Coming back from losing their allies in Chrissy and Coach last episode, episode nine of Survivor 50 kicks off with Jonathan, Joe, and Stephanie feeling like they are lost and on the bottom. In a confessional, Stephanie says she’s going to keep it cool, but she wants to start chopping names. Rick does come clean to Emily about the idol being fake.

We see the perspective from Ozzy and Cirie that Devens’ shenanigans at Tribal Council the night before were great, and it could open up possibilities to get someone out like Christian, who they see as the most dangerous person left in Fuji. Christian knows him and Rick are targets, so he attempts to do damage control with that group, so he starts floating out Jonathan and Ozzy’s name to Cirie. This information gets back to both Jonathan and Ozzy, who take similar perspectives. Jonathan see’s Christian as the next name he can add to his bucket list after Kamillia and Dee. In a confessional, Ozzy knows Christian has been gunning for him since the start of the game, and it’s time to take the shot.

Meanwhile, Joe and Rick continue their ongoing feud, as Joe tells the idol master he did not intend to write his name down, but we see in a confessional from both players that Rick doesn’t buy Joe’s pitch, and Joe wants Rick out as soon as possible. 

The episode isn’t even 30 minutes in, and we are already at the immunity challenge, so you know something is going to go down, specifically in this special season that is in the hands of the fans. It’s the classic challenge where castaways must control the bucket with 25% of their pre-game body weight. This is also the spot of the rice negotiation for the season, which as I wrote when reviewing Survivor 49, I thought the rice negotiation has reached its limit in the New Era. 

Except for, this is Season 50, so there’s a twist: JEFF PROBST HIMSELF IS PARTICIPATING IN THE IMMUNITY CHALLENGE! For the players to get rice, five castaways must outlast Probst. They negotiate down to four, with Joe, Jonathan, Christian, and Tiffany taking the side bet with the host of this reality show. 

Mr. Probst lasts approximately 7:30, outlasting players like Rizo, Emily, Rick, and Cirie, but the players who made the side bet lasted enough for them all to receive rice. At the end of the day, after going approximately one hour for this challenge in Survivor 48, Joe only has to go about 15 minutes to secure immunity, outlasting Ozzy.

For Joe, winning immunity was only half the battle, as he must make a decision to send one person on a journey immediately. He says he doesn’t want to pick and asks for volunteers. After a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Christian beats out Ozzy and heads on the journey, to the chagrin of the runner up of the immunity challenge.

For this journey, similar to Survivor 47 winner Rachel’s journey in her season, Christian must complete a Survivor puzzle on a barge in the middle of the ocean. The twist for this journey comes from Survivor fan and the host of The Tonight Show. Yes, Jimmy Fallon himself. Fallon’s note says that if Christian completes the puzzle in time, he can secretly cast a vote already for Tribal, but if he fails, he must read a note to the whole group.

While Christian rushes to beat the clock, back at camp, Emily expresses concern about how much rice Cirie is saying needs to be cooked. We see in a confessional the first sign of a fracture in Cirie and Emily’s relationship, as Cirie says if Emily said one more word about the rice, she was getting her name on parchment. 

Once everyone’s belly is full, Tiffany comes to Rick and tells him he better play that idol because right now the vote is him, depending on what happens with Christian. Rick says he’s hoping to keep the farce up about the fake idol for as long as he can. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Rizo are separately working to keep the votes on Christian, unless he is immune because of the journey. 

Christian returns and reads the note, which essentially says he must vote for himself at Tribal Council in another historic first-ever moment. With that information, Emily comes up to Tiffany and Cirie on the beach and says Christian is the easy vote. Trying to protect her alliance with Christian and Rick, she pitches Ozzy, and Cirie and Tiffany immediately loop Ozzy in, and at this moment, to this writer, it looks like Ms. Flippin stuck her hand too many times in the cookie jar and her torch might get snuffed. 

However, the vote does go 6-3-2 (Christian, Rick, Ozzy), with Jonathan, Ozzy, and Stephanie voting for Rick, Emily and Rick voting for Ozzy, and the rest on Christian, including himself.

The fourth member of the Survivor 50 dominated the pre-merge, but his character arc took a turn at the merge, which was almost a foreshadowing of his downfall. From my perspective, the twist did not screw Christian, as it has been presented by himself and online by most fans. I believe he was going to be eliminated next anyway, and I liked the twist. It’s the ultimate risk and reward.

Episode nine of Survivor 50 made history in more ways than one: Probst participated in a challenge and a player voted for themselves. Next week, Influencer Mr. Beast heads out to Fuji for a Super Beware Advantage, adding another strategic element to this 26-day game of chaos Survivor 50 has turned into.

Moving forward, I think Emily’s game is now doomed, as she can’t stop spilling information to other players. I’ll be interested to see if there’s any additional layers to if Rizo drove the numbers to Christian because in a confessional, he did say if he had a say, Christian would be on the jury by the end of the night. I still think Cirie’s Rizard of Oz has control of the game and should all be favorites to be in the Final 3, along with Jonathan. We only have four episodes till the finale, and we will also have to see a move be made from Aubry against Rick at some point as well. We’re over 60% of the way through the season, and nine episodes in, this has been thrilling television.

Grade: A-