After Kele's mass losing streak, a medical evacuation, two tribe swaps, and last week's first true blindside of the season, it's safe to say that Survivor 49 has been anything but predictable. And with the show teasing that the merge will officially hit in episode 7, it's easy to understand why fans might be a little skeptic and wonder if that's truly what our castaways have in store or if another unknown twist will take place before they earn their merge buffs.
And, that's especially true after what went down in Survivor 48 when Charity Nelms was eliminated after the tribes united, but before they earned their buffs. Then, even after everyone was officially merged, host Jeff Probst surprised us yet again when players competed in a group challenge, announcing two people would go home, the first of which wouldn't make the jury.
So I—and many others—feel totally justified by the fact that we're still hesitant to accept that we are actually about to get the merge. But with the latest sneak peek clip and photos (below) that have been released, it seems almost certain that the actual merge is happening.
The sneak peek clip shows the latest Uli tribe—Alex Moore, Kristina Mills, Nate Moore, and Sophie Segreti—receiving instruction to drop their buffs, grab anything they want to take with them, and get on the boat to their new home. That in addition to some first look photos Survivor released shows that next episode will be all about the merge (and the fall-out that comes with the decision leading up to it).
Our castaways will earn their merge buffs in Survivor 49 episode 7
While the official clip might not be enough to satisfy your curiosity, check out the new photos below. First we see more than half of our remaining players grabbing rocks at the challenge arena, but most notably you'll see they all already have matching buffs—a kind of blue and gray camo pattern.
While we can assume with the rock draw that the first challenge will likely split up our players into two groups—with the winners of the first phase receiving reward and then battling out for individual immunity—we know at least they are all confirmed merge members and no one is fighting to earn their way into the merge.
Additionally, if our merged group is being divided for the first challenge, with 11 players in the game, that means one player will be forced to sit out. Based on past challenges of similar capacities, that player will likely choose which team they want to support and if they win, they get the reward and chance at immunity. If they lose, they get nothing.
However, early into the new era we also saw this division and the outlier ended up on Exile Island with an hour glass and a chance to change the game. With all the other twists so far this season, I wouldn't put it past Jeff and the showrunners to implement another layer into the merge, especially if they aren't doing an official "earn the merge" challenge.
Outside of the challenge, the other part of the merge is camp life. And based on the below first look picture, we can tell that our castaways are coming together to live at the old Kele beach—the worst one on the island.
So here's hoping that 10 minutes was enough time for Uli and Hina to pack up all their previous rewards to make their new camp life a little more manageable.
So we might have an outline for how this week's episode will play out, but there's still a lot of room for moves and mayhem to come out of the woodwork.
We'll just have to wait until episode 7 airs this Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+ to discover if the merge will be the easiest part of the game for this season's castaways.