After Nate Moore's blindside in episode 7—directly following Shannon Fairweather's blindside in episode 6—it seemed our original Uli tribe's power run was officially over.
Sage Ahrens-Nichols and Jawan Pitts had clearly flipped, and a new hybrid alliance powered by Hina was evolving from the merge, leaving the previously in-charge Savannah Louie and Rizo Velovic not only on the bottom of the hierarchy, but on the outs socially.
A lot of fans started wondering if it was game over for them, even going as far as to speculate if their names were decoys for the real Survivor 49 players cast in season 50 since there's no way Jeff Probst would have brought in castaways who were voted out so quickly after the merge.
But the key rule of Survivor is it's not over until it's over. Some of the best players in history have risen from the ashes of destroyed alliances. And knowing the strategic smarts of both Savannah and Rizo, there's no way either of them are going to go lying down.
A reward timed so well it's almost too good to be true
As our players entered the challenge arena, Savannah and Rizo knew one of them had to win in order for them both to make it to the next week, while everyone else knew they had to make sure neither of them won in order to have any hope of voting them out. But that all changed as soon as Jeff shared what the twist to this week's challenge would be.
Rather than individual immunity, our castaways would be divided up into two teams and the last person standing would secure immunity for their entire team as well as a reward feast. So when Savannah became the last person standing for the yellow group, rather than her unaligned teammates cheering on Sophie Segreti to hold on and beat Savannah—as they likely would have if they'd only been fighting for individual immunity—Steven Ramm, Kristina Mills, and Alex Moore were sending Savannah words of encouragement to keep fighting.
She did and she won. It could not have been scripted any better.
While Savannah and Rizo drew different rocks and landed on opposing teams, the person with the idol was the one going to Tribal Council, ensuring both of their safety for another week. But if that wasn't enough, after the reward feast we also learn that Savannah's win came with the ability to go be a part of Tribal Council, immune from the vote. She hopped on a boat and joined the losing team at the old Uli camp where just her presence significantly shifted the plan.
Social outs and social oops
Once at the other camp, Savannah was able to disclose to Rizo that she could either use her vote tonight or save it and use it as an extra vote later. She was also able to share that at the reward feast, Steven and Alex made it clear they thought Sophie would be going home tonight as she's on the bottom of the Hina alliance, and there was no way Rizo wasn't going to play his idol.
With this new information, the two were once again able to take the game into their own hands and set up a narrative of Sophie vs. MC Chukwujekwu, leaving Rizo's name out of the vote entirely. And this had nothing to do with the reward, but everything to do with the importance of strategically playing the right social game.
Coming out of the loss, the plan was to make Rizo feel comfortable so he wouldn't play his idol, and they could send him home and flush it all in one sweep. But then Sophie informed MC she'd be putting down Jawan's name to ensure a tie in case Rizo does play his idol—knowing he'd put her name down—and then on the revote, they could get rid of Jawan over her. This was a smart move shared in the wrong fashion.
The way Sophie presented this information was as if she put herself on a silver platter for MC saying, "I'm a threat." If she wanted MC's loyalty in making the move, she should have come to MC as an ally in making the move, saying she needed to put someone else's name down to cause a tie, but who? Allowing MC to be a part of that decision would have changed the trajectory of the rest of the afternoon for sure.
Because she pitched rather than asked, MC immediately turned to Jawan—someone she wanted to work with and regain the trust of after not letting him in on her idol play the episode prior—and warned him that Sophie was throwing his name out. Of course, what she didn't know about Jawan is that he's the most loyal traitor Survivor has ever seen. If Jawan says he's voting with you, you have his loyalty for the rest of that Tribal Council until the clock resets the next day and he's pledging allegiance to a new plan.
So, Jawan had already vowed loyalty to Sophie's plan—despite the fact that MC just told him Sophie wants him out—and he immediately turned around and told Sophie as well as the rest of original Uli that MC can't be trusted. With this new information, Rizo was able to pit the two women against each other rather than having either of their targets on him—as originally planned.
During all of the social chaos, Sage—who was determined to get out Rizo and break up him and Savannah's power alliance—could have used the fact that the vote had shifted so drastically to get Sophie and MC to turn back to the original plan of voting for Rizo. If the three women voted Rizo, while he, Jawan, and Savannah voted for Sophie or MC, it would have tied and Sage likely could have convinced Jawan to go with the original plan and vote out Rizo.
But Rizo's too smart to let that happen. As soon as Savannah arrived, he made everyone feel like the only option at Tribal Council was to vote out eithr Sophie or MC. And they did.
Threats first, but not the biggest ones
Despite the fact that Rizo is the biggest threat in the game right now with his idol, he and Savannah convinced the rest of the original Uli members that getting rid of MC was the right move, as they might not get another chance down the road. Sophie, on the other hand, while clearly smart with a mind of strategy, is on the bottom of original Hina and won't be hard to get rid of later.
So while the four players had a clear shot to get rid of Rizo and his idol this week, they opted to vote out a player who already played her idol, hasn't won an individual immunity, but has allies. And in doing so, they left Savannah and Rizo more powerful than ever. The easy elimination allowed Savannah to pocket her vote for later and Rizo to hold onto his idol. The two of them are safe for at least another two weeks, if not longer, depending on if Jawan still wants to be loyal to them moving forward—he just can't seem to make up his mind.
While Sage is ready to wage a war on Savannah, I have a feeling this isn't the end of the original Uli tribe voting together. We'll see what happens next on Wednesday, November 19th on CBS and Paramount+.