Survivor 46 | Ep. 7
NUINUI - Night 13
Ladies and gentleman we have a merged tribe!
Venus is ready to erupt. She was combustible heading into Tribal and receiving a vote has the pressure building and ready to turn the magma into lava at NUINUI. I get Venus’ game. The merge has opened her game up and she’s ready to pounce, but attacking Soda - as we are now accustomed to seeing - has Tevin on watch and me too. It’s a red flag and she needs to lower her threat level, but my hunch is she doesn’t have the emotional intelligence nor control to do so.
Then, Charlie releases some of the Venus Volcano pressure by confessing that he was the one who voted for her. BAD MOVE CHARLIE! We finally see the rare mistake from Swifty fan Charlie who has otherwise been playing a squeaky clean game. Feels like it was a bad move because there are 12 people at camp and that’s enough to keep Venus guessing and in panic mode attacking Soda. Turn the heat and pressure up on Venus, don’t let her off the hook Charlie. His emotions got to him.
Enter Coach Q to set him straight. Q is loving the renewed purpose of YANU being in between SIGA and NAMI, but my spidey sense tells me you can’t win the game at 12 but you certainly can lose it. Don’t give people a reason to vote you out, instead, take the reason they give you to vote them out and do it. Q’s read on Venus was right, let her boil and explode, but being Coach Q or even Uncle Q, could get his threat level elevated.
BEN’s PANIC ATTACK
“At the end of the day, Ben’s a person sometimes you just got to be there for somebody and just sit with them through it, just be with them through the storm, sometimes that’s all someone needs.”
We see Ben wake up from a panic attack and Kenzie be there to hold his hand and be there for him. We hear Kenzie communicate the truly human side of her and the human side of the game.
But why? Why would they show us this?
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - Day 14
2 GROUPS, 2 IMMUNITY NECKLACES, 2 TRIBALS, 2 ELIMINATIONS
First person eliminated - DOES NOT MAKE JURY
REWARD - Last one standing wins immunity and assorted foods for group and go to Tribal 2nd.
Group 1 - Soda, Liz, Maria, Tevin, Charlie, Venus
Group 2 - Ben, Q, Kenzie, Tim, Hunter, Tiff
Uncle Q breaks out an entertaining alphabet game that reminds me of my 7th grade classroom with nobody following the rules of the game leaving Uncle Q bamboozled and the game ends. People can’t follow rules and play simple games on Survivor and in middle school. hahaha
The challenge skps from the first foothold to the top of the platform. Q, Soda, and Ben can’t make the transition. Down to 9.
The ocean is a lake and all is quiet on the Fiji front until Tim starts shouting out his family and everyone else he knows. Also, he helps everyone, including Jeff, learn that “What’s up Jeff” is him actually asking for the elapsed time of the challenge.
Now, the time has come to lift one foot.
Charlie out. Tim out. Venus out. Liz out. Hunter out. Tiff out.
Kenzie wins immunity.
Tevin and Maria are left and have earned the reward and the 2nd Tribal for the purple group. Tevin is wiggling and cannot hold on and Maria wins immunity.
Kenzie and Maria are safe and cannot be voted out. At the first Tribal Council, either Tim, Tiff, Hunter, Ben, or Q will be voted out and will not make the jury. Hunter is the lone NAMI but he isn’t going to Tribal alone. He has his idol and HE BETTER PLAY THE DAMN IDOL AND SURVIVE. It’s not worth it to hold onto. I think it’s totally worth using, being safe, and accepting the blowback. Certainly better than being voted out, not being part of the jury, and having a souvenir filled with regret.
A final word on the game design at 12. Love the split, love having two Tribal Councils, love having two eliminations. The part I like most is perhaps the part I like least too. In this format, you cannot rely on having a huge voting block at every Tribal post-merge, but that also means you can get screwed over here too. In other words, Hunter will look great if he plays his idol and is safe. It prevents him from being screwed over by being the only NAMI at the first Tribal Council and it complements his 3 tribe phase of the game gameplay because he was able to win the Beware Advantage. On the other hand, if Hunter didn’t have the idol and since YANU is all together, if they wanted to target Hunter (and NAMI) they could make him the easy vote out because he is alone. In the end, there is luck involved in Survivor and I’m glad Hunter can make his own luck tonight.
REWARD
At the reward is Tevin, Maria (immune), Charlie, Venus, Soda, and Liz. 4 NAMI and 2 SIGA. The math of this pre-Tribal scramble is easy right? Venus wants Charlie out, Charlie wants Venus out, and NAMI has the numbers (4) to vote out a SIGA (2) and Maria has immunity so that leaves Charlie…
Charlie gets voted out, easy, right?
Wrong.
Tevin is ready to provide the spark that lights the blindside, aka I think he will target Venus. No real surprise there. Will he get Maria and Charlie on board? Shouldn’t be that hard to make the Venus volcano explode.
FIRST TRIBAL SCRAMBLE
At old SIGA camp we learn that Q “jumped off” in order to lower his challenge threat level and test his alliance strength. Since Q is a football player and used to watching game film. Let’s watch the video tape and make a decision on whether we believe him.
