Shocking ‘Survivor 50’: Stephenie Says Deleted Ozzy and Cirie Moments Explain the Tribal Council Chaos

Robert Voets / CBS

The Survivor 50 prize money just jumped to $2 million after MrBeast’s “Super Beware Advantage” coin toss paid off for Rick Devens in Episode 10. With a successful heads-or-tails win, he walked away with immunity, an immunity idol, and a bigger prize pot for the entire cast. Before that, he laid out everyone’s voting intentions in a bold effort to save himself, and the live tribal chaos that followed ultimately led to Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick’s exit.

The MrBeast twist sent the camp into a frenzy before tribal council. Viewers saw plenty of scrambling, but the biggest tension centered on the widening rift between Stephenie and Cirie Fields. The two have played Survivor together multiple times, and even The Traitors, so Stephenie says she entered the game expecting Cirie to be an ally. Conversations with old-school players before filming reinforced that feeling. But the game shifted, and Cirie grew suspicious that Stephenie had lied to hide a plan targeting Ozzy Lusth, her closest ally.

Devens brought that camp tension into the open at tribal council in a bid to redirect the votes off of himself. Below, Stephenie explains a deleted scene with Ozzy that sheds light on why Devens was so nervous and breaks down how her elimination unfolded.

We saw a lot of talk at the camps before tribal, but I wonder what we didn’t see from those discussions.

Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick: Well, first of all, at one point, we were ready to go to tribal. They’re like, “Gag order,” whatever. And then they were like, “Nope, wait a minute.” And they pulled a couple more people for interviews, and we were still scrambling. It was insanity. And of course, you saw at Tribal Council, there were three different live tribals going on at three different times. What you didn’t see is, I did go over to Ozzy, and I said, “Listen, somebody came to me with your name, and I entertained it. And do you want to know why? It’s because I was told that you’re walking around telling people you don’t trust me. And I feel like we’ve been together for days now, and I’ve been loyal to you. I thought we were [close]. Why are you telling people you don’t trust me?” And he admitted, he goes, “You’re right. I did say that. And I only said it because I wanted to see if it would get back to me.” And I said, “Well, it got back to you.”

Cirie was right there, and I said, “Listen, I didn’t tell you it was Ozzy because you were sitting with Tiffany [Ervin]. I don’t know Tiffany. And I wasn’t even 100 percent sure I was going to go with that plan, so that’s why I didn’t bring it up to you. And to be honest with you, it’s not in my best interest for you or Ozzy to go. If you were Ozzy, go, that’s a problem for me.” I said, “If I go, I think that’s a major problem for you. So I’m willing to go back to our original plan. Let’s agree to disagree or shake hands or whatever we have to do. You have my word. You’ve had my word this whole time. Let’s go back to Aubry [Bracco] and Devens.” And so we agreed to do that, but they didn’t show any of that on camera. And that’s why Devens was so nervous and throwing it all on the line at tribal because he knew it had flipped back to him. And that’s why he gave his spiel and his plea and all that.

I didn’t turn it on Jonathan [Young], because what good would that have done me? I would’ve looked like a tattletale. I would’ve looked like, oh, I’m just trying to throw somebody else under the bus. So he’s flipping it on me and Jonathan, let me just flip it back on him. That seemed to be the most logical thing to do. And partly what I was saying was true. Yes, it was Jonathan’s plan. It was not their plan, but they were in on the plan. They were entertaining the plan, so it was half true.

Robert Voets / CBS

And that’s not who I am. Honestly, I’m a really loyal person. I give you my word in this game, and I mean it. If it comes down to now we’re picking the final three, maybe then it’s going to change. But let’s get to that point. I am super loyal. It’s just who I am. And everybody that’s ever seen me play any reality show knows that. Guatemala, even though I cut a lot of throats, I was loyal to Rafe [Judkins], he was my main ally, and we went all the way to the end. I had no major alliances with anybody else. Yes, I’ve given them my word here and there, but I was loyal to my main. I’m loyal to you if I give you my word from the beginning.

Speaking of loyal alliances, how aware of the closeness of Cirie and Ozzy’s alliance were you during filming?

