Everything you didn’t see on TV

FINALLY! After not weeks, or months, but years of hype, histrionics, and hullaballoo, we have finally made it to Survivor 50 ‚ an event so epic Mike White even apparently hired a personal trainer for the occasion. I’m excited to get into this super-sized season premiere, but we’re going to do things a bit differently this week. Since I was out there in Fiji for the first few days of the game, I will act as your eyes and ears, and instead of focusing on what you already saw on TV, I’ll instead deliver some intel into what didn’t make it to final cut on TV with some fun asides that ended up on the proverbial editing room floor.

But before we do that, I just want to make like a reality TV contestant myself and engage in a little shameless self-promotion. I literally wrote 50 articles in the past 6 weeks leading into season 50, starting with my cover story that launched on day 1 of the 50 day countdown. You can check out all the goods at our new Survivor HQ page, but since I realize the likelihood of anyone reading all that is roughly equivalent to Angelina playing Survivor again without a jacket, I did want to draw you attention to three things in particular I think you will enjoy:

• Survivor 50 cover story: You want to know all the pre-game tea and who was vibing (or not vibing) with whom before the game began? This is the story.
• Ultimate 50- question Survivor quiz: Test your reality TV knowledge!
• Survivor winners bracket: Yes, the ultimate showdown as voted byyou, the fans. A new matchup every day. Bookmark that page and vote all your favorites through.

Okay, enough of that nonsense. Let’s go through everything you saw and didn’t see on the Survivor 50 premiere!

The Marooning

What you saw

What you saw was an epic flashback montage followed by Jeff Probst welcoming the tribes, demanding everything, interviewing some cast members so we could get our first Cirie “up off the couch” mention, and then the Vatu tribe tearing through the competition to win a flint and a massive bonfire — leading to lots of yells of “YEAH!” from Colby.

What you didn’t see

They only showed a few of the interactions, but Jeff took time to talk to all the castaways before dividing folks into tribes. I won’t go through all of them, but a few notable things.

• As part of his little speech, Colby also had a message for the other castaways. “I do have one thing to say to all the returning players that this is their first time back on the beach. Don’t get so involved in everything that you forget to have fun. The last I played, the reason he never thought he’d see me here again is because the last time I played, I didn’t have fun. And it wasn’t Probst’s fault, wasn’t any of the production’s fault — it was my fault for not having. And I’m damn sure going to have it.”

• Genevieve mentioned that “When my dad dropped me off at the airport, he said, ‘Be grateful for the opportunity and have fun kiddo.’ So no matter what you throw at me, that’s what I’m going to do this time.” That lead Probst to comment “It does seem to be a theme: Play hard, have fun typically results in incredible seasons because you take off the f—ing training wheels and f—ing go for it. Somebody’s going to be first out, somebody’s going to win this f—ing game. But what you’re all going to remember is either what I said at Ponderosa [during pregame talk with the cast], ‘We were part of the greatest season ever,’ or ‘F—! We disappointed him.’ That’s what’s going to happen.”

• Jeff also asked Tiffany if winning Survivor 50 meant more than winning a regular season, leading her to opine: “Now, I don’t want to take away from any win that has ever happened to Survivor because they are all epic, but winning this season cements your face on the Survivor Mount Rushmore. This is a landmark season. This is an iconic season. This is a season like we’ve never seen before. So if you could go through the fire and flames that the fans have set out for us and come out victorious among all these Survivor giants, you are a cemented as an icon among icons.”

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• The greatest Survivor deep cut of all time occurred after the tribes were divided and Probst noted to Colby that and he and Stephenie were tribed up together again. “Oh, we’re stacked up here,” Colby replied, looking at his new tribemate. “Not just because of Steph, because everybody else. If you got chocolate, I’ll take it this time.”

“Oh my, what a flashback.” Probst responded as folks started laughing.

“I won’t pass it up again,” Colby reiterated, leading to Jeff giving a callback to their infamous testy Heroes vs. Villains exchange: “I got the message, brother. We’ll go when I’m ready. If you’re an old school Survivor fan, that might mean something.”

