Longtime fans of Survivor know Coach Wade. We knew going into this season that there were going to be Dragon Slayer shenanigans, and we anticipated things might get interesting should Coach land on a beach with Q Burdette and/or Rizo Velovic. But no one could have expected Coach’s Survivor 50 journey to be this frustrating to watch, especially only 7 episodes in, so far.
And fans aren’t the only ones who are getting fed up with his antics this season. In a new sneak peek of episode 8, “Double the Fun, Double the Demise,” below, his own allies, Jonathan Young, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, and Chrissy Hofbeck meet up to discuss the issues coming up at camp because of Coach’s actions. Watch below:
The three connect, Jonathan and Stephenie talking about how they’ve mentioned to Coach that he needs to pull in the reins and take things down a level as far as his “Coach-ness” goes. Which is actually really ironic that they’re telling Chrissy this considering earlier in the season Coach was the one to approach Chrissy telling her to cool it when she was just trying to get to know people at the beginning of the game.
Chrissy comments that it’s gotten way out of hand, which leads Stephenie to confirm their alliance numbers—whether to make sure none of the other players can turn on them or to see if they themselves have the ability to vote out Coach and still have the power, isn’t clear yet.
In addition to their “core four"—Jonathan, Stephenie, Chrissy, and Coach—she says they have a tight group with Joe Hunter, Cirie Fields, and Ozzy Lusth. That’s a majority of seven out of a total of thirteen remaining castaways. But what Stephenie doesn’t know is that Coach and Jonathan belong to their true “honor and integrity” alliance, which they call “The Four Horsemen," consisting of them, Joe and Rizo—who recently “replaced” Colby Donaldson.
And while Cirie and Ozzy might be looped in with them on the guise of sticking with the “old school” players in Stephenie and Coach, their real allies are each other and now Rizo. And Rizo isn’t Coach’s biggest fan after he found out that he’s an afterthought number in Coach’s master plan. So while Stephenie might think they have the majority from her perspective, as an outsider looking in, I’d say Rizo’s actually in charge of most of her numbers.
Then, Stephenie references “the middle people,” which started as a theme in the last episode that made me ready to turn the show off, if I’m honest. In Survivor, there have always been the people on the top and the people on the bottom, and anyone in between is considered a swing and is actually very powerful in the game. For this majority to be acting so high and mighty that their swing votes are being demoted to be known as “the middle people” is giving me such an ick that I’m ready for them to get knocked off their high horses.
With Tiffany Ervin clearly on the bottom after her no. 1 ally got voted out last week, and Christian Hubicki, Rick Devens, Emily Flippen, and Aubry Bracco’s alliance the clear swing group that Rizo can easily integrate into in order to take out any single one of these supposed power players with Cirie and Ozzy in his corner, will Coach—who is on everyone’s nerves—finally be the one to go? Or will a bigger move be made? I can’t wait to find out!
We'll see if Coach goes home in Survivor 50 episode 8 on Wednesday, April 15, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+.
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