There was not a lot of "bananas" gameplay in Episode 11 of Survivor 49, but that's fine. We advanced to final six by taking a challenge beast off the board, while adding a third idol/advantage into the mix for what promises to be a consequential vote in Episode 12.

Steven acquired a vote block advantage, which is relatively benign, but might be enough to tip the balance at Final 6, with two pairs (Rizo/Savannah and Steven/Kristina) vying for the majority, and the other two (Sophi, Sage) theoretically floating in the middle. I list Sophi among the floaters, because even though she's only talked about flipping on Rizo and Savannah at some point in the future (but final seven was too early), her Knowledge is Power advantage expires in the next episode, so if she's going to use it, that's when it has to happen.

The outcome she's been considering ever since she picked it up is using the KiP advantage to take Rizo's idol. She seemed to be thinking more seriously about such a heist this episode, then backed away. I guess it's possible she could steal Rizo's idol, but still vote with him and Savannah, which would be novel, but would not be particularly impressive strategically (so I hope she doesn't).

Steven's vote block advantage would presumably *also* be played against Rizo (or Savannah), and Jeff Probst himself clarified that, since Steven has to play it before leaving for Tribal, Sophi can't take it if it has been played (which it almost certainly will in the next episode). So if Savannah wins immunity, Rizo could theoretically have no idol, no vote, and be an easy target.

Unlike the two advantages, the idol is good until final five, but since Sophi would have to play the KiP before the vote, she'd want to play the idol for herself at that same Tribal, to avoid blowback. So the idol is also likely out of play this next episode, *if* Sophi uses her advantage. It's also possible production will throw another idol into the mix, since Kristina played hers in Episode 10, and nobody found a re-hidden one this episode - the precedent here would be Malcolm in S26: Caramoan playing Reynold's idol for himself in the second post-merge vote in Episode 9, despite already having one himself, then finding the re-hidden idol in Episode 10 (again, despite already having one).

So something big should be coming next week, but this week was mostly pleasant, with some fun scenes from Steven, the freed chickens who are ruling the camp, Rizo getting a title quote out of forgetting "killing two birds with one stone," perhaps because of his newfound fear of those chickens, and the entertaining payoff of Jawan cheering on Sage's revenge tour from the jury bench.

(The Riz)god is dead? (until further notice)

Rizo explained his thought process behind last episode's fake idol play this week, and disappointingly, it wasn't what I thought (using people's reactions to decide whether to play his real one). Note for future players: That's still a really good idea, now free for the taking!

Instead, Rizo said he had originally planned to play his fake idol to trigger Kristina to play her real one. (This was my original guess at what he was thinking, fwiw.) But Kristina beat him to it, and so he just decided to play the fake one anyway. And so ... I'm officially revoking his Rizgod status, he's not quite there yet.

Even though he hasn't made any big, outside-the-box, game-breaking moves, Rizo *is* still playing a really solid game. It's extremely impressive that he's made it through SEVEN Tribals without playing his idol, including the last five straight since brandishing it publicly at the merge Tribal. He's a very good player! He's been able to convince some or all the people to shift the vote away from him and/or Savannah multiple times, and now he's at a spot in the game (final six) where their duo wields considerable power. Savannah is one of the two favorites to win immunity. Rizo has an idol. But as we all know, Sophi has the power to remove one of those tentpoles of dominance.

So does all Rizo has done so far make him a Survivor god? No ... at least not yet. If he successfully dodges Sophi's Knowledge is Power next week, then we can talk.

Everything's coming up Steven!

Steven had a great episode this week game-wise, but also entertainment-wise. He got to introduce the IC doing a Probst impression (quite well, TBH). He had a touching reflection on how his journey success finally proved to him that he *could* play this game, and his imposter syndrome self-doubt was wrong. But best of all was his post-IC Milhouse paraphrased quote from The Simpsons, "Everything's coming up Steven!"

It's certainly possible to take it at face value, but it's important to understand the full context of the quote below (which I'm pretty sure Steven recognized, and makes the quote that much better). Here it is:

(Also a really good choice that he delivered this particular line while wearing his glasses.)

