RHAP: We Know Survivor - Know-It-Alls: Survivor 49 Ep 9 Recap

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Today, Rob Cesternino and Stephen Fishbach discuss Survivor 49 episode 9....

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 The smartest guys around We're about to break it down Like they won The game of a million times Well, actually, they didn't really win the game at all Surviving no at all Yeah, I know it all. Yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 00:00:48 We know it all, baby, and we are back here with my great friend, Stephen Fishback to talk about it all. Stephen, how are you? I'm great. It's really nice to be here chatting with you, Rob. Uncle Steven. Uncle S. Uncle S. I have got to say, until the end,
Starting point is 00:01:11 I was really enjoying that episode. Did not like the conclusion, not even like the few minutes before tribal where it all was like, where did this plan come from? Yeah. But until that point, I was like,
Starting point is 00:01:21 I like the first 50 minutes of that episode, I thought were so good. Tell me, what was it? Was you just such a Alex love? What was the reason why at the very end you fell out? Well, there's a few things. I mean, number one was I felt like the decision kind of came out of nowhere, where, you know, we saw this sort of like vague kind of hazy suspicion of Alex that wasn't really
Starting point is 00:01:43 substantiated. He like said one thing that he was like caught in. We'll talk about that more later. And I didn't feel like, honestly like, like just like on the merits, it made no sense from, in my mind from Sage and Joanne's perspective. We didn't get to hear about Sophie. know, putting on Alex, maybe we'll hear about from her next week. But until that point, I thought it was such a fun episode where we saw what we want out
Starting point is 00:02:06 of a survivor merge, all of these groups coming together, finding ways to build trust, little side groups being like, we're the power group. And this other little side group being we're the power group and kind of like piecing it together. And I kept on waiting for them to be split into two tribes to ruin all of it. But no, that didn't happen. No, we didn't get that. Listen, this was an interesting final nine vote.
Starting point is 00:02:27 I will say that I felt like that the conclusion was not in doubt for me. Sometimes I like to do a little bit of like a gut check of like, okay, what do I think is going to happen? And a lot of times I am wrong, but I did ask myself before tribal, before the votes were read, self, what's going to happen? I said, Alex is getting six votes. And that was indeed what happened at this tribal council. So I did feel like that maybe it was telegraphed or maybe I'm so good, so good after all. these years of doing it, I can just see into the Matrix. You can now predict accurately, going into tribal council, the survivor boot.
Starting point is 00:03:07 Yeah, don't give me too much credit, but I did feel like, okay, I do see where this was going. But again, I thought this was an interesting vote, and I'm really much, very much looking forward to breaking it down here with you as we discuss episode nine. And of course, I will talk about it all with Alex on the exit interview coming up on Thursday as we kick off another big week of Survivor. I will be breaking it down with Dr. Evie Jagoda, who will talk it through with me on Thursday. And then on the old school interview,
Starting point is 00:03:38 Dawn Mehan will be joining me. And what a big week for Survivor South Pacific and Karamoan. Did you catch our mutual friend John Cochran on with the fellow survivor John Lovett this week? I did see that. I saw the, I just saw like the clips. I haven't watched the full episode yet, though I'm excited to watch the whole thing. Instant listen for me.
Starting point is 00:03:59 Listen to it instantly on Wednesday morning, or Tuesday morning. What were your big takeaways? Yeah. Well, I think that it was an interesting interview because John Lovett really like came in and was talking a lot about how like, Cochran, you were bullied. Let's talk about it. And Cochran was a little bit like, ah, I wouldn't really say that. It's like, Cochran, don't even start with me. You tell me right now, you were bullied, right?
Starting point is 00:04:22 Right. So, yeah, it was an interesting listen. Yeah. It would have been, you know, he should have brought in, like, as a surprise guest, like Whitney Duncan to be like, let me prove to you that you were bullied. Mm-hmm. So they get into all that. So definitely a great listen.
Starting point is 00:04:37 And John Lovitz's done a lot of really fun reality star interviews on his podcast. But Stephen, let's get into everything from tonight's vote. And it's so interesting that my, okay, let me start with my biggest takeaway. is that so now Rizzo three weeks in a row three episodes in a row has gone to tribal council everybody knows he has the idol
Starting point is 00:05:01 and this guy I'm trying to put this is a family friendly podcast but the Cajonais on this guy to do really not since maybe Russell Hans have we seen somebody who has just
Starting point is 00:05:16 been so brazen in I'm not playing the idol well zander from 41 p.s had the idol the whole time right and never played it i don't think maybe he played it like right at the end there and everyone was like why does zander never played idol and it turned out he didn't he didn't have to because nobody was targeting him talk yeah i'll talk about that with evy the great point to bring up but i think in that instance as you mentioned he had the idol but it was also like well we're not voting for him he's not going to win so i don't think he ever felt like i'm in danger
Starting point is 00:05:52 and it seems to be that there was not really a lot of push to flush the idol where I think that every week we see the other players like Rizzo has an idol, we're going to flush it tonight, that's we're not going to let him get away with it again and he keeps getting away with it. But I just want to present the counter argument, which like maybe from the other's perspective, it's better to have a guy who you can consider on the bottom. Like they don't see this like plan bubbling up with him having his idol and Savannah having her. extra vote and Sophie having the knowledge is power and then the other Sophie actually being on it to nobody sees that so maybe they think hey this guy he's on the bottom not worried about him he's got the idol let him hold on to it and because I don't have to worry about it and if I vote him out and then suddenly the idol or he flushes the idol then suddenly the idol is out there and I don't know where it is so I wonder if that is playing into people's perspective
Starting point is 00:06:47 where they are thinking it's better to know where the idol is, and I can play around it, rather than making some, taking a big risk to flush the idol, really just for its own sake, right? Nobody really seems to want Rizzo out apart from the fact that he has the idol. And like, then just like, the idol comes back, you know, and you don't know who has it. I think that's a little like 4D chess in terms of like what the players are actually thinking. Did anybody express that in the episode? Someone did say that. I think it was in tribal counsel. That's where I got the idea, honestly. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:23 Was that I think someone said, like, it's better to have some certainty about it. And I extrapolated. I don't think it was like a whole confessional or anything, but I do think a player kind of made that case that, you know, having some kind of certainty. And maybe on a rewatch, you know, or someone in the chat will know, but, you know, that there was someone who suggested, like, that there was reason to keep Rizzo and the idol here because they know where the idol is. and there's a little bit of like a certainty in that.
Starting point is 00:07:51 Okay. I think it's really interesting. I want to give Rizzo credit for having the wherewithal to not play the idol three weeks in a row. I think that this is probably something that we're going to see change the meta, maybe not in Survivor 50. Obviously those players had,
Starting point is 00:08:05 except for, you know, certain people. I was going to say, they have not seen Survivor 49, except somehow. And then we will see maybe in Survivor 51, where I think that probably most new era play, probably in the wake of Survivor 46 where we saw so many players go out in a row
Starting point is 00:08:25 where they held onto their idol and they went home. I think there was probably some sort of like pendulum swinging the other way. You saw players like Gabe coming into Survivor 47, like, hey, I have the idol. I might go home tonight. I'm playing it. You saw MC also. Hey, I heard my name. I'm playing the idol tonight.
