As new Hina returns from Tribal Council, Jason Treul is feeling on rock bottom as he reminisces on the fact that the only names read were from the original Hina tribe in Survivor 49 episode 5, "I'm a Wolf, Baby." For him, this further solidifies the fact that no matter how hard the original Uli members preach a dissolution of tribal lines as they move forward, actions speak louder than words.
And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Savannah Louie is feeling on the top of the world as her majority alliance has control of the game and even if they lose again, it will be easy to send Jason home.
Spoilers ahead for Survivor 49!
Strategy sessions lead to stressing
Over at the new Kele camp, Shannon Fairweather can't sleep as she's spiraling, knowing she's on the bottom. In the middle of the night, she turns over to Steven Ramm to pitch the idea of a 2x2x2 alliance where 2 members of each original tribe will ensure none of the core 6 alliance's names are ever in danger.
Steven thinks this is a great plan and agrees with Shannon to her face, but via confessional, he's annoyed this is happening in the middle of the night and fears Shannon is way too smart and coming on way too strong.
The next day, Shannon is working the beach, approaching both Alex and Kristina about her willingness to vote out Sage Ahren-Nichols. Steven connects with MC Chukwujekwu about his concerns over Shannon. Sage is also noticing how thick Shannon is laying it on, overhears Steven and Alex talking about how hard Shannon's playing, and finally joins the conversation, speaking her mind on the subject to her tribe mates.
Back at new Hina, Jason decides his best course of action is to work the social angle to find a crack in Uli and sneak his way in. He realizes he's closest to Jawan Pitts and starts to bond on a personal level before approaching with subtle game talk. Jawan, though he likes Jason, knows he's next to go and there's nothing that will change that because Uli's so tight.
But then when Jawan fumbles and accidentally uses Savannah's water bottle, Savannah is reminded that Jawan was on the bottom of Uli, and he's still on the bottom of their alliance. She's frustrated by the fact that he continuously seems to be targeting her for these annoying mistakes—he previously used her bag filled with her clean clothes to collect fire wood—and starts to think that she wouldn't mind sending him home next.
A physically demanding journey
A boat arrives to shuttle one member from each tribe to the second journey of the season. MC volunteers from Kele and Jason volunteers from Hina, which no one is having. Both Savannah and Nate Moore offer to go just so Jason won't. Jawan pitches they draw rocks to fairly choose their journey champion, but then rigs the rock drawing, so Nate goes, ensuring Jason won't get an advantage.
Players have to work together to move sand bags within the allotted time. If they don't finish, they both lose their votes. If they finish, they keep their votes. MC already doesn't have a vote because she hasn't finished the beware advantage instructions, so she's risking a double vote loss. She's taking the lead on the challenge and Nate uses the time to try and get to know MC, so they chat while they move the bags.
Halfway through, MC spots a note under the pile that says there's an advantage hidden in the jungle. If it's found, the person who doesn't find it must finish the sandbag challenge on their own, otherwise they will lose their vote. If the sandbag challenge is finished while someone is looking, the person looking loses their vote. If at any point the timer runs out and the advantage isn't found nor is the challenge finished, both of them lose their vote.
Nate convinces MC to collectively finish the challenge except for the last bag, and then they'll look for the advantage, but he knows he's never find it over her. He ultimately sabotages her, calling her back to the beach by making her believe they're almost out of time and then convincing her to just finish the challenge so they don't lose their votes while they're looking.
The battle begins
When MC returns to camp, she informs everyone that Matt Williams went home. Shannon wanders off and Sage pitches to the rest of the tribe members that since Uli took a shot at Hina, next Hina should take a shot at Uli. She tells them that Rizo Velovic got the beware advantage back at the Uli camp and since they lost, he likely has an idol not.
Everyone asks if Shannon knew about this and Sage confirms she did, asking if she told any of them—she did not. After, Sage and Shannon go to get water and Shannon is convinced Sage isn't thinking about the game and Sage knows Shannon thinks she's stupid.
The curse is officially reversed
Another close challenge led to Kele winning their second immunity in a row, sending Hina back to Tribal Council. And as soon as they get back to camp, Savannah lights a fire under Jason to pitch himself as a conduit to the old Hina alliance. Jason's able to get Nate on board, who circles back to Savannah about possibly voting out Jawan.
Uli highly considers voting out Jawan to establish this isn't a Hina vs. Uli game, and they're not just picking off Hina one-by-one. But they're still hesitant about keeping Jason over Jawan and losing their red majority.
Jason Treul is the 6th player voted out of Survivor 49
In the end, the group stayed Uli-strong as they collectively sent Jason home, deciding it'd be better to move forward with their original red numbers than taking a chance with someone in yellow.
We'll see how this plays out for our castaways when episode 6 of Survivor 49 airs next Wednesday, Oct. 29 on CBS and Paramount+.