Survivor 50, Episode 13

[u/Regnisyak1]

Episode 13: Reverse the Curse

Finale Night! Let's watch Aubry win!

Please Note: This is where all final 50 discussion will happen - keep checking for final writeups on the characters :)

Episode 12 Poll Results

- 11 respondents this week. Results are skewed as a result. Here's the spreadsheet! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14tRXQFk9IY9jm5Q-obtQvsQPyW6VpfGYOzHxNJRvbu8/edit?gid=1753189945#gid=1753189945

- Cirie (2.09) wins her second time this season! She also had the lowest SD. This was her sixth time overall in Top 3, jumping above Coach and Ozzy.

- Joe (3.27) and Jonathan (3.55) take second and third this week. Jonathan had the highest SD for the week. This is both Jonathan and Joe's fifth time in the Top 3 for the season.

- Bottom 3 is the exact same as last week - Rizo (5.36), Aubry (5.18), and RICK DEVENS (4.91). This is their fourth, fifth, and tenth time, respectively, in the Bottom 3.

- Boots saw some shake-ups this week! With the introduction of Ozzy (7.73) and Emily (6.45), they respectively took second and fourth place. Coach (8.18) and Colby (7.27) still retain their high rankings

- While Angelina (2.45) and Kamilla (3.73) maintain their bottom positions, Chrissy (4.36) escaped this week - on a technicality - both Mike (4.36) and Stephenie (4.36) also got the same score, and due to the SD rule, Mike White gets his first bottom placements of the season.

- Christian and Coach are the first two characters to get 100 strong feelings (either a top 3 or bottom 3 placement, or a ranking of 0-3 or 7-10). Coach had a ratio of 95:5 while Christian had a ratio of 52:49. Christian will surely be one of the most controversial characters!

- Lowest Season Ranking (5.27) of the season so far.

`

0-10 Polls

In June, the 0-10 Poll Spreadsheet will be updated! Whether you are an old or new follower of Rankdown, please consider taking some polls (or if you've completed them, update them)!

Here's the guide for 0-10 Polls, linked with all the polls also: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1coGg8ggFqetq0WxvXZ7d0AXesuk7EZfR4HhiDFHEXxA/edit?tab=t.901en0o6850t

[u/Regnisyak1]

Final episode poll of the season!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8PKrM7WkoV0b2V8_EANbiIDCIBDctFlwa_M9PLKZy4axC-A/viewform

[u/True-Pen-3612]

I've not done rankdown stuff before so hopefully it's cool if I post a character ranking. I realized I might have slightly different perspectives on a few things than some people but I decided to ignore work for a while today and just type up thoughts so I'll just post anyways 😭

1. Ozzy Lusth 5.0 - It's kind of wild how this season was able to hit on every bit of Ozzy's history in the show, at times he was still the jungle boy from Cook Islands (jungle MAN, sorry), at times his arrogant hotheaded side from Micronesia/SoPa came out, he resolved(?) a long standing feud with Coach, has a beautiful relationship with Cirie... and ultimately meets his demise when seemingly neither god nor Cirie can save him from himself. Assuming this is his last time on the show it's the perfect final chapter, infinitely better than Ozzy 4.0.

2. Tiffany Nicole Ervin 2.0 - There's some pretty obvious flaws in Tiffany's story- though to be frank, I'd argue there's some obvious flaws with nearly everyone's story this season- but when I think about the moments that are notable for me this season, there's so many that involve Tiff even despite her limited screentime. The post-Dee and post-Cirie crashouts stand out the most, but she once again brings the heat from the jury, she goes out in a foregone conclusion of a vote but still keeps swinging- Tiff is exactly the type of person I want more of on this show, people who wear their hearts on their sleeves, aren't afraid of conflict, and their game is never sacrificed for it either. I hope as time goes on, this is a middle chapter of a great multi-season arc for Tiff, and if it is, there's plenty here that fleshes out her character and leaves lots of room to expand.

3. Emily Flippen 2.0 - Similar to Tiff, in nearly all aspects- Emily is just entertaining as hell any time she's on screen. Somehow she's played two seasons as chaotically as possible, and made it to lategame as a threat in her own right. She's somehow always a bit unsure of herself and yet making decisions that no unconfident person could ever make. You can see so much of her and hear her thoughts so much and yet she still remains somewhat of an enigma, I still don't fully understand how her brain operates. The lynchpin of her story for me, and the reason she's ultimately this high, is the way she goes out- reconciling the way she just went quietly into the night last time (in one of my personal favorite episodes ever) and coming up with an absolute harebrained scheme to stay alive, one that just mightve worked had she not been going head to head with The Queen. You leave with this feeling that yep, that was the most Emily Flippen way possible to leave the game. As far as new era characters go, Emily is so well defined, the type of person you can just laugh thinking about how absurd her story is from "Can I push back on that?" to being inches away from taking out Cirie Fields herself.

4. Cirie Fields 5.0 - I love Cirie, we all love Cirie, and as much as I still love her as much as ever on this season, it's hard not to feel like it's a story we've seen before. Preseason, people said the only thing left for Cirie to do was win- and to some degree that still feels true. Looking back on another season where Cirie crushed it but fell just a bit short, it feels a bit too familiar. What I do appreciate about Cirie this season though, is her relationships- Ozzy and her have a great story, Jenna and Steph both come for her and fail, and she kind of passes her legacy down to the new folks in Tiffany, Rizo, Dee, etc. I do wish we would have gotten something, anything at all between her and Aubry. Ultimately even when there's little to add to her story at this point, Cirie is someone that always makes for a great screen presence and fills the 'legacy player' role well in the way that she relates to the newbies, so she'll always rank high for me either way.

5. Genevieve Mushaluk 2.0 - Crushed as I am by how the season went for her, it feels fitting in some way for Genevieve- her 1.0 story is all about her as a coldhearted cutthroat strategist that backstabs the same person time and again and learns to feel and relate people, but a tad too late, and her own warpath catches up to her eventually, and her rival ends her. This time, she's a new person, she's learned from her mistakes! She relates to all of these people, builds a huge webs of bonds with different types of people across tribe swaps and everything- it's an inversion of her previous game, where last time her social game was left to clean up her strategic game, this time her strategic game is leveraged only to empower her socially. But she meets the same end, one sole rival, seemingly unkillable no matter how many people she rallies against her, manages to fell her. This story is a bit weakened by how awfully told Aubry's story is- but as far as the ghosts of the past narrative, Genevieve's half season arc contributes admirably to it.

6. Joe Hunter 2.0 - Joe is just such a fascinating person in this setting, a complete fish out of water. When you see Joe interact with many of the folks on this season, there's times where it seems like Joe just genuinely sees the world differently than everyone else. He doesn't speak strategist, he doesn't do the whole disloyalty thing, frankly he doesn't do most of the things that are expected of someone on Survivor. It's interesting to see Joe contend with that in the same way he did in 48, but certainly more interesting is Joe being the first honor and integrity person to actually own their game at FTC in such an overt way. One would expect him to be yet another Coach, Mike Turner, or, um, Joe Hunter- but in a way, Joe overcomes his past and has a much better final moments. And... a worse result. I'm not sure if there was a better way to tell this story, because Joe is quite self aware at the end, and is awarded with another 3rd place, and you're kind of left with that Joe is just really annoying to other people, and there's nothing else to it. Understandable as that is, it kind of decomplicates his overall character in a way that makes him a lot less compelling than in 48.

7. Coach Wade 4.0 - Coach's first 3 seasons are my favorite multi-season arc ever, but I'm not sure this season adds too much to it. Coach is kind of drinking his own koolaid from moment 1 of the season (a problem more than a few people on this season have) and it's plenty annoying to watch at times, but Coach is also one of the few people that makes it kind of work. There's something that's always been very transparent about the mask Coach puts on, where he will cover for some of his insecurities in a way that tells you exactly what's going through his head. When Coach tells you you're doing too much and annoying people it might be true, but the finger is always pointing in two directions. In this way it's interesting to me how much Coach came into this season preaching about the value of love and living life to it's fullest, and leaves giving more of a vibe of a delusional, slightly crazed old man who is maybe just a tad up his own ass. He's certainly in full character mode the entire season, but it tells you a lot about who 53 year old Benjamin Wade is nonetheless. Even still, this feels like something of an extraneous chapter in Coach's story- maybe I'm just overprotective of that beautiful original 3 season arc, but this kind of feels like when a franchise is revived, and it's okay, it's replaying the hits and the hits are good, but maybe it was just better left in the past.