Starting point is 00:08:42 Maybe I wonder if this turns out to be a successful move for Rizzo where he doesn't end up going home with. the idol eventually is able to use that idol to advance himself in the game. Will we see more players go back to, I'm not just going to play the idol at the first time I hear my name at Tropical Council. Yeah. Do you think, I mean, we were very bullish about this shift, right, of people being a little more cavalier and aggressive with the idol because probably ourselves also having seen Survivor 46,
Starting point is 00:09:12 but in general, kind of the sense that in the current day, the idol, the heat of the idol was not necessarily or the juice was not worth the squeeze of an immunity idol. What, where are you? Do you think that they, I mean, obviously Rizzo is playing it very well holding on to the idol. Do you, where are you on, on, um, whether or not it's a good choice? So I think what's interesting is we have to sort of look at this situation that Rizzo is in, in the tandem pair that he's seen as, as a pair with Savannah.
Starting point is 00:09:42 And what has frustrated the players, I think over these last two votes is that Savannah has also had individual immunity. And I think that if in either of these scenarios where Savannah was not immune, maybe last week still goes exactly the same if Savannah doesn't show up with individual immunity, but I think there's some frustration of like, we can't split the vote because the person to split the vote with is also immune. What do we do? And I think that they didn't land on a great secondary target to split the vote on.
Starting point is 00:10:16 They ended up with making it be SOF in this one just because they were out of names to be able to have the vote split to. I wonder if maybe internally if they wanted to maybe put yellow Sophie, but they kind of like wanted to use her vote in the split vote, even though she had already flipped to the other side. And so I think that there was a hesitation from people like Sage to like, well, I don't know if I want SOF to go home. I feel like I have like some kind of a relationship. We saw them talking last week. So I don't know if there was enough momentum to like if Rizzo doesn't play the idol or if does play the idol, are we comfortable with this other person going home? Are we better off to just take out Alex?
Starting point is 00:11:01 And I think that that's ultimately where Joanne and more so Sage landed this week. Because I think that Sage was the person who drove this vote more than any other person. Yeah. That's really interesting. That's a really great point because we've certainly seen Sage having these conversations with Sof and feeling connected to her or, you know, apparently feeling connected to her. And Sof, I think is very good at playing both sides as we saw in this episode. We'd love to talk more about that. But I really, to make a finer point on Sage, I feel like that
Starting point is 00:11:31 Sage looked at the board. And while Sage and Alex were both sort of like the outsiders who were trying to work with the Heena people, I wonder if this. Soap and Alex. I'm sorry. Sage. I'm sorry, Sage and Alex. I'm sorry, you're going to interrupt your flow. I think that Sage might have looked at Alex as being a person who would, they were both competing for the same spot in that alliance of being sort of like the person that's with Hina who didn't start with Hina, sort of like the outsider.
Starting point is 00:12:04 And I wonder if Sage looked at it like, okay, if Alex is gone, do, can I assume that spot as being the person who's in with Christina and with Steven? and who else is there. I guess is Juan. I feel like that maybe was Alex occupying a similar position where maybe she felt the least close with Alex. And so if he's gone, do I take his spot? Well, now I feel like here you're going kind of like,
Starting point is 00:12:37 you know, extrapolating something that we're not seeing at all in the episode. Because I feel like we haven't seen anything to suggest that, you know, everything we've seen has suggested that Sage, now whether or not what sage feels deep inside of her like maybe she feels threatened by Alex I can buy that but like does I mean we certainly have not seen Alex having a more entrenched spot okay in that group I'm ready to argue to argue this point because I wonder did Stephen not you Stephen Spacey Stephen I don't want but not like Kevin Spacey but space asked you know astronomer Stephen did he screw this up tonight
Starting point is 00:13:15 When he went to Sage and told Sage, hey, just so you know, Christina found an idol. And she only shared it with me and Alex. And we're the only people that know about it. We're not telling anybody else, but I want to tell you about it. Did Sage then feel some type of way of,
Starting point is 00:13:34 wait, hold on. When I was on the other drive, did Alex and Stephen and Christina like make this tight three that I'm on the outside of? And I wonder if I take Alex out of it, Does that blow that up a little bit and make Sage feel like that she is in a better position with Christina and Stephen, even though if they lose a number, but how much, like, could they count on Alex as a number? Was Sage on the outside looking in? Because I really, I'm trying to figure out why Sage decided to go with this plan as opposed to the other.
Starting point is 00:14:07 Because I felt like that Joanne was very much feeling like, hey, this is good. Alex, he's kind of screwing things up for me, but this is the way to go. I've been waiting to get out Rizzo, and I feel like that Jawan wanted to take the shot on Rizzo. But I feel like it's Sage when we hear her in confessional talking about how that, no, I think that the move is to double back and go after Alex. Yeah, that's interesting because I do think the question is why would Sage and Jawan do this? Because superficially, from my perspective, and I think most viewers' perspectives, this is a bad move for Sage and Jouan, where these guys are in this dominant position right now, you know, and they have sort of this web
Starting point is 00:14:52 of relationships. But there's this other thing brewing that, you know, Savannah, Rizzo, Sof, and now Sophie, where they could, if they don't kind of like keep their group together, they could like completely lose control. And honestly, like that kind of looks like what's likely to happen. So for them keeping someone, like it makes. keeping someone like Alex, who is willing to go, you know, with whatever the bigger group is, actually really benefits them. Like they want, just like abstractly from a chess perspective, like they wanted Alex there. Obviously, from Rizzo's perspective, like if I can get out that floater, then suddenly the
Starting point is 00:15:32 numbers are a little more reliable for me. Now, you know, I can see you being biased towards this move. It's a sort of Cesterino special here. Get out the middle person. From Rizzo's perspective. Yeah, from Rizzo's perspective. So I, but it's interesting, like that's a really good call that maybe from Sage's perspective, you know, she's not as aware of this other group, right? She sees SOF as a potential ally for herself.
Starting point is 00:15:58 She knows Savannah and Rizzo are together, but, you know, this idea that she would blindside Rizzo and eliminate Sauf, who she considers an ally. And, you know, instead of Alex, who she obviously does not have particular connections with. Um, that actually does make a little bit of sense to me, Rob. You kind of are, you know, helping explain this why this, why this, fishy for me. It's not just your chic cardigan that's wooing, wooing me over. Is that what it's happening? So, well, I think that might be part of it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:27 Can we talk about Joanne and Sage? Because this, this duo here is so interesting to me because they are like the star crossed lovers of this season of Survivor to me. Because go back to last episode where I felt. like in the last episode, I thought that it was Joanne who was like, hey, let's stick it out, like, let's go back home. Let's go to Rizzo and Savannah are here. Let's work with them on this vote. And let's vote out MC because that's what they want to do. And I feel like that Sage was probably the person who was a little bit more, I don't know, I'd love to take out Rizzo. I'd love
Starting point is 00:17:06 to flush his idol in this episode. And then I feel like that this week it was flipped. I feel like that it was more. Joanne was like, hey, come on, this is the move I've wanted to make. Let's get Rizzo. And I feel like it was sage that was a little bit more like, let's hold off on that. Let's take out Alex this time and let's leave Rizzo and we'll do that another time. Yeah, but I think that's where they're wrong, right? That's where their hubris is kind of catching up to them where I think they feel like
Starting point is 00:17:34 this other group just does not have any leverage in the tribe and they don't see what's happening. They don't see it. They, well, they don't know what we know, okay? So many things that we don't. They don't know, as you mentioned, they don't know about the extra vote that Savannah has. They don't know about that Sophie, yellow Sophie has joined them. They don't know about Soph's knowledge is power.
