Jeff Probst has a massive twist in the works for players in Survivor 50 episode 5, coming on Wednesday, March 25.
So far, we've only seen one tribe going to Tribal Council after losing the immunity challenge this season, but that's all about to change.
In the Next Time on Survivor preview for episode 5, "Open Wounds," Jeff Probst reveals that two players will be voted out and only one tribe will be safe for winning the immunity challenge. CBS confirmed the two-player elimination in the synopsis for "Open Wounds," as well.
In the first four episodes of the season, only one tribe was sent to Tribal Council after losing the challenge. The winner and second-place finisher were safe from the vote and lived to play another day in the game. Now, that's all about to change.
Survivor 50 has to cut a lot of players quickly
Heading into the season, I was expecting that we'd see one tribe win immunity and then the other two tribes sent to Tribal Council from the start of the game. That did not happen. Had Kyle Fraser not gotten injured in the first challenge, we'd still have 20 players left in the game!
With 19 players left, the show has to cut 16 players in as many days before Final Tribal Council. There are only nine episodes left, so we have to see multiple players go home for at least a handful of episodes. It simply has to happen just to make the numbers work.
I don't think we'll see multiple players cut in episodes after the merge, so the next three-ish episodes are going to be wild. We'll probably see six players cut in the next three weeks. It's going to be absolutely wild!
Why Survivor 50 is going to change during episode 5
Even through four episodes, there are only a handful of players who have been to Tribal Council so far who still remain in the game. Those players are Rick Devens, Christian Hubicki, Emily Flippen, Ozzy Lusth, Cirie Fields, Joe Hunter, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, and Angelina Keeley. The rest of the players haven't even voted anyone out yet.
It's often said that you don't really know where people stand in Survivor until they actually have to place a vote and vote someone out of the game. Everything is hypothetical until that point. Then, it becomes reality quickly.
So, out of the gate, we're going to see at least six new players going to Tribal Council. By the episode's end, everyone in the game could have gone to Tribal Council if, somehow, the new Vatu tribe wins immunity. Then, the Kalo and Cila players who have not voted yet will be sending someone home.
Once that happens and everyone takes a place in sending someone home, that's when the game should start to pick up. It's been relatively boring so far in terms of gameplay, to me. Then, when Survivor actually had some decent gameplay in the works, we got to watch Zac Brown live his Survivor dream instead.
We should be heading to another tribe swap or the merge soon
If the immunity challenge goes the way I think it will and Vatu is one of the losing tribes, we are probably headed for another tribe swap soon. Vatu would then have four players, Kalo or Cila would have six players, and the winner would have all seven players.
That's a weird split. I would guess that we'll probably see two tribes of eight players before the merge sometime after that. I think the show wants to get into the merge so we can see all of these great players together, but you can't merge with 17 players. That's simply too many.
So, to mitigate that, I think we could see another tribe swap to two tribes for one or two votes before the merge. Then, we'll have all these players very well acclimated to one another in the Survivor tribe swap blender.
The calm before the storm is already over. Be prepared for some very dramatic episodes of Survivor 50 starting with episode 5 on Wednesday, March 25, on CBS and Paramount+.