RHAP: We Know Survivor - Christine Riccio on Survivor B&B: Survivor 49 Episode 11

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Christine Riccio on Survivor B&B: Survivor 49 Episode 11 With a new Survivor season upon us, it’s time for Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas to re-open the RHAP B&B! On the B&B, Mike and Liana are inspired by the lighter side of Survivor, featuring a series of segments and games based on what’s happening on Survivor that week. This week, Mike and Liana are joined by New York Times bestselling author Christine Riccio for Episode 11 of Survivor 49! This week’s charity shoutout is The Good Store, an online shop founded by John and Hank Green that donates 100% of their profits to charity. If you have any suggestions for games or feedback for the B&B, feel free to reach out to us on social media or email [e-mail]. To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

Mike and the Anna gather playing some games You better pray to your mama that they're not super lame And if that all sounds cool, I can tell you the name It's the R-H-A-P-B-M-B-M-B- Mike and the honor gotta play in some games You'd rather pray to your mama that they're not super lane And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name is the R-H-A

You can stay for free Hi, everybody, and welcome to the R-H-A-B-B for week 11 of Survivor 49. My name is Mike Lubb, hoping to not bring you a strenuous podcast. A pretty fancy free here, never, you know, draining our energy walking on the stand. And instead getting to talk about the anti-penultimate episode of Survivor 49. But of course, I am not alone here because, of course, two birds are a stone, two stones. Leon and Boris is here.

Actually, as Rizzo was saying, I was like, wait, what is it? What is that saying? Kill two birds and one stone. I was like, kill two birds in a bush. And I'm so excited our guest chimed in here because while Rizzo may not be on the up and up on his literary devices, this person. certainly is. She is a New York Times best-selling author of Many Atoam, perhaps most pertinly in this situation, attached at the hip. It is the great Christine Richie. Hello. Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. We're so excited to have you. I mean, I guess the first thing

I want to do is have you sort of give it an elevator pitch to the extended RHAP audience as to who you are, both as an author and I suppose as a survivor fan. Yes. Yes. Okay, should I start with who I am as a human? I mean, we can sort of like the time of birth. I didn't know if we wanted to go that graphic in the first podcast. I go back to 1990. Oh, okay. All right.

I came into the world. No, my name is Christine. I'm an author. Yes, Mike just mentioned attached at the hip, which is my survivor rom-com book that came out in 2024. So I write rom-coms and I, love Survivor. I've loved Survivors since I was 10 years old

and I watched the finale of season one with my mom and I was sold. When I heard that speech from Sue, I was like, what is this? And then in fifth grade, I watched season two and every day,

every day, every day after it aired, you know, coming to school and talk about the challenges and stuff. Oh, it was so fun. And so, yeah, attached with the hip Was my love letter to Survivor I had the most fun ever writing that book Because I got to write like Survivor

If I had a romantic twist So like everyone has a couple times to be fair Wait, oh yeah, yeah, yeah I know well it was inspired by Robin Amber obviously Like I was like there hasn't been a good showmance in ages And it was 2020 and season 40 was airing And I was like, you know what? I'm going to write my own.

I'm going to do this. And I kind of did it. It's pitched as like Survivor meets The Bachelor. But it's really like Survivor if you are attached to like a misconnection by feet of rope and every three days. So like someone gets voted off and you switch partners like everyone's compatible. Okay. Yeah, it's not done. But yeah, so did I?

I'm, I started my journey on the internet. on YouTube. I was a YouTuber for 10 years talking about books because I'm a book early and Booktube walked so that book talk could run if nobody knows what Booktub is. Yeah. I love the branding. That's important. We got to remember where we came from. Yes. Smutty book talk would not be where it is today if not for the YouTube girlies. Not for the YouTubers. Yes. I was Poland Banana's books on YouTube. So I was like before the days where people used their name, you know. valid valid is someone who started his podcasting career under a pseudonym i very much understand that like i made my a well screen name poland bananas 20 in um 19 no 2000 and it just stuck with me

forever you can you can so do you know about poland spring water um yeah okay well i wanted a nickname when i was nine and christine doesn't have any good nicknames and i really like Poland Springwater. And I really love bananas. So I was like, Poland, manas. And my lucky number is 20s.

I just tacked it on the end. I mean, but there is a man calling himself the man that met the legend, R-I-Z, GOD, Riz God, baby on our screen. So like, one man's AOL nickname is another man's

on-screen survivor nickname. Yes. Yes. You know, you would think, like when you, we heard the rumors about Riz God before we knew Riz God. We're like, who?

What? Why? But when he says it, it's just funny. It's just fun. Like every time in the confessionals, too. He is his own hype man. Literally, I'm just like, this is hilarious. I'm enjoying it so much.

Well, we need to bring up the fact that, Leanna, you and I, and the vast majority of the Survivor Internet, like dug through every possibility of why Rizzo decided. to play the fake idol on Savannah and there were so many tactical rationale but I listed out like a full I gave you a full menu of options

Leon if you remember last week and I guess the secret on him on the menu was for shits and giggles he's a showman he's a showman he's I don't know if he's a Leo but it's giving Leo yeah so basically Rizzo I guess wanted to do something

where he wanted to like have Christina and him play the idols at the same time to be like oh you do this we just saw this on Australia versus the world. It's a very weird thing, but he was going to try it. And then he was essentially going to play the fake so that Christina was like was already kind of bought in, right? Like her idol, she could take the idol back when Jeff was holding them in their

hand saying this one's real, this one's fake. But then at that point, he's just like, you know what? I didn't put that much effort into it. Why not? Yeah, he already made it. So excited to do it. And he's like, I can't not do it now. I've been working myself up this whole time.

That is very. True. Yeah. I think he has got himself so hyped up that like, I don't think he could really bottle that energy. He probably should, considering that he could have gone on the strenuous journey to not give the odds on target an advantage. But that's neither here nor there. No. Yeah. It was fun. And I understand that feeling when you're like, you're nervous because you're going to perform, but you're excited. And then to deal with the fact that like, oh, I don't have to. I don't get to like go up there and have my moment. I think also if you're prepping for it, right? Like you're rehearsing your lines, you're memorizing, you're ready to go. You're like, here's my cue. And you just get up and do it anyway. Yeah, that's interesting, right?

It's sort of like you're getting ready to do a play performance and like it gets canceled. And you're like, I'm going out on stage anyway. I don't care if there's an audience out there. You're going to hear by a fellow. Yep. I'm going to do this, damn it. No, it was so funny when he was like, this is not an idol. I was like, what?

We were all incredibly confused. Everyone, I think, in Fiji, what's confused? I think Jeff said it on his podcast and he's like, I'm not sure what he was doing there. And it turns out that this man is doing it for the lulls. I can't not appreciate that. But the memes, man, for the memes. And he didn't just go off and do it.

And he was like, can I give a speech? I forgot. We didn't talk about that. But yeah, the true showmanship nature of the fake idol was off the charts. Oh, my God. Well, Kristen, I'd be remiss to not ask, even irrespective of that idol play. What have your thoughts been on 49 so far? I think, you know, the overall prevailing opinions is that a little cold to start,

maybe unlike, you know, the change in the months over here, starts cold gets a little bit warmer. Have you been feeling that way as we're definitely barreling down the stretch here? I have been having fun this whole season. I don't know if it's because my top three are killing it. But, like, from the beginning, I've had so much fun with Rizgon, with Savannah, and with Sophie, blue Sophie.

We can say the one true Sophie now because the other one is gone. B Sophie. She is as silent as that E in her name. I felt so bad when she was like, I guess I'm the other Sophie. And I was like, oh, that sucks to be the other Sophie. but she is the other Sophie now which blows

but Blue Sophie I've been pulling for her for so long now I'm so excited she's been adopted by the Ouli clan I was thinking about this while I was watching I was like there's something about red tribes that really

make for I don't know like more loyal alliances I don't know if it's because I'm just like remembering red ones but like Shapira stuck together till the end And then, like, we've got the Reba five. And I love all those alliances. And then we've got Oolie.

And I know a lot of them are gone. And it's just Savannah and Risgod. But I feel like Sophie B's, is her last name, Sophie B. Am I saying that? Yeah, Balaherty is her last name. Sophie? Okay. I feel like she's part of it.

