Ever heard of the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover?" If anyone is proof that, especially on a game like Survivor, it's Sage Ahrens-Nichols.
For the first six episodes, and even during her pre-game press interviews, Sage has transformed from a quirky goofball to one of Survivor 49's most interesting players, as she has continuously demonstrated there's more than meets the eye.
Sage started on the Uli tribe and found herself on the outside of the majority alliance. After the first tribe swap, Sage went to the Kele tribe alongside four original Hina members, one original Kele, and one other Uli person, who was none other than Sage's nemesis, Shannon Fairweather.
Shannon and Sage never met eye to eye throughout the season. While Shannon thought she had Sage in her pocket, especially coming into the new Kele tribe, Sage found Shannon to be off-putting and performative.
Once another tribe swap occurred and Sage was placed with Shannon again, Sage decided it was time to act.
Sage had been planting mistrust seeds against Shannon on the Kele 2.0 tribe, particularly with Jawan Pitts, Steven Ramm, and Alex Moore. At Kele 3.0, alongside Jawan and Steven, Sage finally emerged victorious against Shannon after blindsiding her in a unanimous vote. However, before Shannon left, Sage refrained from hugging Shannon at Tribal Council, as Sage thought it would've been disengeneous on her part after targeting Shannon all season.
During her exit interviews, Shannon said it was hard to watch her relationship with Sage unfold the way it did on the island, but she admitted she knew what was coming beforehand, as Sage had spoken to her once she returned from the game as well.
In an interview with Men's Journal, Shannon said, "It was definitely maybe a little more than I was expecting, but she did let me know what the vibe was going to be."
Also, when asked what her thoughts were when Sage refused to hug her. Shannon expressed feeling blindsided, confused, and shocked, as she thought they were closer.
While Sage is still in the game and we can't know everything about her yet, we did learn more about her thought process and her personal experience with Shannon.
In a mid-game exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross, Sage said her decision not to hug Shannon after the latter's elimination was based on self-respect, boundaries, and honesty.
Sage explains that since the beginning, people thought that, because she is an emotional person, they could sway or manipulate her through her emotions, like Shannon. What people didn't see was that her being an emotional person wasn't akin to being 'void of logic,' and she intentionally leaned into people underestimating her to gather intel on them.
Furthermore, after the first tribe swap, Sage was put off by Shannon's social game when she noticed Shannon leaning towards specific subjects, particularly religion, to curate bonds with the new Kele people.
"When she [Shannon] noticed people respond to mentions of Jesus, her conversations started leaning more heavily on Jesus than I noticed on original Uli... seeing this shift felt like a moral line had been crossed."
As Sage couldn't discern what was strategy and what was personal, she began to distance herself from Shannon, which eventually led Sage to target her. Sage also added that her annoyed expressions, albeit funny, were partly directed at Shannon and also served as a way to release her mounting frustrations over the moral conflicts she was navigating.
As for the epic non-hug, Sage said it was a personal boundary for her, as she's not a physically affectionate person, and a way to respect herself as a former people-pleaser. This inaction also demonstrated the inner turmoil she felt towards Shannon, and it would've been dishonest to do otherwise.
Lastly, Sage admits her comments about her collecting blackheads and her bathroom habits were calculated rather than social missteps. As she explains, people often confuse quirkiness with stupidity, and these actions would once again lead them to think she was clueless rather than strategic, demonstrating that not everything is what it seems.
Future players, heed this advice: On Survivor, no one should be underestimated. Not an ally, not a nemesis, and especially, not a Sage.