Everyone cracked up and it was awesome. Can’t believe it didn’t make the final cut.

• In the joke-that-didn’t-land department, Rick Devens had a rough moment after Probst asked Charlie, “I know you got a Taylor Swift reference ready. What is this moment about, through Taylor’s words.”

Charlie’s answer: “I mean, it’s all about reputation right now, right? Everyone’s thinking about what did people do in their seasons? What are they going to do now? They’re thinking: Do I have assumptions that are right or do I have assumptions that are wrong? That’s all reputation, Jeff.”

But then Rick — who had the best cut marooning line of all time when he introduced himself on Edge of Extinction by saying: “Well, this is awkward, but I also go by Wardog” — chimed in immediately with, “Check in in a little while and I bet there’s some bad blood.” That led to some pained facial expressions, an “Oh, dear” from Charlie, and a simple “Wow!” from the host. Rick knew he bombed and tried to correct the mistake: “He wins. I’m out. Let’s take it off. Let’s take it off and move on.” Move on, they did.  

• Before Probst revealed if the fans voted to give the players rice, Angelina intervened to let the host know, “My mom voted, okay? Long time fan. And she texted me. She’s like, ‘I’m so sorry honey, I voted no rice. I’m old school. You got to earn it. No rice.’ I was like, ‘Thanks, mom!’ So I am fully expecting nada.” She was right.

• I wrote this in my cover story, that the water portion of this marooning challenge was very up in the air as to whether it could even be done due to all that crazy wind you could see blowing people’s hair around. In the end, they were able to do it, but my (unconfirmed) guess is the rope that they had to pull to get out to the buoy was added in because it was impossible to row into the wind.

• There was a lot more debate and discussion in the Kalo tribe on whom to send for the Fight for Supplies and this was not a case of Coach simply volunteering to steal more spotlight. “We’re trying to decide whether it’s going to be physical or puzzles,” Chrissy told Jeff. “Because we feel like we have physical and puzzles, but this in the middle is where we’re trying to figure out.”

Coach kept telling his tribe how much he sucked at puzzles, but they opted to send him anyway. “Coach, is this a reluctant yes?” Probst asked.

“I just suck at puzzles and I’m mediocre in physical challenges,” Coach replied. “But hell, I’m game.”

The Fight For Supplies

What you saw

Ozzy, Coach, and Q had to battle it out in a physical, multi stage competition that ended with a Survivor classic — tying together planks to make a pole long enough to unhook a key and then drag it back. The tweak this time was that the anyone could “steal” the key once it was on the ground. Whomever dragged it back to their spot won.

Ozzy led throughout the entire contest, but hurt his back while trying to dislodge the key. At one point, Ozzy tried to make a deal with the others that nobody would steal the key from whomever unhooked it. But Coach never agreed to that deal, and once Ozzy got the key on the ground, Coach dragged it over to win supplies.

Ozzy and Q then spent the night on Exile Island and the next morning had to choose which person got supplies but lost a vote, and which person got an extra vote but no supplies. Ozzy convinced Q to take the supplies and give him his vote. Okay, Ozzy! We see you!

What you didn’t see

• After he got back to Cila, Ozzy opened up to his tribe about what Coach had done. Savannah’s reaction was that “In a weird way, it’s a blessing that that happened because you know, seriously, now you know who this man is.”

“For sure,” agreed Ozzy. “Because honestly, when he first said, after him and I had our moment, we met Q and then Coach was like, ‘Alright, should it be us three to the end?’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, Coach, sure, let’s do this!”

“My God!” Jenna reacted. “He does that and then he steals the key?”

“I think maybe he’s regretting that now,” Ozzy said. “But maybe not. Maybe not. I mean, it is just a pot and flint.”

Christian’s take on it mirrored what he told me about Coach before the game began: “He’s scared,” he told the tribe. “So in his mind it was completely justified. He’s scared.”