It also could be another way of classification where I know other Sophie's last name and Segretti, but it could have been Sophie A and Sophie B. Just like, a little bit of Sophie A, a little bit Sophie B. That would get real confusing I just feel like when you're on a red tribe and you make an alliance you're more likely

to have a loyal alliance to the end It is interesting to think about I feel like red tribe Leanna especially in the new era gives a lot of main character energy because you think about Survivor 43 was the Vessi tribe which was the Jesse and Cody tribe

then we had in the Rebas as you mentioned even 47 not as loyal but that was Lavo which had everything going on with Rome and Genevieve and Saul and teeny. So like, have the producers done something

unconscious or perhaps conscious and being like, this is going to be the tribe of interest? There is, there is color psychology. So I actually went to check and see what color represented loyalty. Uh,

it is blue. So my theory immediately fell. It was passion, excitement, energy, and confidence, apparently.

Those are the red, the red, well, maybe the confidence and the passion makes for, I mean, these bonds that don't break. I was really upset when Sophie B was like, I might have to turn on them this time. And I was like, no, no, no, please stay together.

I want Red to go to the end. Like I said, but also Sage isn't Uli, though I guess she, like, kind of burned that buff when she immediately turned on them at the merge. I don't even think of her. She really went the other one. She only voted on when she was on the blue tribe. Yeah, I think of her as blue.

Wow, that is weird. Yeah. well let's get into this episode because I mean what I would say is you know it's a relatively straightforward vote but it's this really odd thing where like you have different pockets of people coming to the exact same decision but for completely different reasons and I can't be a unanimous vote that has had this disparate reasoning for a while maybe it's because it just more has gotten fleshed out but you know obviously we have the hey let's get someone out targeting who's targeting Savannah in this trio that you were mentioning we have the hey let's get out somebody who could be a jury threat in the Christina and Stephen and then you have the revenge is a dish best served cold baby in the form of a stage and so it was just this

odd sort of scissigy where all the planets aligned and they all decided despite how scattered everything has been to say yeah you know what we can all do without Sophie right now right yes Sage has been so entertaining to watch

because of how strongly she'll back because I don't know who was talking about how they're like, oh, I hope sage votes with us for Sophie. But like there was no question because that's how she rolls. And it's so you can trust it so hard. Yeah, she's, it's been really interesting to watch her make decisions because she is so, like when she makes a decision, she's like, yes, that is what we're doing.

And then she gets betrayed. No, this is what we're doing. And I think we saw that in absolute full force. And I think what was so interesting is to think about how wild a lot of the votes have been, at least in terms. There hasn't really been a unanimous decision. Yeah. And to have a unanimous decision here at the, what you call it, Mike, the anti-penultimate episode? What does that mean?

Third to last. Auntie? Sure. Anti. We're not going to the family tree here. So to, yeah, it's the uncle vote. So to have a unanimous vote here. Uncle Jeff vote.

It's Uncle Jeff. The, yeah, so to have you by the way, like someone wrote an opinion piece about how they don't like calling him Uncle Jeff. A lot of people are like yelling about that. I'm just like, I don't really care. I saw one theory that was like, they haven't earned it. They haven't earned to be in like a familial circle of Uncle Jeff.

I feel like though, it's just internet talk about like cool middle-aged that you support. That's, I don't know if you're a Percy Jackson fan, but they've been calling Rick Ryarden, Uncle Rick for all of time on the internet. Yeah.

That's fair. I mean, I feel like I've seen a lot of stuff about how this is, you know, a piece of, you know, nomenclature that is part of the black community, especially you talk about unc. And I do agree with that. Like, I can see why, in particular, it came

for people like Joanne and Christina. I think that makes sense in terms of what it's rooted. But I think, as you mentioned, Leona Q, I think, set it on Tyson's podcast when he's like, that man's not your uncle. You don't know him. Like, you don't need to, you don't, you shouldn't call him that. I mean, I do feel like I agree, Christine, that I think it's a little overblown,

but maybe it is more so like a representation of this season, which is like people are not necessarily viving with kind of the, the bits and antics that people are doing on the island. Yeah, I feel like it's just a younger generation coming in and the older generation's like, what are they doing? What is this uncle? And it's just like, I think it's really. casual.

Yeah. I think, I do think though it is almost, it's like the representative sort of thing that people are, people like maybe latch on to, to your point, Mike about if they're kind of not happy with maybe some of the other stuff,

it's like, yeah, and that Uncle Jeff thing, I really don't like that. Just adds on to the file of. I was actually thinking about this because something kind of unlocked for me this week. And it came from the moment before the immunity challenge where everyone

like, I know what this is. And Jeff's like, if you think you know it, say it then with your full chest. You don't know. And as much as we're joking about him trying to like apparently challenge these people to be like, if you think my job so cushy, why do you do it? I think that it does serve as sort of an epiphany for me

that Jeff told me in the preseason that he thought this was a very funny season that the cast brought a lot of humor. I think Jeff saw, a lot of stuff that he had fun with with them on the island that may not necessarily be coming across the same way to the cameras.

I'm sure Jeff had a ball with Stephen doing an impression of him. He's like, this is great. I love that he's playing with me in this aspect. He's asking these zany questions that tribal council are talking about eggs or something a couple of weeks ago. But I think for whatever reason,

that sense of humor may not be translated and edited and presented in a way that a lot of people are not sort of painting as like for lack of a better term cringe to a certain I love it there we go see I've been having fun with Jeff

I was laughing so much during that first journey when rhythm was like puzzles he was just like looking at the puzzle for a hundred years and then we cut back I forgot he was even playing against

Alex Alex is still digging he was like guaranteed to win like the editing there was prime but I think I think that I completely agree I think that that was a super super fun moment I think um I think some of the moments that maybe aren't translating or maybe more similar

to what I would say like the chicken and waffles moment I don't know Christine what did you think about the chicken chicken I feel like this is I don't know this moment you don't remember when so Survivor 48 Infantly Jeff offered a reward of fried chicken and waffles and then he made everyone chant fried chicken and waffles. Oh, that was awkward. Yeah.

Oh, I remember. Okay. Yeah, that was weird. No, that's not this season, though. No, no, no, no, no. Last season, last season, last season. No, I remember that. I was like, what's happening when this was going on?

Okay, so that's a bit, like, that moment, I feel like in, if I was there, I would maybe be like in it, right? Maybe it's kind of cultish. It's like, when you're there, you're having a great time and you're like, yes, fried chicken of waffles, like, let's do this. Or when you're out there and you're like, yes, Stephen, that's so funny. but then, like Mike says, it just doesn't necessarily translate to the TV

because you almost feel like you're not kind of in on the inside joke. So maybe then that way it doesn't like necessarily translate or you're not like part of that group camaraderie. You're that third party observer. And so you're not necessarily sort of in on that fun energy that they're experiencing out there. When that fried chicken waffle smell was happening, I was just picturing like all these starving people

and the producers being like, can you guys do a chant? And they'd be like, what kind? If you'd be better, if you sang. Can you be like, front, chicken and waffles? They're like, right, chicken and wavles. Like, this is definitely the thing for your supper, right? I'm like, okay, I guess. You like put more, if we, if we chant better, if we can bring your energy to it.

What are you? What are you? What are you? I guess we'll do it. Yeah. Maybe it's just a phase you're going through. You'll get over it. I can't help you with that.

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I want to ask about some of these bigger characters. Christine, I feel like Savannah, and specifically her edit, is such an enigma, considering that, like, she is this perennial target continues to survive despite getting, becoming the target yet again, getting more votes, surviving unanimously. And we talked about this last week, right? Like, whether or not she's a villain, you know, how her direct approach should be perceived. This week, we flat out get declaration from both parties that apparently her and Christina I mean, you know, we're talking to an author.

