Tribal Council in Survivor 49 episode 11, "Cherry on Top," finally saw all our merged castaways come together to unanimously vote in favor of sending Sophie Segreti to the jury.
Now, in a post-elimination interview with Entertainment Weekly, she's not holding back as she reveals exactly how she felt about her time on Survivor as well as watching the show back with friends and family.
Specifically, she was surprised at how little she appeared in the early episodes of Survivor 49 which even caused her to question her own experiences on the island. From a fans' perspective, she was on the outside of the majority alliance of a consistently winning tribe, so of course, she wasn't shown a lot pre-merge. She didn't have a story to tell as far as viewers were concerned.
"It's really tough sometimes to go through what is honestly such an intense experience and not see it on TV...It almost feels like a mirage at points," Sophie told Entertainment Weekly.
And the few spotlights she did get in the earlier episodes received mixed reviews from long-time fans of the reality competition show. Most notably, her sass-back to host and executive producer Jeff Probst when he presented a full tray of fruit as a reward and she complained about it being "diet food" and that she was "dying for" something more substantial. A more than thoughtless comment considering Sophi Balerdi and Alex Moore had eaten practically nothing in eight days at that point.
Then, the tides turned at the merge after she won her first individual immunity, finally moving her name up on main player's list and receiving more recognition each episode, but now as a counterpart to Savannah Louie's top dog—acting as her challenge rival, but strategic swing-vote in the coming days.
Sophie's place in the tribe dynamic was an interesting one this season. She went from seemingly talking to no one for the first 14 days to suddenly being a crucial player in the social connectivity of the tribe. Her middle-woman strategy—hoping to align with everyone, day-to-day in order to take out the biggest threats as they presented themselves—ended up being a self-described "jack of all trades, master of none" situation which ultimately got her voted out.
And she recognizes that despite being "truly shocked" by her blindside, she also absorbed all the pre-show research that told her the no. 1 rule of Survivor: the moment you feel comfortable, you're the next to go. But being in the game, that lesson just didn't stick as she sat at Tribal Council on day 21, watching Savannah and Kristina Mills arguing and knowing with absolute certainty that Savannah was going home.
Another lesson she clearly forgot by day 21 was that the person playing the middle never prospers. Most notably, Survivor legend Boston Rob Mariano taught this to Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X winner Adam Klein during their turn on Survivor: Winners at War as Adam tried to play with both the new and old school castaways. But even more recently, she should have remember when only 4 days prior, Alex Moore was targeted for the exact same reason.
After her merge metamorphosis, as her storyline finally intersected with our main players Savannah and Rizo Velovic, providing her more airtime, she understands that—while most of her edit had her wondering if she'd dreamed the entire experience—the producers and editors ultimately needed to leave some gaps in her story for viewers to fill on their own. Sophie wrapped up her exit interview by declaring, "I think I'm going out on the perfect level where I haven't yet, oversaturated people's screens."
"Yet" being the keyword here. Maybe this won't be the last we see of Sophie Segreti. While I predicted her elimination last episode, I also said that this ending could lead to a new opportunity.
While the rumors are still leaning towards two other castaways from this season to be featured on Survivor 50, who knows? Anything is possible, and we already saw players who said they wouldn't return end up on that list. We'll have to wait until the Survivor 49 finale, coming up quickly on Wednesday, Dec. at 8 p.m. EST on CBS and Paramount+!