RHAP: We Know Survivor - Sam Phalen on Survivor B&B: Survivor 49 Episode 4

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Sam Phalen on Survivor B&B: Survivor 49 Episode 4 With a new Survivor season upon us, it’s time for Mike Bloom and Liana Boraas to re-open the RHAP B&B! On the B&B, Mike and Liana are inspired by the lighter side of Survivor, featuring a series of segments and games based on what’s happening on […]

Peramount Wolfe. Check out the big stars, big series, and blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music. Like NCIS, Tony and Ziva. We'd like to make up for own rules. Tulsa King. We want to take out the competition.

The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. Now that's a mountain of entertainment. Mike and the Anna gather playing some games You let a pray to your mama that they're not super lane And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name

It's the R-H-A-P-B-M-B-M-B- Mike and the Anna got to play in some games You'd rather pray to your mama that they're not super lane And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name It's the R-H-A You can stay for free. Hi, everybody, and welcome to the R-H-A-B-B for week four of Survivor 49. My name is Mike Bloom.

We have truly moved into the next stage of Survivor 49. Kella, I would say is no more to a certain extent, perhaps in name only, as the camp looked a lot bigger, and they have brought in a new member of well in the form of an immunity idol. We have officially switched things up a rarity in the new era. As a result, we get two tribes of

seven. And so there's a lot of stuff to get into a lot of mixing of red, blue, and yellow. And to talk about these two tribes are bringing in two wonderful people. Of course, someone who has been flying alongside me for nearly ten years on this Leanna Boris, the true

section when it comes to Survivor coverage. Oh, thank Thanks, Mike. I thought you were going to tell me to go kick rocks. So I'm pretty happy with the alternative. Is kick rocks, it's just like the more antagonistic form of touch grass, or which is sort of less antagonistic nowadays as a phrase? No.

I don't think those mean the same thing at all. Yeah. They're both outside. No. One's with the hand. One's with the foot. Yeah, I don't think that that's the equivalent. It's not like before go touch grass.

We're like, no, no, no, go get in touch with like, go outside, get away from the computer and kick rocks. I do not think that those two things are. public. Maybe we should bring that back. You know, I don't do a lot of online gaming, but I think, you know, if you're shouting out the kids in Fortnite, say go kick rocks, see where that gets you. Well, you heard his melodious voice. And I am thrilled to welcome this guy in because this is somebody who talked up the B&B during his own Survivor's season. And so we'd be remiss not to give him the opportunity to come on. He has never experienced a swap, but I bet he was sure hoping to swap out the first pick in the NFL draft as of like six months ago. It is the one, the only, the only from Survivor 47, Sam Phelan. Let's go. I'm so stoked to be here. Mike, you are absolutely right.

I've talked up to B&B so much. It was an absolute blast as a player when you are just an anxious wreck 24-7, and every podcast is both like addicting and paralyzing to be able to listen to the B&B every week and hear yourself talked about in such a fun way. So I've become such a fan of it, And I'm so stoked to get to join you guys.

Oh, my God. Thank you so much. This feels much more welcome than even a fruit platter to get things. I mean, we got to start on that, Sam. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Listen, you. Justice for Sophie. Okay, see, there we go.

I mean, it makes sense. Listen, there's a lot of connection to you and Survivor 49. We'll get into, you know, Jake invoking your name a number of times in the preseason. But the biggest connective tissue is right here right now when we had none other than Sophie. hawk down a reward, a rarity in Survivor. Now, given your own unique palate, would you have reacted the same way or would you have taken this more so as just an opportunity to engage en masse with maybe some undiscovered parts of your diet?

Okay. So I think on the surface, Sophie is totally correct here. And like the fruit kind of sucks as a reward, right? You're definitely wanting something a little bit more filling. I will say fruit is a carb we do need to get there she was saying like I'm hoping for a carb it is a carb unfortunately so let's all right

just had to had to get that nitpick in there however I think it might actually be optimal especially at this stage in the game what day are they on right here day 7 8 is yeah like right in that which is when the producers themselves would tell you you're hitting the wall right

like once you get past day 10 the hunger of the whole experience is kind of second. It doesn't really bother you that much. Your body sort of goes numb. But in this day six to day 10 period is really when you're feeling tired, hunger pains at their worst, all this stuff. And I think it might be better to have something that doesn't completely overload your system.

Like, hey, Operation Italy, like the food, you know, second to none. I was so sick all night. And like I think Andy and I were just like taking turns swapping out of the bathroom that night because we were just, we were drinking wine, drinking beer, pounded in pasta. It didn't go great. And it never really does. I threw up the minute we had our merge rewards. So like maybe fruit is a nice little.

Oh, I pulled in a Cole. Yeah. Get your, you know, get your body used to having something in it a little bit before you jump in the deep end maybe. Yeah, that's a good point, especially as someone like I'm recovering from being sick. And I can't imagine if I jumped into eating like a full. steak dinner, I think I would have the exact same response. Like, I'm going to eat a banana first. Like, let me just start slow and then kind of ease my way into it. But that being said,

the cravings, I would so much rather have had a steak. Okay. I mean, let's go with a compromise here. I mean, listen, no one organizes, you know, a classic humanistic eating plan more than the classic American restaurant. Should they not like start off with appetizers as the first reward of like, hey, here's some nachos, like really? start them off small here and then build up to the main course as the season goes long? Well, listen, they, I think this is the idea, right? And, and, you know, Jeff has said this. They, they've made them stake in the past of going a little bit too, too big with early

rewards. And they want those late season rewards to be like mega jackpot. Like, you know, if you give them a big meal right now and give, hey, by the way, Sophie S, I was given one hot dog with no condiments at the Survivor social hour. Okay. So I would have killed for some kiwi and a banana in that moment, right? Like that was, we've talked about bad rewards. Hey, I've been through a bad reward before.

It makes that merge reward way better. Mm-hmm. We get to ease. That's the thing. You got to ease into it. Okay. I think we all agree that. I think the question is, is like, is appetizers a right way to ease into it?

I would say no cheese. No cheese. Okay. I'm not allowed to have cheese. I feel like from a digestive system perspective, that's like an absolute no-no. Is there like something you could. pair with the fruit to at least make it feel like somewhat more substantial

some crackers maybe something like that's still light yeah various like crudetet charcutorri like you know just really charcutors too much cheese the cheese yeah no cheese and cheese but I do like crackers

crackers with fruit can that'll play I'll take that yeah just like add that in there I mean at the same time though to me it's like it's not even about the reward to me it's about the audacity of Sophie to be like no I hate this. Like, that's, that takes some balls. I think especially in the sort of like the suck up to

Jeff Prope's era of Survivor. I would, I would not have done that. Like, I would have been like, yes, Master Jeff, please. Like, thank you. I love the fruit so much. I would not have had the Cajonis to do that. So props to Sophie for at least like pushing back and giving her like true opinion on the fruit. Is this the alternate in her talking? Is she like, I've been out here before. I know these ropes. Jeff, I can look you in the eye. You know you want me. That's why you brought me back. So I'm here to tell it like it is. I appreciate it. well, it's giving, this is a very deep cup reference, Survivor Borneo, for those who don't know, they built the whole Survivor Bar thing with Kelly Wigglesworth because their original offer was one beer and everyone complained on mass so they had to change the reward on the fly. I love this. And what's so interesting as well is that, you know, I think there's a lot to talk about as to regards to like whether the strategy itself is really heating up. But I wonder if like these players are kind of losing it like just low key. I mean, you have to mention. to the kick rocks like Nate becoming of all people the most ornery of this season.

And here you have Sophie, to your point, actively talking back to the host in mixed company being like, well, you know, worth playing for. No. I don't think so. I'm fully with you. I think, you know, you can get very caught up in the, like, it's so cool to just be there. And like, you're like with Jeff. And you're like, even if something isn't ideal, you know, you have to get in your own head

of being like, yeah, but I'm really lucky to be here. And like, what I take the, what I take the, I think Rizzo says it. He's like, hey, I'll take it, like under his breath while he's out there. And I think that's often the headspace. And I love. And they need more people out here just being like, no, no, you know what, Jeff? No, not good enough for me. You know, like, Jeff loves it.

He loves when you give him crap. He loves when you negotiate. So that just goes to show, hey, maybe we need more Sophie on our screen. Just saying. I guess that's the question was, was she trying to negotiate? Was this an open complaint or was this more constructive criticism? I hope it was an open complaint. I hope it was like, you know, could you throw in something else, Jeff?

Like maybe if we win, like, let's, rather than just being like unhappy, you don't have to voice your dissatisfaction unless you're trying to get something out of it. So I hope, I think what she was hoping was that other people would do like a little bit of a dead dead poet society. Oh, captain my captain, I'm with her. This reward sucks. And then we'd have a coup. But no, everybody was like, Sophie, shut up. I disagree.

