RHAP: We Know Survivor - Know-It-Alls: Survivor 49 Ep 12 Recap
Episode Date: December 11, 2025Know-It-Alls: Survivor 49 Ep 12 Recap Survivor Know-It-Alls is back as Rob Cesternino and Stephen Fishbach dive into Survivor 49’s wild final six episode! The game takes a major turn with blindsides..., emotional rewards, and strategic blunders, as the castaways fight for a shot at the million dollar prize. One reward pick changes everything, and no one sees the vote coming—even the hosts admit they were truly blindsided. This week’s episode centers on the impact of the loved ones’ letters reward, where Savannah chooses Sophi B. to join her at the sanctuary as they share tacos and heartfelt moments. That pick proves to be a pivotal decision, shutting down Sophi B.’s chance to pull off a game-defining move with her “Knowledge is Power” advantage. Meanwhile, Rizzo continues to fool his fellow players about the true power and timing of his idol, sneaking through yet another vote. Sage’s transformation from emotional gameplay to hard-nosed strategy catches everyone by surprise, as she targets threats over allies. Tribal Council is chaotic, with misreads and a stunning outcome that leaves the jury shocked. – Sophi B.’s dilemma after the reward and her wavering between loyalty and making a big move – Rizzo’s clever idol misinformation lets him skate into the final five – Sage’s shift to strategic voting and how Rob and Stephen debate its impact – Savannah’s reward choice forges strong bonds and shapes the voting outcome – Kristina’s unfiltered reaction and “sloppy ally” status As the finale approaches, will Sophi B. bounce back, or has she lost her winner equity? Who can stop Savannah’s immunity run, and will Rizzo’s inventive gameplay finally catch up to him? Expect fire, strategy, and heartbreak as Survivor 49 barrels toward its endgame. To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com To pre-order Stephen’s novel Escape!, visit stephenfishbach.com To request a limited edition Escape! map, email proof of hardcover pre-order (within the US) to escapefishbach@gmail.com with the subject line MAP. Previous hardcover pre-orders are also eligible! Buy tickets for Stephen’s book events here! stephenfishbach.com/events Chapters: 0:00 Intros 6:15 Emotional Impact of Loved Ones 13:00 Most Legitimate Viewer Blindside Ever 18:10 Savannah’s Reward Decision Shifts Outcome 25:00 Rizzo Tricks Tribe About Idol 33:01 Sophi Misses Game-Winning Idol Move 39:00 Fate of Savannah-Rizzo Duo Debated 46:40 Unanimous Vote Stuns Podcast Hosts 56:00 Sage’s Risky Move Gets Fishy Award 1:01:10 Survivor Finale Preview And Farewell 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!
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The smartest guys around
We're about to break it down
Like they've won
The game a million times
Well, actually
They didn't really win the game
At all
Surviving no at all
Steve and Rob went out of it down.
I've got the game all figured out.
They know it old.
Yeah, that's right.
We know it all.
Unlike many of the Survivor 49 players, we know it all.
That's right.
Everything going wrong.
Fishback.
Whoa.
Hello.
Hello.
Yes.
Rob.
Is it time?
Dos letches.
I'm lactose intolerant.
That would not work for me.
Yeah.
You know, with lactate.
Dose lactate.
Yes.
Yes.
Is it time to bring back the loved ones visit?
That was not my takeaway from the episode, but maybe for 50.
I feel like, you know, the loved ones episode used to be a real emotional moment.
Yeah.
And it was so humanizing.
You would see.
these people interacting with their loved ones who they miss so much, you know, you'd get like
a little bit of context for who they are based on, you know, seeing these relationships fleshed
out. Jeff would ask insane questions like the thing about being a brother is that you're not
a father or a sister. And it was so great, so humanizing, so emotional. And the letters is not
quite there. You didn't get a lot. I actually thought they did a good job with the letter.
I got a little tearing with Rizzo specifically. And even and Sophie B, I thought that or
the Sophie. I thought that they had emotional moments. But it's like you're reading letter and they're
telling you why they're emotional. Yeah. This was so emotional for me. It's like, you know,
it's like a lot of like show don't tell. They got rid of the loved one visit because of COVID
quarantine. Sure. This time. Take it back. Yeah. All right. Well, let's talk about all of that and
so much more. There was a lot to unpack from this episode because I will say that I think that this might
have been the time that I, the viewer, was the most legit blindsided in, I can't even
remember.
I think that maybe not since Gabler won season 43, was I, just that the outcome happened.
And I was like, wait, what?
I would not, if you would have asked me, like, bet your money, like, I would have said,
okay, this, this is what is going to happen at this tribal council.
and I did not have that at all
that Stephen was going home
at the strike against maybe I missed it
let's talk it through
of course I'm very excited
to get the chance to talk with Stephen
coming up on Thursday
so be on looking for that
and then I will also be having an interview
with somebody who always has
hot takes polarizing opinions
going to talk with Shaheen from season 48
to break it all down I'm sure he's going to have
a lot to say about this
Stephen, how are you?
I'm good.
I'm well.
It's wonderful to be here today.
Yeah, the best, I think this was the best episode of the season.
I actually felt going in, like, I truly did not know which way this was going to go.
Like, my heart was thumping in a way it hasn't thumped all season long.
It's not to be spoilery here.
In fact, not at all to be spoilery here.
But knowing who from this cast is on 50, you know, a lot of the episodes have been like,
they've kind of like manufactured this drama, but you knew.
But now we're at the final six.
you could be eliminated at sixth place and still make it on 50.
So I thought, I don't know what's going to happen.
And then there was a lot of mystery about I still wasn't sure if Sof was going to, you know,
or Sophie, sorry, excuse me, Sophie was going to take Rizzo's Idol.
I thought there was a chance she would do that because it was so clearly the right move.
Not only did I think that there was a chance.
I thought it was definitely happening.
I thought all day, I really came into this episode tonight.
feeling like a little bit of that going back to Survivor 43 again,
that I felt like that tonight was going to be like when Jesse betrayed Cody.
I thought it was all,
the whole season was coming down to this where here you have Sophie,
who has the knowledge is power and little,
and she has these two allies that she's been talking about in the episodes
for the last couple of weeks.
I've got to make my move.
I got to, I got to take my shot.
Rizzo and Savannah, I can't
beat them, but I have this game
winning move that I can make
and I felt like it was all
leading up to this
and there was talk
I got to make my big move
and then we see her go
get selected for
the reward and
Savannah picking up might have been a game
winning move potentially we might look back
a million dollar tacos right there
like actually like potentially
million dollar tacos like
Listen, I've been on some of those rewards.
I have formed deep bonds.
But when, you know, you get to the needy, greedy, as they say, you have got to be able to
go past that and make the move that is best for your game.
Even apart from the fact that this blew up with not having, you know, Stephen's advantage
already being spent, still disastrous for her to do that.
Like, that was her going to be the signature move.
That could have been her signature move.
get it. You're out there. Those bonds feel
very real. You just had this extremely emotional
experience. I'll reading your loved ones letters together.
