Survivor 49 crowned a winner on Dec. 17, and in choosing Savannah Louie as the Sole Survivor, the jury got one right. However, one question for a jury member looked like it might cost Savannah some votes.
Savannah tied a Survivor record with her fourth immunity challenge win when she earned the necklace with five players remaining. Her ally, Rizo Velovic, still had his immunity idol and was also safe.
The choice came down to the other remaining players: Sophi Balerdi, who was Savannah and Rizo's ally, Kristina Mills, and Sage Ahrens-Nichols. After much discussion, Kristina was voted out, mainly due to her ability to make fire, and nobody wanted to face her in that challenge if it came down to that.
In an astonishing upset, Sophi won the final immunity challenge, coming from way behind to fly through the puzzle and ball maze portion of the challenge. She struggled along through most of the tasks, often questioning herself, before finishing strong and winning the necklace and the choice of who would sit next to her at the final tribal council.
Sophi then made a unique and surprising decision. Back at camp, she let it be known that she wasn't going to listen to pleas from the other three on why she should take them to the final three. She told them she wanted to be alone and that they should all start practicing.
Ultimately, she chose her two allies, Savannah and Rizo, to make fire. Savannah won easily, sending the charismatic Rizo to the jury. In reality, whoever won that fire challenge was probably going to win the game, as Savannah and Rizo had the strongest resumes.
How did Kristina almost ruin the Survivor 49 Final Tribal Council for Savannah?
In the new era of Survivor, since the COVID break, the social aspect has taken on more importance with juries. Good social players have made their imprint on the game and even pulled off some upsets, like when Kenzie Petty beat Charlie Davis, who was clearly the more strategic player, in Survivor 46.
You just never know what a jury will do. One of the best questions from this jury came from Kristina, a very social player herself, who had just one question, and it was directed at Savannah. She asked Savannah to name one family member from each of the jurors.
The question had a very pointed purpose. Savannah wasn't one of the most social people in the game. She was a challenge beast and had her strategic moments throughout the game, but she was often abrupt and didn't spend much time with players outside her close allies.
After hearing the question, Savannah's face froze. She took a moment to scan the jury, then said she didn't think she could. Kristina asked to please try. While Savannah did know some family members of a couple of the jurors, she didn't know very many.
One thing that may have saved her was that she knew some details. This juror is one of four siblings; this juror had two kids, even though she couldn't recall or know the names. In the moment, it looked like her failure was going to ruin Savannah's chances at winning.
Kristina made her point, though. She was willing to concede that Savannah played well in two aspects of the game but fell woefully short on the third.
Savannah gained points with the jury, however, with some of her other answers. She owned her game completely; she was able to give decisive examples of her gameplay, and she didn't waffle on another key question.
When asked her "why" (why she was playing), she was clear that she understood that others had more emotional reasons for playing Survivor, but she emphatically admitted that she was playing for herself. It was the right way for her to answer, because there was no pandering to the jury, who all had an idea of her "why."
In the end, Savannah gained five votes, to two for Sophi and one for Sage. It was nice to see that no one was blanked on the vote, and Sophi was thrilled she received votes and finished second.
The jury got this one right, but Kristina asked a great question. Savannah was able to survive that, but it also highlighted that a social game is more important than ever.