The Survivor 49 finale is here, and our Final 5 have come quite a long ways since they first landed in Fiji. And while it feels like just yesterday we were kicking off Survivor 49, the truth is so much has happened over the last 12 weeks between our 18 starting castaways that you might not even remember how nuanced some of our finalists have been playing since the very beginning.
And while it's easy enough to pull up our weekly recaps (linked below, too) they don't include the knowledge of who makes it to the finale—even though I'm still very sure I predicted the winner before the game even began—and how their game evolves over the season.
But don't worry! I got you!
Here's the full season recap of Survivor 49 you didn't know you needed, exclusively laying out our Final Five's contributions, missteps, and game-changing moments. Everything you need to be ready to cast your vote at Final Tribal Council.
Episode 1 - Act One of a Horror Film
The season premiere opened with a game-defining marooning challenge that saw all of our Final 5 stepping up in one way or another. Rizo Velovic took on the first leg of the challenge, racing into the jungle to collect a giant puzzle block and carry it back to the beach. Savannah Louie tagged in for the second leg, swimming out into the ocean to pull in a boat filled with even more puzzle blocks. And Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Sophi Balerdi, and Kristina Mills all jumped into the puzzle phase for each of their tribes, with Kristina ultimately pulling ahead and scoring supplies for Hina.
Rizo then stepped up to the plate again by volunteering himself for the second-chance supply challenge against Kele's Alex Moore where he showed his first signs of strategic prowess by outsmarting Alex, copying his already finished puzzle, and managing to pass him to finish the challenge first and earn supplies for Uli. This was a make-or-break moment in the game that brought Uli together and initiated the fall of Kele.
Sophi's very first mention of strategy—her very first quote in face—in the game mentions, "manipulation, the blindsides, the lying, the backstabbing" (which looking back could be foreshadowing...) but when she arrives at camp she immediately connects with every single tribe member to build her social tree with Jake Latimer as her top branch.
Savannah, similarly, connects with her fellow tribe members, but immediately susses everyone out, picking out the ways they will and won't be good at this game and how she can use that to her advantage as well as how that might be something she should worry about down the road.
Sage at the beginning is giving off major nervous energy, playing up her genuine, comedic nature and relying more on passing instinct to decide who she might want to work with later on. She feels like Shannon Fairweather is the person she vibes with the most and connects with her about sticking together.
Kristina was the very first person on the marooning beach to get a call-out from host Jeff Probst and her enthusiasm rang out far beyond the archipelago of Fiji. She kept this highly upbeat, social nature active at Hina despite a heavy-handed montage of her being extremely uncomfortable in her new outdoor surroundings. She even specifically called out that one of her Survivor bucket list items is to start a fire, but on that first day she couldn't do it.
Sophi attended her very first Tribal Council and voted with the majority.
Episode 2 - Cinema
Despite the title, "Cinema" was not some huge epic episode. It's the first official spark we see of the Rizo and Savannah alliance, and the beginning of Sage on the outs of Uli with Jawan Pitts—who is at the top of Savannah's elimination list after bag gate.
Kristina connects with Matt Williams and Steven Ramm about a Final 4 alliance with MC Chukwujekwu, but with Hina's winning streak we don't see much else of her. Even when Hina receives a disadvantage at the immunity challenge—which Kristina and Sage sit out of—they still win, sending Kele back to Tribal Council.
Sophi is being targeted for her poor performance in the last portion of the challenge, but her alliances to Jake and Jeremiah Ing keep her safe. She tries her best to keep Alex from discovering the hidden immunity idol, but fails. She attends her second Tribal Council and votes with the majority.
Episode 3 - Lovable Losers
The "Lovable Losers" title is referring to the Kele tribe as this is the episode Sophi's no. 1 ally Jake is pulled from the game after getting bitten by a snake, leaving her in the most vulnerable position yet. At her third Tribal Council, she votes with Jake's other ally Alex to blindside her ally Jeremiah.
