Alabama Gulf Coast native Jonathan Young remains in a strong position through three episodes of ‘Survivor 50,’ but one scene in Wednesday’s episode could foretell conflict for Young with a game legend in the coming weeks. 

The episode begins with a tribe swap, rare for this early in a “Survivor” season, but as “Survivor 50” is “In the hands of the fans,” fans voted for more tribe swaps. Fortunately for Young, three other members of his former Kalo tribe – Dee, Charlie and Kamilla – join him on the Cila tribe in the random draw, forming a four-person majority in the seven-player tribe. Also on Young’s tribe is Rizo, a season 49 contestant whose season hadn’t aired before Season 50 was filmed. Rizo, who refers to himself playfully as Rizgod, is the only player from his former Vatu tribe to join Cila and seems to be on the outs within the tribe throughout the episode.

The other two members on Young’s Cila tribe are original Cila members, Rick Devens and Cirie Fields. Devens is a game-player and Idol-hunter from his original “Survivor” season, but it’s Cirie that has Young nervous. Cirie is a ‘Survivor” legend, a social strategist playing the game for the fifth time, and she’s also a winner of NBC’s “The Traitors,” playing arguably the most dominant game as a traitor in the show’s history.

“I love Cirie, but I feel like that’s a bad thing,” Young whispers to Dee in the jungle.

“Because everyone loves Cirie,” Dee responds. 

In his confessional with producers, Young says, “Everybody loves Cirie in this game. So if we lose, Cirie is going to be the target that we take out here. Because if we let Cirie get to the merge, we’re all in trouble.”

No one from Young’s tribe does go home in this episode, as Cila dominates the blind-folded immunity challenge and wins live chickens to have at their camp, but if you’re into producer hints, the Cirie storyline is coming soon. 

On the one hand, “Jonathan 2.0,” as Young referred to himself in the second episode, is showing that he is playing a more strategic game than was shown in his first “Survivor” season. This arc could carry him deep into the game, and possibly to the end. 

But a potential foe in Cirie could also spell trouble for Young or Dee if they don’t get her out of the game first. Cirie has already flipped the vote on Jenna, in the season’s first episode, and if there are additional tribe swaps or fractured alliances, Cirie could spell the end of his or her game as well.

The third episode concludes with the Vatu tribe going to tribal council and voting out Quintavius “Q” Burdette, the fourth player to leave the game, leaving 20 players vying for the sole Survivor title.