But
oh gosh, how heartbreaking.
Heartbreaking as a viewer. I was literally screaming
at my screen when she said,
well, now that Savannah's taking me on reward.
I'm not going to blindside her. And it was talked
about the people that didn't go on the
reward were saying, oh, well, she was
going to work with us. You don't think that her going
on the reward. It's like, ah, that's
not going to, that she's a killer.
So she's not going to, it's
kind of, she's not going to be swayed.
She's not going to stay in the still vote.
And I feel like now we got Sophie as a
final tribal loser. I've been saying that
PS, that her edit was very much that
character who is really big
pre-merge and then kind of fades into the background
of the merge. But what, I mean,
such a tense tribal council for all of those reasons.
And I don't know if hope is completely lost
in thinking about it. Like, because instantly
I was like, you all
blew it. But
I will say that there is
if Sophie and
Sage and Christina feel like, hey, we have a final three.
I bet Sage feels really good about that final three.
Sophie probably feels pretty decently about that final three.
If they were able to swing at five and do that, however, big however, Rizzo still has
his idol and Savannah is probably going to win immunity now that Stephen's not there.
So it's like Sophie might be left holding the bag of, yeah, I was going to flip on them,
but now I didn't have a chance to.
And then Christine or Sage gets voted out
and then whoever we have the final four fire making
and then yada yada yada.
It does not feel like that this is headed towards Sophie
winning the game.
I think it's hard to come back
from such a sad trombone moment like that
in front of the whole jury.
You're like, I have got, you know,
all the theatrics around it too.
I've got something, you know,
you got to be careful with me
and then for it to just, you know,
yeah, totally deflated.
And of course, like obviously she didn't end up
going home there, but I do think
at that point, and that's actually a big
part of the reason, I kind of think Sage made
the right choice here.
Let's discuss. I'm curious if you're of the same
opinion, because
at this point, Sophie is
like her win equity
just like evaporated. You know, like she's
already number three to Rizzo and Savannah
and now she's just kind of like publicly
had this like moment of being
ineffectual. I wouldn't vote
her out with two votes left, you know, two people
left to vote out in the game.
I don't think I would, not even two people, right?
One person left to vote out of the game, two eliminations left in this game.
I would, and if you are, well, I'll talk about it more, but where are you on this stage?
I mean, should we just jump right in, talk about Sage?
Let's jump right in.
And I felt like that this was a comedy of errors tonight.
I felt like after watching the episode that this is farce.
They're all making either misinformed decisions or outright bad decisions.
Every single person is wrong about something in this.
this episode and then we end up with an outcome that the players themselves like did not see any no one
that was there foresaw how this tribal council was going to unfold so i'd love to talk it through
you want to talk about it from sage's perspective it seems like to me sage has had this bizarre shift
to me in her character where she has somehow gone from she is heart first i'm voting out the
people I don't like to now somehow sage only looks at the game through the lens of who is the
biggest threat who is the person here that can beat me friends what is that I don't play the game
with my heart I am only looking at resumes of the are you working with me yes but can do you
have a better resume than me then you have to go what happened to sage but that seems like
the correct trajectory of your game like when you are in that early merge
place where she did kind of form those bonds, that's when you're thinking, who am I tight
with? Who am I close with? Who's going to work with me for the rest of this game? Where are my real
loyalties versus like who do I want out? Who can I not work with? Who do I not like? And
therefore, who can I not align with? Here at the final six, the correct thinking is who's
going to beat me? What is my optimal final three? How do I like at every single vote optimize my chance
to win. And that's why I think, like, I'm so impressed by Sage because she was such an emotional
player, she, you know, but to see her make that growth from like, I'm making these somewhat,
you know, emotionally driven decisions to like what is clearly a purely strategic choice here,
I think is really strong. And I think it's the right choice for her because if you're looking
at this field, right, there's six players left. There are three players who I think Sage realistically
thinks would beat her. She definitely thinks Stephen would beat her. She says that. She probably is aware
that Savannah would beat her and that Rizzo would beat her.
So there's three eliminations here
and there's only like three eliminations left in the game.
If she's wasting an elimination on Sophie,
Sophie, Sophie, then that's a potentially game losing move.
Again, like especially right after Sophie has this like big deflating moment
to vote her out there when she's not really your competition to win.
Now I agree it's very likely that Sage loses or Sage doesn't make it to final tribal
because of this, right?
Like, she's keeping intact this trio.
This trio wants to ride to the end.
Sage being out, fifth is a totally viable scenario,
and it might be because of what she did here.
That said, if Sage is playing to win,
and there's three people who can beat her in three eliminations,
she has to push at every one of those eliminations
to get out someone who can beat her.
Yeah, first of all, really great points about Sage,
and you're making me look at her in a way that I wasn't necessarily looking at her
at the end of this episode.
You're absolutely right.
that she has a very specific win condition in the game right now.
At this point in time,
her win condition is I need to sit in the end with Christina and Sophie B.
And that's it.
That's the only chance I have to win.
So for her,
I guess it's like,
yeah,
what do I care if Stephen is,
I can't beat him?
Like,
it doesn't matter if it's Stephen or Rizzo or Savannah.
As long as one of those three people goes home today,
it's a good day.
Yeah.
And obviously better Rizzo or.
Savannah for her because like Stephen would help. I mean, obviously like Stephen was probably the best
chance to beat Savannah at an immunity challenge. Stephen probably would bring Sage, you know,
one step further in the game. I think Stephen was probably her best bet to last past the final five.
But, you know, you kind of still hope that if Savannah doesn't win immunity at final five,
which honestly, she probably will look at the field right now, that everyone will be smart enough
to vote for her. You know, Rizzo's get going through.
because he's got his idol.
But, you know, if Savannah doesn't win, and I would make that bet, right?
Take out someone who I know is going to beat me and hope that the rest of the four of us can beat this one other person for this one day.
So the plan was better based off of the information that Rizzo had proliferated, which was I found my idol in the premurge.
And so it expires at the final six.
I cannot believe that this worked.
That Sage said, wait, your idol is still good to the final five?
You little turd.
It's like, yeah, that's how the hidden immunity idol works.
That's not a thing that the hidden.
So this was like, I've compared Rizzo to Tony a couple of times,
but for him to be able to manufacture this idea of the idle expiration date
being earlier than it actually
was, I can't believe
he got away. They can't keep getting
away with it. And he did.
And didn't, isn't there anybody else there
who could fact check him on that? Like, who else
has had an idol? I guess
like, Soph would have seen
Alex's idol. I mean,
but she doesn't necessarily remember.
And it's unclear if
if she knew that
Rizzo is lying. So I don't know,
she may have known that that was
not actually true. We did see, we did see Rizzo
saying to Sof and Savannah that like, you know, they still think my idols expires.
Okay.
But he must have said something so early in the game that no, everyone was thinking,
well, this is not going to be relevant at the final six or final five.
Like, why would he lie about that?
That's in two weeks, you know?
