In Survivor 49 episode 8, in a chaotic lead up to Tribal Council, Sophie Segreti found her name in the mix of potential votes and not because she originally planned for it to be there—though she did.
In an attempt to try and blindside Rizo Velovic while also flushing his hidden immunity idol from the game, after losing the group challenge, Sophie suggested Sage Ahrens-Nichols and Jawan Pitts tell Rizo that they want to go back with their original Uli alliance and vote her out so he'd feel safe enough not to protect himself at Tribal Council.
It was a brilliant strategy considering most people would be too afraid to use themselves as the bait and have their own name written down in any capacity at Tribal Council. The even smarter element of her plan? She knew it'd be a risk if Rizo did play his idol and wrote down her name—she'd be the one to go home—so she developed a contingency idea of writing down Jawan's name to incite a tie in that case and cause a revote. And she chose to share this plan with her Hina ally, MC Chukwujekwu.
This caused a ripple effect where MC saw how smart Sophie actually is, filled Jawan in on her plan, Jawan viewed that as MC being untrustworthy and last week's Tribal Council turned into a battle of eliminating a strategic mind the other tribe doesn't trust as much, or an ally from the other side. In the end, Sophie helped convince the original Uli members that she was the right person to stay in the game.
Spoilers ahead of Survivor 49 episode 9!
But now after an MC-less group returns from Tribal Council, there's no doubt the few original Hina and Kele members remaining—the exact same ones who said they expected to see Sophie go home—will no doubt be surprised one of their top allies was sent home. And in an exclusive sneak peek, Sophie shares exactly how she interprets their reactions while on a walk with Savannah Louie and Sophi Balerdi.
"It felt almost like people were mad that I was still here," Sophie says in the sneak peek.
As Sophie explains, her original Hina tribe members provided "reactions" to her return from Tribal Council rather than "responses" which made it clear to her that she was not as intricate in their alliance as she previously thought. And now that they're at the individual portion of the game, it's time for her to explore her options and develop new relationships and options to further her game without them.
This clip perfectly sets Sophie up to be a swing vote in the continuous battle between original Hina and Uli—if you can even call it that anymore. There have been so many mixed votes that we might be at a point in the game where tribal lines truly are blurred in the sand, and it's every player for themselves. The only key players from the original tribes really still remaining tight together are Savannah & Rizo and Kristina Mills & Steven Ramm.
While Sage and Jawan still seem to be working together, they aren't really aligned in their goals and give off the vibe that they would drop each other if they had to in order to further their own game. And while Sophi and Alex Moore—the only original Kele's remaining—would be a force to work together, they also seem to be on opposite sides of the battle with Alex more loyal to Steven and Sophi more loyal to Savannah right now.
So though Sage and Jawan are more likely to work with Kristina and Steven, giving them the numbers even if Sophie switches alliances and starts working with Savannah, Rizo, and Sophi, she has a great opportunity to pretend like everything is fine, get the intel she needs to know who Hina is targeting and ensure Rizo's hidden immunity idol is played properly at the next Tribal Council, if necessary.
As she proved last episode, she's much smarter than she was originally letting her tribe believe. Will she craft another brilliant plan in episode 9? We'll have to wait until it airs this Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 8pm ET on CBS and Paramount+ to find out!