Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 12: F in History

Book smarts are not everything.  Nor are they a necessary component to win “Survivor”.  That being said, I do think a good chunk of this cast could have used some more of them.  If they had, maybe they’d have come across the phrase “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  Then, maybe we wouldn’t have gotten FOUR PEOPLE OUT WITH AN IDOL IN THEIR POCKET IN A ROW!  

But I’m getting.ahead of myself.  Insanity such as this deserves some buildup.  We start up immediately post-Tribal Council, where Q gives a funny line about how Venus is visible from Earth, but not in the game anymore.  Technically untrue, since Venus is on the jury, and therefore visible at Tribal Council, but I enjoy a good astronomy reference, so I’ll let it slide.  

Moving on to actual strategy talk, Ben’s stray vote for Kenzie is the topic of the night, as Kenzie is NOT happy with this vote.  Naturally, Ben explains the need for a strategic vote in case of an idol play or shot in the dark, and how it’s really nothing personal… Or he could say he just had a brain fart and didn’t mean to do so.  Ok, I’ve been harsh on Ben, but he’s not THAT stupid!  Clearly this is just him attempting to pull a Natalie Anderson (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) and FAKE getting confused to achieve their own ends, in this case probably to defuse the situation!

Or, he could just really be that dumb.  Ugh, look, Ben, I’ve been TRYING to go easy on you strategically, but you’re REALLY not making it easy on me.  We will see that Ben has good reason to be this mentally out of it a bit later, but for now, it just comes across really bad for his chances.  

Kenzie, needless to say, is not taking this very well.  She keeps bringing it up and complaining about it.  Mostly in confessional, so not too harmful, but some of it does seep out.  Kenzie’s other saving grace is Maria, who has a more noticeable breakdown about Venus’ comments about her reward divvying from the previous episode.  Not the nicest thing to hear, to be sure, but in Venus’ defense, Maria did REALLY play that off badly.  If you want to take people you want to strategize with, fine, but don’t try and play it off as taking the people “who need it the most”.  Especially if you’re taking the guy who stuffed his face with Applebee’s the episode beforehand.  That said, words can still hurt, and we go to our intro with everyone comforting Maria about all this.  

The night is not done, though, nor are its terrors!  Yes, Ben has another night terror that we see Kenzie comfort him from.  Ben explains that this is something that hasn’t happened in a while, but that he had a traumatic experience on a camping trip that is exacerbating them.  Like with Liz, I have to ask: “If you knew this was going to be an issue, why did you choose to come on THIS show?”  

Ok, ok, I’m being a bit too harsh here.  It’s possible Ben didn’t realize quite how much this was going to impact him on this issue.  Even so, again, not a great look.  Luckily, despite their spat earlier, Kenzie continues to comfort Ben, saying that that’s something outside the game for her.  Even if it has potential in-game benefits for her, that’s fair enough, and it’s a nice human moment in the game.  It also gives Ben another chance to say something “rocks”, so we get our catchphrase out of the way early for the episode.  

We also get a challenge out of the way early this episode, mostly because it’s a reward challenge, and therefore needs to come earlier.  It’s a generic obstacle course with a table maze at the end, and not even an interesting one like the snake one last episode.  Winner gets Chinese food at the Sanctuary with the annoying slogan Probst just won’t let die (I couldn’t tell, but I think they even printed it on the damn food containers).  

Most of the challenge is pretty generic.  Kenzie and Ben are the slowest, but everyone gets to the maze, giving Ben the opportunity to reference a song I ACTUALLY know in “Pinball Wizard”.  Suddenly I like Ben a lot more.  Maybe my feelings on him really ARE mostly due to my not being a big music guy.  I will also credit Liz with a funny moment.  She pulls up her foot to try and map out the maze, the nonchalantly notes that she’s bleeding.  The words themselves are not that funny, but her delivery is top-notch.  Well done, Liz.  

Anyway, Charlie wins the whole thing, and says he’s going to take the people who didn’t get pizza last time, namely Kenzie and Liz.   Fair enough choices, depending on how close Ben is with him.  Personally I’d see Ben as the more flimsy ally of the three, given a potential closeness with Maria, and probably would have taken him over one of the other two, but hey, can’t fault the choices overall from a strategic sense.  I can fault them from an entertainment perspective, however.  Look, Charlie, I get that you want to talk strategy with Liz, and it’s good PR to be the person who finally gives her the individual reward, but it would have been funny if, for all her protests, she NEVER got one.  Cruel, but hilarious.  

No, instead it’s Maria who’s very upset at this outcome, namely because Probst also mentioned that letters from home would be part of this particular reward.  Being a mother, this hits Maria especially hard.  She doesn’t go full Liz and scream to the heavens, but she does break up and cry about it.  Once we get back to camp, we see that the crying continues, and while she admits in confessional that she understands why Charlie did what he did, her heart still has a hard time with it.  This does, however, harden her resolve to get out Charlie, and if that gives her the strength she needs to cut her Malcolm, then so be it.  

Similar thoughts are happening over at The Sanctuary.  First, though, love from home.  We run the gamut from “sweet, but nothing special” (Liz) to genuinely touching (Kenzie, whose husband had them delay their wedding, which would have been the previous day, for her to go on the show.  It’s a good flashback, even if Kenzie tying all this in to her charting her own path is a bit forced.  Though I will say, Kenzie looks almost no different than when she was a teenager; what’s her secret?), to the cringe-worthy (Charlie.  Guess what?  Even more Taylor Swift!). The latter brings us back to strategy, where the three agree to work together.  Maria is their primary target, due to being a major threat come the end, particularly as she’s shown aptitude in fire-making.  Nice of them to put aside their hatred of Q for that, however.  

The three do worry about an idol find, however, thus Q-ing us up for an idol hunt.  And I do use the Q pun quite intentionally there.  Q admits he’s been kind of “stormy” the past few episodes, but tells himself to calm down.  Lo and behold, it brings him success, leading to him finding an idol that is particularly well-hidden.  Q debates whether to tell or not to tell Maria about this.  He settles on “tell”, noting that it will make Maria more likely to keep him.  I’d point out that everyone who has let slip about their idol has been voted out, but hey, Maria says in confessional the exact same logic as Q, and she doesn’t tell anyone else, so I can’t really fault this move for him.  

Once the reward is done, Charlie and Maria reconcile, Maria saying she understands why Charlie did what he did.  Both talk about wanting to go to the end with each other, but in a great moment of humor, both talk in confessional about wanting the other out, how hard it is emotionally, and how the other seems to genuinely want to go to the end with them.  Funny, but I have to ask, can neither of these people get a good read?  Their faces and tones of voice make it CLEAR they’re BS’ing each other.  Charlie in particular has no poker face here.  Yet neither of them picks up on it?  Loss of strategy respect.  

Off to our immunity challenge, aka “An excuse to use those giant water platforms we have”.  It’s a standard obstacle course, though on the water this time, with a dolphin puzzle at the end.  How original.  

Everyone makes it to the puzzle, and sleepy brain aside, Ben takes an early lead.  Once Maria gets into her groove, however, she does not stop, landing a solid immunity win.  Good for her, though shame that most of that strategizing has now gone to waste.  

Back at camp, Q is the target.  It’s not even a question.  Everyone except Maria talks about how they need to do this, and honestly, I can’t blame them.  Maria would be the optimal target, but with her immune the next best thing is to take out her close ally and thus limit her options, hence Q.  About the worst that can be said about this alliance is that, on paper, the four white people left ganging up against the two non-white people left is not a great look.  In context, of course, it’s clear that race has nothing to do with it in this particular case, nor should it be a consideration for them not to make the move.  But still, purely on paper, not a great look.  

Of course, there’s always the threat of Q’s idol, but after Liz and Kenzie do a good job fake agreeing to the Charlie plan, Q says he’s feeling comfortable, and if he survives tonight, will be back on top of the game.  Obvious foreshadowing, much?  I mean, it’s not like there’s a way Q finds out about this plan, right?  

Oh look, there goes Charlie saying Maria needs to be let in on the plan to keep his options open.  Yeah, I half-expect Charlie to inadvertently vote himself out here.  You’re going against Maria anyway; time to commit to your plan.  She literally does not need to know.  The worst seems to be averted when she assures Q that everything’s fine, but it puts a bit of doubt in our minds.  

Less doubtful are the votes themselves.  Tribal Council is uninteresting overall, though Kenzie does have a funny moment where she compares her tribemates to various family members, inadvertently calling Liz “old” and Charlie “a dog” in the process.  Semi-insulting comparisons, is what I’m saying.  But we go full Erik Reichenbach (“Survivor Micronesia”) and don’t even PRETEND there’s any mystery to the votes, showing every single person writing down Q’s name, as well as Q and Maria voting for Charlie.  Shout outs in particular to Liz for going the full nine yard’s and spelling Q’s full name, as well as Charlie for advertising the Q-skirt one more time.  

No, the real mystery is whether or not Q will play his idol, and as the title of this blog hopefully indicated, he does not.  Yep, we are now FOUR IN A ROW on people being blindsided with an idol.  You’d think one of them would have learned.  

Smart decision for the majority it may be, but I am still sorry to see Q go here.  Nothing against Charlie, he seems like a nice guy, but he doesn’t bring the drama quite the way Q did.  And I have to admit, even if he had next to no chance of winning, I kind of hoped that Q would make it all the way to the end, just to see how he’d do in front of the jury.  That had the potential to be an all-time great Final Tribal performance from an entertainment perspective. On top of that, this means that Siga has still relatively “stuck together”, which is just frustrating to see on yet another season.  Still, if you want Q to go out, best he goes out in a blaze of glory.  

Q admits in his final words that he was dumb for not playing the idol, but says he has no regrets about his game, and even offers Liz an Applebee’s trip on the other side of things.  Because we have to beat that joke into the ground one more time.  

Despite my personal disappointment, this was still an incredibly fun episode.  Like I said, with how much focus has been on Q this season, his boot episode (assuming he wasn’t making the end) needed to be something spectacular, and this was it.  Yes, there was little mystery, but they made up for it in how blunt and over-the-top the editing was.  The idol added just enough of a question mark to keep things interesting, and the comedy was on point in general, while throwing in some good heart as well.  A good mix leading into the finale, but as we’re doing so, it’s time once again for me to rank our remaining players on their winning chances.  As a reminder, this is how likely they are to WIN in the end, not how likely they are to GET to the end.  I may mention that in my discussion, but it’s not a factor in their placement.  Speaking of, we begin at the top, starting with:

1. Maria: This spot is always reserved for “They win at the end against anyone”, which is normally a slam-dunk, but less so this season.  There’s no one who definitively fits this category, but a few who come close.  In the end, however, I give the edge to Maria.  Outside the incident with divvying up the pizza reward (which the jury as a whole did not see, thereby mostly pissing off Venus and possibly Liz), she’s seen as the de-facto leader of the dominant alliance, and is well-liked.  Pretty good combination overall.  Yes, she was on the wrong side of the numbers this time, but since Charlie clued her in on the plan, she can lie and say she knew about it, but chose to vote Q anyway out of loyalty, since her vote didn’t matter, and she’s back in the clear.  Granted, we the audience know this isn’t the case, but since the jury doesn’t see her confessionals in this regard, no one can call her on it.  Ok, Q maybe could call her on it, since he knows that she knew about his idol, but is Q likely to do so?  I doubt it.  Feels like he’d want Maria to win, so for once, I could see him keeping quiet.  Granted, Maria probably needs to immunity her way to the end at this point, barring a sudden resurgence of Siga loyalty, but if she can get there?  It’s her’s to lose.  

2. Charlie: After tonight, Charlie nearly stole the number one spot on this list.  Being seen as the sidekick to Maria, he needed to strike out on his own, but tonight he did, numbers-wise.  Sadly, he also undercut himself by still letting Maria in on the plan, which is really the main factor that keeps him out of the top spot.  Still, of the remaining Siga members he’s probably the one left with the best balance of social connectedness and strategy.  Played right, that could net him the win.  He just needs to hope that Maria doesn’t go on an immunity tear next episode.  

3. Kenzie: Perhaps an odd choice to put here, given that Kenzie has few post-merge victories to her name.  Perception is everything on “Survivor” however, and I keep coming back to Bhanu’s “Mermaid-Dragon” confessional from earlier in the season.  True, that could have been put in just for being a fun confessional, but given that everyone’s perception of the old Yanu tribe initially came from Bhanu’s talk on the journey, this is everyone’s first impression of Kenzie: This mastermind perception, if it sticks with her, means she may not NEED an articulatable “strategic victory” at the end.  Her simply getting there may be perceived as a victory.  Certainly she can be said to be “running things” more so than Ben or Liz, so if she can get to the end with them, she wins, and I could even see her beating out either Charlie or Maria if she plays her cards right at Final Tribal.  Still, they have clearer narratives than her for why they should win, so I keep them higher ranked in this list.  An uphill battle for Kenzie, but not an insurmountable one.  

4. Ben: The best that can be said for Ben is that he’s well-liked.  On a season where most people largely seem to be at each other’s throats, I don’t think anyone’s saying anything bad about Ben.  We’ve seen his relationship with Kenzie in particular highlighted, and while we haven’t got that with others, the perception of Ben seems generally positive.  On some seasons, that would be enough, and it could even have been enough on this season.  For that to work, however, Ben needed people like Q and Venus to stick around, so that he could be seen as the “palatable alternative” finalist, similar to Bob in “Survivor Gabon” (see where I’m going with the comparisons?). He has not, however, and now that there are people the jury is ok with voting for, who visibly did more than him in the game, Ben’s chances are slim.  I wouldn’t count him out entirely, but someone’s going to have to look MAJORLY bad in front of the jury for him to have a shot.  And he’ll need to get some sleep too.  He’s clearly bad at arguing for himself, as demonstrated this episode, which will be a problem should he make it to Final Tribal Council.  

5. Liz: In contrast to the top spot, this was an easy one.  Liz has no shot to win this.  She’s been kept around as a decent player who can vote logically, but has never been shown to have as much agency as anyone else left (save Ben, but Ben’s more likable than her).  She’s not DISLIKED, but no one’s really going to bat for her on that jury either.  And if for some reason it comes down to “Who needs the money”?  Well, look who’s been vocal about how right they are in real life?  Sorry, Liz, there’s just not a metric on this season where you can beat anyone left.  Better luck next time.  

Even with Q gone, I’m hyped for this finale.  Hopefully it’s the messy, chaotic finish this season deserves!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 11: Too Cute

Look, I’m gonna try not to be too harsh here.  An idol is a big secret to keep, and I can only imagine the temptation to spill the beans is enormous.  But really, Venus?  Really?  You couldn’t resist the coy hints for just a few extra hours?  Hell, you were one of the few people this season who actually TRIED to keep a lid on their idol for a bit.  Disappointing, man.  Just disappointing.  

