All week leading up to the merge episode of Survivor 50, we kept seeing teases on television and social media of an “epic and historical Tribal Council”, with the tease of a BLOOD MOON (which was also the title of the episode). Many fans speculated on what this massive twist could lead to, with 17 of the game’s greatest players on one beach.

Did it live up to the hype?

Before the Tribes even all merge together on the Vatu beach, we see Ozzy having a conversation with Emily about him having an idol. He also lets Christian know the same information, as he has clearly cooled off after the blindside of Mike White in episode four with the elimination of Angelina last Tribal. 

However, I don’t think Ozzy needed to personally let Christian and Emily know about his idol. To build trust? Sure, but once all 17 people were on the same beach, and the hugs stopped, information flew left and right and in pretty short order, everyone knew the idols for the season belonged to Ozzy, Aubry, and Rizo. The only piece of information this group doesn’t know is that Ozzy has an extra vote that he, Cirie, and now Rizo, by default of being paired with Cirie, are sharing.

The next day, there’s a mad scramble on the beach. Treemail tells the castaways there is an advantage somewhere on the island. Ozzy finds it, but even he knows what it is before he opens it: It’s a trip to Exile Island, and he must take one person with him. He decides to take Rizo with him because Cirie wants him and Rizo to get close, and Rizo is unknown to the rest of the group. 

So while Ozzy and Rizo chill and bond and think about their alliance with Cirie at Exile Island with no participation in the immunity challenge or Tribal Council, the rest of the 15 players are broken down into three groups of five for, yes, THE BLOOD MOON!

The immunity challenge is the classic Survivor challenge where players have to hold their balance while their foot is on narrow footholes, and the footholes get smaller at every level.

Here’s how THE BLOOD MOON WORKS:

  • One person from each team will win immunity
  • EVERY TEAM will go to Tribal separately
  • The person who lasts the longest will win an Applebee’s reward for their group.

The groups:

  1. Kamillia, Chrissy, Jonathan, Tiffany, Stephanie
  2. Christian, Rick, Joe, Genevieve, Aubry
  3. Dee, Emily, Coach, Colby, Cirie

Stephanie, Christian, and Dee secure immunity while Stephanie won her group Applebees.

The burgers and boneless wings and apple pie fuel the fivesome for a brutal Tribal Council, where on the surface, it looks like Tiffany, Kamillia, and Jonathan will form a New Era alliance to take out Chrissy. However, Chrissy comes up to Jonathan back at the merge camp and tells him they’re cut from the same cloth and that the New Era girls are using him, and that he should team with her and Stephanie to take out Kamillia. In a confessional, Jonathan says it’s New Era vs Old Era, with him in the middle, and he needs to make moves this time around to win, but whatever move he makes is going to cause a ripple effect either way.

At the old Kalo beach, knowing she has no way to save herself, and Aubry would play her idol, Genevieve knows she’s on the bottom and tries to convince Christian to break away from Rick. She also pitches the plan to Joe, but he’s not buying it. Meanwhile, Rick is trying to convince Christian to vote Joe instead of Genevieve because if Genevieve has an idol and plays it, he’s likely going home, but Christian is steadfast on getting what he perceives as the more dangerous player out before the jury.

On the old Cila beach, Coach panics and lies to Dee by throwing Emily’s name out there because he doesn’t want Colby to go. Colby, knowing he doesn’t have a vote from the journey with Savannah in episode one, tells Dee he is the leader of the Old Era alliance, but he wants to loop her in. We see Dee and Emily debating whether to take out Coach and see if Colby gets medically evacuated due to a foot injury Colby suffered in the last Tribe immunity challenge. Then, Cirie pulls Dee aside and tells her not to gamble with the situation and to take out Colby because he’s a bigger threat long-term, and that he won’t let himself get medically disqualfied.

At Tribal Council:

  • Jonathan does indeed back Chrissy and Stephanie and takes out Kamillia with a 3-2 vote.
  • Genevieve plays her Shot in the Dark, meaning she cannot vote. She is not safe and gets voted out 4-0.
  • Without a vote, Colby also goes out 4-0, but he tells Jeff Probst that even with all the pain, he enjoyed his time on Survivor 50 the most out of all the other season’s he played.

There is a lot of discussion online about how much of a BLOOD MOON this episode actually was, and that ultimately the contestants were eliminated by an unlucky rock draw for the immunity challenge. I understand that sentiment, but when you have 24 people on one season with only 26 days, there’s going to be twists, and this was a historic episode. Three Tribals in one episode has never been done and probably will never be done again.

In this writer’s opinion, Jonathan made a BIG MISTAKE (honoring Q here!) in voting out Kamilla because as the New Era people are getting picked off, they are going to become a bigger target sooner than later.

The star power on this season stands out more and more by the week. Even 90 minutes is not enough time to get everybody an equal amount of screentime.

Until next week, when Jonathan may have hell to pay for his actions, and it’ll be interesting to see the dynamics with Rizo and Ozzy coming back from Exile Island.

Grade: B+