By Parker Compton and Bella Brothers
From left to right: Rizo Velovic, Sage Ahrens-Nichols, Steven Ramm, Kristina Mills, Sophi Balerdi, and Savannah Louie
Survivor is a reality TV show competition located on the islands of Fiji that asks ordinary people to outwit, outplay, and outlast one another for the grand prize of 1 million dollars. The show begins with (since the “New Era”) 18 players split into three different tribes. Until the merge, the tribes undergo competitions for immunity, with the losing tribe being forced into Tribal Council. This is when players of a tribe vote to eliminate a fellow competitor, where lots of drama occurs. Also, a player can use advantages (including immunity idols) during these councils to flip the game on its head (very entertaining if you ask us). After the number of players comes down to about 8 or 9 people (depending on the season), the merge occurs in which players instead compete for individual immunity and as each contestant gets voted off, they form the jury. At the end of the game, the jury votes on the winner from the final three players making their cases on why they deserve to win. Survivor 49 was a great season. Here are some (snarky) overall summaries of each player and their role in this twisty show.
*NOTE: Season 50 will include Savannah Louie and Rizo Velovic, so please watch their return to the show, and this historic upcoming season! Cool fun fact: these two players only had ten days between the end of filming season 49 and the beginning of season 50 which is actually crazy to imagine.
FINAL THREE
Savannah Louie
Savannah, Savannah, Savannah…
There is always a lot to say about the winner of the season, and Savannah is no exception. The thing with Savannah is you either loved her or you hated her. If you are like me, you hated her, probably because of her annoying and demeaning remarks to players like Jawon and Sage that gave her an air of arrogance that quickly became unbearable. Either that or you actively loved her for her strategic prowess and her undying confidence. Regardless, we can all agree that she played a great game and she deserved to win (unlike last season’s winner…) because of her fierce determination and relentlessness. Savannah was polarizing but undeniable, and she will surely be remembered for many seasons to come, for better or worse.
Sophi Balerdi
This girl literally came from the very bottom and climbed her way to the very top; insane.
Sophi began this game on the worst tribe of the season, attending almost every single tribal council but yet made it to the final three of the game. How in the world is that possible? She had an extremely strong social game and navigated situations to her benefit until the very end in which she won the final immunity challenge, sending her closest allies Rizo and Savannah to the fire-making challenge, and ultimately got second place. Overall, pretty strong contestant who worked with a variety of players (to the point where her allies slightly questioned her loyalty).
Sage Ahrens-Nichols
We saw everything that her tribemates needed to see.
As a former Army intelligence analyst with a passion for collecting blackheads, Sage is undeniably a quirky gal. This quirkiness, coupled with her emotional vulnerability, made her come off as a purely emotional player to her tribemates. While this is partially true, the audience was shown an angle of her gameplay that her tribemates were not: she could read people like a book. Sage was always in the know. If someone had thrown out her name, she somehow always knew. If someone had told her a lie, she somehow always knew. To sum up her game, she somehow always knew. As a viewer, it felt infinitely satisfying to me that a player who was repeatedly dismissed as overly emotional and quirky was, at the same time, more in the loop than anyone else this season. This was, unfortunately, to her detriment, as shows like Survivor favor flashy moves and concrete gameplay over subtle intuitions that can slip under the radar. Although she made it to the final three, she received only one vote to win the million-dollar prize—from her closest ally, Jawan, perhaps the only tribemate who saw the same side of Sage that we saw in her confessionals.
Rizo Velovic
All hail Rizgod! R-I-Z-G-O-D baby!*
This dude’s ego reaches Jupiter and beyond. I genuinely cannot explain how enthusiastically he takes on life. His bold personality gained him friends and enemies. He held a hidden immunity on his person for a very long time and strategically used it to his advantage during tribal councils so that he would not be sent home. He also had some controversial actions, including during a challenge when he was falling behind, he looked at his opponent’s finished puzzle and then copied it (allowing him to win). Some see this as strategic, some see it as cheating, who really knows? Overall, he was indeed a great player who will probably be known for years owing to his flamboyant personality.
*One of his most signature sayings (slightly paraphrased)
Kristina Mills
She was an absolute angel to everyone but Savannah.
The whole time I watched Kristina this season, I couldn’t stop thinking that this woman was an absolute angel. She was sweet, kind, bubbly, and had a truly beautiful smile. That was, of course, before she unleashed her wrath on Savannah. I’m not exactly sure what started it, but my goodness—I have never seen one-sided hate quite like that. It was as if Savannah were her mortal enemy, though only Kristina knew it, and her only mission in life was to end her game in the bloodiest, brutalist, most excruciating way possible. You might think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. In the final Tribal Council, for example, she cornered Savannah by demanding, “Name all of our family members,” simply to prove to everyone how heartless she thought Savannah was. Seriously, watch it for yourself.