Before we get into the disappointment that is this episode overall, let’s talk about last one, which is still a highlight of the season.  Despite that, however, it is not immune from another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

There was just too much fun stuff to talk about last episode, and a few points I wanted to make kind of fell through the cracks.  Going out of chronological order here, I neglected to mention one point about Charlie’s win.  The last immunity challenge focussed on grip strength, and Charlie admits that he’s been training on grip strength for two years.  Honestly?  Good for him.  Be prepared for a bunch of people to say they need to phase out these challenges because people are preparing for them, though.  I kid, I kid.  

The second point I’ll bring up, albeit one from earlier in the episode, is that pretty much everyone, outside Maria, dismisses Q’s game, saying that he’s “checked out” or “given up”, usually accompanied by shots of him lying down on a dinghy on the beach.  I get why they have that perception, and I won’t say Q’s game has been exactly stellar up until this point, but I do think this is selling him a bit short.  With how much he got himself in the dog house socially over the last few episodes, him lying low is more of a strategic move than him not wanting to be there or anything.  

I bring this up because, now that Q seems to have at least a bit of say in how the game goes again, the morose spot on the dinghy is now vacant.  It is quickly filled by Kenzie, who notes this is the first time she’s been out of the loop on a vote, and does not take it well.  Charlie does his best to console her, but even out of confessional, Kenzie gets a bit emotional, asking over and over why no one thought they could tell her.  Gee, Kenzie, you think it may have to do with them proposing doing the move and you backing out?  Think that might have given off the wrong impression?  Look, Kenzie is hardly the WORST post-Tribal reaction I’ve yet seen, but she still comes off a bit entitled, and “giving up”, at least to the same extent Q is.  

Man, everyone is obsessed with people stealing “their moves” this season.  Case in point, Maria is now taking credit for getting out Tiffany.  Something I might warn her against doing given what happened to Emily in this exact same episode of “Survivor 45”, but Maria hasn’t seen that season, so I’ll let it slide.  Still, as with Emily, this gets into some people’s heads.  Specifically Venus, who correctly notes that Maria has been a stealth threat, growing more and more powerful as the game goes on.  Say what you will about Venus, but she has been the one this season most consistent in sussing out threats, and trying to get people to target them.  

The flaw in Venus’ game is no one takes her seriously.  She speaks the truth, but others do not listen.  Case in point, she goes to console Kenzie on the misery dinghy, but Kenzie is too caught up in said misery to do much of anything about it.  Must be really frustrating for Venus.  

Morning brings with it an idol hunt, with Q kicking things off.  Hunter was a bit of a question mark, but Tiffany’s idol was basically public knowledge at this point.  As such, one by one, everyone goes off and starts looking.  I applaud pretty much all of this cast for looking through with sticks rather than their hands.  Venus is our narrator for this segment, and notes that she has an advantage, since she knows where players like Randen and Tiffany found theirs, giving her some idea of what to look for.  This logic bears out, and Venus finds the idol under a rock.  Furthering her good play here, she resolves to tell no one (probably a wise decision, given what’s happened to every other idol holder who told people this season), and even participates in the idol hunt longer than she needs to, in order to keep up appearances.  All smart decision-making, though I do think she’s a bit too militant about it.  Reading the idol note takes like two minutes, Venus.  You can probably do that somewhere private without arousing suspicion.  

With the idol found, that leaves the rest of the day to discuss strategy…JUST KIDDING, MORE IDOL HUNTING!  This time in pairs, however, so it’s totally different!  Kenzie and Venus end up teaming up, and here we see that Venus’ perception as a “princess” may have some advantages she’s not considering.  Specifically, while Venus does try to keep up the perception of her needing to idol hunt, and pokes around a bit, she’s half-assing it, particularly when compared to Kenzie.  Kenzie DOES take notice of this, bur rather than become suspicious that Venus may have an idol, she chalks it up to Venus just not being that into the game.  I get that it’s not exactly a nice label, Venus, but you have to admit, it has its upside.  

My earlier snark aside, we do eventually get strategy talk.  Shock of all shocks, people are still mad at Q!  Despite Maria suggesting that the five who voted together should make up the final five, Liz in particular is not on board with that, correctly surmising that she’s at the bottom of that alliance.  Still, if they’re going to move against that group, they need one more person to flip.  Given that he’s “Mr. Sociability” at this point, Charlie is the one they go for.  You’d think he’d be a bit reluctant, given how close he and Maria have been up until this point, but surprisingly, Charlie is actually relatively on board.  

And I doubt it’s because of Kenzie’s salesmanship.  I get calling Maria a threat at the end, since her star is rising.  But Q?  The guy who pretty much everyone still in the game aside from Maria HATES at this point?  The only way he’s threatening is possibly in challenges, and if you look at track record, CHARLIE’S arguably more threatening in that category.  The last few episodes, the narrative has been “Q is so awful”, the implication being that he’s kept around due to being a number with nowhere else to go, and an easy person to beat at the end.  Now suddenly he’s this big jury threat who needs to go ASAP.  These two things cannot be true at the same time.  Consistency in the narrative is all I ask, show.  

But back to Charlie.  No, his real reason for considering the alliance is that he notes that Q is more a number for Maria than anything, and that threatens his position, particularly given that Maria is one of the few people left Charlie isn’t guaranteed to beat in the end.  Honestly?  He’s correct here.  It’s certainly risky to break up the Siga 3, particularly when they’re the dominant alliance left, but then again, Q is at best the fourth of the Siga 3.  Yeah, Maria might be hurt if you blindside one of her numbers, but where’s she going to go, huh?  Venus sees her as a threat, so unless she can get Q and Kenzie to work together, her best option is to still work with you.  Yes, Q is a goat at the end at this point (despite Kenzie’s desperate sales pitch), but Charlie is one of the people left who needs to worry more about getting to the end than getting there with people he can beat.  As such, much better to leave yourself as the only option for everyone else.  

Off to our challenge, and despite it mostly being a generic obstacle course, the ending is quite a fun one.  The first part is “Make your way over obstacles while holding a ball on a long pole”, as first seen on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, which is pretty played out at this point.  But the ending takes the “Snake Maze” we’ve seen so much of before, and puts a twist on it.  Rather than moving the maze, and navigating a ball around holes, players put a ball on a disk on a stick, and must move that to goals around RAISED bumps, basically inverting the original concept.  Kind of a cool shake-up, and while the challenge as a whole is still just ok, I’ll take it at this point.  

This challenge does prove to be a great equalizer.  Even Ben, who struggles the most on one leg of this challenge (another missed opportunity for “That does not rock”), makes it to the ending, and everyone even gets a ball in the first goal.  Venus and Maria end up being the most consistent, getting to the end multiple times, but it’s Maria who ekes out a win here.  Good thing Q was mentioned as a target just as much, if not more, than her, because otherwise this would be very boring!  

Maria also wins the right to bring people along to a pizza reward, which she… Does not handle well.  She states she wants it to be based on need for food rather than anything, and gives the reasons why basically everyone left could need it.  This ends up being a pretext to take Ben, which I don’t fault too much.  Decent ally, need to keep him close.  But then, rather than make a decision, she asks Q and Liz to do rock, paper, scissors.  Q wins, and so gets to go.  Frankly, this is a flat-out TERRIBLE choice.  Q has no options, and he just ate.  It looks bad, and you don’t need to shore up with him.  Liz, on the other hand, very publicly did not go on reward last time, and is someone you do need to make feel comfortable.  Might as well just take her; fewer questions asked.  Plus, making them do rock, paper, scissors makes you look wishy-washy, which is not a good look in a potential ally.  

A couple of asides concerning Liz, though: While I get that she’s hungry, I don’t see “I haven’t pooped in three weeks” as a good argument for eating pizza.  Last I checked, pizza was not a laxative.  Quite the opposite.  The second thing, mean as it is, is that I kind of love that Liz keeps begging for rewards and not getting them.  This is basically Rodney’s “Damn Birthday” 2.0 from “Survivor Worlds Apart”, and I got some good comedy mileage out of that, so happy to see it return.  

Anyways, back at camp, yeah, guess what, people are salty.  Liz in particular says that she’s “Not going to be quiet anymore.”  Because the woman who literally had a loud tantrum last episode has clearly been quiet up until now.  Liz then loses a lot of respect points from me for saying her allergies are due to bottling stuff up in her real life.  Not saying it’s healthy, but I’m pretty sure science says that’s not even remotely how allergies work.  While Charlie seems to waver a bit because Maria’s immune, he’s still quick to hop on the anti-Q train.  Q doesn’t receive all the vitriol, however.  Maria’s decision making, or lack thereof, has also turned several people off.  

One of those people, funnily enough, is Q.  We see him, Ben, and Maria shore up their agreement on reward (with pizza that looks surprisingly appetizing by “Survivor” standards), but Q admits that, while he’s happy Maria brought him, even HE thinks that was a bad move.  As the other group says, he’s still full of Applebee’s from last episode.  He doesn’t exactly need to eat.  Q’s not gonna complain about extra nutrients, though, and why should he?

The kvetching continues once those on reward return to camp.  True to her promise, Liz continues to complain about how she does not like Q, WHILE Q IS LITERALLY RIGHT BEHIND HER!  Seriously, you can’t write this stuff!  

To her credit, Maria does at this point realize her mistake in not taking Liz, and at least talks to her about things.  No word on how much Liz forgives her, but for now, I don’t see this upending the “Vote out Q” plan.  

All this is good for Charlie, who’s now even more firmly in favor of getting out Q, which compared to Venus (the other group’s plan), is probably the smart move.  Look, Charlie is right that he probably needs to strike out from Maria at some point, or at least lower her numbers.  Without an idol, this is basically his last chance to do it.  Q is not a number for you, and there’s many more people you can beat at the end aside from him!  Venus’ idol is about the only reason to consider taking her out, and even then, it seems more useful as a tool for you than a thing to be flushed.  

Speaking of Venus’ idol, Venus tells us she’s not going to play it tonight, since everyone seems so set on Q.  Because that worked out so well for Venus.  And Hunter.  And Jem.  Ok, the latter two didn’t have Q as an alternate target, but the point still stands, you’d think Venus would learn from history!  Still, unlike the former two, she hasn’t gone telling everyone about her idol yet.  And to be fair, she never does.  But she just CAN’T stop herself from coyly hinting about it to Charlie, while saying she’ll tell him after the vote.  Understandably, this makes Charlie incredibly suspicious.  Dammit, Venus, all you had to do was keep your mouth shut for a few extra hours, and you could have been fine.  Was that REALLY so hard?

With this new information, Charlie wavers a bit.  As a counterpoint, however, he worries if keeping Q will tar him with the same brush, and ruin his chances at the end.  As I made clear two paragraphs ago, getting rid of Q is probably the correct move here, but that’s not a reason to do so.  Just keeping around the guy people dislike is not going to affect your chances at the end.  The very fact that you’ve made clear a willingness to get rid of him means something at the end.  As Adam Klein demonstrated on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, merely talking about voting out someone earns you credit for doing so, even if you were at best a minor factor when it comes to actually getting the vote out.  

Before we head off to Tribal, a quick shout-out to Charlie’s lack of a poker face when insisting to Maria that he’s 100% on board for voting off Venus.  Maria must really not be paying attention to not see the hesitation in him.  Though even people who look at Charlie read him wrong.  When he informs Kenzie that he and Ben are scared of voting Q, she chalks it up to them being worried about the men losing numbers, which if that is a consideration, we haven’t seen it.  More Venus messing things up than anything, if the vote goes against her.  

Tribal Council tonight tries to live up to the epicness of some of the previous ones, and just fails miserably.  Probst brings out the cushion and food, there’s an argument involving Q, but none of it has the same flare as previous iterations.  Tiffany was just too good, I guess.  

I suppose I should detail that argument a bit, though.  Basically, Venus reads Maria the riot act about not making a decision.  Maria shoots back that she’d like to see Venus in that slot, and understand the pressure.  Venus states that she would have been a lot more decisive.  Point to Venus here.  Maria was pretty wishy-washy in that moment, and for all of Venus’ faults, she is decisive.  

Q, however, takes this as Venus being salty she didn’t go on the reward, and notes that Maria had no obligation to take Venus, since Venus would not have taken her.  Venus denies this, but I have to go with Q here.  Maria DOES have no obligation to take Venus, and given how firmly Venus has been against Maria, I think one can be pretty confident in saying that she wouldn’t have taken her.  About the worst that can be said about Q here is that his point wasn’t really relevant to the argument at hand, but in a vacuum, he is right.  Q then rubs salt in the wound further by saying that Venus is untrustworthy (somewhat fair), and was out of the loop last vote (very fair).  Venus retorts that Q was out on the last three votes, which I have to disagree with.  True, he was left out of the Hunter vote, but the other ones he was aware of, but had no power to influence.  Still a mark against him, but not in the way Venus says.  

Speaking of Venus, as I mentioned at the top of this blog, she goes out here.  Probably the wrong strategic move, but I’m not sorry to see her go.  With the outside possibility that Q isn’t as disliked as presented so far, his character becomes a lot more intriguing, and he does bring the drama by being a perpetual target.  In contrast, Venus’ arc was basically just her having good reads on the game, but never being listened to.  Funny, but it gets old after a bit.  She’s not super-salty about leaving, but even her final words are underwhelming.  She tries to be inspiring towards women, which is a noble goal, but they sound so practiced they come across like a poor man’s version of Nick Stanbury’s final words from “Survivor Exile Island”.  Some people can pull that type of speech off, and some people can’t.  Venus is one of the “cant’s” in this case.  

As a quick aside, Ben cast a stray vote for Kenzie. Probably just to guard against a shot in the dark, which is reasonable strategy. However, my head canon is that Ben went up to the voting booth and just said “I’m voting for Kenzie because she does not rock.”

Sadly, this episode was kind of a letdown from the previous couple.  The drama just felt muted, though that might just be due to how over-the-top the last few have been.  Venus’ boot was predictable with the editing, particularly given this season’s penchant for blindsiding people with idols, and again, it just didn’t reach the heights this season has become known for.  Hopefully this is just a lull building into an epic last two episodes, though!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 10: The Birds and The Applebees

I am hardly a defender of “Survivor Island of the Idols”.  When folks call it “The worst season ever”, I tend not to put up much, if any, argument.  Its flaws are many, too many to list here, but I’m sure I’ll enumerate them the next time I update my season rankings.  That being said, it cannot be denied that the presence of Karishma on that season has done one service to the “Survivor” community.  That service being to make Applebees an automatic punchline.  And that, in its own small way, is a positive in my eyes.  

