Savannah was almost lucky enough to go 2-for-2 in someone else on her tribe torpedoing their game to save her. Joe and Kamilla really did a number on this man and this episode felt pretty damning for him. Being a physical asset with the perception of not being a strategic or social threat seems like a winning combination to get carried to the end. However, Joe’s refusal to let Survivor be played like Survivor was criticized for being so in the way of everyone else’s game that they almost took Joe out of it entirely.

Getting away from Cila will be a fresh start for Joe, but being alone could make him even more of a basket case than he already is. He’ll gravitate toward Coach and Colby, but if he gets into it with anyone the way he did with Rick, there may be no fight worth having to save him. I’ve moved Joe to dead last because I don’t see any upward trajectory for him. I could see him spared over an objectively more threatening player, but his best-case scenario right now is just being a goat and an expendable one at that if he’s not willing to play the game. Christian having to rock Joe like a baby felt very appropriate (a-Joe-priate?)

Congratulations Dee on moving up one spot from dead last despite now being the only winner left in the game. We did it, Joe! Dee’s main point of discussion this episode was clocking Chrissy’s behavior at Kalo, but interestingly the Dee vs. Chrissy story won’t go anywhere soon because they swap onto separate tribes. Maybe Dee just passes that torch to Tiffany?

Dee being the sole Sole Survivor left standing could work in her favor as “just one” may not seem like a threat, or it could be an easy excuse to cleanly finish the job on all the winners. She still will have Kamilla with her, and I’m assuming Charlie will gravitate toward Kalo-strong, but Jonathan is going to be Dee’s biggest problem – and he’s a BIG problem – with him already wary of her. I just don’t see Dee’s name being forgotten ever, so whenever her tribe loses immunity, it’s bound to be Dee vs. “someone” which is too much to move her any higher up on my list. I need to see her win out in a vote before I would.

Ugh I hate moving her lower, but all the helicopter mom vibes Chrissy was putting out were doing her zero favors on original Kalo. Chrissy should have Coach in her corner, but she’s swapping with Tiffany who we know, like Dee, also wanted Chrissy out first. Unless they come to an “old school” agreement now, Colby and Aubry weren’t high on Chrissy pre-game, so I fear even more on New Kalo that Chrissy has her work cut out for her.

There’s a wedge between Aubry and Genevieve, so Chrissy’s key to getting out of this could be exploiting that if Aubry opens herself up as a free agent or Joe just keeps doing Joe things. I expect Chrissy’s name to come up from Colby and Joe who may mark Chrissy and Aubry both as untrustworthy schemers, but we were given a tease of something that made Aubry say, “screw them all,” so I’m hoping whatever she does in retaliation benefits Chrissy. Chrissy’s got to find her footing in this game quick, but people need to stop being so critical of her just trying take care of them! (Before she slits their throats.)

That is my face from them doing Angelina dirty in the edit. One of the biggest characters from the last 20 seasons, and she gets nothing this episode besides being called lazy??? I’ll give her statuesque – Q wasn’t wrong. Angelina looks like a goddess.

The Survivor gods may be throwing her a bone by giving her Christian and Mike on the new Vatu tribe, but I’m worried that may end up working against her. That’s a threatening threesome to let just sit there. Q, Stephenie, and Ozzy should all be worried about it, and while Emily is connected to Christian to seemingly give the DvG three the numbers they’d need, Emily could also seize the opportunity to cut off one of Christian’s other friends or convince him it’s in his own best interest to distance from the trio. That puts Angelina and Mike at Christian’s mercy, and my guess is that he’d choose to keep Mike. Angelina may be in for a big fight, but I’m hoping for a big breakout episode one way or the other.

I struggled to even find a close-up shot of Tiffany for this.

Tiffany remains low for me with nothing new this episode to convince me otherwise. She’ll be separated from Dee and Kamilla while remaining with Chrissy who she wants out, so she could easily jump on board a Chrissy boot bandwagon. Tiffany will either keep coasting or be cut as someone expendable. Unless we get a big Tiffany 2.0 turn at the swap, I don’t see either route putting us on the path for a Tiffany win.

Kamilla has a decent chance now of rising in the ranks with a swap. Kyle out of the game should help her look a little less of a threat, but long term she will still be looked at by many as one to watch, so I don’t think she’s completely out of the woods.

Immediately on her new tribe, she’ll keep a tight duo with Dee, and while original Kalo has an easy majority, we know where Jonathan stands on Dee, and we don’t know exactly who Charlie’s chosen to work with yet. Rick and Cirie look like easy targets on paper given their reputations and age gap with the others, but I could also see Rizo being skeptical of working with Dee and Kamilla – at least as a pair. It could make more sense to break them up first, and Kamilla is viewed as a winner without the title, so it’s not a guarantee the vote would be Dee over Kamilla. I hope if it comes down to it, Kamilla stays because ultimately, she’d have more winner trajectory than Dee ever will.