Starting point is 00:17:56 So they are letting them come along further into the game and they don't realize what a big threat is on that side. So, but I just think it's interesting that two of them, that they were the swings in the middle on two votes and they sort of like flip. flopped who wanted to do what yeah that's really interesting and i do think you're right like because ultimately like we see it in this sort of rigid way like there's this group and this group and this group but obviously when you're playing the game there's a little bit of that but a lot of it is just this like mesh of connections and you like that person's not my best ally but they're my third best ally you know and i think i could work with them and there's that is so much more decisive, I think, on a questionable vote like this one.
Starting point is 00:18:40 And I am curious what people will have to say about Rizzo and his idol. And like, obviously from our perspective, like, leaving it in the game. But I remember every week in season 41, we were like, how could they leave Zander with this idol, this huge threat, Zander? And then by the end, everyone afterwards, everyone was like, yeah, we didn't really, yeah, we were too worried about Zander. You know, we didn't know he wasn't going to win the game. So whatever, like he can have his idol.
Starting point is 00:19:01 And I wonder if there's that aspect, too. You're at nine here. you really are thinking, who am I going to sit next to? Who can I beat? You know, who's going to take me? And maybe they're just like, not worried about Rizzo? Because he's kind of a young kid and he's got this like Rizzo energy. No, but they keep talking about what we want to flush his idol.
Starting point is 00:19:18 Players have cited that as a big motivation for what they want to have happen on numerous votes of like, hey, tonight, you know what's going to happen? We're flushing Rizzo's idol. We're going to get rid of Rizzo's idol one way or another. And it keeps not happening. I mean, some players are saying that. Like Christina said that. but like maybe other players are not saying that.
Starting point is 00:19:36 Yeah. They're not doing it. Sophie had said it in the past. I think MC had talked about it. I think I'm sure said it. Joanne has said it. So, you know, a number of players have felt like that that was a motivation. I think another huge thing that happened, I mentioned earlier about Savannah winning immunity.
Starting point is 00:19:52 But I think if Sophie ends up winning this immunity instead of Savannah, now they can split the votes. And it seems like that Sage's number one priority strategically is I want to vote out Savannah. I really want to take Savannah. out of the game and then when that was off the table for sage i think then she was open to flipping i think that if savannah is not immune i think that this vote split it's interesting because they'll still have four and i think you might end up seeing like a three a four three two on this vote on this vote on this oh you mean the one on the vote that happened i think it would have actually a more interesting vote where I think that maybe sage and joan are still on board and they
Starting point is 00:20:36 think that okay we're going to do it we're doing a three three three tonight and they don't even know that savannah has the extra vote and they and they think that sophie is still with them and they set up this three three three three and it ends up being a four three two where that four ends up being soph squared riso and savannah they put their four votes on Alex and then the other group thought they were splitting 3-3, sort of like a, is this what ends up happening with Tyson in basically like there's a... Yeah, right. The one vote switches and then that's like that and that person is going out. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's good comparison. Don't look now, but the holidays are right around the corner. And if your place isn't ready for guests, Wayfair has got you covered,
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Starting point is 00:23:03 That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code Rob. This exclusive Black Friday, Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year. So order now before it ends, support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Let's talk about something that happened at the very start of the episode, which ends up being quite decisive for the episode, which was when Sophie and her group come back to the tribe. everyone is um kinds of acts oh you're still here huh feels like a miss i mean obviously you know sophie judge says this was you know it was an instinctive reaction this was not like some game
Starting point is 00:23:38 this was a human reaction and i kind of know what they're thinking of me from this i really liked her metaphor you know i feel like i just got LASIC you know i she said talks about seeing these sort of yellow kina blobs they were really good metaphors um and now she can actually like kind of see the game ahead of her. I mean, good read from Sophie. Bad play from Stephen and Christina. Yeah. And Alex, also, to be so surprised that MC was going to come back.
Starting point is 00:24:05 I'm trying to think of, I guess they thought they probably were all day figuring out what's going to happen. Like, okay, well, they either Rizzo played his idol or if not, then I'm sure that they probably voted out yellow Sophie. And then she comes back. And then it's like, oh, we weren't expecting to see you here. probably like one of the better reactions that we've gotten where Jeff so I was like, all right, let's get a like our look at the new Uli tribe.
Starting point is 00:24:30 Jason voted out. I'm like, oh, okay, who cares? But this was like, oh, wow, we saw a ghost. We were not expecting to see you. And I think that for future players, maybe this is a moment where you say like, hey, when these split tribal councils happen, like be, don't be like acting like, wait, hold on, I thought it was going to be you, you know, like, act like you are happy to see whoever comes back.
Starting point is 00:24:56 I think that that's probably a good move for players in the future. Yeah. And it seems, I mean, it is like hard to control. But like I think if you go in with this idea, hey, I've got to correct for that,
Starting point is 00:25:06 then you can control a little bit. Because people are really picking up on your reactions. And especially when you're coming back from tribal, you're so like focused on like, oh my gosh, what are they going to think? What are they like? And,
Starting point is 00:25:18 you know, are they going to be surprised? Are they going to be disappointed? You know, it's such like a vulnerable moment, you know? And then, um,
Starting point is 00:25:22 you go. and you're like a little like your receptors are like pinging for a response and then you know they gave a quite a tepid response i'm sure some of that was just surprised like oh wow you're here you know it wasn't like oh you're here necessarily but you know i think there's there's a lot of overlap between you're here and you're here yeah yeah it's really interesting to see what this like smaller group that has come in where after the nate blindside where it was just Rizzo and Savannah and Sof now those three that were on the bottom. It's really, they've been on sort of like a mini, like Survivor Samoa type run where
Starting point is 00:26:01 that they have these advantages and the bigger group just can't keep the numbers together. People are defecting and going off with the smaller group. And the full arsenal that these players have has not even been revealed. It's been like a real disaster for everybody else. than those three since Nate got voted out. Yeah, and I want to say that it is really been interesting. I thought this episode was so fascinating in that it was all kind of about the ways that these small groups build trust.
Starting point is 00:26:35 And like that seems to be the story of this season, right? It was like first we saw the bottoms up alliance and like these like these three people saying like, hey, we're going to work together. We're going to work together closely. And then they end up taking control of the game. Now we kind of see a similar thing brewing with this other group. And we've always been big proponents, or certainly I have, I think you have of like small, tight groups are like the most powerful force and survivor. Like get your three people and like work together as an elite strike squad, a section, the section alliance.