Like, they are not on the same page whatsoever. They are in different books on different sides of the library. I mean, what do you sort of make of Savannah this season and the way she's been presented? Savannah is giving parv more than anyone I've ever watched before. Like, she's the parviest non-parv I've ever seen on Survivor. The look in her eye, which she is determined, what she's doing an endurance challenge. I'm just like, that's parvety. Like it's so crazy to me

And I obviously I'm a huge fan of poverty And so I just like innately Was drawn to her game immediately And I just remember when I saw her On like the Survivor Instagram When I saw this clip of her being like I'll be a villain

And I was like oh I don't know if I'm gonna like her And then I saw on the show And I was like oh it's completely different vibe Love her and she's not really a villain It's just that like The whole thing with women being straightforward and not dancing around

issues so much. I feel like tends to invoke villain vibes from an audience. I don't, I know that a lot of people say that like she gives mean girl vibes and I

don't know. I feel like she's giving confident vibes. And a lot of times that's was construed. There was a moment in this episode that I thought was really interesting. It was when she was talking about how I might be the one to go home. And she still kind of has this little smile to her. Yeah. But it's like, it's not like, oh my God, wo is me. I'm going to go home. I'm freaking out. It's like, look, we're out here

to play the game and I'm still having fun, even though yeah, I could be the one that might ultimately go home. And that was actually, that was really interesting to see. I think that was the first, like, I mean, I do see the PARV comparisons, but it didn't like strike me that hard. That moment, I was like, I can see PARV doing that. Like, parv never really had that like, whoa is me moment. really like she was still laughing and having a good time playing the game even when her back was up against the wall yeah yeah i did also like this sort of i guess indignancy is a weird word but like her voting confessional for soppy which is like you know this uh this emotional revenge is actually also amazing strategy yeah and i love it i you know she is even though i agree that like i think her direct approach can be mistaken for villainy she is cutting whenever she is not talking to the person whether it being confessionals when she was talking about joan whether it was and these voting confessions being like, ha ha, Sophie, you suck. But also, it makes her great TV.

She knows what she's doing. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Oh, she's a great narrator. And it's like, whenever she gets a conventional in the edit, it's fun and I want to hear her talk. What's also interesting, though, is I saw a clip on Instagram the day after the episode.

I don't know if either one of you saw this from Savannah. who said that the, like, disagreement she had with Christina at tribal council was pretty much staged because they had both, because they had both been telling Sophie that, okay, I'm voting for Savannah. I'm voting for Christina. So they really wanted to build up this rivalry to make Sophie feel like that was still going to be the plan. And she didn't need to play her shot in the dark when they were both on board to do it. Now, Savannah did mention, like, I didn't know if Christina would go that far with the, oh, no, it's hate.

Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, you can see the hesitancy when she was like, hey, and she was like, let's not go there. Yeah, that was like the moment where it was like, you're play fighting and somebody hits a little bit too hard. And you're kind of like, and remember like, hey, we're just like playing here, right? Like this is just to pretend. Christina's like, no, I really want to hit you.

That's definitely what it felt like. I was like, okay, because I saw that clip too, Mike, and I was like, I believe Savannah. Christina might be, because I've heard those confessionals, at least with her. out there. I don't know how she feels now. But I was like, oh, it's pulling from somewhere. You know, you got to pull the inspiration when you're out there acting. So, yeah. I want to talk more about Sage here.

Christine, what did you make of her new quest for vengeance? And what did you think about like Joanne's sideline cheerleader on the jury bench in response and his turtleneck and chain? Yes, turtleneck, thank you. I am loving the cast. I am funny. I'm so entertaining. I love the Juan Sage relationship.

Sage has been such an interesting person to watch. In the beginning, she was just this like goofy random person that was like, I love eating pimples or like whatever she said. Collecting them, I'm sorry. I listen, I would not be surprised if she's like, listen, I've collected thousands of blackheads over the years. If you got into my mouth, like how many spiders do we eat every year? Eight.

she has had the best arc, I would say, on the edit of this season because she started as like this goofy random person who would always talk about poop. And then she had this one episode where she's like, she doesn't know, I'm a shark. Or like whatever she said. And then all of a sudden, she really was. Every episode, Sage was running the vote.

And it didn't necessarily, you know, it was something. Sometimes emotional, but it was still so fun because we haven't had a person on that was like so in charge and so emotional at the same time for a while, I feel like a lot of people are like, oh, they're emotional. Like they have no idea what they're doing. But when Sage said something, they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, and I think also Sophie B, the, the Sophie, like in this episode, we have heard, and she's like, I can't pull off these moves without Sage.

Yes, she is emotional, but the, so I mean, I think people are recognizing how Sage is making her decisions, but at the same time, they still want to work with her in order to accomplish their goals. And I do, I mean, the whole reason why Savannah and Rizzo wanted to flip on Joanne and Sage in the first place was because they were in the access of power. So they were controlling so many things in those previous votes. And what's interesting is that now this is the second week in a row where that's happened, right? Like you would, because at least Sophie, was perceived as sort of like the one who swung everything

over even amidst all the fake idols shenanigans and now she gets voted out pretty much for that reason. One of the many pitching points that Rizzo makes is like well she's been in the, she's the only person who's voted correctly every single tribal council she's been to because she's only gone to tribal council since the merge. So like

I wonder if this is going to be a little bit of like a king of the hill game to be like all right you have to be the person who's the swing vote but then once everyone recognizes you're the swing vote you're going to get voted out and there's going to be another swing boat to step into the power vacuum. Yeah, the swing vote people always end up getting bitten in the ass. Like for a second, they're like, I'm in power. And then the next episode, like, oh no. Oh, no, I'm not. Oh, no. I'm dead in the

water. Well, and I think you also have the compounding issue of the immunity challenges. That was like a big topic of conversation at tribal council where it was, well, only three of you have one immunity is now only two of the people left between Savannah and Stephen have actually one immunity. And so I'm sure that you can't help but look at a target like that and be like, huh, let's take her out. Yeah, it's valid. I mean, I think, yeah, there's been, much like they say, survivor represents society,

an unequal distribution of immunity wealth. It's really just being hoarded by these presumptive necklace billionaires who aren't sharing the resources. And so they want to give the power to the people. They want to consolidate the wealth a bit. I feel like it's been much worse in other seasons with the immune. Like Colby, didn't he just win immunity the entire season? Like I'm thinking like Survivor Palau were only Tom and Ian won the challenges.

Yeah, at least it's between a man and a woman. It was new women. Yeah. I mean, I think I'm sure that factored into. I don't think it was obviously the main, the main factor. I think one thing that I was a little bit remissed about is that I wish that other Sophie, and we can call her then. know, I wish that others

Sophie, I knew what a big threat she was because I feel like I was not really told that, but a unanimous vote to me signals that this was somebody who people were worried about winning in the end. And I didn't really feel that as an audience participant. So

that would have been nice to see. Yeah, I think that it does reflect upon Hina in general because if you think about it, Stephen, yeah, it makes sense why he would get edited the way he did. He was kind of in a very powerful position. He's obviously been involved in a lot of

the strategy, being on the top or on the bottom. Christina was alongside Sophie pretty invisible in the pre-merge, and that's by proxy of the fact that she never went to tribal council. Now she has a lot of the emotional hook. She also has this feeling of being on the bottom. MC had some stuff around having her

idol, which I think just like is a natural banking on airtime. But then like, we talked about this before, right? Like Jason, Matt really didn't know a lot about them. And now Sophie, I agree. on paper I'm always for an equitable at it again redistribution of wealth I feel like we should have known about her and especially

as you mentioned Leanna it's a bit of more of tell don't show of like yeah I guess she's a threat because everyone says she is but we don't exactly know why but this does feel as a bit of a consequence of like the fact that she didn't necessarily need to play a survivor for the first half of the season and so she didn't get a lot of air time yeah I mean

I felt like we didn't know that she was a threat physically because she had won the two challenges, definitely. But then there was that moment where one of the, I forgot who said that she was, she's kind of socially unaware of where she was in the tribe. And then we kind of pulled down her threat level

because of that statement. But she was, she had made a new connection. And I feel like with the Oolie group. So I'm just going to call them the Oolie group, even though it's just two Ulies. and I think she was doing that pretty successfully for half a second

so maybe that made her form a thread because now she has them, yeah. Oh, I was trying to think of, I've been thinking for a while of like, okay, what's the name of that trio? The Rizzo Savannah, so B, B, group because, and I did come up

with the name. Okay. What about the Kooley kids? Because they're sort of like the cool kids, right? Are they? And they're from Uli originally. And well, and Kella, right? Ella, yeah. Cool with a K.

I just feel like is Rizzo a coolly kid? I feel like, I mean, at least like, again, this is the fun thing about him is like, he feels like he comes from this environment right where he's like, you know, this 25 year old string baby, but like on this island, he is a literal god, right? He swings his idol around. He's the kid on the playground that people are like the clown over there.

And he's saying he's the god. but he's not actually like and that is no shade in school I would never want to be the cool kid they're mean that's why yeah that's the only reason why the cool kid kind of settles weird it's the coolie kids that changes it yeah yeah yeah well it's spelled k-u-l-i yeah it's that how we're spelling coolie okay so it's like maybe it's like it swings it around to mean like the coolie kids that were cool because they're confident, but even though they're not the coolest. That's exactly. Yeah.