WOO-WOO!

Either we just haven’t seen it, or Q is committing far less criminal behavior this season. After it looked like Kyle was the one that roped him into the majority Vatu alliance, Q almost replaced Kyle entirely and became the new ringleader with inviting Rizo to join as the new fifth. Q is still meant to be comic relief, but he’s not getting as much of the delusional edit or reaction shots literally laughing at him, so I’m starting to see Q as less of an immediate flight risk, but it’ll be hard to ever take him seriously as a major contender.

The S37: David vs. Goliath trio is something that I expect Q to have many thoughts about, but he’ll have to be careful in who he shares those with. Ozzy and Stephenie are bigger threats than Q, but they’re also safer and more predictable. If Emily just votes with the DvG three, then I could see Q being the consensus vote given his higher potential volatility. My guess is a Vatu vote coming down to Q vs. Angelina, and it’d be up to Emily and Christian to decide the outcome.

Aubry absolutely hates her tribe. Colby and Stephenie probably want nothing to do with her/have little in common. Genevieve is seen as a threat. Rizo is a child. Q and Angelina are ... Q and Angelina. All that considered, I can totally see why she hasn’t been having a blast so far and has looked as sour as spoiled coconut.

One could say, though, that Aubry had a big boomerang episode in week 2. She’s getting off of Vatu with a mostly secret idol, so she’s going to have a lot more options open for her. My guess is that her “screw them all” frustration is directed at Colby and Genevieve perhaps after they offer her up as the swap sacrifice. Not having any super tight ties makes her target also unpredictable, but Aubry will play a big role (boomerang idol or no) in how her new tribe votes. It was still a little slow start for her, but if she’s on the up and up even more with the swap, she’ll likely be up and up in future power rankings as well.

This was such a classic Coach episode in that he took every opportunity he could to be a camera hog.

The tribes reacted to the sad news of Kyle’s medevac, but as soon as Ozzy spoke up and referenced the Day 1 challenge, Coach turned everyone’s tears of sympathy to held-back tears of laughter. He. Is not. Letting. This go! Even his own tribe was cracking up because they’ve probably listened to that same speech a dozen times over the last couple days.

I love everything about what Coach brings to an episode of Survivor, but this man knows how to dig his own grave better than anyone. We’re only 2 episodes in and Coach has become the completely unserious caricature that made Coach 1.0 famous. After the mat spat with Ozzy, Coach went for a fishing dip with Jonathan and cramped up so bad he had to be boated back to the shore.

“I would have died,” he even admitted. This drama queen will never not make me laugh. I don’t think the cramp was faked, but just…of course it happened to Coach so he could soak up more Kalo airtime.

Coach is on the brink of going full Joe over his “honor,” but Coach understands more of how the game is played so he’s less of an obstacle for others. Coach shouldn’t be in danger at this swap because he should have Chrissy, Colby, and Joe all in his corner, but the way Coach keeps going, the less I’m convinced we’re getting the Coach 4.0 that’s winning Survivor 50. In my gut, I do think he’ll go far, and I hope he does for the sake of entertainment, but I think the only dragon here is someone draggin’ his ass to the end to beat. But when it’s like Day 18 and he’s still crashing out about the Day 1 kerfuffle over a key or bitching about Ozzy who may or may not even still be in the game, the tribe may finally reach its limit and fire Coach.

Charlie gave us a little commentary on his strategy to not go down the exact same road he did with Maria, but besides “not with Chrissy,” we don’t really know where Charlie stands in any of this, though he’s still sitting safely in the middle. Like I’ve said, he’ll be a critical swing voter on his swap tribe should they ever go to tribal council (which could be never since he still has Jonathan).

I don’t have anything negative on Charlie which is why he’s not lower, but those above him are so far showing us they’re doing more in the game. I know we only see a snippet of the full story, but I can only speak to what we do see and sadly it hasn’t been a ton of Charlie.

Hey it’s Rick Devens, Billie Eilish’s number one fan!

If that wasn’t a complete pandering to production, then I don’t know what is, but I am still surprisingly liking what I’m seeing of Rick this season. I lived for his fight with Joe and just going in on him for not wanting people to play Survivor on its biggest season ever. Put that man in his place, Rick!

I also lived for the (what I assume was a) nod to Survivor South Africa with planting a fake idol to be grabbed as part of a spectacle at a future tribal council. Anyone who hasn’t watched its last season won’t be expecting that, so I don’t expect the fake idol’s authenticity to be questioned. While I’m a fan of Rick 2.0, I still have him a little lower near the middle of my ranking because he just can’t help being a showman. While he’s sticking around on Cila, he’ll only have Cirie with him and I worry they could both be targets (if Cirie doesn’t just immediately throw him under the bus out of self-preservation). The worst that could happen to me is that the new tribe aims to split votes on Rick and Cirie, but Rick’s stunt with his planted idol scares them into putting the majority on Cirie. If Cirie goes, Rick is dead in the water at that point after the idol fake-out, so I’m hoping for mine and their sakes it doesn’t get that dire because it’d be fun to see Rick and Cirie school some new era kids together.