But we’re not here to talk about that season, we’re here to talk about “Survivor 46”!  I barely touched upon it last time, but given that things had to go to a revote, it was pretty clear that there was at least something of an intentional vote split, in case Hunter had an idol.  The only question to me was how many people were IN on it actually being a vote split.  Clearly all the Hunter votes had that intention, but how many of the Q votes thought he was a legitimate target?  An argument could be made for all of them, an argument could be made for none of them.  

The answer, it turns out, is that everyone except Liz was in on it.  Liz is, understandably, a mite peeved at all this.  Everyone tries their best to calm her down, with Venus stating that the plan happened last-minute, and there wasn’t time to let her know.  Plausible enough, though I’d be a bit skeptical given that, if the plan really WAS that last-minute, you’d expect at least one other person besides Liz to be left out.  I suppose it’s possible that she had a late confessional interview, and everyone else didn’t, but unlikely at this point, in my view.  Still, while clearly being pissed, Liz handles the situation relatively well.  More so than for some other situations we’ll get to in a bit.  

To her credit, Venus has a good read on the game, once discussion turns to why Hunter didn’t play his idol.  The prevailing theory amongst the group seems to be that he must not have had one, but Venus (who knows better) correctly surmises that Hunter just felt safe given how fervently Q was targeted.  Therein lies the paradox of Q: His erratic gameplay and general difficulty to live with make him a desirable target, but BECAUSE he’s so desirable, he makes a good smokescreen for whatever plan you have going on.  

Speaking of Q, despite what I said earlier, he does seem to be finally taking a chill pill.  Outside of Liz, who still holds a grudge for him “stealing her move”, most everyone seems kind of indifferent to Q.  He’s being more laid-back, which is probably a good thing.  Let the heat on you cool down a bit.  I might question him separating himself from the tribe THIS much, but given how deep of a hole he dug himself, a bit of separation might help his game more than anything else he could do.  That said, most everyone agrees that they’re in no rush to befriend him again, even if they aren’t as mad as before.  Tiffany says he’s a grown man, and if he wants to come back and make amends, he can.  

Only Maria seems willing to make an effort with him right now, in a scene eerily reminiscent of Terry comforting Abi-Maria on “Survivor Cambodia”.  Q being all about control, I expect him to try and run any plan Maria suggests into the ground, purely because it’s not “Q’s Game”.  In a good showing of growth, however, Q is actually pretty receptive to the whole thing, and polite throughout.  Praise be, the man is LEARNING from his mistakes, and we love to see it!  Q DOES tell us he wants to control his own game, but it’s in the same way Gervase was going to control his own game on “Survivor Borneo”; namely winning challenges.  Not the greatest plan, but again, without more work the guy doesn’t have a lot of options, and he IS one of the bigger challenge threats left, so I can’t fault him much.  

In the morning, we’re back to other strategy talk, as Kenzie reaffirms to Maria and Charlie that she’s still in on the “Vote Tiffany Out” plan.  We also get some reasoning as to WHY Kenzie wants to make this particular move, and to be fairer to her than I was last episode, there is some logic to it.  Kenzie admits that Tiffany is her closest ally, but that this also means their moves have been made in tandem, which could hurt her getting credit at the end if she doesn’t break away at some point.  Further, there’s the threat of the idol messing up a later attempted blindside.  Frankly, particularly in the modern era, these are fairly valid concerns.  My issue is now less with the move itself, and more with Kenzie’s TIMING!  

Yes, Kenzie, you do need to stake your own claim away from Tiffany.  But aside from the fact that voting her out entirely is not a prerequisite of that (merely leaving her out of a vote), you still need SOME people loyal to you.  I get that you’ve been bonding with Ben, and Charlie, and Maria, and all that, but SURELY you have more trust in Tiffany!  That’s a bond that should not be discarded until absolutely necessary.  Look at the case of Maryanne Oketch (“Survivor 42”). She had similar reasons to vote out a close ally, but she WAITED until much closer to the end of the game, when there was much less risk of being branded too untrustworthy and getting taken out herself.  If you want to pull off that sort of move, THAT’S the sort of timing you need.  Granted, the presence of Tiffany’s idol is a bit of a wrench in things that moves up the time frame a bit, but even then, Final 9 still seems a bit early, and you could flush the idol without betraying Tiffany.  The sort of thing you want to happen, but not actually play a part in, is what I’m saying.  

Off to our reward challenge, literally the FIRST since we merged.  Five episodes ago.  Then really, what was the point of merging?  The challenge itself is standard obstacle course fare, mostly involving sandbags.  Nothing much worth noting.  What IS worth noting is APPLEBEES!  The biggest reward of the season!  Probst rhapsodizes about the deliciousness of the food while our starving players salivate.  He notes that “This is what future players dream of.”  Gotta say, speaking as a fan who’s had his fair share of “Survivor” dreams over the years, Applebees never factored in once.  

Liz in particular is overjoyed at this reward, and not just because it’s food she can actually eat.  She notes that she and her daughter have “Survivor Sleepovers”, which involve going to Applebees before watching the show on Wednesdays.  She even has a regular order.  It gets the job done ok, but she’s no Karishma.  But I’m sure this is just product shilling, and will in no way be important later.  

The best thing about this reward?  Probst does not describe it pre-challenge as being at “The Sanctuary, Where Good Things Happen”. May that stupid slogan have gone and died in a fire forever!

With no puzzle at the end to equalize things, Q’s early lead does net him a win, though to be fair, a lot of people get to the final leg as well.  Tossing a sandbag onto a tall pole is no easy feat, so even Q takes a while.  In addition, the music does a good job faking us out that some people may get it in one shot.  Q does win, though, making no one but himself happy.  He is naturally then given the choice of three people, one at a time, to take on the reward with him.  His first choice is Tiffany, which makes sense.  She seemed open to the mending of bridges at the start of this episode, and a full stomach is going to work wonders on that front.  His second choice, Maria, I also can’t fault.  She’s the only one actively talking strategy with Q, so of course she should come along.  Can probably help mediate with Tiffany as well, in case of any lingering resentment.  

Then comes the third choice, and both Liz and the players are pushing hard for Q to take her.  Liz literally begs Q, while Probst reminds him that she’s been unable to eat most everything out here, and they failed at the rice negotiations, meaning she isn’t getting food that way either.  Q hears this, takes it to heart… Then passes over Liz and chooses Kenzie.  

Say what you will about this move, the optics of it are not good.  I get not picking her first or second.  Prioritize your strategic preferences.  Liz, being one of the people most on the anti-Q train, would not be good for him for talking strategy.  But seeing someone that desperate for food, in that difficult of a situation, and not taking them once your strategic priorities are set?  Yeah, it just ain’t a good look especially when Q’s jury equity is already pretty well in the toilet at this point.  

With the obvious out of the way, let’s talk about a few of the other points surrounding Q’s decision here, since while it is a bit of a dick move, I don’t think it’s baseless.  From a purely strategic standpoint, there’s no reason to take Liz.  Indeed, she’s at or near the bottom on that metric.  Q has basically no intention of working with her, and as I said, I don’t think she’d be receptive anyway.  Moreover, it’s not entirely fair to hold Q solely responsible for Liz not getting a reward.  Yes, he made the selections, but people on reward, even those taken, are allowed to give it up!  Tiffany, Maria, or Kenzie could all have said “I give this to Liz”, but none of them did.  Yet we never see anyone mad at them.  Shows how thoroughly Q is in the doghouse socially at this point.  

Even in defeat, however, Liz is not about to get overshadowed by Q again.  She blows up, and I mean BLOWS UP!  Screaming to the heavens, shouting out every grievance she’s had since the merge.  It’s enough that even those sympathetic to her look uncomfortable.  And for the viewer, it does straddle the line between “fascinating” and “uncomfortable”.  Raw emotion works well on screen, but for something like a reward, this seems like an overreaction.  In addition, one could argue that it’s bad for Liz’s game.  While she hasn’t been getting the credit she thinks she deserves, one positive benefit there is that Liz also hasn’t been getting a target on her.  By including “her move being overshadowed” in the outburst, she’s cluing people in that she may be playing harder than first thought, and that may put a target on her back.  

Still, I can’t really fault Liz here.  As she says, she’s in her emotions, and being on the brink of starvation does not help one’s emotional control.  Yes, it’s a bad move, but Liz in this moment is not really thinking strategically.  And to her credit, she does quickly calm down and express her frustration in a calmer manner.  This does not change her situation, however, and everyone heads off in either jubilation or despair.  

The worst part about all this?  Probst brings back the damn Sanctuary Slogan.  Dammit, show, you had one job and you blew it!

We’ve heard from Liz, but what do folks back at camp think?  Ben is not a fan, though it is surprising that he doesn’t say “That did not rock.”  Instead, he talks about how it meant so much to Liz because of the family connection, but here, I have to disagree.  You can think Q pulled a dick move for denying the starving woman (well, more starving than everyone else, at least) food, but you could argue that EVERYONE could have some family connection to that reward.  Maybe people have families who like burgers.  Maybe people have families big into mixed drinks.  Everyone’s got something, however tenuous.  Liz’s thing is special to her, sure, but it’s not unique, and not a good reason to make a bad strategic move.  

But we see that even the people on reward are not thrilled with Q’s decision. Well, at least Kenzie isn’t.  Tiffany and Maria are mostly just happy for the food, but Kenzie admits that she didn’t expect to be taken.  She presumes that Q wanted to mend fences, but she says that won’t work, comparing it to an ex taking you out to a nice dinner to try and get back together.  The gesture is nice, but it doesn’t undo the past.  Fair enough.  

Speaking of the past, Liz is still dwelling on it, and my sympathy is rapidly dwindling.  Yes, Liz has a right to be pissed over the whole situation, but she’s taking quite a while to simmer down.  Again, I don’t want to be TOO harsh, given how rough conditions are for her out there, but it does seem like she’s making this out to be a bigger deal that it ultimately is.  We even lead into a flashback regarding her and her daughter’s “Survivor Sleepovers”, which we do not need.  A description was enough.  

Well, Q has firmly planted his picks in the strategic realm; how’s that working out for him?  Not great!  Despite Maria’s hopes, Kenzie is still firmly on the “Get Q Out” train, presumably not mentioning the Tiffany plan because, well, she’s right there.  Despite how she seemed at the start of the episode, Tiffany says this doesn’t change much, and she’s all for getting out Q.  Maria admits to wanting to use him as a number, but isn’t sure about how it will work right now.  

Things don’t look much better for Q once they get back to camp the next day.  Charlie asks about the reward, which Tiffany in particular goes on and on about, even noting she couldn’t eat the burger (Liz’s stated favorite food there) because there was so much.  Liz tells them to “read the room” in confessional, but again, I’m not going to blame them too much for this one.  It’s not like they came up and started talking about it out of the blue; Charlie asked a legitimate question.    Even then, they didn’t particularly go on about it beyond the usual descriptions you’d expect.  MAYBE you could argue they shouldn’t have mentioned the burger bit, but that’s a stretch in my book.  More out of her emotions now, Liz apologizes to Q, which he seems to accept.  Liz admits, though, that this was a pure lie, and fair enough.  Liz has little reason to work with Q at this point, but no reason to put him on edge.  

For his part, while Q does demonstrate an understanding of why Liz was feeling the way she felt, he tells us in confessional that he has no remorse for his decision.  As he shouldn’t.  If he was looking at it purely from a strategic perspective (as he indicated doing), then his picks were very logical.  His logic didn’t work out, but it at least had a fair to good chance of doing so.  Can’t fault him for that.  I will, however, fault Q for saying he “Doesn’t care what she thinks.”  In your world, Q, Liz will be on the jury, so you’d BETTER care what she thinks!

Anyway, time for our immunity challenge, the “Hold your pre-game weight in a bucket on a string” challenge; the one that tests your grip.  It was first seen on “Survivor Philippines”, and contrary to Probst’s claims, I think that, and not Gabler’s run on “Survivor 43”, was the record.  Pretty sure the Philippines edition went over an hour.  

My being pedantic aside, Probst has more important matters to attend to.  Notably, it seems production has realized “Oh crap, Liz might actually die if we don’t get food in her soon.”  So yep, rice negotiations are back.  Understandably, the price is steeper this time, with four people sitting out.  Same base number as before, but now a greater percentage of those left.  Equally understandably, almost no one takes this offer.  This late in the game, it’s too great a risk, even with Liz’s health to consider.  Presumably freaking out about this, Probst offers those who do sit out their own individual rice supply, which does get Liz, and only Liz, to sit out.  Understandable move, though I’m not sure why it got applause from everyone else.  This wasn’t some brave gesture or grand sacrifice.  

In case it wasn’t clear how much everyone hates Q, Venus and Ben attempt to manifest it from the bench, Ben being out surprisingly early in this challenge.  As he said, his cradle got rocked, which I guess met his catchphrase quota for the episode.  Q lasts a decent while, but is eventually out.  The challenge comes down to Charlie, who’s dropped but had some impressive comebacks, and Tiffany, whom Charlie and Maria have said they still want to target, yet remains perfectly still, not even responding to banter.  The look on her face throughout reads “Don’t talk to me.”  

Despite this impressive performance, Tiffany drops out of nowhere, netting Charlie his second victory.  Back at camp, talk immediately turns to getting rid of Q, with Kenzie now backing down from the Tiffany plan.  She admits to flirting with it, but think now’s not the time.  Really, what tipped you off, genius?

Charlie and Maria, however, still very much want this to happen, and understandably so.  Tiffany may be a good ally for Kenzie, but not so much for those two, and her idol makes her all the more a threat.  Maria talks to Q, who again in a good display of diplomacy, agrees to go along with Maria’s plan, no questions asked.  Not that he has much choice, but still, he’s learning not to insist on his way 100% of the time.  

This, of course, begs the question of where the other votes for Tiffany can come from.  Ben is the natural first choice, and he takes little convincing.  He may not be a fan of Q, but he admits there’s bigger fish to fry, with Tiffany being one of said fish.  Still, that’s only 4 and a tie is not enough.  Kenzie and Tiffany are obviously out.  That leaves Venus, who just seems to generally dislike Q, and Liz, whose dislike of Q as of this episode is extremely personal.  

Naturally, Liz is the obvious choice.  IN OPPOSITE LAND!  Generally, yes, I’d say Liz is the ore persuadable vote than Venus.  But today, of all days?  To her credit, Liz does hear out Maria’s pitch, and it’s a good one.  Maria basically offers Liz that “Big Move” she wants, and the chance to show she’s not ruled by her emotions.  Good way to appeal to Liz.  Maria’s game is really coming into its own this episode.  