Cracks are starting to appear at Uli as Sage notices everyone is having conversations without her, most notably Savannah and Rizo are getting closer. Sage drops Savannah's name to Shannon, who circles right back around and tells Savannah. She's not happy to hear this and says Sage could be next to go if she wanted her to be.
Rizo notices Sage is feeling on the outside and tells her not to overthink it and that everything will work out, attempting to alleviate her concerns. In a show of camaraderie, the entire tribe goes looking for the Uli beware advantage, which Rizo finds and declares, "this will be forever in my pocket until I hand it to Jeff Probst."
Kristina's only mention in this episode is after Kele loses their fourth challenge in a row—as well as an unexpected member—and neither of the other teams celebrate their win, she says it doesn't feel right to cheer when Kele is clearly at rock bottom.
Episode 4 - Go Kick Rocks, Bro
In "Go Kick Rocks, Bro" we get our first tribe switch. Kristina and Sage end up on the same tribe—new Kele—while Sophi, Savannah, and Rizo connect for the first time on new Hina.
Sage is concerned about how thick Shannon is laying on the social game and worries about now being on the bottom of the new tribe. Her fear is real as Kristina is easily connecting with Shannon, opening up to her about the upcoming anniversary of her mom's death and how it's impacting her gameplay decisions.
New Hina loses immunity, which means Rizo's beware advantage is activated, and he loses his vote unless he finds the idol. He opens up to Sophi about finding the advantage, and Savannah takes action at the water well, digging up his clue to help move along the timeline. Rizo finds the idol and gets his vote back.
Sophi attends her fourth Tribal Council and enacts a split vote plan with Savannah and Rizo—at their first Tribal Council—to eliminate the first original Hina member.
Episode 5 - I'm a Wolf, Baby
Sage finally lets her claws out when she proclaims, "I'm a Wolf, Baby," and gives us the title of the episode. Her gameplay is based around the discovery of Shannon officially dropping her name and trying to work everyone against her. She lets old Hina know that Shannon is a shark—informing them about Rizo's idol to gain their trust for herself—and that when the time comes, she should be the first Uli to go.
Kristina wants to work with Shannon, feeling a genuine connect with her, but Steven and MC warn her off an alliance with the former Uli, and she chooses to follow their advice. Her most strategic move of the episode, however, came when she sat out of the immunity challenge and thoroughly checked the bench for an advantage. There wasn't one.
Savannah is growing more and more tired of Jawan who continues to take her stuff and listen in on her conversations. She turns to both Sophi and Rizo, complaining about his constant intrusions in her day. When they lose the challenge, she influences Jason Treul to step up and pitch himself to the other Uli members, telling him exactly what to say. She doesn't want to lead the charge against Jawan, so she recruits him to plant the seed in everyone else's heads.
Rizo, Sophi, and the other majority members discuss the idea of flipping on Jawan with Savannah—she claims she's afraid he will be the first to flip on old Uli after the merge—but in the end all three vote with the majority and another Hina goes home at Sophi's fifth Tribal Council.
Episode 6 - The Devil's Shoes
"The Devil's Shoes" gives us the second tribe switch of the season—back to three tribes—with fate once again landing Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi on the Hina tribe while Sage stays on Kele and Kristina moves to Uli.
The new, new Hina dominate the reward challenge, giving Sophi her first real food of the game and leading them to take first in the immunity challenge as well, allowing her to also avoid Tribal Council for the first time all season. But, the game is still on at camp where MC lets Rizo know Sage told everyone he has an idol, inspiring him to lead Savannah and Sophi on an advantage hunt. Sophi discovers the Knowledge is Power advantage, but doesn't share this information with her alliance.
Kristina has an overwhelming couple of days, first nearly passing out after the tribe switch and then performing poorly in the immunity challenge. Luckily, her team was able to catch up and earn second place, avoiding Tribal Council. With the four-person dynamic at camp, she suggested using Sophie Segreti as a decoy vote, which sparked Sophie to start a campaign against Kristina.
