In Survivor 49 episode 9, saw our players once again skipping an opportunity to flush an idol in exchange for eliminating someone they considered a bigger, future threat. Alex Moore was blindsided for playing the middle which leaves us at eight players divided by a fairly clear majority alliance.
Spoilers ahead for Survivor 49 episode 10!
As our castaways return from camp, Kristina Mills and Steven Ramm find themselves on the outs. Kristina is feeling emotional and scared, even though she knows she can't go next with an idol in her pocket. Sophie Segreti is gunning against Kristina for personal reasong, but Rizo Velovic, Sophi Balerdi, and Savannah Louie tell her the smarter move of the two would be targeting Steven who has proven himself a challenge threat and who has been a strategic threat from the beginning.
Jawan Pitts reveals to Sage Ahrens-Nichols he is considering looking for the idol, but isn't sure if that will be bad for his game at the Final Eight. This is when Sage confides in him that Steven let her in on Kristina discovering the idol and says Jawan can't tell anyone or else it will blow up both their games. But Jawan doesn't like that Steven didn't put trust in him by only sharing the news with Sage, so he tests Steven by giving him a chance to share more info about Kristina, which Steven doesn't do.
Kristina, now at the bottom, is feeling at her lowest and more emotional than ever. She confesses to Steven that she's feeling about ready to quit, but he reignites a little hope in her by reminding her that she has an idol that no one else knows about, giving her safety and some power. He's more worried about himself as he's proven to be an outward threat whereas she hasn't. But he's hoping they can predict the majority's next move, play the idol correctly, and blindside Savannah.
Rewards and rewarding moments
Our players arrive to a water challenge set up where host Jeff Probst starts to ask how they're feeling and Kristina breaks down, emotionally bursting out about wishing she had her mom with her, both at this moment in the game and in life. In a beautiful moment, Jeff has her share more about her mom in a chance to connect with her through conversation.
The first reward for a visit to the Sanctuary divides our castaways into two teams where one will earn an afternoon of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chocolate cake. The challenge features multiple layers including crossing two over-water beams, scuba diving for buoys, and tossing those buoys in a net.
The blue team—Sophi, Sophie, Steven, and Sage—pulls ahead at the beginning and gets to the final stage of the challenge first, and we find Kristina the last of the yellow team members to cross the beams. At the very last section of the beam, so flips over, barely holding on, but not yet in the water. Jeff tells her to keep going, she hasn't fallen in yet.
In an impressive feat, Kristina pulls herself up and finishes the course strong. While the yellow team isn't able to catch up, that moment gives Kristina a push that she really needed to keep going, looking stronger than the rest of her team once back at camp. Even Rizo is feeling down, doing his best to hold back tears, so Jawan decides to try and lift everyone's spirits by taking the fishing gear out and catching a fish for them to share.
Time for plotting, negotiations, and immunity
Over at the Sanctuary, Sage connects with Sophie about a plan to eliminate Savannah. When they return to camp, Savannah and Rizo lead the charge on a Steven vote, but Sage is collecting names to blindside Savannah.
The tribe is now divided into two factions: the one that wants Savannah out—Sage, Jawan, Steven, and Kristina—and the one that wants Steven out—Savannah, Rizo, Sophi, and Savannah's extra vote. Sophie finds herself in the middle, able to go either way and unsure which path is better for her game. She can either go with the numbers and blindside one of the biggest threats in the game, or report the plan to the group that she voted with last time, so Rizo plays his idol for Savannah and blows up the big plan.
When they show up to the immunity challenge, Jeff presents them with the rice dilemma and though Jawan tries to negotiate, it's clear no one is willing to give up their chance at immunity for rice, so the challenge goes on as planned.
For the first time since we started individual immunities, our players are presented with an obstacle course with a puzzle at the end instead of an endurance challenge. Steven takes an early lead on the puzzle with Savannah right behind him, but Sophie is able to pass them both and secure her second individual immunity win, giving her even more power and control over tonight's vote.
Fall out, fall backs, and falling off seats at Tribal Council
With Savannah losing immunity, Sage plots out a full plan to eliminate Savannah, flush Kristina's idol, and flush Rizo's idol. But Sophie decides that keeping Savannah around is better for her game, so she tells the trio that Sage and Jawan are flipping, inciting a full social riot or strategic paranoia at camp. Sage decides to lay some extra groundwork for her plan by telling Sophie that she thinks Kristina might have an idol, which in turn has the rest of the trio now constructing a new course of action in case that comes into play.
Savannah knows now is the time she needs to play her extra vote, because if Kristina plays her idol on Steven, even if Rizo plays his idol for her—correctly—they need a scapegoat to send home. She and Sophi ponder over the idea of sending home one of the flippers, but just aren't sure whether to use the extra vote for Sage or Jawan.
Everyone arrives to Tribal Council where the discussion is based around intentions, actions, and uncertainties in the game. Sophi and Rizo especially make points about how what's said at Tribal Council doesn't necessarily reflect what's actually happening in people's heads or their heads and how things might not always go as planned.
Jawan Pitts is the 11th player voted out of Survivor 49
Kristina plays her idol for Steven. Rizo makes a big speech and plays an idol for Savannah, but Jeff reveals the idol he played is not a real immunity idol. As the votes are read, multiple Savannah votes come, and she accusingly gasps at Jawan, asking, "did you do this?" which he takes full credit for, smirkingly nodding.
However, like Rizo said earlier, plans change and the trio plus Sophie swapped their votes—including Savannah's extra vote—from Steven to Jawan after realizing he was gunning for Savannah. They decided to take out Kristina's idol as collateral damage in the process.
So now with only seven players left in the game, two of which have advantages—Rizo's idol and Sophi's Knowledge is Power—and an idol potentially back in play on the beach, there's no doubt another shake up could be coming for our players in next week's episode of Survivor 49.