When the Survivor 50 trailer dropped at the end of last year, fans were mostly thrilled to get a sneak peek at the milestone season. One element, however, was met with less enthusiasm: the promo revealed that a number of celebrities—including Billie Eilish, Jimmy Fallon, and Mr. Beast—would leave a fingerprint of some sort on the game. Eilish’s “boomerang idol” has already reared its head, while the impact of Fallon and Mr. Beast remains to be seen. But this latest episode proved that fans were right to be bothered by the celebrity factor.
When the tribes assembled for the immunity challenge, host Jeff Probst informed them that the winning tribe would win not just safety but a concert by country music star Zac Brown, who would also treat them to freshly caught fish personally speared by the singer. It was an unprecedented reward, one that probably meant a lot to the contestants after nine days without any source of entertainment aside from one another. But for viewers, the segment dragged. Brown nabbed more airtime than the majority of the players, with an entire segment devoted to him spearfishing and talking about his Survivor fandom, as well as two song performances.
The result? Fans with the memories of goldfish have deemed it the worst episode ever according to IMDB ratings. That’s a ridiculous assessment considering how strong the last third of the episode was, but it’s a clear indication that audiences were not impressed with the gimmicky stunt casting.
Feud Updates
While the Ozzy vs. Coach storyline has taken a breather after the first two episodes of the season, two other feuds continue to give the season some classic Survivor conflict. Since the first episode, Genevieve Mushaluk and Aubry Bracco have butted heads for strategic supremacy. Mushaluk successfully disrupted Bracco, who has seemingly been on the outs of her tribe from the beginning, during an idol hunt. Determined to outfox Bracco, Mushaluk managed to find her second “Billie Eilish boomerang idol”—writing that phrase makes me cringe the way Bracco did when she got caught—which she gifted to Rizo Velovic in the hopes of blindsiding him in the future to get the idol back in her hands.
Velovic is in the middle of his own feud, although it seems as though he doesn’t yet realize it. Last week, Charlie Davis expressed his indignation that Velovic claimed that he didn’t vote for his closest ally to win the game, a slight all too familiar to Davis, who lost Survivor 46 for that very reason. This week, the two competed alongside the other men in their tribe in a (mostly) good-natured talent show. The women crowned Velovic the victor thanks to his…err…passable Mickey Mouse impression. Davis had a mock meltdown in front of the others, but in private genuinely seethed at losing to Velovic. “Rizo is my mortal enemy,” Davis said. “And he’s got no idea that I’m out for blood.”
Since the show’s “new era” reboot in 2021, Survivor has strayed away from this sort of juicy content, preferring to focus on contestants’ individual growth, and the show has suffered for it. The producers have wisely leaned into interpersonal conflict in Survivor 50, which is proving to be the best season in years.
Goodbye, Mike White. Goodbye, White Lotus Cameo
Last week, the David vs. Goliath trio of Christian Hubicki, Angelina Keeley, and Mike White (writer/director of the HBO hit The White Lotus) teamed up to blindside Q Burdette, but that bond from their previous season proved temporary. Following their tribe’s crushing loss in the immunity challenge, Ozzy Lusth hoped to eliminate Keeley. White on the other hand wanted to target Hubicki’s ally Emily Flippen, who he called “a cougar in the shape of a ren faire girl.” He appealed to Hubicki by comparing Flippen to Hubicki’s David vs. Goliath ally Gabby Pascuzzi, who led the charge to eliminate Hubicki that season. Hubicki was unmoved by White’s comparison and informed Flippen of the plan. The pair decided to team with Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick and blindside White.
Of course, Hubicki’s plans were nearly once again blown apart by Flippen for the second week in a row. Though Lusth's vote for Keeley was essentially set in stone, Flippen was reluctant to leave him out of the loop and blabbed the plan to him, much to Hubicki’s chagrin. It was enough for him to debate voting out Flippen instead, but Hubicki eliminated the “dangerous” White in a 3-2-1 vote.
White is known for giving his Survivor tribemates cameos on The White Lotus, but his post-game interviews indicate that it’s unlikely Hubicki will get offered another one after this season.
Survivor 50 Snubs
I’ll conclude each week’s column by spotlighting one man and one woman who were left off Survivor 50 but would have made for excellent inclusions. Since this is the fourth episode, let’s acknowledge two players from Survivor’s fourth season, 2002’s Marquesas. Though the season’s biggest legacy is ultimately the introduction of “Boston Rob” Mariano, perhaps the franchise’s most well-known figure, it’s an outstanding yet largely forgotten installment that includes the series’s first post-merge power shift.
One of the players responsible for that shift is Neleh Dennis, who filled the sweetheart role as the youngest castaway of the season. Her innocent demeanor masked a sharp, strategic mind, though her failure to own that—she alleged at the final Tribal Council that she didn’t begin playing the game until day 24—led to runner-up status in a close 4-3 vote against Vecepia Towery.
Another key player in the power shift was Sean Rector. Highly opinionated, occasionally confrontational, and always entertaining, it’s downright baffling that Rector has never returned to play a second time. Whether he was struggling to comfortably ride a horse (“My balls!”) or hosting a morning show to amuse his tribemates, Rector consistently made for great television and it’s long overdue that he make a return.
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