Survivor 46 | Ep. 6
Hunter’s Beware Advantage:
We are reminded that Hunter has lost his vote until NAMI loses a challenge or until they are told to “drop their buffs”. Now the time has come for us to learn more about this storyline. I forgot about it so thank you Survivor for that reminder to open the episode.
SIGA - Night 11
Moriah isn’t only feeling like she can’t jump, now she feels like an idiot for being on the wrong side of the Jem vote. She’s been lied to by Maria, Charlie, Ben and Tim and now they are reassuring her by saying she’s good and nobody wrote her name down.
DROP YOUR BUFFS… - Day 12
YANU has a spark for their fire and a spark to their game when they receive the note that they are moving. Tiff and her idol “Idol-icia” are ready to take their alliance with Q and Kenzie to the merge. Speaking of sparks, Moriah is most excited at SIGA to receive the news of the game changing. The rest of SIGA is coming off a united vote to take out Jem.
Finally, at NAMI Hunter plays charades to fly off and grab the buried clue to the next part of his Beware Advantage. He runs off to find his buried clue and it gives him a riddle to find the key to unlock his box. The music cranks up and the chase is on! Hunter has to dig up his key at the steps leading to their camp. He escapes to go “vibe” on his own and finally finds his key.
But the fun doesn’t stop there. He now has to sprint to unlock the box and grab his idol before the boats arrive with the other tribes. Cue the music cranked up to max decibels again!
BOOM!
Hunter beats the clock and the pressure to unlock his idol and potentially have get out of elimination free card heading into the all important merge. Phew.
The biggest takeaway from Hunter’s Beware Advantage is one, I never doubted him. The guy is smart and capable and the editing didn’t fool me. Second, and more importantly, I think his calm, cool, low-key approach to the game so far and especially at NAMI allowed him to sneak away, or should I say “fly” away to complete the tasks needed to unlock the idol WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE!!! Congratulations Hunter, not everyone in the new era has to tell someone in order to obtain an idol via the Beware Advantage. If you have read Tribal Council Blog throughout the new era you know that I simply don’t understand why people can never keep their mouths shut, but Hunter has done it. Could be a winning move. Stay tuned.
UNNAMED NEW TRIBE - Day 12
The awkward pre-merge tribe phase begins. Venus is ready to flip to YANU and is singing like Bhanu except she has a clue of how to play the game. As soon as she can conclude her segment trying to sabotage the former NAMI, Tevin is doing the opposite and ready to out Venus as the threat and one to be weary of.
Next, I cannot believe my ears to know that Q’s idea about the plus 1 alliance consisting of Q and Tiff (YANU), Hunter and Tevin (NAMI), and Tim and Maria…but Tim didn’t do his part. Maria isn’t his number one nor is Tim Maria’s number one.
It feels like Q was dead serious on this idea - one, because it was his idea and two, he was desperate with all the losing at YANU. Hunter seems in on the plus one alliance formed at his losing journey and Tevin loves it too, even with all the success at NAMI. So that leaves Tim as the spoiler to the plan or maybe he was comfortable at SIGA and shook his head yes at the journey like anyone would have. I don’t think you can take much stock with the quick “yeah I’m down to work with you guys” conversation at a journey. Like how long could they have talked for, 4 minutes? Tops 5 right?
I think Tim is taking the “beg for forgiveness” approach from Q and the plus one alliance as he seems to be relying more so on his connection with SIGA above his journey alliance. I think the lesson here is to be self aware of your position in the game, and know the position of the people on a journey’s position too. Be confident Tim, but also think about Q’s desperation to find numbers at the merge and play into it. Don’t poo poo it and give a desperate man a reason to doubt you. Interested to see how this plays out for Tim. He may have been the one to fumble the ball this time.
Day 13
It’s night vision early morning on Day 13 and Venus is digging around the SIGA people. She seems desperate to connect with ANYONE. At NAMI, they have been winning but Venus is the clear crack in the NAMI tribe heading into the merge. Venus is playing like Hammurabi looking for a “name for a name” but it seems like she is setting off SIGA’s red flag alerts.
I like the message that Maria communicates about the plus one alliance. She’s not looking to play Tim’s game but she’s interested to hear the options. This is why Maria is on the average viewer’s winner radar. She’s in the middle at SIGA, she’s not a physical threat, and she’s got the “mom” presence about her. A great combination.
SURVIVOR LIMBO CHALLENGE - Day 13
Two groups of 6 compete and 1 person sits out (gray rock)
Orange - Charlie, Moriah, Soda, Venus, Liz, Maria
Purple - Q, Hunter, Tevin, Ben, Tim, and Kenzie
Gray - Tiff (not participating but chooses Purple to win or lose with)
The luck of the rock draw was so lopsided that they had to acknowledge it. All the strength is on the purple squad side. Q, Hunter, Tim, Ben, Tevin, and Kenzie. It’s not even close. Feels like a Survivor blow out could be happening, better yet…
PREDICTION: Orange doesn’t even finish the challenge and the producers think twice about this format for 47.
First, crawl under muddy net one at a time and get to the mat.
Orange out to the early lead and making my prediction look like an overreaction, but this part of the challenge can be done by all.
Move a cart over speed bumps and load LOTS of sand bags onto the cart.
Purple regains the lead and stacks their sand bags up to get everyone up the cargo net. Orange trailing but in better shape then I thought they would be in.