This is actually really good and tasty. So I don't think it went how she wanted it to go. Leanna, did you want an I'm Fruikis moment where everyone just decides to revolt against Jeff? That's exactly what I was waiting for. Well, let's talk about this new phase. Let's talk about swap tribes here because, I mean, Sam, it's not exactly a territory that like you're sort of unfamiliar with. You mentioned the Survivor Social Hour. like there was this brief blip

of like two groups but they're going to be eating toppingless hot dogs for the day and then go back to their tribes. I'm really intrigued in hindsight. Do you think that was sort of like a soft launch of a swap into two tribes or do you think that was more like a one off anomaly

hey we're trying something? Because it does seem like Jeff has you know been talking on the podcast about the fact that they were always going to swap at 14. I can say now that when I was out there I saw the build for the chat we saw in this episode, and I was like, two tribes, two tribes, interesting.

So I do wonder now looking back on 47, was that some sort of weird backdoor pilot for this situation? Yeah, maybe. I think they were really testing the waters with the social dynamic that is at play with two tribes, especially with Survivor 50 coming up and them wanting to sort of feel out these ideas that fans have been asking for.

They didn't, I don't think they wanted to like jump all in. on this idea of two tribes and we're just going to do it and live with the consequences. But I think by doing the social hour, they sort of got to see how people acted when they were not with their original groups. And, hey, what if this had been? You know, I don't even remember what the other team was because we won and went to the reward. But if that group of like seven or whatever, if they had to go and vote somebody out, what would that dynamic have been?

And is that more interesting than our current three tribe split that we're dealing with? So I definitely think it's a soft launch and also just different social dynamics, right? Like I hated the reward that was on the social hour, but I loved the social twist of it all because it actually had very serious ramifications in the game. I don't know how much of that translated through the screen, but that's why Tiana goes home, like pretty much entirely why Tiana goes home is her behavior at the social hour when she throws Gabe under the bus. You know, it was a huge opportunity for everybody to sort of get a read on what's actually going on in those other groups so that when we come to a merge or emergatory or whatever you call it, it's not just speculation. We're not just buying whatever the other groups sell us. You actually get a little bit of insight. Like, Timi was away from Lavo with no other Lavo members.

That's interesting. Like, what do you say when you're all by yourself? Yeah, I think that's interesting. I think it's interesting also that you brought up 50 in the mix. as well. So not only was a social hour sort of the experiment for potentially this tribe swap, but then also we think about how much

39 they experimented to see what's going to, or even 38 and 39 to see what was going to happen on 40, right? So I think that that's really interesting to think about like, well, what are the ramifications of this moving forward? Like how happy do we think producers are going to be? What is the likelihood

of this then being, you know, really the dry run for what could then be part of Survivor 50? I mean, Survivor 50's a little complicate because we know there's going to be more players. So who knows like what that's going to look like. But I think that this is like their playground to be able to test things out on other players before you do it with the big dogs, I guess. Yeah.

And it really, I don't know if again, it's this idea of almost being offered the fruit platter in the form of like, who would have thought absence makes the heart grow fonder in that just the idea of a try being larger than six people premerge is like having fans salivating after four and a half years away. But, like, even just looking at the challenge, I mean, first off, it was, you know, a little bit more abnormally constructed based on what, you know, we got to see usually. There wasn't a puzzle at the end. It was more of a dexterous teamwork-based stacking challenge. There was a lot of, like, length to the course as well.

And as a result, you get a lot of really great back and forth. Even just the dynamics of the tribes, yes, it kind of shook out in a bad way and that it's 4-2-1 on each side. But, like, there's even some interesting stuff. And Matt, being able to say, okay, from my perspective, we can try to flip somebody over with the three outsiders and make it a four. There's just more maneuvering there than it is with a six, a five, a four vote. And it's just even that little taste of it. I think, again, just kind of has your taste buds move in a little bit. It makes everything taste a little bit much more sweeter because, again, the last time we saw two tribes compete premarged with the exception of, again, your survivor social hour reward.

Sam was March 2020. What? No way. Because remember, winners of war, they swapped from two to three tries. Yeah. And let's let me just say to I, I thought hands down, this was the best challenge of the season. Yeah. It's some of the most fun I think I've had watching a pre-merged challenge in a long time.

And it wasn't anything special. It was like they certainly could still do. better than like, hey, obstacle course with like this ending event that's the great equalizer. But I think there's something about that two tribe format that allows you to get into your bag a little bit, allows you to do something like, I don't think we would have been able to do this with three tribes. You probably don't have enough people, especially once tribes start to get depleted. You can't focus on like the stacking necessarily of all three tribes at one time.

So the stakes are a little bit more confined and huge. And so I think it made the challenge really hit for me. And I'm curious to hear what you guys think about this because as we've sort of thought about this disaster tribe set up and another three tribe season and why a lot of people are like a little, you know, hot and cold on Survivor 49 thus far, I've started to think about what is missing because I'm not usually this, you know, Survivor New Era sucks kind of a person. I think the new era is a lot better than people give it credit for.

but one thing that I do think we miss from the two tribe setup and it would be solved very easily with the two tribe setup is the the feeling of me versus you um and I remember distinctly out there I never felt F Lavo F Tuku down with them I when we lost the challenge I was like we messed it up it was us against us and never us against another group and I think some of the best just social dynamics rivalries merge dynamics and tension that builds throughout a season is when you start to see this duality of two groups that start to hate each other and I love Savannah and Rizzo by the way

taking this Tina stuff personally and they hate them laughing it up and like yeah I get to relax in these hammocks that they only got to enjoy for less than a day is is Awesome. I mean, think about how like all the stuff that we love, moments that we love, right? It's like new era stuff. It's Liz yelling at Q and like having this animosity towards Q or people just kind of like being petty and and having a grudge and those dynamics and the tension between the players, I think creates really fun on-screen chemistry between a cast. And I think the best way to to nurture that early and have it for a longer period of the season is. through this two tribe format where there's a very clear enemy and you can bond with your group

and know exactly who the enemy is and you don't want to cross those enemy lines. And that is where the human element of the show becomes very real. So I think we have that like a hint of it so far in Survivor 49. And if you would start with this two tribe format, you'd probably have a lot more of that pettiness and that grudge when these tribes get on the same beach. I mean, I think the Hina Uli rivalry, like that's the fun part about this season so far. Thanks, Kela, for being so destructive.

Exactly. But it's like that happened as a consequence of one tribe just being completely demolished. And then the other two like continuing to exist and now we've got this major rivalry between the two teams. But I think it's not just Survivor. Like if I go turn into Monday Night Football tonight, I'm not going to see three teams playing.

Of course not. I'm going to have two teams playing each other because that is just a more interesting dynamic in general. I think that applies to a final two. I think that applies to two tribes. I think there are just so many avenues where it's like easier to like us versus them, right? A versus B, you just have that inherent narrative that's a little bit easier. It's also more intense. And I think to hear from your perspective, Sam, about like how this impacted me as a player, that it wasn't just about like, oh, screw those other tribes. It was like, no, we as a team didn't work. Yeah. I think that that's

really interesting. Well, and it's easier to, like, easier to follow. right like characters and easy to follow narratives make a season just fireworks and i think our season really got going and i i think the gameplay was more captivating the more the the layout became really clear and that's when the the personal grudge started to become a thing for me internally was i sat there and i looked at the final eight or final nine and i'm in the minority and they're calling themselves the underdogs and i'm just like what you have the minority the majority and all the all the trinkets why are you the underdogs and i took it personally and people start to take it personally and then it's easy to follow it's hey can these two two people on the

bottom survive a majority alliance of five and what do they have to do to get that done and when you look at the dynamics of a merge group even it's not three alliances it's two alliances and who's in the majority group and who's not in the majority group and and how do they switch the status quo um i think it's the root and the foundation of every solid competition, as you mentioned, Liana, from reality television to sports. And I think it's something that if I was a producer and putting my producer hat on, I would think more carefully about it. I understand, hey, you might not be able to show the stories of some people or the strategies of some people if they're in a tribe of nine or ten. But we're in a three tribe season and we still haven't seen like five to six

people on the screen. That's exactly it. On the other hand, the three tribe structure, we've talked about it, Brandon Donnellins posted sort of the history of it on Chap, BCC, has always almost universally had some sort of tribe. Sam, your season being one of the maybe few exceptions of a tribe that just kept losing and kept losing, and we just kept seeing them more, as opposed to, like, this week, I think a lot of people are saying, oh, yeah, there was an entire yellow tribe of people

that we're finally getting to know. I mean, Christina gets a lot of, like, beautiful personal content. And then obviously we have a lot of focus on Matt and Jason who like got some stuff, especially in the opening episode, but just by proxy of the fact that they weren't going to tribal council and maybe they weren't involved in these larger storylines where basically just kind of by the wayside. So just even being able to thrust them into the light a little bit makes you aware of kind of the darkness they had enthrouded themselves in the past three weeks. Well, and Mike, it's it's so twofold, right? Because it's one, you're not, these people aren't going to tribal council. you're seeing the same group, but then you're also making what little strategy content we do get less consequential.

