Coming into episode five of Survivor 50, we knew two things to be true based off the previews at the end of episode four:

  1. There was going to be two Tribal Councils.
  2. Ozzy was not going to be happy with the Mike White vote.

The second bullet point is exactly what was shown first on this episode, as post vote out, Ozzy blows up at Christian on the beach. To Christian’s credit, he takes responsibility for the move. In a confessional, Ozzy says he felt blindsided and he doesn’t want to play the way he did 10 years ago, but he still wants to vote out Christian because he broke his trust, so he starts putting together a plan with Angelina and Stephanie to vote our Christian. Meanwhile, Christian believes the next vote should be an easy vote for Angelina, who sided with Mike last week in the David vs Goliath divide.

On Cila, we see Charlie still focused on only one thing: Taking out Rizo. Charlie and Jonathan seem to be a tight duo, along with Kamillia and Dee, as they have seemingly formed a New Era alliance that Rick Devens also wants in on. But what Charlie and Jonathan doesn’t know is that Dee is working the backchannels with Rizo on another potential alliance. Rizo shares with Dee the tee on the Billie Ellish Boomerang Idol to solidify her trust. Rizo codes this plan “Operation Bad Blood” named after the Taylor Swift song since Charlie is a Swifty.

The Kalo segment this week was all about Coach, who segments his alliance with Joe and Colby known as The Honesty and Integrity Alliance. Coach also loops in Aubry, who feels like she is on the bottom. From this writer’s perspective, Coach has positioned himself well within that Tribe. He knows everything that is going on and has a relationship with almost everyone.

The teal-colored Tribe also wins the immunity challenge after Tiffany has her defining moment this season by whipping through ropes that were tied to sandbags, sending the other two Tribes to Tribal Council. 

Vatu went first, where the discussion is still between Christian and Angelina. Ozzy has a conversation with Emily about voting out Christian, and Emily immediately turns around and has a conversation with Christian about Ozzy. This causes Christian and Ozzy to have a sitdown, where Christian gives Ozzy his Shot in the Dark as a way to show trust. We see a confessional from Stephanie where she believes that Christian and Emily are a duo, and Angelina and Ozzy are a duo, and that she is the deciding vote.

As it turns out, that’s not the way it happened as after Jeff Probst does great impressions of Jonathan and Christian, Angelina is voted out 4-1, with her vote going towards Christian, as Christian’s original plan ended up playing out. As she exits stage left, Angelina gives the Tribe her jacket in a callback to the David vs Goliath season when Angelina asked Natalie for her jacket at Tribal Council immediately after Natalie was voted out.

Over on Cila, Rizo gets together with Kamillia to discuss the idea of blindsiding Charlie. Rizo lies to her and tells her Kyle said to play with Kamillia, but he does tells her about the Billie Eilish idol. Then, Charlie pulls Kamillia aside and tells her the same thing, so this Tribal comes down to the person who made Final Four in Survivor 48. We know that Rizo, Dee, and Cirie are voting for Charlie and that Charlie, Jonathan, and Rick are voting for Rizo. At that Tribal, Rizo basically explains his game he played on Survivor 49 to his Tribe and asks his Tribe to believe him. In the voting booth, he rhymes every Taylor Swift song he can think of, as he sends his goodbye to Charlie by a 4-3 vote.

This episode had everything you could ask for in a Survivor episode. A lot of drama, character building, suspenseful Tribal(s), and an epic blindside. Better yet, next week, the Tribes merge and 17 people will be on one beach. Let the chaos begin. 

Grade: A