That’s another episode of Survivor 46! We’ve lost a villain in the most Survivor 46 way. Let’s dive into what happened.
Strategy Yapping and Idol Searching — We in the Endgame Now
Nothing says endgame more in Survivor than ten straight minutes of resume chatting, claiming big moves, and final three scenarios. Sure, there had been blindsides throughout the merge, but up until last episode the greater majority in the tribe has been able to agree on who needed to go. The Tiffany vote had a different air to it with Maria solely getting the pieces together for the vote and Kenzie, who has been in the know all season, being left out. With only seven (several) people left, the clock is ticking on getting the top players out and setting yourself up for a favorable chance to win at the final tribal council.
A big variable was reintroduced into the game with the hidden immunity idol, and of course everyone went out to look. I don’t need to tell you what finding and using an immunity idol would do to your chances to win. An unlikely castaway ends up gaining a huge advantage: the much maligned Venus. The power hungry gamer quietly secured the idol with zero beware caveats, and even as a goat she could utilize it to change her perception in the game. She is also the perfect person to hold the idol right now because no one expects her to have found it. Even the glowing ray of positivity Kenzie comments that Venus just seems to be hoping she is around when someone else finds the idol so she can gossip about it to other people.
And Venus has the right idea about keeping the idol a secret! She wouldn’t dare hint to anyone that she has a dangerous advantage! She wouldn’t dare tempt fate in an important final seven vote and keep it in her pocket!
Maria the Big Target, Charlie the Secret Swing
The talk of the episode centers around someone I dubbed “The Godmother” (though she is stripped of that name now, more on that later). Maria separated herself from the pack with her emphatic blindside of Tiffany, and she was the talk of the beach the morning after. Basically everyone agreed that it was imperative to get Maria out because no one can make a better formal case to win at the moment. But Maria didn’t make her big move without a contingency plan. She believes that she can trust in her new unexpected right hand man and social pariah Q, and that she will be backed up by her Siga allies Ben and Charlie.
But Maria isn’t as solid with the Siga boys as she believes, especially her long time running mate Charlie. Charlie is very aware that in a final three scenario, Maria’s claims on her control of the game will beat his claims every time. Thus, Charlie has made it clear to the right people that his options are wide open and he is ready to shift the game in a new direction. I think we were told some version of “Charlie needs to deal with Maria” fifteen different times this episode.
The best thing about Charlie’s situation is that he can direct the game whichever way he wants while avoiding the tag of “big threat”. The episode portrayed Charlie as the one person who has the right relationships to do whatever he wants strategically, without a single person discussing the possibility of voting him out. It’s indicative of a fantastic social game, that in the most important votes of the season people are looking to Charlie to help them get one vote further. If he sticks with Maria for a little longer, he can use his ally as a shield to ideally shed at the final five (or firemaking, in a worst case scenario). If he does flip on Maria and vote out Q, then he can claim that separated himself from his ally and the biggest player of the game.
In my eyes, Charlie was set up this week as the soon-to-be winner of Survivor 46… as long as he delivers on his promise to topple Maria’s house of cards. In a post-merge overflowing with chaos and borderline insanity, Charlie sat in the middle as a powerful, collected, nuanced strategist setting up his signature move to win over the jury.
An Ode to Our Unaware Queen
Maria could not be voted out this week because she won a highly contested immunity challenge and removed herself from the discussion. For those looking to dethrone her, the target moved Q, who has become Maria’s goat for the final three. Maria’s camp looked to vote Venus out of the game, as her chaotic and messy energy continued to act as a walking red flag strategically, making her an easy person to sacrifice for the sake of getting through another vote. The tribe split right down the middle at first: Kenzie, Venus, and Liz wanted Q out while Maria, Q, and Ben wanted Venus out. Charlie sat in the middle as the decider. Would he break away from his number one ally or stay quiet and strike another week?
That was the situation… until our unaware queen threw a grenade into the proceedings. Because there are so few people left in the game, Venus gets to start participating in the more important strategic conversation… and when she connects for her chat with Charlie she not so subtly hints that she may or may not have an advantage and it would be beneficial for Charlie to side with her tonight… or else.
The unmitigated gall for Venus to try this when her butt is on the block is shocking but so in line with Venus’s character. She simply can’t help herself. She can’t not try to plant seeds of chaos, and it puts Charlie on high alert. Maybe Venus is just puffing out her chest — but maybe she really has something! And because of that, Charlie redirects the vote and the tribe unanimously votes Venus out of the game… with an idol in her pocket! It happened again!