I think Rizzo has that nerd swagger. Yes, that's what he has. Listen, you may think I'm a dweep. I don't care. I know I'm not. Yeah. No. They're all so smart and playing such a great game in so many different ways.

I'm just so excited to see what happens next. Well, then my question is, Christine, you know, are the coolly kids here to stay? Because I know that your heart was breaking over the idea of Sophie betraying them. But do you feel like to win the game, she should? My heart wants them to be final three together. And if it's going to depend, if I were the only person voting, it would depend on their speeches.

Because I think they're all playing a great game. But since I'm not, I do think that, I don't know. I don't know. I think it's going to depend. I feel like Savannah is a really good speaker, but so is Risgod. And Sophie's so endearing. I don't know.

Honestly, I think she should go to the end of them because it'll be fun to watch. You're like, I'm Team Good TV. I'm doing it for the world. You're in the Rizzo bucket. Like, I'm doing it for the memes. And for the friendship. I love friendship. The three stooges were so much fun to watch.

feel like that's the last time I had this feeling with a group of three and I wanted them all to get to the end together and it was sad when one of them didn't. So like, I don't want that. I want them all to make it. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think Sophie is in a really, really tough position going into next week because, well, I mean, there's also the whole like advantage thing in it of itself, right? That complexity. But like if we play out a universe where, you know, like, does Sophie flip with the other three, right? Does she go with Sage and Stephen and Christina? Like, is that the group?

Now, we obviously know about all of the advantages in play. They don't. So we know that she has the knowledge is power. She could use it on the idol. She could try to use it on the block of oath, which I think is a very important distinction. Is she allowed to? So here's the thing.

that the block of vote is a rarefied error amongst advantages and that it must be played before they leave to go to tribal council, which is a little on on paper, right? Because it's like, well, shouldn't he be able to like make a decision, make an audible if he sees that things are going south? But it actually works out to his, for lack of a better term, advantage here because Sophie can only steal an advantage at tribal council. So she could ask him,

Stephen, do you have an advantage? and he says, I mean, I had one as of like five hours ago and she wouldn't be able to take it because it was already played. Do we know, though, if that, if that's the real technicality or can she just still change it? Jeff said it. Well, so Jeff, Jeff did confirm that that is the mechanics of the block of vote plus the knowledge is power.

Now, if she gets up and she actually, that's a great question though. If she gets up and she says that to Stephen, is the knowledge is power played? Or is it just like, oh, it didn't work. Now you can play it on someone else. No, it's played. Because you think about the previous times I was used, right? With Leanna, with Dreia.

Like, they asked, hey, can I give you this? And they said no. And that was it. They couldn't ask around. They couldn't pull the community being like, uh, you. It's a, it's a gun with one bullet in it. And if you miss your S. I wish she took Christina's.

at all last time. Yeah, I mean, we could honestly be getting into an environment as recent as next episode where like the knowledge's power goes unused. Rizzo's idol goes unused. I think Stephen will use the block of vote. It seems like he's really hinting at that next time. Yeah. Which I guess would bring, I mean, that's tough though for them

because are they banking on Sophie voting with them? You know, like they would probably block Savannah's vote, for instance, and the two of them would vote Savannah. along, oh no, I guess if they have Sage, if they feel like they have Sage. The question is, would Sage be with them? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think

I think Sage is actually really the question mark here because it really, assuming, like, let's assume, I do think that Sophie, even though I don't think it's her optimal move, I think she will stay with Savannah and Rizzo. So don't worry, Christine. I think that trio, you're going to stay loyal.

they could be in danger if Sage flips over and then Stephen uses the block of vote correctly then you have three versus two votes and then that could obviously go sideways so that's a that's a possibility yeah I wonder if they could turn

I don't want to put it on the universe they turn they could turn Sage against someone really hard Honestly, honestly, I think that there's a universe where if you can convince Sage, Stephen stole something from her, I don't know. No, you know what you say? This is the pitch. You go over to Sage and you're like, when you were looking over at Joanne and you were giving him that thumbs up, Stephen rolled his eyes so hard.

It's the exact opposite of the Sophie reaction. Because Sage was not mad that Sophie voted out Joanne. She was angry that she relished it, right? that she seemed to show no sort of emotional recompense from getting rid of it. So, like, turn that around, right? Be like, you know this big move that you made? Steven snickered? And he tittered and he laughed in his little hands being like,

look what Dave thought she could do. Titter. Honestly, that would be really fun. That would be very funny. That sounds like a Rizzo thing, considering how much we know Rizzo just like spin straw out of gold. Yes. And he's good.

at it. He's good at it. Yeah. I mean, I ultimately think so like Sophie's move. What Sophie from as an outside observer, what I think should happen. I'm sure this has been discussed on other pots. Steal Rizzo's idol. Then you have it. Then

you play it at final five where you're safe. Right? Like there's unless everybody then all of a sudden like you she plays the knowledge of power at final six gets the idol and then they all like switch their votes and like vote her out. Like that's the only thing that I could think about would be in danger, but otherwise, she's safe at final six, safe at five, guaranteed, and already in the final four.

Yeah, that would probably be her best move because then she'd have that whole thing to show the jury. And it would be so fun to be like, you weren't even using it. You weren't even using it. So I felt I should just use it since you're not using it. Yeah. No, I got, I got this gift. Well, you weren't using it. So I'm going to use it. Yeah. But that's interesting. Because it would be a fun sort of competition between the coolie kids alliance of like who is going to impress the jury most. Even looking at the Jawan vote, you have like

Savannah trolling Jawan up until his final moment. You have Rizzo with the fake idol. If so he's stealing Rizzo's idol because he has no use for it, like I just love the slow kind of crabs in a bucket metaphor of everyone pulling each other down to like edge out their alliance

members and the standing of things. Yeah. No, that would be a fun showdown. I'm curious, Christine, do you like the journeys? Do you like this advent in the new era? And did this, you know, agree or disagree with your opinion about the strenuous journey we got on this episode? I don't love the journeys. Like, I, there are a couple that stand out, though, and we're like, that was so fun.

One being the Rizzo one, one being the one where Rachel got her advantage and they pulled that thing off of the dock. Which we like sort of got a version of here, right? It was not a, it was more of a natural timer. Yeah, I did not have the yoink. It had more so like, and the pot will raise and it'll just kind of drop. That was anti-climactic. He was like, I just got it in time. I was like, there looked like there was like four feet left.

But no, with Rachel, it was like, I was dying, watching that. But every other journey, like the ones with the hill, I hate those. like vertical climbing absolutely not walk around the island sure any elevation no can do the island was actually kind of fun it was giving the log

challenge from 40 and and the other what was the non-log challenge that also required the island running there was another one I remember in an idea of extinction it was a lot of like run around and find fire tent ends just around the

island, which is pretty strenuous in and of itself. Yeah, like I remember, someone fell. Maybe it was Rob, on like the rocks and it was dramatic. I mean, I feel like, like, I like the unique aspect of it. As you said, Christine, I love the, the change in location. And clearly it was fun to film. I mean, they kind of yada yada, yada, the rest of the point where people noticed that if you remember in Survivor 45, Jacob Kane earned an advantage at the final five

by doing a similar thing when they had to run around and find numbers. and the combination that he used for that was the exact same combination that Stephen had here. No way. Yeah, 1843, 25. Oh, my God. That was the, he assigned H-1 to Survivor winner, J.T. Gabler, Denise.

Oh, that's right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, my God. She just, like, memorized all the codes. Just try them quick. See? I feel like there's a Christian Hubicki podcast where he said that.

He was like, there's only like a set number of codes that they've used throughout Survivor history to just commit a few to memory. Now, granted, at this point, especially after running, you know, like a freaking acre around the island, like you're probably forgetting all the combinations you may have memorized up to that point.

An acre? Yeah, but like, couldn't even just tried it before he left? Like, did he have to run? I don't think so. It was just unlocked. Try random numbers. It might have been easy. If Christian was there,

that was the approach, he would have taken. It works more or not harder. Could you imagine? Just gets it on his first try because he's memorized it. It's just like the puzzle of that first episode. Yep.

That would honestly be iconic. I hope he got to do that on 50. I'm trying to see how many combos. How many combinations? I think it's still a lot. But also, wait, can we talk about that one moment when Sophie left and she was like, no, you can't have my jacket.

So they were clearly making jokes about Angelina in the jacket, but we didn't get to see any of them. So it didn't pay off. I was like, where were they? I love those jokes. Yeah, apparently, Sophia said in an interview that, like, she had a really nice jacket.

