At the end of the second episode of Survivor 50, during the preview for episode three, Jeff Probst announced a tribe swap. In a bit of a spoiler, they showed a quick picture of the three new teams.
This is a bit unusual, but it allows everyone to evaluate and predict the fallout of these new tribes. There are two players who were protecting each other who were split apart. Of course, it's Ozzy Lusth and Cirie Fields.
These two are the biggest historical legends in this season. Both are playing for the fifth time, and neither has won. They have entirely different playing styles, and they both have wildly different Survivor skill sets.
Cirie is strategic, social, and outstanding at bending the game her way. She is terrible at challenges but can often overcome that. Ozzy is always a physical threat and is a sturdy, steady provider around campm but he struggles with the social and strategic game.
Why are Cirie and Ozzy at more risk on Survivor 50?
For the smart players, Ozzy and Cirie will always be threats. They haven't been asked to play the game five times because they are clueless. In the past, the two of them have been adversarial, but they were secretly (though suspected of) working together on the Cila beach. They have agreed to try to protect each other as much as they can.
The view of the new tribes shows these to have been separated. Cirie remains on the Cila tribe, but Ozzy is now on the new Vatu. To make things worse for Cirie, not a single member of her old tribe remains on Cila outside of Rick Devens. She will be starting all over with a new group and has to figure out a way to deflect votes for her if Cila loses immunity. She does, however, have an extra vote advantage that Ozzy gave her.
Ozzy is in no better position. Emily Flippen and Christian Hubicki will join Ozzy on Vatu. Neither has shown much inclination to work with Ozzy that much. Even worse for Ozzy is that Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick is on Vatu. She was privy to Genevieve Mushaluk finding a boomerang idol, and she knows that Ozzy has it.
Stephenie will most likely try to target Ozzy while convincing him otherwise, so the idol will boomerang back to Genevieve if Ozzy goes home with the idol in his pocket.
Both of these Survivor legends have their work cut out for them to make it unscathed through another tribal council.
One other player who didn't get a great draw on the tribe swap
Another player who probably would like to redraw is Aubry Bracco. She has struggled thus far connecting with anyone. She seems distant from her tribemates. She has always had this issue, but in her fourth time on Survivor, it seems to have gotten worse.
Furthermore, she is stuck with Genevieve. While these two might seem like they would make a powerful strategic team, they have not found any common ground, and each is too wary of the other.
One positive for Aubry is that neither Rick Devens nor Christian is on Aubry's Kalo tribe. Christian found a boomerang idol and gifted it anonymously to Aubry. It is unclear if Christian sent it to her because he is eager to work with her or if he wants her to be sent home with it in her backpack. The smart money is on the latter scenario.
Christian and Rick are the only ones who know about this, so that will do them no good if they want to manipulate the vote and blindside Aubry.
Furthermore, no obvious ally for Aubry stands out from her new tribemates. She still might be safe for a while because there is a lot of testosterone on the Kalo with Coach Wade, Colby Donaldson, and Joe Hunter, and it would be surprising if these three meshed.
Survivor is always unpredictable from episode to episode, and this all-star season is even more so, but these three players might find it difficult to make it to the merge.