Like, anything that we saw from Hina or Uli for the first three, four episodes did not matter whatsoever because it like, here we are with a split where we're like, all right, well, we have a four to one. And if you're in the four, nice. And if you're not, uh-oh. And even Kelly, Kelly's strategy, I think, you know, I don't mean this to say like the Kelly people didn't play well because I thought. Alex and Sophie both played tremendous social and strategic games early on to make it out of that

group. But your strategy is different once you have that realization of, uh-oh, I'm on the disaster tribe, right? Your focus becomes, let me survive and not let me set myself up to win the game. And so I think it creates a more of like day-to-day level of strategy that can be less entertaining as a viewer. Like you, Alex, maybe he doesn't play his idol at a pre-merged tribal council normally. But when you're sitting there on a disaster tribe and all you want to do is get to that next phase, it's an auto play. It's like, yeah, duh, I'm going to survive this one, get to the next one. So I think it inherently makes the strategy that we do get in a limited strategy season be less consequential and make the viewers care about it less than it would

if it was just two tribes. Yeah, that's a good point. It turns into basically survival mode. That's the only thing then that you care about. And that higher level of strategy, at least from my perspective like that's what's interesting to me as a viewer so if that's not going to happen because and i mean i guess we kind of got a little bit of it where it was like okay can we fake out alex from using his idol but i mean come on alex is always going to play it because he's in survival mode yeah yeah and like none of the social relationships on kelly really mattered because like i think the the most interesting thing to me would have been sophie's choice uh-huh um but it would have been like okay does sophie go with jeremiah does sophie go with alice

Alex, does Sophie go with Jake? We've heard her talk about her individual relationship with all three of these men. Well, Jake's out of there by default. And then Jeremiah is kind of out of there by default because she can't go against Alex when he's sitting there with an idol. And so the most interesting choice that would have had to be made is gone. We heard about this Heena 4 and this majority alliance and Matt and Stephen and MC, but MC doesn't fully trust it. And that's interesting. doesn't really matter because they get swapped to a majority group anyways and you're going to go with what's safe. Same thing with Uli. Like we heard a lot of from Savannah about who is the four. All right. It's me and it's Rizzo and is it is it Shannon? Is it Nate? Is Juan in here? Or is him

taking my bag too much to overload? Like all that stuff, right? And it turns out, okay, well, we get to a swap tribe and it's just this Uli four anyways. And so like I feel like I watched a bunch of social relationships that what did I watch those for? Like maybe they come back into play in the merge, but, you know, it was sort of disappointing to see the way that this split broke down specifically, I think. And it was sort of like worst case scenario for a lot of people. Yeah, that's the thing is that as much as we are, I think,

lauding the swap as it should. It was, I'll be in a bit of a small step up in terms of, again, the intrigue of the dynamic because it was 4-2-1. And at least on the new Hina, Sophie ends up kind of getting adopted by Savannah and company pretty much right off the bat. And it's like, all right, you know, it's between these two guys. And at least what's intriguing to me is looking at these parallel situations of if you are the two and the four two one, how do you act upon it? You know, with Matt specifically, with him alongside Jason, it was specifically, I'm not going to sell him under the bus.

Jason literally said like, hey, you can pitch me to vote Matt, but I'd rather not vote at all. that again, just showcasing maybe his feelings towards it all, even though I know there's a lot more complexity involved in that, then you look over on the other side. And you see, maybe speaking to some of those personal grudges already bubbling to the surface, Sam, how Sage and Shannon are just ready to throw each other under the bus

once Jeff says any iota of you lost the challenge. Like, they're already off to the races. But even that, though, we were showing Sage and Shannon as being like, Shannon was Sage's only friend as far as we knew. And I was like, there's really, We know what happens to our friends. They're like, right.

Yeah, maybe that's why we were shown that confessional. We're like, all right, this is her one life raft. And then as soon as it's the two of them, rightfully so on Sage's part, by the way, if you're like correctly reading the room and know, hey, it's me or her. But it's like, okay, the one relationship that I knew Sage had that is now the one person that she is trying to throw under the bus the hardest. Like, that was a little bit wild as well, I thought. Yeah, I, okay, this is all really interesting because I think like what I'm,

what I'm synthesizing from the conversation is basically like you're investing all of this emotional energy into learning these players and learning these relationships and then to have it go nowhere, right? Like that's where also from a storytelling perspective where it starts to fall apart. And I think even if that happens, like let's say you have two tribes and one tribe is a disaster tribe and is always going to go to tribal council, at least you only have it with one other tribe that then you have sort of this like, okay, we're learning about them and it kind of doesn't really matter maybe. But with the three tribes set up and you have one disaster tribe, you have two tribes that then you're having to like keep track

of all of their relationships. Yeah, two thirds of the cast. You're having to keep track of these relationships that like ultimately might not even pan out. Like the whole Matt like you, I'm so happy you guys brought up that Matt MC thing because well, F that. Like that Matt's gone home.

Like that doesn't matter at all. So then I'm like, okay, we were only told that just to give some intrigue for the possibility that maybe they go to tribal council. I'm like, I want to see the end of that storyline. Like I feel like I'm following all these threads and they're just being chop, top, top, top, top, top, top. And I'm not getting any sort of,

sort of like nice resolution with any of them. Yeah. Oh my God. Sam, I was like, I was actually high on the season and now I'm like upset about it. No, and I'm not, I ruined this season for Leo. No, I don't want to do that because I actually, like, I think this season, I've enjoyed the last two episodes. I think the first two was a bit of a slow start. I thought the third episode was great.

Yeah, I people, it was hot take maybe based on like the way that the internet reacted. But I felt the emotion of Jake being evacuated and like feeling. just that like us against the world feeling that Kelly felt to then just get like knocked down to an all time low like that was miserable but that is the the emotional side of survivor that I think is really compelling is like hey we all love each other we want to be the final three together and do it for Jake and then 12 hours later we're sending somebody home and lying to each other as soon as we lose immunity um so I think and let me try to win you back here Leanna because I think good seasons of Survivor, number one,

are remembered based on their back half, not their first half. That is true. 46, worst pre-merge, maybe in the history of Survivor, maybe. Awesome season because the post-merge is just tremendous, and it rocks. And one of the things that I think makes a great post-merge is characters that you know about or are invested in. And so one of the things that this season has, yes, it has quite a few people still in the game

that are purple and we don't know much about their strategy or who they are, but it's top heavy. And if these top heavy characters are people that we start to have emotional and like just emotional investment in, their journeys will be fulfilling to watch. And so my hope for the season is that I know Savannah and I know Rizzo and I know Sophie and I know Alex and I feel like I get a good feel for MC and Nate and like Stephen. And maybe that's the group, right? Maybe that's, like, the main group of, like, big characters I'm supposed to care about. But if they have a really compelling second half, and I believe that's what Jeff kind of hyped the season up to be a super unpredictable second half, I think we'll really love where we end up in a couple months' time.

Yeah. I think it is very atypical editing for the new era, though. I think something that a lot of people talk up is the fact that it is a bit more ensemble-based storytelling where, yes, there might be some people that are largely, you know, kick to the wayside usually is a story where you get to know a little bit about everybody not to say that's not the case

with this season what I do think is interesting it's odd to call it like a pre-merge pegging it does feel like and we'll get into the predictions a little bit though Leanna apologies

I'm speaking and I turn here it does kind of feel like to that point of what Jeff has been making it does seem like you know we are kind of going through the motions of getting rid of the people that with no offense to them you might look at

from the outset and be like, they're probably not going to make the merge, which, again, does not necessarily lead to the most exciting outcomes. But to Sam's point, if it's sort of losing, you know, the battle of climacticism to hopefully win the war when it's like, oh, my God, here are our top five people going into the finale and they all have huge edits and I don't know who's going to win, then maybe it's sort of is worth, you know, the opportunity cost you have here.

Yeah, and I agree with that. And look, yeah, maybe a bit hyperbolic. And I'm, I never want to judge a season too early because, as I said, there's all these threads. Who knows how they're ultimately going to end, right? So the MC Math thing didn't pan out. Okay, fine. There's plenty more. Like, when I think back to Uli's reaction to Hina showing up in this episode and then being

just like, that is so cringe. Like, you need to go outside and kick rocks. So cringe. We're working on it, Mike. Um, so like, it's just, that's going to be so fun when they all get together. And you get to have the absolute disdain of Uli just being like, these. Hina mother ever is like they're gonna be so mad

I love it and I'm really looking forward to those moments. Sophie's been in this new group which is now Hina by the way for what one day and she's already doing a heena she got she got fully adopted into this

Uli like Uli alliance where she's I love this dude this is basically this is like mean girls you know not to say that they're like the plastics but like it kind of does feel like to your point Uli was kind of always coded as like this tribe that was maybe a little bit more conflictual, a little bit of like budding personalities, but they kept

winning. Which is interesting because Savannah at the top was like, oh yeah, we're really the vibes tribe when like, again, it's full of a lot of petty grievances. And so I think Sophie ends up getting the perfect draw, not only because she, you know, is able to get in with the group early on, but because like she did kind of find her people, you know, like, if

Savannah was on the other tribe and like Shannon was was swapped in for her, I don't know if Sophie would necessarily find that person to glum on to. So it's kind of perfect because you have this tribe that is able to kind of lord over the minority and do it with such disdade, as he mentioned. I mean, this has to be the most Gen Z coded season of Survivor we've ever had, right?