“Let’s run down the pros and the cons” – Ozzy nailed it when he said Cirie is magic at strategy. In the first week, Cirie was in hot water and Ozzy helped bail her out (with Jenna’s inadvertent assistance) and this time was Cirie’s chance to return the favor. Cirie working over Emily, Rick, and Christian was a masterclass performance. I was skeptical of how Cirie would fare this season and she was instantly at risk of being an early boot, but she has this gift of knowing what to say and how to say it to convince people that her way is the best way and getting them to think it’s their way. Excellent work Cirie – no notes. You’re moving up!

Next episode, like any other, will still be worrisome for Cirie but after two episodes of proving herself, it’s not impossible for her to do it again, but I don’t love her look on her swap tribe. The new era folks felt pretty “foe” on Cirie pre-game, so if those feelings linger, I’m worried about that doomsday scenario with her and Rick against the other 5, but I’m hoping they’d see Rick as the riskier and more unpredictable foe. I imagine Cirie’s target will be Dee who I do think Cirie can out-argue. Just run down the pros and cons and get the hammock swingers to swing your way again, queen.

I’m as surprised as Rizo looks here to have him cracking into my top 10, but socially and strategically he looks to be making all the right connections. He did get dunked on, though, in getting roped into the lazy crew as criticized by Q, and I don’t know that it was good look for Rizo to completely disregard the “play camp” aspect of Survivor. It’s not the most important aspect of the game but being perceived as lazy or useless isn’t going to leave a great impression if facing a jury. Then again, if a new era player wins, it wouldn’t shock me if the show tried pushing the narrative about how the “old” way is outdated, but throw me in the fire if Rizo’s the poster child for that message.

Swapping alone could be good or bad, but my gut is that it’ll be good for Rizo. I think he’ll be seen as a number to pick up for someone to make a move with rather than an easy target to be picked off by old Cila and Kalo. If Rizo gets together with Jonathan and Charlie, that’d be a great alliance for Rizo because he’d have both a physical and strategic shield. The only thing he’d be missing is a little humility – I don’t know where he gets the cockiness in this cast. 49 may have left with him a little high off his own hype, I fear.

I’ve got nothing new on Stephenie. She was harder to spot this episode than Tiffany save for a few side comments, so I had to go grab a screenshot from the premiere. Stephenie showed us a solid start and with no one having anything negative to say about her, neither do I, so I’m keeping her relatively high. She could be in danger if the DvG trio sticks together on the new Vatu, but Q and Ozzy’s names would come up before hers so while she may not be in total control anymore like she was on OG Vatu, I don’t see her in immediate danger.

Ozzy’s name came up again, which isn’t great, but isn’t always a death sentence. It’s mainly just coming from Emily, but Coach also came after him ahead of the reward challenge, though that was a bad look for Coach more than it was for Ozzy. I’m moving Ozzy down a little after what I thought was a great premiere just because he took a couple of hits this week including Cirie saying his social game “sucks.” What’s interesting, though, is that we know Cirie was only trying to get the vote off him, so she said that for strategic purposes, and Ozzy also admitted to only being average at best compared to Cirie, so it showed me self-awareness which is better than him being unaware of his social/strategic shortcomings – or maybe I’m the delusional one for thinking this all looks okay for Ozzy.

Without Cirie at the swap, Ozzy will now have to fend for himself, but he still has an idol which should help. He probably won’t be pulling any strings on his new tribe, but if he can survive it, that’s a safe look for him as it lets the other big players paint bigger targets on themselves. I do still feel like we’re getting a growth story with Ozzy’s gameplay and part of that would be showing us a little slower start to come into his own later and prove he’s a bigger force than everyone is considering him – maybe a metaphorical passing of the torch from Cirie if she’s an earlier out. Coach and Emily’s comments aside, Ozzy continues as one to watch for me.

Emily has tried to float Ozzy’s name for two tribal councils now, but has been unsuccessful in getting in Christian’s ear enough to make it happen. However, she does have strong reads on what’s really going on between Cirie and Ozzy, and she otherwise was very safely at the top of Cila with Christian and Rick, so Emily continues moving up for me. I worried she’d be an early outsider, but she’s finessed her way right into a very good position.

