DISCLAIMER: When I shared my Episode 10 breakdown on reddit, someone commented a FTC spoiler, it was ultimately removed but I was still shown the preview of the comment in my notifications. Prior to seeing this comment, I have been completely unspoiled and after seeing the comment, I did not take any action to either confirm or disprove what was written. Despite this, I sadly cannot guarantee that my thoughts on the episode, eliminated players, or remaining castaways will not be colored by what I saw. If you are not interested in reading my likely now biased opinions and breakdown, turn back now!
What a heartbreaker of an episode. I think the version of myself that saw the Survivor 50 cast release would be shocked I was saying such a thing. However, Ozzy’s journey as a player has been one of the most compelling storylines of the season, and I am now in the position of feeling sad to see him go. To clarify. Do I feel bad for him? Not really. He royally blew up his own game, and probably his allies’, with some seriously classic Ozzy hubris and entitlement. I’m sure Oscar is disappointed that Ozzy took over in the moments before Jeff read the votes, and Ozzy didn’t end up playing the Boomerang Idol. Trying to jury manage Aubry while not actually playing the idol?? Yeah that’s just… He leaves Cirie’s side for one afternoon and things just completely unravel. This has happened already earlier in the season, but Cirie managed to get back from Exile Island in time to redirect the vote. This time, Ozzy was afforded no such luxury and he paid for it. Ozzy really embodied the season’s themes and had this season’s “growth edit.” I think what’s really special about his story is how well it really encapsulated not just his journey on Survivor 50 but throughout his entire Survivor career. He stumbled along the way, but the Jungle Boy shaped up into quite the Jungle Man.
Emily Flippen. Sadly probably going to just be known as “the other boot” from this episode. I can’t say she really played a different game than the one she played in Survivor 45. I thought of her as a pretty chaotic, flip-flopping blabber mouth on that season too, but she’s certainly entertaining. She brought that same energy to Survivor 50 and it got her to the exact same spot, the 21st day. You’ve got to hand it to her though. She went out swinging. There is the contrast from her previous game. This time Emily wasn’t passive, she worked overtime to try and execute a plan to take out Cirie instead of her and it almost worked. While Ozzy went out with an idol in his pocket, Cirie ended up playing the Extra Vote Ozzy gave her to save herself. The poetry and story of this episode really was quite something even if I didn’t like the outcome.
I personally really hate when Survivor splits up the merged tribe. I do not like “Mergatory.” I hated The Blood Moon. I did not particularly enjoy this, but I think the Power Broker component was interesting. It maybe feels a little OP this deep into the game? It seems like it could be interesting if the tribes were even a person or two bigger. Perhaps it could actually be interesting toward the pre-merge after some players have inter-mingled via Journeys. Maybe I’m just saying that I didn’t like it because of who ended up being eliminated. This episode ended up being pretty close to a Cirie/Ozzy double elimination, which I think would have me throwing the controller at the TV.
Despite not really liking when the merged tribe is split up, I understand that they need to eliminate more players more rapidly on this season due to cast size. I think that in spite of the twist they managed to put together a really interesting episode of television in terms of storyline, strategy, and emotional stakes when typically these episodes can feel a little predictable, boring, or straightforward.
Seven castaways remain and there can still only be one Sole Survivor. Where does everyone stand?
Contenders
Cirie - Ozzy drops out of the race only to be replaced by Aubry as the player hot on Cirie’s tail. This was an interesting episode for Cirie. On one hand, she evades danger with a successful Extra Vote play while she acknowledges the “Advantagegedon” that led to her default elimination in Survivor Game Changers, making good on her promise to not let that happen again. On the other, she loses one of her #1 allies while he’s blowing up both of their games on another beach when she says that she needs Ozzy to stay in the game for one more day. It’s a little tough to tell where this is going. It could easily spell the end for Cirie. If she is not the winner then she is the dragon. Right now Cirie’s in a position where she’s going to have to pivot, at least somewhat, to move forward, because the remaining players seem to have no questions about her threat level. It may be too difficult to surmount. There is some room for recovery though.
