That’s another episode of Survivor 46! The impact of Q’s decision shook the island to its core. Let’s dive into the episode.
Qhaotic Energy Not Appreciated
The response to last episode’s tribal council could be summed up by four letters: WTF Q! Turns out volunteering to quit Survivor in a crowd of superfans and gamers doesn’t sit very well with the tribe the day after. From the royally pissed Tiffany (Are you stupid? Are you dumb?) to the silent loathing of Charlie to the totally-not-rockin angst of Ben, everyone dismissed Q’s unmitigated gall to not only assume that he was controlling everyone like a master puppeteer, but also assume responsibility for this faulty idea of taking the “moral high ground” and giving everyone his blessing to start really playing Survivor. I have to emphasize that this was a full-on tribe-wide hatred of Q’s move. Even the most agreeable castaways distanced themselves from Q, and even the least confrontational castaway had no qualms throwing out words like “crazy” or “insane” as they sneak dissed him every chance they got.
Sadly this wasn’t some master plan from Q, he really was trying to fall on his sword for the tribe and he failed to get himself voted out. Q’s long term prospects for winning the game can be declared legally dead… it would take Jesus Christ arriving on the island in the flesh and resurrecting the dead body of Q’s game like Lazarus for him to have any chance at winning a million dollars. We’ve gone past the Q as an easy vote phase and jumped directly to the Q is a goat line of thinking. He got completely iced out of the pre-tribal scramble in this episode and it may stay that way for the rest of the season, unless someone (like Maria?) looks past the emotional response to the quit attempt and picks him up as an ally.
I could be a bit worried that Q’s season will just end as one long whimper since he’s a powerless goat in the game. But this is Q we are talking about, and his TV-made charisma and ego might transcend goat status. We can count on Q continuing to play his Q game, looking for openings that don’t exist and causing chaos for chaos sake until people get so fed up and vote him out. We can also count on Q continuing to piss people off, especially Tiffany. The Tiffany and Q rivalry birthed from his betrayal was front and center this episode, with Tiffany having zero issue calling the man out publicly every chance she gets, whether its tribal council or in the middle of our pre-challenge socratic forum. Be like Jeff Probst and get the popcorn out whenever these two face off in the future.
The New Majority Jockeys for Power and #BIGMOVEZ
With Q’s “Plus One” alliance burned at the stake, the power vacuum became filled with a new majority alliance: the Siga-Yanu tribal alliance… or as I call it, the Sensible Survivor Player Alliance. Kenzie, Tiffany, Maria, Charlie, and Ben are non-problematic Survivor strategists and naturally gravitated toward each other to form a quiet majority in the midst of Q’s mess, Liz’s paranoia, and Venus’s unaware queen behavior.
But voting Q, Liz, or Venus isn’t impressive enough for that good ol Survivor resume. This episode’s vote would be the perfect one to get a big blindside going. Though, is it a big blindside if everyone is thinking now is the time for a big blindside? Questions to ponder…
The obvious vote is to go after challenge beast Hunter, but that’s a bit too obvious. So Tiffany’s name finds its way to the forefront by an unexpected castaway. I was surprised to learn Kenzie was leading the charge. Tiffany was a clear number one with Q jumping off a cliff, so it is risky for Kenzie to cut off her right hand woman with so many votes still to go in the game. Charlie, Maria, Hunter and Ben were all for it at first… but once Tiffany floated the idea of burning her idol tonight to get a target off her back the enthusiasm died down.
There were some more complex ideas churning about that caused the Tiffany plan to die and the Hunter plan to rise back to the surface. A lot of it has to do with the optics of #bigmovez which has become a big deal this season. This Tiffany blindside would look like Kenzie’s plan… but voting Tiffany out is an old idea. A few days ago Q had built up the numbers to blindside Tiffany with Maria and Charlie. Maria and Charlie like the idea of voting Tiffany, but they want it to be on their terms now. An idol being thrown into the mix is just extra seasoning to shut down Kenzie’s plan and redirect things back to Hunter.
