Episode 11 of Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans featured not one, but TWO people leaving the game mainly because they made mistakes that they were unable to recover from: (1) Ozzy sloppily trying to win favor with Aubry, who he was 100% sure was heading to the jury, so sure in fact that he declined to play his idol, which was the necessary step in sending her to the jury, and (2) Emily, who was simply a victim of numbers, but was in that situation because earlier she'd been a bit too forthcoming (also a problem on Day 1 of her first season), which made everyone else hesitant to work with her. Both did a bit too much, and ended up forgetting some basic game rules.

But in a larger sense, they were the perfect symbolic victims of an episode that also couldn't get out of its own way, and tried to do too much, while abandoning basic game rules (all while making a big spectacle of enforcing them). This was a two-day episode. They needed to vote out two people in those two days. They could simply have had an individual challenge and Tribal Council on the first day, and then another challenge/Tribal cycle the next (which is exactly what they'll be doing the next four days, Days 22-25).

But instead of doing that simple, obvious thing (much as in the pre-merge they almost never had both losing tribes in the IC vote someone out), they opted to do absolutely nothing the first day, then randomly split the contestants into two teams of four after the immunity challenge, with the IC winner (Jonathan) getting to be part of both groups, and have the ridiculously overpowered "advantage" of being immune at both tiny Tribals AND casting a vote. So as we saw in the "Blood Moon" Tribals, instead of allowing the contestants and their strategic maneuvering to dictate the flow of the game, everything was thrown in a blender, like in the gross food challenge in S19: Samoa. (Nobody vomited this episode, but I guess Cirie could have been warning us about both MrBeast AND this week's monstrosity.)

One of the most enjoyable milestones of the new era seasons has always been the point at which all of the incessant production interference (forced sit-outs, random-drawn teams for immunity, other unsavory twists like the Hourglass or Do or Die) have finally fallen away, and an actual Survivor game is allowed to break out. It's tragic that there are now just two episodes left in this season, and we can't even be 100% sure if we're there yet. This whole season has felt less like "In the Hands of the Fans" and more "You Know What? Fuck You, Fans!"

Congrats, I guess. We are so owned.

I'm not sure why we needed *another* Blood Moon/Michelle Yi twist this season. One was too many already. I guess points for coming up with something even more enraging (the "Power Broker" advantage) to hand to a challenge beast, as opposed to simply doing this at Final 10, where that wasn't necessary, and telling MrBeast he had to wait an extra day to make his appearance. Oh well, at least we will have a clean Final 7 vote next week, unless it's replaced by Jeff Probst's Magic Bag of Rocks, or something.

Having said all that, watching the slow-motion implosion of Ozzy misplaying his way out of the game once again, after playing much more thoughtfully and likably than he has in the past, was handled really well, in all its bittersweet glory. It does raise the question of how much of Survivor is natural ability, and how much is learning from past mistakes. Ozzy was aloof and a bit clueless in S13: Cook Islands, and an arrogant, self-important jerk in S16: Micronesia and S23: South Pacific, but he really seemed to have reflected upon his past and grown in S34: Game Changers, and that was even more true here in this season.

Some of the things that made Ozzy a target his second and third times (being really good in challenges) have faded a bit with age, but never quite disappeared as part of his reputation. But he'd fixed a lot of the rest. He was much more socially adept this time (except when he went off fishing instead of participating in the scramble, leading up to the Mike White blindside), and more strategically conscious, even if much of that was simply accepting that Cirie has a much better handle on that part of the game than he does, so he should just defer to her. Except as the edit took pains to show, he was a bit lost without Cirie: when she was flipping coconuts on Exile in Ep8, Ozzy and Rizo were careening wildly off course and planning to target Aubry and Rick at the Double Duos Tribal, only for Cirie to make a surprise return to camp and set things straight (Coach and Chrissy). It was the same situation here, except this time Cirie was prevented from helping Ozzy by the stupid twist.

So on the one hand, yes, Ozzy definitely shot himself in the foot. But on the other hand the twist took the pistol out of Cirie's gun locker and handed it to Ozzy, fully loaded. Something similar was bound to happen sooner or later, but it's a bit frustrating that the show felt the need to hit the fast-forward button.

Records keep being broken

Ozzy fell just short of tying Boston Rob's career immunity challenge wins record, and you have to wonder how much of Jonathan's zeal for voting Ozzy out was to preserve that record for his mentor. (Although I will point out again that it is just the US record, and globally, Boston Rob has already been beaten, by a woman, who has two more wins than Boston Rob, and accomplished this in two fewer seasons, no less.) Although certainly every potential challenge beast like Jonathan (or Tiffany, or Joe) has an interest in eliminating anyone who might beat them for the necklace, especially late in the game.

In more positive news, by playing his idol this week, Rick Devens now has the international record for most career idols played (five). He's still one behind Russell Hantz in idols found and two behind in idols held, but I will point out that Russell has also played two more seasons than Rick. And hope springs eternal that Rick might find another idol next episode.

Don't get too hopeful. The season is almost over, and we have yet to see a normal idol hidden. Only the Billie Eilish Boomerang (BEBI) idols were hidden in camp, and the finders weren't able to play them (harrumph), and the relatively normal idol Rick played was only there because MrBeast made an appearance. There have been zero regular idols hidden in camp (or in rewards, or whatever) this season. Zero. So much for "dynamic power" that "shake(s) up the game so that even the players on the bottom have a fighting chance," or whatever we allegedly voted for.

To close this out, Ozzy extended his career lead in being voted against (also in being voted out), as you would expect. Poor Ozzy. Meanwhile, Cirie voted correctly *twice* this episode, further extending her lead in career Votes For Boot. Forty two (42) times! Seven more than Parvati at #2! 15 more than Boston Rob at #3! She is the Cy Young of voting. It seems pretty implausible that anyone will ever pass her, at least in US Survivor.

Speaking of Cirie's two votes...

This is a mystery that has absolutely no relevance to anything, but it's the kind of thing I obsess over, because I'm a weirdo.

We had a glimpse of the (completely unnecessary, but kind of hilariously awesome that someone took the time to make it) sign at the exile/whatever it was supposed to be random beach they sent everyone to after the IC. Take note of the odd font they used for everyone's names: An odd-shaped E (and Z) a weird, seemingly random mix of capital letters (A, B, L, R) and lowercase (i, m, n).

Now look at Cirie's votes for Emily (she printed both exactly the same way, in both rounds of voting, no less).

It's the same font, right? It has to be. The same backwards-3 capital E, the lowercase i followed by an uppercase L? Why? (And also how? How on earth did Cirie memorize this wacky detail?)

The only plausible explanation is: Cirie is a wizard and/or a time traveler.

A chilling vision of things to come

Finally, I worried at the merge that, despite being irrelevant to the action for most of the pre-merge, Jonathan had a throwaway scene in which he heaped praise on the season and theme ("It's almost like a rebirth of Survivor in this season 50, because no one knows what to expect. So ... mysterious. Season 50's no joke!") and vaguely talked about taking action, chopping a coconut for emphasis. This felt like a "Jonathan is going to win!" red flag.

Well, as your resident Survivor Eeyore, I feel compelled to bring this extremely ominous update from the opening seconds of the episode:

In the wake of Devens doubling the prize money at the MrBeast Tribal in the previous episode, everyone returns to camp, and Rizo says "Cheers to someone being a million dollars more richer" (above).

And to whom does the edit immediately cut as those words escape Rizo's lips? ...

This season is really shaping up to be Trent Reznor hilariously introducing Nine Inch Nails to a festival audience.