Original Kalo and Vatu never voted, so I’m glad this episode shined some light on how they would have voted before the swap. I was not glad, however, to hear that Angelina was poised to be sent packing. We finally saw a little more of her this episode, but none of it made me feel much better about her future in this game.

This vote would’ve been more interesting if Q hadn’t lost his vote because Emily would’ve held a lot more power as the swing between two camps of three. Instead, to pull this off, Emily needed Christian to come over with her which we saw no sign of happening, so I felt safe enough for Angelina going into tribal council. However, Ozzy and Emily both talked about voting Q first and Angelina next so if Vatu loses again, we should see a climactic conversation between Christian and Emily.

This episode painted Christian as firmly loyal to David vs. Goliath, but I could see Emily guilting him into letting Angelina or Mike go next to prove his loyalty to the Emily/Rick/Cirie alliance. I do see strategic benefit still in Christian cutting Angelina (a DvG duo is less of a threat than a DvG trio), so I sadly see a snuff very likely for her. We had two weeks in a row with boots I was happy with so I’m due for another heartbreak.

If it’s not Angelina next at Vatu, it’s a very close call with Stephenie. Getting swapped with Q who didn’t have a vote did absolutely no favors to Stephenie, and the other numbers put her in a near-impossible decision to win. She started off strong at Vatu, but with the strangers coming in and taking over, she’s now a prisoner in her own home.

If Vatu loses again, Stephenie has a solid case to help the tribe in challenges and avoid another loss, but based on the Q vote, I don’t think that’s a huge factor in decision-making this season. We know Emily and Ozzy want to vote for Angelina next, so they’ll have three compelling votes to convince Christian that saving Angelina isn’t worth otherwise a 3-3 tie, so my gut says he’ll cave. Either way, it’ll be funny watching Steph beg a bunch of nerds to keep her. This game quickly went from Stephenie’s dream to nightmare scenario.

Remember when Jeff revealed the cast of 50 and all he had to say about Tiffany was “sometimes she played with Q”? So that compelling narrative is dead now.

Genevieve was doing work to turn the new Kalo tribe against Aubry, but Tiffany made a bold choice to instead befriend Aubry and blab on Genevieve. While this won her points with Aubry, it could lose her points with everyone else if it was their plan to pile votes on Aubry and they realize Tiffany spilled the secret. Aubry has an idol, and if the other five are united, they have the numbers for an easy 3-2-2 split on Aubry and Tiffany which would leave Tiffany as collateral damage. I frankly don’t see any way out of this tribe for Tiffany. Chrissy is with Coach who locked in with his dream hunks Joe and Colby, and Colby has Genevieve. In theory, anything can happen, but I’m short on other viable theories.

Rizo took a big hit this episode – a little from Cirie as he inspired the “get out of my house” energy from her but more from Charlie when Rizo said he didn’t vote for his #1, Sophi, to win his season. This was shown in a rare “time travel” flashback that editors reserve only for major storylines. Rizo’s reveal shot up red flags with Charlie and now it’s Charlie’s mission to make sure Rizo is never on a jury again.

There was more heat on Cirie this episode, but that could’ve been to throw us off the scent of a Rizo boot. Dee and Jonathan talked about targeting Cirie, but Jonathan also was one of the first to throw out Dee’s name at Kalo, so it’s hard to say which way his head is closer leaning. It’s going to come down to whether Cirie and Charlie can sway Jonathan to vote Rizo or if Dee secures all the opposing votes on Cirie. The big man will either be the biggest savior or biggest disappointment of the season. Please let Rizo get bonked again.

That fake-ass smile. I love her.

After a bump up last week, I’m sad to move Cirie back down, but much like I have Angelina and Stephenie closely interchangeable at the bottom, it’s a terrifying toss-up between Cirie and Rizo on Cila just ahead of them. Cirie’s done a masterful job at going from the person whose name came up first to securing herself a majority alliance on Cila (which was weirdly only confirmed this episode), but she lost everything at the swap and is forced to do it all over again. Can’t this woman catch one fucking break?

Cirie had me in stitches with her commentary on the camp invaders, but I’m worried they’re all walking in wanting to evict her. Dee was correct in her assessment – everyone loves Cirie but that’s the danger of keeping her in the game. Cirie’s an easy target for Dee to push, but Dee would be smarter to keep Cirie, who is the next closest thing to a winner left in this game. We only saw early talks, and maybe that’s exactly one of the “pros” Cirie will pitch to Dee on why they should work together instead of against each other. Still, this swap tribe sucks for Cirie. She may squeak past a Rizo vote, but after that there’s nowhere to hide. I may have to become an unironic Jonathan stan and hope he just wins every single challenge to spare Cirie from tribal council with this tribe.

