RHAP: We Know Survivor - Rachel LaMont Talks Survivor 50 Ep 5

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

Rachel LaMont Talks Survivor 50 Ep 5 Survivor 50 gets a winner’s breakdown as Rob Cesternino welcomes Survivor 47 champion Rachel Lamont to recap and analyze episode 5. This week of winning guests continues with talk of confessionals drama, idol swaps, and a looming mega-merge that could flip the season’s alliances. Rob and Rachel dig into Genevieve’s gameplay evolution, the impact of editing on player perception, and the wild social dynamics that accompany returning seasons. Rachel unpacks Genevieve’s approach to relationships, discussing her more open strategy this time around and what it means for alliances with Colby, Coach, and the Honor and Loyalty group. The hosts break down confessional chart controversies, highlight Aubrey’s unconventional honesty at camp, and speculate how the mysterious “Blood Moon” twist will disrupt the game. They debate the risks and benefits of pre-season alliances, spotlight Rizo’s unpredictable energy, and consider which under-edited players might surprise post-merge. Gender and editing: Are confessionals reflecting what’s really happening at camp? Genevieve’s shift: From guarded to genuine. Can vulnerability be a weapon? Aubrey’s directness: Does saying “no” to alliances help or hurt? “Blood Moon” and merge: How will 17 players at merge rewrite the rules? Rizo’s antics, boat naps, and why fearlessness makes waves As new bonds are built and old rivalries flare, Rob and Rachel ask: Will openness or subtlety win at this make-or-break stage? Can the Billie Eilish idol boomerang tip the balance? Is Outcasts-era chaos on the horizon? 0:00 Survivor 50 Winner Rachel Arrives 6:04 Women’s Confessional Discrepancy Addressed 12:07 Blood Moon Twist Teased 17:06 Genevieve’s Early Gameplay Shift 21:27 Rachel And Genevieve Rival Origins 28:54 Aubry Rejects Genevieve Alliance 33:03 Coach And Genevieve’s New Alliance 35:41 Billie Eilish Idol Boomerang Impact 46:46 Pregame Dynamics Shaping First Boots 52:50 Rachel’s Hypothetical Survivor 50 Game 59:10 Shot In The Dark Mechanics Debated 1:05:01 Chrissy’s Underedit And Fan Support 1:13:45 Survivor PTSD Among Players Explored 1:18:01 Final Two With Fire Making Proposed 1:26:45 Rizgod’s Spooning Boat Behavior Discussed To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob Sisternino, back with you here for a, it's winner week here on RGP. I just talked to Adam Klein on Thursday, but here with us, the winner of Survivor 47. She has on her resume also, she hosted the on, co-hosted, the on-fire podcast during season 48. And of course, the co-creator of Puzzle Hungry. It's Rachel Lamont. Rachel, how are you? Good, Rob.

Thank you. Yes, I forgot all of my accolades, you know, on fire. Yes. Yes. Of, you know, my survivor journey. So I appreciate that. That's a big part of your survivor journey because the on fire group chat, I'm sure, was blowing up this week.

Yeah, that group chat with me and Jeff and a few other folks. You, Jeff, Rick Devons, Dee. Charlie, Jeremy. I don't, you know, I feel like there's probably some bad blood in there. I don't know if the group Chats can talk about. Operation bad blood. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, let me know what they were all saying about that. I know you can't tell us. But all right, Rachel, how are you doing? I'm great. Yeah, just working on, you know, puzzle hungry stuff, new game stuff. We're already prototyping a new game that were, yes. I mean, this is what I want to do. I want to continue making puzzle games.

and it's been so much fun. So just where we have a prototype, we're going to start testing out probably next week. So exciting. Can you tease anything about the next game? Sure. It is a head-to-head two-player two-player competitive puzzle game. And yeah, I feel like I don't know how much I can say.

It's not, yeah, that's about it. It's like two players going hard. And trying to capture different areas in a fun puzzle. Yeah. Well, you're really pushing the envelope because nobody else is doing any sort of like competitive timed puzzles against each other in real life. So nice to see that you've really found this area, this unexplored part of the game industry that seems like that you could really make a mark in. I really hope so. I mean, it's, you know, it kind of started out as just like a fun idea.

And it has just developed into, I've never had more fun working. You know, I've never had more fun trying to be creative. I've been a creative, you know, person, designer for 15 years. And I have never had more fun than, like, developing game design. Like, it's just been just a joy. I just, I'm so excited all the time. And that's a new feeling for me. So, yeah.

Listen, welcome to my world, because we're so excited here during Survivor 50, talking about everything that's going on. And now we've gotten through the preemptive. premurge. And I know that you certainly have a vested interest in your friend and a former rival Genevieve competing here in Survivor. Absolutely. This is a zero vote confessional episode for Genevieve. So, you know, not very high on my list despite the fun drama. Yes. Yes. And did that take you out of it that Genevieve got zero confessions? You know, I was a little a little pressed, as I could say. But no, in general, it was a very exciting episode.

and her tribe didn't go to travel. So I can't be too upset. Yeah. Okay. We'll talk about Genevieve. You brought up the confessionals. It's really been such a big talking point in the discourse this week where everybody's talking about the confessional chart and what does it all mean? And I'm sort of like of two minds about it. Like I really want to be like very sensitive to how people are feeling about things. And I certainly can relate to not from a gender perspective, but I know that like in Survivor All-Stars, I was like, hey, where's my, where's my confessionals? Like, why aren't they showing me more? And so it's been such a big thing. You went on to win in Survivor 47. And I think that your edit really heated up as the season went through. But can you speak a little

bit about what that's like of knowing that you had this big story in the season, but maybe it was a little slow to develop in the early days of the show? Yeah, I think that, you know, similar to what they talked about on the episode this week, it's everybody's kind of the hero their own story. And so it's hard to not look at what's happening in the edit and say, but they didn't show this. They didn't show that. Why aren't they showing my relationship or my conversation or how this unfolded that I was a big part of? But at the same time, you know, the statistics don't lie. And, you know, out of the seven overexposed people in the. it per Rob's fact checker. Only two of them are women. And of the six least exposed people, five of them are women. So there is a discrepancy here. And maybe some of these players, their stories are going to unfold as the season goes

on. We don't really know what's the arcs of what they're planning or what happened. But at the same time, we can look at, you know, Angelina and Charlie, who got two confessionals on their boot episodes. And, you know, Angelina's content prior to this has wholly been negative. And so it's just, it's a bummer that we're not seeing more fun. We're seeing so many fun scenes of, you know, coach giving, I never, coach is coach. Of course, he's getting, you know, a ton of exposure.

It's exciting to see some of these old players. But there are plenty of, there's got to be fun things that happen at camp with some of the women. and it feels like for the most part, we see women when they're strategizing and integral to the plot. And then like when there's negative stuff to talk about them. So it's a little bit, it definitely feels weighted against them. Yeah. You know, and Rachel, I tend to not pay a ton of attention to the confessional try. I know and the, you know, our survivor fact checker does an incredible job with cataloging all this.

I know a lot of other people, like, really pay a lot attention to it. I tend to not look at it a lot because I feel like, I don't want to get, I feel like it might be a spoiler of like, okay, well, who's sort of like being shown in some ways? Because I really, I know people love edgick, but I really try to avoid it because I do, I go to such great lengths to remain unspoiled during the season. Yeah. During the new era at large, like, was this as much of an issue as it is here in this season? That's a great question that I don't know that I have the stats to pull off the top of my head. But I think you know from Super 47. How many?

Yeah. Who? I'm trying to lay. If I had. Can I guess? Can I guess? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. So I would guess that maybe the confessional leader in season 47 was Andy. It was Sam. Sam. Really? Okay. We got that, but we got that extra episode. Mm-hmm.

And, you know, Andy went out in the penultimate episode. So Sam had an entire episode. I don't know what it would have. It would be interesting to see if Andy was ahead of Sam before he. Yeah. In that second to last episode, because I'm not sure. But I know that I have the most confessionals for a female of all time in a season. And Sam still got more than me.

Yes. Congratulations on that. Thank you. I think it was the extra. It was our 14th episode. Do you know who is the woman with the second most? confessionals of all time. Not off the top of my head.

I don't. It might be Sarah Lascena. Yeah. From Game Changers. I'm not, I'm not sure, though. Okay. All right. Could be a fun fact.

Maybe Sam could dig that up while we're on the podcast because then I'll get a million comments after the podcast is over. So, you know, it's like, it's definitely something that's useful. I think that one of the things that also is, you know, gets done is like the amount of the screen time tracker of like amount of minutes of screen time, whether or not it's in a confessional. Because I think especially in the new era that they sort of like, okay, spend some like there could be a story about a person, but it's not necessarily so much in confessional. I think that that's helpful. But I also feel like that it's a little bit like we should also the the least fun way to watch.

Survivor is by like sitting and counting like who has the most confessionals. Like I feel you would never do that with. And I know that it's like a unscripted show. But in terms of like when people watch the White Lotus, like how many, how many seconds of screen time did this character have? And does that mean, you know, you would, it's what do you do with that time as opposed to like the amount of sheer minutes and confessions? professionals.

