Survivor 49's [Spoiler] Reacts To Savannah's Choice Words And Tribal Twist That Changed Everything

Hopefully Ponderosa is stacked with horror movies.

In Wednesday's episode of "Survivor 49" (read our full recap here), allegiances were up and down, as the threat of (fake and real) idols set the stage for a very unpredictable Tribal Council. With Savannah and Rizo seemingly holding most of the power, Sophie With An E found herself smack dab in the middle between the game's power duo and the Jawan/Sage/Steven faction. Despite her close ties and sisterhood with Sage, Yellow Sophie gave Rizo and Savannah the heads up that Jawan and Sage were flipping on them, making Jawan the perfect target to become the fourth member of this season's jury. 

But what did Jawan think of Savannah's shady words, Rizo's idol fakery, and MC's concerns about an all-Black jury? Below, he talks to TVLine about all this and more.

TVLINE | Savannah had some choice soundbites throughout this season, particularly about you taking her bag accidentally, her water bottle... she seemed to be very annoyed by you. What was your perception of your relationship with her out there and what were your thoughts watching some of that back?
JAWAN PITTS | Savannah is a fierce game player, and I had a blind spot. Even though she might have felt anti-Jawan, she never gave me an inkling that she was anti-Jawan. So, we see at Tribal Council, she had a hand on my shoulder. [At] immunity challenges, high fives. She just did a good job lulling me into that false sense of security there. And I do think she genuinely liked me, but there's an edit. I think it was hard watching it back as someone who is kind of sensitive. I'm like, "Oh man, I want to be a part of the cool kids squad too." But all in all, I know it's just a game, and, yeah, I don't got no beef with Savannah now.

TVLINE | If "Survivor" was a horror movie, who's the Michael Myers responsible for taking you out?
Oh man, I feel like there was just a group of killers, man. But the Michael Myers of my demise was Yellow Sophie. I had an inkling that me and her might not be the best, going back to the MC vote, when she threw out my name as a hinky vote. But I think the thing that kept me going back to trusting Yellow Sophie was her relationship with Sage. They don't really show that, but they kind of had an out of game bonding, like a sisterhood. So any time I had doubts in Yellow Sophie, like on my boot specifically, I remember sitting in the hammock and seeing both of the Sophies go off into the woods together for a long time. I'm like, "What do they have to talk about?" But any time I had doubts about that, I would go to Sage and Sage was like, "No, don't worry, we have her. We have her." So seeing that she was the one that put the nail in my coffin, it was very fitting, but she's such a good game player too, and I hope she gets more screen time. She needs her flowers because I thought Yellow Sophie was great.

TVLINE | Rizo made a huge showing with his fake idol play. What were your thoughts on that at the time?
When Rizo stands up like he's John Cena to go play this idol and he does his speech, in my head, I'm like, "It's going to plan." I really thought, "This is the plan that Sage came up with." To burn two idols and get Savannah out. The second it goes south is when he says "Savannah." I'm like, "Oh, they know something's up." Then when I first saw the first Jawan vote, I was like, "OK, this is bad." [Laughs]

TVLINE | When I spoke to MC a couple of weeks ago, she raised some concerns about the jury being all Black — calling back to when the topic came up in "Survivor 42." Did you have any concerns like that once the jury started to grow?
Yeah, thank you for bringing that question up. I do want to address the elephant in the room about our boot order. I will say, I want to hold space for hurt feelings and also anybody that's uncomfortable by watching us all go out like that. But every decision I made was rooted in getting money for my family, bro. I'm broke and I really wanted to go out there and provide a safety net for my siblings, man. More specifically with MC, we did spend a long time talking about "Survivor 42" and the potential trajectory of what our season could be too. But ultimately, after that conversation, my goal was never to get out MC or to target her. My goal was to get out Yellow Sophie at that moment. But as soon as the Savannah boat comes over, her presence really shifted the aura about throwing heat towards Rizo, which was my original plan, or trying to get out Yellow Sophie. Rizo and Savannah were really keen on keeping Yellow Sophie once Savannah arrived. And my fear was there was going to be something like a Safety Without Power or some sort of unknown [from] Savannah. So in my head, I'm like, "OK, it's not even a Final 6. It's not a six-person vote, it's like a Final 3. It's gonna be either me, Sage, or MC and my goal was like, "Alright, how do I get out alive for my family?" I hope that was clear.

TVLINE | Kristina ultimately gives up her reward so you could eat. Do you think the offer was at all strategic on her part?
My relationship with Kristina is interesting, but I do say that 99% of that was just out of the nature of her heart. As a mom, she was definitely someone that was out there and wanting to protect her people, and I think that was just her heart in that moment.

TVLINE | Why didn't the group try harder to flush Rizo's idol, since everyone seemed to know about it?
Yeah, that's such a great question. So for the merge vote, the Nate vote, you see in the episode, I was team Get Out Rizo. I'm like, "This is our one time camouflage. This is my Harry Potter cloak! He will not see me today." I'm guaranteed to get full information today. But ultimately, it was Kristina and Alex's decision to take the safe approach, which is taking out Nate there. And then, the five-person split tribe, I'm like, "Oh dang." Now I'm on a tribe with someone I just backstabbed, and then the Savannah boat. So, that's how the MC thing came to [be]. Then the Alex one was a little bit trickier. So it's the Final 9, we have a six-person majority, a three-person minority. We have no clue that they are loaded [with advantages]. I had a couple conversations with Alex that made me feel like I couldn't trust him. So talking with Steven and Sage, we were like, "Do we stack votes on Rizo here?" We thought we could lure Rizo and Savannah into a false sense of security, and take out somebody that's kind of going back and forth. And ultimately, before my boot, it worked with Rizo and Savannah. They thought that they had me and Sage, which, if Sophie doesn't go back, there's a different outcome there.

TVLINE | Anything we didn't see on TV that you wish had been shown?
There was a wacky moment with me and Sage. I just want to give Sage her flowers. She's definitely like my sister, but when I went on the reward challenge, there was a bowl of fries in front of me, so I thought, in seasons past, they hide advantages and stuff. So I looked into the fries. There was no advantage, but I stuck the fries in my long sock, and then when I got back to camp, I was like, "Sage, guess what? I have fries in my sock." So we bonded over eating crusty fries from my socks. So that was just another example of how me and her, she just got me, you know? You ever meet somebody that you can be fully you with? That's how me and Sage were together.

TVLINE | Did you ever think from your first days at Uli that Sage would be the person you went forward with in the game?
Dude, I'm a flawed player. You saw me. I was unaware. I thought I was close with Shannon. I thought I was close with Savannah, and me and Riz kind of had an unspoken brotherly love. The same way that I was bonding with Steven, like bromancing. I feel like me and Rizo had that too. When it came to the Shannon boot, Sage literally saved me. I felt like she was an advantage, of being like, "Hey, they do not like you," and it kind of reset my brain moving forward. I'm just so grateful that she took the chance on me, you know?

TVLINE | Gotta circle back to horror, Jawan! I'm also a huge horror fan. The holidays are approaching. Any Christmas or holiday horror flicks you'd recommend to the class?
So you've seen "Black Christmas," right? The original? Fun fact about that movie, it's directed by the same guy that did "A Christmas Story." You have very different movies, but "Black Christmas" is an underrated slasher movie perfect for Christmastime, so that's Jawan's recommendation.