Any swap was bound to be better for Aubry than original Vatu, but I fear she swapped from the bottom of one tribe to another. We’re definitely being set up for a battle between Aubry and Genevieve, but both have sturdy defenses. Aubry has an idol no one on Kalo knows about and Genevieve has a growing group of allies. However, Aubry’s defense is only good for one vote, so the scales are tipped in Genevieve’s favor overall.

There’s a chance that Aubry and Tiffany could get everyone to turn on Genevieve but unlikely since we’ve seen Genevieve putting in a lot more social work, so Aubry will need to be prepared to play her idol at a Kalo tribal council. If all her idol does is bounce the boot onto Tiffany, then Aubry will go back to camp in the exact same spot – worse, even, with an idol play on her résumé. A little like Cirie, Aubry’s best bet from there is to win out until another swap. Christian talked at tribal council about the winner of this season being someone experiencing a “rebirth” after facing death in the game which is the only small light I see in Aubry. If this start of the game is her “fall” then it’s only up from here, but that’s a long way up.

If this ranking was instead “Who lucked out most with this swap?” Dee would be a top contender. I didn’t like her chances on Kalo, but it was confirmed from Coach’s words (take them or leave them) that Dee would not have been the first one out, so not only did Dee do OK there, but she landed on the swap with a majority in numbers and with one of her closest allies, Kamilla. I’m still not sure where Charlie stands with Dee, and I thought Jonathan was targeting her, but one of the few strat-chats we saw on new Cila was Jonathan agreeing with Dee about Cirie needing to go.

While I’d have expected Dee to remain a target, it’s not looking as likely on the new Cila, so I’m moving her up ahead of everyone else who looks to be the next two options on their tribes. If the votes go on Cirie and Rizo, then from there, Dee should be safe in her Kalo numbers or just in Jonathan’s muscles. There’s still 20 remaining, though, and while it’s not impossible, I still don’t see Dee surviving 17 elimination opportunities.

Joe also benefitted majorly from the swap. A trio coming together of himself, Coach, and Colby is not only his dream but Jeff’s too. This could get nauseating to watch if every week they just circlejerk each other over the Survivor “honor and integrity” code. Part of me worries that Jeff being so high on this season means that’s exactly what we’re in for but at least for now, this bromance looks unbreakable.

Joe’s a loner, but Coach and Colby bring Chrissy and Genevieve in, and even then, if this tribe were to go on a losing streak, I think Coach and Colby would turn on their originals before they’d vote for Joe, so Joe is super insulated. His long game I think it still sunk since I doubt last episode was the only one that’ll see him spiraling out of control, so I’m not moving him too high up in my rankings, but by default he’s above at least the players I see struggling most to make the merge.

I’m thrilled to finally move Chrissy off my “pending doom” shortlist as it was confirmed that she WAS set to be the vote on original Kalo, but I think Coach will have more power to protect her on new Kalo. To Chrissy’s credit, I think she could’ve fought her way out of a boot there, but I’ll take the win that she never needed to enter that ring.

Coach is in Chrissy’s corner and Coach has influence over Colby and Joe; plus, we got to see Chrissy “girl talk” with Genevieve and Aubry, so I’m hopeful Chrissy is another contender here for the rebirth story. She should be out of immediate harm’s way, and while she’s not in the driver’s seat by any means, those who currently are could easily steer themselves off course, so I expect to and I’m excited to start moving Chrissy further up the list each week.

Kamilla was happy with her swap tribe, and she very much should be. She’s one of the Kalo folks with a majority; the non-Kalos will all be targets ahead of her, and even within the Kalo 4, she’s tight with and shielded by Dee, so next to Jonathan, Kamilla may be the most secure person on her new tribe.

It’s weird knowing that Kamilla is such an aggressive and cutthroat player but hasn’t had much of an opportunity to show it. It’s certainly not a bad thing to avoid as many tribal councils as possible, but I wish we were getting to see more of what scored her an invite to this season. We at least got to see her crush the challenge to finally get Cila some flint and its first immunity. Overall, Kamilla moves up out of the danger zone for me, but she’s got more moves to make to get to the top.

What triggers Joe is people talking even the slightest strategy, but we learned this episode that Charlie’s big Survivor trigger is when jurors don’t vote for their #1 at final tribal council. Adding salt to the wound, Rizo bluntly asked Charlie where he and Maria stood today, and as seen in the shot above, Charlie was just chipper to talk about it. This would be the funniest reason why Rizo could get voted out of this game.