Like, Rizzo is essentially a Gen Z Woody doll where you pull the string and he's pulling out vernacular by the day. It's fantastic. So I noted this for the first time in this episode. I think we had been a couple episodes without seeing Rizzo, like a ton of him. The commitment to the baby after he spells out R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-G-G-G-D-R-G-G-G-Babby, and he has to throw in the Riz-G-G-G-Bab afterwards is the best thing.

Like, it makes me smile every single time. Because every time I'm like, all right, hey, we don't need to do the R-S-G-G-O-D-R-R-G-G-B-B-B-E, and says it, like, under his breath. and he has to get the whole spiel out. I'm just like, that's perfect. Great job. Great job. They love that. I love that.

He's like so fully committed to the catchphrase. I'm like, no, no, no, no. The baby is part of it, guys. The baby is, that's what Jake said as well. Yeah, I think that my favorite part is of the phrase is actually it's the, it's the it's the Riz God, but it's the emphasis on the second syllable. It's the Sophie where he goes, the man in the legend R-Z-GOD, Riz God, baby.

Like, I think he's trying to pick up the energy towards the end. To your point, Sam, because he knows he has to get through the entire sentence. But it comes across, like, If you were writing it out that it was like lowercase R-I-Z and then 72 point font all caps G-O-D, which again does not necessarily help the image he's trying to cultivate up like, I'm just a cool 25-year-old kid when he's calling himself Riz God, baby. I don't know if he's referred to himself as Riz God yet without spelling it. And I think and the best part, right, because I think that this is the other thing, I don't think anybody knows that he refers to himself as Riz God. They call him Rizzo to his face. And so it is just, it's such a great picture to me that this guy in confessionals is referring to himself as R-I-Z-G-O-D-R-Z-G-O-D-R-G-G-D-Riz-God baby.

And nobody else even is aware that this is a thing that he does. That's, that's beautiful. That's so funny. We talk about lying about your job. I mean, it comes up in this episode with Matt, his role in finance. But really, like, the true secret to be kept throughout the season is your full-on spelled-out nickname, baby. And like, that's really the key here. Now, I personally think there is a, now,

Rizzo has gone on to say he's not going to reveal this persona. In fact, I was visiting the Oolie camp when they asked like, Rizzo, do you have any nicknames? And when I tell you, my heart stopped for a brief second. I was like, this is your test, Rizzo. What are you going to do? Here we go. And he's like, no.

I was like, all right, kid, you got the first one. First hurdle's done. It's a long race here. But I also wonder if there is, incentive to give a very long moniker because it's much harder to write down or if someone spends a long time and with that pen in that voting booth they're like aha it's me tonight i got he has an idol this is the perfect ploy if you feel like they have to write the entire name out including titles then you know oh my god they spent 35 seconds in that voting booth it's me tonight i've got to play

this thing well i am i will say i'm slightly disappointed because when I was first introduced to the man, the myth, the legend, R-A-G-O-D, R-Z-G-O-D, Riz God, Baby, I saw him refer to himself as this in the 49 preview, and my immediate hope was that this was like coach or the war dog, and this is just what he would go by on the show. And the thought of Jeff Probes, the reading a vote for Risgod made me very happy. And so I'm slightly disappointed that any votes that are cast for Rizzo will just Reed Rizzo. But yeah,

I started to picture it. Is Jeff going to be able to keep a straight face when he does this one? Let's see. That's such a missed opportunity. Now I'm so mad at him for not doing it. Like I want to see him. Imagine like him just looking at you all serious and forlorn

Rizgod. The tribe has spoken. And like, come on. Riz God does not count. Yeah. Riz God does not count. I mean,

yeah, that we missed out on many opportunities, unfortunately. I don't know. I don't know, maybe Rizzo's going to have at one point his own session where he's like, I've got this secret that I've been harboring, much like Matt did for some

reason, which is wild. Like, you're all going to get a laugh out of this. Check this out. If Saman is like, uh-huh, I've spotted the Patrick Bateman on you from the moment I saw those dreads, you sociopath. Can we, like, I do want to talk

about the whole job thing. Because it was one thing that stunned me. playing was like I didn't lie about my job at all I was very like I just talked about it to whoever I thought it was like a cool opportunity to I don't know maybe like make some relationships I remember day two or whatever it was and he was like oh like I love the bills and I was like oh you love the like whatever because he's I wore a buffalo bill shirt in pregame at Ponderosca. Oh yeah I remember this yeah so he noted that I was wearing a bill shirt and um we talked about

the fact that I've I've covered a bunch of bills games before and uh like I'm like okay this is a great opportunity to like make a relationship with somebody you never know. We get off the island. We get our phones back when we're in Los Angeles. And I just remember seeing like the cast leak that was out there. And you see like name age occupation. I think like three people told the truth on our entire season. Like nobody's telling the truth about what they do. It's the most bizarre thing in the world. I guess people are like when everybody asks, why does everybody feel the need to lie about their job. Maybe this is why because apparently every job in the world is the biggest threat known to man. What can we not tell people that we do? Can't tell them we're a lawyer. We can't

tell them that we worked in finance, apparently. Can't work in sales. 43 taught us that. Don't be a wildly successful political podcast host. That usually doesn't go well. I don't know. What else? You can't have do anything that makes any kind of money. No professional athlete, even if you played like one season and didn't make any money. Doesn't it does feel like a little self-serving, though, to a certain extent? It's like you want to feel like you have a job that feels threatening for a survivor. Otherwise, you're sort of like, what am I doing with my life? If I can't be threatening by revealing my true occupation of survivors, why did your career change?

You sit in with us in pregame and ask us, like, what is your job or your life experience? How is it going to help you in the game? Everybody believes that what they do for work and what they do in their life is going to equip them for Survivor. Like, not everybody needs to lie about it. I don't get it. I guess my interpretation of this, like, I'm going to give Savannah the benefit of the doubt for sure. And, like, it's like anything. It's tribe strength.

It's trust. It's this person's causing chaos when they're just sitting in the shelter. It's like, okay, I want to get rid of this person and I need a reason to justify it to everybody else. And so that's probably what it is. But, yeah, it was a little bit bizarre that we got this big, long thing about how you can't be the boss of anybody. otherwise you are a sociopath that must be voted out of the game. Yeah, I absolutely think that that's the case. I think it's just you use it as an excuse, right?

Because like, do we never hear the flip side? We never hear like, oh, well, they're a dog walker. So that's fine. We'll just keep them in. Like, we never hear the reverse of that, right? It's always just like, this is what I'm using as justification in order to get rid of you. So I don't think it really matters all that much. I mean, you have Stephen out here.

I mean, in this episode, we see him be very honest about his role, right? And I would say, like, to me, I look at that and I'm like, that man's a genius. Get that man out of here, right? But it doesn't matter. I think in the long run, I think people are going to perceive you however they want to perceive you. I think so in something crazy, maybe. Yeah, I mean, I think the only reason why it would be important is if it sort of defies how you come across, right? Like, if you come across as ditsy and whatever, like an airhead, and then it's like, oh, I'm an aerospace engineer. It's like, hmm, you might be way better at this than I'm giving you credit for.

And you might think twice for sure. Yeah. I think we've seen a lot of people that are astronauts, aerospace engineers. I don't know. What was Jatia? I don't know. Spencer literally said the fact that you're a nuclear scientist is genuinely scary when you know.

I mean, like there have been a lot of people who are very smart and work very big, great jobs that are not good at Survivor. So it's like it doesn't necessarily need to be a. one-to-one comparison. I was laughing, Leanna, when you mentioned Stephen's introduction, because I remember that because when the Kellogg tribe was going around and doing introductions, Stephen is like, hi, I'm Stephen, and this is my job. And Sage is like, great, we're doing that.

My name is Sage, and I collect pimples in a jar. It's like, this is not, not to go back to the fruit of it all, it's like apples and oranges with the personal factoid that you're bringing in. I love that she prefaced it too by being like, this is the first thing I'm going to tell you guys about me. And like, this is going to, might influence how you view me. Like, oh, wow, no shocker. Yeah.