So if he's saying it's so early, that's really smart as a way to lay the groundwork.
Well, I think that that's been such a big part of his game of this idea of implicit immunity
of so many times that people like, well, he has an idol, so we can't vote for him.
And he figured out a way to, okay, at the time, we know he's going to play it at six because
that's when we're, well, no, actually, we'll get him at five because that night had been
what people were thinking of like, okay, there will be that round and we'll all just vote
at Resort five deal.
Okay, great.
And that he was able to figure out this loophole, but I can't believe it worked.
Yeah, it's really wild.
I think they only put super fans on the show.
Listen, I mean, you know, the rules change so constantly.
Like, it's not crazy that someone would just.
But this has been the rule that the idol is good until five since, I mean, I don't know
where Jordan Kalish is to, or Rob's fact checker.
I think that this has been the rule, going back to Survivor Fiji.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Tony was able to famously tell people like, oh, because my idol is, this is a super idol.
I'm able to go to the final four with it.
Yeah, right. And so nobody even bothered, which was inspired of him.
And I think that, like, laying the groundwork early for that kind of move, I think that's
why it sells, right? It's because, like, if he was saying that today, he'd be like,
oh, no, this is good next tribal council or something, you know, or sorry, this is only good
for this tribal council. Maybe people would be more skeptical of it. But if he was saying that,
you know, five episodes ago, you know, then people are thinking like, yeah, okay, like, I believe
that. And it has enough time to, like, work its way into people's brains. And especially
when people are constantly distracted by the next threat, you know, they're, oh, I'll worry about
that then. Like, that's far away from now. That's not going to be relevant.
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Let's dig into Sophie, and the knowledge is power decision.
because I think that this is really the thing
that we're going to look back at
as what might have been, okay?
Because she has this opportunity
where nobody's going to see it coming
and she has the chance to steal Rizzo's idol
and also she has to vote out Rizzo also.
Right.
And she could have made that move.
I don't know.
It seems like that her thought process
was either steal Stevens' advance,
and get through this round, or steal Rizzo's idol and play it on myself.
That seemed like that those were her two options of what she was going to do.
I don't know.
It seemed like that the idea of taking his idol and also voting out Rizzo was not even on the
table for her.
Which seems like, honestly, I don't think that's, I mean, there's a pro and a con to that, right?
The reason that you would take Rizzo's idol and vote Rizzo out is because Rizzo is going to
have, be extremely incentivized at that point.
to vote you out of the game, not just out of revenge,
but because you don't want to sit next to the person
who, like, publicly humiliated you, right?
You would have to get rid of that person
in order to, like, feel like you have a real shot at within the game.
So there would be a very strong strategic impetus to Rizzo
if she did that, didn't vote him out,
to him voting for her at the next tribal council.
So, yeah, I mean, I don't know why the third option here
was never discussed of taking Rizzo's idol,
voting out Rizzo and not playing it on herself since she does seem to know that it's valid for the next tribal council like that is the move then she's in final four with this incredible resume and was the idea of Stephen being the biggest jury threat just like so just like ubiquitous among the players that is like well why would I vote out Rizzo we still have Stephen here and then Steven's going to win the game I need to still vote with Savannah and Rizzo to get
Stephen out if I do that.
And what if she did that, right?
That would be still a good move.
Take Rizzo's idol.
Let's talk it through.
Okay.
She stands up and says, because I thought she was going to do it.
I thought it was like, wow.
This was like such beautiful.
And then she starts saying like, I know how hard you work to earn it.
I was like, yeah, yeah, you go, Sophie.
And then just like, Stephen, do you have an advantage?
What are you doing?
When she said, I know how hard you work to earn it, I was like, oh, it's Stephen.
Like, it was all the whole thing.
But I thought it was she was doing the old, like, Seacrest fake out.
And no, no, it was not a fake out.
But, okay, so let's say she stands up.
She plays.
I'm going to take Rizzo, do you have your idol?
And the jury heads or faces are melting.
And, okay, now she has Rizzo's idol.
And then they go to vote.
And then it would have been, what, and they blocked Savannah's vote.
So it would have been, what, 4 to 1 on Rizzo to vote out Rizzo if she had wanted, assuming that
Christina and assuming that Christina and Sage would have gone with a plan, which we don't know,
Rizzo goes home.
But okay, but I want to talk through, okay, what's the next round look like?
Savannah is pissed.
But does, do people say, oh, well, now we have to vote out as long as she didn't, but if she
didn't play the idol on herself at the tribal council, now she's safe at five.
Yeah, totally.
I mean, that's the move, right?
That's the optimal move, right?
And of course, like, it's so much easier, you know, we didn't eat those tacos.
is we didn't have that trace lay chase.
You know,
we don't,
we don't know how much those,
how as much those mean to her.
But,
and,
like,
obviously that's the ultimate.
She said to do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know,
you can talk yourself into anything.
But,
but,
um,
so,
so it does seem like
the optimal move then
would be for her to play
the idol
on herself at five.
Yeah.
Let's say Savannah wins immunity
because there's every reason
to think that's the case.
Okay.
Then they can vote.
So either the next tribal casual,
they either vote at
Steven or Savannah.
right whoever's whoever's not a minute one of them's getting to four yeah and we don't know do we
know people's fire making skills like do we have any insight we don't have any sort of insight into that
you know what i was thinking about earlier um was that stephen getting the advantage if stephen goes
and like loses his vote and there's a chance that maybe because if stephen without a vote does
he end up being of target like but i still think that they go for sophie yellow sophy at that last
tribal council.
Stephen doesn't have a vote.
It ends up being five to one
for yellow Sophie.
Now, there's no other advantage to steal.
Right.
I mean, what is she just going to be like, well,
tonight was the, I had knowledge is power, everybody.
Right.
It was the last night, but Rizzo, that's my guy.
Wow.
I can't do anything.
I love this take.
Stephen, I believe, by going and winning the advantage and somehow,
losing the game, you can do everything right and still it doesn't work out.
That's wild.
That's a really good take because you're probably right.
She would have felt so much pressure to play it.
And with nothing else in the game, she has to take.
That's my only move.
I don't want to.
It's like, Rizzo, I'm sorry, but this is the only idol that's here.
I have to take it.
But she might have still voted out.
I feel like in that world she still potentially votes out, Stephen.
You know, it's like, well, we're still buddy.
Let's go for Steve in here.
Okay, but then she has an idol that's like, okay, she has knowledge of power.
She took Rizzo's idol.
It's like, now I'm safe at five.
And now she has more options to be able to flip to go with Christina and Sage.
And then she might be feeling like, hey, Christina, Sage and me in the final three, like, I'm looking pretty good.
Like, I made that big move.
I took Rizzo's idol was the story of the season.
And I ended up taking it.
I think that's her game winning.
That would have been her game winning moment.
Yeah.