After further review, the call on the field is confirmed. Q did jump off. Wow, I think Q is playing a better game then I thought he would. I’m impressed by his awareness to throw the challenge for himself and his confidence in his alliance. Of course it helps when you are going to a 6 person Tribal at final 12 and YANU makes up half the voting power. Still takes guts.
Q wants to keep his “brilliant” plus 1 alliance plan going and keep Hunter. Tim wants to take the shot at Hunter while you have the chance. So who does Q want to vote off - Tim, and he’ll never see it coming. Feels like Q is SUPER confident and it would be wonderful to see Q have all his ducks in a row and then watch Hunter pull out the idol and teach him a lesson on next level Survivor gameplay.
BACK AT NUINUI
Lots going on. 4 NAMI and 2 SIGA. Maria has immunity leaving Charlie as the “easy” tribal line vote. Not going to happen. Next, Soda is going to target Venus who has been coming at her since the beginning. On top of that, Venus is trying to “play with fire” and is stuck on voting Charlie out (her idea last week) and then she throws out Tevin’s name. As Maria said, Venus is oblivious to reading the room. She so desperately wants to rule the roost but I think she lacks self awareness in this game and she feels very young and her conversations with Maria make Venus look younger and even less self-aware. SIGA has the power with all the cracks at NAMI.
Prediction: Venus’ plan won’t be the plan even if she’s on the right side of the votes. Soda gets voted out.
BACK AT FIRST GROUP
YANU is deciding between Tim and Ben aka SIGA, but Q is flipping and flopping and may think he’s got more control in the game then he actually does. He is putting a strain on Tiff and Kenzie.
Hunter actually being on his own finds himself in a better spot then we would have guessed initially, but then he has a choice to make. Does he play the idol and keep himself safe no matter what? I think so.
Prediction: Q and the editing has thrown me off the scent, so I feel the chaos of this vote. They should take down Hunter, he’s only the best player, but they won’t. I think it will be exit stage right, the concert is over for Ben.
TRIBAL COUNCIL 1 - Night 14
It’s clear that Tim is pushing Hunter and trying to take out a NAMI.
Ben opens up the door on the human side of the game. It’s interesting that Ben is seeking the human side and his struggle in life to fit in. Being himself, fitting in, and finding connection on a human level, not just a “stage monkey” to entertain everyone is powerful. I’m sure people at home who struggle with their own version of this are connecting deeply with Ben.
Same for Kenzie. She has shown us the other half of the human side of Survivor this episode. When she comforted Ben and held his hand through his panic attack, we the viewer are brought into a hyper awareness of the line between the game and the human side of the game. Similar to Ben, I think many people will connect with Kenzie and how she was there for Ben.
VOTES
Tim - 4
Hunter - 2
Well, my prediction was wrong but I’m not at all surprised by the Tim vote out. He was never really part of the plus 1 alliance and if he was, he was on the outside. Tim gets blindsided because he thought his logic was sound and he was SIGA strong, but he trusted Q and was wronged. Plus, Ben and Kenzie shared a connection that I don’t think Tim ever did with anyone in this game. For that reason, feels like Tim was the right person to be voted out and not make the jury. Just like Tim didn’t connect with anyone on the island, nor did he connect with the viewers.
TRIBAL COUNCIL 2 - Night 14
Charlie feels worried. Venus feels worried. Maria isn’t worried but for the first time she didn’t have the power. An interesting reveal from Maria from her seat of power with the Immunity Necklace around her neck.
Liz didn’t bring her bag and is playing up the NAMI stays NAMI angle and that Charlie is the easy vote, but I don’t think everyone is that good an actor. We are getting a heavy dose of acting and it’s at best, Saved By the Bell level acting. Not good.
VOTES
Soda - 4
Venus - 2
Well, my prediction on this vote was correct but Soda is so blindsided that she doesn’t realize who actually blindsided her. Tevin is PISSED because he didn’t get credit. We knew that about Tevin, he loves attention and being the center of it. He also made the point of wanting to start building his resume for Final Tribal. This was a first step. Ultimately, Soda’s personality was too extroverted, too summer camp rah rah, and took up too much space for a personality like Tevin to tolerate long term. Tevin didn’t like that and staged this blindside.
Leaving this Tribal and Soda becoming the first member of the jury has me thinking first, how will Tevin handle not getting immediate credit for blindsiding Soda and Venus getting the credit? Will he open his mouth immediately at camp or could he literally store this for Final Tribal and reveal it then and win Soda’s vote?
Next, Venus thinks she was the one behind blindsiding Soda, but she wasn’t. Let’s put it this way, Venus is so far out of the race, she actually thinks she’s in first place.
Lastly, as I’m typing this I stand corrected. In the exit interview with Soda we see the votes and Tevin didn’t vote Soda. Charlie, Maria, Liz and Venus did. Hmmm. So who actually staged the blindside??? Feels like Venus still thinks she did but maybe it was Maria and Charlie, or maybe it was Liz? Interesting.
NEXT WEEK’S PREVIEW
Walking away from the two Tribal Councils this episode, perhaps the biggest result was Hunter not having to play his Immunity Idol. Hunter was the lone NAMI in the first Tribal and it actually allowed him to hold onto his idol, so the best player in the game still has firepower and nobody knows it. Looking forward to next week, apparently nobody knows where he is. He’s up in a tree in his spy shack? Oh boy, this game just keeps getting better and better.
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