“Disaster tribes” are frequently forming in the new era of Survivor. The 26-day format features three tribes of six castaways, and for several seasons since 41, viewers have seen one tribe struggle more than others in the game’s early days. Disaster tribes have a string of rotten luck, consistently lose challenges, and go to Tribal Council more than anyone else. Kele is Survivor 49‘s disaster tribe. While they had some physical strength, puzzles were their Achilles heel. They lost two players in one go in Episode 3, when Jake Latimer was bitten by a snake and taken out of the game, and then Jeremiah Ing was voted out in Tribal Council after Alex Moore played his immunity idol. (Read our Episode 3 recap here.) How Kele found out that Jake was sent home was one of the more shocking moments in an episode full of firsts.
Jake was bitten by a sea krait, a snake with venom that’s 10 times more dangerous than a rattlesnake. Thankfully, it was a dry bite, meaning no venom was delivered when the snake chomped on the bottom of Jake’s right foot (the shoe bandit should’ve kept his shoes on!). Given the intense physical and emotional ordeal, which required Jake to be rushed to the hospital set up on Survivor‘s base camp on Mana Island, the doctors refused to let the expectant father return to the game. Jake’s disappointing end was made better by the fact that he didn’t miss the birth of his first child.
Kele’s three remaining members, Jeremiah, Alex, and Sophi, were informed of Jake’s removal in front of all of the other players. Jeff Probst broke the news right before the immunity challenge. The host usually drops this bombshell information on a tribe at their camp, not in front of their competitors. There was hardly any time to process it before the challenge began. Despite what viewers may think, Jeremiah doesn’t believe this public update had any impact on their challenge performance.
This was the first time in the show’s history that a player was bitten by this highly venomous snake. It was also the first time the Survivor guidebook given to each team was revealed to viewers. Alex showed this wilderness guide on camera as Jake was assessed by doctors. The book details what foods are safe to eat on the island, as well as what animals to avoid. The sea krait is known among the cast and crew as the Big Bad creature to avoid at all costs. Even though dry bites are more common from these snakes, you don’t want to risk a lethal venomous bite. Jake’s treatment also gave viewers a look at the base camp hospital for the first time.
Here, Jeremiah breaks down the eventful episode, sharing details about what players can and can’t do with that book and more.
Congratulations on getting onto Survivor. I know it’s a disappointing end for you, but it was still really fun to watch you play, and I thought that you were a really entertaining player.
Jeremiah Ing: Thank you. I’m just so honored that I even got to play Survivor. I’m from Canada, and [there have] been a dozen [Canadian] Survivor players. I’ve been a fan of the show for 24 years, so to actually get on the show was so surreal to me. I’m just overall so thankful.
Even if you are just there for a couple of days, it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Absolutely. And I had fun doing it, so I’m glad that you thought that I was entertaining.
Your laugh alone was just so joyous. Did watching the episode change your understanding of how you got voted out?
Not at all. There’s nowhere to hide when there are three people who have been working together. I had a really strong relationship with Sophi, and there was a moment when I knew that she had flipped on me because she had asked me what Alex said to me when we were having a conversation. And so in my mind, Sophi was voting for me. I was voting for Alex, and Alex was voting for Sophi, and then it would be a tie. I didn’t play my Shot in the Dark because if they both voted for each other, then I wouldn’t have a vote, and then I would’ve [gone] home. So there are no surprises. Sophi had to throw me under the bus. I needed to throw Sophi under the bus. The only thing that I’d be surprised about was that Alex used his idol because he was dangling that idol in front of both of us. To me, it felt like he was so confident and was not going to play his idol.
It felt like a bluff.
It felt like a bluff. And when I feel like somebody’s bluffing, I have to prove them wrong. Unfortunately, I’m the end result of it. And he used his idol.
There were only three of you, so I think it would’ve been unwise for him not to use it just in case. We all saw Season 46. [Survivor 46 set a record for the most players sent home with immunity idols in their pockets.]
It’s true. He was really hemming and hawing, and I think Sophi and I did a really good job at kind of confusing him. I knew Sophi was going to go really hard on him with strategy, talking stuff. My whole thing with Alex was to be consistent. We connected on a friendship level, and I just continued to remain consistent to my strategy, and I didn’t want to scramble at the end.
What was the plan in the event of a tie?
A three-way tie? We would’ve all had to revote, and then I would’ve voted for Alex. I would’ve hoped Sophi would’ve voted for Alex, and then Alex would go home.
Talking about Jake’s snake bite, did you see what happened leading up to it? I was really surprised that it was so quiet.
Alex and I were in the shelter that Annie [Davis] had built all by herself, as I was looking for coconuts. I was taking a nap. Sophi was out for a walk, and then I just heard Jake say, “Guys, come down here.” So Alex and I ran down. I was like half asleep. And then he said that he thought that he had been bitten by a snake, and then when he flipped over his foot, we could see the bite marks. But at that point, I don’t know if I’m just kind of a happy-go-lucky type of person, and I’m just kind of like, “Oh, he’s going to come back because he’s fine.” And then I think Sophi in the shelter was like, “He got bit on his foot. How’s he going to compete?” And then Alex was like, “That’s a very venomous snake.” And so we found out that Jake was eliminated from the game on as we’re going to go compete in the next challenge. And so as a competitor, I don’t care if you’re against somebody, it’s just one of those things that you just don’t want something to happen to somebody. We’re playing a game. There’s a difference when it becomes life-threatening.
You found out that Jake had been taken out of the game in front of everybody else. Do you wish you had had a private moment to learn that information from Jeff?