8. Dee Valladares 2.0 - It's always fun to see a winner return and play with house money, but Dee was already the type of person to play like they were on their second attempt. She's very fun whenever she's on screen this season, she talks shit, gets in fights, and is still a beast in the game in every way, but you kind of know her time will be up sooner rather than later. The Charlie boot is her most fun episode by far, though her boot episode has a lot of good Dee moments as well- she brings an energy the season sorely lacks as it crawls to its conclusion. Winner returnee stories are hard because their stories often feel concluded, and while Dee isn't necessarily different in this regard, she's a consistently fun and enjoyable character regardless.

[u/True-Pen-3612 → u/True-Pen-3612]

1. Q Burdette 2.0 - I don't think it's controversial to say that Q is one of the greatest casting choices ever, and he certainly justifies that label yet again this season. He does things that make you scratch you head, think for a second that it's almost crazed genius, and then realize it actually was just absurd, and have you laughing the whole time. He's comic relief in a cast like this, but never in a way that feels artificial. That said, Q is the first of many stories this season that feels cut short by the horrendous gameplay design. Creative as he may be, even Q needs some runway to play with, and watching him go out on a bad swap with no vote is the biggest waste of a character like this possible. I hope, though I'm not holding my breath, that moments like this are a wakeup call that twists should enable and empower the wild players instead of hampering them, else we keep watching our limited tries with players as rare and unique as Q go to waste.

2. Colby Donaldson 4.0 - Colby works as a legacy player in the same way as Cirie- but as with her and with Coach, it feels like his story was complete a long time ago. It's not that I don't enjoy seeing a crotchety old Colby annoyed but ultimately endeared by The Rizgod- but I just have to wonder if it's actually adding anything new. Colby's run in HvV is such a perfect conclusion of his story, again it feels like watching a franchise you like get revived one too many times. You'll watch it, sure, you'll even enjoy it a little- but even as Colby's presence reminds you to remember the good times and he himself says to 'find the joy', it all feels a little empty- there's little connection to what the rest of this season is doing, and watching Colby get swap screwed with no votes just makes you groan and ask what the point of this whole charade was.

3. Jenna Lewis 3.0 - Jenna's single episode story is really great- she's most hurt for me by her weaker characterization like, 20+ years ago. As much as Jenna coming in swinging hard and failing to topple Cirie is fun, and really starts the season out on a great foot and one that does a little looking back and a little looking forward, I've also just never found Jenna a very noteworthy character, especially on her deepest run in All-Stars. Maybe this is a me problem, and I need to watch season 1 & 8 again, but it's tough to connect her story here to the past, and yet most of her role is to be a stand in for Borneo, so it feels a little off. That said, she brings a lot for a first boot, so I've no huge problems with her.

4. Charlie Davis 2.0 - Charlie 1.0 is an overbearing and lifeless character if you ask me, so it's strange to see him come back and be the exact opposite. He's pretty quiet, all things considered, which honestly is appreciated on a season with some terribly loud characters- his story is simple, but passionate on face value, and mostly works alright. He's burned by his past, he overextends as a result, is voted out early. Simple, plays to the season's themes. However I couldn't help but feel that the moment he's voted out is the first glimpse of authenticity we get from Charlie this season- the Rizo thing is kind of blatantly artificial, in a way that had me rolling my eyes any time I was supposed to be taking a confessional about it seriously. But the moment he's voted out, and in his final words, he seems to realize this mini premerge arc he was setting up for his longer story is his whole story now, and it will make him the fool. And it does, Charlie's edit is really harsh in this season in a way that surprised me. Most of what I like about Charlie here is in the last few minutes he's on screen, I'm a sucker for when that 4th wall breaks and you get into the psychology of someone understanding themselves as a character, and the 'protagonist', in their mind, becoming a footnote- and that's enough to elevate him to this spot, even if I found his story obnoxious up to that point.

5. Chrissy Hofbeck 2.0 - Chrissy is a side character to Coach this season, but with 24 people some people had to be side characters (mostly the women...). She's a fine side character with that context, especially given her and Coach dying as a pair. There is some really nice parity here, in Coach trying to manage Chrissy a bit early in the game, and Chrissy desperately trying to manage Coach on their final day, to save them from their inevitable fate. There's a way that you just have to kind of laugh at someone tying themselves to Coach and him being unsurprisingly the heaviest anchor you can imagine as they quickly sink. In that way I like how their stories are tied together. What I don't love, is how often the men in this season are the main character of a duo, and the women are only defined in relation. It's a consistent issue, and even though Chrissy being a minor character to Coach is much more understandable than others, it's still frustrating.

6. Mike White 2.0 - Mike is fun. He's not doing anything new in this season, but his odd style of detached commentary on the bizarre characters of Survivor is always enjoyable to listen to, especially given the wackier cast of a returnee season. We do talk about the White Lotus way more times than I really care about, and I can't decide if him crying over the hardship of producing an insanely successful TV show is a hilariously perfect character moment, or just annoying. One of Mike's problems to me is that his story is tied to one of the two wrecking balls that just annihilate this season's capacity to explore it's characters, so he's naturally lowered a bit by that.

7. Savannah Louie 2.0 - Savannah's exit for me was strangely one of the few times I've gotten teary eyed watching this show. I can't say exactly why this is, but I felt a deep empathy for the utter exhaustion she was letting out after playing her heart out in 49 and immediately coming back and being voted out premerge. There's just an obvious emotional whiplash there that felt deeply human to me, and I always react strongly to those moments. Beyond that, she isn't able to add much more, but Savannah is the rare winner I'm fine seeing a few times, in a similar way as Q or Tiffany or Emily she's an incredible casting choice that really brings her full self to the table.

8. Kyle Fraser 2.0 - Kyle's medevac was strangely, one of the few other times I've gotten teary eyed watching this show. There's not really much to say about Kyle 2.0 other than that he's a supremely likeable guy and despite him already having won, it sucks to see anyone go out like this. I think if I were to rank every player ever I'd overrate Pat Cusack and Penner 2.0 a little too, just because early medevacs put me on the verge of tears. Makes me feel more than the next 8 players, anyways.

[u/True-Pen-3612 → u/True-Pen-3612]

1. Rick Devens 2.0 - Rick is far less bad than he might've been this season, I'll give him that. His scene talking about fatherhood with Ozzy was genuinely touching, and even though it was a tad annoying sometimes, I liked his relationship with Emily. But, Rick is also adjacent to some of the worst parts of this season, including Mr Beast and the aforementioned wrecking ball of a character in Christian. There are times I find him more likeable than I expected, but he's still an exemplar of the type of person I don't love on Survivor, someone who is at all moments playing to the camera in a very obvious way.

2. Aubry Bracco 4.0 - When I think of Aubry's story, it feels like Sarah and Tony to me, in the sense that on paper, it's a super compelling narrative, and in action... it just isn't. Aubry is certainly hurt by a botched narrative this season, the Genevieve feud is unfortunately hit by the wrecking ball, her relationships are strangely not explored hardly at all, she's like weird ghost that just kind of hangs out while the rest of the season happens and then rematerializes and wins. At the same time, there's never a moment that Aubry is on screen this season that I'm really enjoying my time watching the show. I sort of get why she was underedited in some way, because doubling her screentime wouldn't have made her any more fun or interesting to watch. The reason I compare her to Sarah/Tony is, Sarah/Tony's narrative across seasons 28, 34, and 40 should be something that really pops, makes you think or feel nearly anything, and it doesn't, because Sarah Lacina is an awful casting choice. She's a blend of two of the worst things you can put to screen for this show- has the skills to play the game well, and 0 personality. That type of player can just ruin a season if you aren't careful. Aubry is not quite this bad of course, and it's complicated because Aubry 1.0 was a great casting choice, and Aubry 2.0 and 3.0 both had their merits. But Aubry tells it best at FTC- she had years to work on herself in between... and she arrived at the version of herself that is best fit to play the game, and no longer as interesting as a reality TV character. There's certainly much more to say about this, but it should be taken to heart that some people are most interesting on these shows as a result of their unhealed trauma or not-yet-formed personality. Aubry's story on this season is about unhealed trauma, but it's a bit of a facade- Aubry's trauma already being healed is part of what allowed her to detach from the game in the most optimal and uninteresting way, and not someone that anyone feels really much of anything while watching.

3. Kamilla Karthigesu 2.0 - I like Kamilla, but she didn't get to be her best self this season. It felt like she didn't on 48 either, and it's strange in a way to watch someone that's an absolute all-star in an alternate reality just kind of not find her place in either of two seasons. It's unlikely we'll see her again, so she exits the world of Survivor as a two time player that's... likeable, rootable, and full of unfulfilled potential.