Honestly, Ozzy seemed more disappointed than angry. “I do think though that  there could have been an opportunity in that moment where he could have been like, ‘Hey, brother, let’s talk about this. Like, I want it, but let’s figure it out.’ I probably would’ve been like, ‘Okay, man, cool. You did actually win it. And at least you’re acknowledging that you’re second guessing your sneakiness.’ But he didn’t, he was like, ‘I’m sorry bro, I’m taking this.’”

• As for over on Kalo, the news of Ozzy’s injury had Jonathan hoping for rough water in the next challenge because “I don’t think they would be ready because if Ozzy’s back is hurting, we want to be in the water. His back’s hurting.”

“Yeah, Coach broke his back,” Charlie joked. “Coach put Ozzy over one knee. Then he went, ROAR!”

“And then he did Coach Chi,” Jonathan added.

This led into a discussion as to whether they should flaunt their spoils at the next challenge by bringing with them the ridiculous chain that Coach stole from Exile Island.

“We gotta get him to wear the chain,” Dee proposed. “Can we?”

“I think we gotta bring it to the challenge,” Charlie chimed in.

But then cooler heads prevailed. “You guys, hold on though,” Chrissy cut in. “We don’t want to be hated so that if a tribe swap happens.”

“They’re gonna forget about that by the time It comes around, right?” Dee argued. “I wanna stir up the pot!” She then reconsidered. “Okay, fine we won’t do it.

Good stuff. Let’s now take a look at all three tribe camps and what else didn’t make it to TV.

Vatu tribe

What you saw

A majority alliance formed with Colby, Stephenie, Kyle, Genevieve, and Q. Within that group, Colby and Steph appeared to be ride-or-dies, as did Geneveive and Kyle. In the midst of all this, Aubry oddly rebuffed an alliance attempt from Geneveive, which is not exactly something you see every day. What’s that? Oh, I said THAT’S NOT SOMETHING YOU SEE EVERY DAY!!!! (Sorry, was talking into Colby’s bad ear. Or is that George Bailey?)

In the most unsurprising development of the premiere, Rizo cried, and his tears appeared to win Old Man Donaldson over. (He certainly didn’t win him over with his work ethic!)

What you didn’t see

• Unlike for Survivor 49, where he kept his nickname a secret, this time Rizo knew all the players saw him out the RizGod moniker on the 49 trailer, so there was no hiding it. In fact, he told the others how Jesse from Survivor 43’s son knows the Rizzler so wanted to introduce the RizGod to the Rizzler, although “I don’t know what I’d do hanging out with an 8-year old. That’s kind of weird.”

• Stephenie was still convinced that once someone was voted out of the game, they had the choice to head to Exile Island, even as others pointed out that would be more like the Edge of Extinction. After noting that fans “hated” the Edge of Extinction but that “Jeff loved it,” Kyle, Angelina, Stephenie, and Rizo asked Aubry her thoughts from being on the Edge in season 38. After Aubry opined that she both loved and hated it, Kyle chimed in that it “Depends on who you’re out there with, right?” This led Rizo to ask Kyle, “You mean you wouldn’t have loved the Edge today?”

• The fashion show was not just an impromptu thing as there was a lot of scheduling and planning involved. Angelina tried to do me a solid and make it happen while I was at the camp observing so she could show off her new jacket and Q could walk the island runway in his Q-Skirt, but tribemates kept saying they should do it later once everyone was up from napping (Colby) and back from doing interviews. Originally, Kyle was going to be a judge, but that must have been before his epic buff midriff brainstorm.

Genevieve was informed of her participation in the fashion show when she returned from an interview and did have to admit, “I got a good jacket,” before turning to Angelina. “But so does she! She will not need my jacket.”

“What did I promise you last night?” Angelina responded. “What did I say? I promise I’ll not ask anyone for any articles of clothing at all. I won’t even look at ’em weird.”

“But if you ask me for my jacket, I would give it to you,” Geneieve said.

“I would not,” Angelina replied, “I came prepared this time, you guys.”

