Survivor 49 | Ep. 7
KELE - NIGHT 12
I am legitimately happy that Sage led the charge of ousting Shannon. As we are about to enter the merge, I do wonder if Sage, Steven and Jawan having the opportunity to go to the night 12 Tribal as a tribe of 4 and vote out Shannon unanimously will be a turning point in the game. As much as people always “want to avoid going to Tribal”, any Survivor fan understands the value Tribal can bring of bonding players and setting the course for the rest of the game.
DROP YOUR BUFFS
At ULI - we are reminded that Nate was lucky to avoid Tribal while being outnumbered.
At HINA - we are reminded by MC that she has a Beware Advantage waiting for her at the new camp, but no vote, and that Rizo has an idol. Also, Sophi reminds us that she has the Knowledge is Power Advantage.
At KELE - everyone is coming to KELE beach, and the KELE tribe who just went against old tribal lines and is hesitant to meet everyone. I love how Sage’s awkwardness and Carolyn-like call out of the fakeness that is about to happen is leading the KELE tribe. I’m with Sage on dreading the fakeness as people hop off the boats and hug everybody, but I may love even more how Sage stays true to herself in the moment and Steven and Jawan are in alignment with her.
MERGE TRIBE - DAY 13
I am officially rooting for Sage. She just keeps it real. I love how her confessional calls out Savannah’s fakeness while also seeing through her facade. Sage is proving how perceptive she is. She knows that Savannah isn’t authentically trying to connect with her. She just sees Sage as a number and Sage isn’t fooled. In fact, she’s making Savannah her next target. Love it!!!
And then….
Add an advantage to Sage and my girl is officially on a hot streak folks!
MERGE TRIBE - DAY 14
On Day 14, the old tribes are back together with each other and trying to figure out if they should get back together for old time sake. It doesn’t seem that way. Rizo and Nate definitely want to get the ULI band back together, Jawan and Sage have other ideas, and the original KELE members - Sophi and Alex - realize that they are just in different places in the game and original KELE is long dead.
Sage keeps pushing and turns to Sophie or “yellow Sophie” to enlighten her that her name was getting thrown out there and that Savannah is going to blow smoke. I think Sage has officially replaced Shannon at the top spot of the playing hard power rankings, but I feel that her calling out people’s “fakeness” reads more as authentic and people don’t interpret it as really aggressive gameplay. I hope she can keep it up because my popcorn is ready!
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - DAY 14
11 people now enter the next phase of the game and they are MERGED!!! Wait a minute, they don’t have to earn the merge??? HUGE CHANGE!!! I’m genuinely shocked by this. It was a seismic shift that has become a calling card of the new era and now, you only earn the merge meal. I’m not mad about it, just very surprised. Looking forward to Jeff clearing this up on “On Fire”.
SURVIVOR 50 TAKES CENTER STAGE
Back in my episode 1 blog, I wrote this to open the season…
Survivor 49 is here and despite the inevitably large looming season 50 hanging over 49, personally, I am THRILLED to go on the journey of 49 first. Survivor 50, all the hoopla, and all the returning players both old and new era for the first time in a dog’s age, can wait.
Tonight, the present, is for the 49ers!
HOT TAKES AND BURNING THOUGHTS ENTERING SURVIVOR 49
Who will be the 49ers on 50?
Despite everything I just said, the mystery of “who will be the 49ers on 50?” is definitely a question on every Survivor fan’s mind. Even though it’s probably common knowledge, I am going to do my darndest to avoid knowing for certain and allow the mystery to burn brightly all season long.
Fast forward back to the present and Jeff just waved the 50 carrot to players in the form of spots on 50 being up for grabs. In this moment, Jeff is incentivizing the players and influencing the game. Offering a different prize than the million dollars, a coveted spot on the show’s 50th season, will undeniably impact how people play. The stakes just went up from a game from a million dollars to a chance to play again which hasn’t happened in 10 seasons, and to do it, they have to play to make an impact worthy of a spot on 50.
Worth playing for?
1,000,000% Jeff, but I don’t love it.
SAGE’S ADVANTAGE
Sage has earned the merge meal and doesn’t have to compete in the first challenge. HUGE W for Sage and the hot streak continues!
MERGE MEAL CHALLENGE
BLUE - Jawan, Alex, Savannah, MC, Kristina
YELLOW - Rizo, Steven, Sophie, Sophi, Nate
AWESOME CHALLENGE!!! The gigantic ball is a visual behemoth in the starring role of the first leg of the challenge. It takes all of the players to dig up the ball, push it over obstacles, and climb up on it multiple times. It just works!
Then the finale of the challenge at the “THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT ON SURVIVOR” honeycomb puzzle comes down to mere seconds. Nate and Sophie edge out Kristina and Jawan by a nose to earn the merge feast for the yellow team and advance to the final challenge with a shot at immunity. This challenge has me wishing I was on the Survivor Dream Team.
INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
COMPETITORS - Sage, Rizo, Nate, Sophi, Sophie, and Steven
Classic Survivor challenge design to go from the chaotic physical challenge for the merge meal and bringing everyone to a screeching halt with a balance challenge.
The final two remaining comes in only the second phase of the challenge - Steven vs. Sophie. Quickly Steven drops his ball and Sophie WINS INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY and dedicates the win to her mom. I’m happy for Sophie but I feel like I literally know ZERO about Sophie as a person and Sophie as a player in season 49. Sophie is the most irrelevant player in 49 so winning this helps raise her up in the relevance rankings for a spot on 50.
REWARD - DAY 14
FART! Sage continues to merrily roll along lol.
At the reward, Nate’s strategy continues to begin with original ULI staying strong, but Sage, Jawan, Steven, and Sophie are having some other thoughts. Feel like Nate is playing a game that no longer exists and isn’t adapting. His loyalty is blinding him.
SAVANNAH CRASHES MC’S PARTY - DAY 14
MC finds her treasure chest, her idol map and is searching for the key. Then, enter Savannah.
They both see the keys at the same time and MC barely beats a leaping to the floor with outstretched arm Savannah to grab hold of the 200 keys keyring. I think we learn more about Savannah in this moment. She’s playing HARD, her questions are getting old, and I think people see through her act. They may not know she’s a reporter but that doesn’t matter.
Savannah is also doing a great job of making this awkward as she quickly scrambles to find value in obtaining this information. I love how the editors bring us into MC’s P.O.V. and lower the volume on Savannah’s empty gestures of trust. MC is trying to quickly navigate through the giant key ring to obtain her idol AND regain her vote and of course she’s just poo pooing Savannah’s every request because in this moment her heart rate must be at an Olympic level. I don’t think it will hurt MC that badly because she can always just use the idol.
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE - DAY 14
Rizo has an idol. Rizo is close with Savannah. Sage wants Savannah out. Kristina lands on Nate being the better option than the savvier Savannah or Rizo. The old ULI is landing on Steven as the target of their vote with the fear of MC playing her idol.
The bottoms up alliance - Steven, Jawan, and Sage - all are trying to navigate who to vote for. Rizo has an idol but isn’t playing it. Savannah is a giant threat. Nate is a safer bet to blindside.
PREDICTION: Safe votes have been the way of the game thus far. I don’ t think anyone plays an idol and the safe option sees Nate get voted out.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - NIGHT 14
Sophie, MC, and Kristina are lighting their torch for the first time on night 14. Literally more than halfway through the game and they haven’t been there yet. They literally skipped over the tribe phase. Impressive.
Jawan’s horror movie analogy wins with me. Love a good analogy in this game and this one fits well.
Rizo announces his idol. He cannot help himself. He also whips it out and uses the threat of playing it to shake up Tribal and make people who may be thinking to vote him out, think twice. Horror movie.
Savannah addresses the Survivor 50 comment and lure it provides her game. She is all but drooling at the notion of being put on Survivor 50. I think at this point she would be one of the favorites to be the female 49er.
As the vote is about to happen, the feeling I have from my vantage point is the game is about to change significantly. The old game and the old ULI/HINA/KELE vibes and tribal lines, ends tonight.
MC PLAYS HER IDOL. Oops…
VOTES
NATE - 7
STEVEN - 4
To no surprise, Nate gets voted out and becomes the first member of the jury. With this vote, old ULI + Soph (Savannah, Rizo, Sophi, Jawan, Sage) are now a group of three. Jawan, Sage, and Steven were able to dodge the idol in Rizo’s pocket and the obvious ally he might play it for in Savannah to eliminate Nate. Sage, Jawan, and Steven are in a strong position in the game and old ULI is left wondering how their masterplan fell apart.
As we welcome Nate to the jury, it feels like the main reason that Nate lost (as far as I can tell) is he played too much of a loyal to his original tribe game and he never revealed to anyone his true self nor his profession being involved in the Marvel Universe, and thus, he failed to connect with anyone well enough in the game. He was blinded by the wins at ULI that prevented them from ever going to Tribal and then again after the swap where Matt and Jason were the easy votes being outnumbered. I think it grounded Nate’s game to his original tribe and left him vulnerable for a savvier player - Sage, Jawan, and Steven - to pick him by simply going against original tribal lines.
My guess is that there was a lot of meat left on the bone to Nate’s game, but like Jeff often says, you have to play to win and I don’t think Nate did that. Therefore, we never got to see his true potential in the game, and I would bet that he walked away from 49 maybe not with an idol in his pocket, but instead with something more painful…
Regret.
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