The flaw is that this really isn’t a “Move for Liz”.  This is a “Move for Maria” that Liz would facilitate.  I get why Liz would be tempted, but from her perspective, it’s better to stick with voting out Q.  Yes, she may be the swing vote, but it’s usually the person who GETS the vote to swing, not the swing vote themselves, that gets credit.  Look at the flip at the final 7 of “Survivor Vanuatu”.  Eliza was very clearly the swing vote, but no one calls that “Eliza’s Move”.  Liz will fall into the same trap here.  Ironically, despite not orchestrating it, I’d say she’d be more likely to get credit if Q goes home.  She’s been so vocal about it, her getting her way with him gone would seem like more of her move, even though it wouldn’t actually be.  Honestly, the biggest benefit in joining the vote to get rid of Tiffany would be a close tie between the idol going home, and avoiding a possible rock draw in the event of a tie.  The former is definitely a concern, which is why going with Maria’s plan isn’t a horrible move for Liz, but the latter seems easily avoided.  Either convince Ben to vote with his heart, or make the (fairly safe) bet that Mara and Charlie wouldn’t go to rocks for Q.  

While I’m happy to see Q trying to improve his social game, the flaw with this is that Tribal Council is much less exciting.  Everybody playing things too close to the chest for anything interesting to happen.  About the only noteworthy moment is Tiffany’s smile dropping when she realizes she’s getting more votes than just Q’s, which is a priceless expression.  

Yes, Tiffany goes home, and I am disappointed.  Granted, I’d have been disappointed had Q gone home as well, but I could at least see some upside to it, since it’s getting old to have him be targeted every single episode.  Tiffany was dynamic, and had the potential to shake up the strategy more so than Q at this point, so her going is definitely a loss.  To her credit, though, she goes out with an enormous amount of class, her final words mostly noting (accurately) where she went wrong, and how she should have played her idol.  Tiffany, you may be gone, but we salute you nonetheless!

Honestly, great episode!  Not perfect, but the emotions were raw and high, the misdirection was excellent, and it’s nice to see the season remaining on the crazy train.  The slow start is an issue, but if it keeps up this momentum to the end, it will all be worth it!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 9: Cast Away

Longtime readers will know one of my coined but lesser-used terms on this blog, “The Shamar Threshold”.  Named for Shamar Thomas of “Survivor Caramoan” (see, Tim, you’re not the only one who remembers him), this refers to the point where someone initially picked to be dragged to the end as a goat becomes so annoying that they are more of a detriment to one’s social game than any benefit one might receive having them at Final Tribal Council.  We’ve seen a few examples of this over the years, but I think Q may be the only example I’ve seen to get the “goat” designation and cross that threshold IN THE SAME EPISODE!  A speed record, if nothing else.  

Naturally, conversation once we get back from the last Tribal Council is all centered around Q.  Pretty much everyone sits stunned, and states the obvious fact that he’s now untrustworthy for pulling a stunt like this.  I brace myself for Q pulling another challenge lie, and saying this was all some strategy that makes no sense.  To his credit, however, Q owns up to this being a dumb move.  He explains that he felt the chaos before last Tribal Council was somehow his fault, and as we established with him wanting to go home after a Tribal Challenge loss, he feels he should take the consequence if he messes something up.  Frankly, I think his “chaos” pre-Tribal barely contributed to what was going to go down, but the man at least has internal logical consistency, and again, credit for not trying to play himself up as a mastermind for this.  

Most pissed out of the tribe is Tiffany, who notes that it’s kind of odd for someone claiming to be her “Number 1” to throw around the knowledge of her idol.  Yelling ensues, and despite Q’s attempts to mollify things, Tiffany is clearly not having it.  The Yanu alliance, whatever it was before, is now shot.  Great job, Q!  Please note the sarcasm.  

The yelling is heard back at camp, with most everyone on Tiffany’s side, and saying they want to get out Q.  Liz in particular is mad that Q “stole her move.”  Not sure how.  Yes, he made himself the center of attention at Tribal, but that doesn’t mean he gets credit for Tevin’s ouster.  If anything, this makes great cover for you, Liz!  Still, Liz is on the warpath now, saying she needs to get Q out for her game.  Given what we’ve heard from everyone else, I believe there will be a line on that one, Liz.  

The next morning, guess what, Q is STILL the subject of debate!  Ben refers to what Q pulled last night as a “Poser Move”.  Suddenly, somewhere, Courtney Marit (“Survivor Exile Island”) is extremely confused, and doesn’t know why.  Q, meanwhile, admits that he has a big hill to climb, and so tries to strategize, being pretty chill and casual about it.  Honestly, his demeanor is good, just putting out some feelers.  The flaw is that emotions are still too raw.  No one’s feeling it, Q.  Best bet for you is to just lie low, and hope they target bigger threats.  Hell, even Hunter, a guy desperate for allies, jumps from Q like the proverbial rat from the proverbial burning ship.  The only person willing to give Q even the time of day is Venus, and that strikes me as more her being desperate for ANY alliance than wanting to work with Q in particular.  

All that said, Q may just luck into that situation anyone.  Everyone at the water well talks about how they’ll never vote for Q at the end.  While nothing more comes of it, and there is still some talk about how Q is too much of an X-factor in the game to be trusted, he is starting to look like a possible goat to drag to the end.  Play cool and take it, Q.  

Well, having now spent the first 15 minutes of the episode focussed to the point of near exclusivity on Q, surely we get some talk about the OTHER tribe dynamics, right?  Nope, Tree Mail time!  And not a very happy one at that.  It tells us that the final 9 twist, splitting into three groups of three is happening again.  I am not happy about this.  Look, show, I’m glad you’ve got your 90 minute run time now, but this is NOT the way to fill it. Let the cast fill it themselves.  Don’t throw in these stupid twists to fill time; just let the game play.  That said, while I still overall do not like this format, there are two tweaks to it here that improve it over “Survivor 45”.  The first is that, unlike there, those out on the first leg don’t lose their vote, with a chance to earn it back.  All that happens is that they’re out of the running.  This takes up less time, and is therefore better.  

The second change is that, rather than being randomized, these players have to self-divide into groups of three.  Given how last episode went, this quickly becomes a “Who can get away from Q the quickest?” Contest.  Ben throws Tiffany a lifeline, noting that she “rocks” (shocker), which Kenzie quickly latches onto as well.  Hunter, meanwhile, notes that he hasn’t really worked with Charlie and Maria yet.  Thus, Liz and Venus draw the proverbial short straws, to Venus’ dismay.  

Despite the divide, Q has not given up on trying to influence things.  Hunter, I thought, did a good job in deflecting Q politely when the two tried to talk strategy, but evidently Q saw through it.  He goes up to Charlie, in order to convince him to throw the challenge so the group can target Hunter.  Honestly, not a bad thought.  Even not knowing about his idol, Hunter could very easily immunity his way to the end, and thus here, where team effort matters, might be the easiest point at which to target him.  The flaw in Q’s plan is that, though he pitches it politely enough, he’s still not in a position to do this.  Indeed, Charlie and Maria (once the pair confer) admit they’re more inclined to work with Hunter than Q right now, and thus, his request makes them want to win all the more.  

Probst certainly thinks they will.  After some discussion about the divide, in which Tiffany makes it very clear that it was about avoidance of a certain someone rather than anything else (just say his name at that point, Tiffany), he gets a look at the tribes.  Needing to be “Spicy Probst”, he predicts that Q’s team will be first out.  This being “Survivor” Probst is naturally immediately proven wrong.  Hilarious.  Kenzie has a particularly bad showing on the balance beam, leading to her, Tiffany, and Ben being the first ones out.  

Sadly, we do not get the hilarity that would have been Q winning immunity after all that talk.  His group chokes on the second part, leading Hunter, Maria, and Charlie on to the final endurance part of the challenge.  Maria does surprisingly poorly at this, leaving it down to Charlie and Hunter.  Probst had a big schpiel before this challenge about how your shoulders and butt could not leave the back board, but I feel like that was for show.  Maybe it was just the camera angle, but there were several times I thought both guy’s shoulders left the back board.  It’s honestly well-fought by both guys, but in a surprise, Charlie ends up taking the win.  Did not expect that, good for him!  

That said, for all my complaints about how much time this twist takes up, it is weird that there’s still half the episode left.  There can’t be THAT much strategizing, right?

So Q tries to talk strategy with Kenzie.  She, being her blunt self, flat out tells him she doesn’t want to work with him.  Not that Q’s pitch is bad or anything; he’s once again playing it casual and calm.  It’s just, again, that his social capital is so far in the negative right now that he can’t pitch basically anything and hope for it to land.  

Lucky for him, Big-Move-Itis rears its ugly head amongst this cast once again, as first Venus and then Kenzie note that getting rid of Q or Hunter is the obvious move, meaning this is prime opportunity for a blindside.  The former we could just dismiss as business as usual for a confessional from Venus.  Even if not, her social capital is only marginally larger than Q’s at this point, so she wouldn’t be able to pull anything off.  Kenzie, on the other hand, very much could.  So all right, I’ll bite.  I’d still say Hunter is too much of a challenge threat to let hang around, but hey, I can see an argument for targeting someone else.  So, who does Kenzie want to blindside in a stroke of brilliance?

Tiffany.  

Um, I just have one question: WHY?

Seriously, how does this benefit Kenzie in ANY WAY?  Yes, Tiffany has an idol, and she doesn’t strike me as the type to play it on someone other than herself, but she’s your ALLY!  The person you’re literally closest to!  Yes, she was close with Q as well, but she’s making it pretty clear that bridge is burnt at this point!  You have her in the palm of your hand!  Why discard her?  

I suppose, if Kenzie has perfect knowledge, it could be argued that Tiffany has become closer with Charlie than with her, given that we only see her disclose her thoughts on playing the idol to Charlie.  But then, is Kenzie any closer to them?  Ben’s the other guy we’ve seen her get close to.  If you’re worried about Tiffany getting too close to Charlie, then BREAK HIM AND MARIA UP!  Tiffany might be slightly annoyed, but where’s she going to go?  Back to Q?  I think not!

Kenzie ends up being saved from her own stupidity by Tiffany’s paranoia.  Charlie and Maria are obviously down with this plan (they don’t need Tiffany, and her idol makes her threatening), but are concerned about an idol play.  As such, Charlie goes to try and lull Tiffany into a false sense of security.  Tiffany, however, is having none of it, saying the idol is useless to her if everyone knows she has it, so she’s just going to play it and be done.  Given the target that now seems to be on her back, I can understand this.  Tiffany’s one concern with playing the idol is that it would, at this point, likely go back into circulation with no guarantee she’d find it.  A fair enough concern, but as we’ll find out in a bit, and idol’s no good out of the game either.  

Since Tiffany expresses this concern solely in confessional, Charlie goes back to Maria and Kenzie and reports that plan is a no-go.  What a waste of a segment!  The plan the quickly reverts to Hunter, but unfortunately, between vibes and possibly overhearing them (we see Hunter nearby and looking at them when they’re talking, but never get 100% confirmation that he heard them), Hunter realizes he’s in danger.  He is, naturally, fully willing to play his idol, but would like to earn some allies along the way.  Having almost nowhere else to go, he turns to Q, who is happy to hear a name that isn’t his.  Hunter informs him of the idol.  Risky, but a necessary step so Q goes along with the plan.  Hunter suggests targeting Ben, due to having no connection with him, and the Siga three quickly becoming a tight threat left in the game.  Maria would probably be more of a lynchpin than Ben, but Ben’s the more overt social threat, so I can’t blame this thinking too much.  

Wanting to be absolutely sure, Hunter also tells Venus in order to get her on the “Vote Ben” plan.  Logical from his standpoint.  The flaw is that he doesn’t realize quite how much Venus doesn’t care for him.  She tells EVERYBODY about his idol, and the target flips back to Q as the safe vote, a la Edgardo on “Survivor Fiji”.  With this mess of strategizing, it’s hard to say who the best target is.  Probably still Hunter, given the threat of him immunitying his way to the end, but my usual analysis kind of falls flat here.  Instead, I’ll praise the mystery this episode.  Basically any named target I could see going, and that’s always a plus in my book!

Tribal Council itself also lives up to that hype, though with admittedly a controversial start.  With false humility, Probst says he mishandled the last Tribal, before revealing that he just meant he needed a cushion for his seat, and popcorn to eat.  Funny stuff, but the focus of Tribal Council should be on the people playing, not on Probst, and this really draws attention to the latter rather than the former.  Also, what’s with the sharing of popcorn with the players, Probst?  I thought you had to EARN everything in the new era?

Once we do focus on the players, though, it’s nothing but good stuff.  We get an honest-to-goodness personality fight at Tribal Council, and not just an argument over strategy!  Tiffany and Q just can’t stay away from each other, and get into an argument about who threw who’s name out first.  While she presents as the aggressor, Tiffany’s 100% in the right in this argument.  She notes correctly that Q is only happy when he’s the one in control, and is also correct that Q threw her name out, which Q lies and denies.  I can see Q’s perspective, but he is clearly lying about some things to cover his butt in this scenario.  

Still, Q does try to keep himself more civil, proselytizing about how he wants to be there, and is happy to just sit back and watch the chaos.  Perfect cover for Hunter to make sure the plan really is Q.  He gets his reassurance, and it’s fun to watch.  Even so, if I were Hunter, I’d play my idol, just to be safe.  

Hunter is not me, and evidently has balls of steel, since neither he nor Tiffany play their idol.  Tiffany I can understand, but Hunter really should have.  Especially when the vote comes up a tie between him and Q.  At this point, it’s wiser to go for Hunter on the revote for being a threat, and for all my knocking people’s strategy this season, they do make the right call here.  Ben tries to assure Hunter that he “rocks” on the way out, but Hunter admits that he’s not really feeling that right now.  Oddly, I’m not that sorry to see Hunter go here.  Guy was a nice dude, but didn’t have as much game sense as he looked, and once it was clear he wasn’t going to sweep immunities post-Double-Tribal, his run became much less interesting to me.  Plus, even if Q is playing a worse game, at least he brings the drama.  

For all my praise, I can’t say this episode was any better than “ok”.  Pacing to me seems like the biggest problem here.  Having the stupid “three groups of three” twist was bad enough, but doing it so early in the episode just left the first half feeling rushed, and the back half oddly slow, despite the fun tribe dynamics.  A fun Tribal does elevate it, but this episode would have needed a major reorganization to get higher praise than this from me.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 8: Everybody Needs A Thneed

Up until now, I thought Thneeds only existed in the esteemed mind of Dr. Seuss.  Even Universal Studios would not be so money-hungry as to put out an item whose purpose is literally to be useless.  But it seems it DOES exist in our plane.  Only here it goes by another name: The Q Skirt.  