We’ve lost a legend in the game. No one in Survivor has carried themselves with an ego so disproportionate to how powerful they actually were in a very long time. Venus wanted to be the villain when she showed up to Survivor 46, and she delivered. She wore her emotions on her sleeve and never missed a moment to take jabs at her competitors. The fact that as she continually pushed people away from her and gave people a million reasons to avoid her, yet she STILL thought she was pulling the strings on many key votes in the season is delusional but borderline iconic. The poetry of it all is too beautiful to not appreciate. Venus trying to teach Tevin how to play Survivor after the Soda blindside when Tevin was doing a lot of the work behind the scenes without Venus even knowing will live in my head for a while. And she went to the grave believing everything she had self-affirmed, not missing an opportunity to insult Q on how few of the votes he was in the know for, with a jury and audience listening to it all knowing Venus was the pot calling the kettle black.
Venus in all of it was still someone you could root for, which made her a great Survivor character rather than a draining one. It was fun to dream of a world where she somehow predicts her exit and uses her idol to change the game, and reignite dreams that maybe our prickly villain could shock the world and win the million dollars (or at least face a great humbling in the final three when she finds out she was the goat all along). One thing that can’t be contested is her passion for the game and her competitive drive, which oozed throughout this episode from her idol discovery to her near victory in the challenge. This episode could have been very different if she didn’t miss the layup at the very end.
With Survivor 50 looming down the line, I think Venus should be one of the first to get the callback among the new era castaways. She’s a modern day Abi-Maria, and maybe some time to reflect will help her transform her one-woman delusion of a game into real Survivor success.
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The Turbo Camkiran “Pussy Chicken” Award: Maria
In MTV’s The Challenge universe, a borderline insane Turkish man gave a name to people who acted tough but didn’t want the smoke. His animal hybrid “pussy chicken” is what came to mind when I experienced the absolute disaster that was Maria’s reward-picking process. She picks Ben — ok cool, but to then spend an eternity mulling over who to give a pizza to, maybe a day after the whole Applebee’s debacle, only to force Q and Liz into a rock paper scissors game? What a horrific decision. Jeff Probst was too nice. If this was the Challenge, TJ Lavin would have none of that. He would have told Maria to nut up and quit being so pitiful.
Yes, Maria had her big move last week. But if we are talking jury management, she just soured a sizable contingent of possible jury members with what she did. Why would Kenzie, Venus, or Liz see what Maria did and say “Yes, I want to give this person who is glazing “spineless quitter” Q over equally deserving castaways a million dollars”.
Biggest Anti-Vaxxer: Liz
What no Bourbon Burger does to a person. Liz continues to spiral as she is denied another reward. She is done trying to be nice and just feels comfortable openly insulting people to their face, whether it’s Q, Maria, Venus, whoever. She also threw out that her allergies might be caused by how much she suppresses her emotions and maybe if she just starts being angry and bitter all the time, she’ll be able to eat normally. Because it’s Liz, I think she might actually believe that could be true.
Biggest Insult: Ben Calling You a Poser
If you want to put into perspective how much people hate Venus, check out Ben. Those are strong words. If he called me a poser it would feel like a knife being stabbed directly in my heart. That certainly does not rock.
MVP of the Episode: Charlie
He’s set up great for the next vote. All he has to do now is be a man of action, and not a man of talk.
Goat of the Episode (or, the You Didn’t Play Your Idol Award): Venus
Maybe Hunter and Venus can laugh with each other rather than at each other now that they’ve both looked dumb holding onto their idols.
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PLAYER TIER LIST:
OUT OF THE GAME
18. Jelinsky
17. Jess
16. Randen
15. Bhanu
14. Jem
13. Moriah
12. Tim
11. Soda
10. Tevin
9. Hunter
8. Tiffany
7. Venus
BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE
6. Q
5. Liz
No one on the island likes these people. They won’t win. They simply can’t get the jury votes.
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION
4. Maria
Making the final three has gotten incredibly hard for Maria. Everyone who has a shot at winning sees the path to a million dollars involving sending her home.
IN A GOOD SPOT
3. Kenzie
I said earlier that I feel Charlie is set up as the possible winner of Survivor 46. I feel Kenzie is set up as the respectable second place finisher. Her edit is still positive enough to consider her as a finalist and the possible victor… but I don’t see how she’s gonna separate herself strategically now that Venus and Tiffany are gone. Everyone wants Maria and Q out so her going after those two isn’t a #BIGMOVE. And just to avoid being the vote in final six or final five, she’s probably gonna have to link up with Charlie, who resume-wise just seems better set up to impress the jury.
2. Ben
Like Kenzie, I don’t know if he can do anything strategically to separate himself. But because Ben can naturally choose to ride with Maria or Charlie he’s less of a target and in a safer spot than her.
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
1. Charlie the Swiftie
This game goes through Charlie. He just has to avoid mucking it up.
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Two more weeks are left. What will the next blindside be, and will they be holding an idol when they get voted out?