But it doesn't. Survivor 49 recap: Savannah's water bottle almost changes the game

But it doesn't.

Survivor 49 recap: Savannah's water bottle almost changes the game

But it doesn't.

By Dalton Ross

Dalton Ross is a writer and editor with over 25 years experience covering TV and the entertainment industry. *Survivor* is kind of his thing.

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October 22, 2025 9:30 p.m. ET

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Jeff Probst and the cast of 'Survivor 49'. Credit:

Robert Voets/CBS

- Episode 5 of *Survivor 49* shows the Kele tribe mobilizing against a single player, and the Hina tribe figuring out their next victim.

- Check out Nate losing his cool! Carrying heavy things is hard. Nate doesn't like it.

- Anyone hungry for chicken?

Another week, another *Survivor 49 *episode with another relatively obvious red herring leading into another predictable Tribal Council vote. Kind of a bummer, to be sure. But if you want to read about why this has been something of a humdrum season of *Survivor* so far, you can go back and read last week's recap. No need to repeat all of that.

Instead, I want to shout out the pint-sized spark plug that has added some much-needed vim and vigor to the season. Savannah! I'm talking about Savannah! Arguably the best thing about this season (other than every time Sage shows up on my TV screen) is how incredibly personal Savannah takes everything. You take her bag or water bottle by accident? SHE'S PISSED! You start chanting your tribe name at challenges? THAT IS AN ACT OF WAR! You used to work in financial management? YOU ARE A SOCIOPATH! You dare to lie down in the shelter behind her? NO POKEMON CAN SAVE YOU NOW!

I am all about that energy in the game of *Survivor*. Bring the spice! Bring the heat! (But no more talk about how hot it is, please.) Bring the pettiness! This is what new-school *Survivor* has lacked. I'm not talking about people showing up on reality TV to play the character of the "villain." I'm talking about someone not being scared to hit the gas and talk about how they are *actually* feeling about someone or something… even if those feelings may or may not be fully justified. At least it's honest! And, more importantly, entertaining.

When you have had five straight obvious Tribal Council votes in a row, you need *something* to add a little drama, and Savannah is that something. And while the end result was once again pretty anti-climactic, there were actually some other notable things happening in episode 5 of *Survivor 49*, so let's make like Nate and MC on the sandbags and get to work.

'Survivor 49' cast reveals their most embarrassing moments ever

'Survivor 49' cast deliver scorching hot takes on the franchise (exclusive)

Stopping Shannon

Pretty much everything that went down on the Kele beach this week revolved around Shannon, and it was pretty fascinating to see the way one person completely altered the entire tribe's take on the former Uli tribe member. Shannon was working the former Hinas and Alex hard — trying to make individual connections with each of them. And it appeared to be working. But one person wasn't biting: Steven. And one by one, he turned everyone else against her.

Alex loved Shannon! Not after talking to Steven. Kristina bonded so quickly with Shannon! Not after talking to Steven. Even MC seemed to respond to Shannon's charm offensive, but not after talking to Steven. (We never really got to see Sophie's take on this whole situation because, well… we don't really ever get to see Sophie.) It's pretty remarkable the way Steven appeared to single-handedly move all those people away from someone they all initially appeared to feel really good about. (I also loved the part where Steven complained that Shannon talked to much, because let me tell you, Steven can TALK!) In any event, that shows you who is pulling the strings over there.

Of course, the heaviest anti-Shannon edit came from Sage, who noticed everything from the register of Shannon's voice changing to her adversary being a giant shark wearing a cute seal mask. (How would that mask fit, exactly?) Sage is so fascinating to me on so many levels, and I fear we could be looking at a one-dimensional Katurah-hating-Bruce edit from her moving forward. Don't get me wrong! Anytime someone hugs someone and makes a face behind their back, I am laughing, and I am laughing hard. That's classic stuff right there. I just don't want that to be the *only* side of Sage we see from here on out because when it comes this season of *Survivor*, she is a definite person of interest.

Sage Ahrens-Nichols on 'Survivor 49'.

***Want to be kept up with all things Survivor? Dig deep and sign up for 's free Survivor Weekly newsletter to have all the latest news, interviews, and commentary sent right to your inbox. ***

Sand bagging

I'll give Nate props for figuring out the correct strategic call on the journey of pretty much finishing the entire carry-the-100-sand-bag task before looking for the idol to guarantee neither of them lost their vote and there would still be time to search for the advantage hidden in the words. But if *he* figured it out, and* I* also immediately figured it out as soon as MC read the clue, producers probably should have figured out that the drama coming from the alleged "Should I finish the task or search for the advantage?" dilemma would be non-existent, turning the entire Journey into a total womp-womp.

Even if MC *had* found the advantage after she and Nate collaborated on the sand bags, would that really have been worth it for all the airtime in consumed? I do like that producers tried to put what they hoped would be a difficult decision in the contestants' path. It is what I have been advocating for *forever* — going all the way back to when I first suggested decades ago that they hide idols in challenges and tell contestants they could either search for the idol or help their team compete in the challenge. (The show eventually did start hiding idols in challenges in a different way, and *Australian Survivor* did my exact suggestion.)

Anyway, I applaud the effort here, but the execution on this one was a bit lacking.

Jeff Probst and the cast of 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

A challenge shoots and scores

When it comes to this week's immunity challenge, I applaud both the effort (by contestants) *and* execution (by producers). This was a cool one.