• Speaking of Survivor fashion, Angelina also logged a customer complaint, telling Q that “I actually ordered the Q-Skirt not too long ago. And it has not arrived.” To which Q responded: “Well, I was busy the last couple weeks with something and I couldn’t tend to orders.”

Kalo tribe

What you saw

Tiffany, Dee, and Kamilla formed a new era women’s alliance — which is kind of perfect because Kamilla and Dee were (along with Jenna) the folks that talked about wanting to take savage delight in crushing dreams this season. Meanwhile, Chrissy and Coach appeared to be aligning in the water… which sounds way more sexual than I intended. And Jonathan appeared firmly in that camp. (Ggain, not sexually. At least I don’t think so.)

Speaking of Coach, would you let him put a toe ring on you that had not been off his body in 37 years? If your name is Charlie, you would. Oh, and Mike White has been working out.

What you didn’t see

• Yes, there was even more discussion of Mike White being ripped. Mike joked about throwing his shirt off, which led to tribe chants of “TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF!” Dee then pleaded, “Show the muscles! You are kinda ripped.” Then Jonathan weighed in, telling him “I wasn’t expecting it, Mike,” leading The White Lotus creator to note, “I wasn’t expecting it either.”

“I didn’t think it was gonna be Six-Pack Mike” Jonathan noted.

• There was an extended discussion about Angelina from Vatu doing what Charlie described as a gloating “victory curtsy” after her tribe won the marooning challenge. Apparently, the hilarious visions of Jonathan imitating it had been keeping Kamilla up on their first night. Some theorized that maybe it was a signal to her bestie Mike, who said he didn’t notice but that “She definitely was happy to win.”

• Kamilla was relentlessly harassing Mike about a crab he apparently accidentally killed on the beach. The razzing started up by the shelter when a stick bug was spotted on him and Kamilla said, “You’re going to kill it like you killed the crab, for nothing!” This earned a sharp facial reaction from Mike who then semi-whispered, “You’re going to ruin my reputation with PETA,” while laughing.

“Mike just walks around the beach stepping on crabs,” she continued on while also trying to convince everyone that Mike was also going to eat the stick bug. (He instead gently put it down on a bag.)

This was just phase one of Kamilla’s ribbing as she later walked the tribe down to the beach to show the makeshift grave marker for the hermit crab that Mike “unnecessarily killed.” Jonathan paid his respects by proceeding to draw a frowny face in the sand next to it.

• When it comes to the fan voting, Chrissy went on the record as having voted for rice — not because she wanted the food, but rather she liked the extra tribe dynamic it added where, “There’s always people who wanna eat a ton of rice or are like ‘Let’s eat it all now so if there’s tribe swap.’ She wanted the drama! And so do I.

Cila tribe

What you saw

The alliances they were a-forming as Rick, Christian, and Emily quickly linked up while Ozzy and Cirie hoped their third time together would be the charm. Jenna wasted no time getting down to business, putting Cirie’s name in her mouth after the later just naturally gave of “queen vibes.” And Savannah came clean about winning a million dollars just two weeks ago. Also, Christian made fire with two pair of glasses, which was awesome.

What you didn’t see

• When Ozzy returned from Exile Island, he had to get caught up on all he missed. That included Savannah once again revealing she had won Survivor 49. She also mentioned that “I also heard before I was confirmed on that the other person who was supposed to be on was Maryanne, who won season 42.”

As for confessing to everyone that she won, she explained that: “The other reason why I wanted to be honest about everything is because I want to build relationships and stuff, and I feel like trust and information is currency out here. I wanna show you guys that like, yes, you can trust me. Yeah, I know that that might not be a lot, but it’s like literally all I have to give. And I don’t really have any prior relationships out here like most people do.”

• That led to Ozzy asking about Rizo, and Savannah gave a very interesting and not fully truthful answer. “I like Rizo a lot as a person,” she began. Okay, so far, so good. “We started off on the same side together, and we voted together for the very beginning of our season — there were some tribe swaps.” Yeah, that all tracks. “And then at merge we kind of went our separate ways and there was a little bit of tension there.” WAIT, SAY WHAT?!?