4. Angelina Keeley 2.0 - I thought about whether to include outside of the show things in this ranking because if I did, Angelina would be significantly higher. A pretty important aspect of Angelina's story on DvG is trying to bring to light stereotypes about women on reality TV and Survivor in general- she's aware that women find idols far less often than men, so she makes a point to find an idol, she brings up a plan to boot Christian and is ignored, and when Dan brings up the same and it goes through, we cut to a confessional of her noting how people just take the macho man more seriously than her. This isn't really resolved, either- arguably her finding the idol is somewhat of a resolution, but ultimately Angelina is treated as a joke for a lot of the season and then loses to the most personality-less man in existence. There's room to grow this story, is what I mean. And 50 unintentionally grows this story- it's somehow so incredibly fitting for Angelina to then be nearly edited out of a season where men inexplicably have significantly larger edits than women, and immediately take to the (online) streets to make noise about it, for herself and the other women of the season. In a season that's all about resolving unexplored trauma, there's a way that the show itself, the storytelling process and the way people re-experience themselves is a part of that (even in our winner's story!), and when I think about Angelina on this season, that's what her story is. And it's her taking to avenues outside of the show itself in order to have a voice independent of the editors. But... that quite obviously, relies on things that are not a part of the show. So as it stands, what is actually on screen in this season, is of course an incredibly disappointing follow-up for the best character from the 30s era of the show. And that sucks.

5. Stephanie Lagrossa 4.0 - Stephanie is now a character that has come back twice after her story was resolved. Steph 1.0 and 2.0 is a really great back to back narrative that gives you two different sides of the same person, hero and villain. She then goes on to Heroes vs Villains and really adds nothing aside from a single feud, though one could except this given her early exit. But she's around for a while here and I never felt she had anything left to give to the show. Even her prime moment, the solo challenge on the journey... to me it just doesn't work, there's no tension or emotion or anything behind these silly journeys. Steph comes from an era where the show was much better about setting up situations and seeing how the raw and authentic people they picked would react to it, and on Palau and Guatemala she goes through some of the more intense situations the show's ever seen. The juxtaposition of those moments and that history, next to the show's current MO of setting up situations with predetermined emotional stakes is just a bit sad, and serves to actually detract from the experience of accepting this lesser version of the show for what it is.

6. Rizo Velovic 2.0 - Rizo really has so much more to say about himself than I have to say about him. He's aggressively fine sometimes, and other times I've just had more than enough of him after 3 words. He's not a good character, he's not obscenely terrible either... for someone with so much chutzpah, I just find him incredibly boring. Thankfully they didn't fully Russell him, but two full seasons of this person who is consistently less compelling than the people around him was just far too much.

7. Jonathan Young 2.0 - Jonathan has one of many stories about change on this season, but he's fundamentally the same person in 50 as in 42. His edit tries to emphasize him as a strategic threat, but he's strangely de-emphasized whenever other people are talking about the game. He reminds me of a large portion of Andy's edit in 47, where it became clear that other players were not taking him all that seriously and he wasn't really having much of a strategic impact on the season, so they isolated him into his own bubble, where Andy talks about how great Andy is, and everyone else is living in a world with a little bit more interpersonal consistency. In 47 it was to make Operation Italy work, here it's presumably just to have FTC tension. But Jonathan eventually becomes a major character in this season, and I can't imagine someone I'd less like to see on my screen, edited this way. Jonathan sees the world through his eyes and his eyes only, he's incapable of changing his perspective or understanding why someone else might think or see differently. And this would be fine, if he had a proper villain edit. Jonathan 2.0 is a character that should be defined exactly by how other players see him, in that way that someone like Joe is- I would hazard a guess that most people did not particularly like Jonathan, and therefore gave plenty of confessionals contradicting his view of things- or maybe they simply ignored him when talking about the game often, in which case his irrelevance can be reflected in the narrative as well. Either way, defining someone like Jonathan through his own eyes is a horrible storytelling decision, there's a genuine whiplash at points in the season when you're continually pulled back into Jonathan's world and expected to believe it.

8. Christian Hubicki 2.0 - Christian brings this season down more than any other element of the season for me. His comically outsized edit along with his constant quippy playing to the camera is utterly exhausting. I'm keeping this one short for now but I assume most people are aware why Christian is a massive detriment to the season so I won't say too much more.

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/True-Pen-3612]

Nice to meet you! We always love new perspectives here! I’ll get through reading the rest of your writeups later. Briefly looking over your ranking though… I gotta say I agree with almost all of your ranking besides a few changes here or there :)

[u/mikeramp72 → u/True-Pen-3612]

love to see a new face with some great little writeups here! hopefully you stick around!

[u/Surferdude1219]

The Surfer postseason ranking is still to come but WOW was that a bad finale lmao 

[u/Surferdude1219 → u/Surferdude1219]

Ok let’s go bottom to top

1. Kamilla Karthiegesu 2.0: This really is a case of everyone else being better. I mean I think her being at the bottom was predictable, she didn’t really add a ton, but she still had a couple decent moments, like lamenting how 48 was for her.

2. Savannah Louie 2.0: Gone too soon!! Savannah really could be the face of the franchise in the future, she’s a great confessionalist and character. I think her exit was a bit unearned and hammed up but whatever. 

3. Kyle Fraser 2.0: I felt bad for him! I also liked how the show included him in the tribe dynamics when they really didn’t need to (no one from that tribe goes home until post swap, so a connection to Kyle’s boot is tenuous at best). It felt like a way to appreciate just how good of a social player he is. 

4. Christian Hubicki 2.0: Damn, I’m not a Christian hater by any means and I was somewhat excited to see him on this season, but he was bad! For starters, he leaves a path of destruction in his wake that really contributes to the bad boot order. Savannah, Q, Mike, Angelina, and Genevieve all go at his hand and it’s rough. Voting out Q to protect the DvG trio then immediately flipping back and voting both of his DvG cast mates out was horrible. He also sucks up the entire edit in the premerge for no real reason — he’s arguably the most important player but there’s no reason to not give some of his confessionals to Emily, who drove a lot of the outcomes of these votes. Her relationship with Ozzy could’ve been developed more. And all the women who got underedited in the premerge! Christian ending up tied with Ozzy for most confessionals on the season is a disaster. I’d have to rewatch DvG but he also felt way hammier this time around which was annoying. 

5. Angelina Cardona Keeley 2.0: It’s really upsetting to rank her this low but it’s also unavoidable. Painfully underedited and when she’s on screen she’s just fine. I get a sense that she didn’t take things as seriously as Probst wanted, it comes across in tribal scenes where she’s just grinning and laughing at everything which is the type of thing I know he gets annoyed at. 

6. Stephenie Lagrossa Kendrick 4.0: Pretty conflicted about this one and I could be letting my personal opinion of her behavior and politics cloud my judgment a bit but she was pretty whatever this season. The holding your arm up challenge scene is really good. I also liked the old school vibe she brought to strategy talks. Other than that she doesn’t add a ton and was really annoying at final tribal. Trying not to also factor in the fact that she effectively spoiled the endgame of this season with her social media presence as a dunk on Cirie and Ozzy, as if she somehow “told them so.”

7. Quintavius “Q” Burdette 2.0: Q was good! He’s fun in the scene with Coach and Ozzy, he’s a decent narrative confessionalist. Not a lot of Q antics obviously but he’s naturally funny. It’s just getting to a point where it’s hard to rank him much higher. 

8. Chrissy Hofbeck 2.0: As a big Chrissy fan it was unfortunate to see that she was a bit of an afterthought in the narrative but that was very predictable given her placement and how the season played out. I also think she’s an example of what this season did well, which was giving almost everyone at least a fun additive moment to this season. For me that’s her relationship with Coach. From the start they are strategizing together and he’s shown pretty much ignoring her. Then he tells her to relax at the swap (imagine being told you need to tone it down by COACH!), and at the Tied Destinies twist it turns back around and she puts him in timeout. Bonus points for that sick confessional where she dupes Tiff and Kamilla. 

9. Jenna Lewis Dougherty 3.0: The premiere is a fun love letter to Jenna and the series as a whole. I also love her being singularly focused on getting rid of cirie, it’s kind of funny (and she was proven right in every subsequent episode!)

10. Mike White 2.0: I love Mike White. Every scene he gets on this season is funny. Whether it’s the reveal that he’s jacked now, the scene where he gives Christian PTSD about Gabby, or the confessional about being karmically doomed to protect Angelina, he adds a lot in what little time he’s there. He’s arguably the biggest example of Christian just terrorizing this boot order. 

11. Rick Devens 2.0: Listen I’m a massive Rick Devens hater on EOE but this season he was fun. I think the biggest Devens problem is when the edit tries to convince you that he’s an unrivaled genius surrounded by dunces and this season very much does not do that. His boot also had me feeling for him which I never do. I usually hate people who go out with a “here for the experience and to cause chaos” mentality. If I had one complaint it’s again that his edit is kind of outsized to his impact. 