Before we get into our sales pitch, however, we have to do damage control.  Ben is understandably devastated by the loss of his friend, particularly as he saw Tim as a grounding agent for his game.  He’s upset, but not game-endingly so, and he’s comforted.  A decent recovery, so I’ll give him a pass.  Q?  Not so much.  He’s not happy at all that we aren’t talking strategy.  Dude, get the stick out of your butt.  There’ll be plenty of strategy talk later; let the man lick his wounds a little bit!

Q’s need for strategy talk gets satiated anyway when the second group comes back.  Most everyone, Tiffany and Kenzie in particular, are shocked that Venus remains, with her having been the plan prior to the Tribal.  Venus, as she did at Tribal Council, immediately steps up to take credit for the move, something Tevin finds privately hilarious.  She did this at Tribal Council as well, something I failed to mention last time, but didn’t do a “Matt’s Mess-Up” for since it’s still relevant here.  Soda, to her immense credit, was kind to Venus despite their personal animosity, and Venus taking credit for getting her out.  

Credit, however, is a valuable commodity on “Survivor”.  You don’t want to take it too early, as Emily learned well on “Survivor 45”, but you also need it at the end, lest you end up like Cassidy on “Survivor 43”, and not be able to claim moves you made.  Tevin, however, is not sweating Venus as a threat, and thus allows her the credit for now.  Less chill about the whole thing is Liz.  She’s mad that BOTH Tevin and Venus are claiming the move, saying it’s hers since she’s been against Soda the whole time!  Really what this highlights is that everyone’s the hero of their own story.  From what we’ve seen, Tevin was the main move and shaker on the vote, but that’s because of what we’re shown.  Venus probably DID think she pulled it together by talking to Charlie and Maria, and Liz probably HAS been putting Soda’s name out there at least somewhat.  Neither may be what actually swayed the votes, but you can see how everyone thinks it was their move.  Fascinating little psychological moment.  Point is, Liz is now getting a case of Big-Move-Itis, something likely to spell the end for her long-term if left unchecked.  

Morning does bring some new strategy talk to satiate Q.  Seems that there’s a vacancy in the 6 with Tim gone, and despite him being mad at Charlie last episode, Q is now willing to let him take Tim’s place.  This, it seems, was Maria’s plan all along.  Turns out she WASN’T lukewarm on the 6, as had previously been assumed, but just wanted her true number one, Charlie, in there.  Charlie, for his part, is open to the idea, but is wisely wary.  Apart from the obvious factors of being the last one brought in, and Q still harboring some wariness of his own (we see Q later express concern over how loyal Charlie will be), Charlie declares this the “weakest six in the show’s history”.  Time will bear him out as correct, admittedly, but at the time he said that?  Eh, he’s being a BIT hyperbolic.  This is not as tight a six as one would want, but compared to, say, the personal disfunction that was Casaya (“Survivor Exile Island”)?  I’d give these guys at least a decent chance of sticking together, at least at this point of the episode.  Of course, Casaya functioned in spite of personal animosity, and we’ll later see that this six does no, so maybe not the best comparison.  But on paper, at this point of the episode?  A bit over-the-top.  

But now Q decides to switch up the show he’s on.  No, you’re not watching “Survivor”.  This is now “Shark Tank”, where Q is one-man pitching the titular “Q-Skirt”. This is an innovative garment that looks like an ordinary hoodie, because it IS an ordinary hoodie!  But instead of wearing it normally, you tie it around your waist, hood by your crotch, to use as a “Kangaroo Pouch” to hold whatever you so desire!  Look, in the most GENEROUS interpretation I can give it, this idea is goofy as hell.  Credit where it’s due, however: Q is a brave southern man to suggest men wearing skirts as a regular thing.  That takes some confidence in oneself, and I applaud him for it.  His enthusiasm even wins over the skeptical, both Charlie and Tevin signing up for one when they start getting made.  Guess we know the first item to be made available in Q’s merch store.  

Q isn’t done with the whimsy, however!  Turns out he’s been trying to get a game of Hide and Seek going since the start of the game, and now has enough people to make it actually work.  Tiffany mocks the idea, which I have to say is a bit mean.  There is no age at which Hide and Seek is not fun, Tiffany.  Understandably she’s found fairly early, since she put little effort into it, though she does outlast Liz, at least.  Ben and Hunter are ultimately victorious, the former by camouflaging himself low to the ground with a tarp, the latter by hiding in a.tree above the shelter (which Tevin did predict; they just looked in the wrong trees).  Honestly, this is my favorite scene of the episode.  Just a fun, whimsical passing of the time.  The sort of camp life scene I can get behind.  

Of course, some people still have to make it all about the game of “Survivor”, with Q and Venus in particular both saying that this tell them things about other people in the game.  Some of it I buy.  Q noting that Liz plays hard by going deep in the jungle to look for him, or Venus noting Maria’s resourcefulness in her camouflage headdress, for example?  These make a certain amount of sense, and are traits to look out for moving forward.  But Venus saying Tiffany isn’t playing because she didn’t try very hard, or Q watching out for Hunter and Ben because they won the game?  That seems a bit much to me.  Those things are mostly, if not completely unrelated.  And frankly, the strategizing is unnecessary.  Just let the fun camp game be the fun camp game.  

Speaking of games, Tevin is in the middle of making a chessboard when Venus comes over to talk about her strategy some more.  Tevin butters her up well, though oddly so well that it makes Venus suspicious.  In conferring with Tiffany about it, Tiffany notes that Venus is no threat, and should be kept around as a goat for the end.  She suggests going after Maria.  No justification is given, and it really doesn’t matter.  Tevin brings this back to Q, noting that she’s targeting one of the 6.  

Now, obviously Q reacted badly to someone targeting someone else in the 6 with Tim last episode, but that was with a guy he barely knew, who seemed only half-interested in the alliance anyway.  But this is Q’s #1.  The person he’s stated he’s closest with in this game.  Surely he won’t blow up all of his alliances over one aside comment…

And there goes Q saying Tiffany now has to go.  See, this is why Charlie doesn’t want to work with you too much, my dude!  You fly off the handle at the slightest perceived slight!  If people don’t do exactly what you say, BOOM!  They’re gone in your eyes!  I get the philosophy, but there needs to be some NUANCE.  You spent the last two weeks building this relationship, and you’re going to throw it all out, blow up your main alliance, because of one aside comment?  That’s just bad gameplay!  He even reveals Tiffany’s idol to Maria in the process!  Just thoroughly burning the bridge at that point.  

Also, while I understand what his personal justification would be, I feel duty-bound to point out, Q, that if ANYONE who suggests moving against the 6 needs to go, by definition, YOU would need to be voted out for getting out Tim!  Something that, maybe, Q realizes down the line…

As Probst correctly notes, the challenge today is a good old classic.  The “Hang onto a Pole” challenge first seen on “Survivor Vanuatu”.  Speaking of that season, Probst claims Ozzy set the record at 2 hours, and that seems to pass muster.  Yet, I somehow feel like the Vanuatu version went longer.  If so, mention it!  I will not stand for this Twila erasure!  Anyway, point being, good challenge to bring back.  

This being the final 10 means it’s also time for rice negotiations, and I will give people credit that they TRY to negotiate, but Probst stands firm.  That, plus the combination of Probst not knifing the bag?  Way lowers this one in my estimation.  

However, the cast does make up for the lackluster proceedings a bit by actually not going for it!  Q and Liz are ultimately the only ones who volunteer (reasonably so, since they’re the first two out, as we soon see), and Probst needs four.  Actually a good bit of drama, though again, Probst’s countdown could be improved by having it be rice draining from a knifed bag instead.  Come on, that was one of the coolest things last season; bring it back!  

After Q “throws the challenge” again, and Liz falls off, we get a few more drops, and then the banter starts.  Say what you will about this season, but it has good banter, and good running gags. When Probst announces they’re seven minutes it, he gets corrected to “Several”, doubtless making Jelinsky feel a good amount of joy.  Dude may have been voted out first, and may have looked kind of ridiculous, but he’s added to the “Survivor” lexicon, as Probst notes, and that’s a feat in and of itself.  Q continues to pitch The Q Skirt, saying everyone here will get a free one.  He revokes Probst’s however, when Probst mocks his challenge performance.  Fair enough.  Again, loving the banter, loving the rapport.  

Charlie and Venus both highlighted wanting to play in this challenge, so you’d expect one of them to win.  Instead, anticlimactically, Hunter wins, showing off at the end by hanging JUST FROM HIS LEGS!  Seriously, dude freaked me out.  Challenge may have bene a foregone conclusion, as Q notes, but at least the banter makes up for it.  

After Q gets his “temper tantrum” as he’ll later call it over the rice out of the way, we find out that indeed, the plan to blindside Tiffany was not just a whim, but what Q actually wants to do.  I have already outlined the reasons this is stupid, so we need an alternate target, one that can be much more reasonable.  Sure enough, Liz’s Big-Move-Itis rears its head again, and she hops on the “Get Out Tevin” train.  Not sure WHY she wants out Tevin, aka the one guy who’s seemed to give her the time of day, but I suppose there’s the whole “Claim Credit” thing discussed earlier, in her mind.  Venus is, of course, on board, but as soon as this gets to the 6, they’re going to turn it on Liz.  That would make sense, right?

Actually, NO!  Instead, pretty much everyone is on board with this!  Ok, Kenzie and Tiffany I get since they’re not as committed to the 6 (and in Kenzie’s case, not even in the 6), and want Yanu to remain invisible.  But Charlie and Maria?  What good does this do you?  Showing that Q hasn’t fully burned the Tiffany bridge (yet), and highlighting precisely WHY he should want to keep her around, Tiffany lets Q in on the plan, over the objections of Liz.  Q, naturally, runs to Hunter with this news.  To give Q his due, he DOES seem willing to let this one go, even though it’s not the plan he came up with.  Hunter, however, is not, and so goes over to Charlie, Maria, and Liz to discuss things, aka the thing Q asked him explicitly not to do!  This also clues in Liz on the original Tiffany plan, which she doesn’t seem surprised by.  Perhaps that was more public knowledge than we thought.  

The ladies, sans Liz and Maria, notice this, and so Venus goes over to interrupt, lest the target turn back on her.  Honestly, good on her!  One of the reasons I find “Survivor Redemption Island” so frustrating is that the players there let social norms get in the way of shaking up the game.  You’re on the outs anyway!  Disrupt their dynamic somehow!  They can only vote you out slightly sooner than they otherwise would have!  So, kudos to Venus for trying to shake that up.  She’s not that effective at it, but the effort is there, and appreciated.  

So yeah, our choices have boiled down to Tiffany and Tevin, two people nobody should be looking to get out just yet, since the 6 technically have a majority.  Whoever you vote out, you break up the 6.  No wonder Charlie has no faith in you all.  This is also, incidentally, where Charlie learns about Tiffany’s idol.  Put a gun to my head, I’d say Tevin is the SLIGHTLY better option to go with, since Nami has more members left at this point, but that’s VERY slight.  Again, the ultimate takeaway here is that both options are terrible.  

Luckily for those two, a new, better target presents themselves at Tribal Council.  That target is Q, who again goes on his “I let people down” self-pity rant like he did during Yanu’s losing streak earlier in the season.  Only this time, there’s no indication of it being an act, like he told us his previous “Vote me out” wish was.  

Really, I can find no logic in this.  Was Q upset that his alliance was falling apart, largely by his own hand?  Was it because of the failed rice negotiations?  Did he legitimately think he failed because of Hunter’s talk?  I DON’T KNOW!  I can’t fathom the logic here!  If I were to TRY and look at it in the best light possible, I COULD say he’s doing a Zane Knight (“Survivor Philippines”) and trying to get people to WANT to keep him around.  Seems like they already did, so like with Zane, this is a stupid plan!  And again, I have no idea if that’s what Q was thinking!  Frankly, I’m not sure Q was thinking at this point.  But hey, at least he’s staying true to wanting people who move against the 6 voted out.  

Naturally, all hell breaks loose, and we have a legit “Live Tribal” with everyone strategizing on the fly.  Tiffany finds out that she was targeted, and that Q blabbed about her idol.  Tevin wants to go along with Q’s request to be voted out.  Charlie and Maria have no idea what to do.  It’s chaos, and decently fun chaos, but again, I thought we were done with whispering at Tribal.  Why bring it back?  

In case it wasn’t clear, Q is the obvious correct boot.  With all this dissension, the 6 is dead at this point, so that’s no longer a consideration.  Q’s erratic gameplay, at this point, is such that he cannot be trusted as an ally, and thus has little use to anyone left in the game.  Granted, after this stunt I don’t see him getting votes in the end, but that’s a long way to drag a goat, and Venus is right there.  Better to eliminate the X factor and be done with it.  Hey, at least this made for a lot of fun “WTF?” Voting confessionals, and Ben even gets to bring back “That Does Not Rock”!  Good on him, getting his catchphrase in again!

Does this group do the sensible thing?  Of course not!  Pretty much everyone turns on Tevin, sending him home WITHOUT Q GETTING EVEN A SINGLE VOTE?  Them not wanting to change on the fly I could MAYBE understand, but after that performance, after that perfect demonstration of what makes an unreliable ally, not a single person votes Q?  I don’t understand these people.  

Yeah, I’m sorry to see Tevin go.  He definitely didn’t deserve it after that stunt Q pulled, and contrary to what I thought of him pre-season, dude was charming, and even a decent strategist.  Fun as Q is, he could wear out his welcome over time, and I wouldn’t say that would be the case for Tevin.  As such, this is a bummer.  

While figuring out the logic of these people eludes me, I have figured out this season: This is the “Survivor Gabon” of the new era.  Big characters?  Slow pre-merge?  Gameplay based more on personal grudges and fleeting vibes than on actual strategy?  This has Gabon written all over it.  Granted, it’s not as over-the-top as Gabon, but it also lacks the more hate-filled moments of that season, so it kind of balances out.  As such, I foresee this being a “Love it or Hate it” season, near the top or bottom of everyone’s favorites, depending on how they feel about drama.  

As a lover of Gabon, after tonight, I’m kind of high on this season!  Yeah, the start has been slow, but there was some good, entertaining chaos tonight!  If that momentum can keep up, we may yet have a legendary season on our hands!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode Several: Wrapped Up With A Nice Little Bow

Inanimate objects, done properly, can become a character in and of themselves.  On “Survivor” immunity idols are the most common example of this, but sometimes people can create their own.  And we may just have one of those tonight.  That was a MAGNIFICENT Buff Bow on Kenzie’s head!  Even with all the emotion at her Tribal Council, I think it stole the show.  

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  While the tribe was unified against Moriah last episode, there was still the stray Venus vote to consider.  Consider it Venus does, and given how she is, she naturally jumps to the conclusion that it was cast by Soda.  Understandable, given how the pair have been interacting these past few days, but wrong.  Soda of course denies this, but this only convinces Venus further.  Everyone, Tevin in particular, is prepared to sit back and watch the fireworks.  