So it was partially an Angelina reference and also, like, like, legitimate warnings. Like, please stay away from my clothing. I really like that jacket. So, like, I don't know. I personally feel like, yes, possession, design tense of the law and maybe you feel a certain way about like handling other people's stuff

but like I personally got to feel like if you left something behind like don't Jonathan Penner it you know like don't ask for that to be returned to you it is the property of the island and ergo the other people at that point belongs to the island now wait so are you telling me that there was a jacket she left

behind? I think so. Oh it wasn't like that sweater she was wearing so I was like why would they want that sweater? She said like a yellow She said that she said that she She left behind her jacket Hey, why wouldn't she let somebody use it? Pettiness. This is a pettiness is the theme of the episode, Christine. Oh my God.

I would feel like you can wear, they're cold. Well, she does not get down in the cold. It hurts me when people need to wear other people's jacket. Like, okay, on Australia where they kept wearing David's jacket. Was it David's jacket? And I was like, why was it? they're even allowed to have this fucking heavy ass jacket. And

Cerey was not. We're Ceree's leather jacket. Again, more inequity. She could have been her rider, should have been her green M&Ms is like, listen, and every time I go on Survivor, I demand furrier and furrier jacket. Yes.

Oh my God. That jacket like rotated amongst them the whole time. And I was like, I'm so glad that they, he's sharing his jacket. Got a lot of use out of that. That's an advantage to blindsiding somebody is they're not able to pack up all of

their material belongings. Oh, I think you're going to say that's the advantage of friendship. No. You know what they say friendship is the true advantage. It really is. All right.

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as we get into one of our first segments here on the b and b which are leona and my preseason predictions on sophy s now sophy s in a very unique position here christine i'm not sure if you knew Sophie S had been to Fiji prior to Survivor 49. She was actually the female alternate for Survivor 48. Oh, shit. Okay. And so she had some familiarity with the islands, obviously not from an experiential perspective.

But, Leanna, did that previous sense memory impact your prediction for her at all? Yeah. So I had Sophie making the finale, not the anti-pin ultimate finale. The final finale finale. finale. The mother of all fanalies. So I said that Sophie would bond with Jason and Stephen on Hina as

the Strategy Sharks Alliance who along with MC runs Hina pre-merge and controls the first few post-merge votes. However, Sophie and MC turn against Jason and Stephen favoring new alliance mates in Sophie

said Sophie B and Sage. This new power alliance with the help of Rizzo and Savannah ran the game all the way till the end, putting Sophie in the final three stumps. Final tribal turns into a former Hina versus Uli war as Sophie and Savannah battle it out for the votes, each trying to claim the alliance's moves as their own.

Sadly, the odds were not in Sophie's favor as she loses the final vote. Oh, that's a low-key-spoiled winner pick here. Yeah? Ally, MC, enemy, Jake. Remember Jake? Jake. There's like, it's in his, there's like a whole feud thing that happens.

You can't include the whole lore in everybody's prediction. But anyway, yeah, I had her as a losing finalist. Wow. Oh, shit. I prospect. I know. Do you make these predictions before you even watch an episode? Oh, wow.

They're at the beginning of the season. So it's a time capsule. Yeah. All right. Well, I certainly had lofty prospect for Sophie S, so that's certainly did not jump as high, did not clear that bar. I did have Sophie S making the jury. I said, with this being her second time in Fiji, Sophie S decides to take the game by the horns to start. As a result, she becomes one of the more vocal members of Hina during Matt chats, happy to smack talk the other tribes about how well they're doing.

And after being brought into the Control Alt Delete Alliance with Jason and MC, that's the last time I need. to talk about the Control Alt Delete Alliance. She's hopefully writing a million dollar check that her ass can cash. Speaking of how handy has hell, Sophie is, I guess she said that in my interview, we'll get a bunch of random background moments where she's created some sort of hat

or newfangled type of clothesline only using the object she can garters. She didn't make a hat, right? She made a hat. The leaf one, right? Didn't Christina have one too? Yes, they did. Not pay attention to this hat.

It's basically just a giant leaf. Yeah, there's a, it's a hat. at the very base level of definition. Was it as cool as Kenzie's stuff? No. No. I mean, very rare things are. At the merge, Hina is primed to take and maintain power in the first couple votes,

but fearing Jason's likability and law school experience in the final three, Sophie and MC decide to object to their alliance. Control all deletes, task is ended when they join the rest of the tribe in taking out their own ally. Unfortunately, while Sophie proved how shrewd of a player she was, turning on her own ally

doesn't send the greatest signal to the other players. And when MC wins a crucial immunity challenge, all sites are set on her. Feeling the heat, Sophie brings it to tribal council. She tries to simultaneously kickstart a live tribal while also airing out everything she knows about the game at that point. Unfortunately, airing out everyone's dirty laundry did not work for the clothesline maker

as she is eliminated around 8th or 9th place. Her ally was MC and her enemy was Sophie B, parenthesis. There could be only one. Oh, the Sophie is. Oh, I liked when they united for a second. Aw. So, Christine, the pen is in her hand here. You get to determine which one of us had the better prediction for Sophie Sogretti.

Oh, shit. This is your first test. I didn't know. I was going to have to choose. You're both equally amazing. They're both great. But your knowledge is far. It's fine.

I mean, I think. now I'm only remembering Mike's because you were the last one to speak. Leonna can read hers again, that's fine. No, no. How did it end? I have her in the finale and Mike had jury at like eight or nine places. I think where she finished, right?

Against what I got. Oh, seven. Okay, so yeah, one off. Yeah, so I don't want to get myself, I don't want to take a point out of my own pocket, but yours was on the wall. But Mike's was more accurate. Yeah.

Before we move on from Sophie, I need to recap something that I was able to scoop from my interview with her earlier this week. Because I had to ask her, where did this Sophie Sof thing come from? Right. Because the way it was shown to us, it seemed like it could have been read as Sophie being like, I will be Sophie and she will be soap. You know, like, okay, sometimes the winner in the conversation is the first person to speak. So I asked where did this end up coming from? And there was a complex story behind it.

Because allegedly, initially, the sophies wanted to go by their last names. Oh, cool. And Balerty. Why didn't we? According to her, one of the cast members who shall remain nameless said the last names were, quote,

too complicated to remember. Sexist. So then... That is rude. So then they decided. decided, okay, blue Sophie, yellow Sophie, but then apparently the rudeness got passed over to Jeff Probst as at that challenge,

you know, when they offer up the options, Jeff said, we're not doing that color bullshit. No, where you pick a actual name. And so that's how they stumbled on Sophie and so it was literally their third choice. Literally. I was in a situation where I was there and there were two Christine's. I would be like, call me Poland bananas.

Like, I would call on an entirely. different names. Call me about my aimed screen name. Call me something different. Sophie and Sophie is so very close. I would have been like, call me Adriana.

But also they were still like I heard through once that decision was made, I heard yellow Sophie. I heard blue so. Literally two people wrote down yellow Sophie on their votes for her. Yeah. Exactly.

So it clearly didn't stick. And also Sogretti isn't that hard. And what's a what's Sophie? No, just because they're both Italian sounding. I bet they were like, oh, it's too complicated. They sound the same. Oh, my God. I don't know.

Maybe the heat was having a big impact. People would be like, I can't memorize three syllables. So many letters. You know, also when you already have a name in your head, and they were already thinking of her as yellow Sophie or blue Sophia on the other tribes because they didn't know her. So it's like you already, it's like when you call someone Katie when they're little and they're like going by Caitlin now.

It's, you can't do it. you're already calling them Katie. You're Katie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, still though. I mean, but I guess it depends when, so, but when, did she say when that conversation happened, Mike? Was that like at merge when they,

when they were deciding on the names? Yeah, we were talking about all your last names. Yeah, but in the early like the merge episode because then at that challenge, right, is the conversation where Jeff's like, I need to stop down. It's great, we're all merged. But there's one thing we all need to work out and we're not. leaving this room until we do.

What's going on with the sofies? That was a great impression that first part. I was my Stephen. I did channel my best Stephen in that moment. And I'm sure it was just as cringy. Mm-hmm. All right. Well, speaking of Stephen, of course.