And when you wonder, like, if she's sitting next to Savannah there at, at.
final three is she but like then you know savanna go to firemaking like i feel like i don't know
but i feel like that's not going to be her strength it's unclear i could see it going either way i mean
savannah is so interesting as a player and i think that the combination of rizzo and savanna
has been one of the more interesting pairings in survivor history because we've had so many
great duos of course for all the way back from rich and rudy and malcolm and denis
and Stephen and Rob.
And so there's been so many great duos
that we've seen throughout the history of the show.
But this is such an interesting
complimentary skill set.
And I was trying to think about
that you have Savannah
who, with all due respect to Savannah,
incredibly icy competitor,
would not want to mess with her
in any way.
Social game, not her strength.
What's funny is at the start of the season,
that actually seemed to be her strength.
Like she was at the nexus of that Uli group.
Yeah.
But like post-merge, everyone's like, I do not like Savannah.
I think that she has like an aura of that she is like a like you want to be on her side.
I think that and I think that people like do gravitate towards that.
But in terms of like winning people over, that has not been her strength.
Then you have Rizzo who has been this like incredibly mass.
masterful negotiator, operator, coming up with all sorts of schemes and that his social game, pretty good, but like just he has like some next level strategies and they have such incredible loyalty towards each other where it has really been a very mutually beneficial relationship for the both.
I was trying to think if there's another duo like this.
and I was thinking about like parvety and seri especially when we saw them in australian survivor
but i think that parvety has the ability to like turn on the charm and bring people in under her
spell a bit more and serri is not necessarily like as much like galaxy brain like uh strategy
like she knows seri knows strategy but she's not necessarily doing like uh all of these like uh
like Rizzo, he's so loose.
And I think that this comes from years and years and years of playing in like these
ORGs where he's trying stuff that nobody else would have the audacity to try
in a real Survivor game.
But, you know, you play these games online.
People are probably doing crazier things than this.
Although you got to say, I mean, Surrey came up with probably the biggest galaxy brand move of all time.
I know that's going to, this is going to sound like a disrespectful take towards
No, but I mean, I do think there is that element of, you know,
Parvety has a little bit of mean, girl energy, no disrespect to Parvety.
I mean, I feel like that's like part of her appeal.
You know, it's like they're the cool girl.
Like, I want to hang out with a cool girl.
Cool girl energy.
Yes.
Yeah, cool girl.
And that that's sort of actually what Savannah has to.
Let's rebrand it.
I mean, I think that that's, I mean, to Savannah's credit in terms of her social game,
she has secured her core three, right?
Like she was the one who brought Sophie in.
Yeah, it's been interesting.
That the, some of the other.
like really strong players gravitated towards her in the game where Shannon wanted to work
with her. Sophie B wanted to work with her. Yellow Sophie at times wanted to work with her.
And I think like with Sage too, I mean like I think Sage was in that too and felt that sort of like
rejection almost. And I think that's where some of that animosity comes from is that sense of like
I was not allowed to be in the cool, the cool contingent, you know? And I think that's where some
of that that animosity is but i guess their greatest strength has been their game devotion to one
another where you had that scene in the episode where and i that christina she's doing her best
okay she's out there she's gone she's gone through a lot okay take it easy everybody with
with piling on christina she's making it to the final three rob she's she's she's making
She's going to, like, she's headed towards a...
She's doing better than you ever did.
I guess you were in the final.
I mean, if she comes in third place, like, that could be, you know, that I have, you know, a case to make.
But there comes that point where Sage is like, we have to vote out Stephen.
And Stephen talks to Christina about it.
And she's saying like, you know, like, well, we were talking about it whether or not to go with you.
And I was like, but I'm going to, I'm, I'm sticking with you.
He's like, oh, really?
Wait, you were, you were considering?
Like, she said, no, no, no, no.
That was just like part of the conversation,
but I would never, I would never do that.
It's like if I, you know, talk to my wife about, like,
well, I was, you know, I was thinking about seeing other people,
but I'm not going to.
Obviously, I wouldn't do that.
Yeah, I wouldn't do that.
We're obviously married.
I'm not going to do that.
That bought is sacred, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and Stephen, good for him.
He clocked it.
And I think he knows what he has in Christina.
and he called her a sloppy ally for him but still feel it felt good enough but you know
Rizzo and Savannah are never even considered it's not even on the table of should we ever vote
for each other like they're there in it do you think I mean I'm curious what will happen like
I feel like Savannah has to come to that realization that I need to vote at Rizzo like my I disagree
you think she will Savannah wins immunity at four let's say yeah is she taking Rizzo with her or is she
putting him in fire. I think it's time to consider the idea of what is it about Rizzo that people do
not seem to be worried about him as a viable winner, that we have only heard people say
Savannah, we said, oh, it's Savannah, Savannah, we have to get out Savannah. It's Rizzo's idol is a concern
and it's like a lot of times it's because, well, he could play it for Savannah. But nobody really,
I haven't heard and maybe people will fact check me on this.
and I welcome it, but I have not heard where people are like, well, if we don't get Rizzo,
he's going to win the game.
For whatever reason, people do not seem to be scared.
I don't know if he, and I know he's not a kid.
I think he's 26, but maybe he's 26, but reads as like 20.
He has very young kid energy.
I mean, he really does.
I mean, like, I can see him being in Savannah being like the same age and truly have no idea.
I mean, obviously easily.
I think they said last week, Savannah was 31.
Okay. But like, you know, she seems, I mean, he does have this sort of like big, goofy energy of, um, and like very earnest versus hard on his sleeve that I do think is tough. Like, have we ever seen like, I mean, even like like Todd, obviously, you know, total kid, you know, young guy, but like had this very like very real maturity around, around about him. I mean, I guess Fabio was a very kiddish, but he won't, I don't know. I mean, anyway, it's hard to like. But I don't think that it's even that. But I don't think that it's even that.
he is, I would not call him immature, but he just, I think, just presents, like, as a younger
person than he actually is. And I don't know if there's just something about him where he's just
too goofy or not coming across as serious, but he does not seem to be thought of as a viable
threat to win the game. To us at home, I think we're saying, yeah, he could certainly win,
but I kind of feel like that if he's there, and especially if Sophie,
ends up not on the jury
where if she's also one of the votes
where Nate is there
you have
Sophie potentially there
I wonder if
I don't know people
might not vote for him
yeah what do you think again
this is time too right
where he does the whole
cinema element
of god tier cinema
theatrically not playing his idol
last time we had a lot of
speculation about it being
strategic and reading the room this time he clearly goes up he's not going to play his idol right he's
like makes a big show what do they do with you what do they do with you he's thinking about it obviously
he's not going to play his idol nobody has any thought that he's going to play his idol um he keeps the idol
himself again on the one hand really good theater for the jury he shows himself as this decision
maker as this person who's like constantly clocking the different strategic you know permutations
of the game on the other hand i mean i do think there's a little bit like it's like like
Didn't, like, coach stand up at Final Tribal or something?
I mean, like, or at least he talked about it.
I mean, like, it's one of these things that, like, seems like a good idea.
But then when you're there in front of, like, 10 bitter, angry people,
you're like, maybe I should show some respect.