Savannah told the truth about her beating Rizo at fire, but continued (wisely) to paint a picture that the two were not close: “It’s hard because when we started off together, I felt like he’s a really sweet person. He’s a really sweet kid, and you’ll get that when you meet him right away. But I think some things may have happened during the merge part of our season where I’m not sure how he feels about me, and I am a little bit concerned if we are on the same side at all later this season that he’s gonna come after me. Not that he’s like a vengeful person in real life, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to get past what happened.”

Emily then started digging a bit deeper after Savannah said that “Even before fire though, we were on opposite sides of the vote.”

“But you played together pre-merge?” Emily asked.

“That was only because we were on the same majority,” Savannah lied. This led to some more 49 discussion, such as…

 • Emily asked Savannah what happened at the season 49 merge to rip their alliance apart, and Savannah informed them “There was a big blindside for the very first merge vote. And so that kind of disrupted everybody’s game.”

When Jenna asked if it was a blindside due to an advantage being used, Savannah explained, “No, no. It was literally just people said they felt like they were at the bottom when they weren’t actually at the bottom. And then I’ll also say too, the vote right before the merge, it was when we were on three different tribes, after another tribe swap, and the girl who was voted out was on my original tribe. So that made it just, like, awkward. And I think once it happened like that, like it’s kind of like every man for himself. I had my number one ally already at the very first swap. She was on the disaster tribe. So we hit it off immediately and at the very end, I won. I know people have had bad experiences on Survivor, but my first experience was honestly positive. But yeah, if you have any other questions.”

• Savannah also opened up about why she is no longer in broadcast news, explaining that: “I got out of news about a year ago and it wasn’t completely my decision to leave. My boss was basically like, ‘Thank you for working here. Your contract is up and we’re not gonna renew you. I wish I could say she said it nicer, but she honestly really didn’t. She was very intense about it.”

• Ozzy revealed to the others how he ended up on Survivor: Cook Islands after being asked by Savannah if he applied for the show or was recruited.” It was a crazy situation,” he explained. “So one of my best friends from Santa Barbara is this model kid. We used to tell people we’re cousins ’cause we’re like these Mexican kids that look very similar. He’s much better looking than I am… He was the person I moved in with when I moved to L.A. and we were living in a garage together.”

It turns out that was a fortuitous turn of events. “He went out to dinner one night,” Ozzy continued, “met one of the casting agents. And he had booked a couple of modeling contracts and his agent was like, ‘Dude, if you do this, it’s not good for your career modeling.’ So he is like, ‘Bro, are you interested in Survivor?’ I was like, ‘I f—ing love Survivor. I would love to do Survivor!’ And then the next day I was talking to one of the casting agents. She’s like, ‘You have to submit a video tomorrow. Otherwise, it’s cut off time.’ And I stayed up all night editing a video together because I had footage of me like skating a half pipe, spearing fish, and surfing and stuff. And then it was like, got in immediately, was at the Double Tree, and then it was like BOOM!”

• Ozzy also said he had “no idea what I was doing” in Cook Islands, but when Joe pointed out he won five immunities, Ozzy responded “Yeah, that was just super lucky. You know, I was 24, so I had that itch. I don’t know if I have anymore. I’m like, ‘Ah, it’s okay’ And then Q beat me and I’m like, ‘Dang it!’ So I’m hoping that we get a swimming challenge at least. Dude, my back. I screwed up my back, but I can still swim. Swimming is solid.”

Savannah then mentioned she used to swim in high school but was already feeling the toll of playing back-to-back seasons: “I will say, honestly doing that challenge yesterday, you realize how depleted you are after a full season of Survivor. I feel like I was very strong on my season, and then yesterday I’m like, holy s—! This f—ing sand is like a million pounds!”