Emily could move up from Christian’s right or left hand to Christian’s biggest influence at this swap. She still has Ozzy to try and get out, but if Emily’s main concern is breaking up pairs, she should be even more pressed about Christian, Angelina, and Mike coming together as a trio. It will be a challenge, but if she can convince Christian to cut one of them, it’ll be a big boost to Emily’s positioning. If she pulls it off, it’ll be her and Christian pulling the strings together as opposed to her being a David vs. Goliath puppet.

Colby took a bit more of a backseat this episode, but surprised me in being so gung-ho in the heist over Aubry’s bag. I do appreciate that these guys mostly known for their physical prowess are coming into Survivor 50 ready to contribute more to the game and get some blood on their hands.

Colby was quick to establish a majority alliance around him on Vatu, and seeing he’ll have Coach and Joe with him at the swap seems like he’ll have an easy time securing a new one on Kalo. He also has Chrissy, who couldn’t help but smile and cheer for him at the challenge even from an opposing tribe.

Aubry’s idol could present a problem, but I think her sights are more set on Genevieve, so as long as he dodges that, Colby should stay protected and at the top. I’m pleasantly surprised by everything Colby’s given us so far – I especially found humor in him scolding Rizo over fire-making too, furthering their funny father/son dynamic. I want Colby to continue to stay involved with the strategy because if he can keep his pulse on positioning, he’s a sneak pick to have a lot of power the rest of this game.

Thank God Jonathan was there to save Coach’s life this episode. We’d have lost a big one if Coach died from a leg cramp in the ocean.

Jonathan reminded us again that he’s not playing the one-dimensional challenge beast this time, but that’s still mostly what everyone sees him as. With this early swap, I assume and guess everyone else will expect another, so if everyone is thinking “just get me to the next one,” Jonathan is as good as gold. Looking strictly at next episode, I’d stake my life on him being the safest player in the game. I’m not expecting him to have to do much until the merge, but it’s worth noting he’s trying – winning immunity just keeps him from having to try harder. His big decision will next be whether to stay loyal to Kalo or target Dee, so the fate of his swap tribe will rest in his giant hands. They saved a life this episode but will end one if Cila visits tribal council again.

That’s Mike’s “I just got an Emmy-winning idea for a plotline in White Lotus season 4” face. I can only imagine the amount of material Coach inspired in their several days together. Hell, Coach is so dramatic that Mike may just offer him to play the star role himself.

Mike’s still looking good and seems to have charmed everyone. As I’ve already theorized, the David vs. Goliath trio coming together will be a major storyline at the swap. If they’re a target, Mike may be the safest as he’s not quite as much of a wild card liability as Angelina but not as big of a strategic threat as Christian. I wish we’d have seen Kalo 1.0 go to tribal council because Mike would’ve been a major player there but so far, I think he’s made all the right moves to set himself up as a major player for the remainder of the season.

Kyle’s medevac was a major emotional moment, and Genevieve being the one to narrate its aftermath this episode especially after she was known as one of the more heartless and ruthless her first time makes her look really good by rounding out who she is as a returnee player. Genevieve has been a major star of the first two episodes, and while she did some dirty deeds this week against Aubry, it wasn’t painted in a negative light. She’s showing us the right mix of cutthroat and compassion which bodes well for her chances here.

Aubry getting an idol and not being a Genevieve fan is all that worries me right now, and maybe putting Genevieve at #2 is bold considering the damage a boomerang idol bomb would do, but Genevieve is exceptionally skilled socially and strategically – if the tribe is united in voting out Aubry, surely Genevieve would make sure there’s a split vote plan. She remains tight with Colby which should give her an in with Coach and Joe if those three men all gravitate together, and I see her getting along with Chrissy and Tiffany, so Genevive is set up well here despite an Aubry idol likely coming her way. If she deflects that with ease and boots Aubry the vote after that – man. She’s an icon. She’s a legend. She might be the winner of Survivor 50.

After jinxing Jenna, my stomach dropped at the top of the episode when it looked like something was medically wrong with Christian and I was about to see my replacement #1 get medevac’d. Thankfully it was ... not that. There’s a team from The Amazing Race who announced this past week they’re suing over their portrayal on the show, and all CBS has to do is show them Christian’s scene and say, “we didn’t do you this dirty.” Case closed.

Can a winner come back from this big of an embarrassment on the show? I think Christian can, and it’s still looking likely. In addition to being at the top of the Cila totem pole, Christian also found his tribe’s Billie Eilish idol (I’m confident he had absolutely no idea who that was) which holds no immediate power but sets him up with either an idol or an ally in Aubry later.

Christian is looking incredibly insulated going into the swap as well. He has a new friend in Emily, old friends in Mike and Angelina, and while Q, Stephenie, and Ozzy don’t have any specific allegiance to Christian yet, they’ll all be vying for his (and Emily’s) vote. Christian’s building quite the army and, of course, it could all crumble, but right now he still has the most charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent to take it all in the end, especially if he’s able to position himself perfectly on new Vatu just like old Cila.

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