Charlie, then, is the rain that cancels the fireworks.  He comes clean to Venus that he was the stray vote against her.  I have to ask… WHY?  How does this benefit Charlie in any way?  Venus didn’t even suspect him, and this was tearing Nami, the biggest threat to Siga, apart.  Now she knows you moved against her, and Venus does not strike me as the type to forgive and forget.  Even in a best-case scenario, where she decides she has bigger fish to fry and doesn’t immediately try and get you out, say goodbye to that jury vote.  

So egregious is this error that Coach Q comes out again.  He sits Charlie down on the beach (with Tim also there), and just reads him the riot act about how he screwed up a good position.  Not saying Q is wrong, but unsolicited advice is not going to win hearts and minds.  Charlie defuses the situation by “apologizing”, which at least shuts Q up, but this has turned him against Q.  I don’t agree with his conclusion that “Q is running the show” based on this; at worst Q is being a bit too blunt.  It DOES show, however, that Q doesn’t respect your game, and that alone is a reason to work against him.  Point being, Q may be right about what is and isn’t a smart move, but he’s not winning friends with his style of interaction.  

After our intro, we get another scene at night, though this one a bit less confrontational.  Ben wakes up in the middle of a panic attack, and worried about how he’ll be perceived as a result.  Luckily Kenzie is used to this sort of thing, other members of her family having been through similar experiences, so she is able to assist him and comfort him.  She admits that this is something beyond the game, and she’s doing it out of general, human kindness.  Honestly, it’s a very effective scene.  A nice bit of calm before the strategizing storm, and one that didn’t need to be bolstered by turning it into a sob story.  Oddly, the understatement makes the moment more powerful, and frankly it’s just a highlight of the episode.  Well done, show.  

Because we have to stick with the stupid “Split Tribal” twist, we can’t have any more camp scenes for now.  Instead we have to cut straight to our Immunity Challenge, which is the “Stand on the Triangles” one first seen on “Survivor Caramoan”.  A challenge so boring and predictable I’m more fascinated by them using the buff design along the side of the platform in the water.  Nice touch.  

This is also where we get our first look at the Immunity Idol for this season, at least the individual one.  Solid design, in my opinion.  Reminiscent of the one from “Survivor Cambodia”, with red as a main color and a similar outline.  Being made of beads and adding geckos does help make it unique.  Maybe not an idol for the history books, but a solid entry regardless.  

I will say what this challenge lacks in interest in and of itself, it makes up for in banter.  After Probst notes that the calmer conditions compared to the last time this was run (“Survivor 42”), Q suggests playing the “Alphabet Game” with city names, without actually explaining what the Alphabet Game actually is.  A fact that comes back to bite him in the butt when basically everyone starts violating what Q perceives as the rules.  Hunter starts off with “A for Atlanta”, but then Ben gets knocked out due to not saying that again, despite saying both “Boston” and “Baltimore”.  Liz does get the C in there, but again fails to name the previous names, despite Q saying this must be done.  It’s capped off with Charlie saying he gets it, only to make the same mistake as Liz.  Pretty sure that last one, at least, was intentional.  Seems like too good an opportunity for Charlie to tweak Q’s nose in a joking manner for him not to take it.  

Q, incidentally, is the first one out of this challenge, followed shortly by Ben from his team, leaving Kenzie, Tiffany, Hunter, and Tim up on their side.  Soda falls at about the same time, but she’s on the opposite team, leaving Charlie, Maria, Tevin, Venus, and Liz up for them.  Despite being sidelined, Q still keeps up a good bit of commentary.  He explains to Probst how “Black folks ask what time it is.”, which Probst takes in stride.  When Q goes silent, he explains that he was taught to shut up if he’s not in the game.  Evidently unable to stand the silence, Tim pulls a Gabler (“Survivor 43”), and starts shouting out various people the audience doesn’t know during the challenge.  Q mocks him for this, only for Tim to remind him what his dad taught him about shutting up.  It’s honestly the one thing making this challenge fun, and it helps that it’s clearly just the cast having fun with one another, and no one taking the talk too seriously.  Probst even gets in on the fun a bit, reminding us of Jelinsky’s “Several=7” point from earlier in the season.

Eventually the challenge must get serious, though, and everyone transitions to standing on one foot.  Brenda Lowe and Andrea Boehlke can rest easy knowing their impromptu rule on the first run of this challenge remains an official part of it now.  This leads to several dropouts, but Kenzie, despite winning immunity, drops before either Tevin or Maria.  This means her team will miss out on a reward, and go to Tribal Council first, meaning whoever leaves misses the jury.  As for Tevin and Maria, they have a good battle, with Tevin even having a spectacular comeback from nearly falling over.  IN the end, though, Maria’s lower center of gravity wins the day, and she snags immunity.  

Our teams are sent to separate camps, with the winning six going to the current merge camp.  Here we find out the new tribe is dubbed “Nuinui”.  No real complaints here on that one.  The name is a decent length, and obviously Polynesian in origin (granted Fiji is in MELANESIA, but given they’re part of the same language family, I’ll take it at this point).  That said, all it really makes me want to do is get out my old Bionicle toys again.  

Despite winning, not everyone is happy.  Charlie notes that he’s in an exceptionally precarious spot, being one of only two original Siga on the tribe, and the other having immunity.  He realizes he’s exceptionally vulnerable, a status that Tevin confirms.  Tevin, however, is not content to just let things sit on the obvious target, telling us that he wants to invoke the “First Blindside of the Season”.  Jem might take issue with that characterization, Tevin.  

Over with our losers, Hunter is feeling nervous for similar reasons to Charlie.  He tells us he intents to play his idol tonight, a move I can’t really fault.  True, there is the “Journey 6” alliance he could trust in, but he is the only person without an initial-tribe ally in this group.  Further, he’s a noted physical threat at a rare moment without having immunity, making him a tempting target.  

Certainly Tim thinks so, since he tells Q that Hunter should obviously go.  Q, however, thinks it equally obvious that Ben should go.  After all, Nami is at each other’s throats, and Ben is the only one in this group not part of the “Journey 6”.  Ok, Kenzie technically isn’t either, but she’s immune, and Q is unlikely to go against an original Yanu at this juncture.  A member of the “Journey 6”, however?  He’ll turn on them in a heartbeat, now insisting it has to be Tim for his wishy-washy-ness.  A bit early to be turning on him, but also a bit early to be giving my thoughts on the targeting on these tribes.  

I will say, however, that I don’t buy for one minute that Q intentionally lost that challenge.  It was one that didn’t cover his skill set, and he lied to save face.  Understandable, but either Q’s a far better actor than I credit him, or he’s lying to the camera to save face.  

For now, let’s return to our winners, who have the more intriguing strategy.  Tevin is not the only one who wants to “Make a move”.  Soda is ready to get Venus out, and tries to enlist Charlie and Maria to that end, once everyone is done “napping” on the beach.  Understandable, given their tiff, but also a bad move for Soda.  She’s already kind of screwed since she’s not going to the end with Vcnus, and therefore if she IS in the end, Venus is guaranteed to be on the jury.  Guess who Venus will never vote for in a million years?  Even so, better to have her on the jury later than earlier, lest she poison the whole bunch against you.  

This, however, is not enough of a blindside for Tevin, who marshals Liz, along with a presumed Charlie and Maria, to get out Soda.  He considers her, fairly, to be a social threat.  Can’t deny the logic there.  Not content with this, however, Soda approaches Maria and Charlie individually to blindside Tevin.  Charlie seems on board, at least in part because he prefers ANY plan that doesn’t involve him getting voted out, but Maria is a bit more hesitant.  She wants to keep her options open with the “Journey 6”, and Tevin is a part of that.  Hence, conflict, even if getting out Tevin would be the thing to break Nami apart completely.  

Things get worse for Venus when, having already come on strong with Maria, she pushes her again.  Maria, pretty reasonably, gives Venus advice on how to come at people.  She sympathizes with Venus due to her age, but notes that people don’t like being told what to do.  This advice goes in one ear and out the other, Venus chalking it up to their age disparity.  Way to not work on yourself, Venus.  That said, she does at least tone it back to a vote against Soda, something Charlie and Maria are much more likely to go with.  They confer on the beach, Charlie noting that he’s weirdly safe.  Not sure how much of that is due to his effort as much as Nami being a hot mess, but still, good for him.  

As our targets for this group are now firmly set on either Soda or Venus, time to discuss what the best move is.  Clearly, between these two, it’s Soda.  She’s the more subtle player, and Venus’ presence will continue to make Nami at least seem more fractured (if not actually be more fractured), thus making them seem less threatening.  Further, Venus has so buried herself socially she’s unlikely to win many jury votes, and isn’t much of a challenge threat.  If she gets to the end, well, easier victory for you.  Might as well chop Soda off now.  Not to mention that Venus, if the first juror unanimously, will likely poison the jury against all of you.  Yeah, clearly go for Soda.  

In regards to our other group, there is dissension amongst the ranks.  Kenzie, admittedly, is happy with going for Tim, since her and Ben kind of vibe.  Tiffany less so.  That said, props to Ben for catching that Kenzie was not being 100% up front with him.  I thought Kenzie lied pretty effectively there, but he sussed it right out.  

Tim pitches Hunter to the group, who agree to split votes, but Q turns it on Tim as soon as he leaves.  Tiffany agrees with this, correctly noting that Nami is easy to break up, while Siga is less so.  However, Ben comes across as slightly sketchy when Q talks to him, leading to Q turning it back on Ben.  This makes Tiffany happy, but not Kenzie, especially since Q seems to waffle back and forth, and doesn’t let them get much of a word in edgewise.  

This leads to the promised pair discussing Q “running the show”, and predictably, the preview played this up.  Don’t misunderstand, there is a legit issue between them and Q, but it was built up to go somewhere tonight.  Had Charlie been in this group I might have bought it, but no.  Instead, they just note that Q is a bit inflexible, and also a bit prone to changing his mind.  All fair criticisms.  I might sum it up in that Q is a very binary player.  You’re either fully in agreement with him, or fully disagree with him.  Not much room for nuance in the world of Q.  On the one hand, if you’re truly his ally, this can be a great thing!  After all, as long as you don’t piss him off, you can guarantee he’ll stick with you.  That said, as we saw with Ben, staying on his good side is not so easy.  It’s not clear what exactly Ben did to turn Q against him from their conversation, but it flipped Q’s mind completely.  That can be a problem, so it’s understandable that they would consider moving against him.  But, as they note, it’s probably too early.  

With Hunter not much in contention, the debate is between Tim and Ben, and once again the answer of who should go is clear.  Ben is a social threat no one there apart from Tim has really connected with.  Tim is a much more predictable player, and keeping him around prevents the “Journey 6”, which Q at least is pushing hard, from fracturing.  Ben is the clear better choice here.  

We’re also left with little doubt that Ben will go, since he gets all the emotional content at Tribal.  He goes over his panic attack again, and everyone gives him sympathy, while also noting there are human moments outside the game.  Q, for his part, is also courteous, giving Kenzie major props for winning immunity.  The real star of the show, however, is Kenzie’s giant bow buff.  An hour after the episode aired, and I still love that thing.  

For as much as I hate the “Split Tribal” twist at this juncture, the show got a good draw here.  You can have the emotional climax first with this group, then the strategic one with the next.  Not intentional on their part, obviously, but a good way to balance it out, and not feel like we’re waiting for one group or the other to go.  Going to commercial in the middle before an obvious boot like this is a bit much, but hey, the other group has enough mystery to keep us happy regardless.  

Yet, once again, the show gets me.  Tim goes, which I absolutely DID NOT expect.  Good trick, editors.  The bad decision for basically everyone but Kenzie, but definitely an audience blindside.  That said, from a character standpoint, much the better decision.  Ben may not do it for me as a character, but he’s more interesting than Tim, who basically brought nothing.  Seems like a nice enough guy, but just not good tv, sadly.  I will, however, give Hunter some praise for not playing his idol.  Granted, he probably had a lot of trust in what Q was saying, so it’s not the weirdest decision ever, but still, he had valid reasons to believe he would be targeted.  Good on him for saving his idol.  

As mentioned, our second Tribal Council is the strategic climax of the episode.  Logically, this makes for less exciting banter at Tribal, with it being mostly the stuff you’d expect.  Charlie bringing up his Shot in the Dark.  Venus and Soda bringing up the tribe divisions.  We do get a couple of unusual moments, like Liz catching flak for not bringing her bag.  I do have to deduct points on Maria, however, for using a metaphor where one wasn’t asked for.  Don’t encourage Probst, Maria.  

Oddly, despite this being the more unpredictable vote, it’s also the more underwhelming one.  The group does the smart thing and votes Soda out.  She’s a bit teary about the whole thing, but thankfully she at least gets to sit on the jury.  I’m not the biggest fan of Venus, but I am glad she stayed, if only for the drama she brings.  If Ponderosa videos were still a thing, I’d want her on the jury as early as possible, but as is?  I’m fine with this.  

For the episode as a whole, it weirdly fails kind of in spite of itself.  The humor was on point, the editing top-notch.  We had good mystery, and a lot of good character bits.  Yet I confess myself, underwhelmed.  I don’t hate this episode, but it just kind of came and went with little fanfare for me.  I think it’s just a victim of how much had to be stuffed in.  With this many people, and two Tribal Councils, it just feels bloated.  The superiority of the previous factors helps make up for it, but there’s only so much you can do with this format.  Yet another reason to vary things up, show.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 6: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Tribal Council is the place to make a “Hail Mary” play on “Survivor”, for a variety of reasons.  Yet it’s rarely the SMART place to make that type of play.  It can work on occasion, and nearly always produces spectacular fireworks, but by the time we get to Tribal, most people want to follow the advice of the late, great Keith Sale (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”, RIP), and “Stick to the Plan.”  Much as the show wants to paint Tribals as “Live”, they very rarely are, and half the time it’s editing.  Still, with these softball Tribals, we have to take what little drama we can get.  

Before I get into our “mergatory” (still hate that name), however, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Brief one here, but so caught up was I in making fun of Hunter for failing the logo-ordering journey last episode, that I forgot to talk about something I liked about it, namely the callbacks to “Survivor” history.  So much of the “New Era” has come at the expense of the old, to the point where the show minimized these types of references before.  Granted, that policy has been relaxed as we’ve gone on, but still, it’s nice to see the show be willing to admit it had seasons pre-COVID.  