• The tribe did some challenge strategy discussion kicked off by Christian noting that, “One thing that I always acknowledge to myself that whenever there’s a challenge being explained, I barely hear what Jeff is saying. Is anyone good at listening to what Jeff is saying?”

He later expanded on that: “So my point being is that each of us have these strengths, even in the pre-challenge, that we should focus on. The reason I bring this up is ’cause once I hear puzzle, all I do is look at the puzzle. Like, that’s all I did! I was useless in terms of the rest of the… I didn’t even know who was running the rest of the challenge. So as long as there are people who are good listeners who can really get the information… if we all have these individual roles, we can get that edge to really make sure that we win and get the edge on them in terms of supplies.”

This also led to Joe explaining that “Whenever we start a challenge, I just stare at the other two tribes, and it gives so much — like, who’s overemotional? Who’s kind of the boss who has the side alliance. It’s so intense. They can’t hide. They can’t pretend. They’re showing their real.”

He continued: “I’m just looking until they look, and then I look up, but I’m staring at ’em and… it’s just information, but it’s also like, What are their strengths?… I learned a lot from just watching what our vibe is with them and who are they trying to size up with us… There are some tells.”

The immunity challenge

What you saw

It was a classic Survivor obstacle course ending with a puzzle, with more stages and rules in terms of who could do what than I can possibly recount without making your head spin. Kalo and Vatu alternated with the leadm but Kalo made it to the puzzle first. Then Kyle suffered what at the time appeared to be an ankle injury, with Jeff Probst calling for medical to intervene and get him checked out.

Dr. Joe gave Kyle the clearance to continue, and Q slid down the ramp to push Kyle up. It wasn’t enough to catch Kalo, but was enough to still beat Cila, giving Vatu second place.

What you didn’t see

• The Cirie on the monkey’s fist stage took forrrrrrrrrrrrrevvvvvvvvvver. (Maybe like 20 minutes?) The second all of us saw Cirie had volunteered for that crucial spot, we were super confused as to why. The reason she raised her hand for the thing that ultimately doomed her tribe was that she had experience doing it on Australian Survivor, so was confident she could execute it here. What threw her (slight pun intended) is that there was no rope wall in front of her in that Australian Survivor challenge.

With the rope wall added here, she had to use a completely different throwing motion. Either way, it was brutal. Her tribemates tried to be supportive, but after a while, you could see the mounting frustration on every single one of their faces.  

• It got lost in the edit, but Kyle actually made it to the top of the ramp without getting injured. Colby was the last one down on the ground for the Vatu tribe, but when he could not get up, Kyle went back down to help Colby up and then tried to make the leap himself, with terrible consequences. Also, the leap you saw him take on TV is not the one he got injured on. He did one more leap after that and that is when he got injured, but the one before was much more crazy looking with his body taking on an insane angle so I would have used that one in the edit as well. Good choice!

• That was no editing on the Joe jump up the ramp. He made it on the first try and gave me one of my favorite action shots I have ever taken on set. (Check out Joe and Ozzy locking arms in mid-air while Probst and people from both tribes watch on from above. Epic!)

• I can’t believe this did not make the final cut, but Angelina tried to negotiate with Probst over the fishing gear her tribe won. Because of course she did. As the tribe was about to be excused, she raised her hand and said, “We do have a question for you.”

“Are we negotiating already?” asked the host.

“Would you expect anything different?” she replied. “Would you be okay with switching the fishing gear out for just a tarp?

Probst’s quick reply: “No.”

“How about if they give us the fishing gear?” cracked Devens.

After the host labeled the trade a “non-starter,” Angelina pressed on. “Any other options? It’s just our camp, the fishing is real rough there. I lived there for 18 days. Most of these people have lived there before. It’s not a good fishing ground. So do you have anything else we can trade in for?”

Probst then did a funny bit where he pretended to look behind the idol podium to see what else he had, before emerging again with his trademark “Got nothin’ for ya” before adding, “Take your fishing gear, be happy, on your way.”

Even though it did not make air, my thanks to Angelina for at least attempting to give the people what they wanted — nay, demanded — with the negotiation. Could the fact it did not make the episode mean another negotiation is on the way? We can only hope.