And I actually, like, I respect Sage for this a lot because I think it's unfortunate, probably how it's being, if I had to guess, right, I'm just going to kind of like try to peek behind the curtain. I would imagine most of this is strategic on Sage's part. Like, I would have met, like, it's very similar, Mike. We talk about like the fruit thing all the time. But like a lot of famously, right? A lot of the time when I would talk about, oh, I haven't had fruits or I would do some of these things,

it was to come off as very like, just like innocent, goofy, naive kind of a vibe. And you don't want people to know, like, I'm being very serious and very locked in in my head right now. I'm playing this game cutthroat. You do anything that you can to sort of like influence this perception of you. And I think Sage is probably trying to lean into this like, I like poop and I collect pimples and stuff as sort of her bit to get the attention. on that side of her personality and not the areas of her that I think make her really good at the game

and we maybe are just not getting some of those other sides of her quite yet maybe we are in the future based on like previews and her seemingly having it out for Shannon a little at this new tribe but I think that's probably what's going on and it's like a lot of people I think do this

Liz Wilcox famously is like I was trying to be a pretend to be a millionaire the whole time and be a little cookie so people wouldn't take me seriously maybe that's true. I don't know. But, you know, people do it for strategy. Yeah, I think to that point, I mean, Stephen follows it up by being like, Sage is an odd duck, but I'm a waterfowl too. And so I get along with that. But the tough thing as well is that he's like, I feel this way about Sage. But Shannon, I love the fact that, you know, she's really open and

she's very spiritual. That's something I vibe with. I think what I'm genuinely considering from Stephen Confessionals are that like they're all upside and no down. side. Like, Steven seems like a guy who's only going to say nice things about even his worst enemy. He's like, God, they're just the absolute worst. But you know what? They have a great smile. And so it's tough to sometimes parse out like, if we get a sage versus Shannon, like, who does he sincerely want to go with? Because every single thing he mentions is just incredible praise upon even the newest people he meets. I will say, Stephen did say that Shannon is a shark in a spiritual guru's body. I wrote that down because I thought that was very interesting because that was like the first

negative thing, quote unquote, negative thing I've ever heard him say about anybody. Literally is damning with fame praise, yeah. Yeah, but like to me, that shows like, okay, there's some duplicity here that like I'm not necessarily vibing with, that Sage is not necessarily getting across because I do think like Sage clocked the whole like fake religious thing from Shannon.

Well, this is a really interesting thing too. And it just kind of like goes to like about the game itself and how impressions are what they are, even if they're not super like rude in reality. I don't think, like, the, the, um, gypsy sort of vibe from Shannon is like, well, what, what, she guru, what, I don't know, sorry, I'm, I don't know the words. Yeah, the spiritual guru, like, vibe that she's given off and, like, leading this year. I don't think that's disingenuine whatsoever.

Like, I think that's absolutely who she is. And, like, Sage, I think might be putting on some of this, like, goofiness as sort of, like, a facade to hide some of her strategic elements. And yet, with Sage, I think, might be putting on some of this, like, goofiness as sort of, like, a facade to hide some of her strategic at elements. And yet with Sage, it's taken at face value. And it's like, oh, she's just an odd duck. And this isn't, Stephen is not the first person that has been like, oh, Shannon's leading yoga on the beach, suspicious.

Like, this is not the first person that's seen through this thing. And sometimes even if you are being very genuine, people might not perceive it that way. And that is what matters. And like, that's damning. Yeah, I was really intrigued by this. I think we're going to get more of it, obviously. next week, again, if these two women do come to blows, because, like,

I sort of agree with honestly bold perspectives on it. Like, I do think that, as you mentioned, Sam, I think Shannon is probably playing it up a little bit. I think it's like many elements that we have seen. I think we have certainly seen time in memoriam cases on all of these shows

of people really playing up their spirituality when they feel like they find a like-minded person. There was a whole ass season of Survivor based on it called South Pacific. was all about that. I do not think that everyone on that Upolo Beach was as devout Christians as they were on that island where they went to church every single day. And so I do think that Shannon is not necessarily, you know, fabricating everything completely. I think as she is maybe showcased outside of the show, I do think she is a believer in those things. And I think it also brings up these very complex conversations that I think a lot of people have with their own sense of faith. And, you know, their own history with faith as well. how that might affect the way that they receive it. But the fact of the matter is that Shannon is able to,

I don't want to use the term weaponites. I think weaponites has a bit of a negative connotation that you are using it to actively harm somebody else. I think it is the exact opposite for Shannon. I think she is using these capacities within her personality and her history to foster these connections. And sometimes it means amplifying that stuff to either build up a perception or to be like, hey, you believe in this.

I believe in this too. But I mean, that's another fun thing about these swaps too. right, is that you make these connections with people on tribes that you never thought, you know, you get the chance to interact with, especially in a premurged setting where you're just relegated to only talking with each other on journeys and on benches during the challenges. And so it is interesting to find these people connect over these elements because they're only sort of, you know, fan fiction in the preseason like, hey, if these two get together, you know, it'll be really fun to have Sam and Tini talk about playing Mike TV and Willie Wonka, but who knows

if we'll ever get that. Yeah, I mean, there is a ton of, I mean, it's like the what if of many seasons. Like there's numerous people that I like pinned on my radar is like, interested in working with that person. Never got a chance to. Never saw them. Never met them.

And it just kind of like doesn't work out. I think that is the other aspect of the swaps that are beneficial is like, we don't know what we don't know. We don't know what relationships might be. electric and awesome and super fun. Like in a non-swap world, there's a world where Sophie B and Savannah never get to meet until a potential merge or mergerary.

And then are we too far gone at that point? And from the looks of it now, it's like, okay, this is a really fun relationship. There's a really fun alliance that could have real legs to go deep in the season. And we don't know if we get that otherwise. So I think, yeah,

like those relationships and the way certain people access parts of themselves, that's a common survivor cliche as well in casting right is like well it depends on what group of people I'm with I can fit in with this group or that group and so I think it makes sense for somebody like Shannon or anybody else on the show to be like reading the room of what kind of people I'm around right now let me pivot what I'm outwardly presenting to best match this group and find a majority but I mean and that's something we all do like in real life as well right this is just survivor mimicking what you do like when I'm

talking to like my science people, we're having a very different conversation than when I'm like gabbing about reality TV. It looks different. That's normal, right? You do that just naturally. All right. Well, let's start getting into some of our tried and true segments here on the B&B.

And we got to talk about Matt who attended his first and last tribal council in this episode. Leanna, we saw Matt be given the label of a sociopath. But what sociopath did you see him taking in this game in the preseason? No, no. Shameless, this guy.

Yeah. No, I'm about to have a coughing fit, so you're going to read first. All right. We love the honesty. Again, this is why we've been flying on planes, as you do, all for the better part of a decade. Well, I mean, here's the thing, not to make things entirely too anticlimactic. But I mentioned beforehand that maybe I did not have. the highest prospects for Matt in the preseason.

And so I did have him going out pre-merge. Now, to be fair, maybe something to help Leanna here, you know, part of this was informed by me being out there for the first three days and seeing, for example, him on the opening Matt chat talking about how he has no filter and his wife told him to watch his mouth or the fact that I visited camp and all he did was bring firewood back and forth, but it was about 1% firewood and the other 99% of the time

he was sticking his head in trees looking for, So a little bit of that was informed into my prediction, but here's what I had to say. Matt starts the game by steering into the curve of the easygoing, non-threatening, carefree airport worker. He leans heavily on his camp skills, though this doesn't exactly buy him a lot of social capital. When a guy spends more time talking to firewood than actual people, that'll happen. Feeling the squeeze of being the odd one out, Matt is shameless in his idle hunting. His searching is so obvious he might as well be waving,

giant orange cones, as he even gets caught by Sophie with his head and or hand stuck in a tree. Matt eagerly volunteers for the first journey of the season, but he's immediately stung by the Scorpion, not literally, hopefully, you were so close, Mike, when he can't finish a puzzle in time, losing his vote. When Hina faces their first tribal, a desperate Matt opens up to his closest ally, Stephen, telling him about his finance background. But what Matt hopes as an asset turns out to be a liability, as Stephen not only joins in on the unanimous voting, against him, but tells everyone about his old career in his absence the next day. And the next few years of Survivor Reddit will be inundated with people running into Matt

at the airport, even if not, it will become the next Carter Williams grocery store meat. His closest ally was Stephen. The biggest enemy was himself. You got a couple elements of that. Very spot on here. That goes on a journey. Matt seemed to bond with Stephen very well early on, as like his, his, his, his, his, his, his, go-to person on

on Hina I will say like maybe I'm misremembering didn't matter did Matt he did kind of gain some brownie points for being the man on the fire and whatnot or

yeah yeah you had that thing where he was trying to sit on his hands and it's like okay fine like you all are you kids are floundering about it at this point let me show you how it's done which to his credit is like very hard to do especially for somebody in his archetype as the the older man on a tribe

to watch a bunch of people fail at making fire. He did take his notes. You know, I think he might have had a better fortune had he been able to stay with Hina and get himself to emerge. Okay, well, I similarly had Matt as a pre-jury. So sorry about Matt.

I said that Matt started with the disadvantage of being the oldest player in the season, but surprised his tribe with his core strength. However, when Hina loses their first immunity challenge, Matt leans into the I'm just a dumb, funny, old fat guy. which fails to resonate with his tribe.