Sage returns to Kele with Shannon, but the tables have turned, and the numbers are back in original Uli's favor, which prompts Shannon to side with Sage again. Sage isn't buying the act for one second and keeps Shannon at ease while working with the Bottoms Up alliance of Steven and Jawan to orchestrate the first Uli blindside at her first Tribal Council.
Episode 7 - Blood Will Be Drawn
It's the halfway point, and the merge hits our players in "Blood Will Be Drawn." Savannah connects with Sage and tells her they're still good even after she voted out Shannon, but Sage knows she's just a number to Savannah and wants her out next.
Savannah catches MC digging up an idol in the jungle and immediately tells Rizo. Rizo tells everyone in his alliances to make MC so paranoid that she plays it even though the plan it to vote for Steven, flushing out his rival idol.
Sage unlocks an advantage that allows her to sit out of the group reward portion of the first post-merge challenge, going directly to the individual portion. Rizo and Sophi are in the same group, and Kristina (as a captain) and Savannah are in the same group. Rizo and Sophi's group wins rewards, Sage joins them for the individual immunity challenge. Rizo, Sage, and Sophi drop first, second, and fourth from the challenge, respectively—none of them winning.
Jeff tells everyone that Survivor 50 spots are still up for grabs. After hearing this, everyone is determined to make their mark on the game, especially Sophi who currently knows where all the hidden immunity idols are and could make a big move by playing her knowledge is power to take one for herself.
Camp is an all out strategic debate of how the Hina group (plus Sage and Jawan) should blindside the original Uli tribe. Sage wants to get rid of Savannah, the biggest threat, while Jawan wants to take a shot a Rizo, who has said he's not going to play his idol if they tell him not to. Kristina wants to go for Nate Moore, who is the safest vote, despite having just declared that it's time to really start playing the game with Survivor 50 on the table and the possibility of being put on the Mount Rushmore of Survivor.
At Kristina's first Tribal Council, she and Sage vote with the majority to blindside Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi, making their ally Nate the first member of the jury.
Episode 8 - Hot Grim Reaper
The most pivotal episode of the season, "Hot Grim Reaper" shows our newly merged castaways divided once again at the challenge arena, fighting for a group reward, group immunity, and an individual advantage. It's Sophi, Savannah, and Kristina against Rizo and Sage and—knowing she's most likely to go home if she ends up at Tribal Council—Savannah pulls out the win earning immunity for herself and the rest of her group.
With MC having played the idol at the last Tribal Council, Steven wants to ensure that if it's back in the game, neither Sophi, Rizo nor Savannah get ahold of it, so he initiates an idol hunt, leading to Kristina finding an idol.
After losing the challenge, Rizo is sent to a beach as the odd-man-out of 5 being told he's safe by Sage and Jawan until he flips the script and convinces Jawan that the best move for him is to vote out MC—which would actually just isolate Sophie further from the original Hina tribe and put her directly in Rizo's pocket as a future number.
Savannah learns that with her challenge win comes the advantage of going to Tribal Council with the losers, immune from the vote, and with the ability to pocket her vote if she decides she doesn't need to use it. With Rizo's influence over Jawan and Sage, the numbers are in their favor, she keeps her vote for another day, and they still hold the majority through the vote.
Episode 9 - If You're Loyal to All, You're Loyal to None
The aptly titled, "If You're Loyal to All, You're Loyal to None," puts Rizo once again in the role of the puppet master, turning everyone's heads away from him and towards Alex, who makes him nervous as he clearly plays the middle.
Sage—who now knows about Kristina's idol—still has her sights set on getting Savannah out and Kristina is frustrated to find out that Rizo and his idol are both still in the game, so she pitches a split vote between the two original Uli players. The goal would be to flush the idol and get one of the two power players out of the game.
Kristina shares this plan with Sophi who immediately turns around and shares it with both Savannah and Rizo. After Savannah wins immunity, Rizo continues his bait and switch tactic to influence Jawan and therefore Sage away from his name at Tribal Council.
Sage flips back to Uli, voting with Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi while Kristina writes down Rizo's name, sticking to her split vote plan that doesn't pan out.
