Survivor 49 has spent the last few weeks building up an Uli / Hina rivalry that's been actively shaping the game up to this point. But now that everyone's coming together for the much anticipated merge, it's clear those lines are not as solid as they once seemed. Especially after last week's vote...
With two tribe swaps at the top of the season, nearly all our castaways had a chance to connect with players outside their original tribe boundaries. Of our original Uli tribe, only Savannah Louie and Rizo Velovic were able to twist the hands of fate and stay together through both swaps, always having a close ally right next to them. Because of this, they never really had a reason to fear moves, and rather were the instigators of action and decision in every tribe they were on.
The tribe swaps didn't prepare every castaway for the loyalty shifting that often comes with the merge
There was never a question of doubt about Savannah, Rizo, and Nate Moore that Sage Ahrens-Nichols and Jawan Pitts wouldn't be with them 100%, even after voting out Shannon Fairweather at the previous Tribal Council.
The fact that little piece of information didn't set off any alarms for three people who—up until this point—were in charge of the entire game has fans wondering if they're really the top players we thought they were, or if Sage is going to come out as the mastermind of the season by not staying loyal to Uli.
Rizo, just a few weeks ago, was pushing this narrative on Jason Treul at his second-to-last Tribal Council, yet seemed totally blindsided by the fact that Sage and Jawan flipped. Sage never once voted at a Tribal Council featuring only Uli members, so it's so question that she didn't feel a need to be loyal to them. Especially considering she had an inside view on their uprising, it's only poetic that she be a part of their downfall.
But in the end, Nate was feeling way too confident—literally, up until that fifth vote was read, he didn't even flinch at his name coming out of the voting urn so many times—and the very first rule to remember when playing Survivor is that when you feel 100% confident in the way the vote is going to go, you're usually the one going home.
What's in store for our original Uli duo?
Now only Savannah and Rizo remain of the original Uli power alliance, but they've both proven to be very scrappy so far. And with Rizo's idol in his pocket, I won't discount their ability to flip the game back in their favor—even if it means having to pull out idol after idol and play it right every time.
Before the game started, I predicted that Savannah would win and Rizo would make it at least a few episodes beyond the merge. Even with the latest turn of events, I'm still standing behind my earlier predictions. But only time will tell, and we still have a little over a month of show left, so we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out for our original Uli duo.