Heading into the 12th episode of Survivor 50, Ozzy Lusth had just been voted out with an idol in his pocket for the second time in his Survivor history. Emily Flippen was also voted out in the first of two Tribal Councils that featured two separate voting groups of four with Jonathan Young, the Immunity Challenge winner, participating in both. Because Cirie Fields used her Extra Vote and Rick Devens used his idol, the only advantage left in play after the double elimination was Rizo Velovic’s idol.
This week, the threat of Rizo’s idol and thoughts about who the ideal players are to sit next to at the end inform the decisions that the Final 7 and then Final 6 make at two different Tribal Councils where two more players are voted out of the game. Read on for our recap of Survivor Season 50, Episode 12, titled “Inconceivable,” which aired Wednesday, May 13 on CBS, to find out which players make it to the Final 5.
The seven players still in the game at the start of the episode were: Aubry Bracco, Cirie Fields, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, Rick Devens, Rizo “Rizgod” Velovic, and Tiffany Ervin. And on the jury is: Dee Valladares, Chrissy Hofbeck, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, Christian Hubicki, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Emily Flippen, and Ozzy Lusth.
“I thought you had like two brain cells to rub together or I wouldn’t have been working with you.” — Cirie Fields
News of Ozzy’s elimination once the second group returned to camp came as a shock to Cirie, but once Rizo explained to her that Ozzy had exposed his entire game plan in public she was just as relieved to see him gone as everyone else. In fact, Cirie was disappointed that she had ever tied her own game to his given how capable he was of blowing it up so quickly. Jonathan was ready to take credit for the blindside, but Aubry felt like it was her big move because she’s the one that took the plan to Rizo and Joe and convinced them that it was the time to get Ozzy out.
Because Devens played his idol, the expectation was that it would be put back in the game the next morning. While Jonathan was determined to not let Devens find it, the rest of the players were just happy to see that Devens was “public enemy number one” which meant that each of them wasn’t. Coming up short in the search, Devens decided that he’d have to focus on winning the Immunity Challenge instead.
For the day 22 challenge, the final seven had to balance a wobbly table while stacking a tower of eight blocks in the hopes of earning safety from the vote and a barbecue lunch reward. Aubry and Tiffany had the strongest starts in the challenge, but they both dropped their initial stacks with only one block to go. Joe kept a very slow but steady pace that kept him just far enough ahead of the others to win his second individual immunity of the season. For the reward, Joe chose Cirie and Rizo to join him at the lunch.
“How long we gonna let this man slide through with his idol?” — Tiffany Ervin
Joe’s strategic decision to bring Cirie and Rizo on the reward with him paid off because they were very open with him about their objective to target Devens for the next vote. Cirie called it “straightforward” to go with Devens, prompting Rizo to consider if he could possibly keep his idol safe through one more tribal. Meanwhile, the four that were not chowing down on ribs were frustrated that Rizo was offered food again (according to Tiffany he “wasted” chicken during the auction) and that he still had an idol to safeguard his spot. Tiffany’s plan to use Devens “as a smokescreen” so that they could vote against Rizo instead sounded good to Devens and Jonathan, but Aubry clocked that if Rizo was annoying everyone else then he might just be the best person to sit next to at the end.
At the first Tribal Council, Tiffany argued against the consensus that Devens was an easy vote which underscored for Rizo that he was a possibility to be voted out as well. Despite Tiffany’s best attempt, Rizo was not convinced he had to use his idol and Devens made his last ditch chance to save himself with the Shot in the Dark. In the random draw, Devens was not safe and so he was unanimously voted out in a 6-0 decision.
“Right now the Rizgod is being a Rizrat; I’m going around and telling everybody’s secrets.” — Rizo Velovic
The next morning, Tiffany was disappointed that the group didn’t listen to her that they could have gotten Rizo out with the idol in his pocket and was convinced that he’d be cocky enough to do it again. Aubry still believed that she wanted to go to the end with Rizo and that Tiffany was a bigger jury threat and so she eyed convincing Jonathan and Joe to believe the same. Jonathan did Aubry’s dirty work for him by going straight to Rizo to let him know that Tiffany was coming for him.
For the day 23 challenge, the final six competed in an obstacle course featuring a netted teeter, a disc release puzzle, a balance beam, and an arched word scramble puzzle. Cirie was the last to reach the puzzle stage, but eventually all of them were at that same point with an equal chance of winning. Joe and Jonathan were the first to correctly determine the word was “Inconceivable,” but it was only correct on one of the two sides of the puzzle. Due to their error, Tiffany managed to finish first with the correct placement and guaranteed herself a spot in the final five with her third individual immunity win.
“Cirie is brilliant. I’ve never witnessed a human being manipulate a room so gracefully as her that it even twists my own mind.” — Joe Hunter
No one was more annoyed at Tiffany’s win than Aubry because she stepped away from her own puzzle to help Joe and Jonathan beat her only to fall just short of beating Tiffany herself. After a pow-wow with Rizo where he told her he’d be playing his idol, Aubry decided that now was the time she’d have to get the others to target Cirie, knowing that none of them would beat her in front of the jury. Rizo considered the concept of voting Cirie out “genuinely heartbreaking” because of how close they worked the whole season, but he was just as on board with voting her out as everyone else.
With Tiffany safe and the threat of Rizo’s idol, Cirie knew that her “goose was cooked” because she was the obvious threat from everyone else’s perspective. Cirie was able to get Tiffany on her side to vote against Aubry instead, but she needed more votes in order to make it happen. To do that, Cirie framed Aubry as the one to tell Cirie about the Tiffany vote (it was Rizo that told her), but Aubry denied that to Joe which made it a vote of trust between Aubry and Cirie. Once Rizo found out about Cirie’s ploy, he couldn’t admit to it being him but he also wanted to keep Joe and Jonathan focused on taking Cirie out.
At the second Tribal Council, Rizo reiterated his perspective that now was the time to “swing for the fences” because making the final six is just as good as any other losing position when the goal is to win. He also admitted that it wasn’t a “consensus” vote like in the past and Aubry said the tension level was 99 out of 100. With both Aubry and Cirie on the chopping block and “haunted” by their history of making it far in the game but never winning, only one of them could continue on. By a vote of 4-2, it was Cirie who was eliminated with Aubry declaring at the voting booth, “You’re the best Survivor player of all time. You’re better than Sandra. You’re better than Tony.”
As her torch was snuffed, Cirie offered parting words: “Well, Jeff, can I just say? Thank you, Jeff, for some of the best years of my life. I am forever grateful for what Survivor has done for me. I don’t even have the words to express how grateful and thankful I am for finding out that there’s so much more to life than what I knew from sitting on my couch and watching TV.”
Next time on Survivor…
May 20 on CBS, either Aubry Bracco, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, Rizo Velovic, or Tiffany Ervin will become the $2 million winner in the Survivor 50 finale.
