Survivor 49 episode 9, "If You're Loyal to All, You're Loyal to None," wastes no time getting into the action. As episode 8's winning group waits around for the Tribal Council attendees to return, they discuss that there's no way it was anyone other than Rizo Velovic or Sophie Segreti that went home.
Kristina Mills decides that the best case scenario would be that Rizo played his idol and Sophie went home, getting an advantage out of the game and eliminating their bottom player without getting yellow dirt on Hina hands.
When everyone returns and people realize MC Chukwujekwu went home, it suddenly feels like a funeral as people stutter in an emotional display of shock at her elimination. Sophie isn't thrilled that their response seems less of a sadness at their friend going home and more of a displeasure that she's still there. She actively calls them out about acting surprised she didn't go home, and Steven Ramm is the only one to respond, saying, "We're sorry you feel that way, Sophie."
Savannah Louie quietly fills Sophi Balerdi in on the advantage she got for winning the immunity challenge. She shares she opted to bank her vote and that the only people who know are Sophi and Rizo. Meanwhile, Rizo is flying on cloud nine, feeling like the top dog in the game after he managed to get out the threat of MC, gain a potential ally in Sophie, and keep in idol all in one fell swoop.
Spoilers ahead forSurvivor 49!
With MC gone, Steven knows he needs a new no. 1, so he decides to lean into the Bottoms Up! alliance made after the second tribe swap between him, Sage Ahrens-Nichols, and Jawan Pitts. He chooses to put some trust in Sage by telling her that Kristina found the idol that got flushed after MC previously used it, but asks her not to tell anyone, even Jawan, as it would land back on him.
Sophie confides in Sophi and Savannah about how upsetting it was to see her former tribe members so shocked to see her return from Tribal Council. She tells them that she's willing to listen to them and won't go running back to yellow if they want to consider working with her.
Alex Moore also turns to Savannah and Rizo, telling him that the Hina alliance sees Sophie on the bottom, but what they really want is the two of them gone. He's willing to work with them to get rid of Sophie, but Rizo doesn't like his middle of the road gameplay and thinks he's not someone he can trust in the short or long term. We get the title of our episode when Rizo declares, "if you're loyal to all, you're loyal to none."
A battle to earn reward
With fried chicken on the line, players are divided into two teams via a schoolyard pick, with Sophi being the odd-one-out and betting on team yellow to win. If they do, she gets to join them on the reward.
Yellow Team: Rizo Velovic, Jawan Pitts, Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Steven Ramm
Blue Team: Kristina Mills, Sophie Segreti, Alex Moore, Savannah Louie
Yellow kicks off the lead with blue right behind them and pushes ahead in the last portion of the challenge, but at the very end, blue catches back up and Alex busts out the win for the blue team.
Knowing Jawan has yet to go on a reward, Kristina offers to trade spots with Jawan, giving up the food for herself so he can have it. Host Jeff Probst says that the rules allow her to do that, if both parties agree to it, but Jawan doesn't want to accept. Ultimately, the rest of the yellow group and Sophi encourage him to take it, so he does.
At the meal, Sophie won't stop talking about how upset she was when Kristina and Hina were surprised that MC went home and the subtext of them expecting her to go home. This prompts the reward winners to talk about being open to working with anyone, but Jawan secretly feels like he's running the show behind the scenes and just views everyone like he's a shark in the water, ready to strike to kill.
Back at camp, Sage and Kristina discuss splitting the vote across Rizo and Savannah to get the idol out of the game, they just need the numbers. Even though she doesn't fully trust her, Kristina turns to Sophi to tell her that they're looking towards Rizo because she thinks she wants to be on the right side of the vote and Sophi might listen to her. After a little bit of conversation, Sophi manages to get Kristina to reveal that the next person after Rizo would be Savannah.
Of course, Sophi doesn't want Savannah to go, so she tells her and Rizo that the others are planning a split vote to flush out the idol. So, Rizo decides their best move is to create a "common enemy" for everyone else that will take their eyes off of him and Savannah and starts talking to people that Alex has been playing the middle extra hard. Everyone seems to accept what he's saying except for Jawan who has been wanting to take down Savannah and Rizo for quite some time now.
Double safety leads to another face off
Everyone arrives at the challenge arena only for Jeff to announce that today there will be two winners: one man and one woman.
In a physically demanding challenge, Steven—after delivering a plethora of space facts to pass the time—outlasts all the men and leaves the arena to another battle between the two remaining women, Savannah and Sophie. After more than 30 minutes, Sophie drops and Savannah wins immunity for the second time in a row.
With two necklaces in play, and one of them on Savannah's neck, the original split vote plan needs to be altered. Steven, Kristina, and Sophie talk about still voting for Rizo to either eliminate him or flush out his idol. They decide, since Savannah won, Sophi will be the split vote. But Sophie still isn't 100% sure she wants to vote with them. Rizo, Savannah, and Sophi plan to vote Alex and need to draw Jawan and Sage in to ensure they have the number for Alex and take away any votes that were supposed to be for Rizo.
Alex Moore is the 10th player voted out of Survivor 49
Ultimately, playing both sides was his downfall as neither side felt they could trust Alex and sent him home. Rizo trusted his gut and his allies, opting not to play his idol which worked to his advantage as he only received one vote in the end.
With only one original Kele member remaining and barely any trust between our castaways, who knows what's in store next week as our players start to realize the only threats left are the ones they know. Tune in Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+ for an all new episode of Survivor 49 to see what happens next!