Yeah, you're right. I do think that in my mind, the reason that the community clings so closely to it is because whether or not they're doing edgick, they're still edgicking in their head, right? Because they're saying who is production choosing to push forward in a way? And like you said, it can be spoilery. But it also, yeah, it's always interesting when, as opposed to a scripted show where the plot is already written. Yeah.

I think it's a little different. On a scripted show, I think that there's like a little bit more in acceptance of like, well, these are the main characters. These are the not, you know, these are more of the supporting characters. But I think in Survivor, especially, you know, everybody, like, you know, all 24 people came to Survivor with the expectation that they were going to be the main character of this season. And even if you went out earlier, you know, you're still going to be shown. I think that it'll be, it's just like the cake isn't fully baked yet.

And I know that like there are like trends that. are not going in ways that you would hope that they would from a fairness perspective. But I think that you're a great example of somebody who you had the most confessionals for a woman on the show. And in the pre-merge, I don't know if you were super high up on the leaderboard at that point. Yeah, I don't think I was. I was pretty middle of the pack, I think, at that point.

But there is something to be said about, you know, I think Chrissy and Tiffany have a combined total of seven confessionals for five episodes? The only thing is that, but neither of them have been to a tribal council also. You're right. You know, it's like how many, um, with all due respect to, you know, Chrissy and Tiffany where, you know, in an episode where the other two tribes went to tribal council, um, you know, what, what did we need to check in with them on so much in this particular episode? But there were other times when I'm sure we, you know, we had a three hour first episode.

We could have gotten their perspective a little bit more. but I just think that sometimes also the pre-merge can skew things a little bit for the groups. Sure, it's like, oh, well, Christian and Ozzy have gotten, but they've gone to every single tribal council. Yes. No, and it's valid. It's all, it's nuanced, right? I bet Denise got a million confessionals early on in Survivor. I mean, she won. Yeah, yeah. It's very nuanced. And I think that there's a lot of other things that can kind of tell the story of, why it's happening. But that doesn't change how people feel about it. Sure, I totally get that.

Where am I? How they feel? Like, I'm sure Sophie Belaherty got a million confessions in the pre-merge of Survivor 49, where she, and then she got to the merge and didn't get as many confessionals. Yeah, that's true. So, speaking of the merge, 17-person merge. 17-person merch coming up. And we're at day, what, 11?

So we're, you know, we got a situation on our hands. And they're promising something that's going to happen that's going to change the game forever. Yeah. And I don't know if you saw the preview. There was like a 10 second or something that it's called the blood moon. The blood moon. Yes. Yes.

So I did see, I looked at the next time on Survivor, and I noticed that there was the evil red shot of Jeff. and then a moon of in red. Yeah. What does it mean, Rachel? Well, when I hear Blood Moon, as a Zelda player, I think of the Blood Moon rises, you know. What is that? Because I am a... It's a...

I think I tapped out of Zelda after Legend of Zelda 2. Okay. Well, essentially, it's kind of the reset. It's the mechanism to reset. that I'll respawn all of the bad guys that you've beaten in the game. But it's a whole scene where- Respond the bad guys. Yeah, yeah, you kill them and then like three days later in game, they all come back.

So it's not a good omen, I think, regardless of what it is. You don't think it's going to be some sort of like, hey, let's bring out. Edge. Yeah, the outcasts. I think Dream's going to appear. Dude, we're all pissed. Mike White's here. He's mad too.

I mean, this would be a. a scorned group of outcast to come in of like, oh, that would be an outcast twist. You know, if they weren't showing them and they just brought them at merge, that would make it a 19-person merge. What are we doing? Why not?

Right. You burn Jenna Lewis. You burn Mike White. These people are going to come back and they're going to like be like on your ass. Yeah. It would be, not that I don't want edge, you know,

but that'd be fun. It'd be fun to see some of these people get to kind of say their piece. Yeah, it's a two-hour episode also this week. So you have to think that there's going to be some shenanigans that are going to be unfolding here with this 17-person merge, because they love to do crazy stuff at the merge. They do. Yeah, do you think this is a rebranded mergatory? Well, I heard you're not even allowed to say mergatory anymore. We're not. A little too close to purgatory, apparently. Yes. Now, Pergatory rather.

That's something that Rome said. I mean, can you vouch for that at all? Was that something that the Survivor 47 cast was told? Like, hey, we're not calling it Mergatory anymore. And, like, I could see that a little bit of like, hey, you know, we're retiring mergatory. But the reasoning being that it sounds too much like purgatory, which is a turnoff for our audience. That is what I was told. However, I don't think it had, I think they just didn't like the connotation.

I think, I think Rum's comment went a little further to say like that they refuse to like any, uh, religious. I don't think that's true. Uh, I think it just in that case, uh, it sounds like the powers that be were not, we're not a fan. Um, and they were trying to get us to say, uh, merge limbo. Merge limbo. I adamantly. You know, and I don't like merge limbo because it's a little bit too like like merge conga line. And so I really don't love, uh, the limbo either.

I openly said I thought that was stupid. I don't know if that was appreciated, but I don't think it made it on the show, so maybe they took a guitar. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that they would want to be rebranding and maybe they're testing some new names there, but the, you know, that we're going to turn off that many people with the burglatory name. And you don't think that that's why they call Christian Hubicki now. You don't think that that is also part of it. No, I think that was actually the rum thing that it was like, don't you wonder why are they calling

me picky. I'm like, no, Jeff just calls men he likes by their last names. Yeah. But I, yeah, I think it's odd. It's an odd heel turn when Rome is right. I believe in 40. Oh. Season 41 had an episode called Merchatory, right? So it is, it's just, it was an odd one, but, you know. Maybe they got a letter or something. Try new things. Yeah. Maybe. You know, I know, sometimes like I get a, like, a, like, email from somebody and then it's like, oh, people are saying this. But it really, it was maybe one person

said that. Yeah, yeah. And also, I would have never thought about the fact that it sounded like purgatory. But that's just me. Yeah. All right. So, all right, we've got this big situation coming up and we'll see what they're going to do this week. We'll find out Wednesday night. Let's talk a little bit about Genevieve and how she's been doing. And I feel like that Genevieve has really gotten off to a pretty strong start in the pre-merge. I personally, for one, as a long-time Genevieve fan, I was a little nervous for her coming into this season because I really felt like that she was somebody who certainly in your season, she had this reputation that she really couldn't shake of, oh, she's a big threat. We are very worried about Genevievee from the jump.

She voted out, Saul. Oh, my God. Do we have to, if we don't stop her, nobody will. But it doesn't really, maybe outside of Aubrey, it doesn't really feel like that people have come into Survivor 50 overly like, boy, you know who we need to keep an eye on here? Is Genevieve? Yeah, I think, well, on a season like 50, I think that this is, you know, a good position for her. There's a lot of other shields around, you know, Genevieve, in the context of the new era, is a very threatening presence, but in the context of Surrey and, you know, these kind of huge names, Christian, Mike White, like people are looking at other people that aren't necessarily

her. And I think she also did a good job ingratiating herself early on. She's in a majority alliance on her original tribe. She appears to be in a majority alliance on her swap tribe. So there's a lot there that you have to give her credit. And I think that part of the reason she had struggles bonding with people on 47 was because she was very good. guarded, you know, post-Kishonvo, she was, she's an emotional person despite the facade and had a hard time grappling with that. And I think that she went in to 50 really knowing that if she just showed her true personality to people and was her warm affection itself, that people would like really love to work with her. And I think that it has worked from what we've seen.

Have you been able to pinpoint anything specifically you've seen in the, the show that you feel like is a shift of Genevieve in 50 versus Genevieve in 47. That's tough for me because Genevieve and I never really tried to work together. So it's I was, I never got the perspective on 47 of, that would be a better question for Sam, you know, because I think that like, I forgot to ask that to him. Someone was allied with her. I think they did, I think Sam did get a lot of that genuine. Genevieve personality and that is part of what brought them together. Whereas her and I from the

jump, the first conversation we had, I walked away being like, we're never working together. You know, so I think that to me, she always gave the kind of, but I think maybe she's doing a better job of pretending, you know, really, well, I don't know, because then we see the Aubrey stuff too. So it's, it's tough. It's, yeah. So what did you get from her in 47 that made you feel like you walked away like, okay, this is somebody I'm not going to work with? It was a caginess. And I feel like what I, the thing that I was screaming to everybody when I was, you know, doing anti-Genevvv propaganda was like, you talk to her and you end up telling her so much. And she doesn't tell you anything. Like she speaks 10% of the time and she gets you

to speak 90% of the time. And that was extremely concerning to me because we, you know, we hit the merge. I'm excited to meet new people. And, I'm trying to get a feel for her. And she is, it's always, well, how do you feel about this? What do you think about this? What do you, you know? And never her reciprocating her own thoughts and her own, you know, motivations. And so that to me just was a huge red flag.

And the more I kind of watch her interact with other small groups of people, I was a pattern that I was seen. And it's why she's so good is because she can get you to spill your guts. And a lot of people I don't think clock it. And so it's, I think probably on 50, she did a much better job of kind of like being more open, saying what she, like, you know, I want to work with you. I'm going to do this. Like, I think this is good for our game.

Talking more openly about her strategy with people. And it just makes people trust you more when they feel like you have something on the line as well. But you had this feeling about her when you first met her in the game. And obviously, then you went on to become. great friends after the game was over and outside of the show. So what was the turn for you where that you went from, okay, this is a cagey person. This is my rival to this person. You know, I'm really having warm feelings towards this person. Yeah, I mean, I think the the thing that really set our relationship. She voted for you to win. Yeah, she did. I mean,

No, no, no, no, that's not why. Although I, you know, in game, I knew that she would vote for me and she knew I would have voted for her. And that was the thing, was that despite the fact that we knew we couldn't work together and we had these red flags, they were mutual and they were built from mutual respect.

It was the idea that I don't know if I can beat you. You scare this shit out of me. And, you know, I gravitate the people in my my life, particularly the women in my life, are people that I respect deeply, that I want to be more like that I look up to. And so coming out of the game, it took a few months for sure before we really started to kind of bond. But she was, it was never bad blood. It was never, it was always kind of a respectful game sees game dynamic. And that is why I felt like I knew in the game she would vote for me. And even though you were.

We're not number ones. And Charlie was okay with this? I don't know. We should check in with him. Poor Charlie, especially because the whole thing wasn't even real, right? Like, that's the biggest tragic irony of it all was that it was a lie.

Which. Oh, with Charlie in the season. Yeah. We'll go to Charlie. We'll talk about Charlie next. But, yeah, I mean, your season was right after his. I'm sure that he was probably like,

why didn't Genevievee vote for Sam? Yeah, I mean, I think that she would have if I wasn't there. Yeah. You know. Okay. So I'd love to know from you then. Okay. So now you've seen these Genevieve in the game and then you know Genevieve outside of the game.

Do you feel like that in Survivor 50, and this is going to be a hard question to answer? So I apologize ahead of time. Do you feel like that is she bringing more of the Genevieve that you got to know out? outside of the game and is she sort of like opening up more and being her more authentic self? Or do you think that she's getting better at just pretending to not be as cagey? I think it's both. I think it's, you are seeing her doing a dragon slayer pose. Her-braiding coach's hair.

Brady coach's hair. Like all of those things are, you know, true Genevieve. like that's it's so fun to watch you know but i i'm sure that there are people that she had no interest in working with that she's still put on a facade for that she maybe wouldn't have um in 47 and is doing a better job on 50 of it and so i think that um i think it's both but i yeah i also think that once you can if she's letting people in um they're also not going to be as threat. I think that's such a threatening thing about somebody who is intimidating to begin with, which I think anyone that's met Genevieve can say she is a little bit intimidating. She's tall.

She's beautiful. She's intelligent. Like, it's hard to not be a little bit scared of her. I say that as one of my best friends in the whole world. I still am a little scared of her. But I think that showing vulnerability, being able to kind of like open up to people is hurt. superpower in real life too, but knowing she had to do it for her game on 50, I think she went in with a much different mindset. I want to get your take on Genevieve and Aubrey. And I'd love to know your read of the situation. And I think that in the beginning, we saw where Genevieve went to Opry and seemed to be opening with the, hey, let's let's have this dialogue. And it was, was a little bit like, I don't know.

I'm not really, I'm not really feeling this. And then it became a little bit more of then Opry as the Idol. And maybe we're going to target Aubrey that we got to the swap. But what's been your read on this? Yeah, it's a weird situation because I feel like if someone comes to you, especially in the first couple days of a game and asked to work with you, is very, very weird to reject them to face in the moment and like openly talk about how you don't think you can work together. I think that that, if that is your initial reaction to someone, I mean, her and I had a, you know,

a sort of cagey dynamic. That was like a pretty confrontational dynamic. And I know that if I was in her place, I would never trust Aubrey. Why would you if your initial reaction to me is telling me. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, we, like she went on, was going around. and throwing out Genevieve's name, we hear Colby saying when on this Swap Tribe that she was a problem then, she's going to be a problem now. Like, it's not in Genevieve's head, right?

It's a thing that's clearly happening. And people, Genevieve and her allies are aware that this is happening. So, yeah, I think that it's tragic that Aubrey has an idol and that Genevieve's found two and has no idol. So I have a lot of feelings on it, Rob, that are, yeah.

Did you have anybody that had that same kind of Aubrey dynamic with Genevieve and Aubrey in your time playing and Survivor? I don't think so because like I said, it's one thing to be cagey. I think John Lovett was cagey. He wouldn't commit. He wouldn't like speak his mind. You didn't really know where what he thought or what his plan was.

But that's very different than someone just openly saying like, I don't know if we can work together. Like that, that's psychotic. I don't know. I've never. I think that it's like a really. It's interesting because it's like the cagey part of it was like I think the traditional survivor response is going to be like, oh yeah, totally. Like, yeah, let's definitely work together.

But you don't believe it. Like they'll say yes to your face, but it's like that's shady. I'm not buying it. I do feel like that it is interesting that Aubrey gave like maybe a very honest answer of like the fact that she did not lie in that. I think that the survivor instincts would be to say you say yes to everything, but Genevieve's like, yeah, all right, Aubrey, sure. I was born at night, not last night. You're not interested in working to me. It's very interesting to me that she said, she flat out said, you know what, I need to think about this. I'm not, I'm not sure. Let's sort of feel it out. So, yeah, in a way, it is, it is psychotic

for Survivor, but it probably is also, like, more the truth than you would expect to get on Survivor. Absolutely. And I think that if this was, if this happened a little further in the game when there's already established dynamics where there's things that like, you know, I don't know if my group can work with your group. I don't know if this is going to happen. That happens out there. And it's like I do need to think about it. And I think that that's reasonable. But I, I, I cannot imagine why you would ever do that that early in the game with eight people on your tribe. Like, yeah, even if you're not super feeling it, you should be very open to that. Like you don't know where the. chips fall yet. And it's like, in my mind, not a surprise that she was out of the numbers on that original tribe. Like if that is the way that you're going around doing that, you know, like, it just, I don't think anyone should be drawing such definitive lines on day two. Yeah. And we never really got other than from her season or the vibes, why Aubrey feels that particular way about Genevieve, where she seems now very, you know, now having heard that Jenner, is talking about targeting her, she seems, you know, totally out on Genevieve.

Right. Well, and it seems, it's funny to me that she seems shocked when she was throwing out Genevieve earlier. Like, it's just, you know, it just, there's a lot of things that don't, like, line up. And I don't know if we're not seeing the whole story. But it just feels, it feels weird because it, like, if I'm targeting you, Rob, and then I hear you're targeting me, that shouldn't come as a big surprise. Like, I don't, I don't get it.

Makes sense. So I would love to get your. your thoughts just now sort of like from, uh, widening out a little bit where, you know, I've tried to think about where are the alliances now coming into the merge? And we know that Genevieve has been very much with Colby this whole way. Colby, you know, Genevieve, we've seen her with coach. Colby is part of the honor and loyalty alliance with Joe and Colby and coach. I will say that we haven't really seen any real interactions between Genevieve and Joe yet. And I do know from when I did my

exit interview with Joe right after Survivor 48 that he actually called out Genevieve as being a person like, I don't understand how you could play this game and not necessarily like, you know, and be closed off. Like, you know, that same sort of thing that we heard him with telling Rick Devin's of like, hey, that's all you have in this game is to open up to people. So I'm interested to kind of know what the Joe Genevieve dynamic is, but I suspect if there was anything there, we might have seen something about it. So it feels like to me, tell me if you think I'm jumping to any logical leaps, but I think that Genevieve is with Coach and Colby and Joe, and then Stephanie will come home to that into the merge. And maybe even Jonathan comes back to that

because he has the connection to coach. So it seems like that we probably will have Genevieve with a lot of these guys in Stephanie. Is that fair to say going into the merch? Yeah. And you have to, we can't forget about Rizzo and Ozzy, right, who she sent these. Yes. But I would say I think that Rizzo is more locked. Maybe there's like he's a little bit on the fence.

But he seems maybe like he's made his bed more with the people that he voted with at the last tribal council. And I also wonder if Ozzy is going to come home to Surrey eventually when you. she was with that other group. But what I wanted to ask you about was we also saw in this episode that Aubrey and coach seem to foster a bond. And that sort of like doing the math here, it's like, wait, hold on. Is Aubrey going to also be with this group? And could we see a world where Genevete and Aubrey are actually working together with the same people? Is that a possibility? in... I mean, with 17 people, like, I think that you have to work with people that you probably wouldn't choose to work with otherwise. So if that's the way the chips fall, I think both of them are

smart enough game players to not, you know, rail against that too hard. Yeah. But I don't know. I mean, I think that it remains to be seen. I think it's so interesting that, you know, you have these swapped tribes. You have swap dynamics, original dynamics, and then you have real life dynamics because it's a returning season. And so it's, it's, I would have never expected D to turn on Charlie, you know, based on like, uh, their, their seasons being close together. I feel like they're friends in real life. Like, I think that there's a lot there that we can't quantify.

Um, and I will be very curious to see what happens with things like, um, the Billy Ilish idols. And does that have game impact? Does it matter? You know, will Rizzo feel torn? between this group he just voted with and then his original alliance, because he was a part of that five, four, after Kyle was metabact. So, yeah, I'm not sure.