Cirie did mention that cutting Ozzy loose may be something she has to consider in order to get rid of his advantage, but her ideal scenario would be having her cake and eating it too: keeping Ozzy in the game but getting him to use the Hidden Immunity Idol before the final rounds. I’ve got to give her some serious props for managing the vote and saving herself during her own Tribal Council, while also doing work during the day to try and influence the outcome of the other. It almost works. If Cirie is going to win this game, she needs to have extended time talking about Ozzy’s elimination. Losing him is a serious blow to her game because they intended to go to the end together. Ozzy was maybe the only person on that beach who was comfortable sitting next to her at Final Tribal Council. Cirie needs to tell the audience how she’s going to play the rest of the game and rise from the ashes of losing her #1. Whether it comes in the next episode or the finale, Cirie also needs to address her reputation as “the best to never win” to bring her Survivor arc full circle.
In many ways, Cirie has been the heartbeat of this season. From the premiere where she sets the emotional tone for the season, to pretty much controlling this game strategically. Cirie has built strong relationships with both Old School and New Era players. Voted with one alliance on one round and another the next, all in service of her game, while avoiding elimination. She earned an advantage and completed a challenge on Exile Island. She used an advantage correctly to save herself. She’s been a consistent presence throughout the season without being overbearing. Her tone has been pretty consistently positive. Cirie is playing a win-worthy game and has a win-worthy edit. The questions are whether this is the edit she would get if she actually won, and how in the world will she actually get there? Cirie said it herself a few episodes ago, “nothing is impossible on Survivor.” So for now, I’ll choose to believe she can do it somehow.
Aubry - Wow, wow, wow. Aubry really got what she needed this episode, and I really mean almost everything. She got her big move. She comments more on her previous game. She got strategic content that was extremely on theme. Aubry sniffed out that other players might be willing to take a swing at Ozzy, and used his very bizarre attempt at “jury management” to convert everyone’s feelings that were already simmering underneath the surface into a successful Ozzy blindside. It’s now a “full blown punching match” and Aubry’s gloves are finally off. Aubry is rising like a phoenix on a trajectory for the end game. Her last task, other than to actually sit at the end, is to slay the dragon that is Cirie before Cirie slays her. Which of these two very strategic women will come out on top? We have two more episodes to find out.
A lot of people seem ready to crown Aubry as the winner due to her big surge here at the end of the game but I have my reservations. I still think that Aubry’s premiere and overall pre-merge edit are pretty terrible and I think that if she does end up being the winner of Survivor 50 she should perhaps be pretty upset with the way she was portrayed. If she is supposed to be an underdog then why aren’t we rooting for her? (At least among the small sample of casuals that I know of). It just feels like so many bizarre choices were made, especially for a player who was so popular after her first run that she played two more times in the following 2-3 years.
Jonathan - There’s a decent gap between Jonathan and Aubry, but he’s still made his way back into contention, even if it’s a slim chance. I’m mostly just trying to give Jonathan a little more credit where credit is due. He has had a very complete edit in a lot of ways. Even though they have changed throughout the season, we know a good amount about his relationships with other players. We hear from him a lot and we understand how he’s trying to approach his second go around compared to his first. He’s had some successes and some failures, but hey, he’s still here. He’s been shielded during some of the rounds that are objectively not great for him. What we don’t get a lot of is SPV about Jonathan. We don’t know much about what other players are thinking about Jonathan. Are they thinking about Jonathan? Wouldn’t know. So obviously that isn’t great, but he has had a pretty consistent and fleshed out story throughout the season. Another negative for him is pretty inconsistent tone. Sometimes he feels really rootable due to his improvement from Survivor 42. Other times he comes off as arrogant and harsh. He still feels more likely to be a losing finalist to me, but there’s definitely something there if he does end up being the winner.
Unlikely, but Maybe
Rizo - Rizo may become a little more relevant to the remaining story since he allowed Ozzy to get voted out and is about to return to camp with Cirie. He’s got some explaining to do. He also has the only remaining advantage in the game, so he will likely become a target fairly quickly here. We get a little bit of Rizo’s strategic perspective in this episode right at the tail end but it again feels like we are primarily getting fan perspective and color commentary on the game itself. During a couple of rounds where his primary alliance seemed to be a major focus, we haven’t really been hearing from him. Just feels like an odd place in the story for him to cool down and become more of a secondary character.
Episode Losers
Joe - I mean… Come on. Honestly hilarious though. This man has played ~46 days of Survivor and it still seems like he doesn’t know what show he signed up for.