Maybe I shouldn't show boat here.
What do you think?
Like, is this good or net good or net bad for him?
I think it was good because I think that that was probably pre-orchestrated
that he was how he was going to do that of what he was going to say.
But I thought that what was really impressive.
And I'll get back to your question.
What was really impressive was that he was able to in real time sort of say like,
okay, wait, hold on.
What happened with your vote?
What happened with?
And then the three of them are so tight that they were able to compare notes before the
idol play, which allowed him the opportunity to be able to like crunch the numbers in his head.
And but what's kind of messed up is like, I think that his read of it was that Sophie was
going to go home.
Yeah.
And he was going to still keep the idol.
He could have.
That's the right.
That's the right call here.
It's the right call,
but it's a little bit of a tough pill to swallow of, yeah,
you can clown on the other people,
but also Sophie B now knows you thought she was about to get voted out.
And you didn't even,
you didn't even need to put the out on yourself.
You saved it for yourself for the next round.
So I think that for,
if Sof is able to read things correctly,
she should know the gloves are really off.
I think she might know that that,
that's what she needs to do.
We thought that's what she needed to do.
She knew that coming into this one.
To go back to your question about,
is it bad to showboat in front of the jury?
I don't know.
I think it depends on what the jury thinks about you to start with,
where we saw in the edge of extinction,
where Rick Devons was doing things and, you know,
calling out Ron and doing stuff.
And the jury ate it up because the jury was liking Rick Devons.
So I think that.
But he was always doing stuff, right?
he had like stuff to play he had like moves to make it wasn't just like nah you know yeah but i think
that he but this is part of what he's going to say in his final tribal council speech of that he was
able to somehow for eight tribal councils i didn't play this idol that i had to and you all knew
i had the idol nobody could flush it i was able to use it in new and inventive ways that nobody ever
was going to do before i'm just trying to think of like the people on the jury is it a pro
Rizzo jury. I think that Nate liked him. Jawan certainly had a bond with him. I'm not sure
if the rest of the, like, as far as MC Alex, so yellow Sophie, I think that they're sort of like
neutral on Rizzo. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it will be interesting. I mean, I do wish we would
get a Rizzo Savannah final. I think that would be honestly, let's like Rizzo, I mean, like Rizzo
Savannah Sage would be perfect, right? At this point, I would love to see that trio.
Even Rizzo Savannah Sof, I think, would be fun to see.
I think at this point, Sof probably does not have that winner equity.
But I don't think Rizzo is making it to the end.
I could be wrong, but I think Savannah is cutting him at, I mean, not at five, but at four.
Okay.
So, okay, I guess that's the scenario I think we could agree on.
I could see her saying, hey, Christina, like, let's go to the finals.
And then, hey, you know, Rizzo, we need you to beat the person who is the biggest.
competitor, like Sophie B or Sage, you know, beat them in fire.
Yeah, they don't do that in the ORGs.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, nope, they do not.
And so I could see her not dragging him to the end.
I could see her saying like, hey, we really need you.
And maybe she's afraid, okay, he could have a big moment in front of the jury, potentially.
But that is the scenario.
I could see her maybe, it might not even be a betrayal.
Maybe he might say, like, hey, put me into fire.
Yeah, be interesting to see.
I don't think, like, I feel like if I'm Rizzo looking at myself, and again, like, you're right.
So much of like win equity is just like perception.
It's right.
Everyone's saying, Savannah's going to win if she gets there.
So like, that's the narrative.
So if Savannah gets there, then she has every reason that you might think she's going to win.
But if I'm Rizzo and I'm looking at what I've done in this game and I can see all these
people who really don't like Savannah and really will like, I think we'll be a tough
bill to swallow for them to vote for her.
I would be very happy
to sit there at the end with her
take me let's let's like
Christina and Sof battle it out in fire
like what's like the two of us
we come through this game together
like let's like let's be there together
and just thinking about at that point
have a record I'm rooting for I always root
for the records to be broken I think there's a world
where Savannah breaks was this three or four
immunities for her this was three so she's two more to
I don't think it's crazy of her to win it
and like then it is a weak field
for her to go up against here now
that she had two big competitors
to go up against in Yellow Sophie and Stephen,
they are both gone.
I don't think that Sage gave her the biggest run for her money
that Sage has given anybody in the challenges.
So it seems like that that seems to be Sage's strong suit.
It looks like that in the preview,
I saw at least like one big obstacle course.
So I think Stephen won the last one of those.
Or maybe it was Yellow Sophie,
I think won the last big obstacle course.
So we'll see if somebody outside of,
Savannah is able to win that one.
I think my narrative is like,
wouldn't it be fun if Savannah and Sage
were in fire against each other?
But my narrative is,
Sage is probably gone next, right?
And then you have Rizzo versus maybe Sof in fire
and then probably Rizzo losing that in my mind.
And then the final three is Sof, Savannah, Christina.
And all these people who don't like Savannah still feel like,
of those three, she is the right one.
I just want to just talk it through in the thought exercise that is there a world where Christina who, you know, has been through a lot in the game.
Could the jury, she has a lot of friends on the jury.
Even Stephen, her like number one bestie says she's not playing this.
No.
You know, when your best allies are like, she's not, she's a sloppy player.
I don't think anybody, I mean, I don't know if anybody, right?
Maybe she'll get a vote because, and, you know, that.
she loves to pass me too, not just you.
But I don't think she's winning this game.
What about Sophie?
Could she garner any votes from the jury?
I think it will be challenging against Savannah or Rizzo.
Certainly now when she's like so publicly kind of had this like
Alex.
Could Alex, you know, hey.
Maybe Alex would vote for her.
Any votes is a tough is a big standard.
You're right.
Like Alex could.
Like I could see Sage voting for her.
rather than like Rizzo or Savannah, you know, like just one, you know, they, they, they seem to have, or other Sophie, you know, I mean, I know, no way, no way other Sophie is voting for, for, for, you know, the real Sophie. No way, right? I'm not going to give that to her. Yeah. Fake Sophie is who I'm voting for to win. That was a very fun exit confessional too. And she's like, oh, no, I'm the other Sophie. You would have a very good line in chat BCC. So she's now the Sophie that sucks. The Sophie that sucks. And that's tough because she finished in seventh place, but that's such a,
She did great. I know. She did great.
She was a big character in spite of like, you know,
Survivor Anon where like that's had all these conspiracy theories about her.
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Stephen, what else from tonight's episode
caught your attention?
I think we really hit all the good points.
I mean, again, I do really want the loved one visit to come back.
Can we talk a little bit about the letters?
Because I feel like that it was certainly the classic
like haves and have not of everybody had this wonderful night
at the sanctuary and everybody was really getting attacked by rats and it was cold and it was
raining.
I was surprised.
It didn't seem like the players back at the camp seemed to care as much about the letters.
And I was expecting that we would see Christina in this episode have like a full on like Maria
not getting picked by Charlie crash out back at camp.
But we didn't see that.
Yeah.