Tribal Council

What you saw

Honestly, not a lot. Instead of Jenna and Cirie getting into it, or people even talking in depth or specifically with names about the struggle in deciding between loyalty or challenge strength, it was a group all pretending to be kumbaya and getting along. In what was an otherwise pretty gripping and funny first episode, Tribal Council was kind of a dud. And it can’t help but be a bummer for fans to see Jenna from season 1 be the very first one out. (I appreciated the tribe standing up for her on her way to get snuffed.) Jenna said she was gonna play super hard and in your face, which is what every viewer wants to see, but while that approach is fun to watch, it is rarely successful.

What you didn’t see

• Honestly, there wasn’t anything that did not make the Tribal Council cut worth getting into, and that says something seeing as how this Tribal lasted 53 minutes before taking a break to get ready for the vote. Speaking of the break before voting, I had this in my cover story, but it’s worth repeating here if you missed it, that Probst had a great off-camera message to the tribe. “I’m going to say what I’ve always said,” Probst told the group while making intense direct eye contact. “Which is, ‘Sad to have anybody voted out. I mean it, looking to every one of you in the eyes. Sad to have any of you voted out.”

He continued. “This season more than others is very special. I know how much it takes to get here. We all know what sacrifices you all made, and all your loved ones and everything. I also know without these stakes, who gives a f—? This is why Survivor is interesting, is because it’s life or death all the time. So just know when I’m snuffing your torch, my heart?” The host then touched his chest. “But my head? It’s the f—ing game you signed up for, right?” The tribe then nodded in the affirmative.

• Here’s what folks said while casting their votes:

Jenna (for Cirie): “I am just seriously hoping that I’m on the right side of the votes and that the people I’m trusting are actually trustworthy. But Cirie, you’re wonderful. I’m so sorry.:

Joe (for Jenna): “I’m so, so sorry.”

Christian (for Jenna): “What a confusing first Tribal Council. I hope I am making the right choice with this. Hopefully, I live to see another day.”

Ozzy (for Jenna): “I am so sorry. I was stuck at Exile and by the time I got back, it seemed you had just gotten in too hot and heavy and I couldn’t sway everybody. I wish I could have played with you.”

Cirie (for Jenna): “Jenna, you decided to come for me when I had zero intentions of sending for you, and I respectfully hope it comes back to bite you by way of your torch being snuffed tonight.”

Rick (for Jenna): “I learned so much from you, jungle woman. Unfortunately, you brought me in real late, and I just don’t think I’m a legit part of your plan. “

Savannah: “I am so sorry. I genuinely wanted to work with you on day one, but you were just a little too intense, a little too fast for some of these people, and I’m just going with the majority to save my own ass.”

Emily (for Jenna): “You are a lovely person. I really wish I got the votes to save you tonight.”

• As for what didn’t make the edit from Jenna’s final words after being voted out, she also talked about how many she over course-corrected: “Going into this, I really did do a lot of research on this new era, and all I heard was how fast it was. So I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to be really prepared to start playing fast.’ So that’s what I did.”

As for the others on Cila, not so much: “They didn’t really start playing the game. Nobody did. Nobody even wanted to talk strategy for the first two days. So even me talking strategy, Joe was the first one tonight right before Tribal, which is when I knew that my name would be coming up. When he said that my name had come up for being too aggressive, I’m like, Jesus, I thought this was the game! Was I being aggressive? Isn’t Survivor aggressive? Are you guys not playing the same game? If you guys want to sit around without somebody playing aggressive to say Kumbaya too, then that’s what you get.”

She also thought the tribe division may have done her in. “I think I got on the wrong tribe. I think if I’d have been with some Genevieves and some Angelinas, it might’ve been a little better for me, but it seems like these guys really didn’t want to talk about strategy or moving forward. And every time I brought it up, somebody was just like, ‘Oh, we don’t have to think about that until tomorrow.’ Like, good lord, you call me old school!”