Starting point is 00:27:07 And yeah, you can accomplish great things because you're all working on the same page. You all trust each other and you can all kind of disseminate a similar story. I thought it was really cool seeing different ways that that was a. accomplished in this episode, we had on the one hand, Stephen telling Sage about Christine's idol as a way of building trust with her. And then you see Sage coming back from that saying, you know, Stephen trusted me with this. And this is big. This is like really good for my lines. I thought it was cool too how Savannah used her like true story as a way to build trust with Sophie B. And it was like almost like I mean, I'm sure we've seen it before. But like
Starting point is 00:27:46 someone being so deliberate about it. You know, like, hey, I'm going to. I'm going to. I've got a secret and I'm going to tell you that secret as a way to build trust. And it's something that has nothing to do with game, right? Not like I have a secret idol. I have a secret advantage. Like I have a secret about myself and I've been holding onto it and now I'm gifting that to you. I mean, it was such a like it made me totally rethink people kind of holding back their own personal stories as like a tool to use later in the game. Yeah, we do a lot of poo-pooing of people who lie about their occupations.
Starting point is 00:28:17 But, you know, in the case of somebody like Savannah where she has kind of like, like, this innocuous lie about, like, oh, I told you I was in marketing. Well, I'm actually a news reporter. And, you know, she's able to, like, really make it this big reveal where it's like, wow, I'm really trusting you with this information where. And it's like such a like nothing piece of information where like sof can't go like, hey, everybody. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:28:43 Savannah's a reporter. Like film at 11. And everybody's like, what? The betrayal. You know, we have to get rid of her now. but it's like just like something where I think that for players it is a good thing to have like this like minor reveal to be able like I know I told you that you know I have a dog but I actually like I have two cats like oh my like I didn't want to tell I'm you the only person I'm telling and you know you said like people like do feel like that there was some trust also it seemed like that there was like some sort of like emotional conversation that was having Savannah looked like she had been crying prior to her telling her. telling that information to So it seemed like that there is a strong bond between them. I was a little worried that Sof was going to, okay, I have a secret to tell you also.
Starting point is 00:29:29 I have knowledge of power. But not self's not going to do that. Yeah. No, she's, it was, that scene too. She's a stone cold killer. So, yeah, she is. She's very, very good. And it's fun to watch because she seems like in this way where we saw, you know,
Starting point is 00:29:45 when Savannah was trying to work people, like everyone was like, you're laying out a little thing. Sof is very, she's like hitting the right pitch, I think, with these things where she's able to form these bonds where, for example, Sage, like, feels really connected to her as, as to a lot of other people. Yeah, I mean, obviously, like sharing this kind of personal anecdote can backfire. It doesn't have, it wouldn't be like film at 11. It's like Savannah's been lying to us about her career. Can we trust her about anything now? But I think like, of course, like it's spiral for sure. But yeah. But anything is how you use it. Right. It's all like, if you are intelligent, you trust the right person you use it as a way of like creating intimacy with the right person
Starting point is 00:30:23 um i mean i thought it was really really clever of savannah and it was like really fun to see something like that used so tactically okay i'd love to get your opinion on alex in this episode and alex that was my winner pick i was very high on alex in the first half of this season don't say it's the romeo curse stephen of that i thought he had a great first half of the season he looked he was right there and then after the merge he kind of just like faded into a little bit of obscurity in terms of the edit and then it was probably a little convoluted of that there was this lie that Rizzo tried to perpetrate of basically and maybe just like sort of like tried to overhype boy Alex who's playing really hard and I think that the edit did give us a little
Starting point is 00:31:11 bit of that to sort of like it was like a fine line to walk up like Rizzo is kind of making this up, embellishing what Alex is doing, but then the edit gave us a little bit of that to support it. So do you think that this was more Alex was a little bit of a victim of the edit tonight in terms of him overplaying? Or do you think he actually was doing overplaying? Well, he himself, right, says when he's leaving, like, I guess I shouldn't have tried to play both sides. And that's sort of been his story throughout. We really didn't see it a lot, except for your way, this one example. Did anybody think that Alex was a vote with the Zoh in Savannah?
Starting point is 00:31:47 Like what, but then he went to them right at the start of the episode and it was like, how much do you trust Juan or whatever it was? You know, like, I mean, it was that sort of like fugitive,
Starting point is 00:31:54 do you or whatever it was. Anyway, moving on from my failed reference. The, you know, I really, I thought Rizzo played this beautifully. Again,
Starting point is 00:32:03 this is like a Cessorino special. You know, you want to like pick apart that top alliance, but like one great way to do that is to like get, pick off that person in the middle who the top alliance doesn't trust. And suddenly next, episode the numbers are going to be much more in Rizzo's favor. I thought this was like really great strategy perfectly executed. He took this like colonel that Alex gave him that obviously was true
Starting point is 00:32:26 enough for people to believe it and then like turned it into the talking point. He embellished as opposed to like flat out like overly lying about him. I will say just to give Alex his flowers, I have a little bit more faith in the future of our government to see somebody like Alex who's working in a congressional office be willing to work across both sides of the aisle yeah oh that's true compromise yeah a dealmaker you don't want him like going back and forth like spreading lies yeah i mean listen if he's willing to even have conversations going back and forth i think that's a step in the right direction that's right it's beautiful it is beautiful but um but for alex how do you do about two immunity oh oh no i'd love to just finish let's just finish talking about Alex here where i
Starting point is 00:33:12 he ends up like it's interesting like him and sof end up going to these two sides he ends up like on the stronger side of things he ends up on the right side of that really pivotal merge vote where he's part of the seven person alliance he ends up like i think he is tighter with the christina mc faction of of things whereas like you had sort of the bottoms up side which was you know Jo-Wan and Sage and Stephen. I do think in hindsight, MC was a bit of a glue gal in terms of, like, you had the faction
Starting point is 00:33:48 that was MC and Christina and Alex over on like the leftovers from Hina. Plus, then you also had the people who were the bottoms-up people, Joanne and Sage and Stephen, and MC and Stephen had that very close relationship. So I think the MC might have been doing some work
Starting point is 00:34:09 keeping everybody together. But Alex, he looks like he's on the right side of the numbers. He doesn't look like he's in any danger of going home or being a target, especially when there's seven on one side and only three on the other. So it was like a very unlikely chain of events that leads to Alex going home. From the perspective of the majority group, I think this is like once again, the same lesson we see every single time, take out the people on the bottom before you turn to the people on the middle of the top.
Starting point is 00:34:39 Like, just, just, I mean, obviously it's, it's, you know, it's only a story when we see it as a story. But like, I feel like that needs to be like kind of a consistent drumbeat. Like, don't just like, you know. But no, tell me, what's the move that you feel like they should have made? They should have split on Rizzo and so, oh, I mean, when, tonight? I mean, well, obviously last week I should have done that too. Now it's like, we're blaming Sage and Joy.