The Hina Game Sharks of Stephen, MC, Sophie, and Jason would rather keep around bubbly Christina and throw out Matt like a suitcase. Sadly for the viewers, Randy Bailey in a happy font is voted out first from Hina, sending him on a flight around the world. His ally was Christina, his enemy was Stephen.

I forgot about Randy Bailey and happy font. I know, right? So I feel like, again, generally we had the same placement, but some obviously variations and how ultimately that was going to go down. So then it's a game of inches, Sam, and lies beyond the football expert himself.

We're going to the true replay cam here. Who do you think was more on the ball when it comes to talking ball about Matt? Yes, both of you very good, very sharp, with pretty accurate placement predictions. I'm going to give the edge to Mike. I'm going to give the edge to Mike for the journey, I think was important as well.

Matt wanting to go on a journey. And he notably was very like gung-ho on going on the journey. He was pumped about the opportunity. And then, yeah, you had the ally down as well. So I think that's a big, big deciding factor for me is the relationship with Stephen. All right. So in this case, our destination was the same, but it was quite literally about the journey. Wow.

And the friends we made along the way. Matt wanted to make a lot of friends. And, yeah, he was all, I mean, he was all like, friendly on the way out. I don't know if you all noticed. So he walked out without any of his stuff on him. And he told me in an interview that it's because he actually wanted to leave his clothes behind

because he said that sleeping on the bamboo was so rough that they were stuffing stuff in between the bamboo to try to like pat it out a little bit. And so he basically was like, I have a 50% chance of going home at best. So here, you take all my clothes and use it to like fill out the you know, heena mattress. Unfortunately

he made the rookie mistake of leaving it at tribal council instead of at camp. And so Sam, this is obviously something that you did not experience, but apparently this happens to players all the time. They're like, if you leave your personal belongings at Tribal, it gets given to you at Ponderosa. That makes a lot of sense. A lot of sense.

Yes, they do, uh, I figured they wouldn't just let somebody grab the bag and take it back with them. But Noble by Matt, for sure. Got to appreciate a guy that wants to, uh, wants to be nice on his way out, better than me. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be like, no, I'm taking this with me. You can't have a jacket. Screw you guys. I hope you all get bit by Crocodile. Exactly.

Yeah. Okay, so we didn't really talk about this in the actual episode, but Jeff talks about how important numbers are and like goes on this whole rant about how many numbers are, which I'm just like... This is very much during we have a 90-minute episode to fell where Jeff is a number.

Now these civilians believed, like he was like, you know, Survivor's all about the various numbers that you could have. And I'm like, Jeff, for swapping. Like, this is not a new vote concept here. Well, he also could have done the, like, I didn't know where he was going to draw the line.

Like, number of votes, number of people in your alliance, number of hours the flight to Fiji was, the number of meals you had, number of hard-boiled eggs you ate in your breakfast. Like, I was very, okay, where, all right, Jeff, where are we ending the numbers here?

That felt a little forced, maybe. I also will say that, you know, the new era gets a lot of critiques for like, my God, all they cast are the super duper fans. But I was a little surprised at how much people fell for the fake out because I'm fairly sure when we had the swap in 45 and 48, it was the exact same challenge in the backout. It was that 49 people saw this exact same thing happen like a month before they came out. They're still like, oh my God.

I thought it was going to be 2B2B2, Jeff. Yeah, I don't I don't understand. Like I think the assumption is pretty much always if you are you're switching. you are not going to compete when you also switch. Also, like, maybe they're not doing this. We did this a ton. Like, meta the production schedule just a little bit. You know, you want to talk about why,

uh, why Kelly had to go vote somebody out even after Jake got medically evacuated. Well, it's pretty easy. Like, he got met evacuated the morning of day six. Like, if they don't, if they don't have them go to tribal council, you're doing four days, whatever, where none of the other tribes are even going to a challenge. Like, they didn't have a journey planned.

They didn't have a reward. It was the next immunity. So that's eight, six, seven, eight, maybe without like an immunity challenge. They had to like carry on with the production schedule as it as best they could. And that is what they call not a survivor fake out. They were very much needing to be on schedule. Yeah. Well, anyway, I was inspired by the numbers of this episode.

I guess. I don't know. Even like the apply to be on Survivor was about numbers. It was like, you just saw Survivor is all about numbers. Give me your number. And I'm going to call you. He had Survivor, whatever it was. It was so weird.

I was eyeing you from across the bar. This is all about numbers. Oh, write it on a napkin. Send it in. Anyway, the point is that that inspired the game for this week, which is one of our tried and true games here. It is the price is Rourke, which is our price is right, knockoff. So, Mike, am I sharing screen?

Yeah, you can do that here. Okay. Oh, do I have to do it? Graphic design is Leanna's passion. Graphic design really is my passion. Thank you very much. Yes. So we are going to be playing the prices roar here today. So the way it works is similar to the prices, right, where I'm going to give you an item that is up for sale currently on eBay.

And it is up to the two of you to set the price for that item. So we'll go back and forth on who sets the price first. And classic prices right rules, it's the closest without going over. So for example, if you have an item that is $20, Sam says 15, Mike says 21, even though Mike is technically closer, Sam would still win because it's the closest without going over. So let's kick things off with our first item. Sam, this is close to home for you.

We are talking about Survivor. And the title I pulled directly copy and pasted from the eBay listing. Okay. So this is the Survivor Buff Season 47 Gotta Yellow Tribe So Mike, you are going to set the price for this first

Okay, so this is the price like right now, right? Correct. Because a little trade secret about buffs is that they will be produced en masse for the season that is currently ongoing and then Buck gets. If you're like, oh, let me go into the shop

and shop for Survivor 48 bucks, I'm pretty sure they are no longer there. They really just sort of dispose of them and move on except they don't. They get sort of held on to by the people that are able to buy them and sometimes resell them. That's why we've done this game before. Sometimes you have buffs from like seasons four or five.

There are like hundreds of dollars. Really? Oh wow. It's just because the rarity of it all. So that being said, this is not incredibly rare. But I do think it bumps it up a little bit here. I will go with, let's go with like a nice $36.

Okay. So Sam. Now you can give your price. Oh, that's a good, it's a good line by Mike. I think I'm going to go over Mike a little bit because I think they're around, like $30 to $35, I think is what they're around like on the CBS site. Yeah, I think so. And somebody might be trying to make a little bit of a profit margin.

God has got, you know, we got a winner. We have, we have like kind of an iconic group here. I will say $39.99. Oh, okay. So you've both given. in your prices and Sam is the winner $65.

You're not talking about you're not kidding with that price tag associated with the winners got the runner up and the worth every penny. Iconic. Yeah, Mike was like, $6,500 pennies. My goodness. I know. $65.

So now and also, yeah, so to clarify, these are all items that are up for bid on eBay right now. Well, at least as of yesterday when I put the game together. So you can go and buy them from eBay. The next... I will just offer this right now. I will sell you one for like $60

if you are... Look, I have a couple... They will like slightly undercut. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Okay. Well, do you have any Lavo Buffs? Because we are now talking Survivor Buff, Season 47, Lavo Red Tribe is the description of the item. And to keep things consistent, because there were

multiple sellers of the season 47 buffs, I've chosen the exact same seller. Oh, wow. Someone's got their hands on all three, I imagine. I know, right? And the merge buff, actually, technically. Sam, you are going to set the price first. Yeah. What do you think the Lavo tribe

buff is worth? Well, $65 was a flat so we're not talking like a $99. I'm going to go right at a dollar amount. I will say $55 for the Lavo buff. I think I think Godda is the pinnacle buff

of season 47, but red red does like Queen of Eve, you know, it goes with more stuff than like a gaudy yellow, but I think it's a little bit less memorable than gotta. So I will go with $55. All right, Mike, what's you thinking? It's a great point because we're really doing a lot of

color theory here as well because I do feel like the red pops a bit more. I mean, I do think the sort of like lighter colors of the yellow and the blue are great, but like, I don't know, there's something about a red buff that does feel maybe a bit more universal in terms of a wardrobe choice, not to say that's the reason why anyone would buy this. However, with the Godda Buff costing 65, there is this low-hanging fruit that is on a platter in front of me.

And how could I not take the bite and say the Red Laval Buff is $69? Oh, you think it's more? Oh, okay. It might be more. Okay. So for context, Mike, you said $69. Mm-hmm. Okay, Sam said $55. $90.

Oh, mama. I was, okay, this is going to sound so mean to the Lavo, but I was kind of like personally offended. I was like, really? Whoa. Yeah, I don't know for some reason I was feeling like the Lavo buffs are like the more exclusive ones for whatever. This is all texture.

Apparently they are $90. It's the actual effect. I think so. I think so. It's all the RGP fans. Yeah, buying them up. Okay, so we are all tied up. Mike has one point. Sam has one point going into our next item.