So I don't think that Aubrey is going to be the number one target going to the, I can't imagine that Genevieve is going to try to rally everybody to get rid of Aubrey, especially when so many of her allies now, especially coach, is going to say, no, no, no, Aubrey's cool. I like her. So in a way, I think that that sort of does, in a weird way, save Jen. where Aubrey, you know, has the idol and could potentially idle Genevieve out. So I kind of feel like that the merge kind of releases the tension on that situation. But you brought up Rizzo.

And I'd love to know as a Genevieve expert, do you see Genevieve maybe, as you mentioned Sarah Lascena earlier, and this would be a very Sarah Lascena move of let me get Sierra Don Thomas fan favorite game changer out of the game to get the legacy advantage. Do you think that Genevieve will be pushing to use the Billy Eilish boomerang effect to take out the Riz God? I think that would be very interesting because... If she did it to Saul, she could do it to Riz God. I think especially in the case where you're saying maybe he is more loyal to this group he just voted with, if they get to merge and it's pretty clear that she's lost Rizzo, then what incentive does she have to not target him? I think maybe the only one would be that, you know, Rizzo in this last episode told Sarii he thinks it came from Genevieve.

So it might, there's enough information out there. Yeah, he said it when he told her, he's like, I think it came from Genevieve. And I think that there might be enough information out there that it paints a target on her back to be openly going for Rizzo when people know that she's going to get the boomerang. Because he does know the mechanics of it from being there. And so that if that is kind of good. It's a little bit like in the traders when you are saying like, hey, I think this person is a traitor. Like, well, now we can't kill this person because now it's going to look like I did it. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's almost an insurance policy that he's gone around and told people. And I wonder if that's intentional or not. You should ask him that something. Yeah. I have from Sam had sent me an answer to that trivia question earlier. Okay. Rachel had 88, or I was an 86 confessionals

in Survivor 47. Job well done with you. The person you beat, I would not have guessed this, was actually a runner-up from Survivor. Oh. A new era?

Old era. Very old era. Ooh. She too won four immunity challenges. Oh, Chrissy. Chrissy? No.

No. I imagine Chrissy going from the, she was the most confessionals ever to now. Kelly Wigglesworth. Oh, that makes sense. Yes. Yes.

I was like running through the list of the other women. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I wouldn't have expected that either. Yeah. I'd be curious to know, Sam,

if you give me one more piece of data about the confessionals. How, how, what was the H-H-H-H-confessional account? How many did Chrissy have originally? Yeah. I'd be curious to know that. When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel.

While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Let's talk about your former colleagues on the On Fire podcast. And Dee and Charlie ultimately, it was a bit of a falling out. And I was actually surprised because coming into the season, this was somebody, this seemed like a good relationship. This was that, and decided about, you know, that there was, that she felt like that when, she took over, she felt like maybe she did not hear so much from Rick Devin's when she took over

the job. But in the passing of the torch, it seemed like that there was a bond there from D to Charlie. And then was there a passing of the baton from Charlie to you? Yes, I did. I called Charlie up when I got the offer because I was freaking out a little bit. And I felt like I couldn't tell anybody. So I was like, I feel like the person safest to tell is Charlie. And yeah, it was very cute. He sent me, he included in the mic kit that CBS sent, he included a Taylor Swift friendship bracelet, which was very, very cute. So, yeah. Did it say a certain phrase on it? Honestly, now that you're, I knew you're going to ask that, and I don't remember. I want to say

it was on fire. But I'll have to get it out of the dresser and double check. Okay. By the way, Sam says that Ben had the most confessionals in, HHH 65 and Chrissy and Ryan both had 52. Okay. So that's, you know, it's, it's a fun game. I think we should do more sporkle quizzes of do the confessional charts. Rob, I want you to, you know, you've listed every player to ever play Survivor before. And you should do one to see, you need to memorize all of the confessional.

I'm not going to memorize all the confessions. I do think, like, I've been talking about, I would. wanted to do an episode, um, where I sort of blind react to what the confessional, uh, counts are for this season of sort of like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, uh, you know, give me a person. I'll guess how many confessionals, uh, they have to sort of like get a feel for it. Um, the only thing is that, I think that, like, people, like, don't like what the confessional counts are, but I think that people have been mostly happy with the five episodes, outside of the, you know, 11 minutes with Zach Brown. Like, I think that people are happy with

the actual output of Survivor 50 But then... It's been a lot of drama. Yeah, when we look at the box score, it's like, well, we don't really love how the box score came out. But the actual show, like, for the most part,

I've heard mostly very positive. Yeah. It's been very entertaining. I think that, you know, old school is bringing a lot of drama. But also even, you know, you said the D and Charlie stuff, It's interesting like the Christian Mike White stuff.

I think that there's a lot of like real life dynamics playing into the season in unexpected ways. And I think that it's it's juicy, you know? Who would have thought? It is juicy. Okay. So there was some then it just really picked up steam over the last couple of days of that. Charlie had said he thought that D and Rizzo had talked before the season. And certainly that Angelina talked about that, okay, that people are talking.

on Zoom. What's your opinion on people who are like talking before a Survivor 50? I'm very, I don't know. I'm very torn on it because it's like on the one hand, how can you expect, it's going to happen. It's going to happen, period. And, you know, if Sam had played on 50, Genevieve and Sam would have definitely talked before the season. You can't fault people for doing that. Yeah. But at the same time, I think there's an element of how much of this is a little predetermined. And it feels weird to, like I think we saw in this episode that Dee said, like, you know, I've never talked to Rizzo, but I feel really good about him. Like, that's, you know, code for we've talked outside of this game. Like, I haven't had a conversation. So somebody says, I've never talked to this person. And it's telling, I've never talked to this person before. Just let, let the record show, that is code that they have probably. I think so. I mean, I think that there's a lot of, you see it a lot in, um, I feel like the first episode or, you know, whatever, where it's like people are saying, you know,

I just have a good feeling. I have, like, we saw it in the premiere of this season. I think we're saying Survivor 49 when, when Jake was like, I don't know, I just feel really good about Alex. Like, I have a really good feeling about this guy. We have to wait for Alex to come back. I think he needs to be a part of our minds.

Yeah, I don't know. I like, I like his vibes. But I think we saw in the premiere of this season where like Emily Devons and Christian were like, I implicitly trust you. Like, you know, and I think that that is clearly not built in three hours. So I think that I wish the show would just address it more directly, to be honest. I think that it would make a lot more sense for a lot of viewers that aren't crazy people like us

and kind of know some of these relationships outside the game. But it's, yeah, I think maybe the solution is to address it in the edit. I think that that would really help. I don't think it's a bad look on Survivor for, Christian to say, Emily and I are really close in real life. We play games together online, like every week. And, you know, I don't think that that's bad. Like, of course there's preexisting relationships.

And they're addressing in-game pre-existing relationships. I played with Surrey on this season. So what is the difference? And I think it makes things make a lot more sense, too. It doesn't bother me so much because I feel like it's such a double-edged sword because I've seen, I've been around the block long enough to see. I've seen it go both ways going back to as a player. feeling like, okay, I feel really good about, you know, I'm friends with Boston Rob, and so, you know, I end up getting burned on feeling like, okay, well, you know, that means something outside the game. And certainly Lex would, you know, tell you, it's really not worth the, you know, handshake deal that you make. I know from Survivor Blood versus Water, where Aris felt like that, okay, I have a great relationship with Jervis. Nobody knows about it. We're working together.

But then sometimes that these things like end up leading to the biggest blind sides because you put too much faith in them. And then also like at the first sign of, oh, I don't know if I can trust this person. Not to say that like Christian and Mike White had some sort of pregame deal, but they had a seven year friendship after David versus Goliath that was something where as soon as it's like, oh, okay, I'm not really feeling good about this person. I'm going to now go against this person I know. So, yeah, sometimes it works out well. And other times, like, it could really lead to the biggest of blind sides in this season. So, you know, it's- Yeah, it feels so messy.

I don't envy that position because I can't imagine being between a position in the game where you're saying, you know, I, for my own game, need to do X. And will that burn my very real-life relationship with this person by doing that? that. And I can only imagine that that's a really tough, like, needles at the red. And yeah, but I think it does, it makes things much more painful. I don't think Mike had any idea he's going home. I could tell you as somebody who was at least, like, you know, there was a at least at one point, a more than zero chance that I could have been on Survivor 50. I don't know how much more than zero, but, you know, maybe like, you know, one in a million chance.