Starting point is 00:35:01 Like, they should have never let it get to a position where Sage and Joanne got to dictate what was going to happen. I think that this all goes back to that they screwed up the Nate vote. Nate was the wrong target to go after at that vote. Yes, for sure. They knew Rizzo wasn't going to play his idol. They had the clear shot on Rizzo. And for whatever reason. And Savannah. And Savannah and that vote. And for whatever reason they chose not to do it. And I'm still waiting to find out like, who was the person that said, no, no, no, Nate is like we got, Nate is the right call for this vote. Yeah, it was unquestionably. I, I, I, I, I, totally agree with you. Like that was where this went wrong for that Hina
Starting point is 00:35:40 Bottoms Up group was voting out Nate there. I don't think there's like that I'm 100% on board with you that that was and I think it was I mean wasn't it Christina who was the one who pushed Nate because she felt like it was the more conservative option because there was less that could go wrong there. Well a lot went wrong. So I have to go back and watch like I I'd love to go back and maybe I'll do it this week of go back and watch the like last segment before tribal council because I think when we look back at the lessons of this season, I think we're going to see that that was the wrong target that they chose.
Starting point is 00:36:13 And if it's a sliding doors moment for the season. And I think if they vote out Rizzo or Savannah in that spot, I think it completely changes the dynamics of the rest of the season. Totally agree. And at the time they showed us, like there was like, you know, Savannah, I'm sorry, Sage was of course pushing for Savannah. Joanne was pushing for Rizzo, get rid of him and his idol. And we had Christina saying, you know, let's do Nate.
Starting point is 00:36:35 He's like, I don't think Rizzo is going to play the idol for, you know, know, him, he might play it for Savannah, but like the safest option here is Nate. And I totally agree with that. It was wrong choice. And last week, it seemed like a terrible choice too. You know,
Starting point is 00:36:47 where once again, they have Rizzo isolated and it kind of all falls apart. Where you have MC sort of like begging. Let's just like pile votes on him. You know, if he plays his idol, so what or you know, someone will go.
Starting point is 00:36:59 And that seemed to me to be the correct option there too. And here again, I don't think, I mean, I'm really curious to hear, hear what Alex says about the perception of Rizzo and his idol here, because I don't think it would have been so crazy to do. Because also, if they would rather Alex go rather than so, they can make that choice, right? Once the split happens, if it's a 3-3-3 split and Rizzo
Starting point is 00:37:24 plays his idol, they don't have to vote for Sope on the re-vote. Should the players have not split the vote? I know that this is an age-old, no-it-all's conversation that we've had. Should they have just said, okay, you know what? It's so tenuous. We have to count on yellow Sophie. And I don't think that they had realized that she had defected. But also, what if are Joanne and Sage with us? Let's just, like, let's go all in. This is our move tonight. Maybe it bounces back on one of us. But we don't know. Christina's like, I have an idol anyway. Um, you know, if Rizzo plays the idol, I could stand up and play my idol. Should we just put the votes on Rizzo tonight? Well, who is saying that to whom?
Starting point is 00:38:03 Christina and Stephen, I think, are probably the leaders of Hina instead of the split vote where we're now, we're going to potentially lose, you know, whoever likes Sof as an ally, Alex, Christina, Stephen, okay, let's, what if we just put our votes on Rizzo tonight? It gives less of an opportunity to sort of like, for there to be some sort of, you know, backlash. And you're probably right that. Like maybe from Sage's perspective, she, he's happier to pile votes on Rizzo than risk her new friend, Sof, going home. I think there's something to that.
Starting point is 00:38:39 I mean, it also, like, you know, sort of has to be said that Jawan and Sage voting with Rizzo and Savannah, right? They're all original. So, like, they all, like, they, even though they're kind of a new alliance, like, I think you are very comfortable always voting with your sort of original group. You still have that kind of like vestigial loyalty to them. You know, Jeff talked about this being. this is fluid. We heard we're fluid so many times tonight. And I just don't know if a vote split
Starting point is 00:39:09 was actually that viable in this mix up where, you know, you don't have that level of trust that you might have had in 39-day Survivor. I don't think we've seen a lot of complicated vote splits like this in the new era to begin with. Yeah. And it was interesting because like there was a lot of room to backslide. What I'm curious is, do you think they all backslit individually or do they backslide as a group? like did sophy s know that joan and sage were also going to be voting i assume yes right but they kept both stephen and christina out of this so sophy i'd like to talk about her and her uh view on things where she has a whole new outlook on the game when we saw her come to terms with okay look can't beat them join them i'm going with the other side uh did sophy s know about what joan and
Starting point is 00:39:57 and and and sage we're doing i'm not sure um right i yeah i need to uh you know go go back through it again to see just like uh how how much sophy ends up but sophy's choice was definitely a thing and she had to decide am i with the people that i started with or the people that i ended up and that split tribal council turns out to be again such a huge inflection point in this season where this is actually very interesting everybody that came out of that split tribal council they all voted the same way that those were
Starting point is 00:40:32 it was that that entire group plus Sof ends up being the six votes on Alex that's a really interesting point and there's probably something to that right like hey we all voted together last week like this is let's all but like again like we're seeing they built trust they did build trust and like
Starting point is 00:40:47 once you know once you vote with someone once you're probably more inclined to vote with them again that's a really interesting note and of course like Sof is going to that group that they kind of were like let's like let's see where this goes you know again like it is it is fluid like we see these little pockets of groups but i think from the players perspective it's like a more of a mesh yeah and i think it's another huge sliding doors moment where if so yellow sophie outlast savannah and that savannah's group goes to tribal council it's savannah who's
Starting point is 00:41:17 probably going home yeah yeah in both cases and then two here tonight right like which do you think Savannah did mind games on Sophie? Do you think Sophie dropped because Savannah projected so much certainty? She kind of did this a little bit in the last one also where she was smiling. But I don't know if players like, I don't think it's like, oh, I'm struggling, but I'm actually faking that I'm doing good where it's not like the Dread Pirate Roberts, like can't get up off the bed and it's acting like very confident and he gives a big speech about how he's about to get up and kill the other person.
Starting point is 00:41:53 So I feel like, no, I think that this is just who Savannah is. Yeah, yeah. I mean, she was like, I'm fine. I'm good. But I'd love to talk a little bit more about Sophie and her thoughts on things where she was from this group and this, I think was actually like very interesting. And we really, I don't think see this very often. Certainly, like we don't really have two sides a lot in the new era.
Starting point is 00:42:21 Like that's certainly not a thing. And we have Sophie who, after the events of the last episode where MC then betrayed her trust, and then she came back and then was not received well where she's like, you know what, screw it. I'm going. So what? I'm not going to be friends. Another great analogy from Sophie.
Starting point is 00:42:42 I'm not going to be friends with the people from my dorm from freshman year. I'm going to make new friends now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great analogy, Sophie. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And it was interesting because, you know, as is commonly the case of this person who feels outcast from the bigger, from one group, they just go to the bottom of the other group. You know, you're not improving your position in the game necessarily. You're just moving from the bottom of one group to the bottom or another. But like you've got, I think when you're in that spot, you feel like I've got to move somewhere. Like I can't let these people who obviously don't care for me, you know, suddenly like determine my fate in this game when that when I'm so disposable to them. So even though like it's not like her position necessarily.