Charlie is in the same boat as Kamilla – a safe Kalo majority member but in need of a breakout episode (he edges her out because I think he’ll have less heat on him at the next tribe reconfiguration). I know he’s got PTSD from working with a mom, but man I’d love to see him cozy up to Cirie on Cila and at least eliminate Rizgod. Seeing Cirie go before Rizo would be a sin, so please Charlie, do us all a solid and save Cirie.

“Best tribe swap in history!” The PILLARS of honor and integrity, the warrior’s code – FUCK YEAH!!!! I wonder what it’s like to be a Survivor fan who’s genuinely into all that and thinks those truly are the pillars of this game. Lucky for Coach, he’s got Joe and Colby of “the old guard” who also believe that to be true. We now know Coach and Chrissy are locked in, so I agree that this was a great swap for Coach and is everything he could have asked for in a new tribe. He’s got allies and not that he necessarily sees Aubry and Tiffany as adversaries, they’ll be easy names to write down on his parchment.

I don’t mind a “good” guy winning Survivor 50, but I do mind being beaten over the head with “the code” crap so I still am not sold on Coach winning by that. However, I do still feel good about him going the distance in this game especially with this new group he’s gotten together. So far, things feel very male-dominated, and that was pretty much Coach 1.0’s game, so weirdly, while he alleges to be Coach 4.0, it’s coming back full circle to where he started in Tocantins. Only time will tell if we’re in for the same ending or a new one.

I didn’t want Angelina to go, but I must admit – Ozzy had the better read than Emily on this new Vatu tribe. Voting out Q now puts them at the mercy of David vs. Goliath in numbers which would’ve been fine if Ozzy hadn’t given his extra vote to Cirie, but when the most you can do is force a tie, that’s not ideal. Emily ended up set on getting rid of Q, so short of Ozzy using his idol on Q, his hands were tied. Ozzy was also right to be concerned about losing more challenges given his current track record, so while he should be safe if the next vote goes on Stephenie, after that he may need to play his idol earlier than I’m sure he hoped.

What was interesting to me about Ozzy and while I still consider him a strong contender in this is that he was able to completely flip Emily Flippen. She had tossed his name out twice on Cila but on Vatu, Ozzy almost looked to replace Christian as her #1. But I thought his social games “sucks?” Hm, funny. While Ozzy’s results have been that of more of a passenger than a driver, I do acknowledge that he’s putting more effort into game talk than I recall from him in seasons past. Inevitably, the bigger strategic players are going to come to fiery blows and Ozzy could be the one then to rise from all the ashes, so for now I think he’s safe to stay the course.

I can’t think of much new to say about Colby. He was able to repeat what he quickly did on Vatu with the new Kalo in solidifying himself in a majority alliance, so I’m glad he’s still got his head in the game. I’m getting to the point with him, though, that I need to finally see him in action ahead of tribal council. It’s one thing to gather allies, but will he assert himself the same way when it comes to a vote or let others in his alliance dictate where it goes? That will be most telling toward whether we’re looking at a new and improved Colby or one that will come up just short of a win again.

Right now, he still looks good, and unless Kalo piles all its votes on Aubry and Aubry votes for Colby, then I don’t see him in any danger. We know where Aubry stands on Genevieve, so the most Colby could lose is a Day 1 ally, but he’s found three new besties in Coach, Joe, and Chrissy to where even that wouldn’t be such a blow.

That’s pretty much where Jonathan is at in this game. This man does not have to do a damn thing. He was always going to be coveted for his physical strength, so landing on a swap tribe with a majority of original tribe members makes him virtually untouchable. Like Colby, I’m dying for him to walk the walk like he’s been talking the talk over his evolved approach to the game. Of the two, I’m slightly more convinced Jonathan will follow through, but we’ll see if Cila ever even votes.

The small tribes and shorter schedule of the new era are two of its biggest flaws – we’ve seen how this has negatively affected women even more in the pre-merge since everyone’s focus is “get to the merge,” and the easiest way to do that is to win challenges. It makes players like Jonathan boring because that’s what he brings most to the table and everyone around him just eats it up. He has a golden ticket to the merge while someone way more interesting like Cirie is forced to fight every damn day just to see the next sunrise.

I was surprised Rick seemed so willing to take the responsibility for finding the Billie Eilish idol – maybe because he’s just such a fan – because if Aubry plays it, it’s bound to get back how she snagged it, and I wouldn’t want to be Rick whose name then would have essentially co-signed the idol’s target. Christian’s pitch was that Rick already had a history for this sort of thing, so Rick just accepted making the target on his back even bigger?

