Did “Silent Assassin” Sophi misplay her hand?

Survivor 49 host Jeff Probst reacts to epic Knowledge is Power mishap

Did "Silent Assassin" Sophi misplay her hand?

By Staff Author

December 11, 2025 7:00 a.m. ET

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Jeff Probst on 'Survivor 49'. Credit:

Robert Voets/CBS

*What just happened?!?* That was the reaction of pretty much every player and jury member on Wednesday’s penultimate episode of *Survivor 49,* when a new wrinkle in the game left one person beaming (but not for long) and another contestant completely, by her own words, embarrassed.

All season, Sophi Balerdi has been holding onto her secret Knowledge is Power advantage that allowed her to steal an immunity idol or advantage from a player at Tribal Council if she could correctly deduce who had one. Then, Steven Ramm won an advantage during a Journey that become common public knowledge — setting him up as the obvious victim for Sophi’s thievery.

But there was something in the small print of that advantage that Steven kept to himself. His advantage enabled him to block the vote of another player, but he had to officially announce when he wanted to use it and whom he wanted to use it on *before* he left for Tribal Council. And since Sophi could only use her Knowledge is Power *at* Tribal Council, that meant Steven no longer had an advantage in his possession if he had already given a name back at camp, thereby putting his Block-a-Vote into play.

And that is exactly what happened.

A 'shocked' Sophie Segreti reveals what led to her 'Survivor 49' downfall

'Survivor 49' recap: Chaos and confusion reign at Tribal Council

“There has been a lot of talk of ammunition and what side has more of it,” Sophi announced at Tribal Council. “And *Survivor* 101 is when you have something in your pocket, you really shouldn’t be so vocal about it, because there could be a silent assassin in the midst.”

She then got to the matter at hand. "I’m sorry, Steven, but do you have an advantage.”

Steven, who had already used his Block-a-Vote on Savannah and therefore had a grin as wide as a Fijian island, then responded: “Nope!”

When Sophi incorrectly deduced, “Oh my God, he gave it to somebody else,” Steven hit her with another “Nope!”

As Sophi buried her face in her hands in humiliation and allies Rizo Velovic and Savannah Louie tried to grasp what was happening, host Jeff Probst made it official: “So Steven doesn’t have an advantage, and now, Soph, neither do you.”

Sophi Balerdi on 'Survivor 49'.

The host discussed the intricacies of this new equal parts delicious and diabolical twist on the latest episode of the *On Fire With Jeff Probst* podcast, revealing that yes, the exact result is what they were hoping would happen when they put the pre-Tribal Council wrinkle into effect.

“The why behind this advantage is that we wanted to force the player, in this case, Steven, to play the advantage before they leave for Tribal,” Probst explains on the podcast. “And that's very unusual and it's a big twist because it forces the player to make a huge move based only on the information they have at camp at that moment before they get to Tribal.”

That could lead to some drama on its own. “So if you get to Tribal and you realize, ‘Oh, man, the vote is shifting,’ or Tribal becomes alive, or you realize you've been lied to this entire time, it's too late, you've already committed.”

Steven Ramm on 'Survivor 49'.

It turns out Steven *was* being lied to the entire time, as he was eventually unanimously voted out, but the true evil beauty in the twist is what else happened.

“The second why,” Probst explains, “was because we knew it could impact the Knowledge is Power, which was also in the game. So when we're laying this out at the beginning of the year, we don't know who's going to have what advantages and how it might play out. But we do know this: Once you play that advantage back at camp, that secret Block-a-Vote has now been played. The advantage is gone. It doesn't exist. It hasn't been *revealed*, but it's no longer an advantage that can be stolen.”

While it made for an embarrassing moment for the confident, self-proclaimed Silent Assassin, it’s not like Sophi necessarily did anything wrong — unless you want to consider not taking one of the multiple idols could have snagged since the merge instead.

“So what Soph did that night, really, she had everything right!” Probst says. “She had the information, and she had set it up perfectly. And in almost any other situation, she would've been right. She would've stolen Steven's advantage before he used it.”

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Which brings us to the big question. “So did she misplay it? That's how it'll go down in the history books,” Probst notes. “Not really fair. She didn't really misplay it as much as she got got by a new twist she couldn't have anticipated.”

Tthe host is looking forward to seeing how that now plays out in the future. “What I think is also fun is that now that players have seen it once, they know it's possible. And how will it impact the game moving forward? Because it gives you another layer. ‘You know that advantage you think I have: Maybe I still have it.  Maybe I already played it.’ And so I think it's going to introduce new uncertainty into a game where the uncertainty won't be revealed until later. And that can mess everybody up.”

Just ask Sophi Balerdi.

- Survivor Fandom

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Source: “EW Survivor”