Now, this I actually specifically chose because there was some screwiness going on with the closed captioning because Sandra was mentioned by Matt, but the closed captioning said Xander and I really tried to find a Zander card, but instead we're here with our queen, Sandra. It is the Survivor

CVS TV show Sandra D.S. Twine official survivor card game trading card. Okay. So I have questions. Yeah. I mean, me too. Because this looks like, now maybe the artwork's incorrect. This just looks like someone went into the official survivor card game and took the Sandra card and is selling that as a single entity.

That is correct. And you can buy several other players as well. there's a yeah let's see who else is out there I feel like a Jeremy there's a yam yam out there so yeah I don't know why this person I thought I was like mistaken for a minute I thought when you showed this I was like okay well is Sandra not in the game and then like this is like you can get a card that looks just like the other ones if you are a big Sandra fan and want to play as Sandra but yeah Sandra's in the board game you can just buy the board game. Again, I will say

if you have the Sandra card, you might want to use it in the Survivor game. But if you've bought the game, you have the Sandra card. Is this exclusively targeted toward the market of people who have the Survivor card game and like their cat

chewed up their Sandra card? The Sandra's always the first one to go. Yeah, yeah. No, that's a great point. I just assumed it was someone who wanted to collect them. But as a replacement item, that could be the case. Yeah, everyone wants dupes. Yeah, this is like, I mean, it does say trading cards.

So, like, this is somebody who's sending this in to get graded and putting it more like the sleeves and whatnot. Yeah, that is a good question. And they are not using it for its intended purpose because they're like, there's no, there's no stats on the back. I think the back just shows again voted out, which I think you flip over once you get voted out of the game. So they're just really trying to, they're really just strip this game for parts.

And they're just trying to resell all of it. Yeah. I have an idea. I think I know where we're going with this. Oh, okay. I'm going to go. So here's the thing. The question is,

does the seller believe that eBay players have wise up to this as much as we have? I would imagine that is not the case. I'm thinking about how much can I upsell this one singular card? I will go with, okay, she won season seven, she won season 20. I will take the average of that and I will go with $13.

Okay. Yeah. 1350, 1350. I'll go with the exact average. Okay, 1350. Thank you. That was right where I was kind of going to come in. Because I think in order to properly get right, like, I'd be like, oh, $2.

But in order to, I have to acknowledge the absurdity of this being listed as a singular item. I will say, 1351. Mike undershot it. Mike undershot it. Mike did not undershoot it you both overshot

it was only only $999 only $10 only $10 which if you think about how much is that whole like game cost because can we just like

sell off yeah like if you sell off three of those cards you've already paid for the cost of the game then you're making profit baby but you also have an complete game

so like you've paid for the cost of a game that now has five players instead of eight which is unfortunately It's an investment opportunity. Okay, but that means no points are awarded because both of you went over.

So we are still tied one to one. Our next item is the Survivor Season 40 Tribal Council seat stool 12 by 14. I'm going to assume that's inches, I guess, because 12 feet would be insane. I don't think that Rob, Boston Rob is that tall. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is like from the tribal council seats. And they're actually, there are two for sale, but this is just going to be the price of the singular seat. So it's basically a crate, but a prop from Survivor. I know.

This is the sea crate I want to see. More of this. Sea crate, am I right? Okay, so Sam, you are going to set the price on this one first. I really have no idea. I feel like Mike probably has a better grasp on this than me. I don't know.

I feel like stuff like this probably goes for an absurd number, a collector's item for sure, even if it's not very descript. It's from Winners at War, and people especially with this photo, maybe listed, is this photo on the eBay listing of Boston Rock? Yes, both of them.

Both of these photos are. So this, yeah, and there were several photos basically showing the item. I'm not going to, the price up based on that alone because I think the appeal to the Boston Robb like crowd here of like hey Rob might have sat on

this very thing I will say $400. Okay, there we go. I've no idea what something like this goes for. So that's just that. I mean, the allure of sitting in the same spot where Boston Rob crop dusted

for 20 something days is incredibly tantalizing. Don't get me wrong. I mean, far pay for me to question the validity of an eBay seller, but I'm part of like, I'm like, is this really the sea? I mean, not to say that like,

you know, going to, I've gone to the art department, they do a great job of like using effects to make things look weathered when they're not, but like, I'm sort of looking at the way the stool looks, and maybe it's the lighting, and I'm like, this doesn't look like the same stool, maybe just from like a different angle. Surely, I would

want it to come with some sort of like CBS. Like written thing being like, this is, you know, property of CBS and... Mm-hmm. Like a certificate of authentication. Like something to show that like this is legit. Yeah, we need a, well, we need a tag on it like you do with like a mattress of like this was inspected by Jeff Probst himself, you know?

Like this is officially sanctioned and signed off. Now that said, again, this is a marketplace that offered $10 for a piece of cardboard. So I think $400 is a good, it's a good amount here. and I know that if I went $3.99, it wouldn't make sense. I will go with, I think I'll go with maybe $350. Like, I think it's in this $300 to $400 range. But I don't know if it's as high as $400. I think maybe if it was right after the season, it would be the case.

I know winners of war is very well-remembered season. Being-old now is interesting. Yeah, we're five years removed from it. It might be more of a what-have-you-old. done for me lately in terms of TC props. I am looking on the listing just to see if there's any like, oh, this comes with like a certificate of

authentication and I don't see that listed per se but regardless you both way undershot $1,500. So Sam with $400 wins

the point here. Yeah. She's an expensive stool. I mean, I've heard of survivor props going for this type of thing before, but I feel like it's usually, like, the big thing to me is that this is nondescript, right? Like, even if you have a

survivor cave, like, you've got a survivor room in your house with all kinds of memorabilia. Nobody knows that this is from Winners at War. Like, you go get the tribe flag or like, you know, game worn buff kind of a thing. This is, I'd be like, oh, nice

crate you got there. You can get a You can go get this at Hobby Lobby for like $30, I'm sure, or make this yourself. Not to, not to, I won't reveal who the seller is, but like this is a trash can by the way, this blue thing right here. And this is just like a rusted folded seat. So look, the point is, is that if you want your own potentially authentic and season 40 primal castle stool, yeah, you can pay $1,500 for it or as low as $90,000,000. 285 a month on Klarna.

So if you want to take out a micro-loom to buy this, who am I to judge? Okay, so Sam is leading by two to Mike's one. And we are up to our next item. Let's move into the apparel space. So this is a, so it's VTG but vintage. Survivor TV show promo, tastes like chicken, rats, graphic, t-shirt, size X-L.

I don't like that parenthetical. Yeah, I didn't. this note because it was prominently featured on the listing, which is contains holes and stains. And they did show all the photos of the holes and the stains, which it's mostly on the armpit region, like the

sort of sweat. This is like a used shirt. It's like a used shirt. Yes, that is correct. Okay. Oh, man. I really wish that someone was able to buy this ahead of 50 and wore it on the island. Like, how incredible would that be? I feel like, Survivor's very meta,

but it might be a step too far for them to be like, You can't wear our merch on the island. I could picture Andy trying to wear this. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. I believe it. Oh, yeah. Andy's going to show.

If Andy ever plays Survivor again, he'll show up in like a Rob has a podcast, like bell shirt or like something with, he'll, yeah, he'll do something, I'm sure. Yeah, I'll have a bell shame to the back of his head. All right. So, Mike, yeah, you're setting the price. Let's talk through the logical little bit here because the vintage aspect to something that might bring the price up a bit. Certainly

the fact that it is rare, incredibly rare. I don't think I've ever seen this shirt before. That's how rare this is. I love it. I love how much they were trying to get in on the ground floor of like, remember when these people ate rats? Isn't this incredible? This is Survivor. This will be on the air for a quarter of a century.

So I'm obsessed with the idea of a shirt. I think the used aspect, as well as what I have found, and maybe this is showing my hand of it, is that while some of the season one early on stuff can net a fair price. It doesn't net as high of a price as you

might think. So I'm going to go with in honor of us bringing back a Survivor Borneo player for season 31. Let's go with $31 for the t-shirt. Okay. All right.

What do you think, Sam? I think it is way higher than that. Nashville is so littered with these little vintage clothing stores that I'm always like, oh, let's go. Let's go check it out. And then I'm like, that hat looks cool, $300 hat. I mean, the stuff is outrageous. Vintage nowadays. Can't buy it. Can't do it anywhere. The number that came to mind, I'm going to stick to it, $749. 7499. Okay. So, Sam, you were technically closer. But unfortunately, overshot

6099 is how much you can pay for this vintage. I could have played it safe and just gone like one up Mike again, but you know, we're here to take shots. Come on yourself. We're going to drink right here. Exactly. $61 for a used t-shirt. I don't care. With the holes in the armpits, Mike. With holes in the armpits or were they in other places? There's one hole here.