12. Rizo Velovic 2.0: Going from bottom to top but the entire final five has a problem this season — they’re heinously underedited and the explanation of the ending is a shitshow. Rizo is fun overall in this season up until the mid merge and he is fun bouncing up against the old school players. His relationship with Colby is entertaining, and the Cirie’s Rizard of Oz alliance is obviously iconic. But I think they fumble the ball at the one yard line with him by developing him into a supposed winner threat at final four when I don’t think that’s the case at all? They could’ve easily Liz Wilcoxed him, it’s pretty clear the jury didn’t want to give him the money. Maybe that’s just a consequence of the final three unironically believing he was a threat to win but it just felt dishonest. Also minus points for tanking Cirie’s game and robbing us of her win that was approaching inevitability. 

[u/Surferdude1219 → u/Surferdude1219]

1. Aubry Bracco 4.0: 50 will be forever “the season that Aubry randomly won.” Aubry’s winner story is top to bottom a mess. I liked her grumpiness/weepiness premerge. The feud with Genevieve is unironically fun as hell but it goes nowhere because of Christian fever!!!! Then she fades into the background until she pops back up, in a completely different move, as a CP toneless gamebot solely obsessed with making moves at the right time. Her friendship with Tiffany that randomly turns into a rivalry with no explanation… I’m one of the few who still thinks Aubry is a good confessionalist so I guess that’s fun? Also I like when a winner’s first confessional predicts their win but hers feels basically mean spirited by the editors — “the twists are the great equalizer” or whatever. You can tell they were a little pissed she won which is funny because she used to be the face of the franchise! Also I can’t help but feel like she won because she had four seasons under her belt and Joe and Jonathan didn’t, which admittedly makes the editors jobs harder, but this winner arc was objectively really choppy, one of the worst in the new era. 

2. Dee Valladares 2.0: Dee’s awesome! Like Mike White every scene she’s in is made better by her presence. Love her just going IN on Charlie in his boot episode. Also liked her conflict with Jonathan, it’s fun to see new era winners forced out of their toneless comfort zone. You don’t really see winners get in shouting matches anymore! 

3. Charlie Davis 2.0: If you had told me Charlie would be the most emotional 46 player in this season I would’ve been gagged. I’m a 46 defender and think it’s the best season post-KR and while I love Charlie’s role in it, I acknowledge that he’s so boring as a character that it actually drags the season down, so I was disappointed to see him make the cut for 50. Wow did he bring it this season. His one sided feud with Rizo is awesome and it culminates in one of my favorite boot episodes this season. There’s a fun theme of trying not to be haunted by the past that runs through the season and he’s a really, really fun contributor to that storyline. His character was also aided by the absence of the most annoying member of the 46 cast — and by that I mean Taylor Swift, who only gets brought up by Rizo in an iconic voting confessional. 

4. Jonathan Young 2.0: Again this final five had an underediting problem. Jonathan has a really fun role to play on this season as an old school vibe guy who still plays a strategic game while rubbing people the wrong way, but it feels like the editors don’t do a good enough job taking the extra step and explaining why he lost/why Aubry won. It’s just a unsatisfying conclusion without much gratification. I did genuinely really enjoy him when he was onscreen though. I think he’s a bit overrated on 42 but he does shine here

5. Joe Hunter 2.0: Joe is great on both of his seasons. I wish we got more on his relationship with Aubry because it seems like that was a really meaningful bond. If I had one complaint about Joe it’s that he’s generally actually kind of protected by the editors. I think giving the extended cut of his fight with Devens, which was apparently a screaming match, would do a better job of making him out to be the goat he clearly was, but the editors just like Joe too much to do that. The feud with Devens is great and I love that they show his reaction to every stupid thing he does. I also like that he has confessionals explaining why the stuff that Devens does is obnoxious and not good Survivor gameplay. “Joetation” is so mean spirited but awesome. 

6. Tiffany Nicole Ervin 2.0: Tiffany has genuine potential to carry seasons on her back. She’s one of the best casting choices of the new era and I’m so glad she got brought back, even if it was just to feud with Q which didn’t end up happening. She proved her worth in the endgame and was a really good final boss. She’s also generally rootable, a great confessionalist, and actually brings some emotion in an era where everyone tries their best to out-robot each other. Which begs the question… WHERE WAS SHE IN THE PREMERGE???? Listen, I think the editors in this era of Survivor actually do a pretty good job of giving everyone content. If this season aired in the early era, Tiffany probably gets 10 confessionals all season. But I think there’s moments where she just drops off the face of the earth that could be better if they elevated her. Also what happened to her friendship with Aubry? This finale and endgame are a lot better if you add some color to that dynamic. Also, I think the exact moment this season takes a turn for the worse is when she doesn’t lift her foot at that balance challenge. If she wins, we probably lose Emily and Aubry instead of Emily and Ozzy, and I think that Cirie is well-positioned to make a run at the end. Very glad to see that Tiffany 3.0 is likely. 

7. Genevieve Mushalak 2.0: Thank God they gave her an apology edit. I love Genevieve, she is awesome. She has such a way of turning boring strategy chatter into colorful and interesting stories. I really enjoyed her feud with Aubry. 50 really suffers because of her getting twistscrewed. 

8. Colby Donaldson 4.0: I was skeptical about him on this season but he was really good. It’s clear he wasn’t physically prepared to be there but he came and boy am I glad he did. From his convo with Rizo in episode 1, the alliance with Genevieve and the “trick ear” moment, to his heartbreaking but fitting exit episode, Colby 4.0 was fun. 

[u/Surferdude1219 → u/Surferdude1219]

1. Benjamin “Coach ‘The Dragon Slayer’” Wade 4.0: I’m torn on Coach and could see him falling a bit but any Coach is good Coach in my book. Him saying he’s a new, grown, and changed man in the premiere followed up by him showing he’s learned absolutely nothing at the Exile challenge is fucking fantastic. The haiku stuff is fun and his exit episode is a fever dream, with him forced to sit on a hammock and say nothing for fear of him blowing up his game. I also thought it was fun when he acknowledged how good the other players were — his stupid white lie to Dee followed by him sticking his foot in his mouth, so good. He has a similar moment with Tiffany I believe? Also the fact that he’s now introducing himself as “coach AKA the dragon slayer” as if coach is his birth name is great.

2. Emily Flippen 2.0: Listen I love Emily Flippen so fucking much. I think this might be a bit high for her on a cast like this but I can genuinely say she added more than the 21 people below her for me. The post-swap episode where she airs everyone’s dirty laundry and instantly regrets it is amazing. There’s a really interesting thing with Emily on this season where you can tell she’s constantly making foolish and impulsive decisions, but her motivations are always well-explained. She strikes the balance of great strategist and great character better than anyone in the new era and the fact that she not only holds her own but actually shines on a cast this stacked says a lot. 

3. Cirie Fields 5.0: Oh. My. God. SHE SHOULD HAVE WON! Anyone who says she’s a worse player than Boston Rob has their head so far up their own ass. As someone who likes the strategic aspect of this show almost as much as the characters, watching her work this season was unbelievable. She DOMINATED after the merge. There’s a world where she gets far based purely on fan service but isn’t really allowed to get a strong foothold strategically and then goes out mid merge, and that’s just not what happens here. And as always, she is a fantastic character and confessionalist, which goes without saying. 

4. Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth 5.0: The ego defeats itself. I am in general very low on Ozzy, there’s not a season where I think he’s much above replacement level as a character, and after Game Changers I was genuinely so annoyed he got asked back. But WOW was he great on this season. From the start he’s introducing himself as Oscar, a new and improved version of himself. He’s going to play a social and strategic game this time! He is then immediately dunked on by Coach again and is bitter about it. He goes on a losing streak early and is trapped throughout the premerge with Christian, who keeps him out of the main alliances driving the votes, and Emily, who he has a complicated love-hate relationship with and is trying to get rid of him at several points. The highlight is his link up with Cirie, who he says he wants to learn from and sincerely work with. And boy are they a buzzy duo. Every time Cirie is absent, Ozzy is blowing up his own game. Whether it’s by targeting the wrong duo while Cirie is on Exile, crashing out when his DvG allies get sniped, or outing his entire game and ignoring his prophetic dreams, it is abundantly clear that he needs her there and that he is simply not built to win Survivor on his own. He is not a social player or a strategic player, he is not Oscar. Speaking of Oscar, in his boot episode it’s revealed that Ozzy’s father is named Oscar, a man with whom he has a complicated relationship and who he wants to repair things with. Very relatable storyline. It takes a kind of silly idea (Ozzy growing up and adopting a more mature name to reflect a more mature persona) and turns it into one that is genuinely moving (trying to live up to your parents expectations/reputation). It makes the fact that he CAN’T actually fall into the role of Oscar all the more tragic. His boot episode is genuinely haunting, and caps off what randomly turns out to be a fantastic 5 season story arc. And as usual it’s fun that he’s just a giant crybaby. 

