Heading into the 10th episode of Survivor 50, Christian Hubicki had just voted in the majority to send himself (thanks Jimmy Fallon!) to the jury. Cirie Fields and Jonathan Young pounced on the opportunity to make it happen in a split vote they structured in a way that Rick Devens would be the “Plan B.” Devens and Emily Flippen were the only players left out of the plan, both having cast a vote for Emily’s one-time ally Ozzy Lusth instead.
This week, the final 10 bond over small moments of comfort bought during the Survivor Auction only to be “rewarded” with chaos and fear when MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) drops by to tease his new Super Beware Advantage that raises the stakes to new heights. Read on for our recap of Survivor Season 50, Episode 10, titled “A Side Dish of Chaos,” which aired Wednesday, April 29 on CBS, to find out what goes down in the super-sized two-hour episode.
The 10 players still in the game at the start of the episode were: Aubry Bracco, Cirie Fields, Emily Flippen, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, Ozzy Lusth, Rick Devens, Rizo “Rizgod” Velovic, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, and Tiffany Ervin. And on the jury is: Dee Valladares, Chrissy Hofbeck, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, and Christian Hubicki.
“This is gonna cause me to poop my brains out later.” — Emily Flippen
Falling on the wrong side of the Night 18 vote, Devens and Emily were in need of a recalibration. Emily had to make amends with Ozzy, who thought he was in a Day 1 alliance with her, and Devens had to explain the myth of his (fake) idol after not playing it despite telling everyone he would. While Emily was interested in finding out how to slip back into the tribe, Devens was more focused on the chaos he could create in order to make things fun. By admitting to his fake idol, Devens thought it would convince the group that he’s at the bottom and not as dangerous, but it only served to piss Joe off and want to get him out even more.
On Day 19, Jeff Probst invited the players to the Survivor Auction to bet against each other on items that would either provide “comfort, chaos, or both” to the biggest payee. Over the course of the afternoon, the comfort items includes fries and onion rings purchased by Devens for $160, a milkshake bought by Emily for $100, a snack tray won by Jonathan for $80, a blanket and toothpaste purchased by Cirie for a total of $200, a grilled cheese sandwich bought by Stephenie for $260, and letters from home for $20 each. Chaos found its way to Aubry who had to finish two grubs in order for her and Rizo to enjoy the cookies and milk she bought for $280, Jonathan who had to eat a boiled sea slug in order for Ozzy to get a fried chicken plate that Jonathan bought for $320, and in the form of a “Super Beware Advantage” box carried in by MrBeast and teased to not be disclosed until that night at Tribal Council.
“I feel like I’m in the middle of the camp, someone threw a grenade, and plans are flying everywhere.” — Aubry Bracco
From the auction, the players went straight into their next Immunity Challenge where they fought to be the last one standing in a balance-based endurance challenge. Tiffany outlasted Ozzy in order to win the challenge, securing herself a spot in the top nine and a longer stay in the game than she had in her original season.
Afterward, when the players were reading through their letters from home, Aubry reflected on her first season (that she still thinks she should have won) to consider that Michele got votes from the jury because she made her big moves at the end of the game. In that spirit, she approached her newest allies Jonathan and Stephenie with an objective to go for someone bigger than the easy Devens vote. Jonathan was most threatened by Ozzy because he was “playing with his brain, not his brawn” this time and that made him a new kind of threat. To get numbers on his side, he told Stephenie that Ozzy is putting her name on the chopping block, pulled in Devens as a willing “smoke screen,” and coordinated with Joe to see him as an equal threat.
Stephenie knew that Cirie and Ozzy are close and so she wanted to avoid letting her in on the plan, but she wasn’t aware that Joe had already informed Cirie. Stephenie’s inability to “make direct eye contact” with Cirie was an alert to Cirie that Stephenie was definitely in on the plan. To protect Ozzy, she developed a different plan with him to leverage their Extra Vote advantage in order to vote Stephenie out instead. Eventually Ozzy’s plan got back to Stephenie through Jonathan and so she had to decide whether she’d use her Steal a Vote advantage to protect herself and then the rest of the afternoon descended into the chaos of literally everyone’s name being thrown out as a potential plan B.
“It’s a story that some people might not want to hear followed by a pitch.” — Rick Devens
After an afternoon of too much information sharing, Jeff wanted to hear from everyone at Tribal Council about the “fear” that the Super Beware Advantage brought to the game. Once Stephenie referenced a “simple plan,” Devens spoke openly about how Stephenie and Jonathan initiated a “big move” against Ozzy only to later switch it to Cirie or Rizo using Stephenie’s Steal a Vote to do it. His pitch was directed at Cirie, Ozzy, Rizo, Tiffany and Emily to use their numbers advantage to go after Jonathan, Stephenie or Joe. Once accusations and denials started flying across the group, Jeff referred to it as the “single most fascinating” Tribal Council he’d ever seen simply because of how the unknown factor of MrBeast’s twists challenged the way the players were thinking about the vote.
Eventually MrBeast joined Jeff at his podium to reveal that the Super Beware Advantage was a gold coin that they flipped for one of two outcomes: safety for the player the flips it and a doubling of the prize money for the season to $2 million or the player that flips the coin will go home instead of there being a vote. Prior to a possible vote, the group had to decide on one person to volunteer to flip the coin or they’d all have to draw rocks. Jeff and MrBeast were surprised to learn that Devens immediately volunteered himself to flip the “life or death coin” and that no one else was willing to challenge him for the opportunity.
Understanding fully the personal stakes for his flip, Devens made his call of heads and then won his safety when it landed on his call that doubled the winner’s prize pot. Quickly the tribal turned “live” and names started flying again; Aubry, Emily and Stephenie all circled as targets and Stephenie wanted opinions on whether she should use the Steal a Vote. Before the votes were cast, Stephenie stole a vote from Devens to cast two of her own but it couldn’t change the 8-2 unanimous decision against her that saw Stephenie pack her things and join the jury.
Next time on Survivor…
The “biggest moment in the game” approaches as idol play hangs in the balance and $2 million is at stake.