I felt like that, I think I want to be on good terms with everybody. I don't want to, like, go in and like, hey, okay, this is, like, this is our deal and this is who we're going to target. But I think you sort of like, you don't want anybody coming in with an axe to grind against you. And I think you want everybody to feel like, hey, I'm open for business. Like, let's, like, we're cool. Let's, let's work together.

and when you see them, it's a positive atmosphere to collaborate. Yeah, I think probably where it gets tricky, and I don't know, I'm not pre-gamed for a returning season. But it's got to be difficult because that still requires pre-gaming. It still requires reaching out to people, talking to people, to make them feel like they have any idea of who you are and feel good about you in your words, right? And you can look at someone like Jenna Lewis,

who I don't think, talk to anybody and was just completely down and out, you know, and I think it's just like an interesting. I texted Jenna Lewis before the season, before 50 started. It was like the week that, there was like that Friday night where like the cast got leaked. And yeah, I texted her and I was like, like, hey, I just want to say like, good luck out there. And she wrote me back like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, like, I don't remember if she said like, you're going to like, good luck to you. like uh it's like no no no like i'm not i'm not going like i i would tell you yeah but

so it sucks though because it's like if she's just trying to abide by her contract and you know you're not supposed to be talking and then that bites you in the ass like that sucks but also if you do too much that also can bite you so it's it's such a tenuous line so i heard someone say like the problem with it is that on a returney season um the game starts at different points for everybody instead of on day one, like altogether. And maybe you have better insight into that as a private returning player. The game starts at different points for everybody. Because it depends on when you start talking to people

that you perceive to be on the season, you know, and that could be for some people six months before, some people one month before, a week before. And does that help or hurt you? I don't know, but it does complicate things. But I do think you can overcome it. Like, I think it might be a bigger deal for the first vote. And, I mean, my read on the season, like, if I go through the votes,

Jenna Lewis, I know she feels like that she was part of something that started before the game started. Like, people wanted to work with her. I really think she came in. She, that people thought she's going to be like, oh, it's Grandma Jenna. She hasn't played since season one. She's not going to, she's just going to be somebody we don't even have to worry about. She's just going to be like a bump on a log. and she's just happy to be there.

And then once she came out, like, really playing hard, I think it was too easy to get rid of her at that point. I think had she just come in and been like, oh, like, I can't believe it, Survivor 50, what, like, she doesn't talk like that. But I think that was, yeah, am I Rizzo now? Savannah, I mean, I think it's obvious that people, she was sort of like, she probably would have been voted out first

if it wasn't for Jenna Lewis, just like the odd person out. and also seems like that she is somebody who is very capable and had a little too much confidence and maybe you look at her. Then after Savannah, who's next, it was... Is it Mike? No, no, it was Q. Q.

I mean, I don't think that Q was the victim of, you know, pre-gaming again. I mean, he ran into that there was the pre-gaming of three people that were on a season together. and then they got Emily, so, you know, Q, I think, runs into some bad luck. Then is it, is it Mike? Am I skipping anybody? Mike White is next? No, I think that's right.

Okay. And then we had Kyle, obviously, Medevac. Then Mike White, I really, I don't think that there was a pregame situation. Yeah, if anything that works, it must have worked against him if there was. Yeah, that he was sort of like feeling good about Christian because of their pre-existing relationship, and then it went and it went backwards. And then, you know, with Charlie, I don't know if it was, you know, if there was any sort of like pregame situation, I think that it may have been that Charlie was feeling good about Dee because he felt like that they had a real life friendship. And maybe Dee was feeling good about this new friendship she had with Rizzo where she felt like, hey, I'm the only person that knows this person.

That's much more valuable to me. And so I much more want to be in the Rizzo game than the Charlie game. So with Charlie, if anything, it's sort of like live by the preexecis. relationship, die by the pre-existing relationship. And then in the case of Angelina, she did seem like she got off on the back foot with Stephanie and Colby. And that might be the one person where, you know, some sort of like people seemed out to get her from the pregame.

And then I don't know necessarily how you overcome that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, and again, like, of course pregame is going to happen. I think it's just, it's, it's just tough to kind of like, figure out the like its impact yeah you know because it goes both ways but to go back to stephanie and cue that this was another thing that came up in the preseason interviews and it's great that we have a lot of this stuff so we can hear what people were saying before the game even started

and there's no sort of um rewriting of the narrative after it was over but stephanie was like you know cue was trying to he was sending me messages i was in the sauna and he was leaving me DMs like, hey, is it hot in there? She's like, like, stop just making up reasons to talk to me. But he won her over on the island. She like did not want to work with him. Yeah, I think you could definitely overcome it.

And maybe it's better to try and pregame with a bunch of people, you know, as long as you feel like you have the chops to be able to kind of like overcome any, any playing too hard. But I think that that's also Q's MO is like, sort of being chaotic and playing too hard. So I wonder for somebody that has like a different player profile, if that would, you know, work against them. Rachel, to me, I think it's almost like the same exact thing as like getting to the beach.

Like I think that you want to make sure you are on good terms with everybody. Don't throw out a name. Don't be the person who then somebody could screenshot what you're saying and then say like, hey, did you see the, oh, hey, Rachel, just so you know, Rob is coming to get you. Rob's going for you. Like, what? That's it. We're going for him.

he's the first boot. But if we're, if we're just like, you know, um, like, having some sort of friendly thing that's not like so, oh my God, it's so obvious that he's asking me, how hot is it in the sauna today? Like, I think that you sort of just want to like, in the same way that when you want to ride the middle. Yeah. Yeah. When you, when you first get to the beat, like, like, say hi to everybody. Like their Instagram pictures. Like just sort of like, like, say, like the, the vibes are good with this person. Yeah. No, that's valid. Um, yeah Sana

I don't know I can't imagine getting that DM All right We have a lot of questions for you Rachel From the listeners And let me

Let me see What Okay A lot of questions about You on Survivor 50 If you were Hypothetically on Survivor 50

Okay All right I would have pregame It's everywhere I'm gonna ask you Okay Here's what comes This is a tough question

question, okay? Okay. Risa Cal says, who would you have worked with on Survivor 50 other than Mother Veeve? But I want to ask you, if you played on Survivor 50 and you were there with Genevieve, do you think that you would have been maybe a little extra guarded against, okay, here's the person who's my friend, but you beat her last time? And would any part of you thinking like, oh, yeah, I beat her, but I bet she doesn't want to lose to me again?

Yeah, that's tough. I think that I think that would always be in the back of my head but I also think that we are very close and I think that honestly I'm so glad it didn't happen because I don't really know how I would weigh that

I saw Angelina's exit press she said I told Mike that our friendship is more valuable than me trying to win this game and I genuinely feel like I would probably feel a similar way about Genevieve. So I'm very grateful that I was not put in the situation to have to deal with that. I would guess that we would have a gentlewoman's agreement to not go after each other for no reason, at least in the beginning, and kind of let it the chips fall where they may in the post merge. But I would completely expect her to try and go for me, you know, especially mid to late in the game.

Can you imagine that you and Genevieve, then it doesn't go. well, the whole Survivor 47 group chat would have to like pick sides. Yeah, real civil war of Survivor 47. No, I think that would be extremely tough. And yeah, I think that it gives me pause about returning seasons in general. Like, I did, I had a great experience. I had a dream cast that I love dearly and having to go back with any of them, I think, would be a very tough thing. I think Survivor 47 has now assumed the top spot as the closest cast overall. Obviously, not 18 at 18. But you really have done, like, I think you've usurped some of these other new era cast by this point.

I think that maybe one of the things that really has helped solidify that is just one person on Survivor 50. So it's everybody get behind Genevieve. It's not like, okay, well, are you team D or team Emily? Are you Team Charlie or Q or Tiffany or, you know, so not that's anybody ever thought about 46 was the closest cast. I completely agree. I think when we like found out that it was just going to be Genevieve, that one of the first things that was said was like, thank God we all get to just rally. Everybody get on board. Right.

Yeah. And it just makes it a lot easier. And I, you know, hopefully future seasons do not like mess with that dynamic. but yeah, you just don't know. It's tough. And I think that there's some dynamics that you would expect. You're like, you know, we didn't work together in 47. We don't want to like, we're friends in real life, but we're down to like be game.

And I think those conversations just have to be had. You have to like, if you want to retain a friendship, you have to be like, everything's fair game. Like, go for it. Because it almost wasn't the case because I believe, like as the rumors have postulated, that both Andy and Sam were, you know, deeply in consideration for Survivor 50, and at least one of them ended up getting bumped for the Risgod. Yes, I believe so.

So, yeah, it definitely could have gone a different way and been very dramatic. I don't, I'll be curious to see how some of these other relationships from people from the same seasons shake out as the course of 50 goes on. I do think that for the drama, though, and Rizgudz has done a great job. I think that Andy being in there would have been like,

I think that like, okay, Sam Phelan's there, he's never voting out Genevieve. He's like maybe at the very, maybe at the final five, sure. But he's like, he's team Genevue. But I think that Andy would be a little bit more like, but can she trust him? Is he going to like,

is he going to have some galaxy brain move? It's tough because, you know, it's hard when your real life friends, but then you have this like dynamic of we kind of didn't work together. We did work together. We tried to vote each other out. Like I think that that's maybe the toughest. It's one thing when you're not close to somebody and you kind of know, it's another

thing when you're very close. And I think that middling area is very, very gray. And, you know, also, and Genevieve also, she's like she could turn on an ally, like, as she did with Saul. And Andy could certainly, like, if he, if he, if he feels. something like that is a good move for him. He's not going to be shy about making it. So I think that there would be a very like uneasy working relationship between those two if he was there. Yeah, it would have been interesting. Yeah. Maybe it'll happen in the future.

Yeah, alternate universe. Okay. This is an important thing I need to ask you about. Okay. Would Rachel give Ozzie her shot in the dark if she were Christian? Okay. So let's just talk about this. Okay, first off, if Ozzy says to you, Rachel, I'm going to need your shot in the dark. that would you do that? I think in the position that Christian was in, if everything else was the same, yes, I would. I mean, the shot in a dark doesn't do much for you. I mean, you can leverage it,

but, you know, in general, it's not a very powerful advantage. Right. And I think Christian so needed Ozzy. Like, you know, there is just no question that that was the right thing to do if that's the price that Ozzy needs for to trust you. I'm curious if he'll give it back to him.