Nothing is cringe. I hate that word. It's just like people aren't allowed to be weird. Let them be. I agree with that. There's freedom in being weird. Yes. All right. Well, it was a big episode for Stephen, a big challenge win for Stephen, as we had a new take on a Survivor classic, where instead of doing the platform with the letters that you had to stack now, it was attached to a disc. A lot of polarized opinions, not pulling bananas opinions about this. Some felt like it was a nothing burger. It was too easy. I mean, it does look like Sage and Stephen did not drop once.

Jeff said on the podcast that he did not like this version How did you guys feel about it? You could see in Jeff's eyes he's like they better drop or I'm going to be fucking pissed about how this new challenge is going because the best thing about the other challenge is like you know

when you're watching it you're like everyone's going to drop at least once there's a learning curve and so everyone has a shot and this one you're like shit anyone ever going to drop or it's just going to be boring and Steve's going to win in two seconds. And Stephen's going to win. They almost tried with

I don't know, speed bumps maybe on the platform. I was like somebody's going to trip more than somebody's going to pull it and it's accidentally going to spin off. That was what I felt was more the danger there. But clearly didn't seem to be a problem at all. But I totally agree with you. Not only was it in Jeff's eyes, but you can hear it in his voice when he's narrating.

He's like, what's going to happen? He was like, wait, it's landing a lot. It's leading so much. Or even like, oh, Stevens Tower collapses seconds after he finished. Is it because Jeff, he, like, yanked on the rope and threw his hands in the air when he won? Yeah. Because that sudden burst of the move and maybe have upset peak equilibrium a smidge. So many times he was like, look how crooked it is.

Look how crooked. It's going to listen to Jeff. Even if it leans a little to the left, it still works, you know? Yeah. Oh, but no, it was so funny to listen to Jeff Nair. I guess he was really, really, really trying. Well, yeah. As much as Jeff wanted the blocks of spin-off, the spin-off did not work.

But here's the fun thing about these challenges. We give them a fresh coat of paint sometimes. But sometimes the names they're given exist in time memoriam. Christine, you know better than everyone about how a title can determine the memorability of a book. Do you have a secret to what makes a good title, what makes a good name? Yeah, something that you don't hear all the time, I feel like, but that also when you get to the end of the book, you're like, oh, I know why it was called that. Something that works, but then when you get to the end, you're like, oh, double meaning, you know?

That sort of ordeal is always the best title. But like, if you can Google it and a million things come up, if it's already a saying a lot of times, not so great. But what? I mean, I'm not sure if the Survivor Challenge Team as intrepid they are used any of that logic. Maybe because they were not looking to get on the bestseller list. This is for book titles.

I have a little test for you, Bull. with John Huling, what's in a game? Here's how it's going to work. I am going to give you a Survivor Challenge. And I'm going to give you three possible names for it. Okay. You have to guess what the challenge name is. Oh, I love this.

Okay. I love inventing names. All right, well, Leon, I'll start with you. I'll give our newbie a rest here. And let's start with a familiar challenge. And in fact, we saw a version of it in this episode, but we're going back to the original. So I brought some pictures, as well, some visual aids.

So you can remember what the challenge is. So for those that may not remember, this is the challenge where typically there is a wobbly platform, and you have to walk back and forth to another platform, get blocks, and stack them to spell immunity. It's not as fun of the other one. Exactly. Does it have spinning involved? Yeah. Well, it does it have wobbling enough.

Well, Leanna, do you think this challenge is named Road Tip? Here's a tip or a bit tipsy. Ooh. Ooh. I like a bit tipsy. So purely because I like that name, I'm going to try to will that into existence. Who says that manifestation doesn't work? A bit tipsy.

That's correct. And Leanna is on the board right on the top. The best one. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Next up, this is another Survivor classic. We just saw this one a few weeks ago.

This was kicked off. I suppose Savannah's a challenge streak. It brought her a very important one that got her that advantage where she got the extra boat. She got to go visit camp and disrupt everything. So, Christine, this one is on you. Okay. We have uncomfortably numb. chimney sweep or get a grip.

I'd just say calling this chimney sweep is so funny. Random. Okay. I feel like it's called get a grip, even though that's the worst. I feel like this should be called ouch or something. Just ouch. Just an automotapia. Ouch.

But yeah, I feel like I've heard get a grip. grip, which is why I want to call it that. What was the first one? Sounded like a Nirvana song? What was the name again? Uncomfortably numb. Yeah. Isn't that an album name or something? That would, if it's not, it should be. Anyway,

I'm going to say, well, I don't know. It would be fun if it was called chimney sweeps. But like, it doesn't really give it. I, no, well, wait, um, it, uh, okay, you know what? I'm going to go

uncomfortably numb because maybe Get a grip's a different one. I don't know. I'm going to lose. So you are correct that Get a grip is a different challenge. That is the one where you have to hug the pole. Oh, yes.

But it's the chimney. It is the chimney. I should have gone with the one I like the best. You're going to press. It's right. Why does you follow your heart? Oh, because it just sounded so stupid. It sounded like very popular.

Yeah, I don't know if chimney sweeps are supposed to do this, but I guess it does resemble a chimney somewhat. It's like if you're climbing up the chimney, like you're a spy, you have to go out the chimney. That's what it's up. All right. Well, let's get into another classic endurance challenge here, Leanna. It's a little tough to look at,

but this is the challenge where you have to hold onto a bar that's wedging a ball in place. And if you lower the bar too much, the ball rolls down. You are out. we have I'm still standing Procadile Rock

Bitter fingers Bitter fingers These are all songs by Elton John Oh bitter fingers Is not as a fun as a name So I'm immediately The jaws of the thing with the ball in it

I think it's crocodile rock Ooh, I like that. And so did the challenge producers. You are two for two. That's what stood out to me. You're killing it. Yep. Yeah.

One of Elton John's goofier songs with one of the goofier endurance challenges we have. Mm-hmm. All right. Let's see if we can get you on the board with this next one. Oh, not this challenge. So this is the challenge where you have to go out into the water. You have to battle for a ring or a bag or something. You have to get it over to your side.

your choices are by any means necessary oh black water or put a ring on it what the okay I felt like by any means necessary is the name for some reason

because I feel like I've heard it before this challenge stresses me out so hard watching it like I hate it. Why is it just like the intense physical battle?

Don't we're just going to get hurt doing this. I mean, oh yeah, this was the challenge that had Stephanie dislocated

her shoulder that broke two of Rupert's toes. Yes. And it was like the opening challenge in 40, I feel like

or the second episode. I did not like it. But anyway, and I feel like it's not that much fun to watch because like it's just stressful. But I feel like it's

but, well, if it's put a ring on it, I'm going to be so upset. I like that. name. I feel like it's by any means necessary. I'm going to get it wrong because I'm not falling in heart. You got to the answer by any means necessary. It was the correct one. Yes. Oh, man. See, I would say I'm glad you got there, but it's a little bit of an odd name. It is. You know, I looked up a lot of the challenge

names back when I was writing attached at the hip because I just wanted to like, like, just have a list of challenges in front of me to inspire their challenges. And yeah, I remember hearing that name. It's a mouthful. It's violent. It's violent. It's violent. Is put a ring on it another challenge?

No, I just manned it up. Okay. Well, it should call it that. They should call it that. We're a challenge. You can keep the murder challenge, but him make a new one. All right. Next one. So this is an element of a challenge.

Leanna. We've seen it a couple of times. Most recent is last season where there is like a series of targets on a corkscrew and you have to throw sandbags at the targets. This is like one of the big Chris Noble challenges in Ghost Island. This is the one that war dog kept whiffing on in edge of extinction. Isn't like Shane or who is his name? I don't remember that blonde guy who was really good at this. Yeah, Chris, Chris Noble. Oh, that's his name. Okay. The model. All right. Your choices are. Rod, screw it, Ebenezer Scrooge, or Screwbacca. Oh, my God, Scroobaka. If you didn't write that one. Okay, Screwbacca, what were my first two options? I got distracted. Rod, Ross, Screw it, and Ebenezer Scrooge. The last, like, Jameser, Scrooge.

Genuinely, the first and last one, almost feel too punny for Survivor. But I want it to be Screwbocka so bad. I know, right? Oh, oh, man, but the Ebony's are screwed. That's so boring. Why would it be that? It's not like, it's mean to them. I'm going to go, I'm going to go with A.

I'm going to go with A. Rod screw it. Yeah. Well, you said screw it. And you are correct. It is Rod screwing, which is sort of like a. very loose take on Rod Stewart. I know. Yeah, exactly.

Well, I know that, like, John Kierhofer has talked a lot about music inspiring the names of them. So I was like, I don't think he's, I don't know how in the literature he would be if Ebenezer Scrooge made it on the list. So, I mean, Screw Baca was one of my favorites to write at this entire game, I'll admit. Oh, amazing. Chef's Kiss. Perfect.

So good. It's also, it's screw B, A, C, K, because you screw it back. Yes. But you got to pronounce it bach for fun. Just for the fun, for the lulls. All right. Leon is three for three so far, but Christine,

you can stay in the hunt with this next one. Oh, the coconut one. Yeah, this is a challenge where you're holding a heavy net that gets heavier by the other tribe throwing coconuts into it.

And the first tribe to drop with the coconuts ends up getting out. So your choices are Basque Nutball, nut bucket, and hold your nuts oh no

oh god it has to be I'm playing basking a ball because the other ones suck sorry survivors it can't be nut bucket it can't be nut bucket that's horrible

wait what is it is it not bucket it's not bucket no Ew! Why would you do that, Survivor? Oh, Mike. That's so funny.

They say the best jokes are rude in the truth. Truth is stranger than fiction. Oh, my God. I did feel very proud about Basque NutBowls. I like that one. That's a great one. Slightly more subtle than Nut Bucket buckets sometimes. I don't know.

I mean, this was really a, this was really a, of, really got Johnton the Pallia off during his tenure on Australia's rare where he's talking like busting nut after nut in that bucket. Like, good God. Talk about a repository for not only coconuts, but very guilty references. Oh, my God.

Leanna. Oh, boy. So this is a classic, long-use, final immunity challenge where you have to navigate, you have to put like a bowl on a little fork, like a fireplace poker, and you have to move it around the structure without disrupting the structure too much.

and then stack it at the very top of it. We've got track and stack. We've got You Shook Me All Night. And we've got Operation Balance Build. You Shook Me All Night's the best one. I love You Shook Me All Night. What was A again? Track and Stack.

Ugh. I'm going with you. I'm going with, even though you shook me all night. Does that even make sense? Whatever. I love you shook me all night. We're going to go with that. Thank you.

because I made it up. Operation balance build. After not bucking, yeah, what is this naming system? Yeah, I'm not entirely sure about this one. Give me Operation Italy over Operation Balance Build. Yeah, the knockoff. It's giving way too boring for this.

It's giving placeholder. It's giving Operation Balance Build. one with a better name before we write it. It should be called cup. No, I don't know. Anything's better than operations. For survivors, one cup? Any, oh, no.

I was going to say any one of Mike's ideas, but not that one. Listen, John, I don't know if you're listening, but you shook me all night is right there if you want to use it. No, that's a good one. That's a good one. Thank you. All right. Next up.

Ooh, the worm. This is a classic one. Yes, the worm. I forget who's up right now. Me. Sorry, I was giving too much commentary. Classic, classic challenge where you have to worm your way

through the sand, not unlike Dune, pushing a ball along the way, of course a picturesque image of Andy getting to do so in Survivor 47. Your options are slither me timbers. Oh, my God. Serpent turf or white snake.

No, not Whisnake. Just a no. Slyther me Timbers is a great name. Wait, what was the second one again? A serpent turf. No. I hope it's not serpent turf.

I can see it being that. I have to go with my heart and go slither me timbers because it's too fun. Well, I guess they redeemed themselves from the last two answers because slither me timbers is correct. Yes.

I got one right. You got too right. out of four. I mean, I only got three out of four, so it's still a tight race. Still an opportunity. Listen, if this challenge teaches you anything, you can never be too far behind.

You just got a wriggle, like a worm on speed. We know that. Make your way to the best front of the past. Yes. All right, Leanna, next up. You guys want to do, like when you think about what challenge

would be the most stressful for you, do you think about that worm challenge? That's a tough one. That's a tough one. It's just constantly have your face and sand. is like the most unpleasant experience. I also feel like if you had any sort of modicum of shame

like this would be by far the best way for you to maybe literally get pants on national television like no one looks graceful doing this whatsoever. Even the best performers are embarrassed by how they appear. Oh yeah. They should just laugh at it because it's so funny

but like everybody looks stupid. Everybody does look stupid. There is no way to look graceful doing that job. It makes it fun to watch. All right. Leanna, this was one we haven't seen in a while,

but it's a fun endurance challenge where you have to be in a squatting position holding onto these two poles with a vase at the end of it. And if you adjust it too much, baseball's out. You are out. Your options are pop a squat,

dittily squat, and squatty probes. Ooh. Squatty probes coming. back. So obviously I'm between Papa Squad and Didley Squad. I really like, I actually really like both. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with Papa Squat.

Papa Squat, okay. That's right. You laughed at him. You chided him. No. No. And you want to know, you want to know something a little bit more, Leanna. Wait.

I'm going to dig in the knife a little bit. Are you kidding? During Survivor Heroes versus Healers versus Hussels, our very first game of the B&B, you made a game called Squatty Proops or Squatty Pottie. Yes, but I thought I made that up. It is the name of the challenge. Now, what I will say is that this is not so,

I'll spoil a little bit because I actually have a little bit of something I've kept under wraps for a while that should be coming into your feeds early next year, but I got the chance to talk with the challenge team, went in depth to some of their favorite challenges. They mentioned this. This is not named after Jeff. Probst. Jeff Probes

has a brother named Scotty who has visited the set from time to time and so they named the challenge after him. Oh my God. That's all coming together but did he invent this? Why they just they randomly were like, we're naming this after your brother.

Yeah, I don't know what this says about his bathroom habits. Yeah, squatty probster squatty potty and it was Jeff Probe's commentary but see I don't think I did I name no you literally said the name no but

no I know it says squatty probes or squatty potty but I don't remember if it's because it was it for this challenge? Yes Oh my God that's absolutely wild maybe we'd be doing this for too long because they can't remember

one of the first games we did here oh my God In an attempt to find relief, was that squatty probes or squatty potty? I feel like that's that's squatty probes, right? It is. Oh my God. I'm going to bring that game back. We're playing my God.

Again, we just sell, do a remix on it. Put it on a spitting disc and see how it performs. Exactly. All right, Christine, this does give you the ability to patch up here. Your only one behind. Oh, my God. This challenge. Oh, this one.

This is a challenge that would. make the shoe bandit salivate. This is one of those challenges where you have to do it entirely with your feet. They had to unwrap a post to form these logs, and they had to stack the logs with their feet into like some sort of circular structure. Your choices are the game is afoot, soul survivor, or kickback. we definitely want to go. The game is afoot.

If they didn't call it that such a missed opportunity and they should change it. You and they are right on the money. That is correct. Let's go. Oh my God.

I like Soul Survivor. I thought that was fun. Yeah. No, it is, but it's nowhere near as good as the game is afoot. This is so you have to experience the variability of like sometimes the names are really good.

Sometimes they really are not up to snow. Operation stacking dishes Stacking dishes Better somehow Than anything you tell your kids To be like Hey come on You're a super spy right now

Do you operation stacking dishes Yes That would work on me I'm not gonna lie Still to this day Might work on me I think you do All right

Leanna Next up Ooh So this is another Classic Endurance Challenge The plan Then we saw David preemptively doing his daddy

calendar pose in the Survivor 48 version of it. We have your wrists end, no wrist for the weary or wrist assured. Oh. All great options. Those are

all really great options. Can you read them one more time? Sure. We've got your wrists end. Okay. No risk for the weary. And wrist assured. I'm not going to go no risk for the weary.

Oh, you might be growing quite weary because that is incorrect. Risk assured. Oh, no. That was the least favorite one. Yeah, no risk for the weary is great. That should have been, especially because it's an endurance challenge. Oh, okay, fine. Whatever.

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there's one more question left oh shit what's the score? You could if you get this you're tied right now three to three oh gosh you're at the swing vote right now

if you get this right if you get this right if not we go to a tiebreaker okay here is the challenge so this is a really unique challenge

oh is this when they had the swing them yes it's only been played twice in Survivor history but it's where one person is in this suspended bench and other tribes have to

the people in the tribe have to work to pull them up to like put certain number tiles into place. Yeah. So your options are high rise, angry chair or stay or scaffold.

Angry chair. That's lazy. Were they trying to make a play on angry Birds. Okay, what was the third one? So we had, we had high-rise, angry chair, stay or scaffold. Stay or scaffolded. I'm sorry if you made an angry chair. I feel like that has to be. That's so dumb that it must be them because the other ones are better. Wait, what's the first one again? It was high-rise. High-rise. Oh, this is stressful. And the last one is stay or scaffold. Fair scaffold and a much maligned angry chair is the other option. Fuck.