Even so, our focus should be on the season in front of us, so let’s get back to that.  Having been on the wrong side of the vote, Moriah admits to being a bit uncomfortable.  Still, she tries to keep an optimistic view, saying she’d rather be “A living idiot than a dead Know-It-All”.  Decent attitude to have, while also throwing shade at Rob Cesternino (“Survivor The Amazon”) and Stephen Fishbach (“Survivor Tocantins”), despite neither of them being dead.  She admits discomfort to the tribe, but seems to re-integrate decently well, largely thanks to Ben smoothing things over.  Nevertheless, Tim admits in confessional that while they want to be “Siga Strong”, if push comes to shove, Moriah is on the bottom.  

Moving up from the bottom is Yanu, who get mail the next morning telling them to drop their buffs, and that they have 10 minutes to gather their things.  We get one last look at the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM) as they celebrate being on the upswing.  Nothing much going on here, though I will say I find it weird that they refer to this as “Tree Mail”, when it clearly came from a boat.  Should have gone the “Survivor Pearl Islands” route and called it “Sea Mail”, at least. 

There are a couple of funny bits here, though.  Q tries to give his camp a nice send-off, only for Tiffany to say that the came sucked and gave them basically nothing, but in a humorous way.  Because Tiffany keeps it real.  Tiffany also reveals that she has named her idol “Idolecia”.  This has no bearing on anything, but is pretty cute.  Good pun.  

Yanu may not have had much to say, but they get more of a reaction than Siga, which just boils down to Moriah being happy to have options.  No, despite being the camp everyone will move to, it’s Nami that has the big reaction.  Everyone passes the note around, with Hunter giving it to Venus, and I’m surprised Soda didn’t snatch that note away instantaneously.  

Now, we have more game-important reactions to discuss.  More specifically Hunter, since now his Beware Advantage clue comes in.  Gotta say, this result feels lame.  I don’t want Hunter to lose his vote in perpetuity, obviously, but I figured not going to Tribal would mean some extra-difficult task to get the key to get his idol.  Instead he’s asked to solve a “riddle” that basically says “Dig by your tribe’s steps”, which he does, getting the key with seemingly little effort, despite what the show tries desperately to imply.  

From there, things proceed much as you’d expect.  Everyone celebrates coming together, but we quickly get to strategy talk.  When questioned about the Jem boot, Siga all toe the line on it being unanimous.  Good for Moriah, since it makes it clear the others do still want to work with her, but I’d say bad for the tribe as a whole.  Yanu is no threat, and in comparison, Nami is much freer with their targets.  As such, if Yanu ends up being the swing between the two tribes (which seems at least semi-likely), they’re much more inclined to want to break up the one with no visible cracks.  

We get out usual honeymoon phase for the new tribe, but it’s a particularly short one.  Unsurprisingly, Venus is the one to kick things off, showing just how salty she is with her tribe by talking about wanting to flip to Yanu.  You know, the tribe with limited power based on numbers alone?  Granted, this would put them on par with Nami, and they could at least temporarily band together against Siga, but still, on paper, you’d think she’d go to Siga with this info.  

Q just files all this away, eager to rekindle the alliance of six that was made on the journey last episode.  His check-in with Hunter and Tevin goes well, but less so his one with Maria.  She does mention Tim talking to her, but in more vague terms about the whole thing than specifics.  Confessionals indicate that Maria DOES know about this alliance, but isn’t sure she wants to go with it.  In a hilarious bit, just because it shows a bad misread, she admit’s she’s flattered by Tim considering her his number one, but has him in her top three at best.  Something about that disconnect is funny.  Anyway, Q goes to Tim, who says he’ll talk to Maria more firmly.  Privately, he says he does want the alliance to work out, but isn’t as eager to firm things up as Q.  Shoes the difference in priorities when one’s tribe has attended most Tribal Councils, and one hasn’t.  Good dynamic exploration here.  

The next day sees Venus continuing to put out feelers to multiple people, trying to swing people against Tevin in particular.  She moved on from Hunter, I guess.  Unfortunately, she’s so blunt about it, Charlie calling her “Wicked Smart”.  Charlie, quit trying to be Jake (“Survivor 45”).  You’re not pulling it off.  More intriguingly, we see Tim actually talk to Maria about the six alliance.  Unsurprisingly, Maria is unenthused, though she seems to do a good job hiding this from Tim.  She does say in confessional that she likes it as an option, but is so far wanting to stay Siga strong.  Understandable from her perspective, but bad for basically everyone else in that alliance, lending yet more credence to the vibes that it’s not sustainable.  

This is not the only strategy conversation we have.  Wanting to get more information on Saga’s dynamics, Q speaks one-on-one with Moriah.  She toes the line, but notes that Q is a bit more forceful with her than others have been, making her a bit suspicious that he’s sussed things out.  In reality this just seems to be Q’s style, very blunt and up front, but it’s easy to see why she feels that way, so I don’t blame her in the slightest.  Hell, she even toes the Siga line, so she’s not intentionally blowing up her game.  Despite this, Q doesn’t trust her.  Why?  Well, she names Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”) as her favorite player.  

On a completely unrelated note, Moriah just became my favorite player this season.  

Anyway, why does this turn off Q?  Well, as he notes, Aubry is a great strategist, executing excellent move after excellent move.  The snarky part of me wants to point out that “Survivor Game Changers” and ESPECIALLY “Survivor Edge of Extinction” beg to disagree on this description of Aubry, but as the self-appointed head of the “Aubry Lobby”, I’m going to let it slide.  Any and all pro-Aubry propaganda is welcome on my “Survivor”.  

This brings us to our challenge, which works basically the same as all the others.  Go through mud obstacles, stack sandbags to make stairs, climb a giant ball, puzzle is the first one from “Survivor Cagayan”.  It’s so standard at this point, and I’m so over the same thing happening at this point in the season.  Please, show, variety is all I ask!  Granted, this group seems oddly confused by how this part of the game works, but that’s more a mark against them than a mark in the format’s favor.  

There’s not even any drama of who will win!  It’s going to be the purple team, consisting of Kenzie, Q, Ben, Tim, Hunter, and Tevin.  Not only did they get ALL the challenge beasts of the season (particularly Hunter), but even if they didn’t we KNOW they win thanks to the “Next Time On…” segment from last episode.  That mentioned Liz and Soda being against one another, a scene we haven’t seen yet, meaning they along with Venus, Charlie, Maria, and Moriah must lose.  Otherwise there would be no point in those players targeting one another, since they’d be immune.  Even Tiffany sees the writing on the wall, and after a humorous half-second seeming to consider her options, hitches herself the purple team.  Even factoring out challenge ability, smart choice.  All her allies are there.  

I’ll give the orange team this: They put up a good fight.  Hell, they’re actually ahead for the first leg of the challenge, only falling behind when it comes to loading and pushing sandbags, due to that being all brute strength.  They even make up a good bit of time on the puzzle.  The one good thing I’ll say about this challenge is that EVERYONE, in sections, has to do the puzzle.  You can’t rely on one puzzle whiz to do the whole thing.  You’re only as fast as your slowest solver.  Unfortunately for orange, purple saved Hunter for the end, and since this challenge has nothing to do with past season logos, he naturally wins it for them.  Tevin notes this, and I’m SURE it won’t matter for later for Hunter.  Our winning several get their very nice deep red buffs, while the losers go to wash off the dirt.  

There’s tension in the air, though in a nice moment, Venus looks on the bright side.  They might not have won, but they did come close.  No small feat, given how uneven these teams were.  Granted she undercuts the niceness by wishing the winners to choke on the food, but hey, it’s something.  

Speaking of said winners, they quickly get to discussing who to vote out.  Initially, Venus is very much the target, thrown out emphatically by Tevin.  Most everyone seems ok with this, but in the interest of parity, Yanu wants Siga to throw out a name as well.  Ben continues to toe the party line of them being unified, which Tiffany FINALLY calls out in confessional.  As I mentioned before, she rightly notes that this is not a good reason to want to work with Siga.  As a result, when Tim finally cracks and reluctantly throws out Moriah as an option, she quickly becomes the consensus boot.  

So, with it being down to Moriah or Venus, I would say the choice is clear: Moriah must go.  I get the reasons for wanting to get rid of Venus, but she’s SUCH an outsider that she can be gotten rid of anytime, while Moriah could slip under the radar if you let her by.  True, Venus could slip under the radar as well, but at this point she’s SO disliked I have difficulty seeing her winning over a jury.  So if she gets to the end, hey, easy victory against her.  For Yanu and Nami, it makes a crack in the seemingly unified Siga, and for Siga, it lowers their threat level without actually sacrificing that much.  As such, in an ideal world, voting out one of the other Siga might truly be Yanu/Nami’s smartest move, but I don’t see it happening, and a Moriah exit is still a victory for them, on at least some level.  

Despite this, we need to add SOME evidence for a Venus boot, which Venus gladly provides.  Rather than just being happy to hear she’s been spared, she’s concerned that a woman is going, when they have the numbers.  She tries to swing the vote to Charlie, which as I say COULD be a good move for Nami/Yanu, but they’re not biting.  Understandable, given that she explicitly framed it as a move against the men, so Hunter, Tevin, and Q at least would have a reason to be opposed.  Q in particular is mad about this, calling Venus “ungrateful” after “he saved her.”  Not sure how much agency Q had in that, and this is really not a good look on Q.  I could kind of understand it with Jelinsky, but dude gets really absolutist and morally righteous when he thinks things should go a certain way.  That’s his right, of course, but not good in the game of “Survivor”, and in cases like this, can come off as having sexist overtones.  I don’t think Q IS sexist, to be clear.  At worst, he’s a southern gentleman taking things to their logical conclusion from that (for example, Tiffany apparently wanted to do the Sweat task with Q, but he refused to “let a lady do that”), which is not going to fly with everyone.  Even with all this, I still lean towards a Moriah exit, particularly given her increased screen time this episode.  

Thank goodness for Moriah finding out about her boot, since otherwise they Tribal Council would have nothing beyond standard double-talk.  Even as it is, what we get isn’t great.  Things break when Moriah admits there IS a crack in Siga, and it’s her.  A decent enough move as a desperation play, but probably too late.  Further, as Q points out, it makes her look bad, since she lied to cover it up.  I ragged on Q for some of how he came off this episode, but credit where it’s due, the man shines here.  He calmly and plainly explains why, while he’s happy to know that, it doesn’t change must from a trust scenario.  Moriah for her part handles things with a similar grace, emphasizing her pitch without seeming desperate.  

Even with these “fireworks”, the needle doesn’t seem to move, and Moriah understandably plays her Shot in the Dark.  Not everyone is Kaleb (“Survivor 45”) sadly, and Moriah is not safe.  She therefore goes, Venus receiving exactly one vote from Charlie, presumably to protect in case Moriah’s Shot in the Dark was successful.  Tevin also wisely saved his extra vote, though I will note I did love his little dance when he received it.  

Jokes about Aubry love aside, I’m overall not sad to see Moriah go.  Venus brought much more drama, and it’s always nice to see people make the smart move.  And hey, Moriah handles her exit with a ton of class, which is always nice to see.  

Actually, that sums up this episode pretty well: It was nice to see.  It’s not going down in the annals of “Survivor” greatness, but it executed everything competently, had some good humorous moments, and was overall just an solid, but unremarkable episode of the show.  If Q really does go down the dark path and show his worst qualities next episode, however, this may be the high point of the season…

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 5: Rekindled Drive

Like most “Survivor” fans, I have at some point got it into my head that “Hey, I know so much about the game, why don’t I do this show?”  Like a smaller subset of those fans, I applied.  Several times.  Never got on, and eventually that drive dwindled, for a variety of factors I won’t get into here.  Suffice to say, I haven’t applied since pre-COVID, and have had no strong desire to try again.  Until tonight.  If they’re going to do a challenge LITERALLY tailor-made for me, a challenge I could definitely beat Hunter at, then maybe I should apply again.  

Eh, probably not, since they’ll probably never use this one again now they’ve done it once.  Still, would have been fun to try on my own.  

Less fun is another practice revived this episode, specifically the “Previously On…” segment spoiling what’s to come in the episode.  So far this season, these segments have stuck to recapping the events of the previous episode.  You know, the thing one would expect them to do?  This one?  Feels the need to go all the way back to episode 1, and remind us that Maria and Tevin both have extra votes.  They also go slightly less further back to remind us that Ben has no vote.  This ensures that these things will have relevance in this episode, all but guaranteeing that Yanu doesn’t lose today.  Way to spoil things, episode!

Admittedly, you could spoil them for Yanu themselves, a bit, just to get them off this whining train.  Look, I get that their situation sucks, but man does it feel like they go overboard with the self-pity this episode.  Kenzie refers to them as “The tiniest tribe that ever was.”  Ulong shouts “Am I joke to you?” From far away at this.  Look, I get that things kind of suck for Yanu right now.  A little moping is to be expected.  But man, Yanu’s being too hyperbolic about this for my taste.  You’re not going down in the annals of history as one of the all-time great tribes, but you’re hardly a disaster on par with some of the other tribes in the show’s history.  Get over yourselves.  

Ok, is the weather just WAY worse than we’re being shown?  Now SIGA is getting in on the complaining, and they’ve been doing well!  And have a tarp!  The only thing I can figure at this point is that there’s something about the weather this season that’s just driving everyone to misery.  Though since this is Ben complaining, there’s a silver lining to be found, and that is his bond with Charlie.  Or “Sir Ben” and “Sir Charlie” as they refer to themselves, since evidently Kane from “Survivor 44” is back on the island somehow.  Still, they’re buds, and we see their music naming competition is a regular thing, not just a one-off

Unfortunately for them, this bond and chipperness does not go unnoticed by others.  Specifically the women, who are debating who to target between him and Tim.  They admit Tim is better to get rid of in the short term, but state that Ben is more of a threat in the long-term, due to his humor landing well, and potentially earning him allies.  Can’t argue with that logic.  There’s also that the women (sans Jem, obviously) are convinced that Tim has the idol, so Ben becomes the safer bet.  I COULD argue with this logic, but their targeting is still correct, so despite the somewhat presumptive reasoning, I can’t disagree with the results.  

Over at Nami, the order of the day is idol hunting, and man, the editors are really not putting in any effort here any more, are they?  We get the usual schtick of someone, in this case Hunter, narrating how they must have just missed the idol, and there’ll be a zoom-in and flash on it, which they naturally do, and… It just feels lazy.  I don’t know, maybe this joke has been overdone at this point, but it just doesn’t have the joy it used to at this point.  

Thankfully Venus is there to provide us something different.  Having evidently given up on finding the idol herself, she instead guards Hunter extremely blatantly.  Given that she wants to target him, it makes sense she wouldn’t want him getting something that powerful.  Honestly, I’m not going to criticize this move.  True, she has all the subtlety of a foghorn in doing so, but she’s on the outs, and is unlikely to find the idol when basically everyone else on the tribe, except Liz, is out looking for it.  As such, better to make sure your target doesn’t get a safety net.  It could be done with more finesse, especially as it pisses off Hunter something fierce, but at this point, he’s against her anyway, so why not?  