Yeah, what's the terms of this deal? I thought it was just a, I think that Adam and I were disagreeing about this of like, does he keep it for good or if it's just keeping it for one vote? I got the sense he was keeping it for one vote. I think Emily even did this in Survivor 45. I think that she, and please, I'm sure I know I will get dragged to hell. Maybe Sam could just confirm before we,

get too much further. I think she gave her shot in the dark to Drew in the pre-merge of that. And so it does kind of make me think, I wonder if Emily said like, hey, Ozzy, ask Christian for his shot in the dark. That'll make sure that he's going to definitely be with you. Because it did seem a little... That would make a lot of sense. Because it doesn't feel like something Ozzy would... Yeah, like, I'm surprised that Ozzie even knew that there was a shot in the door. So, with all due respect to Ozzie.

He's playing a very good game, honestly. But yeah, that's... That doesn't seem like something Ozzy would necessarily. Yeah, but I think if you're Christian, and he's asking for your shot in the dark, I'm like, sure. What I mean, as you demonstrated, like, the best thing about the shot in the dark is, like, anything else you could do with it. Yeah, literally. Like, it has very limited utility as the last resort.

I do think, though, that, so before in our pregame, I asked production, is the shot in the dark transferable? You answered this for me on Chap CCC. Oh, yes, yes. And so they said yes. And so I think that regardless of whether Christian wants it back or not, I think it's up to Ozzy. You know, just like if you give someone an advantage to hold on to or an idol to hold

on to it. Unless it's just holding on to it. It belongs to them. So to put a finer point on that, so yes, you answer that question, is it transferable? Marianne also further went a step deeper on. the rules of that. And so the shot in the dark, the price you pay

for the shot in the dark is that you give up your right to vote. So Ozzy, I believe he even had a second, so he even had an extra vote. So he could have been in a situation where he had an extra vote

and also his two shot in the dark. He gave the extra vote to Surrey. But hypothetically, Surrey says, okay, Ozzie, you know what? You're a good guy. Here's the extra vote back. She would never do that. So that there is,

that he could not, I do not believe, as per the rules of this, he could not say, okay, you know what, I'm going to vote and then I'm going to trade in my extra vote for a shot in the dark. It's if you are playing, if he has two shots in, two shot in the darks, he can say, okay, I am not, I am not voting tonight. I am playing my shot in the dark. And then he could do that again. But it's not like that he can vote and also play the shot in the dark ever. Yeah, I was curious if you could give up the extra vote and play both shot in the darks.

Mm-hmm. Yes. So Sam does have the fact check on this that Emily gave her shot in the dark to Sabaya. Okay? And then voted Sabaya out? Is that right? Or was that on a different vote? Anyway, yes.

So Emily did do it in the premurge. I guess a little less important that who she gave it to. Yeah. Yeah. it's interesting the right to vote versus you're trading your vote for your shot in the dark because yeah, I know I saw Marianne said that as well, that you're giving up your full right to vote. I wonder if that, like, there's no paper that comes with a shot in the dark, you know? And I feel like in the right circumstance, if Ozzy were to get his extra vote back and then

have a desire to play his extra vote, like trade in his extra, like he knows he's going home and He wants to trade in his extra vote and his normal vote to play two shot in the darks. Like, would they let him do it? I don't know. Maybe. You know, I think that would be interesting. I've always been somebody who comes down on the roof side of like, unless it's like a very specific rule, I think that they sort of like go with whatever is going to make the best TV. And like the shot in the dark, you know, it sort of lived its life a little bit.

And I think that getting into something new with a shot in the dark, someone playing. two at once, getting two scrolls. You know, it's now a two and six chance, one third chance, 33 percent. Jeff would love that. Rachel, I always said that they should, like, if nobody hits the shot in the dark, like, then, okay, now it's a one in five shot. Like, why not make it more interesting? I think that would be very interesting if they just let the scrolls deplete over time. Because then also it comes down to a progressive jackpot, if you will. But it also relies on people on other tribes, like you knowing what happened, right? Because it could have hit.

And then you're playing your shot in the dark and there's not even a safe scroll in there. I think that that only makes information more transactional. Oh, they don't put it back in? Yeah, I think that it would just continue to deplete. Yeah. In my mind, I feel like that Jeff should tell them of like, okay, it is like a tribal council. He should be. And tonight there is a, if anybody is so interested to play the shot in the dark,

there's a one in four chance that you're going to hit the shot in the dark. Okay, I hear you. And then it's sort of like, and then, and then if somebody hits it, then it's back to one and six. But, you know, it might get like down to like, it could get a point where it's like, tonight a one in three chance. Like, I think, like, doesn't that get like a little bit more like, oh, like maybe I'm not going to vote tonight. Like, uh, like I was going to vote, but now they're like one and three.

Well, if it gets down to one and two, that's like a better do or die. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I think that that's, why not? Why not? Okay.

Let's see. How about, hmm, other than Genevieve, who are you rooting for to win? That's from ALIGT 101. I think I would have said Chrissy coming in. But now the scene that she's not on this season so far. Is Chrissy somebody that you had a potential? connection with? No, I don't know her.

I've never talked to her. But I, I enjoyed her as a viewer, though. As a viewer, yeah. I think that, you know, she was a... For immunity challenge winner club? Yeah, that was, I mean, okay,

so Heroes Hustlers, healers was my first live season that I watched. So that was, you know, you kind of have these benchmarks of things that stick out in your,

in my, at least my, like, survivor journey of fandom. And watching that season live was very fun for me because it was the first one I got to watch week to week. And I really liked Chrissy. And I really wanted her to win. And, you know, firemaking felt so crazy because it was a surprise to all of us.

And so, yeah, I really came in. I loved, loved her interview with Kellan on Road Reality. I think that was the first one. I think that that was the, the premier. mere episode that Kellyn did. And I wonder maybe if that's worth a repost. Maybe we should, you know, as like, hey, you want to get, Chrissy didn't get a lot of confessionals, but if you want to get to know her better.

Definitely. I think that it was like a really, really good interview. Yeah. I'll reach out to Kellyn and see what she thinks. Yeah. And aside from that, I'm, you know, I love Camilla. I think that she is so astute. she might be, you know, one of the best liars and lied detectors ever on Survivor.

She's incredible. I am really, I had thought about doing a video, and I still may do it eventually, but I think I might want to do a video at some point going like a real, a deep dive into Camilla's best lies. Yeah. I mean, like, oops all lies, you know. Yes. I think it would be. Yes, Camilla is a liar is the name of the video. And then I want to like do it.

And it's like lovingly. Like it's not even like Camilla exposed. It's that look at how good she is at lying and look how much she loves to do it. I mean, you see the, you know, we see Camilla actually learning for the first time about the Billy Elish Idol from Rizzo. And then we watch just a few minutes later her learning it from Charlie. And out of context, those two things feel the same. There are no tells. There is she, you know, both times she has such a genuine reaction.

is a skill. Like, it really is to not overact. I think the, like, tendencies to, to, you know, be a little, like, extra to sell that you're so surprised. And she, yeah, it's, it's very impressive. Okay.

Here is a question for you that is from Java Zero-0, who says, what trauma, and then puts in maybe plural in parentheses, do you think you would experience if you were to play again? This episode was called Open Wounds.

And I think that the theme of this season has really been the survivor players all grappling with the things that are the survivor PTSD. The survivor PTSD, the survivor trauma that they're all still processing. Do you feel like that you know what your things, even as a winner, you would be struggling with? Oh, there's always stuff, guys. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter if you won. All 751 of us. Everybody has stuff that they are dealing with from Survivor.

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, this is a slight anecdote. But I got dinner with Kyle Frazier and his wife, Maggie, a few weeks ago. And Maggie was saying, you know, it's so funny because you're both winners. And yet there's still so much. Like, everybody has, carries the baggage. It doesn't matter what happened to you in the game.

There's always like, should have. could have. Like, I wish this. I wish that. And it's, it's so true. And yeah, I mean, look, I thought I would get to play Survivor in a way that was me, uh, having a lot of options, uh, like getting to work with a ton of people and getting to kind of like, like, lead a lot of, um, the strategy. And I came, you know, flat on my face very early and had to really kind of claw my way and brute force my way to the way. end. And I think I would come back really wanting to see if I can play the game that I thought I would play when I wanted to be on Survivor. You know, and I think that I don't know if it's PTSD.

I think it would probably be a lot of PTSD around I thought I was in a solid four person alliance for 10 days, you know, and I think I will have a lot more, hopefully not paranoia, but probably paranoia around my relationships and do a lot more fact-checking. And maybe that will bite me and I will come off a little to doing too much. But I think I know I didn't do enough early on. And I think that that will play a factor if I ever play again. Rachel, why was it important to you that you would win a certain type of way? Because you did win.

