“Survivor 50” recap: An audacious fake idol plan is hatched
“Survivor 50” recap: An audacious fake idol plan is hatched
Dalton RossThu, March 5, 2026 at 2:30 AM UTC
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Jeff Probst and the cast of 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
How incredible was this week’s episode of Survivor 50? Well, Christian Hubicki literally s--- his pants and it was only, like, the third most interesting thing that happened… on his own tribe!
Christian is certainly not the first Survivor contestant to issue a “Code Brown” on the show, but he might be the first to do it while just standing there mid-conversation tending the fire. Usually, such situations are due to some sort of island sickness or reward feast over-indulgence after weeks of not eating normal food. Occasionally, hashtags are even issued. But Christian’s “unexpected evacuation” was so weird and out of nowhere, with the professor suddenly competing in a middle school freeze dance before excusing himself to attend to the crime scene.
The camera attempted to follow him, before he informed it that, “I promise you, you’re not going to want to see this.” I made the same mistake once when I started to follow Paloma on Survivor: Gabon with my camera before she politely informed me that she was on her way to the bathroom. (Whoopsies!)
While Christian’s underwear was the clear loser of the episode — I admit to being vaguely distracted for the next 90 minutes wondering if he just buried the soiled garment or what — the winner has to be none other than novelist Stephen Fishbach for Christian’s deep cut #gastrointestinaldistress callback. The more people that can be reminded of Fishbach’s Cambodian loose bowels the better, I say.
Christian Hubicki on 'Survivor 50'Credit: CBS
And that “dark cloud” was merely one of two incredible bookends to the second episode of Survivor 50, as Christian later ended the proceedings by hilariously performing an intentional face-plant while leaving Tribal Council. And, proving an impressive commitment to the bit, he even pretended (at least we assume pretended) to get lost on his way out of Tribal.
The reason for the ridiculous fall — in which he tripped on absolutely nothing and just kind of crumpled to the ground like Colby’s journey puzzle — was to provide a distraction for his partner in crime, Rick Devens.
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That’s because Devens had an absolutely brilliant idea. After learning of Christian’s Boomerang Idol, Rick thought it would be fun to take Christian’s packaging and make a fake idol to hide at Tribal Council, and that’s exactly what that sweet, ring-tossing, Joe-arguing, Savannah-hunting bastard did!
He used the distraction of Christian’s absurd Tribal tumble to sneak his fake idol behind one of the rocks surrounding the fire. Of course, he then almost undid the entire thing by blatantly mugging to Jeff Probst after, like “Yo, you see that, buddy?”
But can you blame him? The dude was excited! And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a little “See, Probst! You made me wait it out as an alternate until the last minute when I was going to bring HEAT all along!” behind that. Rick has more than earned his spot on season 50 with that move alone.
Rick Devens on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Gail Schulman/CBS
I wonder how Probst felt about that Tribal fake idol placement, because the host has said in the past that the reason they do not hide idols at Tribal Council (ARE YOU LISTENING, ADAM KLEIN?) is because they don’t want players tearing up the Tribal set looking for things. But if Rick later plucks something from behind that rock at the fire, are others going to start poking around looking for stuff?
However, the best part of this entire charade was not Devens hiding a fake idol at Tribal Council. Nor was it Christian making like some character in a dystopian sci-fi thriller who awakens and steps out of a cryo-chamber only to discover his legs don’t yet work again. No, the best part of this whole thing is that while Christian was telling his island bestie about his Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol, what was Rick doing? HE WAS TYING HIS TIE FOR TRIBAL COUNCIL!!!
I man, that Rick is even wearing a tie to play Survivor in the year 2025 is ridiculous, but the fact that he was like, “Oh, Tribal Council is coming up, I better put my tie on!” is, like, my favorite thing ever. Here are Christian and Rick potentially alerting the game in a way never seen before in 50 seasons, and Devens is half-distracted the entire time dealing with a pesky Windsor knot. So good.
