Heading into the season finale of Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans, two of the biggest threats had just been taken out in back-to-back votes. Rick Devens and Cirie Fields joined the jury just before finale night and would help decide if Aubry Bracco, Joe Hunter, Jonathan Young, Rizo Velovic, or Tiffany Ervin would be named “Sole Survivor.”
While the Rick vote was an unanimous decision, Tiffany was the only one who voted to keep Cirie in the game, leaving her on the outs and with the biggest target on her back going into the final three-hour episode. Meanwhile, Rizo had folded himself into a trust circle with Aubry, Jonathan, and Joe by voting alongside them, and still had the safety of an idol that could be played at the next tribal council.
Over the course of the night, the Final 5 competed in two Immunity Challenges paired with two Tribal Councils. At the Final 4, the fans decided that, once again, two players would battle it out for a spot in the Final 3 by making fire. In the end, three players made their pitch to a jury of 11 on how they outwitted, outlasted, and outplayed the others. Joining Rick and Cirie on the jury at the start of the episode were: Dee Valladares, Chrissy Hofbeck, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, Christian Hubicki, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Emily Flippen, and Ozzy Lusth.
Read on for our recap of Survivor Season 50, Episode 13, titled “Reverse the Curse,” which aired Wednesday, May 20 on CBS, to find out who takes home the $2 million cash prize and earns the title of “Sole Survivor.” In addition, viewers at home voted for their favorite player to take home $100,000.
“This is just one of the many flavors… right now my flavor is spicy.” — Tiffany Ervin
Having been left out of the vote for Cirie and knowing that she was the original plan, Tiffany was not open to hearing from the others about the path forward. It was public knowledge that if she hadn’t won immunity that she would have went home instead of Cirie and so Tiffany’s only chance of remaining in the game at this point would be to continue to win her safety, not through deal-making or being chummy with the other players. For Rizo, Jonathan and Joe, their own worst case scenario was that if Tiffany were to win immunity then they’d go for Aubry instead since she’s the only multi-returning player left among them; a stat that Aubry herself was also hyper-aware of.
At the day 24 Immunity Challenge, a highly physical obstacle course that finished with a puzzle, Jonathan started with an impressive lead, but he struggled with the puzzle and an upset stomach, weakening his frontrunner position. Ultimately, he held on by literally just one piece to best Tiffany, the closest to beating him, and the other three to secure his safety through to the final four.
Prior to Tribal Council, Rizo shot it straight with Tiffany that there was nothing she could say to persuade him to keep her, so she focused her attention on convincing Jonathan and Joe to vote out Aubry instead. Her angle was to talk up how Aubry was “robbed” on her previous seasons and that she has longtime friends on the jury that are ready to anoint her a winner. With Jonathan specifically, she touched on his past of losing at final four fire-making by promising to him that if it was her choice she would not put him in the fire challenge. Her efforts didn’t pan out and after she got everything off her chest in front of Jeff and the jury before the vote, the other four all kept to the plan to send Tiffany to the jury next. Rizo played his idol, but to no effect as Tiffany’s vote went for Aubry as expected.
“I don’t think that anyone deserves anything in Survivor; I believe that you earn it and you have a little bit of luck.” — Aubry Bracco
The next morning, the biggest question at camp for the remaining four was whether or not the fans voted for the now standard fire-making challenge or not. Among them, both Jonathan and Rizo lost at fire while Aubry won it once, even if she underscored to everyone that it took her an hour to accomplish. Aubry’s personal focus was on winning a “do or die” Immunity Challenge that, if she were to win, would be only her second ever across all four of her seasons. At that challenge on day 25, they learned that the winner of the iconic “Simmotion” contraption (voted for by 41% of the fans) would earn safety and the decision on which of the four also joins them at the Final Tribal Council while the other two would compete in fire (voted for by 60% of the fans). Aubry won the challenge, leaving her with one of the biggest decisions of the season.
For her choice, Aubry’s perspective was that she wanted her own underdog story to be the one highlighted in front of the jury and so that meant trying to get Rizo out in fire. Because he was back in the Final 4 for the second straight season, it could be seen as an impressive feat to the jury that would undermine her own comeback. For that reason, she saw Jonathan as the most capable of getting the job done and so she committed to Joe that she’d bring him with her to the FTC and let Rizo and Jonathan know that they’d face off. Both of them practiced all afternoon and after some pointers from Joe, Rizo was able to strike a spark as quickly as Jonathan, setting up a potential showdown to “reverse the curse” for one of the two fire-making losers.
In front of the jury, both Jonathan and Rizo referred to the fire-making showdown as their redemption story, emphasized by Jeff that one of them would “die again in the same way.” Despite his successful practices earlier in the day, Rizo failed to get a lasting spark compared to Jonathan who was able to build his first flame into a fire that burned through the rope to secure his spot in the Final 3 and placing Rizo on the jury as the 11th and final member.