In terms of her feelings on her now ex-tribemates: “I don’t really, really feel especially close to anybody on my tribe. I really felt like they were all just kind of wishy washy, and I wanted to come to play — like to play, to play. So I’m going to watch and wait and watch them lose again, and I’ll be waiting for them.”

IF ONLY ALL THIS HAD BEEN SAID AT TRIBAL COUNCIL!

Quick hit thoughts on Kyle’s injury, Billie Eilish, and more

• I’m sure producers were surprised by the negative reaction from fans surrounding all the celebrity mentions in the Survivor 50 trailer. Billie Eilish! Jimmy Fallon! Zac Brown! Mr. Beast! I’ve been thinking a lot about this and why it was so off-putting to many, and I think it goes beyond simple complaints of stop-mucking-up-the-game with too many twists. I think it’s something more.

Survivor fans want to feel like Survivor is enough. We don’t need bells and whistles like fancy celebrities adding in their two cents or getting to make a cameo because they are on Jeff Probst’s speed dial. The show and game itself should be enough, ESPECIALLY on Survivor 50. And by having all these pop culture personalities on, it sends the message that it’s not enough, and that is vaguely insulting to people that love the show for the show and don’t want to see it become a celebrity showcase just because famous people happen to like it.

It reminds me a bit of what happened to Will & Grace, which started off as a super funny sitcom with sharp writing and hilarious performances that made it a breakout (and landmark) hit. But it eventually turned into a famous-person-of-the-week revolving door of celebrity stunt casting that sure, maybe drew in a few extra curious eyes, but it also fundamentally made the show worse as the attention drifted away from the cast and over to the rent-a-celebs. And the comedy petered out as a result.

All we wanted was for Survivor 50 to celebrate the history and legacy of Survivor, and not famous people who watch it or branding crossovers with YouTubers. All that said, I actually love the idea of the boomerang idol that Genevieve found and gave to Ozzy! It’s great! It adds a cool next layer strategic element that every fan should embrace. I just wish producers realized it didn’t need Billie Eilish’s name on it to feel special.

Also, we saw Devens talking about the Billie Eilish Boomerang idol in the preview, so does that mean there is one on every beach? Inquiring minds want to know.

• Maybe I am just too naturally a suspicious person, but should Colby have figured out that Savannah got a secret advantage? First off, it was super odd that she was playing simply to not lose her vote. Survivor doesn’t really set up stakes that way. But the big tip-off for me was when both boats did not leave at the same time. If I were on Colby’s boat and the winner who did not actually win anything was still on shore when I departed, I would have assumed she got a secret advantage after I left. And I would have told my tribe exactly that.

• This Colby, Stephenie, Kyle, Genevieve, and Q alliance is having about as rough a go as you can have for a majority alliance. They have already lost two votes (Q and Colby) and one player, due to Kyle’s medical evacuation. You never, ever want to see a player go out this way, which explains all the tears. (I mean, Kyle probably could have come down with a mild case of the sniffles and Rizo still would have been crying, but you get my basic point.)

So it sucks in such a major way for Kyle, especially after he told me before the game how he thought “constantly” about joining the two-time winners club. But therein lies the silver lining. Kyle left for season 50 like two weeks after the Survivor 48 finale aired, in which he won a million dollars.  I don’t want to minimize how devastating being taken out of the game must have been for the guy, but at least he climbed the Survivor mountaintop before his leg gave out. He also got married and has a baby on the way. Life for Kyle Fraser is good. Very, very good.

Wow, almost 7000 words in and you’re still here? I owe you a Milwaukee’s Best! Okay, before we skedaddle, just a heads up that I spoke to Probst after the first Tribal Council, so make sure to go read that, as well as my exit interviews with Jenna and Kyle. Oh, and check out our new Survivor HQ hub. We’ve got games, polls, brackets, cast video, group chats, and much more. And keep your eyes peeled for a little mystery coming early next week. In the meantime, I’ll go get working on next week’s scoop of the crispy!