Similar to how Ozzy Lusth felt on the outs after he was blindsided by Mike White’s elimination, in a new episode 6 sneak peek, Jonathan Young is feeling lower than he has during any other day in the game—his original season included—as he navigates who he can still trust.
After last week’s Tribal Council, where Dee Valladares, Kamilla Karthigesu, and Cirie Fields came together to eliminate Charlie Davis, with the added number of Rizo Velovic, there are certain lines that seem to have been washed over, but in the sneak peek below, we see Dee easily doing damage control and Jonathan fully buying into it.
In the clip, Dee—the leader of Charlie’s blindside—joins Jonathan for a chat on the beach, apologizing for not including him in the move and telling him she’s shocked at how well he’s taking the surprise elimination. She goes on to explain that the alliance still wants to work with him—that they need each other—but just couldn’t include him on this vote out of fear he’d alert Charlie to the plan.
Rather than being concerned at his alliance leaving him out of the vote, he’s more down about the fact that he’s never been blindsided before, and it doesn’t feel good. He declares that this anniversary season has been so crazy that he didn’t even notice the signs, which seems to be the most frustrating to him.
This all goes back pretty easily with how Jonathan played his game originally in Survivor 42. He had a strong alliance of four from his starting tribe that worked together until they finally had to turn on each other at Final 6. Knowing the key differences between Survivor 50 and Survivor 42—the fact that there are so many more players with just as many days on the island—one might suspect that this move would leave him feeling ready to flip, but that’s not the vibe he gives at all.
Because of his past relying on his alliance to keep him in the game, he doesn’t see this move as a betrayal from them, but rather as a fear he’s on the outs. Instead of deciding to find new allies he could trust, he asks Dee if she and Kamilla would still be willing to work with him. But that might not be the right move to make in Survivor 50.
This season is about building the right relationships, but it’s also about cutting them down to ensure your safety moving forward. The way Jonathan’s playing right now might keep him in the game—along with a decent potential to win immunity challenges—but even if he makes it to the end again, he won’t have the resume needed to pull out a win.
If Jonathan wants to meet the other castaways at the Survivor 50 level, he’ll need to take his fate into his own hands rather than hoping the allies who just blindsided him want to continue protecting him.