“I need it to be a bloodbath just like it’s been all season long.” — Rizo Velovic
On the last morning, the finalists were greeted with breakfast by Aubry’s mom, Joe’s wife, and Jonathan’s brother. Being with the people that have seen them at their best and their worst revitalized their outlooks as they prepared their presentations for the jury. Cirie and Ozzy were already looking at Aubry as someone that has played “hopscotch” across alliances by shifting the target away from her “time and time again.” Chrissy and Rizo considered Jonathan as the strongest strategic player, noting that from their perspective he was responsible for a lot of the moves made to put people on the jury. Emily and Coach saw Joe as the one that reinterpreted his style of play and clocked that most, if not all, of the post-merge votes went through Joe before they would get confirmed. Tiffany and Dee wanted them to be honest and “own up to it,” Devens and Stephenie wanted them to fight for it, and Christian was looking for the best storyteller.
Coach started the Final Tribal Council off by offering Joe a layup question about the comprise of a core value from back home that they each made in order to succeed in the game; Joe admitted to lying in contradiction to his honorable mission, Aubry put aside the fear of hurting people, and Jonathan explained playing a different game with each individual in order to leverage the relationship.
When Devens asked about secrets, Jonathan owned up to allowing Stephenie to “fall on the sword” of the lie that she started the coup against Ozzy when it was actually him. Chrissy went to bat for Jonathan by giving kudos to his improved social game that Stephenie even allowed him to do that instead of outing him. Aubry spoke to finding “currency in the game” by sharing secrets selectively in order to get in with whichever side of the alliances she needed support from, setting up the fight between her and Jonathan over who was truly responsible for the Ozzy vote. Joe told Tiffany that it was Aubry’s sharing of information that ultimately helped him decide to vote against Ozzy.
“Jonathan and Joe, you both said so many times ‘get out the middle’… and here you are on either side of the middle.” — Ozzy Lusth
Stephenie pitched in Jonathan’s favor because of how he bridged “old school and new era” by playing with an “old school heart” through his survival skills and busyness around camp. Tiffany and Dee didn’t care much for Stephenie’s approach and so Cirie stepped in on Aubry’s behalf to point out that her jumping between alliances was her reversal of her old school way in order to play more new era by remaining “fluid and flexible.”
Joe looked for his strongest moment in response to Ozzy’s question about adaptation, pointing out again how he adjusted his own approach in order to match the level of play the others brought, but Cirie swat him down by referencing the “Joe-tation” they used whenever they had to “babysit” him through a vote because of the difficulty to get him to stay firm on a decision. Chrissy applauded him for not always changing to the consensus and Emily gave him credit for the reality that “every single vote was run through” him and that “there’s power in that.”
Ozzy defended Aubry’s adaptation of playing from the middle when Jonathan questioned it by pointing out that even though he and Joe spent so much time talking about getting out the middle players, they still ended up at the end literally sitting on opposite ends of Aubry. Jonathan said that his own adaptation was blindsiding so many people this time when that’s now how he played originally.
Emily asked for a bit of self-awareness from the finalists; Aubry critiqued her inability to connect with Stephenie and Joe spoke to his arguments with Devens that made him “look like a bonehead.” Jonathan snuck in that he takes ownership over the blindsides on Ozzy, Kamilla, and Dee. Christian closed it out by offering them each to speak to their legacy; Joe wants his to be a showing of vulnerability, Aubry wants hers to be perseverance regardless of who you are, and Jonathan wants his to be the “homework” he put in to improve his game.
“You guys friggin’ slayed.” — Coach Wade
At the voting booth after the FTC, we got to see Cirie and Ozzy vote for Aubry, and Stephenie and Chrissy cast ballots for Jonathan while none appeared for Joe. The rest of the results were revealed live from Los Angeles at the reunion for a majority 8-3 decision that Aubry Bracco is the winner of Season 50! Later, she was also gifted a new car from Toyota (an attempt to break the “car curse” by giving it to the winner after they won) and Cirie was awarded the Sia Prize of $100,000 as voted on by the fans.
Earlier segments from the live reunion aired in bits throughout the night and included Cirie receiving a one-time “Spirit of Survivor Award” for her 20 years of inspirational contributions to the series, Devens being gifted the coin he flipped to change the prize purse from one to two million, Mike White via satellite from the White Lotus set with the announcement that Charlie Davis and Kamilla Karthigesu will cameo in Season 4, the gift of an “Ozzy We Love You Please Play the Idol” t-shirt for Ozzy, and even Jeff spoiling the result of the fire-making challenge by announcing Rizo as the final member of the jury before the challenge aired within the episode.
