Survivor 49 - The ORGers Week 5 Update

First, a look at this week’s rosters:

Scott	Savannah	Shannon
Will	Savannah	Rizo
Slater	Jawan	Savannah
Morgan	Jason	Shannon
Nickole	Rizo	Sage
Kat	Rizo	Savannah
Aly	Rizo	Sage
Stephanie	Jawan	MC
Jo	MC	Rizo
Tom	MC	Savannah
Chris	Nate	Sage
Danny	Alex	MC
Amy D.	MC	Savannah
Amy A.	MC	Steven
Angela	MC	Nate
Lia	Alex	Jason
Melissa	MC	Rizo
Kyle	Rizo	Shannon
Blake	Jeremiah	Rizo

 

Second, 5 bonus points to Morgan and Melissa for knowing that the burger that caused the meltdown for Survivor 46’s Liz was Applebee’s Bourbon Street Mushroom Swiss Burger. 5 points to Amy D. for knowing Sophi’s refrain of “The Song Remains The Same” harkens back to  the first track on Led Zeppelin’s album  “Houses of the Holy” (a perfect album, by the way).  Check it out!

Looking at our choices, 8 people chose ORG player, and shameless self-promoter Rizo, while 6 chose bossy Savannah. No one chose Kristina or either of the Sophi(e)’s

On to the update!

We pick back up at Hina (Yellow) following dreadlocked Matt’s torch snuffing ceremony, and while tribal was a wakeup call for Jason, he is just happy to be here (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Jason] to Morgan and Lia!). He sees the game on tribal lines, and being in the minority means he has work to do.  He tries to connect with Jawan, who sees Jason as a potential long-term ally but needs to find a way past the “Uli strong + Sophi” to get there. Savannah thinks Jason is the target. She hasn’t “forgotten” how Hina started the “war” with Uli thanks to their “Hina! Hina! Hina!” chant. How could she be expected to work with people so tightly tied to their former tribe, says she? I wonder what she’d say if she was in the minority. She also can’t stand Jawan, who she thinks is intentionally agitating her.  I think that’s giving Jawan too much credit. 

Jawan, through Savannah's eyes

At Kele (Blue), Shannon does her best not to overthink but overthink she does.  She wakes up going 100 MPH and tries to enlist Steven into a 2-2-2 Hina-Uli-Kele alliance.  Steven follows Rule #7, but wishes Shannon would let him have his metaphorical coffee first. Shannon has a moment of clarity, realizing everyone is just waiting for her to talk strategy with them and throws Sage’s name out to Alex. 

Unfortunately for Shannon, Steven sees right through her doe-eyed kumbaya meditation. He recognizes her for the shark she is, and confirms his suspicions with MC, who admires how hard Shannon is playing but doesn’t want someone who plays that hard around in the future.  While Kristina really likes Shannon’s good vibes, Steven and MC help her realize the numbers don’t favor Shannon.

An example of how overly positive and sweet-talking Shannon can be pops up when Alex finds a crab and she’s over the moon about it. Former Uli tribe-mate Sage sees through the BS too, and when Steven and MC tell Sage about how they feel with Shannon, Sage reacts as if they’ve finally seen Shannon for the fraud she is.

Shannon

A boat arrives and it’s time for a player on each tribe to go on a journey.  Feeling on the bottom of Hina, Jason desperately wants to go but Savannah and Nate volunteer as well.  Deciding to draw rocks, Jawan somehow stacks them so that Nate will choose the right rock.  MC joins him as Kele’s representative.  (3 points for “Go on a Journey” [Nate] to Chris and Angela!), (3 points for “Go on a Journey” [MC] to Stephanie, Jo, Tom, Danny, Amy D., Amy A., Angela and Melissa!).

Meeting at the beach, MC recognizes that “shots have been fired” when Nate tells her about Matt being voted out. But for now, they need to work together.  In this challenge, they need to move 100 heavy sandbags from one side of the beach to the other before a timer runs out.  If they succeed, they keep their votes. If they don’t, both lose their votes.