Starting point is 00:43:20 improves. Like, does it improve? Like, I don't know. I think it may be slightly because she's like in this top four. And actually, you know, new era survivor, top four is all you got to be, right? Like, yeah, that's all that matters. Um, maybe so maybe it does, maybe it does improve actually. So I take it all back. For with, with yellow Sof and her switching sides over, I also want to give credit to Rizzo and Savannah and to Sof. Yeah. All do a great job of really welcoming her into the fold and really like giving her like a nice place in this alliance where I think she's feeling like, okay, hey, this is top four. It's the new era. Yeah. And Rizzo was really quite deliberate about that last week, right? He went over to Sophie and said, hey, you know, nobody else
Starting point is 00:44:04 is chatting with her. Why don't I make an alliance here? Everybody else wants her gone. I'm going to like bring her along. Okay. I want to go back to the reward challenge tonight. And so we had our two teams who won the reward and christina was on the side that won reward and she said jeff i'd like to do something i'd like to give up my spot in the reward to joan uh and i think that jeff like handled this in a very interesting way he said well why are you so invested in joan why do you want to do this and she said well you know he provides for everybody else and i just want to see that he is taken care of and so my question to you stephen is that do you feel like, was this a gesture completely out of the goodwill from Christina?
Starting point is 00:44:54 Or was there more to it to try to bring a potential swing voter in Jawan back into the fold? I knew I was going to get this question and I knew I was going to be outraged by it. No, I do think there is a subset of viewers who views every single thing a person does or says, whether they're weeping or hugging as a like a strategic maneuver of, you know, something deliberately done. I believe that this was purely human. Oh. We have confessional from Christina saying, I just, my heart went out to him.
Starting point is 00:45:32 Like, he does so much. I wanted him, you know, nothing from Christina to justify the conspiracy theorist, Swinor out there saying that this was all strategy. And Christina is a heartless Machiavellian manipulator. I think it was most, I mean, like, was there some, like, a little bit of, hey, like, this could be good for me, maybe. But, like, I do think this was just, like, a kind human moment. And I think that's, like, honestly, one of the things I love about Survivor is that you develop these really rich, deep human bonds with the people that you're competing in this game against. And you do things to, like, support them as people just because, like, you are another suffering person feeling empathetic to the suffering person beside you.
Starting point is 00:46:13 And, like, I have an opportunity to, like, provide that person, you know, aid and sustenance. And like, because, you know, the altruistic part of me is going to, is going to act on that because this is an environment where we're trying to be our best self. So I think it was like mostly human. I can't say there was no strategy. Can it be both? But I think like any other.
Starting point is 00:46:30 Can it be both? Can it be both? And like that's, that's the easy way out. Like, oh, well, she was like 80% of the kind. Was she 10% strategic? I think it was nakedly strategic. I think that that was a. a big deal of like how do we keep you know joan just voted out mc last night is he still with
Starting point is 00:46:51 us is he still i mean and this has rarely worked in survivor history in survivor san juan del sir it can it happened a few different times where well i think that i forget if i think that natalie and jeremy both did it where they let john and jacklin go on a reward together if i remember correctly. And then there was another time where Natalie gave up her spot, I think, to like, yeah, to Missy so, like, so she could do something
Starting point is 00:47:22 that she could go and look for the idol or something like that. But it did not work out for Jeremy, who gave up his spot to John and then got voted out by John in the same episode. Did Albert do this in South Pacific? Did Albert? Big recollection that Albert might have given up something. Did he give up his massage? With the carcran, I think
Starting point is 00:47:38 it was. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. So, a lot of times it has happened. It did not work out for Christina in this episode where then Jowan does not vote with Christina at this vote. I just think if Survivor is a text that we're trying to analyze, we have written
Starting point is 00:47:53 on the page, Christina's confessional, of I just felt like he's a human and he does so much for us and I wanted to give him this moment. She doesn't say, she could easily have said like it. I wanted him to be my ally too. She doesn't say that. But that's not who she is, I don't think. I don't think she wants to like, I think she wants to be perceived as like, okay, I'm a generous person and I'm not
Starting point is 00:48:09 like doing things out of just strategy. I'm sure everybody watching is like, no, of course it's strategic, but I do think that it was largely human. And was there was some strategy there? Like maybe, sure. Like I admit like, I'm willing to give you up to 20% of strategy, but I'm not willing to go one percent beyond that. Like, could it be 50 50? No. No. I'm not willing. I can't agree to that. So you can find. I have not kept track of who has gotten to eat and who has not, who has won to the merge fees or whatever. Is Jawan the only person who has not eaten anything post-merge? That's what they said.
Starting point is 00:48:43 I mean, I'll believe them. Yeah. So, yeah, but this did not foster that much goodwill from, from Joanne towards Christina, because he does not, he does not go along with what she wants to do. Yeah, and we talked about this, too, in the 49 laws of Survivor Power. Second plug for that book, for that audio book. Season 49. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:06 Hey, I mean, it is like 12 years old, so I'm not sure how great it holds up. No, perfectly, perfectly by now. But we have other books to sell you. We have other books. So many. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:20 But, but, you know, this idea that you cannot expect gratitude from someone, I do think is, you know, that sense of gratitude is never, like that sense of gratitude is never going to translate. And honestly, we'll more often not foster a sense of resentment rather than gratitude. Yeah. Oh, you owe me one. Yeah. Yeah. Screw you.
Starting point is 00:49:38 No, I don't. And I think it would have been a little bit different if it was like Christina had one reward and she gets to take Joanne and then foster the bond as opposed to now. She sends him off onto the reward. And who are the people that end up being there with Joanne? It's the reward winners are. Alex Savannah, Jawan and Sophie S. Yeah. So he, I mean, he ends up then going to go eat when break bread with, you know, at least two people from the other side.
Starting point is 00:50:12 And Alex, who even though they say he's playing both sides, probably like not the closer that, you know, you would want for making sure that Joanne is back on with this other group. So maybe, you know, had Joanne, you know, gone back to camp, I don't know if who's there that could really work on like making sure Joanne is staying in the fold. I get yeah and maybe they didn't really even think that joan was as big of a flight risk yeah i mean i i i yeah that that is more my guess and again like i know that a lot of people are going to think this was strategy because we do see everything through that lens but i i think that's like the least likely from christina this is and and i you know she specifically said that it's a human thing and i think like well that's what again like that's what i love about the show is that you get these like big human moments in this very strategic game yeah also that
Starting point is 00:51:03 To go back to what I said earlier, I think it was more sage that was the ultimate flight risk here. And so maybe the move was, Christina, like, Sage, you look like you could use a good meal. Come on, Sage, you take my spot. Go for it. I mean, the other thing is, like, we talk so much, right? Like, all you talk about is who has not been on reward, who hasn't eaten, how long it's been since you've eaten. Like, that is a subject of, like, 80%. Like, the strategy conversations are like 20% and then, like, who has eaten on reward?
Starting point is 00:51:33 is the other 80%. So I think that, like, that's such, it looms so large at camp. And I'm sure, you know, everyone is very aware of this for Joanne. And so, you know, I think, like, just like gifting it to him is not a crazy thing. Yeah. Okay. I wouldn't do it. You know, this time of year, there's a lot of gifting that goes on.
