‘Survivor 49’ Recap: Why Jeff Probst ‘Panicked’ Over Fake Idol Trick — Who Was Voted Out?

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Survivor Season 49 Episode 10, “Huge Dose of Bamboozle.”]

A fake idol, an extra vote, and a stolen torch defined Survivor 49 Episode 10’s Tribal Council. The episode packed an emotional punch in the beginning, when Kristina broke down in grief over her late mother and pulled out an impressive challenge comeback in her memory, with the help of Savannah and Jeff Probst. A blunt question in conversation with Savannah and Kristina shook things up later on, but the former news anchor proved that her direct style of playing is a successful strategy. An idol was played to protect Savannah, but it was all for show. She used her alliances and her extra vote to snuff out her competition and stage a blindside. Probst reacted to Rizo’s fake idol move on the On Fire podcast (listen to it in full below).

Rizo made a speech at Probst’s podium as he announced that he was playing his immunity idol at last. Players have failed to flush out his idol in the last three episodes because they were somehow convinced by Rizo himself not to try and get him out (last week’s castoff, Alex Moore, thinks everyone is scared to challenge him and Savannah). Rizo baited everyone into thinking he was finally going to play the idol in Episode 10.

“All right, so I feel like a lot has happened, and I feel like this vote is truly going to show who’s with me or who’s not, and I have to do what’s best to protect myself in this game. For that very reason, I’m playing it for Savannah,” Rizo declared.

“This is… not a hidden immunity idol,” Probst replied, to the shock of everyone. This came right after Kristina played her real immunity idol to protect Steven. Her move ended up being for nothing, as Steven didn’t get a single vote. She and Steven didn’t even vote for the same people, despite working closely together.

The votes were split between Savannah, Jawan, and Rizo. Kristina cast Rizo’s singular vote, and Jawan and Sage had orchestrated the three votes on Savannah. It would have led to a tie between Savannah and Jawan had Savannah not deployed her extra vote acquired in Episode 8. Savannah made the smart move to inform Sophie S. of her advantage. The two have been at bitter odds for the last few episodes, but Savannah recognized Sophie’s strong game and identified her as someone playing both sides who could be swayed. She was right. Savannah’s extra vote was enticing enough for Sophie to side with Savannah, Sophi B., and Rizo to blindside Jawan. They wanted the Jawan-Sage alliance broken, and they used Savannah’s extra vote to do it.

Sage, Jawan, and Steven voted for Savannah, Kristina voted for Rizo, and Rizo, Savannah, Sophie, and Sophi voted for Jawan, making him the fourth member of the jury (and, unfortunately, the fourth consecutive Black player voted out — something MC warned against before she was eliminated). Jawan’s blindside was the climactic scene of the Jawan-Savannah rivalry. They’ve oscillated between reluctant allies on Uli to enemies on the merged tribe. It was only a matter of time before they came for each other in Tribal Council. Jawan (and Sage, who was more blindsided than him, it seems) just didn’t know that Savannah had the upper hand.

Probst said even he was thrilled and surprised by Rizo’s fake idol during filming, and he admits he felt “slightly panicked” as Rizo came up to play it.

“You’ve got to remember in that moment, I don’t have any idea what Rizo’s going to do,” Probst said on On Fire. “I don’t know what he’s going to present to me or for whom he might play whatever he presents to me. And our idols today are so basic that it is very easy to fake one, and that’s by design. That’s why we make them basic so that players can create fake ones. And then it becomes about your ability to persuade.”

Robert Voets/CBS

“So I am slightly panicked, going, ‘I want to see in his hand.’ I’m looking for a clue. ‘What’s in his hand? Is that the real idol or is this a fake one? I don’t know.’ And it’s not like there is any clue on the idol. I have to know exactly what the idol looks like, and that’s not quite as easy as you think it should be, but it’s electrifying for me because I am very much alive, going, ‘Rizo, can you at least just open your palm a little so I can get a peek at what you got going on in there?'”

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On Fire co-hosts Jeremy Collins (Survivor: Cambodia winner) and Jay Wolff questioned the strategy.

“He definitely was showing off, which is good. You want to show for the jury, but I just didn’t see where it would matter unless if Rizo and Savannah talked about this and said, ‘I’m going to play the idol, a fake idol, and I want to see if you could see everybody’s reaction.”

Probst said that was the motivation by replying, “Yeah, there you go.”

“If that’s the case, I’m like, that’s great strategy, great gamesmanship,” Collins continued. “I thought that was wonderful. I will say, Survivor‘s a rollercoaster. It’s ups and downs so much every day, every hour. And Rizo right now is riding high. He seems so confident and sure of himself, and to m,e it’s scary how comfortable he is out there. You guys talked about it, how Rizo said this is where the game is won and lost, and stuff. But I’ve been there where I was really confident, and then I went home. So I’m hoping Rizo chills out because that’s going to be a deep dip riding so high right now on that rollercoaster.”

Collins and Wolff agreed that Rizo needs to play his idol ASAP. “He can’t keep it after this,” Wolff said.

After accidentally using Savannah’s things at camp throughout the season, Jawan accidentally took Rizo’s torch for his “the tribe has spoken” moment. Probst addressed this on the podcast.

“I know the question is, so what happens? In this case, we gave Rizo back his torch,” Probst shared. “But what I think is interesting is the mojo of Survivor, to Jeremy’s idea, this deep dip, is that a foreshadowing of what’s to come?”

Find out next week. And stay tuned on Monday for our exit interview with Jawan.

Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS