That’s another episode of Survivor 46! Could this season be the messy and dramatic one we’ve all been hoping for? Let’s dive into the episode.
Orbiting Venus
Don’t worry, I’ll get to the Yanu talk a little later. Let’s cover the other big storyline real quick… Venus’s odd, awkward, “I’m an introvert” behavior making her the center of the story on Nami.
Venus’s insecure social game makes me think she could be a star for the first half of this season. The power in Nami is held by Tevin who is the social heartbeat of the tribe, and the outcast has become the pretty girl (but don’t tell her that: she’s had a tough childhood). Venus found herself alone, the victim of some petty immunity antics involving Soda, and in desperate need of a friend. Where does she find her friend? In the unlikely marriage of two people who after one episode you would not have guessed would work together. Survivor 46’s quiet old soul Randen found the immunity box this episode and was struggling to find a person he could trust to help him secure his advantage and, more importantly, keep a secret. Turns out the enemy of Randen’s enemy is his friend and sensing that Venus is looking for someone who will be nice to her, offers an olive branch. This new underdogs alliance could turn into something beautiful and I am all the way in for them to cause some chaos on Nami beach if they ever need to go to tribal council.
Persistence Pays Off
I don’t normally talk about challenges. Usually you just sit back and turn off your brain for a bit, laugh at someone doing a funny thing, be impressed when someone gets busy with it, etc. This challenge ended up being quite the ordeal and is worth a whole discussion. Either production did not realize that the giant arch word puzzle would be as difficult as it was… or they knew EXACTLY what they were doing making this challenge so difficult.
It has to be the latter right? We saw the smaller version of this puzzle during Survivor 45 as an individual immunity challenge, and even without the physical strain of holding giant blocks in place it proved to be a challenging task. Not only do you have to finesse the arch to stay together, but the two sided spelling twist proves to be an added layer of confusion made only worse by using a word that repeats a lot of letters. The fairly unphysical cast struggled mightily to hold the blocks up, and tribes that won immunity were making obvious mistakes with the blocks on their arduous path to victory.
And why not get the frustration flowing a bit too and see who cracks under the pressure. You know who cracked under the pressure? Yanu did. They lost the first challenge and as the second challenge started spiraling out of control they lost their heads. Bhanu completely exploded once things started going south, cue the banshee screaming at Jess in the preview from last week. Tiffany was about ready to punch someone (Jess) out after the challenge ended, but I liked how it led to a real moment in the confessional where Tiffany cried and lamented how she fell into the perception of being the “angry black girl” stereotype she doesn’t want to be seen as.
The Self-Sabotage Super Bowl
The Yanu tribe was the star of this episode, as from start to finish we ate our popcorn and watched this juicy mess of a tribe unfold. It was clear that the elimination of Jelinsky (who got kicked on the way out at the immunity challenge intro, I might add) did nothing to bring closure to the tribe. Jess continued to be aloof and rub Queen Kenzie the wrong way. Bhanu was starting to lose his wits. Blindside talk was cooking everywhere around camp, and the lack of being able to cook any food was starting to take its toll on the tribe. I mean, Kenzie went to look for the most aesthetic place on the beach to go cry on camera and it’s only day four!
There was already a lot of ire directed towards Jess for her desire to eat ants rather than talk strategy. After the challenge the simmering frustration turned into full-on distaste. It got so bad that the Yanu tribe was starting to regret voting out Jelinsky who was hot ass at Survivor for his three days on the beach. Kenzie and Tiffany led a plan to embarrass Jess as they voted her out by leading her to a fake idol and getting her to play it instead of the shot in the dark. But Jess was so bad at looking for it that they just ended up having Q deliver it to her personally. Kenzie and Tiffany laugh at how stupid people like Bhanu and Jess were at playing Survivor, making fun of them and calling them something to the tune of “stupider than clowns”. Maybe they should have been a little more cautious, specifically Kenzie, because she was highly exposed to a blindside tonight at the hands of Q, who believed he could have gotten Jess and Bhanu to vote his way at tribal council. However, Q’s number one ally is Tiffany, and Tiffany still wanted to keep Kenzie in the game since Kenzie highly values the duo they had formed.
While I was savoring the idea of Kenzie talking all this game about how she is playing this great game of Survivor and then getting blindsided by the two people she considers idiots, Jess’s inability to perform in the challenge and lack of social game was too much for Q and Tiffany to cut off someone who is clearly an ally right now. Jess just wasn’t good enough at Survivor to even be a pawn in someone else’s game. However, Bhanu was doing all he could to get himself voted out during the tribal council discussion. Jeff pressed Bhanu a bit on his emotionally charged tangents when answering tribal council questions, and Bhanu further struggled to keep composure. Since we don’t see the multi hour tribal council in full, I imagine Bhanu derailed the conversation so hard that he assumed he was going to get voted out, which led him to initiate a one-man live tribal council which consisted of a lot of pitiful begging and pleas.
