savannah listened to Bombay. She let Sage make the first move and now has a reason to slap shot her distrust of Sage at everyone else at ULI.
JAKE’S SNAKE BITE - DAY 6
JAKE GETS BIT BY A SNAKE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Highly venomous!!!! This is absolutely awful! I hate any medical evacs or medical situations that threaten a player in the game. It’s a worst case scenario and Alex is rightfully scared out of his mind for Jake.
As Jake is taken away on the boat there is two things going on right now, first, is Jake’s reality of being taken from KELE on a boat to base camp to receive immediate emergency medical care and the other side of it is his tribemates are all back at camp, still playing, but have no idea what is going on. The game is hard enough, but this is at such another level!
BASE CAMP
OK we are at Survivor’s base camp and the situation is frightening. We are let in behind the curtain to see the Survivor medical team treat, care for, and stabilize Jake who has just had his world rocked even more than it already had been for the past 6 days.
On top of being deprived of food and water and mentally drained, he now is in this situation that all he can say to the medical staff and Jeff is that he’s scared and that he has a baby boy on the way. Luckily, Jake doesn’t seem to have had a venomous bite from the snake. That could have been catastrophic!
BACK AT KELE
Sophi, Jeremiah and Alex are left playing the waiting game. We see the players reflect on losing Jake and the thought of his wife back at home. This is a human moment, not apart of the game, but once again, an absolutely brutal situation that they find themselves in. KELE is a hot mess, shitshow, and dead on arrival tribe all mixed into one nightmare.
BASE CAMP
Dr. Barry drops the bomb that we never want to see on Survivor. He’s pulling Jake from the game. It has to happen. You can’t put the guy back into the jungle with nothing after literally being bit by a poisonous snake, even if it’s a “dry bite”. Absolutely devastating. Jake came on Survivor to provide for his wife and unborn son, knowing he would miss the birth of his son, and knowing that this season would be the last one that his father would ever physically see because of an eye condition. For this to be the way that Jake’s 49 story plays out, is arguably the worst exit in the history of the show. Every med evac is horrific in it’s own way (except maybe Colton) but this one takes the cake, or should I say the shoe.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the KELE tribe, BOOM, like straight out of the Oregon Trail, Jake has a snake bite and KELE is down to 3.
On a Survivor 50 note, despite what we saw happen with Bruce in 44/45 and him getting another chance to play, I don’t think that will happen for Jake in 50.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - DAY 6
KELE shows up to the challenge down 2 members and Jeff catches every tribe up on Jake. Jeff drops the bomb on the tribes, including the remaining 3 KELE, that Jake is being removed from the game. Obviously Sophi, Alex, and Jeremiah are emotional. They didn’t want this for Jake, nor did anyone else. It’s an emotional moment for everyone.
I love how Jeff is able to be the guide for this kind of an event and help the rest of the players navigate through it on a game level and a human level. This is a very difficult conversation because the show must go on but it’s a horrendous checkpoint to go through.
REWARD - Large Tarp and Hammocks and a small tarp
SIT OUTS
ULI - Shannon, Jawan, Rizo
HINA - Sophie, Matt, MC
The first stage of this challenge is an adrenaline rush. The energy radiates off the screen as you can’t help but dive into the water, climb the nets, and leap off the platform into the water again. The teeter totter is intense, especially with your feet being wet. The lily pads are just stable enough to handle even the worst athletes competing avoid the challenge being impossible. As always, it comes down to the puzzle with ULI slightly trailing behind HINA and a very desperate and emotional KELE.
The puzzle begins and Jason begins to dominate once again for HINA. He and Steven are building the coral first. ULI and KELE are only a few pieces behind. But the confidence KELE was feeling is waning fast. HINA puts the turtle together with ease and ULI is right behind them.
HINA wins immunity and first place yet again and as the music downshifts, ULI defeats KELE and the somber reality of KELE failing again sets in. HINA and ULI literally didn’t even celebrate the win. Those tribes are acknowledging the horrendous experience that KELE is having.
No fire. No flint. No reward. They lost Jake. They will lose someone else at Tribal.
KELE GETS A WIN
There’s always a silver lining to be had. Jake being healthy and making it home for the birth of his son. Not how he imagined it, but for the sake of humanity, it is amazing that he was able to be there for the birth of his son. Good for you Jake!
KELE - DAY 6
This is brutal. If they were asked pregame to imagine the worst possible journey they could have on Survivor, it would have still fell short of their actual Survivor experience.
Alex has an Immunity Idol and he has to play it for himself. I know you want to keep it but if he plays it, then he is safe and could possibly become the only person voting. Sophi could only vote for Jeremiah and vice versa. I think you have to force people into that situation or just save yourself at this point. This tribe has been a dumpster fire but at least he has survived to this point, so no point in risking it.
PREDICTION: Jeremiah gets voted out because Alex and Sophi lost Jake and will replace him with each other.
ULI - DAY 6
ULI is preparing for a war with HINA and they decide to equip themselves with as much firepower as possible via a group hunt. I already have shared my feelings on the group hunt, but since they haven’t gone to Tribal, KELE is a mess, and a lurking numbers war with HINA is looming, they are going to all play it safe and “find it together”.
Rizo finds it and declares it “for all of us”, but the RIZGOD is gaining some power folks. I feel good about Rizo getting the idol. I think he’s a smart and savvy player and I think a player like him is a hell of a lot better to have around long term with a weapon in the game than Jawan or Sage. There’s something intangibly better when someone who refers to themselves as a GOD in any form has power in the game. Win for the viewers.
KELE - DAY 6
Sophi and Jeremiah have us believing that they can manipulate Alex to not play his idol and vote him out. I love that Sophi is turning over every loyal stone she’s got to try and control the situation, but I just cannot see a world in which Alex doesn’t play the idol and guarantee a way out of KELE alive.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - NIGHT 6
Like KELE, I am exhausted, beaten down, and defeated. I’ve had enough of the KELE tribe. This needs to be the end of this tribe. Put them out of their misery once and for all. We all need to move on. It’s hard to roll for three episodes with this group of loveable losers. We the viewers take on that downtrodden feeling of KELE and we are ready to break free.
Alex loves being in the power position having the idol. He clearly loves the attention and Sophi and Jeremiah are willing to give it to him. They are good at playing to the power and play their loyalty cards.
Jeremiah’s freudian slips, yes plural, saying the “ball is in Jake’s hands” when he meant to say Alex seems like the nail in his coffin. It’s a bad slip and how can that be overlooked?
This Tribal goes on for too long. Let’s get this going, let’s get this over with. Jeff is keeping this Tribal a float and that can’t be the way the show rows best.
VOTES
JEREMIAH - 2
ALEX - 1 (DOES NOT COUNT - ALEX PLAYED IMMUNITY IDOL)
Ding dong the deed is done. KELE is down to two and giving Denise and Malcolm vibes. Sophi and Alex have no fire power after Alex plays his idol, but they literally only have each other. I do think that they will stick together and play the game as best they can together. There is a shift in the game coming via a swap and it will breathe new life into Sophi and Alex’s game waaaaaaaaaaay more than anyone else. That’s good for them and good for us too.
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