Side note: Whenever I see a big pile of things on Survivor, I wonder if there’s an advantage or something buried in it.

They make great progress, with MC outpacing Nate a lot.  She is a physical marvel. About 2/3 of the way through the challenge, MC sees a box with a note on it buried under the bags. 

I'm not sayin....I'm just sayin...

The note says an advantage is hidden nearby. The first person to find it keeps their vote and gets the advantage, leaving the other to finish the task.  Realizing he’d likely lose to MC, Nate quickly suggests they finish moving all but one of the bags together and then search for the advantage.  By her own admission, MC’s brain is mush, so she agrees.

Nate doesn’t really want the advantage, seeing it as enhancing his target level.  I don’t quite understand that – all he has to do is follow Rule #1 (STFU) and no one will know he has it until the merge.

They finish all but one of the bags and take some time looking, but both are so exhausted that they decide to quit the search before the timer runs out, ending the challenge. (3 points for “Risk vote on Journey and succeed” [Nate] to Chris and Angela!), (3 points for “Risk vote on Journey and succeed” [MC] to Stephanie, Jo, Tom, Danny, Amy D., Amy A., Angela and Melissa!).

At Hina, Nate tells the story of the journey but leaves out that the true victory was that Jason didn’t go.  Jawan continues to annoy Savannah enough that she tells Nate and Rizo she wants to flip on him

Back at Kele, MC tells the story of the Journey and that Matt was voted out.  When Shannon walks away, Sage takes the time to talk strategy saying she’s with Uli and not Shannon and shares how Rizo found the Uli idol. MC, having the same Beware quest, knows Sage is telling the truth. Later, Sage and Shannon talk about finding no cracks in Uli. Shannon doesn’t hear any strategic talk coming from Sage but doesn’t pick up that lack as a bad sign.   Sage is a wolf, baby. And she’s here to eat (5 points for “Say the title of the episode” [Sage] to Nickole, Chris and Aly!). Shannon tries her fake caring hug with Sage who responds in the best way possible.

This hug brought to you by pure social obligation

At the Immunity and Reward challenge, they have to dive into the snake-infested water, climb over and into a heavy bamboo cage and drag it to the beach.  At the beach, one of them has to dig underneath the cage. That person will rebound while the team shoots baskets from within the cage. First to land 3 baskets wins immunity and reward in the form of 3 egg-laying hens and a rooster. 

With one extra player, Kele’s Kristina sits out (2 points for “Volunteer to sit out a challenge” [Kristina] to no one  She searches around the sit-out bench for an advantage but finds none.

Hina starts walking first, but Kele gets to the beach first and quickly gets to shooting baskets. Hina may want a breather but that’s not flying with Jawan, who force marches them like a drill sergeant until they reach the basket area.  They made up a lot of time, but not quite enough. Alex drains all of the shots, destroying this part of the challenge and winning immunity and reward for Kele!

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [Alex] to Danny and Lia!)

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [MC] to Stephanie, Jo, Tom, Danny, Amy D., Amy A., Angela and Melissa!)

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [Kristina] to no one!)

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [Steven] to Amy A.!)

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [Sage] to Nickole, Chris and Aly!)

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [Shannon] Scott, Morgan and Kyle!)

(6 points for “Win tribal immunity and “Win tribal reward” [Sophie] to no one!)

No tribal council for Kele tonight, which means the Sage / Shannon war gets to simmer a bit longer.  I can’t wait for that blowup!

It's coming

Completely exhausted and starving, the tribe decides to kill and eat one of the chickens. Steven thinks “Congratulations on winning your exhausting challenge. Here’s some farm chores”.  I like that guy. Shannon being Shannon, “prays thanks for the chicken’s life force”. Ooooookay. Alex realizes he eats this every day, but this is a different level of understanding from ordering DoorDash to his high-rise apartment.  Agreed!