Okay, let’s get into the other good, bad, and ugly from episode 2 of Survivor 50, and — shameless plug alert! — if you have not been voting each day, make sure to check out our big Survivor Winners bracket.
The cast of 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBSSearch and annoy
It seems as if Kyle’s (literal) pain was the RizGod’s gain, as the R-I-Z-G-O-D took the season 48 winner’s spot in the Vatu majority alliance after “course-correcting” to improve on his hyper start to the game. Although it seems the rest of the tribe wishes he was still a bit more hyper when it comes to doing work around camp.
Here’s the thing about Survivor. Every tribe dynamic is different. If one person… let’s call him B.B.… is insistent on working all the time and everyone else is annoyed by it and just wants to sit around and chill, then you gravitate towards the lazy people, since that’s where the votes are. However, if the workhorses have the power (and that seems to be the case with Colby, Stephenie, and Quintavius), then you need to step up and at least pretend to carry a few sticks around or something.
“I didn’t come to Survivor 50 to play camp,” Rizo complained. “I came to Survivor 50 to cut some throats and win some money.” Totally fair! But if you want to stick around long enough to cut those throats and win that money, then you have to take the temperature of the tribe and, yes, course-correct to enter the inner alliance sanctum. Is this also why Aubry and Angelina (dubbed a “statue” by Q) are on the outs? In the case of the latter, it can’t be helping.
Rizo Velovic and Colby Donaldson on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
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Speaking of Aubry, she was the victim of a legal bag search as Genevieve — who appeared to be having a complete moral crisis — rifled through her bag while apologizing profusely for rifling through her bag. For those new to these here parts, I have gone on record time and time again as not being a fan of bag searches. This is based not on any sort of morality or invasion of privacy. God, no! There’s no privacy on Survivor. I mean, just minutes earlier Christian was literally pooping his pants on national television, so there is truly nowhere and nothing to hide on this show.
Why I think bag searches should be illegal is because 1) You may accidentally stumble onto Christian’s soiled underwear, and 2) Survivor is better when people do not have all the information and are forced to guess. I just think there is more intrigue and likelihood of people making wrong (read: entertaining) moves based on incorrect information if they were not allowed to bag search and have the answer handed to them. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but generally, I believe keeping players in the dark and taking away their Get out of Oblivious Free card makes for better TV.
Unfortunately for Genevieve and her pals, Survivor is all about timing, and, according to the edit, they checked Aubry’s bag a day too early — before Christian had gifted her his Boomerang Idol. That brought Aubry to tears — not an uncommon sight … less common than Rizo, sure, but still, not uncommon.
I love that they showed Aubry explaining, “I have a slightly dysfunctional relationship with Survivor,” because it is such a big part of her story. (And she got into in detail about it in our emotional pre-game interview.) Anyway, let’s see what she can do now that Christian’s idol fell into her lap. Get it? Christian? Fell? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone? Okay… let’s move on.
Aubry Bracco on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Gail Schulman/CBSCoach gets an ouchie
So let’s move over to the Kalo tribe where… ACCCCCCKKKKKKKK! Oh, mommy! Jesus, everything was going fine, and then my right typing hand just cramped up and… OOOOOOOUUUUCCCHHHHHH! Dammit, now my left typing hand just cramped up as well! Old Man Ross over here is literally breaking down on the job. On the plus side, I suppose it could have been worse, as I could have pulled a Christian and defecated all over my keyboard instead. Also, it’s not like my double cramp occurred while wading out in the ocean.
What is happening to my main man Coach?!? I told you how enamored the entire cast was of him before the game, which is why I made him my pick to win it all thanks to the Cult of Coach. But then the game started and he’s got Ozzy openly questioning his honor and integrity. And now he has to be saved by Aquaman before drowning.
