Survivor 49, Episode 5 "I'm a Wolf, Baby" Gameplay Analysis

 "Jesus got high off God."

-Shannon Fairweather

Another day, another pretty straightforward episode of Survivor 49.  I've heard some people say this season has been boring recently.  I think I've realized that I don't mind boring gameplay if the moves make sense, so I've been mostly fine with 49.  Sometimes the best moves in Survivor are boring ones.  Boring or not, let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting over on Hina, Nate had an absolutely stellar episode.  He volunteered to go on the Journey to prevent Jason from going, which worked, he managed to keep his vote by completing the Journey Challenge, while bonding with MC, he managed to prevent her from getting an Advantage, and he voted out Jason, which was absolutely the right move.

Rizo, Savannah, and Sophi B all made the right call as well to take out Jason over Jawan.  Savannah played with her head, not her emotions, and made the smart call.  I also like that she volunteered to go on the Journey to prevent Jason from going.

Moving over to Kele, one by one, every member of this tribe had their eyes opened to the type of game Shannon is playing and each of them realized that they need to take her out.  Sage, MC, and Steven did an especially good job of pointing this out to the others.  I also really like how Sage threw Shannon and Rizo right under the bus to improve her position in the tribe.

MC did get manipulated into giving up on finding the Advantage by Nate, but she did save her vote at least, so I'll give her a net positive.

Alex did a great job in the Immunity Challenge and won it for his tribe.  I think Kele should have considered throwing the challenge, but Alex is better served by winning Immunity.

Who Sucked:

Back on Hina, Jawan had a mixed night.  He really needs to be more careful about whose stuff he is using because he's really pissing Savannah off.  He also doesn't seem to realize his position in the tribe.  He went on a Journey earlier this season, so I don't know if he would have been allowed to go again, but if was allowed to, he should have gone for it.  He did survive the vote and prevented Jason from going on the Journey by manipulating the rock draw, but I'll give him a net negative overall.

Back on Kele, Shannon is playing hard and doing a good job of making social connections with people, but she's pushing too hard on the strategy side with too many people.  All it took was a little bit of comparing notes and now everyone sees through her game.  She's also completely underestimating Sage, which I probably would have done as well, but it's still not good.

As for Jason, I think it took him too long to wake up and realize what game he was playing.  He was too attached to original Hina and didn't do a great job of advocating for himself.  Savannah really had to hold his hand in getting him to do that.  At the very least, he should have played his Shot in the Dark.  I don't know why he threw out Rizo's name.  He could have asked Jawan or somebody else for a target and tried to rat them out for throwing out a name.  He had some options and really didn't pick any of them.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Nate Moore for preventing Jason from going on the Journey, saving his vote, bonding with MC, preventing her from getting an Advantage, and taking out Jason.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Shannon Fairweather for playing too hard and allowing people to see right through her, as well as underestimating Sage.  For the record, I don't give out Worst Player to the eliminated castaway.  That's usually too easy.

So it looks like we might get another tribe swap next week?  Are we going back to three tribes?  That's different than anything we've had in a long time.  I'm game!