Okay. There's stains and holes in like the armpit region. Nice. Nice. I mean, this has to be like, put this on a hangar, put it up in the Survivor Cave, and maybe don't wear this to a watch party. Oh, yeah. This is like very much like you cut it up and sew it into a pillow case, you know? Yeah. Or like this would be a great, you know, like, I used to do this when I was like in my big frat bro era. But like cut the sleeves off, make this make this like a gym shirt.

Like make this one of your like cutoffs where it's like a self-made one. And then yeah, like this would this would rock as a gym shirt that you could wear around. go for a run and it tastes like chicken Survivor shirt. Oh, that's, yeah, that's legit. Plus then you got rid of the, um, the stains on the sleeves. Anyway, right? Cause drop them off. Okay, we have our final item, unless we go to a tiebreaker.

Oh, I love this one. I love this one. I love this one. Game used slash worn survivor 20 heroes versus villains purple. Wow. Are my allowed to Google? to see if Tyson did wear purple shoes on Heroes versus Villains. I'm not going to lie to you.

I immediately looked at these and I was like, I don't know. Tyson was pretty purple on Heroes versus Villains. So it makes sense. That is true. Yeah. Um, I love this item. I do love this item. I think this is my first here.

Yeah. Yeah. You are first, Sam. Yes. I think this is, uh, this is another, this is another big one. And I think anything that comes, you know, like game used, game worn, at Tribal Council. That's going to be where the big bucks come from.

Tyson, this is an item that has gone way up in value, obviously post-heroes versus villains with his win, return appearances on various television shows. And I think shoes, I don't know, like, who bought this, right? Like, did somebody buy this from, I've had people message me wanting my survivor shoes, and I'm like, I don't know. Kind of a keepsake for me, but they've seen. sat in my survivor bag

since I got back but I would sell them to you but you probably have a foot fetish and that's why you want them so I've kind of like abstained I'm going to say $699

and 99 cents interesting I thought Mike I saw $1,500 wooden crate just a moment that's true that's actually very true

in this economy I'm about inflation $1,500 for boxes come on what are we doing here price of good ridiculous. Oh, man, I mean, yeah, these are,

this is really tough because these look really fun. These look like Grimmis is about to do a spin on a cardboard box. They're worn by an iconic player. This is not just like some random players, you know, an iconic exit, I feel like also contributed to my fact, me factoring that in there too. Like that even if he's purpled, like the Tyson Heroes versus Villains faked is certainly in survivor lore forever.

And I was thinking on the one hand, like, okay, who would, like, of the apparel, would you want to buy shoes? But Sam, it seems like there might be a market for that as well. So, like... Those feet people, man. Hey, I'm telling you. Well, listen, ooh,

let's go with, what did you say, Sam, 1600? No, right at $700. $700. All right. let's go with let's go a little tip for tat here 701 oh no oh wow what a dirty tactic

oh yeah I also got it too I think he got it too I Leanna has to have one more like I think she's got one more wow in her that yeah yeah I yeah unfortunately Sam yes we do have a winner it is Mike Bloom because

the cost of this is $2,285. So again, you both severely undershot for my boot ticket and buy one shoe with that amount of money. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God.

$300 for a pair of shoes. But if you're interested, check out. I really need to I might need to re-look at the market for my Survivor 47 shoes. I mean, I might need to re-a- Yes. If anybody's willing to pay this price, hey, find me on Instagram. You know what to do.

Yeah, I was going to say, you want to get a few more end tables. This is how you make it work. Yeah. We'll take care of business. Yeah. I mean, again, I do not want to dirty up the market at all. But like, is there anything stopping anybody from like taking a pair of purple shoes and just like throwing them in the mud a few times of being like, here are so-and-so shoes from Survivor Microsoft. I think that's possible.

especially like now as well I'm sure I don't know what I'm very curious I would love to talk to an old school player about about wardrobe and what that was obviously like but I think people just like shop at regular online places especially if you're having to do purple or yellow or something like that like you kind of go to like you know

I got a million messages during Survivor 47 being like where's your yellow hoodie from it looks super comfortable I'm like yeah I got it at you know X Y and Z store at the mall It's available online for $35. Anybody could buy that hoodie if they wanted to. And like you said, Mike, maybe have a campfire, hold it outside by the campfire, get that real smoke smell and then roll it around in the mud. And then it probably looks like my hoodie from the game. But I promise if somebody wants to pay $2,285 or something close to that for my shoes, I will authenticate them.

Okay. And I do have a notary. They are legit. And they were custom made. So, you know, just factor that in. You can't get my yellow Nike sneakers just anywhere. Okay. Listen, this is bringing steal your look to a whole new meaning here.

Wow. Well, Leanna, I'd throw in a complimentary feet pick. If we, for that price, I will throw in a complimentary feet pick. We'll just put it out there for anybody that's interested. Well, Sam, that was incredibly generous. But now we extend the opportunity for the listeners of this podcast to be very generous. of course we close out every week here on the B&B with a charity or cause

that is important to our guests and you are once again in the spotlight sir. Is there anything in particular you want to highlight to the listeners out there? Yeah, something that I guess is very like top of mind and like on my heart recently so I've been very public about my new cat dad status

but I did adopt a little kitty from the Nashville's Humane Association in Nashville here and he's just like the joy of my day every single day brings me so many smiles and laughs. So Nashville's Humane Association or any sort of animal shelter in your local area that has good reviews and does good work and takes care of these animals because it brings a lot of light to a lot of people's lives. And it's also very difficult. I'm also learning like, hey, animals are very expensive when they need vets and medical care and food and all this. stuff so that would be my my highlight for the evening all right well sammy you were a highlight for

this evening i'm so happy we were able to make this happen uh your your you know compliments and appreciation for the bnb is very much appreciated back i know that you have a full plate going on right now talking all things chicago sports yeah beyond how can people follow all the great stuff that you're doing yeah hey i'm on twitter um if you can if you can bear with me uh another pun there mike just for you for a few you'll knock my white socks off yeah for for quite a few Chicago sports posts you also do get my

survivor takes on Wednesdays when I watch the episodes so little survivor a lot of sports but yeah Twitter at Sam underscore Phelan and then I'm bopping around podcasts every now and then when when one sounds fun so all right Leanna what's bopping with you this week should I use that is that the new kick rocks

what's bopping around? Again, none of these things are equate to one another. Kick, touch grass, and bopping around are all like three very different things. So no, please do not use those interchangeably. No, I was busy, I guess, touching grasp. I got the past week. So Pui and I did not record Pooi and Leona Lounge, but we are going to be coming back this week for our episode for the one.

So keep the four, drop the one. No, keep the one drop the four. whatever it is. Anyway, we're going to be back at it this week talking about Lord knows what. I don't know yet, but we're going to figure. I was just saying, we're going to do a new era of the pal this week. Yeah, it's time for a new era. Yeah, we're bringing a thruple actually. So goodbye to

tribes. Dangerous fun. Yeah, exactly. A monster, someone's say. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're unleashing the survivor monster for sure. All right. Well, no one needs to smash the hourglass because it's coming up in your podcast feed soon. But you can turn back time if you want to check at all of my amazing race stuff that's going on same are you an amazing race person you checking out the season at all i have not i'm not i'm not i'm not i'm not into respectfully i'm not into big

brother either so i'm i'm unfamiliar with most of the people on the season and therefore i haven't been able to get like super amped up about it um i used to watch the amazing race i had fun watching the amazing race it's a great adventure but yeah that I haven't been following. Well, for those of you who are checking out the adventure, of course, we've got recaps going on. I talked with Big D about his thoughts. Got some very hot takes about this season.

So check that stuff out as well as my interview with Matt, where he shed a lot of light on some things that, to the point about the editing, a lot of stuff that we did not see from his time on the show. Him and Steven did hand signals. That's how close of a deliance that they were. So if you want to check out all this behind-the-scenes content, you can over at a Mike Bloom type.

And of course, as we segue into the next part of this season, we want your games, we want your ideas. Make sure you can reach out to us, RHAP, B&B at gmail.com, email form, hashtag RHP, B&B on social media. Any and all games, shovel it into us. We're the big old fruit platter. We want to chump them down. And this is not diet food, folks. We are hungry forward and we will gladly, gladly eat it. We will not throw up it at any ideas you send our way.

Thank you so much to everybody checking out this week. Sam, thank you so much again. This was truly a pleasure. Special thanks to the entire team behind the scenes at R.JP for packaging this podcast for your eyes and your ears. And of course, we'll move up for America for his incredible theme song.

Next week, episode five might be the end of the pre-merge as quickly as that is. That's what they usually do. So we shall see if we're extending it out a little bit now that we have merged into two tribes of 7. Regardless

no matter how long we're in these two tribes, it is nice to have back, and we shall see what that translates to next week. Thank you all so much again. Until next time, everybody. We'll check you out at your next day. Mike and the honor, yeah, they're playing

some games. You better pray to your mama that they're not super lane. And if that all sounds cool, I can tell you the name. It's the R-H-A-P-B-M-B-M- Mike and me on I gotta play in some games Let up pray to your mama

That's out there not to play And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name It's the R-H-A You can stay for free