Starting point is 00:51:52 And what, what better gift that a person could give than the incredible escape by Stephen Fishback that some are saying is the most refreshing novel I've read in years? Wow. The most refreshing, and I just got a cool glass of water. It doesn't actually sit. The most refreshing novel I've read in years, Stephen Fishbeck's debut is funny, sharp, and wildly entertaining. I tore through it in a single sitting from Lauren Wilkinson, the author of American Spy. Wait, is that like when people like rip the phone book in half? Is that the thing? Yeah. I was so enraged by this book that I ripped it in two. Listen to that, 440 pages of you can rip it in two. God bless.
Starting point is 00:52:30 but, you know, an author I really, really Oh my gosh, Rob, we'll get the merch. Look, I've got the merch right here. Thank you for showing that book. Yeah. I could not tear through it. And that's the paperback. This thing is solid.
Starting point is 00:52:46 That's the galley. Just imagine what two high-quality printing. Yeah. So again, like an incredible author who did create, write this book, American Spy, that is sort of this combination of this kind of like political thriller and literary novel, which I loved when it came out.
Starting point is 00:53:04 And so to get for her to be praising me is again, like a tremendous honor. Speaking of Escape, my New York show, I've announced this on social media with the Strand sold out, but there are now more tickets available. So if you tried to purchase and we're unable,
Starting point is 00:53:20 there are now more tickets available. If you go to Steven Fishback.com to my events page, you can get tickets there for the Strand and for an Austin show, which is also almost sold out. So get tickets now. because it is selling out and already has sold out. So I have a ticket and I just want to say that
Starting point is 00:53:35 Joanne has not gotten to go to any book events. I'm giving up my ticket to Stephen's event so Joanne can go. It's really beautiful. Yes. Okay. Juan, thank you. Make sure remember Uncle Rob, okay?
Starting point is 00:53:50 All right. Yeah. Stephen, what do you think is going to happen next? Let's prognosticate next week's episode because this is really like the there's uh really we're at the final eight and all of a sudden okay we said oh rizzo and savannah were on the bottom and it's like uh oh well now you add in soph squared and now now they have four and now the other side juan and sage uh i feel like that are they going to stick their necks out to go you know force a four-four tie if they even know that there's a four-four like do they
Starting point is 00:54:25 realize that that now yellow Sophie has maybe a better spot in the old Uli tribe than they have and so do they try to now rejoin by the way Savannah has an extra vote um so christina does have an idol christ so it's christina stephen sage uh so it's really bottoms up plus christina with an idol versus old uly with sophy squared and knowledge is power and an extra vote and an idol now is there a world where the you know sage is like you know suddenly next week they want to put votes on christina and sage says hey guys you know just so you know christina has an idol and then sof breaks out her knowledge is power there's a world uh it certainly could happen i think that that is something i just feel like that joan and sage have been risk averse
Starting point is 00:55:25 through this entire post-merge game, with the one exception being on the Nate vote when it was they were clearly in the majority, but when the margins have been tight, they have gone with the safer move and, you know, gone back home and have been very risk averse. I have a hard time seeing them now
Starting point is 00:55:45 really sticking their necks out to join forces with Stephen and Christina and potentially force a four-four tie. I wonder if they realize that they're in his best. at a position as they are. I don't think so. I think they still think they're kind of on the top. And I think they're imagining, well, next week we'll pivot back. They think that they're in the middle. And they really, uh, with Rizzo and Savannah have recruited yellow Sophie with such a key
Starting point is 00:56:09 piece on the board that they happened to win over and bring back. I mean, for Joanne and for sage, I think that in hindsight, it was a crucial bad move to vote out. MC over Sophie. And I know that I had opined that Sage and yellow Sophie probably had a good relationship going back to the murder. But I just think that MC was like they were in a better spot on the other side. Yeah. And you know, once again, a very Cesterino-ish game here from Rizzo to target the outliers
Starting point is 00:56:51 and kind of bring them in, bring them over the sort of people who are the floaters and like kind of bring them into your group and it really is this is really a classic kind of survivor it does kind of I mean honestly because obviously I'm a you know former reality contestant it does kind of remind me of token jeans with like you have this like little trio and then they brought in you know Sophie S's Aaron Lobdell and then suddenly they've got the numbers here all of a sudden and yeah I wonder if you're Savannah if you kind of like want it to be more of a split vote so she can like play her her extra vote and have like a kind of here moment. When is the extra vote? I guess it's good until six. Is that right? I don't know. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:57:32 I don't remember. There may not be a good point for Savannah to play the extra vote if it doesn't happen at this next one. If it's a four four, you know, I think she, like the ideal position for Savannah is for next week to be a four four split for her to play like extra vote as like a game winning or a game
Starting point is 00:57:46 changing. Yeah. Well, maybe if it comes down to it, is it like, uh, maybe is there like a, you know, at final six?
Starting point is 00:57:53 Like do they need to split up like it's where? Are there, are these duo still in the game? And then it's 2, 2, 2, and she has to play an extra vote, like, and she does it like a Marianne type situation. I think that that's what happened there. But in terms of yellow Sophie and where she's at, it was like the other, it was like Joanne and Sage lost two allies at that split tribal council vote. Like that, like in hindsight, that was disastrous for Sage and Joanne, where they lost MC, but they also lost Yellow Sophie. to Rizzo and Savannah. Yeah, really, really bad.
Starting point is 00:58:28 So I feel like should we, should we do a fishy? Yeah, so we do a fishy award? Okay, let's talk about it. What's going to happen with this week's big award? Let's award the fishy. I actually think this week is the kind of a no-brainer. To me, this is really, really straightforward. Let me just think.
Starting point is 00:58:57 Steven's saying it's a no-brainer. Is it a, would it be a no-brainer for me? Okay, I think I got it. You think it's a brainer? No, I think it's, I mean, I know who I would go to as my number one contender. Yeah, I think this has got to be for Rizzo. Yeah. You know, we see him very clearly state his plan.
Starting point is 00:59:18 I am going to take Alex, who is this person in the middle of these groups, and make him seem like a huge threat, then we see him do that. We see him go to all these people, take a few words that Alex has said and exaggerate them. So everybody is much more focused on Alex than they probably should be.
Starting point is 00:59:35 It's a great move for Rizzo's group, the group at the bottom, because it eliminates someone who's kind of in the middle. It's not such a good move for the people at the top because, again, it keeps that bottom alliance alive.
