Chat, is war over?? And by “war” I mean seasons played by Cirie Fields that she has not won. There are still five episodes to really find out, but this episode made me truly excited for her chances.
Before we talk about the contenders and important edits, let’s say goodbye to Coach and Chrissy. They fall victim to a twist new to the US Survivor franchise, but as a Top Chef fan, where challenges like this pop up every now and then, I enjoyed it. Would I have liked it as much if two players I am more attached to were voted out? Admittedly, probably not, but I don’t mind this as a concept. Even though they didn’t know what they were pairing off for, I liked that they at least had some agency in who they chose to be with rather than the pairs being completely random.
We’ll start with Chrissy since I’m less familiar with her. I never watched Heroes vs. Hustlers vs. Healers so I don’t have a full understanding of her wounds from her previous season. All I know is that she didn’t really get along with her cast and she was probably twist screwed by Final Four Fire Making (first appearance of this format change). I can’t speak to whether she was a New or Old Chrissy this season, so I’m not really sure where to place her thematically. Chrissy didn’t get a lot of visibility in general across the season. We see her basically being annoying, getting a redeeming confessional during the pre-merge, and then her being annoying again the night she’s voted out. I suppose her vote for Rizo and Emily could be considered her trying to make a big play, but she was the only one that voted for them so it just kind of fell flat. Sorry, girl.
Coach, on the other hand, is presented as a foil to Ozzy via their rivalry but also their shared paths of trying to play the game in a new way. We see both of them trip and fall along the way, but Coach is not portrayed as having much success. No matter how hard he tries (?), Coach can only be The Dragon Slayer and it comes back to bite him. Despite his antics, he really didn’t play too hard to try and save himself but instead listened to his allies who told him to tone it down. We are treated to a lot of OTT Coach-isms leading up to his exit, which kept things entertaining for sure. Even though I’m not really a Coach fan, I did appreciate that we had this type of character on Survivor 50.
So here’s where everything stands right now with the remaining castaways:
Contenders
Cirie - This is the episode that Cirie needed, and I think if her edit continues in this trajectory she may have actually pulled this thing off. A couple of episodes ago, Ozzy said that going to Exile was actually a huge advantage. Cirie may not have “earned” this advantage, but she got it nonetheless. Her time on Exile provided an opportunity for her to comment on her own Survivor legacy. Three things I really loved from this commentary:
She says that nothing is impossible in Survivor.
She says that there is a different drive for season 50.
She says that it’s important for her to get back to camp to not only help her allies, but because if the wrong two people go home, it could be the difference between her winning and losing this game.
It’s not a traditional winner’s quote, but it’s heading in the right direction. Let’s hope this is her phoenix rising from the ashes season. Not only was she safe from the vote, she completed the coconut task and was able to return to camp and vote in Tribal Council. And vote she did. Upon her return she completely took control of the beach and did what she’s been doing all season: decided who went home. However, in this episode it was explicit, which it hasn’t necessarily been since taking out Savannah. If we are going to be getting more and more Cirie over the next few episodes as we head into the end game, then this episode would be a great start to a coronation segment. If she drops off again after this then she’s probably the final boss the winner must take out to win the game.
Rizo - Quieter episode for Rizo but I think that’s definitely okay. What we do get from him is still rather astute and strategic. He doesn’t seem to take the fall as hard as Ozzy for thinking that Cirie would vote out Aubry/Devens over Chrissy/Coach. The thing with Rizo that I struggle with is his super fandom that continues to be included in his edit. I haven’t seen every season of Survivor so I don’t know how many winners were considered (super) fans of the show before they won. The ones I can think of off the top of my head are Todd Herzog and John Cochran, and I haven’t watched Caramoan so I don’t know how they edited Cochran in that season. With Todd at least, it just didn’t feel like his fandom was laid on all that thick. If Survivor is trying to develop a New Era Super Fan Winner Archetype, okay. Then one of my big concerns about Rizo evaporates, but for now something about it just feels a little bit off. Especially since they left Emily’s eye roll when Rizo praised Coach as The Dragon Slayer got his torch snuffed. Overall though he looks good. I don’t know if Chrissy, what felt like, randomly targeting him in this episode is supposed to foreshadow some upcoming heat for him, though.
Ozzy - I could probably give Ozzy a mixed tone instead of positive, but I just think overall, things felt more on the up and up for him. We see Ozzy having a great conversation with Tiffany the morning after Tribal Council where he is able to build rapport and trust with her. Social game improving! He also has a great confessional about his approach to figuring out how to take out Coach. The potential issues for Ozzy in this episode are 1) his rival has just left the game and there wasn’t much interaction between them at all, so is his story over? and 2) he states that he would have made a mistake in this game if Cirie hadn’t come back from Exile Island and set him straight. Depending on who he would be sitting next to at the end, this could be fine. However, I think he would struggle if he sat next to either of his alliance partners. Especially Cirie. The polycule still have the best odds of winning, but Ozzy continues to have ups and downs to his edit, seemingly episodically.
Episode Winners
Tiffany - Started from the bottom now we here. Tiffany still isn’t winning this thing, but she’s finally getting to show off why I was excited for her to come back and play this game. She’s a confessional queen, she’s self-aware, she’s a beast physically, and she’s solid strategically. Unfortunately for her, it seems like she’s one of the few players on the cast that did not pre-game at all and has certainly paid for it. Since the merge her content has increased significantly and it’s generally positive. While she still has no chance of winning, her star is rising compared to other people who don’t have a chance whose chances are plummeting (i.e. Emily).
Episode Losers
Jonathan - He got the confessional after Tribal Council talking about how he pulled off the Dee vote and how everything worked out perfectly. Considering the outcome of the episode, I wonder if this whole episode was just one long dunk on Jonathan. Of course the edit focused a lot on The Dragon Slayer and his shortcomings, but I didn’t find that Jonathan looked that great. Cirie called Chrissy and Coach “mom and dad,” but the central person we saw everyone from the Honor and Integrity Alliance go to was Jonathan. He felt very much like their leader. Jonathan had a couple of moments where he just came off unlikeable like when he was yelling at Christian during the challenge and when he snapped at Devens during Tribal Council. He may have been justified but he just came off like he was having a temper tantrum. Jonathan ends the episode as the only person to vote for Rick and Aubry and his alliance rooted out. His chances of winning this thing are slipping away fast if they’re not already gone.
Other Notable Edits
Stephenie - Cirie shoves a pie in Stephenie’s face on national television yet again. That’s pretty much it. For what it’s worth, she seems relatively more protected from the edit than other players in her alliance. Her story on Survivor 50 just feels so isolated. We know what her relationships and alliances are for the most part, but she just feels so separate from the other players for some reason. This is one of the things that makes me feel like she could be the last player voted out before Final Four Fire Making.
Aubry - Aubry cries again in this episode. Her edit is just so odd. I know there’s Aubry truthers out there, but she feels a lot more like a zero vote finalist to me. Perhaps she wins out in some challenges toward the end giving her some sort of rootable streak, but it just feels like she doesn’t actually have any win equity. The edit is portraying her as emotionally all over the place, and not really a great player.
Got Nothing For Ya
It’s time to say “got nothing for ya” to Emily Flippen. The reintroduction of the Christian/Devens pair has pretty much completely relegated her to the background. We occasionally get a peanut gallery commentary on what’s going on from her but not much more. Emily is labeled as one of the dreaded “middle people” so things just don’t bode well for her longevity in the game nor winning chances.