Okay, I want to say the first one's called high-rise. Yep. I guess I'm going to go, I feel like that one makes the most sense. Like, why is it an angry chair? Like, and, and, yeah. Wait, the last one, stay or scaffold.

Why would we stay? let's go let's go the first one high rise high rise okay have you risen to take the lead oh god you have not we have a cry angry chair I knew it I knew it to be fair angry chair is the name of an Allison chain song so it wasn't completely taken out of nowhere that's what you mentioned uncomfortably numb that doesn't take on the Nirvana song okay okay still no no No. I can't believe it was angry chair and I knew it was. And then I second-dressed myself.

I am so angry slash chair. Okay. So I have a tiebreaker here. Here's what we're going to do. Okay. I am going to get into a classic survivor challenge here, but they've quickly termed the gross food eating challenge. Oh, God.

I will give you four names. Three of these names have been used. in a previous gross food eating challenge. Okay. One of them. Oh, like an item, like a food item. No, the name of the challenge. Oh, to describe it.

Okay. So you have to pick, this time you have to pick the fake name out of the real names. We'll use the honor system here. We'll have each of you silently choose the answer. Okay. And we'll see if you get a right, if we'll go, I don't know, it's double over time or something. Okay.

So your options are bugging out. Okay. Survivor smoothie Okay Pan a menu Or you pick I choose Spelled at C-H-E-W-S Okay

So those four options again Buggin out Survivor smoothie Pan-a-M-A-M-U-Pick I choose spelled C-H-E-W-S Okay Mentally lock in your answers Okay

Leanna what did you say? Give us the reasoning. Okay. I went with C. Panam menu. Panam menu. Because I liked the others more. Okay. I went with C. Panama menu too because that was the worst one.

And yeah, because also I think I've heard Bougan out. I know the smoothie from that season with the smoothie. And then the you pick, I chew just like they put some work into that. I don't know if I should feel insulted because that is the correct answer We both were like yeah we hate that one oh not that one that one's awful So I think we're going to give you both the win congratulations You have deadlocked Twitters right now But yeah it turns out that we got a little bit of a peek into the mind of the great John

Kier Hopper and we've seen a bit of a mixed bag much like any good survivor smorgas board so yeah I can do a little bit of like a fun identification fans out there. If you see, I'm assuming season 50 is going to have a lot of these recurring classic challenges, you can now remember if angry chair comes about, what's name? I can't believe. It's called angry

chair. Except I can believe it. Well, I'm a little angry that we have to finish things off. I always am, but I wouldn't do so without shouting the spotlight on our guest. As you always get to do at the end of this podcast, the highlight

a charity or cause that is important to you that you want the listeners to know about. So, Christine, what would you like to pick for the B&B listeners? Yes. Okay. Well, I wanted to highlight the Good Store, which is run by John and Hank Green, and they sell stuff and all of it, all the profits go to charity. They go to partners in health to help fund a maternal center of excellence in Sierra Leone,

which is where I think the, let me just make sure I get this right. Yeah, it's where like the most child mortalities happen every year during birth, childbirth and stuff. And they've been using all these profits to build a really great health care hospital there. And yeah, and you can get really great stuff at the good store and know that all of your gifts, are funding a really great cause.

It's the holiday season. Everyone's getting a gift. Stephen got a gift in the form of a block of vote. So it's a great way to simultaneously give back and also know that things are going to a truly good cause. Christine, this was such a fun time. Thank you so much for coming on for being quite literally game to all the nonsense we could provide.

How can people check out everything you're doing? What would you like to plug for the listeners out there? Sure. I mean, like, I, as I'm always on the internet, at X-Ten-May, I have names different everywhere, but my name's Christine Ritchie as an author, and I have any book. Are you not going to camping right now on Poland Banana? Is someone going to hop on that as soon as they listen to the podcast? No, no, no.

I am pulling Banana's books on YouTube. If you're interested in watching my writing journey or my antics or talking about books, like, that's where all that stuff is, but I'm not as regular on there as I am on, like, Instagram at Xen-May, but my name. new book actually comes out January 1st so very soon it's called 30 flirty and forever alone it is a rom-com about a girl's turning 30 and it's giving like crazy ex-girlfriend meets how to lose a guy in 10 days meets 27 dresses if you guys like comedy and romance that's that's what my vibe is awesome and it's actually the hip again if you're a survivor fan if you want the first ever

story inspired by Rob and Amber? Check it out. Actually the Hunger Games was legit inspired by Aub and Amber. Do you know about that? So I knew that Suzanne Collins had watched Survivor. I didn't know that she was specifically watching Robin Amber. She said that she has said that

like they sparked like some of the inspiration for the book which is so crazy. And then I saw because someone tagged attached to the hip and was like if I had a dollar for every time that Rob and Amber inspired a book and it was the hunger

games and attached at the hip so yeah if you love the robin and their showmance if you miss showmands it's the book for you there we go christina are you going to check out Boston Robb's new newly announced YouTube show with Dylan Ephron

oh my god I'm so excited I'm such a boss Rob fan girl I was like oh my god I love their show they love their bromance so much I loved watching on Dancing with the Stars Whatever Rob was there I was like oh my God he's there Now okay

Would you want to see him on Dancing with the Stars Yes but he said that he doesn't want to go on Because he's not going to be seen I fish for information of him He says that the pros keep wanting him to do it Well maybe if they push hard enough But he likes to do things that he knows he's good at I think

But his entire show with Dylan is he's doing things he's not good at I know that's the whole point Maybe it'll open him up To immersion therapy right Yes yes One of the last episode is like, and the final one is dancing with the stars. You're on the season.

That's exactly the finale. That would be so exciting. Well, Leanna, you are living a regular rom-com lifestyle on the Puyah and Leanna Lounge. How were things this past week? Yeah, so Puyah celebrated his five-year Twitch partner anniversary. So by doing so, he had a eight-hour stream.

And so we actually recorded the Pau, live on the stream. So the people who were watching the stream got to see us set up for the pal and do all the behind the scenes, like what our awkward warmups look like as we're testing microphones and things like that. And then so if you want to check that out, obviously YouTube at the, on the R-H-A-P-P-A-P-N-Liana. You can also go to Puy and Leanna.com. That's all your links will be there.

But also on Twitch, Puyah on Twitch, P-O-O-Y-A. You can check out the VOT is still there. We recorded close to the end. So you're looking for probably like the last hour, hour and a half or so. So if you want to see any sort of behind the scenes footage, you can definitely check that out there. All right.

Of course you can follow everything I'm doing. I mentioned it before, but had a great interview with Sophie Sogretti where she does get into what went down with the Sophie naming convention, among many other things. Of course, I'm covering the amazing race. Christine, are you an amazing race fan?

Did you watch when Boston Rob was on? Of course. Are you kidding? of course I am behind on the amazing race but I do love the amazing race it's just like it's fallen to the wayside with my deadlines

like I have to prioritize my fave which is survive well we're coming down the stretch here next week will be the finale but Jess and I got together with Chappelle is a special guest to review with the penultimate episode where spoiler alert nobody goes home

so there's a lot of time to just decompressed talk about the season Amazing Race There was a, it was like a to be continued when they're resolving at the beginning of the finale to have an elimination happen. But regardless, next week, plenty of stuff to talk about interviews with all the final four teams

and, of course, our recap podcast to wrap it all up. Now, let's wrap this podcast up. If you have any game ideas out there, if you have any nonsensical things you want us to talk about, do not silence yourself. R.JPB andB at gmail.com

or hashtag RJPBNB on social media because we are getting down to The Wire here. We are going from anti-penultimate to just straight-up penultimate next week, the blast regular episode of Survivor 49 before we get into the big three-hour finale and after show.

And then it's Survivor 50, which is wild to think about. So excited. I don't believe it's almost here. We've got some great stuff. We've got two more great weeks of Survivor 49 leading up to it. I'm excited to see what happens next, how the block

of vote is coming into play. Will things turn topsy-turvy once more? I'm sure they will. The disc will start a spinning and we'll be here, spinning plenty of discs, getting you all you need to know in the B&B. Special thanks to everyone behind the scenes at RHAP for packaging this podcast for your eyes and your ears

and Wolf from America for his fantastic theme song. Leon and I will be back next week, recapping Week 12 of Survivor 49. Until next time, everybody, we'll check you out at your next day. can stay for free