Steven Ramm
A pretty cool and nerdy guy.
Stephen genuinely could have won the game if he had made it to the final three. Many players loved his sangfroid, especially during competitions. For example, during an individual immunity challenge, Stephen took over and began to ramble off a bunch of space facts, much to the enjoyment of his contestants (who desperately needed a distraction from the pain of the challenge). His info-dumping skill made him a likeable guy, who also held lots of knowledge (considering he is in fact a rocket scientist) and a real contender for the sole survivor as a result of his achievements.
Sophie Segreti
I genuinely feel bad for her.
If you watch a lot of reality TV, you are probably familiar with the idea that reality shows can (and often do) produce episodes in a way that manipulates your opinions on the cast. Luckily, this was not a problem for Sophie… because she wasn’t even shown until maybe episode four. I literally did not know who she was until halfway through the season. To make matters worse, there was another Sophie in the cast, and the other Sophie got way more screen time than she did. Imagine waiting a decade to go on a show like Survivor only to get no screen time whatsoever and be confused with another player of the same name. Sounds pretty terrible to me.
Jawan Pitts
Primary source of humor during this season.
Jawan was a really cool guy. He played most of the game in the middle but was also very social (and pretty funny). His start to the game was rough, mainly because him and Savannah did not get along very well. His gameplay a bit later in the game mostly involved his best friend Sage until he was sadly blindsided during tribal council. After the votes were read aloud, Sage did indeed have a meltdown as a result of how close they were to each other.
Alex Moore
His pre-Merge game was glorious, his post-Merge game was something else.
Like Sophie, Alex started on a losing tribe, which meant he was constantly on the brink of being voted out. Somehow, against all odds, he survived it all, which is impressive. Too bad he spent all that momentum on what became the most painfully boring late game I’ve ever watched.
Michelle “MC” Chukwujekwu
The definition of a mid player.
There’s not much to say about MC because she played such a mediocre and painfully unmemorable game. MC was good at challenges but she was not a challenge beast per se. She was relatively social, but she was not a main character or anything. MC found an idol, but she used it when she did not need to. I could write a 2,000-word essay about why she was voted out when she was, but I’m getting sleepy just thinking about it.
Nate Moore
Pretty cool guy who worked for Marvel productions (I thought not much else seemed significant).
Nate honestly seemed like a true contender to win the show. He played an “under the radar” game style without making too many enemies. In the end, his former alliance fractured as a result of the merge, and he lacked a true No. 1 ally, further prompting his fire being snuffed by Probst.
VOTED OFF
Shannon Fairweather
I do not have the mental capacity to be doing yoga on the beach at 8 AM, honey. She was very outwardly spiritual, using her charm to gain trust and form connections with other players. Her downfall began as soon as she was ousted as the coordinator of (attempting) to send Jawan home after a tribe swap. So, Sage sent her home.
Jason Treul
It’s called Survivor, not Begtheotherplayerstokeepyouandinsteadvoteoutyourallyor
After the tribe swap, Jason was put in a tribe where his alliance was the minority. So what did he do? He begged the other players to keep him and instead vote out his only ally in the tribe. He celebrated when his ally was voted out that night. Do I even need to tell you what happened at the next Tribal Council?
Matt Williams
Oldest member of the season, not a winner, period. .
Jeremiah Ing
He had the best laugh that I have ever heard.
We can just forget about the fact that his tribe had a horrific losing streak, and when the tribe got down to three people, he was the one to go. After all, have you heard his laugh? Truly magnificent.
Jake Latimer
The audacity to leave his wife who was about to have their child for this show is insane.
During his short-lived time on the show, he spent a lot of time missing his wife (like other players miss their loved ones) except this was a little different. One day on the beach, a snake embarked upon the shoreline and bit Jake. Now this is serious. Imagine, you are on an island in Fiji with limited knowledge of wild species, and you know you have a kid on the way, and you probably don’t want this snake to have any venom. Then, a tribemate comes up to you and tells you it’s poisonous. PANIC!!! Long story short, he was fine and was eliminated from the competition for safety purposes by the staff and got to be with his wife while she had their kid in the end.
Annie Davis
Accomplished, unique woman but didn’t make it far.
She’s a CEO and musician in the band Trashy Annie with a fun personality, but she got voted out second, so (as kindly as I can say it), there ain’t much to say.
Nicole Mazullo
Who?
She suffered the fate of being voted out first and was thereafter forgotten for eternity…
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