The Survivor 49 finale was full of memorable moments, but there was one in particular that immediately created debate among fans, bringing up a conversation that ironically began with the season premiere.
Warning, we’re about to get into some spoilers from the finale.
At the top of the Survivor 49 finale, the Final 5 were surprised as a boat made its way out to the island signaling that a challenge was about to be presented to the contestants. Sure enough, this was the case. The players learned that there was an advantage on the line for the first Immunity Challenge of the night, one that could make a major impact on the challenge.
To win the advantage, the players needed to race across the island to gather a series of pouches containing puzzle pieces. Once they gathered all pieces of their puzzle, they could begin assembling the pieces, which would reveal a map to where they’d find the advantage. The first player to find the advantage, would secure it for the immunity challenge.
The players all raced out to find the pieces with Savannah achieving her pieces first and then successfully solving the puzzle. She then headed to the location marked on the map to begin searching. Shortly after, Rizo got back with his puzzle pieces and, for the second time this season, he proceeded to copy Savannah’s completed puzzle rather than completing the puzzle on his own.
Fortunately, this move did not have an impact on the end result as it would be Sophi who would find the advantage, but the moment made it clear once again that Survivor needs to make a drastic change to its rules.
Survivor needs to make a rule about copying another player’s puzzle in challenges
While Rizo copying Savannah’s puzzle did not alter the outcome of the challenge, as he was unable to find the hidden advantage, it showcased once again why a change is needed.
On Day 1 of Survivor 49, Rizo and Alex were selected to compete in a one-on-one battle to win their tribe’s camp supplies. In the challenge, both players had to find ten coconuts with their tribe logo which contained pieces to complete a map puzzle. After finding all of their pieces and completing the map, they then had to use the map to find a ship’s wheel and raise a flag to win their tribe’s camp supplies.
Alex took a commanding lead in the challenge, finding his coconuts and assembling the puzzle quickly. Unfortunately, Alex was unable to locate the wheel and lost precious time despite his lead. Rizo eventually found his ten coconuts, but rather than completing the puzzle on his own, he copied Alex’s puzzle which allowed him to speed through that part of the challenge and then reached his wheel before Alex did and won the challenge. It was a moment that created a lot of debate among fans who claimed it was cheating, and they’re not wrong.
A player should not be able to make up valuable time by cheating off another player’s finished puzzle. That moment altered the trajectory for the Kele tribe, who went without their tribe supplies for days after the loss. Had Rizo’s actions in the finale resulted in him winning the Immunity Challenge advantage, it’s quite possible it too would have led to different results potentially resulting in Savannah’s elimination from the game.
This is all to say that it’s time the show finds a way to combat this form of blatant cheating moving forward. We understand that they need to keep the puzzles the same for fairness, but they need to find a way to make it so that a player cannot simply copy another player’s complete puzzle in order to proceed in a challenge or even win the challenge.
Players need to earn their wins, and copying another player’s finished puzzle should not be rewarded.