I think I did win. And I'm not, I am very proud of it. And you won a way. And you won a way that you didn't even expect. to or maybe even think you could. Yes. And I am very proud of that. And I have no, like, I have no issue with that. I think that because overall, like, the thing that I knew was my biggest strength coming in was my adaptability. I am very adaptable. And that is what I showed in my game. But that doesn't change the fact that

when I first watched Survivor, I thought to myself, like, I am a social person. I feel like I am often kind of the leader of many of my social groups in real life. And I want to be able to bring that into this game and I was not able to. And I think that that like hopium that you have as a fan watching this show, you want to play the way you envision you're going to play. When I laid awake at night, like dreaming of being on Survivor, daydreaming of being on Survivor. Like, that's the way I thought I would play. And so to come in and play just almost a 180 of that was so cool that I could do that and it makes me feel very capable because I still think that I have the ability to play the other way. But I need to prove that to myself. I want to prove that to

myself. Yeah. I understand that you want to, but I just say as an outsider, I feel like that those things that you want to prove to yourself, I feel like that these are all things that people all already know about you and already think about you. And I don't think you need to prove that to anybody. Yeah, well, I appreciate that. Yeah, I think it's, it's tough though. It's, it's baggage, right? We all carry it, whether it's rational or logical or make sense to anybody else.

It's still the thing inside that like gets you, it's a hitch, you know, and you're just like, ah, like, why couldn't I convince this person of that? Or why didn't this happen this way? Like, I thought it would. Like, I thought I did a good job of making my case for this person and it just didn't work. And I think that it's just interesting that, yeah, yeah. Even as a winner, like, you still have these things that don't sit fully well with you. Yeah.

It's all 751 players. Then it's, I don't mean it to sound like, okay, this is that all 7151 players have crippling PTSD from the experience in a lot of ways that people like going to go play Survivor is the. the best thing that ever happened to people. For some people, it's the worst thing that ever happened to people. But everybody, you know, it's sort of like high school or childhood. Like, no matter, like, how good it actually was, we all still have something that left us, you know, in some way, like a little bit broken. Yeah. And I mean, I think Survivor, in my case, it illuminated a lot of strengths that I wasn't really aware I had. But it also, still illuminates some weaknesses. And I think it's particularly difficult when the weaknesses are things

that you thought were strengths, right? So I think that that's the thing that, like, just keeps you coming back for more. I'm also a competitor. Like, to be clear, I don't have crippling anxiety about this. I am not laying awake at night these days going like, why didn't I do this or that? But in the, in the imagination of I'm in a play again, I think that as a person who's highly competitive, and loves to win, like, I would want to, like, see if I can navigate in a way that, like, I think I could. And you're definitely interested. It's exciting. You definitely want to play again, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's, I'll tell you this, Rob. Yeah. I would much rather, going back to our conversation about, like, can you play with people you know, other people on 47? My dream scenario is that season 60 is winners at war two. And I would love to play on that season. Okay. Winters at War II.

I think it would be very different. to go back on like a newer All-Stars as, you know, one of a couple winners or like, I think that the chips are stacked against me in that regard. And I would be probably on the back foot. And I would love a more like even playing field shot at something with like less pre-existing relationships. Yeah, I think it would be that would be a lot of fun. Are there any winners from winners at War I that play? Oh, yeah. I think they can cross over. I just think that, you know, you get to introduce the new era and like whoever, everyone in the 50s, whatever we're going to call that. What do you think we're going to call the 50s? I think it's still going to be the new era. I think it's just like, like, I don't think it's going to, even though the new era will be seven years old.

Yeah, I mean, it's still, I think, you know, we obviously have several years old. Several years old. I wonder if Jeff will continue to call it the new era during the 50s. Like, will it be, self. referential moving forward or we just as a fandom call it the new era because it's post-40. I don't know. Maybe they need a new name, like post-modern or something like that. Don't do that because Jeff will find some accent to say. The now era. What about that? We'd change one letter. It's the now era. Never goes out of style because it's the now era. We have dangerous fun in the now era. New with like an N-U-E. The newer, newest era. Okay. So my dusty books,

wants to, if Rachel could have her own advantage, twist or idle, what would it be? And let me expand on this question of as a game designer, what's the biggest change that you would make to Survivor, if you could? You can come in for one day, wave your magic wand. Is this rewriting old? No, no, no. It's like, hey, you know, it's like, Jeff's like, hey, Rachel, we loved working with you on, on fire. You had such good ideas. You know, where, where, we're, we're, we're, send me this question ahead of time. We're trying to figure out Survivor 51. Can you just give us one, like one thing that you would have us change or do differently,

whether it's a new thing or changing something that we're currently doing? Yeah. I'll tell you mine. I'll tell you mine and you can think about it. Okay, please. Start us off. I think that they should go back to themes. I think that they should find themes that get people excited about, you know, tuning in to a new season.

I think that that would be the one simplest thing that they could change. I think it's probably easier with two tribes than three to do the themes and then come in and have, you know, themes that really got people interested in, okay, oh, I got to see that. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. I thought you meant like a brand new thing and I was like, I can't be that creative. No, just any change, anything that you think that would. You know, I'm going to say, okay, this is a, I have. I have a, I haven't. really thought this through. I just thought of this. So don't, don't at me. But I feel like if they were to go back to a final two, but did firemaking at three? Like, would that change the dynamic? Because, you know, the argument for final three is that if it's a two, then there's usually one

person that's like so definitely going to win and it's not as interesting. I still know how much I believe that with like six, seven one zeros. But, you know, I, I would be curious if that, changed, like you still get a final immunity challenge and that is the one that like you're not doing a vote out at final three, you're doing a fire making at final three, which actually might allow a stronger player to get through right at the end. I don't know. But stronger in the sense of like people that are good at making fire, you know, it's sort of like Jesse still, you know, gets out of the game at the final three fire making when when Gabler beats him in the fire and then takes, you know, Cassidy to the final two. You're right. I mean, you're, you're, you're

You're correct. However, I don't know what happened to Owen there. Maybe it takes O-in to the final two. I feel very strongly that if you cannot make fire before going on to Survivor at this point, like, you are not trying hard enough. Like I hope that's not a hot take. I think it's insane. I think it's insane that Sam did not make fire once before he got on our season.

Like the fact that he could have gone out there is like egregious in my mind. Is that what helped you win by so much? I had it in my back, again, my final tribal, I was trying my best to not do too much. I was trying to stand on my laurels and not try to look like I was reaching. So I did not. However, it was definitely in my back pocket. If he, like, I was prepared if he brought up the luck thing, which he only did in his final words, that that was how I was going to spin that back around.

Because I think that would really play well with the jury because I bet a lot of them really knew how to make fire. And they're like, yeah, because I spent all this time. learning how to make fire? Yeah, how did you get to the end and make fire? What do you think you're better than me? You can't even make fire. Yeah, I just think, you know, I was like, you've been watching the show since you were five.

This is no shade on Sam. We've had this conversation. But you've been watching the show since you were five, and you wanted to be on Survivor this long, and you didn't make it. Like, that's so nuts to me. And, yeah, I think that, so I don't know. I think, yes, strength, the Gabler example, is a good one. But I also think that plenty of, you know, unconventionally strong people have won firemaking.

So it's not that maybe that's not the greatest answer off the top of my head. But I, yeah. Yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily, I think it's interesting. I don't know if it necessarily like changes the trajectory of the 50s of like this season, everybody, final four firemaking is going to be final three fire making. Yeah, maybe we can just kill Billy Elish Boomerang Idols. How about that? I guess, you know, I don't mind the, the mechanic of it. I think it's actually kind of interesting.

I just think that they're, and I think that we've largely avoided this because of the way that the merge is coming. But I think it did open up a scenario where Genevieve could find idols and ultimately get ultimately idled out of the game. But you could also find two idols and get idle out of the game. Yes. But not by a person who didn't find any aisles, usually. Usually. Usually. Okay. All right. Then this is a question from Keene Fan 91. Can Rachel follow up on the Gryffindor Slythin nail polish Insta story with Genevieve? Oh. I don't know what this is. I must have posted a story where Genevieve had Slytherin and Gryffindor nails. I don't know what the follow up would be, unfortunately.

I'm not sure the question was specific enough. Genevieve does her nails. She does her own nails very impressively, y'all. Like she doesn't go to a salon. She does all of them herself. So that's very cool. But I don't know what the follow-up was. Okay.

David Mendoza says, no question. I just want to say, I love you, Rachel. Oh, thank you, David. I love you too. Okay. What other topics have been on your mind about Survivor 50? anything else from your notes?

Yeah, I'm curious how you feel about Charlie's edit. Yeah. So was it a good edit? Was it better? You know, I kind of I went into this thinking that Charlie was going to win out. I really came into this feeling like that in my mind, these last couple episodes

were building up to Charlie getting the best of Rizzo, and I thought it was fine. I think that if I'm Charlie, I'm probably not thrilled with such a focus on the Survivor 46 of it all. I think that if I was Charlie, and I don't know if this is how Charlie truly feel like, I do get the sense. I think that Adam had brought this up, that Charlie was like, okay, well, how do I maybe josh up this vote and make it a little bit more interesting rather than, We're just going to vote for the one person from the old Vatu tribe, who's the person from Survivor 49.