Episode 10 - Huge Dose of Bamboozle
The drama of the season hit new heights in "Huge Dose of Bamboozle." This is Kristina's most emotional episode yet after being blindsided and now being on the bottom, she confides in Steven that she's just about ready to quit, but he reminds her that she has more power than she feels with an idol in her pocket. Again at the reward challenge stage, she breaks down talking about her mom before fighting through the challenge and showing out her best effort yet, though her team still loses.
Sage decides now is the time to finally make a move against Savannah, especially after she loses individual immunity. She puts together a group with the end goal of flushing both Rizo and Kristina's idols, as well as sending Savannah to the jury. However, she places her trust in the wrong person and Sophie relays the entire plan to Savannah, who turns around and completely rewrites the game with Rizo and Sophi to their advantage.
At Tribal Council, Kristina plays her idol for Steven—who receives no votes—while Rizo plays a fake idol to put on a show and see how everyone reacts. Sage's plan starts to unfold as Savannah's name is read multiple times until the majority goes in favor of blindsiding Jawan for flipping against his original Uli alliance. Savannah uses her extra vote as a number, though she did not need it to send Jawan to the jury.
Episode 11 - Cherry on Top
Tribal lines are truly no more in "Cherry on Top" now that Sage has officially written down Savannah's name. She voices her anger to Sophie for flipping, but she turns around and pitches a plan to get rid of Savannah this time around. But Sage doesn't trust her after last week's blindside on her no. 1 ally, so lets Sophi and Savannah know about Sophie's plan to betray them.
Meanwhile, Rizo is spiraling after learning that Steven received an unknown advantage from a journey. He tries to talk Steven in to telling him by saying they need to work together moving forward if either of them want a chance to win. Rizo believes the advantage is a steal-a-vote and tells Steven he'll make sure his name isn't written down as long as Steven promises not to steal his vote.
At Tribal Council, Kristina and Savannah get in a friendly yet heated discussion about their relationship as Kristina makes it clear that it's no secret that she's been voting for Savannah, she's been on the opposite side of the vote as Savannah, and there's no world in which she'll probably ever work with Savannah.
Ultimately, Sage's revenge plot for her ally and Savannah's pre-revenge plot against Sophie play out and everyone unanimously votes together for the first time since the merge.
Episode 12 - The Die Is Cast
In our penultimate episode, "The Die Is Cast" finds Sophi heavily leaning in to Kristina saying it's time to break up Rizo and Savannah. But after Savannah takes Sophi and Rizo on her reward to the sanctuary where they enjoy margaritas and letters from home, she's all-in on her alliance with them, deciding these are the people she wants to get to the end with and finally telling them about her knowledge is power advantage.
Rizo is a little taken aback to find out Sophi's been keeping this secret for so long, but it also solidifies his trust in her a little bit more since she had every chance to use it on him and never did. Back at camp, he pulls aside Steven to try and gage the conversations that went down while they were away, but only learns the name being considered will depend on who wins immunity.
In a record-breaking showdown between Sage and Savannah during an endurance immunity challenge, Sage tries to convince Savannah to step down, letting her know she'll protect her if she just trusts her. Savannah, respectfully, reminds Sage that she can't fully trust her after she's voted against her in the past, and Savannah outlasts Sage to win immunity.
With Savannah immune and Rizo's idol believed to be in play after he told everyone Final Six was his last night to play it, Kristina and Sage are looking at Sophi with a plan to use Steven's block-a-vote against Savannah to ensure their numbers. Rizo tells Sage that Steven's the wrong choice, and she relays the message to Kristina, which leaves both of them confused and pondering.
At Tribal Council, Sophi misuses her knowledge is power advantages on Steven when his advantage was played before arriving, so he can truthfully tell her he does not have an advantage she can steal. But Sage and Kristina ultimately decided to listen to Rizo and vote with the majority, ensuring him the ability to keep his idol until the very last moment he can actually play it at Final 5.
Watch the Survivor 49 finale on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m. EST on CBS and Paramount+.