Starting point is 00:59:46 And I think this could be, as Rizzo said, like a game-changing move because next week, suddenly they're in position to take control of the game. again. And so I think you've got to give Fishy to Rizzo. Yeah. Last week, you and I were debating, should it be Rizzo or Savannah? And I still said
Starting point is 01:00:02 Savannah from last episode. But I did it on the rewatch. I thought that Rizzo was still really doing some exciting things in last week's episode. But I felt like that almost last week was sort of like that happened around Rizzo. And Rizzo was like, I can't believe this worked. Whereas this week, it really felt like that he said, okay, here's what I'm going to do. And then he did what he said he was going to do somehow he brazenly gets through another tribal council without playing the idol and he's in such a great position moving forward i think somehow savannah still is the bigger target than him so he's been able to like do these idle maneuverings and then still somehow be the lower profile uh target in his duo so he's doing some uh really fun
Starting point is 01:00:46 things and so i would say that uh give it to the r i z the f i s h g od baby yeah the attention with savannah fish god woo um daggone daggone is dag on the fish god um i think so the um it's interesting with savanna that specifically people just seem to like it seems like more personal right with sage it's definitely personal with savanna and then we had christina saying today you know she just gives off mean girl energy yeah and you know what listen um it's interesting because it's like the women are saying that about savannah and so i say like it definitely seems like a gendered thing maybe one that like I am like not like wise enough to speculate on but it's not like that we have a lot of like there is a lot of mean boy energy that he's a
Starting point is 01:01:37 mean he's a mean boy I don't like that guy he's a mean boy who's been a mean boy who's been a mean boy to me no I mean not like in your past yeah I probably give you a list by the way on the patron feed I'll be doing a podcast this week I will be going through all of my greatest reality TV beefs. That will be a special party. Yeah, we're doing it. We're doing it. You're like who you've had beef with?
Starting point is 01:02:03 Yes. I will go through my reality TV career and we'll do an accounting, an airing of the grievances. Many of them, most, I'd say probably 95% of them are people who are mad at me. But that's a patron podcast. I guess we're working on. This might actually give me to subscribe to the page. But who are the mean boys? Who are the mean boys to me?
Starting point is 01:02:29 But I feel like that it's really only been, I'm trying to think if any of the men have called Savannah a mean girl. Colton was a mean boy. Colton was a mean boy? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Sure, not to me, but.
Starting point is 01:02:44 No, but I mean, you know, on the show. You know, someone who was a mean boy on the show. Mean boy. Okay. All right. So let's then talk about. about a bunch of other stuff that's going on, including our friends over at Chat BCC.
Starting point is 01:02:57 I mean boy sometimes. Chat BCC, check it out. All the survivors are there, plus all the other reality shows Amazing Race, Big Brother, that all your reality stars are there talking about what's going on in the chat over on Chat BCC. On Friday, I'll be with the patrons for the patron Q and A
Starting point is 01:03:18 for episode number nine. That'll be at 3 p.m. Eastern taking a phone call. calls live from the patrons and then on monday i'll be back we had a very fun club condo this past week where uh chappelle and i talked about the last episode we talked about did you see the new survivor calendar stephen i saw that i think i saw a clip of you and chapel maybe marveling that that mr february yes of course for february rupert the go-to guy keeps you old months yes okay so check that club condo that's a on the patron feed, plus everything else in our Survivor podcast feed, go to we knowsurvivor.com.
Starting point is 01:03:58 I'll be breaking down the amazing race as well, episode number nine coming up on Thursday with Mike and Jess. It's going to be a double U-turn vote. So probably a very tense situation there. And I also broke down the squid game, colon the challenge, season two finale. So check that out. Chappelle and I broke down the final five and what happened on the squid game finale. Plus, we're working on a conversation with the winner of Squid Game, The Challenge. By the way, Stephen, that with the Glitterati, of course, we are rubbing elbows with so many greats. And you can vote for us at the American Reality Television Awards to win the best overall podcast, just like Joanne. We'll have our best overalls.
Starting point is 01:04:47 I love that bit. Okay? So go ahead. go to Rob's website.com slash vote and go to page 19 to cast your vote for Rob has a podcast. And by the way, yes, I too
Starting point is 01:04:59 have a book that does not have as many accolades as Stephen's book. Not yet. I'll accolade. Mm-hmm. Yes. Okay. Many are saying, wow, another book? Check out Rob has
Starting point is 01:05:13 a book.com for everything that we're doing. We're doing working on some fun pre-order promotions, including some ways that you can give the tribe and I have spoken as a gift this holiday season. Rob has a book. How do you do that? Because like,
Starting point is 01:05:29 it's not going to be out to make. We are going to have a special link that we're going to be posting and people will be able to get a postcard that they can give to show that you, too, will be getting the tribe and I have spoken. And by the
Starting point is 01:05:45 way, you could go on, I was it was really cool. I would, on the Target website and that they said they've got you could get you can get this the tribe and I have spoken like and like end escape and behind the mirror that you could like it was like people are buying all three well there was a special I don't know if it was still the case it was like three pre-orders for the price of two or for the price of one or some some some smaller price look at that look at that I'm the only person I have all the books yeah you really are the only one with all that seems you know you're nobody else nobody has this one yeah yeah okay
Starting point is 01:06:23 could i well you got a little a little sneak peek uh that in my book because so okay so one of the things that we do is uh that we go through all of the great like rewards in survivor history so here's ice ice tea yeah uh this is uh some pasta oh gosh is that actually it was spinach and mushroom possible. Yeah, look at this. This is a peanut sete dipping sauce. Mm. No, this is, it's just, it's just the cover is on a cookbook. That's really
Starting point is 01:06:55 it's not a real. I don't have the real book yet. Dang. I was in and I noticed there was a recipe to the side and I was like, that's an interesting, you know. It's a good book. I really got to fill those pages. Yes. All right. Yeah. Then, yeah, Stephen, what else is on your mind? Anything? What else is going
Starting point is 01:07:11 on your world? Non-survivor. I actually do have something here. What is it? Non-survivor. But it's, of course, related to Survivor, as is everything I do. Survivors play Blood on the Clock Tower. We just finished producing our seventh episode. And we are going to have that up. Episode several. Episode several.
Starting point is 01:07:27 I believe on December 6th. So put it in your calendar. December 6th, we'll have a live airing of it. I think it's usually like one-ish or two-ish. Anyway, I'll let you know before then. And then obviously we'll live on YouTube forever until the end of time. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 01:07:44 Next week is going to be Thanksgiving week for Survivor. So we'll be back. And for others. Yeah, for everybody. So we'll be, hopefully, have so much to be thankful about for episode 10 of Survivor 49. So much Survivor is still coming your way. We love, first thing I do on Thursday morning, I wake up and I read your comments on YouTube. So let us know what you think.
Starting point is 01:08:08 And we will talk to you again soon. Take care of a good one. Bye. Bye. Hey, Rob here, and you know at RHAP, we're always talking about the ways to optimize your strategy on all of our favorite reality TV games. But there's a guy that I listen to in real life who's the knowingest know it all when it comes to how to deal with your money and all sorts of other areas of your life. It's called All the Hacks. and it's hosted by the master optimizer, Chris Hutchins.
Starting point is 01:08:46 This is a podcast I've actually listened to for a couple of years, and Chris is the king of life hacks, which is something that I love learning about. I'm always watching TikToks about all sorts of different life hacks, so this appeals to me so much. People love it. They've got so many great reviews. Listeners have saved literally thousands of dollars in book flights
Starting point is 01:09:07 that they never thought that they could afford, and it's hands down the most actionable podcast. out there. One of the shows he just did episode 231 was 50 rapid fire hacks from all of the interviews that he's done over the years. One of the ones that I really loved was about emailing the hotel before you stay to get free perks, which is something that certainly appeals to me. So if you have a strategy mindset, if you love to travel, especially if you like free travel and fixing up your budget, this is a great podcast to check out. Search for all the hacks. That's all the hacks in your podcast app, hit follow and start upgrading your life today with all the hacks.

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