The slide down the cargo net.
Always dangerous - legs could get caught and a blown out knee always seems on the table. Some bounce down and Q even runs down (athlete).
Giant Boulder.
This is the part that I didn’t think orange would be able to complete. Not enough strength to get everyone up but I was wrong. Wow. Impressive. Charlie and his orange angels are able to human ladder and maneuver their bodies enough to get everyone up the boulder to the puzzle and catch up to purple.
Finally, the puzzle comes in 3 parts and everyone has to contribute.
Maria and Liz catch up to purple after the first section of the puzzle. Soda and Moriah are now keeping pace with Ben and Kenzie on the second section who complete it just ahead but orange is right there.
WOW
Can Venus and Charlie beat Hunter and Q? The final section of the circular dragon puzzle is no match for Hunter’s mastery of puzzles. Tevin takes the words right out of the viewer’s mouth. Hunter seals the deal and wins a merge meal for himself, Q, Kenzie, Ben, Tim, Tevin, and Tiff who chose right. This sends both the David and Goliath teams to tribal with only the David tribe - Soda, Venus, Moriah, Charlie, Maria, and Liz vulnerable at Tribal.
Final takeaways - First, just like everyone else, I was wrong about how the orange team would fare in the challenge. Second, if anyone is paying attention, Hunter is separating himself as the physical challenge threat but also the puzzle threat. His target may be invisible at camp but it’s growing at challenges and puzzles. Hunter’s game is an iceberg. I wonder who sees the 90% below the surface. Finally, for Soda, Venus, and Liz, this is their first Tribal Council. They will finally get their torches, but my guess is one of them will also lose their torch tonight.
MERGE FEAST and LOSER BEACH - Day 13
Is there no sanctuary aka where good things happen? Jeff didn’t use that terminology but just saying.
The merge feast has all of YANU - Kenzie, Q and Tiff are all safe, eating good, and have made the merge. The merge brings with it information. Hunter doesn’t have a vote and shares it publicly. Tevin reminds the viewers that he has an extra vote waiting for him at Tribal.
Ben and Tim are the lone SIGAs at the feast and are pressed for another name to throw out there. By giving nothing or beating around the bush it communicates to former YANU and NAMI that SiGA is staying “SIGA Strong”.
Finally, in 43 Gabler taught us that the merge feast in the new era is a chance to throw out a name and it might just be enough to get that person out. Gabler did it to Elie and Tevin may have just done it to Venus. However, that’s not all. Because Tim and Ben were pressed for a name, they gave up Moriah, but not with the same gravity. Tim and Ben want to exploit the Venus crack and keep SIGA strong.
This vote is crucial for the structuring of the merge phase of the game. NAMI has cracks and SIGA is strong. YANU is united. Venus wanted to play Survivor and now she’s got her chance. YANU throws out Moriah’s name because it’s what the merged group wants, but Venus is pissed and wants to throw out Charlie. People aren’t going to like that.
Venus is making the mistake of trying to play too hard too soon in this phase. It feels like Venus was bottled up at NAMI for too long and because they never lost, she has remained the game. She would have easily been voted out had they gone to Tribal even once. NAMI never did, so Venus is still in. Now that the tribe phase is over she is salivating at the opportunity to play a different game, a game in which she has a voice, but she may have played too hard too fast. NAMI people didn’t vibe with her for a reason and now she is giving other tribes reason to distrust her too.
PREDICTION: Venus goes home. Moriah and SIGA stay strong.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - Night 13
Great to see the expressions and awe that Tevin, Soda, Venus, Hunter, and Liz have on their faces seeing Tribal for the first time. YANU has no reaction because they’ve been there too many times before.
Such an interesting dynamic of this Tribal. 7 people safe, 6 vulnerable. 5 have never been to Tribal, 5 were just there, and 3 have been there too many times. The levels of comfort are in three different places.
Hunter puts out there again that he doesn’t have a vote and puts the vote on YANU for which tribe they want to take someone out from NAMI or SIGA.
Moriah also speaks up about the truth of SIGA’s lone vote at Tribal in which she was on the bottom. Her case is an attempt to lower her threat to nothing and stick the target on anyone but herself. This comes as news to everyone including Q who is trying to make sense of this new phase of the game with people who know how to play, not a bunch of Bhanus.
MORIAH PLAYS HER SHOT IN THE DARK
Moriah - NOT SAFE
VOTES
Moriah - 10
Venus - 1
Moriah is voted out but not without putting up a wannabe Kaleb performance and fight. I love that she played her Shot in the Dark. Had to. If she hit, it would have been amazing, but it wasn’t meant to be. I think Moriah fell into the crack that a united “SIGA strong: created. In other words, YANU and NAMi decided that Venus was not as large a threat as SIGA’s potential if the 5 of them continued on together. Plus, I think YANU, who now finds themselves in a position of strength, realized that there were far more cracks at NAMI than at SIGA, plus, Tim’s misstep in the eyes of Q and his plus one alliance idea gave YANU the nudge necessary to take out a SIGA. Lastly, Moriah was a superfan of the show and I think that in the new era, that doesn’t help you because it can be a reason for people to see you as a threat. Remember you can be voted out for any reason in Survivor, so if you’re a superfan, that’s great, but like Boston Rob always says, “KEEP YA MOUTH SHUT!”. Moriah’s superfan status definitely played into her being voted out.
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