Rick and Cirie were among the most swap-screwed, but fortunately for Rick, Cirie’s name is already out there while his is not. I’m cautiously optimistic for Rick since I think he’s only in major danger if Cila loses more than two immunity challenges which looks unlikely given its variety of skillsets. As long as Rick survives the new Cila, I see his future picking right back up with Christian and continuing as a fearsome force together.

Emily is one of two (the other is Kamilla) who have consistently moved up each week for me in the rankings. She started off looking a little messy with her loose lips about Aubry’s idol, but that did more damage to Christian than it did to Emily, which is why he reacted so frustratedly. She ended up back in his good graces anyway, but in the process, she set herself up perfectly as the swing between two sides of the new Vatu tribe. Q and Stephenie were two who I’d have never expected to want anything to do with Emily, but she showed them she was willing to play ball and while it may not last long, it made her important to their game.

Emily’s still locked in with Christian, but her desire to get closer to Ozzy is interesting and a complete 180 from where she was the first two weeks. Pre-game, I worried about Emily making friends in this cast, but on both tribes she’s been on, she’s shown skill at making allies in every direction. Her only major “mistake” is giving all the power to Christian on Vatu, but if she survives the swap, it’s better for her anyway that Christian and Rick have larger targets than her. Emily’s emerging as one of the major players of the season and I’m happy to see it happen.

That sketchy bitch!

This Aubry vs. Genevieve feud has potential for the best fireworks we’ve seen this season because even if they go after each other at tribal council, there’s a high chance they both survive and awkwardly return to camp together. Maybe it’s too obvious to be true, but with what’s presented, the easy vote seems to be to split Coach, Chrissy, Joe, Colby, and Genevieve 3-2 on Aubry and Tiff, so no matter where their 2 votes go, one or other leaves in the event of an idol play. The only way this could go wrong is if, having already searched Aubry’s bag, Genevieve and Colby feel confident to put all 5 votes on Aubry ... or if more people lose/sell their votes.

Unless it’s for build-up of irony, everything we’ve seen from Genevieve does show an improved version of her. Coach and Colby seem like people who would always oppose a player like Genevieve, but she’s even seemed to sway their support her way. It’s giving “too good to be true” which gives me slightly nervous vibes, but aside from that, Genevieve is still killing it for me.

The only movement in my top three from last week is Mike moving up over Genevieve since she does have two bullets aimed her way while Mike has none. In fact, Q directly asked Mike to aim his bullet at Q, making for an all-time great voting confessional: “You told me to do this.”

Mike continues giving off that harmless goofball energy. I was taken aback by him being so bold to tell Stephenie he might vote for her, but he explained well how that was a strategic decision since his intent was to vote for Q (with or without being asked). Mike has Angelina and Stephenie as boot buffers on Vatu, and if they both go, we’ll probably find ourselves at another swap anyway so I wouldn’t worry too much of his shared fate with Emily – all in Christian’s hands. Christian remains the top dog but that makes him great for Mike to hide behind, and I don’t think Mike will be perceived so much as “hiding” but “using” Christian for that reason. When it’s time for Mike to then cut Christian, he will, if Christian hasn’t cut him off first like he did with that metaphor at tribal.

Okay, so Christian kind of cracked a little this episode, but he kept it to confessional so no one else saw it, and if no one saw it, then it didn’t happen.

Christian is very much still in the position of potentially flying too close to the sun, but he gained total control of Cila, he was gifted control of Vatu, so who’s to say he won’t keep doing this with every tribe? The three players who have shown to be doing the most in building coalitions are Christian, Coach, and Genevieve, so I could see them coming to a head at some point and maybe make for the merge’s first major power grab.

Christian went into the game having Mike and Angelina. He has Emily who’s working to pull Ozzy. Rick and Cirie are off on their own but could bring over whoever they survive with on Cila, and if Aubry survives the swap, she’ll be another number coming back to Christian. That’s a lot. That’s also a lot to keep herded together, so if Christian’s the shepherd, then who’s the Judas amongst them?

That’ll be the question that comes up later, but for now, Christian is the main character, and I don’t see that changing ahead of the next swap or merge. Christian will either dominate until the end or he’ll be the dragon that the winner must slay to get there. The frontrunner being this in-our-face feels like an intentional gag; however, I felt the same way about Tony in Winners at War, but I don’t remember it being SO immediate.

Like a relic from Ghost Island, Ryan's an old school TDT blogger who took a break in the middle of the new era but is back for Survivor 50 by popular demand...or at least Jeff Pitman's. For more #Survivor commentary, follow on Bluesky: @ryankaiser.bsky.social