And, like, they didn't really have a lot to go off of on the Savannah boot. But here, Charlie adds this element of, oh, this is me chasing my white whale of he went against my moral code. And so I'm going to take him out. And it really made it seem like that this was Charlie's vendetta that he had to take out Rizzo. And then ultimately you get this Shakespearean story where Charlie blinded by his lust for, you know, conquering this vendetta that he has against Maria ends up being hoisted by his own partard as Rizzo gets the votes to ultimately take him out and Rizgod gets away with it again. So I think if I was Charlie, it wasn't so much that I felt like that Charlie was invisible. But I think if I was Charlie, I think I might feel a little misunderstood. where Charlie, I bet Charlie sleeps at night.

Like, I bet Charlie doesn't go to sleep every night being like, Maria, you didn't vote for me. Like, Charlie's a lawyer. He's going to do great. He's going to be super successful. I'm sure he, like, he would have loved to. Charlie doesn't need Survivor. He would have loved to have won. But I don't know if Charlie is haunted by the Maria's vote to the degree of which that,

he kind of went there maybe for the story and then ultimately it ends up defining him in Survivor 50. Yeah. I mean, it can't be understated that, you know, I think people are always like, well, he said it, he said it, he said it, he said it, but if you get asked about it every time you're in confessional, you're going to talk about it. Like, that's how it works. Charlie, do you want to be on the bottom of the confessional charts, Charlie? Well, he still only got two on his boot, so it's not great either.

Yeah, I feel for him because I imagine that he had more to his story than just what this. And he hit it off with Mike White, he said. Yeah, I mean, that's a win, right? Yeah. I mean, could we see Charlie on the White Lotus? I don't know. Aren't they filming soon? Shall we check Charlie's calendar.

Keep tabs on Charlie. Is that why he's growing the mustache? Do you think it's for the role? Ooh, somebody's got to have them on Find My. You've got connections, Rob. I could definitely see Charlie as like somebody like behind the desk at a White Lotus. Like he definitely seems like he fits that. Yeah, he looks apart. And then I want to just also commend you on something that you,

Rachel is one of the great posters on Chat BCC. And you posted something that really made me chuckle the other night. You asked Risgod, hey, are you spooning the bull? boat? He had his legs all up in that thing. Like, I don't know. Was that a consensual spoon? Because the, uh-oh. Uh-oh. Are we allowed to, are we allowed to spoon the inanimate objects? We have these bamboo dividers. You're only allowed to spoon by yourself, okay? Yes. But, you know, the thing about Rizzo, and he's 26. Like, he's not actually a child, but that he just, like, has, like, like, such child presenting energy. And the fact that the boat is his bed,

like it's giving like a six year old that has like a race car bed. Not only that, but he's pretty tall. Like I don't know how that even works for him. Like it doesn't look comfortable. I never occurred to me to try to sleep in the boat. But yeah, no, I mean, Rizzo, the thing about Rizzo, and I kind of love this for Rizzo because I think that he, I think the fans are of two minds. There's the people that love Rizzo and then the people that can't stand Rizzo. I think that they find him like just, you know, the Riz God's stuff.

It's over the top. Oh. I haven't listened to the five for five in a while. She, she, she's not, she's not as she's on Rizzo. You have to guess. Does she love Rizzo or does she think that he's very arrogant? I have a feeling. But he's so good at Survivor.

Like, it really is kind of incredible. And I think that it, and when you meet him in real life, you are, he's very charming. And I think that like it's, it's a very interesting TV dynamic of being confused as a viewer of how someone that openly calls himself the Riz God can be so ingratiate himself with Sari

to the point where she says, my boy Rizzo, we're married now. Like that's insane. But then, yeah, it's just, I love a complex character. And I feel like Rizzo is like a peak complex character in that regard. I think I could speak to it a little bit.

I think that his superpower is his fearlessness. He seems to be completely unafraid to go into any of these situations and even to come back. And, I mean, I was very scared coming back into Survivor All-Stars as somebody of like, wow, I'm here with all these legends. And he talks about he wants to be a legend, but I don't think he's necessarily, you know, shrinking in the moment. Like, he seems pretty fearless to be there, the way that he presents his, his idol, he doesn't play it. And, you know, he talks trash in a way where that, yeah, he's like,

oh, I could look really stupid right now. But he does it anyway. Like, so I think that he just really has, like, a fearlessness to him. He doesn't come across as needy or desperate ever. So I think that there is some charm to that. And I will say for him, the guy smiles more than almost anybody I've ever seen on Survivor. Not to say that he, and he cries too. He has low moans. But when he smiles, he has the biggest smile of anybody I've ever seen on Survivor. And I'm sure he lights up the people around him.

So he has a lot of things going for him. I really thought, I've said this a bunch of times, that he was going to be in a bad spot coming into this. I think he would have been probably my pick for the first boot. And now here he is at the merch. Yeah, I think. Thriving. I think people, I wonder if Rizzo plays in 10 years if it will hit the same.

Because I think one of the things that he has going for him is... Silver Fox Risgoy. Silver Fox at 36. Excuse me. I just think that one of the things, Rizzo, you get a first impression. And I think most first impressions of him are kind of like, what is this? And then because you've put, you've put yourself in that position, when he wins you over, it's, it's doubly impactful. And I'll say this is like one of these things where you probably thought it was a very bad thing, a super negative, but falls under the category of we'll see.

When they show him in the preview and he says, my name's Riz God, I'm the man, the myth, the legend, R-I-Z-G-O-D, baby. And everybody's like, get out of here. What is this? But then they met him. And then they met him. And they're like, ah, we like this guy. Yeah. I mean, look at the Colby 180.

Yeah. They came with such a low expectation. And I think that that sort of that little like 10 second preview, like I think helped lower the bar to such a degree that it was so easy for him to surpass their expectations. Yeah. And not probably not be that intimidated by him either. right? Because he's young and he is just smiling and all the.

I mean, I think Jonathan this past episode said, uh, he's out to play and like, that's not good for my game or something. I think he's the only person who has said anything like that regarding Rizzo, you know, um,

so yeah, he's a very interesting character and definitely, you know, probably one of the, the faces of the new era that we will look back on and, you know, you won't be able to separate. Okay.

All right. Well, Rachel, this was such a delightful chat today. It was so fun. You're so good at this. I can see why that you're on fire chops. We're on great display today. That's where I hone my chops, Rob, just for you. Yes.

And maybe in Survivor 51, maybe they will reboot the on fire podcast. If so, who's the person that gets on fire? From season 50? What if they bring back all? I got a pick from season 49. What if Jeff announces, okay, here's what we're going to do, all of the women that were underedited in Survivor 50, you will each co-host the On Fire podcast for one week.

And you have unlimited, the floor will be yours to say everything you have to say. I'll bet you my million dollars at that one. So join us when Jeff, Jay, and Chrissy kickoff. Survivor 51 on fire. Who says no? Who says no? And then Jeff could be like, you wanted to hear from them. Here they are.

Okay. And then next week, here comes Tiffany. Tiff. I mean, I would love that. But, yeah, I'm going to guess it's not going to happen. And then they say, hey, where are the ratings? Why aren't we the number one podcast? You said you wanted to hear these people.

And now we put them on the podcast. where are you guys? He puts them in a, it's a, it's a trap. Yeah, that is a trap. And then say, if you didn't listen, you're a hypocrite. Because you said you needed to hear what they had to say. And now I put them on a podcast and you didn't listen. I would listen.

Yeah. I listened to every episode. Me too. Yeah. And I do, I miss it this season because I feel like there'd be a lot of things like, okay, Jeff, when did you come up with the rap? How did you, like, what was that process like? The impressions, much better than the rap. He's coming for you, Rob.

I know. Did Jeff ever do any impressions for you when you did the On Fire podcast that you can recall? Oh, for me on On Fire? No. He did that Shakespearean thing during the auction on 47. Yes. Was a little painful. Yeah.

What did you think of the impressions? Oh, I thought they were great. I thought Colby and Christian were both very good. I'm saying I'm being genuine when I say, oh, interesting. I felt like Jonathan was inching into Colby, though. I think whoever said that at tribal. I think it was right. Yeah.

Yeah. But Jeff's impressions, I could listen to more of that over the wraps and the chicken and waffle. Go for it. Okay. Rachel, for people who are still interested in getting their copy of puzzle hungry, what do they do? You can pre-order?

PuzzleHungry at playresolve.com or there's a link in my bio on Instagram, Rachel A. Lamont, which is probably easier. So yeah. All right. Thanks for, please check it out. We're going to ship like three months. We're out. Like, we should be getting them in late May, early June and shipping them as soon as we can.

Anything else fun that you're working on? No, just continuing a puzzle. Follow me so we can keep up on more what's coming up next after Puzzle hungry. And, yeah, I hopefully see you all at some events. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for joining us.

We still have more podcasting to do this week. Mary Holland is going to join me to talk about Survivor 50. Before we get to the next episode, plus check out my podcast with Adam Klein, which some people have said my podcast with Adam Klein was the best RHAP episode in years. Wow. I have not listened to it. I will have to give it a listen. I love Adam. Okay. So check out what Adam Klein had to say. And then, of course, check out Survivor Wednesday.

And I don't need to remind people to check out Survivor. But we'll be talking about everything that goes down once again here on RHP. Thank you so much for joining us. Take care of a good one. Bye.