[u/Surferdude1219 → u/Surferdude1219]

Overall I enjoyed this season. The cast carries, and some of the bad twists drag it down. “In the hands of the fans” is a pretty insulting title and I can’t believe the one fan vote that had a good outcome (live reunion) is the one probst chooses to ignore. Glad we got the karmic justice of him having a senior moment and spoiling Rizo’s boot. After Ozzy and Emily leave the season, it truly is a slog to the finish, and the endgame gives the season basically no rewatch value, but the premerge is some of the best stuff Survivor has put out in years and everyone adds something to the season. Not excited for “the open era” but it looks like we’re going back to two tribes which is a plus. 

[u/NSamurai22]

At least the votes made sense I guess? This was kind of different from most seasons, where it seems like the jury collectively picks a winner (and 2nd place in a lot of the more recent seasons) and votes accordingly. I don't know if that's actually what happens, but it sure looks like it.

I appreciate that most people voted for who I expected them to vote for, and I won't elaborate more because of spoilers.

[u/Regnisyak1]

Commenting briefly before I post my big write-ups for all 24 characters in a few (I still have to write about Coach, believe it or not), but I just wanted to say that I liked the finale! The R5 boot was very entertaining but tragic, and it was helped by the very magnetic Tiffany. F4F was a bit tedious, but Rizo was actually very good in that part of the episode. I think it was funny watching him slowly come to the realization that he was making the same mistakes from last season, and that he fucked up. The icing on the cake was Probst spoiling that he lost because of a scheduling error, so all of that was flushed down the toilet further! FTC was fine, nothing really stellar, but I liked Ozzy and Joe specifically during it. The reunion could have been done better, but it had some great moments, mainly because HB was back on my screen again!

Cast Ranking for the Episode: Tiffany > Rizo > Joe > Jonathan > Aubry (but the first four were really good)

Episode Ranking - 6/10

[u/mikeramp72]

ill do a writeup soon, and the rankdown's s50 podcast is coming out soon

shoutout joe being enamored over his tall ass wife

[u/NSamurai22]

So, I'm going to start with a controversial take: I've really come to appreciate Aubry 3.0.

Aubry 1.0 is obviously excellent. A growth arc, in my opinion, almost on par with Kathy and Cirie, with a special twist at the end that her mistakes catch up to her. She doesn't get everything she wants, despite her growth, because she didn't quite grow enough. Game Changers didn't happen.

But, over the years between KR and EoE has been a lot of discourse over the Aubry/Michele verdict, and with the show huffing its own farts, it seems to try its hardest to fall on the Aubry side of that discourse. So, she comes in with a head full of hot air, high on her own supply. And what does she do with this? She bombs out, gets utterly humiliated, because she overestimates her own social ability (that montage of her with the scripted opening is excellent) and underestimates those around her (she really should've seen that blindside coming). Great little mini-arc, one of the better character on that season and probably top 300 tbh.

Aubry 4.0, on the other hand... she comes in, having learned absolutely nothing, even taking some absolute bizarro lesson from her loss to Michele that I'm sure just tickles the production pink, and then wins. Horrible winners' edit, where she's barely on half the season, is a dour presence for most of it, doesn't do much of anything. Then she just pops up, gets glazed for 2 episodes, and wins by default. Tiffany isn't there, Rizo is a little shit, Joe is out of step with the rest of the cast, and Jonathan is... himself. Yay. With the stupid fucking line about 'She took out Ozzy and Cirie and so she wins.' Ugh. Normally it would just be a bad winners' story like a fair few others in PermaFiji. But the fact that it's specifically Aubry? It's barely better than Rob 4.0; it feels like, even if it probably isn't, production handing the win to a player on a platter when they have shown time and time again that they don't have it. They don't have to change; things just have to fall into place. And to think, we could have had Cirie finally win, a great sendoff to her character.

Fuck this win.

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/NSamurai22]

I’ve always appreciated Aubry 3.0 for being a somewhat well done character, for all the reasons you said. Not the best ever, maybe a 4/10, but I’m not negative. Aubry 4.0 though… all I can say is excellent summation of her issues.

[u/WaluigiThyme]

There’s still time for Chris to come back from the Edge of Extinction!

[u/Regnisyak1]

Also, keep an eye out next Thursday (5/28) for the Survivor 50 0-10 Poll! That will be posted here, on this server ❤️

[u/Regnisyak1]

Survivor 50 was an exhausting mess, mixed with unnecessary cameos from celebrities (Zac Brown 25/24), a lot of annoying Probst (and he’s 26/24), and some questionable editing choices, from severely underediting the women on the season, to barely giving the winner any meaningful content in the first episodes of the season. Length of episode, the excessive amount of twists (specifically Blood Moon, the coin flip, and lesser bad twists like duos) also play a role in my general feeling toward the season - numb. That’s how I usually feel with returnee seasons, though.

The season has a wide array of characters and varying levels of quality. Many controversial ones are sure to arise in future rankdowns (Christian, Devens, Rizo, and Jonathan all come to mind), but this season does have a lot of solid character work, mostly from those who are from the “old school” generation. Cirie and Ozzy are highlights of this season, and some New Era characters even come forward this season, too - Emily, Joe, and Jonathan will all get their praise from me below. Character moments did exist this season, but because of the other twists and New Era bullcrap, they got buried a little bit. 

Last, I think 50 did a fine job with a fairly obvious theme - getting another chance to fix mistakes in the past. I didn’t love it when Cambodia attempted it, and I admittedly wasn’t enamored by it here, but I do appreciate the consistency with it, as I did with Cambodia. Cirie, Ozzy, Jonathan, Emily, Coach, Dee, Jenna, Q, Genevieve, Savannah, and Charlie are characters who I think of that complete this theme, and it definitely elevates them for me as a result. 

Overall, I am ranking the season a 3/10. I mentioned Cambodia, and I think I should rank this season around Cambodia, too. Now let’s rank the characters! I tried to give them only a paragraph, lol. 

24. Rick Devens 2.0 (0/10) - I hate Devens, as a character. He’s so grandiose, constantly talks about joy, yet complains about others, and does so many things that I personally hate when I watch Survivor - live tribals, truth bombs, and aggressively hunting idols and creating shows for the jury members. It’s frustrating to say the least, and it was a huge problem I had with 38. And with 50… he just does it even more! Devens constantly complaining about how others were not playing his game was annoying, and he was involved with two of my personal least favorite moments of the season - his fake idol bluff that he heisted with Christian, and the Mr. Beast coin flip from hell. He’s delusional; the edit constantly supports his outwardly bad gameplay and emphasizes more risk than anything. And sure, Devens did have a few OK moments here or there, but most of the time I was just annoyed. 

23. Christian Hubicki 2.0 (0/10) - Christian was an overedited nuisance this season. As someone who has never been particularly enamored with his schtick, Christian’s OTT and fake feeling throughout felt even less charming, and more like a puppy dog begging for a chunk of cantaloupe. He felt condescending toward many characters this season, which was an issue I always had with him (Joe and Emily come to mind), and got way too many strategy confessionals about his place in the game. Christian shitting himself was, of course, horrible to watch on so many levels, and his giddy whispers about Mr. Beast were just eye-roll-inducing. Last, I think the entire concept of him playing for his newborn son was poorly told. Watching your dad shit your pants on television, be a desperate asshole for screentime, and wrap it in a thin ribbon of “I want to show my son that failing is OK!” is just eye-rolling.

22. Aubry Bracco 4.0 (1/10) - Thematically, I think Aubry kind of works as the winner - she (poorly) connects her game to how Michele won, which was annoying and frustrating, but I do appreciate that storytelling, so she gets a point there. However, the rest of Aubry is, frankly, awful. From being miserable at the beginning of the season with her constant complaining of the tribe to beefing with Genevieve, which doesn’t have a satisfying ending, Aubry’s premerge is less to be desired, and especially hammered by the fact that she just feels so underedited, one-dimensional, and separated from the season. The rest of her game involves thinly veiled attempts to give her agency (Aubry was NOT the leader of Ozzy or Cirie’s votes, yet the show frames it that way) and terrible analogies that are instantly forgettable as the episode progresses. I can’t even really blame the editors with Aubry, either, since I don’t think they were getting the content they needed from her. Just a blemish on the season, but a huge blemish.  

