After Survivor 49 episode 6 returned the game to a three tribe format, every aspect was heightened. From social to strategy to physical, our castaways competed in both a reward and immunity challenge on top of switching tribes and basically having to reset relationships and determine the best path forward for their game.
And while this change up truly did shake up the game, officially blurring tribal lines and finally finding players who started together going after each other, it also gave players and fans at home a little déjà vu. Specifically, the challenges played out exactly how they had been playing out.
You might have noticed that the latest Hina tribe claimed first in both of episode 6's challenges, while Uli took second and Kele left empty-handed. But where have we seen that before? Oh, just every single challenge prior to the first tribe swap. And when there were two tribes, our players fell into a pattern of Kele winning and Hina falling to the bottom.
But beyond being a crazy coincidence—curse?—our latest switch up allows us to see there's exactly one common denominator within Survivor 49 that might be a reason for this interesting pattern.
MC Chukwujekwu is the only player to win first in every challenge
Looking at the stats of this season, MC started on the Hina tribe, who took the first win at the marooning challenge before clenching the top spot in the next three immunity challenges. After the first tribe swap, MC moved over to the Kele tribe, where there is no doubt she was a key player in helping the tribe take first place two immunity challenges in a row.
And in the most recent switch, MC moved back over to the Hina tribe where she helped secure first in both the reward and immunity challenges, back-to-back. Of her other remaining tribe mates, Kristina Mills and Sophie Segreti were both on the same winning trajectory until they ended up on the Uli tribe this last episode and took second in the challenges. And Steven Ramm was also along for the ride, but is now on Kele which unfortunately seems to be cursed when up against two other tribes—ending in last place for the latest challenges.
And with the upcoming merge and MC's clear physical prowess, it'll be very interesting to see exactly what the twist on this season's merge is. Will they have to earn the merge? Will there be another divided challenge?
Will MC have to fight for a tribe any longer, or will she truly be competing in an individual game moving forward? We'll see next time on Survivor!