To Idol or Not to Idol… That is the Question
Hunter knew he would be a target the second that he lost immunity. He spent so much of this episode paranoid and nervous that he was being blindsided. He spent all of tribal council quietly searching for affirmations from anyone he considered an ally (for this vote, Venus Liz Kenzie and Tiffany). And at the end of it all, he took a huge risk and it cost him: he held onto his idol. He and Q tied in votes and in the revote the challenge threat was swiftly eliminated from Survivor 46.
After all the worrying and fruitless scrambling I’m surprised Hunter didn’t just guarantee his safety and play his idol… especially after telling everyone he had it in his possession. I think he was banking on the threat of playing it causing people to get cold feet and just make the easy vote on Q (similar to what happened with Tiffany) or the people he truly trusted said the magic words to talk him out of playing it. Or, Hunter just made a split-second gut decision that cost him his life in the game. It can be tempting to say that I can hold the idol for the perfect time in the future, but there was too much heat on this specific vote to roll the dice.
**********************************************
The Starving for Attention Award: Liz
Liz is literally starving on this island because she thought it was a smart idea to go on Survivor when you literally can’t eat anything (do they not have any rice?). Liz is also metaphorically starving because she just made what in her mind was a giant blindside, only for everyone to be talking about how Q screwed everything up. She thought everyone would be marveling about how fightin’ warrior queen Liz is such a badass girlboss who rules the game of Survivor! Multi-millionaires have it so tough nowadays.
Biggest Controversy Avoided: Calling the Survivor 46 Cast Racist
How do I know that it has been four years since George Floyd died? Because Tiffany didn’t stop tribal council to publicly declare she had to play her idol to avoid three black people being the first three on the jury. She didn’t follow in the footsteps of everyone’s favorite role model and definitely not controversial castaway Drea. But yeah, Q almost went home and yes, the optics of Soda, Tevin, and Q watching from the bench (not to mention Tim voted out right before the jury) are quite bad.
The Jeff Probst “Jeff Probst Moment” Moment of the Episode: Jeff Probst Trying to Make it All About Himself
Was Jeff Probst worried this episode wouldn’t be interesting? Why did he decide to take shots at Liz, Venus and Q by guaranteeing they would suck in the immunity challenge? Why did Jeff bring props to tribal council and go off on a big monologue? Please Jeff, you can do funny things from time to time, but I don’t need you to try to point the spotlight on yourself like this. Let the players entertain us.
MVP of the Episode: Tiffany
Popping off on Q was fantastic television, and the aura of her idol single-handedly moved the vote off of her, allowing herself to bluff and keep the idol for another day.
Goat of the Episode: Hunter
Play. The. Idol.
*******************************************
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
BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE
8. Q
7. Venus
Not Venus getting prickly with Hunter over him being stupid and out of the loop of what is really going on in Survivor 46, only to insist that everyone is voting Q out tonight and that Hunter has no reason to scramble up a vote against Ben. That’s my unaware queen.
By the way, let’s take a moment to appreciate that we’ve got the two best new era goats gracing our screens together in the same season.
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION
6. Liz
It’s clear no one respects Liz’s game, much to her chagrin. The Hunter voters explicitly said not to tell Liz the plan.
IN A GOOD SPOT
5. Ben
He has a path to the end now as the under the radar ally with either the Yanu duo or the Siga duo. I don’t think, for the time being, he is at the top of anyone’s hit list… but he is also not at the top of anyone’s win list.
4. Tiffany
She’s gotten a bit lucky, as two shipped out blindside plans were returned to the sender before tribal council. She still has juice as a power player with connections and an idol.
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
3. Kenzie
The most interesting vote written down this episode was Kenzie initially voting for Q. I don’t think this was a split/SITD insurance vote, as her other Q voters were Hunter and the out-of-the-loop Liz and Venus. It could be a pandering jury vote similar to what Tevin did with Soda. Or, she thought that Q would be voted out tonight and she was trying to save someone who clearly saw her as a top ally after the Tiffany plan fell through. Hunter placed a lot of (misguided) hope in Kenzie as someone to trust… maybe she assumed Tiffany would act out on her hatred and vote for Q as well.
2. Maria
1. Charlie the Swiftie
These two are some crafty strategists. How much longer can they operate in the shadows before they either get sniffed out or turn on each other?
***************************************************
Eight remain as we inch closer to the endgame. Who will go home or go insane next week?