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While I am happy and relieved that Benjamin Wade did not just become an “ex-Coach” if you know what I’m saying, I am also super bummed this incident was captured on camera. I mean, can you imagine how epic this story would have been had cameras not been there to fact-check our favorite raconteur? He would have been fighting off sharks. Possibly piranhas as well. A Fijian native would have seen him and dove in to help, but then the native would have been attacked and Coach would have had to save him! It all would have been going down, and it would have been legendary. And as one Maxwell Scott once opined in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
The only other thing of note from Kalo was Chrissy giving Coach a leg message… as one does. I mentioned how Chrissy was one of the folks I was most excited to see play again, which is why it’s a bit disappointing that we’ve not really actually seen her play yet. And what we saw here had me concerned in terms of how much we will see of her moving forward.
Dee told us Chrissy needed to lay off the mothering and that “she can be a little too much,” which is a bit of an oxymoron, but I get what she’s trying to say. And then there was Charlie, who initially wanted to work with Chrissy but said he needed to pull back because folks on the tribe were becoming “a little miffed” at the season 35 runner-up. BOOOOOOOOOO! I’d rather have my reality TV contestants come on too strong 10 out of 10 times. More Chrissy, please.
Chrissy Hofbeck on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBSA rewarding experience
Lord knows I love me a water challenge, so it was a thrill to get to do a few of them on both seasons 49 and 50 while I was out there, including this beauty, and I’ve still got the battle scar on my left forearm to prove it.
There was only one noticeable change between the course that press and Dream Teamers ran as opposed to the actual players. It looks like they widened the top level of the tri-level balance beam to make it much easier to cross. In the run through, only two out of 12 people made it across on their first try — myself and EW’s photo director Alison Wild. (Which is why the EW team dominated the competition and won. And props to EW’s Kristen Harding for landing all three rings.)
Before I give myself too much credit for making it over so fast, bear in mind I had an epic wipeout on the platform as I made it across. That’s because I know the secret to balance beams is to go fast, not slow. So I basically committed to running across it knowing I would most likely wipe out on the landing — which I did. (The fact it was wet and slippery in rough, windy waters did not help, but let’s be honest, I probably would have crashed and burned anyway.)
Most Dream Teamers (who are young and fit) and press (granted, not so much) could not make it walking over the balance beam and had to literally crawl over on their butts at a snail’s pace. Clearly, challenge producer John Kirhoffer and his team pulled a Rizo and course-corrected (literally, in this case!) to widen the top level seeing as how the only person we saw fall here at all on the final run was Stephenie.
Savannah Louie on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
As great as this reward challenge was (the shot of Savannah diving underwater to grab the rings is about as good as it gets, and I’ve already replayed Aubry’s belly flop a million times in my mind), the real drama was before the challenge, as Coach responded to Ozzy’s claim that he was playing without honor and integrity by stealing the key he had knocked down. “I really want to get as far in this game as possible with just a shred of dignity,” he announced. “So I might blow my game up for discussing this, but I want to set the record straight about the challenge.… I’m playing this game like I always played it.”
Ozzy had the perfect mic-drop response: “Yeah, I think he is playing the game like he’s always played it. At least the last time I played it with him.”
Knowing Coach, I find it very hard to believe that he would let the conversation end on that note impugning his character. There must be more that did not make the final cut. REALEASE THE TAPES, YOU COWARDS!
Anyway, congrats to noted hoopster Rick Devens for landing all three rings and winning his Cila tribe some gear that many of them may not have even gotten the opportunity to enjoy due to an impending torch snuffing and tribe swap. Bet I bet it felt good in the moment, right?
Jonathan Young on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBSDetective Joe Hunter on the case
I’m not going to get into the b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-beautiful immunity challenge because it was basically the exact same thing they did for the first immunity challenge for season 49, only with less mud. Vatu won, Kalo got second, and Cila got last, but don’t quote me on any of that because Lord knows I do not have these tribe names memorized yet.