A unanimous boot has many authors

I'm not sure if we were given this comparison/contrast because it ends up being important later, but the post-IC plotting was done in two halves because Steven, Kristina and Rizo were separated for the reward feast. So it was fun to see Rizo pitch booting Sophie to his fellow feasters, while in another part of camp, Sage was selling Savannah and Sophie on the same idea. They both had the exact same plan!

And yet, because of Jawan's fist-pumping on Sage's behalf, if you asked the jury who drove that move, they would probably give the credit to Sage. If Rizo says it was all him in a Final Three situation, he may get some pushback. But in reality, there were a lot of people who wanted this, especially since the final total was 6-1.

Just goes to show you: Lopsided votes like this are not only generally uninteresting for the audience (and editors), they're poor strategy. If you want to prove to the jury that you had agency, nobody's going to be excited that you were the first person to suggest a landslide, pile-on vote, and there's a good chance one of your competitors will have believed they thought it up. But if you successfully played the middle and cast the single vote that decided between one of two outcomes, that's a lot harder to dispute.

Oh no, it's the consequences of my own actions!

The collective "Eh, pass..." response to the prospect of a journey in this episode was perfectly explained: Everyone was starving, the note said it would be "strenuous." Only Steven was willing to go, and only because he was clearly on the bottom.

I'm sure Jeff Probst is justifying this in his head as "Well, the guy who WaNteD iT tHe mOst eArNed iT!" But we were actually in a fairly tightly-balanced situation here. The advantage could have flipped the power balance for a lot of people. Rizo, Savannah, and Sophi ostensibly had the majority with Sophie (or Sage) on board, but importantly, they couldn't risk losing their votes. The obviously physical task (with everyone aware of the MC/Nate journey earlier in the season) seemed like a massive risk in that context. Steven and Kristina were the most obviously on the bottom, but they also need their votes, and "strenuous" doesn't sound favorable to Kristina's skill set. So it was basically Steven or nobody, because Sage had already been approached by Sophi to maybe work together, and said she was "50-50" and was willing to let Steven do it if he wanted.

So Probst's favorite twist "One person MUST get on this boat" (where you will not have a choice about whether to participate, and will either succeed or lose your vote) has smashed into the rocks of his second-favorite twist, "no rice for ANYONE because Survivor is HARD" (*bicep flex, gazing into the mirror, convincing yourself for the 12th time today that you haven't aged since early 2000*). What a tragedy that these two unnecessary changes that actively make the game worse have come into conflict.

Oh well, I'm sure nobody will bring this up directly to him, and we'll just keep on doing these two incompatible things forever, because thinking through problems with very obvious solutions is not really in Probst's skill set.

Also a little galling (Dan Foley voice: "The unmitigated gall!") that these do-or-die journeys don't involve any choices, when Probst's exact pitch for applications this episode was: "One of the most compelling things about Survivor is when you're out here, you've gotta make a decision." (It aired right after Steven chose the people who joined him for his reward feast.)

I agree! Decision-making is one of the most important strategic inflection points in the first 40 seasons of this show. But in the new era, there are almost no decisions to be made. This episode featured the *first* individual reward decision, with just two episodes left! Someone HAD to go on this journey. Steven HAD to do it or lose his vote, he couldn't opt out like Emily did. Huge portions of the current game are governed by rock draws, not by individual choices. It's like Probst is recruiting for a show that no longer exists.

A bit more on the journey task (sorry)

Before I get into all this, I want to be clear: Steven was right to conclude from this that his imposter syndrome was wrong: He CAN do this. He's been a solid player all season, and he's good TV as well. He belongs here, he's more than earned his spot. Nobody can take that away from him, and I'm definitely not trying to do that.

So anyway ... based on Google Maps, Wikipedia, and some basic math (also the pre-journey and post-journey shots of the hanging pot), it looks like pretty much any of the remaining contestants could have done what Steven did. The key driver of the task was the unknown: (1) Steven had no way of knowing how long it would take for his advantage to drop into the drink, and (2) he also had no idea how far he had to run to get back to the start. Sure, the easels with the combo numbers gave him some sense of completeness, but without knowing how the advantage mechanism was looking, he was still completely in the dark. (He also had been told it would be "strenuous", which implied he needed to exert maximal effort.)