At Hina, the strategizing begins. Sophi’s tribal council streak remains unbroken, and while she’s gassed, she thinks she’s safe. Jason is the easy target here, and while he tells Jawan he wants Rizo to go, there’s no way that’s happening.  Nate thinks Jason will flip back to Hina the second he can, and he’s probably right.

On the former Uli tribe, Jawan was on the bottom and Savannah still can’t stand him to the point where she might want Jason to stay instead.  She helps Jason frame his pitch as “the conduit to keep you safe from Hina at a merge”.  She convinces Nate that it was his idea, and he runs with it too,  thinking it could end this blood-war with Hina.

At tribal council, they can’t even put into words how exhausted they are. It has to be experienced. Rizo thinks the level of exhaustion makes you question everything about your entire personality. Jason is proud that he never quit despite the spiritual, physical and emotional highs and lows the game forced upon him.

Savannah debates the value of who to keep and who to let go, while Nate wants to see people confident in their relationships.  Sophi thinks that revealing those vulnerabilities is what led to bonding with the new tribe.  That, and the color buff she used to wear.  She’s chosen to vote first, again. (3 points for “First person chosen to vote” [Sophi] to no one!).

No advantages or idols are played as the votes come in.  Jason voted for Rizo, but despite Jawan annoying Savannah to no end, Uli stays strong and puts the other 5 votes on Jason, ending his game. 

(1 point for “Received vote against” [Rizo] to Will, Nickole, Kat, Aly, Jo, Melissa, Kyle and Blake!)

(5 points for “Received vote against” [Jason] to Morgan and Lia!)

(-2 points for “The Tribe Has Spoken” [Jason] to Morgan and Lia!)

He had class. He coulda been a contender. He coulda been somebody.

5 points if you can tell me what movie that quote is from

Message me directly

Tell no one else

No Google, Yahoo, ChatGPT or other technological assistance

You know it or you don't! 

So, what does that mean for our scores?

Saying the title of the episode, and being on the winning tribe, led She-Wolf Sage to the top of the scoresheet this week! She’s followed by MC as the only other double-digit scorer. On the flipside, Jawan and Savannah put up 0s, while Rizo’s only point came from getting Jason’s vote.

It’s a dogfight at the top, as Amy D. is now in a first place tie with Morgan!  Angela moves to 3^rd place but still has ground to cover to catch them. She leads Chris and Jo who are tied for 4^th. Amy A. moves up to 6^th 2 points ahead of Danny. Slater chose the two lowest players this week and drops from 5^th to 8^th.  He’s holding onto a slim lead ahead of the tightly packed group of 9^th place Melissa, Nickole, Aly, Stephanie, Will, Lia and 15^th place Tom, is separated by only 7 points! I am 2 points out of the group in 16^th, proving that writing updates does not lead to good draft decisions.  Despite how closely I follow it, I only lead Kyle, Kat and this week’s cellar-dweller, Blake 

Overall player scores
Amy D.	83
Morgan	83
Angela	67
Chris	63
Jo	63
Amy A.	57
Danny	55
Slater	49
Melissa	48
Nickole	47
Aly	46
Stephanie	46
Will	45
Lia	43
Tom	42
Scott	40
Kyle	36
Kat	29
Blake	21
Weekly player scores
Chris	23
Angela	19
Amy A.	18
Danny	18
Melissa	18
Aly	17
Amy D.	17
Nickole	17
Morgan	16
Jo	13
Stephanie	12
Tom	12
Lia	11
Kyle	7
Scott	6
Slater	3
Blake	1
Kat	1
Will	1
Weekly Survivor scores
Sage	16
MC	12
Kristina	8
Nate	7
Steven	6
Sophie	6
Alex	6
Shannon	6
Jason	5
Sophi	3
Rizo	1
Matt	0
Annie	0
Jake	0
Jeremiah	0
Nicole	0
Savannah	0
Jawan	0