We’ve already had one epic tribe swap in Survivor 50 so far, and it looks like another major twist is in store in the next episode of the season. Well, maybe two major twists!
After episode 5 saw two players voted out for the first time this season, we learned some very important information in the Next Time on Survivor 50 preview. Jeff Probst revealed to the players that the merge has officially arrived in Survivor 50.
With 17 players left in the game and only four players on one tribe, I was assuming that we would be going from three tribes down to tribes with eight players on each tribe. When the first swap happened, we had 21 players in the game, which split perfectly into three tribes of seven players.
Instead, we're getting the merge with 17 players! That's absolutely wild when you consider that we're used to seeing Survivor seasons with 18 players at the start of the game. So, we're basically going straight into the merge at the start of the game.
Why the merge is arriving so early in Survivor 50
Well, as Surviving Tribal contributor Jacqueline Thomas pointed out in our Survivor group chat, we should have seen the merge coming in episode 6. Almost all the new era seasons of Survivor have merged at episode 6. Why would Survivor 50 be any different?
On paper, when you look at why they're doing the merge now, it makes a lot of sense. I couldn’t see them doing three tribes with six players on two tribes and five players on the other. That doesn’t feel right at this point in the game. Instead, it makes more sense to bring everyone together and then split the players into smaller groups for challenges. I'm guessing we'll see two groups of eight compete for immunity with one player sitting out and getting through the vote along with two immunity winners in episode 6.
We've seen the new era feature smaller voting groups in many of the seasons. It's chaotic, but it allows the show to boot two players in one episode without having to do two separate immunity challenges. We could see this happen for a few votes because this cast has to get cut down soon.
I also feel like the merge had to happen soon when you have one tribe that's struggling so bad out of the gate. Ozzy Lusth, Christian Hubicki, and Emily Flippen have been to every single Tribal Council so far this season. This gives those players a chance. And, honestly, we need something to spice the gameplay up because, outside of the Mike White blindside, it’s been quite boring. I think that’s because we have too many players on each tribe. It makes it harder to make big moves.
So, while I think, yes, the merge with this many players is necessary to get us through this part of the game, we might see a step backward because there are still going to be large voting blocks required to vote players out.
Will all these players make the jury in Survivor 50?
This is by far the biggest merge we've ever seen in Survivor history. In previous seasons, when players make the merge, they make the jury, but I don't know if that's going to happen this time around.
It's definitely possible that we could see all 14 players who get voted out between now and Final Tribal Council make the jury and have a say in who wins this historic season. I think the math works out with the voting for the winner that we wouldn't see a three-way tie. That's obviously the big thing the show wants to avoid.
But, 14 players on the jury? In normal seasons, we usually see a jury of eight players, meaning the merge usually happens with 11 players left in the game. This is not a regular season, so yeah, let's just have everyone vote for the winner. Bring back Jenna, Savannah, Q, Mike, Kyle, and Angelina. I want everyone to vote.
We'll find out just what the plan is on Survivor 50 episode 6 on Wednesday, April 1! You do not want to miss the next episode.