First, the players had to swim from a platform to a bamboo cage, climb up and down into the cage, then carry the cage to the beach. Then, one person had to dig out a hole in the sand under the cage to squeeze through and rebound shots from players trying to hit three balls into three baskets. A few observations:

• First off, Kele totally should have thrown this challenge. Even though I am about as anti-throw a challenge as it gets, there are rare circumstances where it makes strategic sense, and this was one of them. All the original Hinas on Kele had to assume Jason was toast if new Hina lost, so why not even the score by losing and taking out an original Uli in Shannon instead? I'm curious to hear if this was ever a consideration on their part.

• Love Kristina practically hanging upside down on the Sandra Sit Out Bench in search of a clue or advantage. If you're not searching, you're not playing.

• How about Kele catching up while carrying their cage in the water… and Alex had not even removed the sand bag from his corner of the cage? BEAST MODE! He was digging deep while simultaneously not digging into the water *deep enough* to take off the bag!

• It was cool watching self-proclaimed nerd Jawan encourage his tribe mid-challenge. "Come on! Come on! We're almost there! We're almost there!" More surprising was watching the guy I promoted as being "calm, cool, and collected" totally lose his calm and cool during the contest, as the R-I-Z-G-O-D RizGod Baby somehow managed to transform Nate from Rad Dad into… MAD Dad! Nate was struggling big time with carrying the cage, and got so frustrated that he told Rizo to "Shut up" after the R-I-Z-G-O-D RizGod Baby offered some gentle instruction. Check out original Uli with Savannah, Sage, and Nate giving us all the drama this week. More, please.

• The R-I-Z-G-O-D RizGod Baby may not have been able to hit that third shot to win the game, but he managed to hit poor Sophi in the face along the way. Poor Sophi. Loses another challenge after her former tribe mate Alex hit the winner for new Kele, her team has gotten last place in every single contest, and she has not had a single day with fire. That just can't be fun. Apply for *Survivor* now, everybody!

The Hina tribe on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Chickening out

Okay, we need to talk about the chickens. And I'm not referring to the players who were too chicken to watch the killing of a chicken… because I would be one of those chickens! (Meaning one of the players running away, and not the actual chicken who was just murdered by two confused reality television contestants.)

The Kele tribe received three hens and a rooster as part of their challenge win, but now if they wanted to eat the rooster, they had to actually go and *kill* the rooster. I don't blame them at all for freaking out. I don't know how to kill, clean, or defeather a chicken! This is a scene we've seen countless times on *Survivor* before, but always works because, for my money, this shows just how real *Survivor* gets much more than people shivering in a shelter or complaining about a lack of food.

We've all been cold or hungry before so we can relate to that on at least *some* degree. But how many of us have ever snapped a chicken's neck and then pulled off feather by feather before cooking it over an open fire?

Because I am a mean and terrible person, I generally tune out when players talk about how they were bullied while growing up (like MC being worried about being made of fun for being too strong). I'm not poo-pooing these stories and feelings of insecurity, I'm just saying we have seen it approximately 29 gajillion times on this show. That said, I was inspired by Alex talking about how he was made fun of his entire life for being too weak, too soft, and too feminine, and here he was killing a freakin' chicken *with his bare hands!* A cool moment for him. And better him than me, since I never could have done that and would have been hovering near the ocean in the fetal position with my hands covering my ears like my girl Sage.

Alex Moore on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Another ho-hum Tribal Council

Savannah once again did producers a solid for the second week in a row by acting like she might flip the vote from the obvious pick to someone else, but it had the stench of another red herring the entire time. While Savannah might be bummed that Jawan keeps mistakenly stealing her stuff and… I guess… lying in the shelter while she was talking (???), it's hard to make any case that cutting him instead of another Hina in Jason was the strategically savvy call.

Deep down, she knew that. And deep down, Jason must have known that too. He tried to stick around, but honestly, his pitch was pretty terrible. Who cares about making bonds with original Hina if you can vote him out and carry the numbers into the merge? Bragging about his bonds with his former tribemates would only have made me want to get rid of Jason even sooner.

Honestly, though, I don't know what he *could* have said to save himself. I guess Jason could have pretended he was not tight with his former tribemates, but he never came off as an outcast (even if he was not in the majority alliance on his original tribe). I don't think anyone would have bought that.

Jason Treul on 'Survivor 49'.

Robert Voets/CBS

Personally, I really liked Jason. He was my very first interview on location for *Survivor 49*. At that time, he was still an alternate and I remember thinking to myself how great he would be on the show because he was a smart, quirky dude. Obviously, we saw him dominate at puzzles. We also saw his empathetic side at the challenge when Kele was at their lowest after the Jake snake bite and Jason talked about wanting a ray of hope for Kele. "I don't know how to help them," he said through tears. That's just a decent dude, right there. But decent doesn't get you $1 million.

At least we have a decent amount of other *Survivor* coverage for you. Have you checked out the entire *Survivor 49* cast revealing their most embarrassing moments? If not, you need to RIGHT NOW because there are some insane stories in there. Jeff Probst is sharing his take on the latest episode, so you can go see what that guy has to say, and make sure to enjoy our exclusive deleted scene as well as our exit interview with Jason when both of those drop on Thursday. And also sign up for our free *Survivor* newsletter to have all the goodies sent right to your digital doorstep. Okay, I better go get working on next week's scoop of the crispy before Nate yells at me!

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