I was very aware that they were close. I was not aware how close she was with Rizo [Velovic], so as I’m watching, I’m learning, oh my gosh, Cirie and I were supposed to be together from the beginning. We spoke before the game. We have a long history of playing reality TV shows together. She’s always told me I’m like family to her, and I’ve always felt the same about her. I know she’s very good at this game, and I know if she gets to the end, she’s probably winning, but we both decided to agree, “Let’s just get there. We’re both big threats in this game. Let’s just work together.” We’ve played, we’ve known each other for many years. Let’s just get there, then we’ll figure it out. I didn’t realize so early on that she was going to turn on me basically by trying to take out every single person in my alliance, because that’s really what she did.

I understand Colby [Donaldson’s] game with Savannah [Louie] earlier in the season, when he threw out that red Herring about not trusting Cirie, got back to Cirie, and made her question if she could trust the old-era players.

Correct, which I totally understand. Why would Colby do that? And Colby was trying to throw off the scent that he and Cirie were aligned because they were. There was a little old-school alliance. We did speak a lot of us beforehand, but it didn’t mean we were going to close the doors to meeting new people, but we did talk about having each other’s backs and whatever. When Colby did that, Cirie immediately was like, “He’s supposed to be a huge part of my alliance. He’s in with Stephanie.” Immediately, she washes her hands of us. I could see her washing her hands of him. I’m not even on the same beach with you yet. We haven’t even spoken words yet. Don’t dismiss me. Dismiss him if you need to, but don’t dismiss me. And I think she dismissed me because I was associated with him even way back then.

This episode was a turning point in her dynamic with you. We saw the confessional where she said she could tell, or at least she thought that you were lying. Watching that confessional last night, what was your reaction? 

Yeah, that was super upsetting too, because in my mind, it’s not me versus Cirie. It was never going to be me versus Cirie. Not this early. The turning point started long before that when she took out Coach [Wade] and Chrissy [Hofbeck]. She could have tried to take out Emily [Flippen]. She didn’t even need … Yes, Colby’s foot, yes, he was hurt, but they were not medically evacuating him. She could have went her, Coach Colby, and they could have taken out Emily. It didn’t matter that Dee [Valladares] had immunity. She chose to take out Colby. She gave me a whole spiel. They wanted to take out Coach, but Colby’s hurt anyway. So instead of two of our people leaving, I just went with the safer bet and took out Colby. OK. Valid point.

Then she takes out Coach and Chrissy. She comes to me again. “The plan changed. Now it’s Coach and Chrissy. It’s not me. I’m just letting you know. I just want to make sure that you’re in the know and you’re in the numbers. Don’t be out of the numbers. You’ll be next to go, or I’ll be next to go. We’re big targets.” So the way she’s posing things to me, it’s never her that does it. It’s somebody else. She’s just letting me know because we’re in an alliance. Smart.

Meanwhile, Joe [Hunter] knows it was her. She told Joe. Joe does not come and tell Jonathan and I. Had he done that, I would’ve known back then that Cirie’s not with us. At this point, I still think Cirie’s with us. She was not. Then, fast forward to this episode, she literally says, “It’s me versus Stephenie.” It’s still not a me versus Cirie in my mind. Yes, Ozzy’s name came up because he’s telling people he doesn’t trust me. Of course, I’m going to entertain that. Why would I not? You’re telling people you don’t trust me. But we spoke about it, and we agreed to go back to the original plan, and I said, “It is not in my best interest. If I get rid of you, they are probably going to come for me next.” Vice versa, “You get rid of me. They’re probably going to try to come for you next. Why would you do that? Let’s take out the middle people.” That’s what we kept saying.

Robert Voets / CBS

I know the interpersonal dynamics can feel stressful and personal, but everything you’re explaining is why Survivor is such interesting TV.

It is. It really is. And at the end of the day, I do not fault Cirie at all. She’s there. She’s playing a game, and she’s trying to get by, too. She’s trying to get to the end, too. Her mistake is that I’m probably going to be her biggest ally or one of the very few people she may be able to manipulate, so by getting rid of me, that’s really not a smart choice because I’m going to rally for Cirie. But Cirie takes it like I’m going to try to take her out because now I’m trying to take Ozzy out. We just needed to communicate better. Had we communicated better, and Joe, too, things may have worked out much differently in the end.

That’s the social experiment part of it.