And again, like, I do think that this sort of, it makes the case of, you know, a lot of people say, like, why would you take your allies on reward?
You need to be shoring up your enemies and your relationships with your enemies.
I feel like this is like the closing argument for why you take your allies on reward, you know, because that you've got to shore up those relationships because people are going to be hurt when they're your allies and you don't take them on something like this.
But your enemies, like, don't necessarily have a reason to, you know, expect that.
No, Savannah did a really good job here.
And I feel like that maybe she didn't know what the advantages were.
But I said that on a night where everybody made mistakes, I think that she actually had the best night.
So maybe we end up perhaps, like when we get to awards, think about her.
Because this move that she makes of taking so.
And again, was there much of a choice about it?
But she didn't overthink it.
She didn't do the thing where it's like, oh, well, Sage hasn't eaten recently.
So I'm going to take her.
And really, all roads led to Sof tonight.
This was her night to win or lose the game.
And she didn't even know she had the knowledge's power yet.
But she was already talking about with the other people of, okay, maybe I'm going to swing over to the other side.
Because that Stevens vote block slash steel loomed so large over this, where it was going to only be five or it was going to be, they thought it was going to be potentially.
uh four to two on this and they didn't realize that you know it was actually just going to be a vote
block so it was going to be potentially a three two swing if uh or if she came over if i guess
four to one swing if one of their votes got blocked and so to bring her over and then she
reveals knowledge is power she doesn't end up wavering it ends up being such a good decision
to take sof with her yeah um really i mean because it
And again, like, I do think that's like, I think you see, I don't think you're going to see at final six somewhat like Christina saying, you know, and Christina sort of even said at tribal counsel, like, why didn't, you know, Savannah take me? Like, we could have worked together. You're not working with Savannah. Like, it doesn't matter how many tacos she gives you. Yeah. You're not working with Savannah. But like your ally, it might was wavering and you keep her with you. I have always been a proponent. Yes, you have for this of like, you've got to bring the allies with you to make sure that they.
those relationships are strong because they're going to be the ones who are mad about it.
Yeah.
Going back to in Survivor Second Chances, when you win the reward, who did you take with you?
Jeremy and Tosh.
And I will stand by that decision even though I was voted on that episode.
Now, so you had a harder decision because that that was, what was there, 10 people in the game at that point?
I don't know.
There's a lot of people.
A lot more enemies, as Star Tumi once said, my enemies are plotting.
Yeah.
And in this case, though, that the lines were so drawn so well that here it's like, yeah, sure, those three people are plotting against, we know that like, of course they are.
Who cares?
But almost like an Operation Italy of like, okay, let's huddle up here.
Let's have this time where nobody's going to bother us, where let's talk through our strategy of, because I think that that's something that Andy has said about Operation Italy.
Did I say Project Italy?
I apologize.
Operation Italy.
That's been a consistent, as we've been calling it,
I don't know.
It's not even like alliteration.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that, okay, Operation Italy will call it.
And, or is what they is, I'll burn that in my brain.
Operation Italy, it was a time where they were never going to have that opportunity
to be able to have just uninterrupted, okay, 24 hours of brainstorming.
Okay, let's talk through this scenario.
Let's talk through this scenario.
So I think that after that, I think it would be hard to fake it with them and then
and then my real plan is I'm going to steal Rizzo's Idol and vote him out.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
That's very fair.
I wonder, like, let's know one more, one more permutation here.
Is Stephen, does he lose the game by telling Sage it's just a block of vote?
Like if Sage, he lose the game by telling Sage about Christina's Idol the first time.
Well, very, very may, well, maybe.
But, like, if Sage goes into that tribal council thinking it's a two-vote swing rather than just a one-vote swing, does she walk in expecting to vote for Sophie?
Even though.
So that reason is the vote.
So they're going to have, they're going to have four votes.
I think that they could still potentially do a three one-one and still get Stephen out, I believe, right?
where stage sof and savanna are voting here versus stephen stephen well stephen stealing rizzo's vote
but on the revote i don't know it would be a three to one i think on that in that scenario where it would
be say assuming that stephen put his two votes on blue sophy yeah and then and then at a tie sophy and
stephen are immune and then sage goes home yeah but i don't think it would be a tie it would be a three to one
well no wasn't it be three three because it's step and stephen and christina voting for blue sophy and then we're saying savannah
well christi christina was still going to go with uh sage if i'm following in the scenario if if if uh they could still
vote him out even if they could but christina was not planning on that right christina was not in that plan
i'm saying like would sage have gone into that tribal council maybe second guessing that because if it was a two vote swing
rather than a one vote and of course like she would know that he didn't play a steal a vote so she
of time to reconsider, but I don't think people reconsider that much of tribal
case.
So, yeah.
I think that Sage, as you said before, it feels like I got to leave this tribal council
with either Rizzo, Savannah, or Stephen going home.
I got to get rid of those three.
And so, hey, this is still good.
Like, sure, let's Steven steal Savannah's vote or Rizzo's vote.
If Sage, Sophie, and Christina all vote for Stephen.
that they're still going to get Stephen.
Well, no, but in that world, not to belabor this,
but I'm clearly belaboring this.
Christina is not voting for Stephen, right?
Christina is still voting with Stephen for Blue Sophie.
So we've got Stephen voting, Ridzel Stolen Vote voting,
and Christina voting for Blue Sophie,
as Sage thinks it walking into that tribal council.
Conversely, you have Savannah and Sophie voting for Stephen.
So is Sage going to go into that and join that group to make a tie,
or is she just going to, like, do four on Blue Soviet, whatever.
I mean, I think that Sage feels like she needs Christina.
So she's going to be on the same page as Christina no matter what.
But she wasn't here.
Yes, she was.
Wait, Christina voted.
Christina voted out, Stephen.
Oh, wait, he did.
Oh, wow.
You're right.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
Okay.
Wow.
Okay.
I mean, I was, I was just as shocked as you were.
I, like, oh, yeah.
45 minutes into this podcast.
I couldn't believe it.
I was stunned when, when Jeff is like, all right, that's one, that's one, that's one
vote Stephen one one vote uh one vote and then it's like two votes step and i'm like all right
and i really expected the other two votes to be or the next votes to be for sophy and he's like
stephen the tribe of smoking like what yeah wow it was unanimous that's wild it's so funny
i mean it's crazy what's funny because you know what i i can't believe that i've like gone this far
and just like not even thought about that um what's funny is that at the start of the episode they're
all like, we did a unanimous vote, but that's
never going to happen again. Like, this group will
never have a unanimous vote again.
And what cinema
at the end of the episode? God tier cinema.
It was a four to one vote. It's
another unanimous vote to get out
the big threat. Very funny.
I didn't put that together. Stephen should have blocked Christina's
vote. Yeah.
Can I say, I will
say that I don't know
if this is, and it's always
like a tricky game to sort of like getting the
heads of the producers. Knowledge is
power. Oh, for four.
Okay? We've added four times. A lot of drama.
Four flop money. And what I've always said
is like, hey, it's, I hate
knowledge's power, but it's always going to give
you good TV. And so
four times out, four times flop. Is there a knowledge's power
curse? Wow. Interesting.
But that's going to make them more likely
to bring it back. But then that being said,
so with the knowledge's power
ending up working out
the way it did.
Stevens vote block gets you,
it gets played on the beach before you go to tribal council.
Stephen has to tell a producer,
I'm blocking Savannah's vote tonight.
He tells us in the episode,
the die is cast.
I've played my advantage.
To have an advantage that works that the game mechanics of this advantage,
I feel like is a little bit like,
uh,
weak sauce to,
I don't love it either.
I like, you know, with an extra vote, you got another parchment.
Even with a steel vote, like, there's the mechanic of like, I'm taking your parchment and I'm like, you know, I mean, that's not actually what happens because you also.
Right.
But like, I don't love that, like, that producer element of it.
I've never liked that.
I didn't like it.
Like, I don't like it with the other part of knowledge is power where like you, you're not allowed to lie.
You know, I don't like that.
Yeah.
I don't love, like, when there is this sort of artificial component of like, this.
this secret thing happening only through the, you know, the machinations of the production team.
I understand the reasoning is that, but you're blocking the vote anonymously.
Everybody knows Stephen has the advantage.
Like, what is the point of it being an anonymous advantage of that, okay, he already played it.
So, I mean, would it have been better or worse if he is, so let's say he does have the
block a vote?
She takes his block a vote and then blocks, blocks his vote.
I don't know.
And then he ends up going home, I guess it was such a crazy tribal council.
I do think a lot of times that they want the advantages to flop.
So I don't know if they put the, if this is why they specifically had, oh, let it be a
block of vote because that could be an advantage where if you had the knowledge of power,
you could screw it up.
And that would be exciting if it would happen that way.
But I just don't know why the block of vote needs to be so so anonymous when we're giving
it out at the final seven, when everybody knows.
Stephen went and got an advantage.
And, you know, they have Savannah last, right?
She's obviously seated in that last seat because her vote is blocked.
They should have, here's how it should work.
Stephen should go into the voting booth, pick out a parchment and rip it up.
So when Savannah gets up there, there's not enough even parchment left for her to use.
Do they have extra in case you make a mistake or is there only enough for?
I've never seen that, actually.
Like, what would the mistake eat?
But there must be some sort of like in between voting because they put in like that you do not have a vote.
there must be some way that they...
No, I'm sure they've got them there.
I'm just saying, like, in terms of, like, keeping the metaphor a lot.
That's interesting in terms of, like, the advantage being, like, okay, you go in first
and you have, like, some sort of, like, a, like, ability to block the vote in the booth
of, like, like, your red parchment block, block Savannah.
And then when she goes up, it's like, your vote has been blocked.
But I don't know, maybe they're worried that tribal councils are like, oh, well, I guess it's the same thing.
She already got it. She goes up there and it's like, your vote is blocked.
Yeah.
Just like, just right blocked.
Yeah, I like that.
I like that.
He's got to write it out.
That's, that's very fun.
I mean, I've heard other people argue very persuasively that the problem with knowledge is power is that it makes people not share information about advantages, which is a big source of drama on the show, both in terms of people building alliances around advantages.
And more relevantly, people screwing each over, screwing each other over because of advantage.
Yeah.
And so I must have missed all the seasons of Survivor
where they stopped telling each other
about their advantages and idols.
No, but they did.
They really like, people play it closer to the best.
I mean, I think there's been, it's opened up a little bit.
No, there's been a lot of times
when people have like just had these, uh, you know,
I don't know.
Marianne didn't tell people about her idol in season 42.
Yeah, there you know about the knowledge is power.
She didn't even know it existed.
We don't know.
Don't put that on Marianne.
I'll bet she knew.
She didn't know.
They only didn't see season 41.
She didn't see it.
someone told her. Maybe she got advanced screeners.
I'm trying to think if there's like
another notable time of when
somebody pulled out, I guess, Jacob
came out of the sock.
A lot of like, you know, that's obviously pre-knowled.
But that was before it was invented.
Yeah. But time is a flat circle.
I mean, there
are not, Rachel, Rachel in
season 47 ends up
dropping the
idol at the final six
in a big blind side. So
but other than that, people are like
are so loosey-goosey with all the advantages.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, those other people who make that point are clearly wrong.
I never made that.
I was exciting other people.
All right.
Well, let me talk about, you know, how Lucy-goosey I am with being excited for the new novel from Stephen Fishback, Escape.
So this is exciting.
Barnes & Noble is doing a merch promotion for Escape.
If you order the copy, order the book from Barnes & Noble.com, you will be entered, like any edition, audio book, I believe,
by a digital ebook or obviously hardcover,
you will be entered to win
this whole set of Escape merch,
which, P.S., I love this hat.
I am going to wear this hat,
like this Escape hat,
assuming I win the merch contest.
The Escape shirt, a special bookmark.
It says Escape into a good book.
And, of course, the book Escape,
and $100 gift card from Barnes & Noble.
So if you haven't bought Escape yet,
this is the opportunity to do it through Barnes & Noble.com.
and if you buy the hard cover copy
and you email me at
EscapeFishback at gmail.com
which will be in the show notes
I think Sam can you put it in the show notes
then you will still be eligible
to also get the map
that Eric Reichenbach is designing.
So very excited.
I've had a lot of map orders
but there are still some copies available
so it's not too late
buy the book, have the map
et cetera et cetera.
You know who else had an unbreakable
final two Barnes and Noble?
nobody could get between them
nobody could
people tried and they said
listen Barnes you're not going to
beat Noble in the end he said I don't care
yeah Chris Noble he had no Barnes right
isn't that what Wendell said about him
yeah it's good
put the pen down
yeah stop writing
okay all right
Stephen let's talk about an interesting
week to give out the fishy
Award
If you don't get it
Don't get busy
It's set
To Award the Fishy
It's not Taco Tuesday
But
But
I think Trace Leche
Should have been the name of the episode
Yeah I didn't love
Godtier Cinema as the name of the episode
No it wasn't
That would have been better also
It was the die is cast
Oh that's really bad
More like the cast is die
Yeah
Three contenders, I think, this week for The Fishy.
First of all, I think you have to say that Savannah's decision to bring Sophie on reward was probably one of the biggest game-changing decisions of the whole season.
It ends up cementing their relationship, Sophie, who was considering playing her knowledge as power to take Rizzo's idol, which would have, you know, sort of potentially completely eliminated Savannah's number.
number one ally, although obviously not Savannah herself, um, instead is so seethingly smitten
by Savannah that she decides to stick with this trio till the end.
Yeah.
And instead, uh, the only thing is like, Rizzo is actually probably Savannah's biggest competition.
So like, do you really want to keep him in the name?
Anyway, it is a, he's not turning on her.
Yeah.
It's a big move.
Sometimes the best decisions are the easy ones.
We talked about last week where, okay, Steve.
was in this same position.
