Survivor 49 Recap: Can't We Just Enjoy A Regular Ol' Merge Anymore?

The tides were turning for the "Survivor 49" players last week. Not only did the Final 11 players join together on one beach, but Jeff Probst must've been feeling like a tropical Santa Claus — no one was forced to "earn" the merge! Earn the merge meal, yes, but as far as Jeff and his dimples were concerned, everyone left standing had made the jury and the next stage of the game! (Yes, Jake's snake bite played a hand in that, Probst revealed on the "On Fire" podcast, but hey. We'll take it.)

I've been a long-standing hater of this whole new era, "earn the merge" thing. It's not so much the fact that players need to win their spots for the next portion of the game. Rather, I very much dislike the fact that a group of 10 or 12 splits up into two teams and reverts back to small numbers for Tribal Council. Last week, it appeared like we were out of the woods on that whole charade. The merge would play out just like a classic Old School "Survivor" season! Right?!

My joy came crashing down this week when the Final 10 players rolled up to the immunity challenge to learn that the split-tribe challenge was merely delayed a week until they reached an even number once again. (A "mergatory" fake-out? Say it ain't so!) And so, two teams were created (five vs. five) for the classic (and overused) "stand on a bunch of small perches" endurance challenge, only this time, the sole winner would win immunity for his or her entire tribe. Then, the others, also known as — THE LOSERS! — would be forced to go to Tribal in a teeny, tiny group with a 1-in-5 chance of going home. Sigh.

The winners also earned (there's that pesky word again) a DIY deli lunch. Plus, the last man or woman standing won an unknown advantage. That's... a whole lot of goings-on going on. (Too many if you ask me. But you didn't.) After the cookie crumbled, Savannah was declared the winner after a showdown with Yellow Sophie, securing safety for Steven, Kristina (who found an idol this episode), Blue Sophi and Alex. Hooray for them, but one big bummer for Sage, Rizo, MC, Jawan and Sophie With an E.

This was a big turnaround for the self-proclaimed "hot grim reaper." Just earlier in the episode, Savannah was in tears, saying that feeling on the outs brought back some trauma from an old job of hers where she was obscenely ostracized by her news team. In fact, she was at such a rock bottom having just been blindsided by Jawan and Sage that she had entered self-preservation mode! (I'd argue that one should be in self-preservation mode for the entire game, but OK. Someone's been pret-ty comfortable all the way at the top!) But hitting rock bottom and becoming belle of the ball in the same episode? Talk about a recovery!

Savannah also received an advantage. She would not only be boating over to attend Tribal Council with the losers, but she had an option: Have a say in who went home by voting alongside the other five, or save her extra vote to use at a later date. She smartly chose the latter, opting to use it when her hide is in trouble down the line.

When it came time to strategize, Sage and Jawan still wanted Rizo out. But Rizo's well-known immunity idol more or less took him off the table. MC and Sophie still wanted to take the shot at him, hoping to make him feel comfortable enough to not play it, but that option quickly fizzled, especially once Savannah joined in on the fun.

Things did get quite convoluted once communication lines criss-crossed all over the beach. Sophie told MC about her plan to throw a single vote on Jawan, just in case the other Rizo votes were nullified. But MC used that info as social capital, running directly to Jawan to squeal build trust with him. Jawan told Sage, and Sage ran it back to Sophie, who then tried to backpedal and apologize to Jawan. BRING ON THE MESS! A fairly sizable error on Sophie's part, but did it wind up costing her?

At Tribal, Sage and Jawan harped on trying to repair their relationships with Rizo and Savannah, despite the fact that they wanted both of their former Ulis out. Accepting the lie as truth, Sophie told Jeff that the vote seemed like another Hina vs. Uli battle, then blatantly said that it would all come down to either herself or MC. Hearing that, MC clocked in and went to work, telling the group that Sophie is a beast in challenges and would definitely return to her former allies once they're all reunited. But Sophie also threw her two cents in, telling everyone that she could more or less be a shield for them, and that they'll have no problem getting her out later whenever they want to pull that trigger.

Things seemed decided, but right as Jeff was about to initiate the vote, MC stood up to ask Jawan for a favor. He then got up to relay something to Sage and Savannah! (Sidebar: Didn't Jeff seem elated that the season's first live Tribal was erupting into chaos? I personally got the sense that last week's little nod that spots for Season 50 were still open was the host politely urging them to WAKE UP AND PLAY THE GAME, but that's just, like, uh, my opinion, man.)

After things settled down, Rizo boldly kept his idol in his pocket... and luckily, he didn't need it. When the votes were read, it was Season 49 alternate MC who was ejected from the game.

So what did MC whisper to Jawan? Did she have some sort of Hail Mary plan in mind? I'll be asking her all about it in our interview tomorrow. Until then, go Full Tilt Boogie in the comments and let us know all of your Episode 8 thoughts!