So the pressure was fairly intense. But it was almost entirely self-inflicted, with a healthy shove from production. Using the overhead shot of the island from the show, it's clearly Monuriki Island (which you can see on Google Maps - zoom in on the "Castaway Island beach" marker on the right side for a fun surprise).

(Lengthy side-note: While you're on Google Maps, the island directly north of Monuriki is Monu, the site of one of the tribe camps, marked with the purple camera icon). Two islands east of Monuriki is Tavua island, home of the other two camps, also marked. And due south of Tavua (roughly twice as far as Monuriki) is Mana island, which is basically Survivor island (direct GMaps link here). The Tribal Council set, the Sanctuary, and at least 12 challenge sites are all there, complete with overhead satellite images (apparently snapped during S50 filming) and post-filming, cleaned-up Streetview images. It's a fun rabbit hole to spend a few hours poking around in for a Survivor fan.)

Wikipedia's entry for Monuriki (note that it's also where the Tom Hanks film "Castaway" was filmed) lists its dimensions as 1.15 km long by 600 m wide, meaning if we assume the island is a rectangle, Steven's path around it was roughly 3.5 km, which is a little over two miles. He could have just walked that far at a brisk-ish pace in just over 40 minutes, allowing that (1) the island is not a rectangle, so his path was shorter, but also (2) there was a lot of wading and scrambling over rocks, which would have been much slower. So it makes sense that if you look at the pot's position at the start and end of his trek, as far as I can tell, it barely moved:

So it looks like the journey task was designed to actually be achievable by anyone who showed up, which is a good thing. The route did seem a little sketchy at times, like when Steven slipped on some particularly sharp-looking rocks. But the most "strenuous" part was mental - having to push yourself to keep going, because you have no way of knowing whether you've already lost your vote, or are still in the running (heh) for an advantage.

In that sense, there are a lot of parallels to the journey task Rachel did in Survivor 47, where she was sorting colors, but her game table could have been whisked off the raft and into the ocean at any time. That risk/reward balance seemed like a reasonable amount of mental pressure. The combination of mental and physical pressure here seems much less justifiable, verging on cruel (especially when it was actually easily achievable). Purely physical (the MC/Nate journey) is okay. Purely mental is okay (Rachel's journey). Combining the two feels like it's asking for disaster (a game-ending plunge on sharp rocks). Good for Steven for finishing without injury, but it feels like Survivor barely avoided a lawsuit here.

The land of tepid takes

Booooooooooo: Changing Sophi's name to "Soph" in the intro (above) is pretty minor in the late new era's list of sins, but it's also just so unnecessary. Their names are already spelled differently, so it's easy to tell who's who when you're reading! Also, the only people who call Sophi "Soph" are Probst and Sophie, one of whom is now gone. Half the cast also called Sophie "Soph." The name was imposed on the season from on high (the host) because apparently "Sophi B" and "Sophie S" is too complicated, even though that's what people wrote when they voted. (According to Sophie's exit interviews, the Sophi(e) Squared duo themselves wanted to go with Balerdi and Segreti, their last names, but a fellow castmate (or two? and/or Probst?) objected that this was too complicated to remember.) Sigh. Well, now "Soph" can go back to being Sophi, right?

Other, better options: How about "iSoph" and "eSoph," like they were dot com startups? Or "Florida Sophi" and "The General"? Or, I dunno, maybe the blue Sophi/ yellow Sophie nomenclature the contestants were already using? But I guess we can't let the players form their own society, or whatever. Not on this show!

Finally a reason to run: For all the faults with Steven's journey task listed above, it *was* cool to finally have a "challenge" (or challenge-adjacent task, at least) where having a background in distance running might be helpful. We've had players cite running as their preferred form of exercise/sport since at least Paschal in S4: Marquesas, and we're just now getting this? Well, better late than never!