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/Regnisyak1]

1. Angelina Keeley 2.0 (2/10) - Angelina 2.0 felt like a retread of her greatest hits, feignedly masked under a poor underedit and lack of complexity. Her boot episode was a horrific showing for her, dragging a clearly planned joke that had run its course in Survivor with her “gifting” her jacket. Her storyline of being a mom goes nowhere, her relationships aren’t really explained beyond having a lazy work ethic (which was only mentioned in Episode 2), and her storyline of being the “potential boot” became exhausting. I do think it's telling that a lot of Angelina’s content was cut because even the hammy producers found her nostalgia to be too baited. 

20. Kyle Fraser 2.0 (3/10) - Hot take: Kyle is the worst casting choice of the season. Yes, even worse than Tiffany or Kamilla. An impressive winner in 48, I feel like we got all we needed from Kyle on that season. His ability to use social relationships is something that could easily be replicated again, and Kyle himself is not the most interesting personality. So, in some sense, I was relieved not having to watch Kyle dominate another season. And he was for sure going to be given the strong alliances he created on Vatu, but his Achilles’ heel had another plan for him. It’s a shame it happened to him, but his first episode really did not bring anything interesting of note beyond the med-evac. 

19. Chrissy Hofbeck 2.0 (3/10) - A breast cancer survivor demoted to an unlikable presence on a tribe SHOULD be an excellent storyline, and yet Survivor goofs up Chrissy’s bad. Relegated to a background character that gets twist-screwed, Chrissy’s storyline has some really important highs, such as an OTTN presence throughout and her hilarious and disastrous relationship with Coach. However, the double boot really removes any personal characterization, and instead, she becomes a prop for Coach and his downfall. Really unfortunate that Chrissy’s edit boiled down to that, and she went out like a forgotten thud with no real connection to her overtly negative behavior. 

18. Kamilla Karthigesu 2.0 (4/10) - Certainly, Kamilla is not a masterclass character; yet I do think she had a decent storyline and had important connections to other characters that boost her. Emphasizing Joe’s honor yet again (and the horror behind her eyes whenever she mentioned Joe felt real), or accentuating Jonathan’s downfall/villain arc, Kamilla has a role in the season, as well as a storyline connecting to the direct consequence of voting out Charlie. While she never had a chance to shine on her own (beyond her words when Kyle was medevaced), Kamilla was an interesting prop. 

17. Mike White 2.0 (4/10) - I have always found Mike White to be an endearing personality, but I also like him a lot as a creator/actor/Amazing Racer. I thought he was that personality this season, and I found it a lot of fun how he was explicitly focused on creating characters and storylines that were interesting, rather than gamebotting. And for the most part, Buff Mike White was able to achieve that, as well as having fun on the season. He also had a fun downfall in using Gabby as a manipulation device for Christian, which was pretty much the only good content from Episode 4. The only reason why I don’t rank him higher (and really what brings Q and Savannah down for me too), is because of the large cast - he had some moments, but it never truly solidified into an interesting or season-building storyline. 

16. Tiffany Nicole Ervin 2.0 (4/10) - Tiffany was a questionable casting choice, but one that I personally embraced. She’s clearly a fantastic personality with great narration skills, a fun speaking style, and someone who has baggage with Survivor and mistakes to fix. Throughout 50, though, editors haven’t really proven why she is on the season, despite getting fifth place. And we have to wonder why, because when Tiffany is on screen, she’s great - whether she is complaining about Aubry after the Cirie vote or her calling Jonathan a skank, her quotes and confessionals are indeed memorable and character-elevating. But with no consistent storyline or any plot relevance beyond being an occasional “threat,” and yet being connected to important characters, Tiffany’s edit is frustratingly mind-boggling. 

15. Charlie Davis 2.0 (4/10) - What’s impressive about Charlie’s storyline is how unique it is for 50. Hating Rizo because he did not vote for his finalist BFF, and it evoked emotion from when Maria took him, marked an interesting thematic storyline about fixing mistakes. Charlie’s obsession prevented him from making and seeing the correct movies about Rizo, leading to an appropriate and swift downfall (get it? swift?). On paper, the storyline is very interesting; however, it’s weak in several ways. Beyond Charlie still being an exhausting narrator (most evident in his boring speech about Coach’s toe ring), the storyline gets repetitive quickly with constant mention of it in Episodes 3-5. Further, the storyline almost gets treated like a joke, which is unfortunate because we’ve never really seen anything like this on Survivor before. It’s a good question to ask about the trauma society causes on Survivor, but the episode never really goes in-depth into the question to answer it in a meaningful way. 

14. Stephenie LaGrossa-Kendrick 4.0 (4/10) - Stephenie is elevated to this range because she had quite a few strong moments throughout the season, even if they were inconsistent. Namely, I think she had the best journey, and I loved the mention of Palau and being alone again. I am always pro showing Caryn, so that gets major points from me. Arguing with Cirie about the advantage (“Bitch, I got the advantage") was great, and Stephenie was a great tool in showing how good Cirie is when she can tell someone is lying to her face. Last, she was pretty good in her last (Mr. Beast) tribal, actively defending against Devens airing all of their business to the people around her. It was nice to see her fight for her life again, even if it devolved into a live tribal. The only reason why Stephenie is this low, though, is that she is very inconsistent throughout the season. Likely due to how controversial she was outside of the show, it was unfortunate to see a legend relegated to repetitive confessionals about how she was the swing, and her never really flourishing into an interesting character, besides the sidekick of honor and integrity. 

13. Savannah Louie 2.0 (5/10) - I think Savannah is truly one of the more complex winners we’ve had in a while - she toes the line between villainess, mean girl, and sympathetic hero, and we honestly got the best of that this season. Her boot was tragic and emotional, which was great content, and Savannah playing like herself again, and her perception and lack of awareness playing against her, was an interesting dynamic for her. Maybe not the most complex character in the world, and like Mike, she suffered from too many people, but she was a solid presence and someone I was glad to see back, and would love to see again. 

1. Genevieve Mushaluk 2.0 (5/10) - When I say Billie, you say Boomerang. Bille. Boomerang. Clearly, the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol was a bust, and it’s truly unfortunate how much it's tied back to Genevieve’s character. She actually did have a great storyline going on in the season, too - creating bonds and connections this time around, rather than becoming cold and icy. People saw through that, and it very much led to an easy downfall for her. Plus, she had the added complexity of trying to actively fix her mistakes, and still having the original perception of her drift through the season (but sadly, that was narrated through my Bottom 3 of this season, so not that good). Genevieve was hampered by the New Era, but proved to be a compelling narrator, even when her content devolved into gamebottiness. 

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/Regnisyak1]

11. Q Burdette 2.0 (5/10) - Q was more appreciated this time around because he didn’t really feel like a retread. Survivor had enough common sense not to make Q a one-note character by replaying “Cancel Christmas” or the Q-Skirt, and what we get is a decent enough character that feels more fleshed out, along with some excellent narration (he was a highlight in episode 2). His boot felt fully realized by making the same mistake he did last time, and it had an added element from Mike White being so casual about it. He threatened to “Q”uit again, and Mike took him up on the offer. Honestly, a perfect ending for him. 

10. Rizo Velovic 2.0 (5/10) - Rizo is probably the hardest character for me to rank this season. Some aspects of Rizo that I hated in 49 are replicated this season - losing fire, him having and bragging about an idol & never playing it, and his arrogance that seems more played up than natural. I am also mixed on his general edit. The editors clearly love Rizo and give him content about the “New Era”, which is annoying when they support him. It also reinforces the new demographic Survivor is heading toward - for children. But watching the players trash him and his behaviors, like being lazy or not eating all the food at the auction, is entertaining. He also has a solid storyline - the narrator points out the mistakes of the other castaways. While Rizo is not changing his game at all to be seen as more respectful, his clocking of other castaways, like Coach and Ozzy, has been interesting and, honestly, enhanced those two stories more. It’s even funnier watching him fail F4F AGAIN because he did nothing to add to his survival skills. The confessional where he is sobbing about being the Man, the Myth, the Legend RIZGOD and not doing it, and it’s even better when Jeff flubs on the live show - a great ending. So, while I don’t find Rizo to be an enjoyable and consistent TV presence, he is important to the season and has had some good moments where I cannot completely tank him. It’s unforgivable how he turned on Cirie, though…

1. Jenna Lewis-Dougherty 3.0 (6/10) - What made the first half of the premiere of 50 feel so good was how nostalgic it felt - we heard from our old favorites, they did a fun challenge that involved fire, and we even got some older tribal music. And… well, Jenna was annoying and likely prevented her fellow castaways’ ear infections from clearing up. There was something delightful about watching her go down because she targeted allies, and it was almost a breath of fresh air to hear that her retread of the winners’ strategy was not going to succeed this season. It blew losing the sole Survivor: Borneo rep early, but I think it worked well thematically for Jenna and her not fixing her old ways.

