In a shocking twist, last week's immunity challenge left its winner Savannah Louie with an extreme amount of power in the game. Add that to Rizo Velovic's (not so) hidden immunity idol, and the two might have just reclaimed their power duo status.
The challenge—hold yourself between two beams with only a narrow footrest—divided our newly merged tribe into two teams to allow it to act as both a group reward challenge, and an individual immunity challenge. When the show has done this before, it usually meant double elimination, but Survivor 49 decided to switch things up on us again.
Watch the full challenge play out:
Instead of the last player standing on each side getting individual immunity and the last player standing period winning reward for their entire group, Jeff Probst announced a change to our regularly scheduled programming. Only the last player standing would win anything—immunity and a reward feast for their group, as well as an individual advantage in the game. The other team would leave with nothing but a date with him at Tribal Council where only they would attend, none of them being immune from the vote.
As players fell, one-by-one, it ultimately became a showdown between Sophie Segreti—who won individual immunity the prior week during an endurance/balance challenge—and Savannah—the player clearly on the bottom who needed it the most to survive another day.
Ultimately, Sophie fell and Savannah won for the yellow group providing immunity and food for Steven Ramm, Kristina Mills, Sophi Balerdi, and Alex Moore. The group returned to their camp where a huge feast was waiting for them and the losers went to the old Uli beach where they waited out the afternoon until Tribal Council. Once the winners were finished with their meal, Savannah was sent to tree mail where her advantage would be waiting.
It was then we learned the true power of winning that challenge. Not only did Savannah get to fuel herself up in the game, but she also got her individual immunity necklace and was now being sent over to the old Uli beach where she'd get to participate in the vote as well as the discussions leading up to it. But that wasn't all. On top of that, she was given the option to either use her vote tonight or pocket it and save it as an extra vote for later in the game.
The extra vote advantage isn't new, and in fact, it has had a few different iterations since it was first introduced as an unknown auction item in Survivor: Worlds Apart. It's rarely been played effectively, but the most dangerous version of the advantage came in Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers when it was presented not as an additional vote, but as an opportunity to withhold from voting at one Tribal Council in order to vote twice at a future one.
Savannah received a kind of hybrid of the two previously known advantages, which is perfect for her because no one knows to expect it, especially not with the immunity necklace also around her neck.
Now, is an extra vote the best advantage in the game? No. By far, the best thing to have in your pocket at any time is a hidden immunity idol—or even better, a super idol that you can play after the vote. While much rarer—and only seen in its best capacity in Survivor: Kaôh Rōng—a super idol is by far the best advantage ever put into the game as it allows someone to save themselves even after the votes have been read.
But the circumstances in which Savannah received her extra vote—immune and letting people think her vote was a threat when she in fact planned to bank it without anyone except her closest ally knowing—made it much more powerful as a surprise strategic move down the road than if she'd received an idol that was only good for the vote that night.
So as soon as Savannah showed up with that immunity necklace on full display—and an unknown bankable vote in her pocket—it was full chaos mode for the losing group. The initial plan to make Rizo feel safe so he would go home with an idol in his pocket turned into a question of whether Sophie or MC Chukwujekwu would be the one going home simply because Savannah's vote was now being taken into account.
In the end, the original Uli tribe decided it'd be better to get rid of MC now as Sophie would be easier to convince the other Hina's to vote out at a later Tribal Council. This decision allowed Savannah to pocket her vote and Rizo to keep his idol, giving the core alliance some huge advantages to work with down the road.
This one challenge win has fully changed the trajectory of the game for both Savannah and Rizo. For the moment, they are untouchable. We'll see how long that lasts, but if they keep playing their strategic cards right—like they did by moving the vote to Sophie and MC last week—they will continue to dominate the game for sure.