With Jess gone, the clear next boot in this tribe is Bhanu due to his lack of Survivor ability. But if they go to tribal council again, keep an eye out for some #bigmovez as the pace of the game in this tribe is moving beyond simple “weakest link” reasoning.
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The Good Vibes Award: Siga Tribe
They all actually like each other! Somehow a big accomplishment on Survivor 46!
The Standing on Business Award: Liz
Hey, did you know Liz doesn’t actually need a million dollars because she already has it at home? Hey, did you know Liz is the CEO of twenty companies and has already sold ten of those for incredible profit? Hey, did you know Liz is such a girl boss that men would not be able to handle being with someone as rich and successful as her? Hey, did you know Liz has appeared on over 600 podcasts and is actually the best podcast guest in the history of guests? Hey, did you know Liz has invented the cure for cancer but because she’s such a successful woman, all the male doctors are too intimidated to acknowledge her greatness?
Best New Era Jeff Probst Running Joke: Jeff with a Knife
Jeff pulling out a knife to cut the bag of rice was such a hit with the fandom last year that it seems to have become his new party trick, and he’s just gonna keep one in his back pocket from here on out.
MVP of the Episode: Charlie the Swiftie
He’s sitting in the ideal middle position on a tribe that by all accounts will likely stick together at the merge. And he proved that he was an actual Swiftie by beating ultimate rocker Ben in a song battle with 109 Taylor Swift song titles.
Goat of the Episode: Bhanu
Does meditation actually work? Didn’t seem to help Bhanu much this episode…
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PLAYER TIER LIST:
OUT OF THE GAME
18. Jelinsky
17. Jess
BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE
16. Bhanu
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION
15. Liz
I also want to acknowledge Liz’s Gregorian-chant-style cheering at the immunity challenge as hilarious. The thing is, I don’t think she was trying to be funny. Liz is the unfunny version of who Debbie claims to be. Like… Debbie claiming that men are too intimidated to be with her is peak comedy, but out of Liz’s mouth it’s an arrogant and unaware statement.
14. Venus
People call her Parvati, but the out loud complaining about how nobody cares about how she hurt her toe was giving off Island of the Idols Karishma vibes.
IN A GOOD SPOT FOR NOW
13. Randen
By not being Venus or Liz, Randen is probably safe for now. If he can find the idol and use it well, that could elevate this standing in the game even more. Could we even see Randen saving Venus with it if they go to tribal council before the merge?
12. Tim
11. Jem
10. Moriah
9. Ben
Actual position in the tier list can only be decided once Siga goes to a tribal council. There’s no real pressure in Siga to try to vote someone out right now.
8. Kenzie
Full disclosure: I soured on Queen Kenzie this episode and will actively be rooting for her to lose. She’s my Survivor 46 villain and I do hope she embraces the role. She enacted the “get someone to pick up a fake idol and play it at tribal council” strategy which I think unnecessarily embarasses the victim and is one of the dirtiest plays in the book. Beyond that she has also carried herself with a lot of arrogance that I feel will bite her in the butt sooner rather than later. The bashing of Jess and Bhanu behind their backs with Tiffany I thought was over the top and very “mean girl” of her. My friends in my watch party group are also cheering for her… so I feel the need to be a bit contrarian with it. She’s caught a lot of flack for how hard she’s playing and she is setting herself up to be picked off easily at the merge (or even before). She’s lacking the subtlety to be an effective threat right now.
7. Q
In the battle to be Tiffany’s number one, I’m putting my money on Q. I think they have a deeper relationship.
6. Soda
5. Hunter
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
4. Tevin
The hierarchy is still shifting in Nami… right now Tevin has been painted as the man in charge by Venus and I’m inclined to believe her. Hunter and Soda are certainly safe with Tevin in the driver’s seat but their position in the tribe is dependent on how much of an impact Venus’s chaos makes… I think Hunter is more likely to be versatile and flip if things sour with Tevin.
3. Maria
2. Charlie
They are calling themselves Malcolm and Denise already… you gotta get your numbers up before you compare yourself to an all-time great Survivor duo. But hey, they are positioned nicely to control their tribe at the moment.
1. Tiffany
The one person who is 100% safe on Yanu. Both Q and Kenzie want her on their side. Add to that her idol and she really can choose her own destiny to the merge.
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Can things get any worse on Yanu? We’ll find out next week!