Survivor finds its groove through a chaotic two episodes

The most-watched Emmy-nominated series of 2025 is back with its 49th season and is just getting started after a pair of diabolically entertaining episodes. The season premiere of Survivor took place on Sept. 24 and will continue to release episodes every Wednesday until the two-part finale on Dec. 17. Episodes three and four were released each Wednesday over the past two weeks with plenty of chaos to celebrate. If you missed episodes one and two, get up to date here.

What You Need To Know

At the beginning of the third episode, the Kele tribe was already the victim of two straight trips to Tribal Council and things were about to go from bad to a complete nightmare.

Jake Latimer, aka the Shoe Bandit, was sitting by the beach when all of a sudden he felt something on his heel. The Correctional Officer from Alberta was bitten by a highly venomous sea krait. Despite the scare, Jake on-site doctors determined it was a “dry bite,” meaning no venom was injected into his system. Because of this entire situation, Jake was forced to leave the game as his safety and recovery were much more important than playing Survivor in the eyes of Jake and the doctors. The great news is that Jake has recovered perfectly and even made it back home for the birth of his son.

The sea krait nightmare left the Kele tribe with just three members (the other two tribes had six members each). It doesn’t take much Survivor knowledge to recognize how big of a disadvantage Kele had in comparison to Hina and Uli. Kele hadn’t earned a single reward, had just lost their physically strongest player and didn’t get the opportunity to make a fire. The immunity/reward challenge went exactly how you would expect: Kele lost by a mile. This sent Alex, Sophi and Jeremiah to a historic tribal where Alex would play his idol, sending Jeremiah home. Alex and Sophi were the final members standing of this disaster of a tribe.

At the start of episode four, a tribe swap was announced, dissolving the Uli tribe and leaving just the Hina and Kele tribes. After the swap, the Hina tribe was made up of two former Hina members (Jason and Matt), four former Uli members (Rizo, Savannah, Nate, and Jawan) and one former Kele member (Sophi). The Kele tribe was made up of four former Hina members (MC, Kristina, Sophie, and Steven), two former Uli members (Sage and Shannon) and one former Kele member (Alex) on the new look Kele tribe.

For the first time in Survivor 49, the Kele tribe won an immunity challenge! This sent the Hina tribe and everyone but Sophi to their first Tribal Council. With the former Uli members holding the majority and Sophi joining their cause, the decision was between Jason and Matt. Jason held strong to his “Hina-strong” mentality and refuse to work with anyone on his new tribe (besides Matt). Matt attempted to throw Nate under the bus by tossing his name out to his new tribemates as a target which only turned attention back to himself. Matt became the fifth person voted out of Survivor 49 by a unanimous vote.

Who You Need To Know

Alex Moore shone throughout these two episodes as someone who has the potential to outlast everyone else on the cast. The Political Comms Director found a way to survive a disaster tribe as well as find himself in the PERFECT spot on the new Kele tribe, where he can play the middle in whatever way he may want. Keep your eye out for what Alex will do throughout these next couple of episodes pre-merge.

The Kele tribe also has a developing rivalry between Sage and Shannon. When being placed on a new tribe filled with new people, Shannon decided to proudly use her faith as a way to find things in common with her new tribemates. Sage immediately clocked Shannon and her gameplay, setting up a fun storyline moving forward. The two women are from two fairly different walks of life and Sage is almost incapable of hiding her true feelings, which will probably lead to some extremely entertaining moments down the road. 

My Current Pick To Win

Two weeks ago, my pick to win was 31-year old Savannah Louie. While I still have high hopes in the way that Savannah plays the game, I think that her winner’s edit may be a bit too obvious. Survivor loves to trick audiences with the way that they edit certain storylines and I believe that Savannah may be the latest victim of a “fake-out winners” edit. Through four episodes, the former reporter was almost invincible and the potential mastermind of the Uli (and now Hina) tribe. With rumours surrounding her potential casting on all-returner season 50, Savannah winning this season of Survivor seems just too good to be true.

My current pick to win is 27-year old Entrepreneur and Miami native Sophi Balerdi. Sophi has all of the attributes to be the winner of this season. She has arguably the best storyline of the season being the only cast member to participate in each tribal council so far. She has a strong relationship with the Uli tribe members now on the new look Hina tribe post tribe swap. With being a part of one of the biggest “disaster tribes” in Survivor history, Sophi is set up to play the middle-woman in the post-merge section of the game. 

Things are only going to get crazier as we rapidly approach the merge. You can catch the next episode of Survivor Season 49 on Wednesday, Oct. 22nd, at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS or the next day on Paramount+.