I don’t know. I’m so logical. It would’ve been the same outcome. We did kind of hug each other. Maybe it’s good that we didn’t have a little bit of time. We could have been like, “This sucks. How come everything bad is happening to us?” We had to put the news that was just told to us in the back of our minds and go perform. So maybe it worked to our advantage because we wanted to push for Jake.
From a viewer’s experience, it seemed to me like that is a really destabilizing piece of information to learn right before doing a challenge. I’m like, “Well, did this affect their challenge performance?” But it seems like you don’t think that.
No. You guys all saw how bad we were at puzzles. Puzzles for us were a brick wall, and us trying to get through it with our hands. We just couldn’t do puzzles. I don’t know if it was from the lack of food, the lack of sleep, no food, but we just couldn’t do puzzles for the life of us. I don’t know if it’s like Jason [Kreul] coming in as an alternate, and [Hina] became super, super strong. I don’t know what other people’s strengths were, but we just weren’t good at puzzles. And unfortunately, when you play Survivor, you’re playing a game. And those were the cards that I was dealt, and I wouldn’t have changed it because I’m so happy that I got to play.
Robert Voets / CBS
The rule book was shown for the first time on camera in last night’s episode. Every Survivor player and crew member knows about the existence of this book. But it’s something that fans don’t know about. They especially don’t know how huge a piece of the day-to-day life at camp it is. Can you give a sense of how often this book is used and how players might incorporate it into their gameplay?
I don’t think they incorporate well for gameplay. I was constantly referencing it for food, so that I would go and look for foods that I could actually eat. And that’s where I saw that earthworms were a high source of protein. And so that’s why I went to go dig for worms for hours and hours because I couldn’t find any other protein. I think we use it as a reference. I don’t even think everyone read it, but it’s just kind of a good thing to have on hand so that we can check. There’s a lot of fish in there that you can’t eat, too. We just didn’t have anything to eat or to make fire, so we couldn’t eat, so we weren’t referencing it.
It’s a wilderness guide, basically.
It’s true. Yeah.
At camp, did you ever say, “I’m going to go check out the book” as an excuse to go take a walk and talk with somebody, and make some strategy?
You’re not allowed to do that. It’s like if you’re going to look at the book, you go and look at the book, and you can’t [strategize]. Cameras are not on you.
Do you think the show needs to make some changes to prevent the creation of these “disaster tribes”?
I know Jeff really loves the team of three, and when there’s a disaster tribe, it’s the game. I think, as somebody who has played it, it’s just kind of like, we could probably just skip this challenge, and we can probably just go to Tribal. Everyone knows what the outcome’s going to be. We’re still going to try. Maybe we can be the underdogs, but I think as a viewer, they can just fast-forward it and know that we’re going to be going to Tribal. And in all three episodes, we went to Tribal. I’m not sure how fun that is for viewers. I know as a tribe, continuously going isn’t fun, but I hope it’s entertaining.
Do you think Alex and Sophi are better equipped to handle this upcoming tribe shakeup because they’ve been to so many Tribal Councils and nobody else has? Talk about how disaster tribes have an edge over winning tribes.
So then you have six of, I don’t know, the names, six red [Uli] and six yellow [Hina], and then you have two blue [Kele]. So the two blue are going to be swing votes. We kind of saw a little bit of foreshadowing in the previous episodes of red and yellow going against each other. So then Alex and Sophi are in a really great position to fall through the cracks and build relationships with folks and strategize.
They’re also the only two players in the game so far who know what it’s like to go to Tribal Council.
And Tribal Council itself is an experience. And the more you go to Tribal, the more you become sort of better at Tribal. You saw me going Tribal for the very first time. I gave away that Annie and Nicole [Mazullo] were at the bottom. I was just being honest. I was just being truthful. And then as soon as I said that, I’m like, shoot. I said the wrong answer. So then you kind of get better at Tribal. So yeah, your point is right.
Robert Voets / CBS
It’s like they have a warm-up that the other players don’t have.
Yeah.
What else do you wish fans could have seen from your performance this season?
I wish fans could see that we actually, even though we had to start the game, and it was very much like I pointing fingers at people, I would say that we did, despite everything that was going on, I feel like I got to know all five of the players. I feel like I got to build relationships with them. I love Annie. I love Nicole. I love Alex. I love Jake. I love Sophi. And I had special moments with all of them. You didn’t see a lot of Annie’s and I’s relationship. I mean, you just saw me complaining about Annie, about the coconuts, but she did feel the shelter. I was just hungry. And anyone who would touch my food, I was just going to be angry against. But I think we had good energy. We actually all had so many different personalities, too. And it’s just kind of like, wow, we are a lot. But somehow we all kind of found a way to come through and have a lot of fun together.
Watching the episode, were you surprised to see these things that we had never seen before, such as the book and the hospital at base camp?
It was surprising to me to see the book in the episode, but since I saw it firsthand, I wasn’t surprised by that. The hospital, no, I wasn’t surprised about that. I just think it shows you how big Survivor is and how many production people there are, and they literally have a team to support the 18 of us. There’s just so much behind the scenes that we don’t get to see. So maybe the viewers saw a glimpse of the show that they maybe [wouldn’t have] thought of.
I thought it was really cool to see that. It felt like a peek behind the curtain.
And I think for us, we saw the curtains and stuff like that, and the boat that Jake rode in on, that’s cool for the viewers. You never saw that type of boat, but we were in those boats all the time.
Is there any piece of comfort from your family or a significant other that you carried with you through the game?
My dad just told me to just have fun. At the end of the day, this is a game. Go enjoy the experience. And I did.
Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS