Returning from Tribal Council in Survivor 49 episode 6, the remaining members of the latest Kele tribe breathe a sigh of relief having voted out Shannon Fairweather, knowing they trust each other enough to move forward in episode 7.
Jawan Pitts and Sage Ahrens-Nichols set a plan to reconnect with their former Uli tribe mates after the merge in order to gain knowledge to bring back to their new Hina-based alliance with Steven Ramm.
Spoilers ahead for Survivor 49!
Pack your bags...
A boat arrives at Uli beach to pick up Alex Moore, Nate Moore, Kristina Mills, and Sophie Segreti. They're allowed ten minutes to pack up what they want to take with them. Hina gets the same information, so MC Chukwujekwu, Sophi Balerdi, Savannah Louie, and Rizo Velovic pack up all their previous rewards and hop on the boat.
Over at Kele, they get a note that the rest of the castaways are making their way to live together at the original blue camp. Steven, Sage, and Jawan choose to name themselves the "bottoms up alliance," but are hesitant to go down and greet their new tribe mates on the beach knowing Uli's alarms are going to start blasting as soon as they notice Shannon is no longer in the game—which they do.
As soon as everyone is together, the first question is about Shannon's elimination and what went down at Tribal Council. Sage and Jawan weave a tale of Shannon going off a ledge and stirring so much chaos that they had no other option but to vote her out. Savannah reconnects with the two Uli's to let them know that they are all on the same page still, and they need to work together moving forward.
Advantages and the disadvantaged
A chest arrives by boat with a task for everyone to start running around the jungle looking for keys—one of which unlocks the chest, revealing an advantage for tomorrow's challenge. Sage collects the correct key and unlocks the secret advantage.
Original Uli is feeling on top of the world as everything keeps unfolding. Even with Shannon gone, their official adopted Sophi into their alliance gives them the majority of 6 players in the new merged tribe. Sophi decides to bring Alex into the fold and when she connects with him about how it's smarter to go where the numbers are (Uli) than to stay with what he's known lately (Hina). He agrees she's got the right moves in mind, but secretly he plans to play both sides to make sure he's in the best position for him.
After discussing who might be on the chopping block at the next Tribal Council, Sage meets up with Sophie, letting her know that Uli views her as the likeliest next vote. This concerns her, and she thinks it's best to stay on Sage's good side to make sure she has the latest information as this develops.
A double challenge for the first individual immunity
The next day at the first individual immunity challenge, host Jeff Probst—after determining yellow Sophie will be known as Sophie while blue Sophi will be known as Soph moving forward—announces everyone is officially merge and hands out the new buffs. So while no one has to earn the merge, they still have to earn the merge feast.
Divided into two groups, the first team to finish earns the meal and the right to compete in the first individual immunity challenge. He also officially makes it known that there are still places available on Survivor 50's cast, telling them now is the time to show what they're made of. He then reveals that Sage's advantage means she does not have to compete in the group challenge, she automatically gets the merge feast and a shot at individual immunity.
While both groups stayed pretty on top of each other in the first challenge, ultimately the yellow group—Sophie, Sophi, Nate, Steven, and Rizo—just barely edged out with the last puzzle piece placement and scored the feast and chance for individual immunity along with Sage.
For immunity, our remaining players must balance on a beam while balancing a ball on top of a pole. Rizo, Sage, and Nate are the first three out. Sophi loses her ball right before they more to the final section of the beam, leaving Steven and Sophi—two original Hina members—to battle for the immunity necklace. Steven couldn't hold on and dropped, leaving Sophie immune from the first individual elimination.
Feast, flag, and frenzy
At the merge feast, everyone seems at ease and excited to share a meal. Nate especially feels confident about his position, thinking Uli with Sophi has the majority, and he's in the best spot he can be without immunity around his neck.
The challenge losers arrive at camp to find the merge flag, excited to decorate it, but MC needs to go off and execute her beware advantage now that she's lost, and it's in play. She gets information about finding a key in the jungle to unlock the box with the idol, but Savannah stumbles upon her while she's looking.
Savannah spots a ring of keys at the same time as MC and they both dive for them, but MC manages to make the grab first. Now with the ring, MC sits and tries every key in the lock until one opens the box, but the whole time Savannah is just hovering over her shoulder until she finally tries to distract her by claiming she wants to work together. MC half-listens as she continues to unlock, and eventually, Savannah goes back to camp, allowing MC to secure her idol in peace.
Once the feast winner return to camp, Savannah starts telling everyone that MC has the idol. The Hina-majority alliances discusses wanting to vote out either Rizo or Savannah, but knowing Rizo has an idol, they're worried he would play it for either of them and want to move the votes over to Nate. Meanwhile, the Uli-majority wants to put their votes on MC, but with her idol now in play, they throw out Steven's name to go home.
Nate Moore is the 8th player voted out of Survivor 49
While so many names were dropped at camp, in the end, the Hina-majority won out and took the safe route by voting out Nate making him he first member of this season's jury. Even though MC played her idol, the rest of the votes were on Steven, but with Nate's elimination, it's clear where alliances fall in the new merged tribe.
We'll have to wait to see how the Uli alliance tries to manage the fall out, but it's easy to predict this won't be the last blindside we see in Survivor 49.