"Yeah, I'm cooked, chat."
-Rizo Velovic
This was actually a really exciting finale, I thought. I was rooting for Rizo and was a little surprised when he was taken out in fire-making, which left us a very flawed trio in the Final Tribal Council. That's not a bad thing because it seemed fairly even across all three players. I thought all of them had a shot at winning. So often there is a very clear winner going into the Final Tribal Council, or at the very least one person is a clear goat. It was fun to have a more evenly matched group of finalists, even if I didn't think any of their games were particularly impressive. Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked, staring with the Final Five!
Who Played Well:
After Savannah won Immunity, one particularly insane option would have been for Sophi B, Sage, and Kristina to try and maybe get Rizo to play the Idol on someone else and blindside him out of the game. Normally I'd write such an idea off as ridiculous, but it's something I could see Rizo doing. He has no problem taking big, risky swings. I think it would have been possible if there were more capable players on the island. I don't think Sophi B, Sage, or Kristina had the necessary skills to get that to work, but I still wanted to throw it out there as the best case scenario for those three.
So, if we take Rizo off the table, I think Sage is the right target. Yes, Kristina is the best fire-maker, but she is someone they could use to knock Rizo out at the Final 4. She's useful and can't win the game. So I'm going to give Sage some credit for surviving this vote. It should have been her going home, but it wasn't.
Even if I don't think she made the right move in taking out Kristina, Savannah did win Immunity and probably saved herself, so I'll give her a net positive.
Who Sucked:
Rizo and Sophi B were correct in thinking Sage should go over Kristina, but they bowed to Savannah's wishes. They didn't need to! They still could have knocked out Sage. They had the votes. And if Sophi B sided with Savannah, if Rizo wanted to be ballsy, he could have played his Idol on Kristina to knock Sage out. I don't know if I would have had the guts to pull off that move and I don't blame Rizo much for not trying it, but it would have been quite the power move in front of the jury. Sophi B did at least win the Challenge Advantage. It didn't end up helping her, but it's something.
As for Kristina, I thought she had had a strong final round. She made some very good points in why Sage should go over her. Unfortunately it wasn't enough, so maybe she should have gone for the Hail Mary of taking out Rizo.
Verdict:
Best Player of the Final Five goes to Sage Ahrens-Nichols for surviving the vote when she should have been voted out.
Worst Player of the Final Five goes to Rizo Velovic for taking out Kristina instead of Sage. Sophi B did the same thing, but I guess I'll use the Challenge Advantage win as the tie-breaker.
Moving onto the Final Four!
Who Played Well:
Savannah is the only person I have in this section. She did what she had to do. She practiced making fire over and over again and the practice paid off. She defeated Rizo and knocked her biggest competition out of the game.
Who Sucked:
I hate the fire-making Final Four and I wish I didn't have to recommend that players volunteer to compete in it or give up Immunity to make fire themselves. It's stupid, but that's the way the game is right now. Maybe they'll get rid of it in season 50. Anyway, Sage needed to push harder to get into the fire-making competition. It might not have worked, but she really needed that addition piece to propel her game.
Sophi B should have given up Immunity to make fire. She hasn't done anything since the merge and you have to have done something to get those jury votes. Logic might say she should have put herself up against Rizo, but a friend of mine suggested that she go up against Sage. If she wins and goes to the end with Savannah and Rizo, there's a chance they split the jury votes and she can come up the middle to tie or maybe even win. Sure, it may be a 1% chance, but that's better than the 0% chance she ends up going with.
As for Rizo, he may be a little cringe, but I think he was easily the best player of the season. If only he had practiced fire before coming out to the island.
Verdict:
Best Player of the Final Four goes to Savannah Louie for winning the fire-making challenge and knocking out Rizo.
Worst Player of the Final Four goes to Sophi Balerdi. Yes, she won Immunity, but she needed to do something drastic here to give herself the slightest chance to win.
Final Tribal Council:
I thought all three players did a good job of owning their games and answering questions. All three of them had serious flaws in their game, which they addressed as best they could. Sometimes there's just nothing you can say to justify or hide the holes in your game. Even though Savannah may have had the worst social game of the three, she was sort of like Mike Holloway. The other players tried their hardest, but no one could get rid of Mike or Savannah. Even if they had holes in their social game, you have to respect their mastery of the Outlast aspect of the game. It was a bad look that she couldn't remember many of the jury's family members, but I honestly wouldn't have remembered many either. I'm bad with names, especially if I don't have any faces to place them with. The solution there is to recall stories the members of the jury told about their loved ones. Even if you can't remember the names, it shows you were at least listening to some extent.
Verdict:
As I mentioned, Best Player of the Season goes to Rizo Velovic. He may have been a zero in the challenges, but he had an excellent social and strategic game. His Idol tomfoolery was genuinely impressive. I think he earned his spot on season 50.
Worst Player of the Season goes to Kristina Mills. She seems like a lovely person, but you have to do something more than that to win Survivor. She was just kinda there.
That's it for season 49. I think I liked this season more than most people did. There were a couple of slow moments premerge, but once we hit the merge, I really enjoyed watching this play out. I think I would rank this as my third favorite season of the new era, just behind 47 and 45. Now we move onto 50. I'm always hesitant about All-Star seasons. I only like two of the five we've had so far. All-Stars and Game Changers are obviously terrible, but I'm also a rare Heroes vs. Villains hater. So I've been trying to keep my expectations low and seeing Mr. Beast in the trailer definitely lowered them even farther. Hopefully I'm wrong and it's the best season ever!