But assuming Cila was actually the name of the tribe that lost, that was great news for viewers, because it meant we got to eavesdrop on more super awkward conversations between Joe and Rick. Well, more like interrogations. Everything about this was positively delicious. Go back to the very origins of Savannah pitching an alliance with her, Ozzy, Rick, and Joe. Ozzy wanted no part of it because he had Cirie, and Rick wanted no part of it because he had Emily and Mr. Poopy Pants.
So then Rick went off to talk with Joe, and Savannah told him to ask Joe about being in the alliance, but of course Rick wanted no part of any of that, so he shrugged her off. Only one problem: Joe saw it happen, which led to him aggressively putting Rick (and later Savannah) on the spot like one of those police procedurals where the suspect is put in a dark room and for some completely nonsensical reason has completely waived the right to have a lawyer present while they answer rapid fire questions from a cop who doesn’t play by the rules and will do whatever it takes to get a confession.
The best part of all of this is that when Rick and Joe attempted to have a clear-the-air conversation in the wake of their first supes awkward encounter… IT GOT EVEN WORSE! “I have not stopped loving Joe as a human being,” Rick told us. “I am over it with him as a game player. You’re a Survivor player, bro. We’re allowed to lie and backstab!”
The editing kind of made it look like Rick got up and walked away mid-conversation (to go get his tie for Tribal Council, perhaps?). I don’t know if he actually did just get up and leave, but the frustration on his face every time Joe interrupted him was priceless and just might grab Screen Shot of The Week honors in the next Survivor 50 Mystery Box.
Joe Hunter on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Gail Schulman/CBS
This scene also hammers home the importance and random luck of the draw when it comes to original tribe placement. Rick got super-duper lucky to end up with Christian and Emily, while Joe got a particularly bad draw. Had he been tribed up with Colby and Steph, or Jonathan and Coach, his honor and integrity brand of play would be much more welcome, and he would have been in a great spot and would not have needed Christian to soothe his soul with a gentle hammock rocking fitting for a baby. (Although I suppose Christian was the one more in need of a diaper change at this point.)
Meanwhile, Cirie was off being a mastermind — using a subtle touch to push the vote away from her ride-or-die Ozzy and towards Savannah. “All I do is provide you with the information for you to compare the two,” she explained, “and then you come up with your decision, that may be my decision.” As if that was not enough, she also used some sort of Jedi mind trick to convince Ozzy to hand her his extra vote without even asking for it! (Granted, Ozzy is very susceptible to Jedi mind tricks. A Toydarian, he is not.)
Still, a very impressive showing from Cirie, especially when it became clear that the vote was indeed heading on Savannah. That seemed obvious once we got to hear the Survivor 49 champion’s teary Tribal Council speech about putting a wall up on her previous season and learning to be vulnerable and be herself. It was almost like she knew herself at this point which way the vote was going.
Savannah Louie on 'Survivor 50'Credit: Robert Voets/CBS
As I explained in my Survivor 50 cover story, Savannah was in trouble before the game ever started. And once she went on that Journey, her fate was sealed. The uncertainty surrounding her previous game coupled with the mystery of what sort of advantage she received after defeating Colby was too much to overcome.
Look, Survivor 49 was not a great season, but Savannah is exactly the type of player we all want to see on this show — she plays aggressively, she plays to win, she’ll ruffle (or, in Survivor parlance, rustle) some feathers. She was a worthy winner.
Personally, I would have rather seen her and Rizo come back for, say, Survivor 55 since we were just fed a heaping helping of them for five months straight before 50 even started. I think both they and we could have used a break. I also believe it would have been better for their games, although I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how Rizo does before setting that proclamation in stone.
I’ll make sure to ask Savannah if she has any regrets about going back-to-back when we chat on Thursday. Also, just a reminder to check out our fancy new Survivor HQ, filled with games, polls, videos, chats, and links to any articles you may have missed. Go have some fun over there and I’ll be back next week with another scoop of the crispy!
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