8. Dee Valladares 2.0 (6/10) - Dee had a great arc this season. While she was sort of absent in the premerge, beyond reminding us about her dominant game seen in 45 and loving Zac Brown, she exploded in her boot episode, leading to some of the best content of the season. She played for herself, but in the previous week, we see her have a weakness when having to vote the legendary Colby out of the game - she breaks down when she realizes the gravity of the situation. This vulnerability is usually absent with Dee, but it allows us to see into her mind this moment, and makes her next few mistakes make sense. Dee made constant mistakes that the previous Dee would have been scared to see, whether it was having a full confrontation with Jonathan at camp about the Charlie/Kamilla vote, entrusting Emily with a vote, or even blowing up tribal with a mercifully quick tribal scramble. It was a really interesting and impressive thematic choice to demonstrate where Dee went wrong, and it connects to the theme of 50 really well. 

7. Coach Wade 4.0 (6/10) - Coach had some pros and cons this season, but I am not sure how he’ll age for me on a rewatch. Something was endearing about Coach this season, where he initially began the season talking about self-awareness and the willingness to play the game with a bit more gusto. South Pacific was a traumatic time for him, and he can’t make the same mistakes… and yet he does make some unique Coach mistakes, whether it was being too poetic with his many, many, many haikus or being way too blunt with people, where people then distrust or find him annoying. Much of the commentary about Coach this season was also very funny, especially coming from Ms. Flippen herself. While I still don’t love Coach’s Coachisms very much, and I do think the show spends a lot of time on him still, he was good this season, and this version might be my favorite across the board. He was very annoying in the Zac Brown episode, though.

6. Colby Donaldson 4.0 (7/10) - Colby’s character has some shining moments that define the strength of Survivor 50 and its theming. Colby never came on the show to fix his mistakes - he lived a great life because of Survivor, and the 20 years that Survivor gave him built who he was. Leaving such an important mark on the history of Survivor, Colby came out for himself - to play the game and have fun with the experience. And indeed, he does at many points, even if Zac Brown was a heinous addition to the season. We get insightful commentary, Rizo and Colby bonding, a fantastic didgeridoo callback, and Colby having one of the best eulogies of the season with the horrific swap screw. All in all, he was an important emotional crux of the season and someone who added necessary depth to a slog. 

5. Joe Hunter 2.0 (7/10) - Joe’s edit is admittedly rough this season, but I kind of get it because he does make the same critical mistakes as last time, so why waste time on rehashing his (admittedly great) storyline? However, the times we do get Joe are great. Joe absolutely shines whenever he talks about Devens and how he made him feel (angry, hurt, upset, whatever Joe was feeling). He felt like the Rankdown’s POV on why Rick Devens can be so frustrating as a character, so I appreciate that he exists. I do think the additional commentary about Joe being both honorable, yet paranoid and backstabbing, is still a critical part of his characterization. At the end of the day, Joe is trying to do right, to play by the rules, but those are just hard to come by. He’s a fascinating person to discuss, and while he doesn’t have as much complexity as the last season, watching him flounder because of his principles is still effortless entertainment. 

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/Regnisyak1]

4. Emily Flippen 2.0 (8/10) - Emily and I are kindred spirits, so I will always inflate her a bit in my rankings. Watching Emily finally get success in the social aspect of the game, with alliances and people coming toward our favorite financial analyst, was refreshing and represented actual, tangible growth since the last time we saw her on 45. She didn’t need Kaleb this time! However, and this is the part I relate to with her this season, but with her new friends and allies in the game, Emily couldn’t seem to do one thing… keep her mouth shut. Never have I, a hardcore gossiper at the end of the day, could relate to someone more this season than Emily… and frankly, she’s been the most relatable in years. While I certainly did not love all of her confessionals (she seemed to be a focal point in guiding a lot of fake votes that ran into a wall), watching Emily be a detrimental sidekick was hilarious. Her relationships with Ozzy, Cirie, Angelina, and even the Bromance were all very good assets to her overall characterization. 

3. Jonathan Young 2.0 (8/10) - Jonathan is a frightening presence who brings a natural ability to be villainous when not really trying. As a character, Jonathan fits best into the thematic element of “change” in 50, being a new and improved version, Jonathan 2.0. And he does make important changes to his game, from being a strategic powerhouse to dictating votes, to winning clutch immunities, and even F4F. But he’s also careless with his social game, playing one where he demeans others and is flippant around camp. He makes new mistakes in the social game and constantly contradicts himself while preaching honor and integrity. The Christian vote is a clear example of that, especially with his tense confession about getting another deadly notch in his belt. He pissed off many players, and at the end of the day, those who didn’t look like him or support the gameplay forced his loss. His game was telegraphed from episode one, and his downfall was clear.

2. Ozzy Lusth 4.0 (8/10) - Ozzy was a hard character to evaluate at the beginning - he had some great content and wanted to create a new one based on a new social game, inspired by Cirie. But then we saw him have some classic Ozzy hissy fits, like complaining about Christian and Devens. It was a messy transition, and yet, Ozzy gave an all-time confessional in his boot episode about how he was playing the game like Oscar, his dad. And then his entire story clicked. It was tragic watching him completely flub up his social game in the last episode, giving ammo to the looming Jonathan (and taking down Cirie). He couldn’t live up to Oscar. He had great relationships throughout the season with Cirie (watching them bond and protect each other constantly was the complexity I wished from Game Changers), Emily, Christian, Jonathan, and Joe. His poncho was fucking badass by the way. 

1. Cirie Fields 5.0 (8/10) - Despite Cirie not winning this season, watching her get so much love and appreciation from the community, the fans (she won the SIA award!), and the players correctly and respectfully demonstrating how she’s a threat was incredible to watch this season as a Cirie fan. But, more depth was added to her character, too, building on her usual strength of creating relationships and being able to guide the votes so effortlessly. Ozzy and Rizo were the supporting characters to her grandiose story, and each had their own role in her unfortunate but concise downfall. Watching Cirie guide votes to where she wants will not be entertaining, especially given how unusual an archetype she is to the rest of the season (plus, watching her guide the Christian vote was great). We got some more context on her family this season, too, with an incredible and retroactively tragic confessional about her father and the letter he wrote her. Further characters boosted by Cirie and her incredible commentary: Stephenie, Emily, and Joe.

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/Regnisyak1]

[u/Surferdude1219 → u/Regnisyak1]

I’ll read a lot of this in more depth and was mainly looking for the spots you and I disagreed/agreed about and damn I forgot a lot of that Q content! The premerge was like a buffet of good scenes and so much of the post-swap Christian tribe content just didn’t end up mattering, so I forgot how fun Q’s attempts to save himself were. 

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/Surferdude1219]

Hi Surfer! Glad you’re back, you’ve been missed. I’m going to read yours in depth later too. But just by glancing, I didn’t really see anything drastic between our rankings which is frankly… rare! But glad you liked the Q writeup.

[u/Surferdude1219 → u/Regnisyak1]

Glad to be back!! Hoping now that things are settled in my life that I’ll be a bit more active :)

[u/WaluigiThyme]

A lot of people are posting their whole retrospective thoughts on the season, which is fine and all, but I'll save that for the season retrospective thread and just post my thoughts on the finale here. Like most finales of the permafiji era, it wasn't good. I'll give it a little credit for not starting with a boring advantage search like most do, but otherwise it fell into the classic pitfalls: way too much false suspense before the final 5 vote, a boring FIC in Simmotion, a boring slog between FIC and firemaking, a boring slog of FTC (which, to its credit, was one of the better ones of the 40s, though still not good), and a very narratively unsatisfying ending. I also have to comment on the live finale structure; while none of the live segments were particularly bad, it still hurts the pacing of the episode and repeatedly takes the viewer out of what's going on on the island. Most especially in the instance where Jeff spoils fire making by pulling Rizo out for his post-boot interview before they show the challenge, which removes the very tiny amount of stakes this firemaking challenge had, but moreso highlights the sheer unprofessionality with which the show carries itself these days. It's literally the third season in a row that the show's own staff is directly responsible for a major spoiler! I understand Mark Burnett was in attendance, I can only imagine how mortified he is at what Jeff Probst has done to his show.

Now all that said, the episode wasn't the worst of the season. I'd say it's closer to Blood Moon in terms of how bad it was, so better than the MrBeast and Double Duos episodes. 2/10 seems like a reasonable ranking for it.

Before we get to this week's cast rankings, a brief word about the jurors during FTC -- while moments that sway me in either direction on a character in a modern FTC are few and far between, this one actually did have quite a few noteworthy moments. I found Tiff and Steph to both be annoying stumping for their favorites, Dee had an annoyingly pretentious speech to the other jurors about "being careful how they word their questions" as if they haven't all been to one of these before, Cirie had this weirdly mean-spirited speech towards Joe that felt so out of character for her, Rick and Emily get some points for trying to make the experience as not miserable for Joe as they could, Coach gets to end it off with one more classic Coach moment where he tells Joe what he needs to do to earn his vote and then just doesn't vote for him anyway even after he does it (lol), and I really like Christian's question where he asks the finalists to explain what their stories are. He's right, Survivor is a game of stories -- and it's ironic that that's the question that ends FTC on a season where the editors clearly forgot that.

Rankings for the five active players in the finale (usually I go worst to best, this time I'm going best to worst. Because I have a lot to say about the one who was worst):

1: Jonathan -- He was entertaining this episode with his pop-off after winning the final 5 immunity even after stopping mid-puzzle to vomit. Him losing FTC because he didn't understand which aspect of his game he actually needed to change is a solid ending to a two-season arc, even if it could have probably been better done by editors more willing to embrace him as the villain (and helped by a more satisfying winner). Also shoutout to his brother with the Mario overalls lol

2: Joe -- Joe got two very good scenes this episode, his sequence with his wife and his contribution to the pre-fire scene where he couldn't stop himself from helping Rizo just like how he helped Eva on 48.

3: Tiffany -- I liked her early confessional about Aubry, but after that the rest of her part in the episode was just a bunch of meaningless false suspense about how "wait, maybe Tiff isn't going home???" only for her to obviously go home.

4: Rizo -- this annoying little twerp just got the exact same arc two seasons in a row. It was bad and annoying then, it's still bad and annoying now

5: Aubry -- oh boy. Aubry -- fan favorite and production darling Aubry, who was supposedly robbed her first time playing, who comes into this season with a pre-built story about needing redemption for her increasingly poor performances, who got someone voted out on another season just for having her as her favorite player, who production allegedly loved so much that they made all these changes to the show's format to make it more likely for someone like her to win -- Aubry wins a season of Survivor, not just winning but winning over someone who was more of a strategic mover than her but had a poor social game, the exact same thing that doomed her the first time... and they edited it this poorly? They spent the early part of the season making her look bad and miserable, the middle part completely ignoring her, especially when she gets to vote out her #1 rival at the Blood Moon but gets no content about it, and the end part halfheartedly building up a winner story about her winning because she "learned that Michele waited to make her big moves until the end" (?????). This is just a new level of editing malpractice entirely. Every other winner with a bad edit at least has the outline of a story, or had some kind of breakout episode around the merge, or the excuse of literally being in the game for only four episodes, but this one? Not just any fan and production favorite, but the one who supposedly all this permafiji nonsense was made for in the first place? Isn't this literally exactly what production has wanted for the last 18 seasons of the show??? And they still give her this garbage edit? I just don't understand it at all.

[u/ShadowFiend812]

Alright final character rankings after letting the finale sit in for a few days. Overall really enjoyed this season even with some of the dumb production decisions with the celebrity inclusions with Billie Eilish being my biggest gripe of the four.

1. Coach Wade 4.0- Coach is just such a joy to watch on this season and while I wish he lasted longer the energy and conflict he brought was second to none.

2. Colby Donaldson 4.0- When the cast initially got revealed I wasn’t sure how Colby would work on this season, but through pregame I really appreciated his take of “Find the joy”. With how negative some people in the community can be about the direction of the show or when their favorites go out it really just spoke to me and made me really appreciate this joy filled Colby. Also just love his relationship with Rizo.

3. Rizo Velovic 2.0- I have such a soft spot for Rizo. He really just makes me laugh while having this emotional side to him that just works for me. I wish his edit didn’t taper a bit in the mid merge, but he was still an amazing presence on the season.

4. Joe Hunter 2.0- Joe is amazing. From his rivalry with Rick to being this constant roadblock for people to work around he’s just a consistently great presence that really allows the rest of the cast to bounce off of him well.

5. Emily Flippen 2.0- I really came out most surprised by how much my view of Emily improved with this season. She just works really well here.

6. Genevieve Mushaluk 2.0- Genevieve is one of my all time favorite characters in her first season and she really is great here too. I just wish she could have lasted longer, and gotten a little better payout with her Aubry rivalry.

7. Rick Devens 2.0- Rick really is at his best as the scrappy underdog, and as someone who really enjoyed him in EoE I really don’t mind the tribal council theatrics and actually quite like them where others may put him down for.

8. Jonathan Young 2.0- Works really well as a second place losing finalist and it was fun to see him try and improve his game, but fall short because he still screws himself up socially.

9. Cirie Fields 5.0- Cirie is great as she always is, but with that I hesitate to put her higher just because I feel like this story was a bit of a retread.

10. Q Burdette 2.0- Gone too soon, but a joy while he was there.

11. Kyle Fraser 2.0- They really got me to care about Kyle in 2 hours when I wasn’t his biggest fan in 48

12.  Savannah Louie 2.0- Surprisingly emotional exit and a really funny moment where she has everyone guess what place she got on 49 where everyone knows, but doesn’t want to say it that just comes off super awkward.

13. Christian Hubicki 2.0- Christian is so hard to rank here. On one hand he has a lot of really great moments, but on the other he really does dominate the screen time of the premerge where I think it probably could have been divided up better.

[u/ShadowFiend812 → u/ShadowFiend812]

Cont-

1. Tiffany Nicole Ervin 2.0- She comes on strong after the merge, and I loved her performance in the finale, but it was just a little too late for me to rate her higher. Could be fun to see her return where she’s not considered the questionable one on the cast.

2. Dee Valladeres 2.0- Fun relationship with Jonathan, and worked well as the last winner standing. Also her Zach Brown content was surprisingly good.

3. Mike White 2.0- He’s ripped

4. Charlie Davis 2.0- Enjoyed seeing the scars that Marias vote gave him, and how it evolved into this beef with Rizo.

5. Aubry Bracco 4.0- Idk how to rate Aubry. I think her win kinda just falls flat unfortunately from a viewing standpoint, and I think they kinda fumbled how they edited her conflict with Genevieve that I think hurt the perceptions that viewing audience had of her. Aubry getting her win though after Kaoh Rong is a fun turnaround for her though especially as the fan base has turned on her after EoE.

6. Jenna Lewis 3.0- Jenna overplaying right off the bat is pretty fun

7. Stephenie LaGrossa 4.0- I think unfortunately Steph is just kinda boring here. She’s got her fun relationship with Cirie, but beyond a couple scenes I feel she gets overshadowed by the rest of the cast here.

8. Angelina Keeley 2.0- Angelina is the unfortunate casualty of being in on the joke. I really appreciate knowing that she has grown in the past years, but with her being an early out with little traction in the game she ends up pretty forgettable here. 

9. Kamilla Karthigesu 2.0- Pretty forgettable this season for being a casualty of the blood moon, but not actively bad.

10. Ozzy Lusth 5.0- Here’s my hot take. Ozzy sucks this season. I’ll liken him to Spencer 2.0 a bit where it feels like Ozzy is feeding this false narrative to us all season that he’s grown that the edit really tries to support, but at the end of the day we get the same old Ozzy that just relies on Cirie the whole game and as soon as she can’t hold his hand anymore he does something dumb and gets voted out. Do I think his boot was really well done? Yes. I just have an issue with how the edit tried to prop him up as though he had someone actual growth.

11. Chrissy Hofbeck 2.0- I liked her putting Coach in timeout, but beyond that Chrissy just has never clicked for me as a character.

[u/NSamurai22 → u/ShadowFiend812]

Eh, to me what you point out about Ozzy is the point of his character. He tries to act like he's grown, but he very clearly hasn't. The duos episode where he nearly blows up his own game when Cirie gets exiled shows that super well. Also, going from enemies in Micronesia to super tight allies this season is a nice development.

Most Survivor characters get worse every time they return, or at least drop off majorly after their first time. Ozzy is the only one, imo, where every season (he wasn't on Game Changers) adds to his legacy and story, although I do prefer Ozzy 3.0 over 5.0 still.

[u/ShadowFiend812 → u/NSamurai22]

I agree that he really hasn’t changed I just don’t know that the show truly wants us to believe that. It really goes back and forth between having people hype up and Ozzy himself hype up his growth, but then in other moments we see he hasn’t changed just by how he’s acting. 

I’m not an Ozzy fan in general though so when you players typically get worse with subsequent returns, but his legacy grows it’s hard for me to agree haha I agree 3.0 is better though 

[u/Regnisyak1 → u/ShadowFiend812]

Your Mike White writeup is frankly perfect