After a whirlwind two-hour season premiere of Survivor 49, episode 2 immediately kicked off with a bang. Sorry, not a bang...a bug. Specifically, the worms that Jeremiah Ing discovered—and ate—at the Kele tribe's camp to show us all just how desperate for food they really are.
So from the first minute, it doesn't seem like Kele's doing any better from last episode.
Spoilers ahead forSurvivor 49!
Tribe leaders and majority alliances are forming—for better and worse.
Coming out of Tribal Council, Annie Davis was riding a high horse after not going home, but her tribe mates noticed and 100% did not appreciate it. She immediately pulled aside both Sophi Balerdi and Alex Moore separately to throw out Jake Latimer's name, both of which consider Jake to be their no. 1 ally. They smiled and agreed with her, but in Alex's confessional, he called Annie out for being too confident and feared she's going to do something to send her home.
As we saw in a sneak peek, the majority alliance that's officially formed a Uli—after a few speculative conversations last episode—consists of Savannah Louie, Shannon Fairweather, Nate Moore, and Rizo Velovic. Though Nate's now disclosed his discomfort living among a tribe of people so much younger than him and how he barely knows what anyone's saying half the time (for those who are wondering, the episodes title "Cinema" is basically just a Gen Z slang term for "epic"), but he's doing everything he can do adapt. And now, as a member of the majority alliance, it seems he's doing a good job of just that.
Over at Hina, Matt Williams, Steven Ramm, and Kristina Mills found themselves wanting to work together, but Matt knew they needed a fourth to become the majority. Matt decided to bring in Michelle "MC" Chukwujekwu, which she agreed to enthusiastically in front of her fellow tribe mates, but hesitantly on the inside as it was clear she was on the bottom of the four. MC immediately turned around and connected with Sophie Segreti, letting her know that she was on the majority alliance's radar and to stay vigilant.
A layered first journey almost left two castaways unaware of their status
Rather than seeing our players split up for individual journeys as we've grown quite used to, our journey voyagers competed in an elimination challenge where the last person standing would receive an advantage and the other two would simply go home. Matt from Hina, Jake from Kele, and Jawan Pitts from Uli tossed coconuts into hanging baskets until Jawan's was the only one left, granting him the reward.
Matt and Jake made their way back to camp, feeling the sting of defeat, but celebrating that at least they didn't lose their vote—or did they? As Jawan read off the advantage, he learned he could choose something to benefit his tribe (a disadvantage for a different tribe at the next challenge) or to benefit himself (stealing a vote from either Matt or Jake, unknown to them). In the end, he wanted to gain credit with his tribe and chose the challenge disadvantage.
A challenge for fishing gear and immunity ended in tears.
With his reward, Jawan chose to give the Hina tribe 20 pounds of coconuts (each!) to run the challenge, along with 9 additional keys to sort through during the unlocking portion of the challenge. It was truly the most gruesome disadvantage we've ever seen in the show's history. By assigning this, he earned some favor with the Kele tribe by sparing them, but immediately, he made 6 enemies of the Hina tribe.
With Hina's disadvantage, Kele was ahead the entire challenge, making it to the final puzzle before Hina or Kele even finished the second leg. But just like last time, the puzzle was their ultimate weakness—regardless of having at least an extra five-minute head start, if not more—and Hina came back to secure first with Uli one piece behind in second.
A beware advantage was finally found...not so secretly.
On a walk through the jungle with Jake, Alex happened upon the beware advantage (literally just sitting on the ground) and decided to open it and share it with Jake. With their imminent return to Tribal Council, Alex has to find the hidden immunity idol before they head out, otherwise it loses its power and he loses his vote.
At tree mail, Alex, Jake, and Sophi dig up a ball and chain with a key that they have to carry through the jungle to open a lock box. While looking for it, Sophi finds it and decides to cover it up even more in the hope that she can get Alex and Jake to give her the key so she can secretly get the idol for herself. While this is happening, Jeremiah happens upon them, and they loop him into the hunt.
Alex finally discovered the box that Sophi tried to cover up and secures the hidden immunity idol for himself, in front of the majority alliance. But, he also immediately returns to camp and lets Annie know that he has it, as well. However, now that the idol is in play, Jeremiah doesn't like being at the bottom of the majority four and Alex doesn't like how close Sophi is to Jake. So, while Annie was originally the plan, everything changed within a few minutes of unlocking an advantage.
Tribal Council was unexpectedly expected as Annie Davis is the 2nd player voted out of Survivor 49
The difference in the Kele tribe's stature from last Tribal Council to this one was immensely apparent. Last episode, everyone was confident, on the same page (minus one), and ready to face the season anew after the vote. But tonight, people were at a loss for words, there was discord in responses to host Jeff Probst's questions, and a clear aura of defeat was layered thickly over our castaways.
When Jeff asked about advantages, everyone looked to Alex, but he didn't make a move. And while it seemed there might have been more nuance to tonight's vote, in the end, the majority alliance chose to follow their original plan and not make any big moves too early on in the game by eliminating Annie
Will it be enough to give Kele the boost they need to get back in the game and avoid another Tribal Council? We'll see when episode 3 of Survivor 49 airs next Wednesday, Oct. 8 on CBS and Paramount+.