And he said, you know what, I got to take my number one girl, Christina.
She played the idol on me.
I owe her.
And then for my next person, Rizzo hasn't eaten.
Come on, Rizzo.
Get it here.
But why not take Sage?
Why not say, hey, hey, you know what?
I'm going to take Sage.
We could have seen this happen last week with, okay, where Stephen, Christina, and Sage lock in.
Hey, I feel good about this.
This is our final three.
Maybe Sage isn't necessarily plotting against Stephen this week.
They could have been the tray sandwiches or whatever the reward was last week.
Yeah.
And maybe Sage is feeling good about working with Stephen and Christina.
Yeah.
I mean, it's possible.
I mean, I do think that, like, people, I think that makes a difference.
I mean, we saw Sophie B. was wavering.
And then she had, she broke bread with them.
It's like, I can't.
I love these guys.
This is my people.
I can't do this.
I mean, there's nothing that says, like,
it couldn't have happened with Sage
and where she sticks with Christina
and well she did stick with Christina
and stick with Stephen.
All right.
Option number two is the Riz God.
Pia's like they're really like taking down
the Riz God stuff which has been nice.
Like you know,
we're still getting the God to your cinema
but we're not getting the all the spelling.
Really great move.
Convincing everybody for weeks
that his idol works into the phone.
Only here.
It puts,
it basically keeps him safe in a situation
where there really might have been a lot of pressure to vote him out.
And so he skates through this tribal council
and then has got this idol to play on himself at 5.5,
guaranteeing himself in the final four
and a shot through firemaking presumably at the final three.
And then, oh, go ahead.
Rizzo, to me, has, you know,
week after week proven himself to me to be like one of the most inventive
survivor minds that we've seen old era or new era,
that he really is somebody who is kind of,
constantly just his, as Stephen said a couple of weeks ago, his wheels are always turning.
He's going to try to throw stuff at the wall.
It's not always going to work.
But I just think that he has this incredible survivor mind and he's just going to constantly be trying to push the envelope.
And he is playing hard to win.
I didn't get to say this earlier.
But if it comes down to it, like I could see himself putting, putting himself into the final four fire to say,
hey, it doesn't matter if I come in fourth or fifth or third.
I'm here to win.
Yeah.
And third option is Sage.
I think like coming like coming out of that episode,
the gut instinct is so much like how could you turn on Stephen?
You're so screwed.
And I do think there's a very good possibility that she goes out at five because of this move.
But I think in terms of Sage's chance to win the game,
she had to get out one of Stephen, Rizzo or Savannah this episode.
Savannah's immune.
she thinks Steve she thinks Rizzo's immune voting out Stephen the tough choice but I think the right one for Sage here
it is interesting that that would be I think very much a counterintuitive fishy for Sage where I know you like you like to do that
where I think that most people like myself are watching like no what are you doing even the jury was like what they want to
Stephen why but if if in terms of like the the person who went
to Tribal Council and executed
their plan tonight?
It was Sage.
Like, Sage was the one person who went
and, like, did what they thought they were going to do.
But do you agree with me? It's the right move?
Like, for her to vote out, Sophia, is a game
losing move.
Because then...
Yes, I hear what you say.
But it kind of goes back to
like Stephen last week. And I think
that maybe Stephen might have lost the game last
time out where it's like, hey,
if I'm giving
my enemies what they want,
If I'm on the same page as my enemies, probably not good for me.
And I think that for Sage, I think like, okay, if my enemies are Rizzo and Savannah, also, this is probably not the best move for me.
But I definitely understand.
I think you made a great point about her win condition being only that she can beat two people.
And so it doesn't matter what order the rest of the people go out.
So I'm giving it to Sage here, Rob, because I know that I'm going to get flack for this.
People are going to be like, what are you talking about?
You love it.
best ally she's going to be out at five she probably will be out at five i truly believe this is the
correct move for sage here i think it was and it's also like you said like this is the tough move
because like everybody else kind of i mean rizzo's move of like laying the groundwork for this idol i think
is really brilliant um but i've certainly given rizzo a lot of credit for these kind of moves across
the season and that was not necessarily just this episode this was a tough move for sage to vote
out someone she's been really close with and you know to your point at the very start of the
of this episode of No Adalls, you know, where is this sage emotional player?
She is, like, putting that on the back burner because she's so close to the end.
She's becoming the strategic player she needs to be.
And if she wins the game, it is because of this decision here.
Yeah.
And so if anybody has any issues with that, a great place where you can leave feedback for Stephen.
Go to stephenfishback.com.
Barnes &noble.com.
Show me what's, show me the one for.
Yes.
Yes, there's a notes section where after you.
purchased the book. You're able to leave any feedback you want. All right. Let's talk about what
else we have going on. Of course, all of our friends are over on Chad BCC, where it was lit tonight
once again. Everybody was worked up about the brand new episode and see what all the survivors
are saying. We go to chat BCC, go to Robbins website.com slash VIP chat for that. I'll be back
on Friday with our patrons. We have such great strategic conversation. The patrons have
amazing strategic questions.
We've been talking about
how this final six vote
could have gone so many different ways.
I don't think we saw how it would
if we never envisioned a scenario
where Stephen went home,
but we'll talk about it all
coming up on Friday 3 p.m.
And of course, check out everything else
we have going on in our Survivor feed
over at we know survivor.com.
The amazing race finale
is happening as we speak.
And so I will be back with
Mike and Jess to talk about
everything from the Amazing Race 38 finale, plus exit interviews with the final four teams.
And then, Stephen, what's this?
A new clock tower?
The Revivors play blood on the clock tower.
I am the demon, as you might be able to gauge from this thumbnail.
We have Onica and Caroline from Survivor 47, amongst our other wonderful cohort of Survivor players.
This has been out for about a week.
People have been saying it's their best, it's their favorite episode ever that we've done.
there are some really fun moments like truly like insane moments in this one so if you are at all
interested in watching anybody let alone survivors play blood on the clock tower this is the
youtube video for you all right and then of course robin's podcast were nominated for a award at
the american reality television awards you could vote at robin's website.com slash vote and of course
you could check out all of my survivor knowledge all in one place i've taken
25 years of Survivor history and brought it all together in one beautiful art-filled package
that will be a beautiful collection addition to any Survivor fans collection.
Go to Rob Hasabook.com and check out my brand new book coming out later on in
26, but you could pre-order today at Rob Hasabook.com.
And if you want to give it as a gift, we've got a postcard that will send you so you can
give it to your loved ones, a loved one's letter for you.
and give it to them with tacos and it'll go over amazingly.
All right, Stephen, anything else from you?
No, just can't believe we're at the end of the season, almost really excited for the finale.
Next Wednesday night, join us for our finale coverage.
And, of course, I'll have our final five exit interviews as well next week.
And, of course, a big preview of what season is the next one?
Is it 49?
So the next one's what, 50?
46.
Oh, 50.
50 coming up.
So, okay, big week coming up.
Take care, everybody. Have good one. Bye.