What I WILL criticize Venus for is backing off this strategy.  If you’re going to do that, go all-out!  Make it so Hunter has NO alone time to idol-hunt.  But no, she does, and of course, Hunter finds it.  He’s a bit bummed reading the rules, since Nami is, you know, unlikely to lose anytime soon.  Granted, Hunter is the reason Nami wins so much, so he could probably just throw if he really wanted to, but that would A) raise suspicion and B) be pointless, since we know the idol has new rules some the merge.  Might as well wait it out.  

Enough of the interesting stuff!  Let’s go back to Yanu for, you guessed it, MORE WHINING!  Each person mopes in their own special way, though Kenzie is the one with her head still the most in the game.  She is the one looking at the angles, trying to figure how how to turn Q seeming to be on the verge of quitting to her advantage.  Credit the show this: They’re giving us a villain again, and not backing down on it either.  

Just as I’m about to read Q the riot act for talking about quitting, aka the very thing he went on the warpath against Jelinsky for, Q reveals that it was actually an act on his part.  Resigned to going to Tribal Council again, he wants to make sure Kenzie doesn’t do the Shot in the Dark, so makes it seem like he’s given up.  When he and Tiffany talk, however, he points out to her that Kenzie always asks “What were you talking about?”  I actually want to give major props to this bit of persuasion.  The best persuasion is a subtle one, where you let the person come to the conclusion naturally.  That’s just what Q does here.  He casts no aspersions on Kenzie, merely makes an observation that he knows Tiffany will interpret in a way that benefits himself.  Sure enough, Tiffany notes that Kenzie always has her head in the game, and we get a pretty funny montage of Kenzie asking that every question multiple times.  This may not be as persuasive as Q wanted however, since Tiffany never says she’ll definitively go one way or the other.  Instead, she claims to be equally close with both Q and Kenzie, and doesn’t want either of them to go.  Bad news, Tiffany: With how much Q is against Kenzie at this point, even if you avoid Tribal Council tonight, you’re gonna have to make that choice eventually.  

Back over at Siga, we see JUST how good Jem’s plan to send people off for the Beware Advantage she has has been going!   While she got lucky that people were convinced Tim had it at the start, now there has been some question.  From Tim specifically, who now feels convinced that Jem has the idol.  Way to inadvertently throw suspicion on yourself!  Tim confronts her about the women’s alliance, which she denies, and congratulates herself for lying so well.  Seems a bit much, to me.  Don’t get me wrong, she does a decent enough job at it, and I get her point that she hid her tell of giggling, but it’s not like this was some master stroke.  You gave a basic denial, not some cunning 4-D chess move.  And again, there is now suspicion on you in relation to the idol where there was none before, especially now the tribe has given up looking for it.  

All is not serious at Siga, however.  Maria gives everyone salsa lessons!  Admittedly Charlie does try and tie them back into the game, but really, it’s just a fun little glimpse at tribe life.  Part of the reason I enjoy the 90-minute episodes; I get the feeling this scene would have been cut if it were only an hour-long episode.  

Our challenge today is literally a carbon-copy of one from last season, presumably so they can re-use the multi-level obstacle course.  Lazy and uninteresting, at this point.  At least every tribe has had a bit of a target thrown around; Nami less so than the others, but when you’ve got Hunter on your team, that’s understandable.  Then you remember what the “Previously On…” segment was like, and you realize you’re set up for a Siga loss.  Happy that we won’t have to see more of Yanu whining again, but bummed that it’s that predictable.  

Oh, and there’s zero surprise from the other tribes that Bhanu went home.  In case that was a question.  

The show does everything in its power to convince us Yanu may yet lose.  Probst highlights the new-era records they set, having never won immunity and going without flint the longest.  I maintain they should have got flint for winning the reward challenge, but hey, what do I know?  Probst also suggests Yanu use this as inspiration.  Hey Probst?  You know what might really inspire Yanu?  LETTING THEM HAVE SOME FREAKING SUPPLIES!  Honestly, if a season highlights why the show needs to drop the deprevation angle, at least to some degree, it’s this.  I get that you don’t want seasons to seem too easy, but when the initially-losing tribe just gets steamrolled, the game gets a lot less fun.  

Back to the challenge, however.  It helps that Yanu falls decently behind early on.  The slingshot at the end is the great equalizer, however, especially since everyone has to make a shot, meaning Hunter can’t carry everyone in this challenge.  Nami still wins, earning immunity and many fruits and pastries, but Siga sucking at this portion allows Yanu to catch up.  It comes down the last target, Ben comparing it to the “tightest playoffs” (evidently that rocks), with Yanu taking the win.  And they MILK that sucker.  The slow-mo.  The dramatic music.  Even though we know it’s coming, it’s emotionally satisfying.  The testimonials from Yanu help as well.  

But, of course, we’re only a third of the way through the episode; there must be a twist!  Yes, it’s another journey, and as the winners, Nami gets to decide who goes from each tribe.  Magnanimously, they let the other tribes pick who gets sent along with Hunter, leading to Q going for Yanu, and Tim for Siga.  Honestly, Hunter is the one I’m most surprised by.  I would have thought he wouldn’t want to go, given the target on his back already, but I suppose he’s well liked that no one on the tribe would object.  Well, Venus would, but she has now power at this point already.  

Interesting thing to note is that both Q and Hunter said in pre-season interviews that they had sussed each other out as fellow residents of Mississippi, the first on the show since Darrah of “Survivor Pearl Islands”.  As such, they had mentioned wanting to work together.  That being the case, I could see that being a factor in those two in particular volunteering to go.  Happy coincidence, or planned strategy?  You make the call!

Speculation aside, what is clear is that the relative “big gun” in terms of challenges from each tribe has now gotten together.  With the merge looming (again, thanks predictable season schedule!  Please note the sarcasm!), each realizes they’re going to be targeted, and vowed to stick together.  Simple strategy, and one I’m not sure they’re all sincere about, but I can’t fault the logic of it.  Q even does a good job turning it to his advantage. Rather than try to downplay his relationship with Tiffany, doubtless realizing that this is a lost cause, he owns up to it under the guise of “each gets one person they’re tight with to bring along”, thus getting Tim to admit he’s tightest with Maria, and Hunter with Tevin.  Decent information gained at very little cost.  Well-played, Q.  

As to our journey test itself?  Well, after two misfires, the show finally hits the sweet spot!  Rather than forcing anyone to do anything, the threesome have to come to a consensus for one person to do a challenge related to “Survivor” History.  Tim admits that he’s a superfan, but also doesn’t want to risk his vote, this by now being the known penalty for losing.  As such, he backs off, and Q for some reason doesn’t put up a fight, leaving Hunter to be the one to test his knowledge.  

Luckily for Hunter, the producers threw him an easy one.  He gets 20 logos of previous seasons, and has to put them in chronological order.  A fairly strict time limit, but still, for someone of his fan status, this should be no problem… Wait, why is he putting Guatemala before Pearl Islands?  Any fool could tell you that’s wrong!  Hunter, NO!

Yes, it seems we’ve found the one challenge Hunter sucks at: Basic “Survivor” trivia.  Look, one the one hand, I don’t want to seem to harsh.  While I find this easy, even a decent fan might not have season order fully memorized.  That said, you’d expect the guy who loves the show so much he literally BUILT CHALLENGES FROM SCRATCH to have maybe looked up the order of seasons a couple of times in the past!  Plus, it’s funny for Hunter, who has been so good at challenge, to fail so spectacularly in this one.  Even Debbie of “Survivor Kaoh Rong” gets in on the action, berating Hunter with her “And I’m pissed!” speech from “Survivor Game Changers”.  I’d have more sympathy for Hunter if there was some added layer of difficulty.  Maybe if it was pictures of immunity idols he had to put in order, or merge tribe names.  Those add in needing to know what season they’re from, in addition to the order of seasons, making them difficult even for all but the most die-hard superfans.  But this was the LOGOS!  With the exception of Borneo (which Hunter did get right), they all have their names printed on them!  All you have to do is READ and REMEMBER!  You’re less than two weeks in!  It can’t be that hard!

After Hunter’s fan-cried takes some serious hits, we cut to the celebration at Yanu, with Tiffany and Kenzie feasting.  Tiffany also celebrates not needing to cut one of her allies yet.  Soon, though, Tiffany.  Soon.  Still, the pair are kind enough to save Q his portion of the food, and we even get a humorous bit where Q does a ventriloquist routine with the idol.  Funny stuff, and again, could easily have been cut in a shorter episode.  I continue to like this runtime.  

Still, time for strategizing at Siga, and after a suitable eulogy from Ben, Jem insists on a private idol hunt.  The tribe is surprisingly cool about this, giving her time to dig up her clue to the key.  Unfortunately for Jem, she has to do a bit more than Tiffany did on Yanu.  She must measure the permitter of Tree Mail, her tribe boat, and the length of the tribe sign, using lengths of machete as the unit of measurement, then plug these units into a formula to tell her how many lengths of machete from the tree she initially found the Beware Advantage in her key is buried.  Jem agonizes about doing this without getting spotted, but ultimately doesn’t seem to have any trouble.  Really, the point where I was most worried for her was in finding the key itself, since she seemed to eyeball where to put the machete to count out the lengths, rather than flipping it end over end like I’d have done.  Still, it works, and Jem has an idol.  Again, can’t argue with results.  

Now, let the targeting commence!  As hinted earlier, Ben is the preferred target for the women.  Still, to prevent potential idol/shot in the dark usage (remember that no one knows Ben doesn’t have a vote at this point), they agree to split votes between Ben and Tim, with Maria potentially using her extra vote to make this math properly.  Charlie is a little bummed about this, but doesn’t think there’s much he can do, other than potentially persuade Maria.  That said, Jem continues to overplay her hand, grilling Ben about what his plans are that night, ultimately leading to her being firmed up as the target.  With Ben coming clean (as he probably needs to at this point) about not having a vote to Tim, Charlie, and Maria, we now come to the latter two as our swing votes.  

As to who they should go for?  While I understand Maria’s pull towards the women, since she doesn’t have the close bond with Ben that Charlie does, I think the smart move here is to get out Jem.  Ben is definitely a social threat, but he’s a loyal one that’s less likely to move against the tribe, and therefore you.  If Jem’s overplaying, and shenanigans with the Beware Advantage, tell us anything, it’s that she’s in it primarily for herself.  Hardly unusual in this game, but still, not something to keep around if you don’t have to.  Yes, she does have an idol, but again, if she didn’t tell you about it, she’s likely only going to use it for herself.  No reason to keep that around.  

The downside to Siga being the “Vibe Tribe” as they style themselves, is that Tribal Council is very much a nothingburger of a climax.  There’s no sound bytes or interesting conversation whatsoever.  Everyone’s just too happy with one another.  Best I can say is that there is a bit of mystery as to who goes home.  I do think her increased screen time favors Jem, but there’s still at least a decent chance that it’s Ben.  There’s also some fun moments in the voting booth, from Ben being oddly happy about not voting to Moriah talking about she’s “scared and nerding out simultaneously.” The latter is very relatable.

But no, the editing was not a fake-out at this point.  Jem goes home, idol in her pocket, though to her credit she laughs at the whole thing.  Legitimately classy.  While this was the smart move, I can’t deny that it’s not what I wanted to happen.  Jem may have played a messy game, but it was fun to watch.  Nothing against Ben personally; he seems like a nice guy.  Maybe it’s because I’m not a big music person, but I ultimately don’t enjoy his schtick, whereas Jem I found at least somewhat entertaining.  Hard to be too mad at competent gameplay, however.  Really, the most questionable move of the night for me is Maria using her extra vote.  She KNEW Ben had no vote.  There was no need to pile the extra vote on Jem.  My best guess is that she feared she’d be targeted for having the vote come the merge, and so wanted to get rid of it.  I can see SOME logic there, but on the whole, still think she shouldn’t have done that.  

Questionable choice by Maria aside, this was a good episode!  Definitely the best since the premiere.  While it may not have had the biggest mystery, and shot itself in the foot in terms of foreshadowing, it had enough questions to keep me invested throughout.  And, above all, it was FUN.  Outside of Yanu whining, we bonded well with the players, and mixed in strategy with good personal moments.  All in all, a solid recipe for a fun episode of “Survivor”, and that’s enough for me.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 4: Back to 2000

Man, now I’m kind of bummed I wasted all my “Dr Who” jokes on “Survivor 41”, because if this episode wasn’t ever a throwback to the old days.  Obvious boots with no real misdirection!  People being clueless about how to play the game!  Freaking TREE MAIL!  Getting read out loud!  Twice!  Since when do any of those things happen anymore?

We pick up… Literally right where we left off last episode.  Yanu still celebrating their good fortune within Randen’s misfortune.  Kenzie is happy that Yanu finally has a “win” such as it is, and Q talks about how this might be a turning point for Yanu.  Um, Q?  Have you seen your tribe?  Skipping one Tribal does not a turnaround make.  

Even the person who benefits the most from this, Bhanu, is kind of screwed over by it.  There was no harm in him spilling the tribe dynamics when he thought he’d be going home, and had nothing to lose.  Now that he’s been spared and has to work with these people?  Kind of a bad look.  And once again, it’s a look Bhanu can’t keep to himself, though this time I’m a bit more sympathetic to it.  Even if it doesn’t paint him in the best light, if he wants a chance of working with these people, it’s something they need to know.  Unfortunately for Bhanu, he also brings up that in addition to the “Kenzie’s the mastermind” thing, which Q and Tiffany could probably take in stride, he ALSO brings up that he mentioned the two of them were close.  This, rightly, makes them feel like they’ll be targeted come a swap or merge, and so we close on a montage of everyone assuring us that, should they lose again, Bhanu goes home.  

After our awesome intro, we cut to Bhanu praying yet again, since he doesn’t have much recourse.  His prayers are answered with the aforementioned tree mail, which we see both Yanu and Nami read out.  The latter, as is their want, turns it into a jam session.  Much like with the “Shanthem” on “Survivor 41”, the editors do not miss a beat, both figuratively and literally, providing Nami a backing track to go with their singing.  This pleases most everyone… Save Hunter, who puts his head in his hands at more singing, presumably questioning his life choices.  

Siga doesn’t read their tree mail, but we do see them do another “group idol hunt”.  One with more success this time, as Maria finds a clue to a Beware Advantage.  “But how?” You may ask, since we saw Jem find it last episode (even though she ACTUALLY found it a few days prior to last episode).  Well, Jem has done the old “Re-hide the clue to send everyone on a wild goose chase.” Thing.  Normally a strategy I can get behind, but not sure how well it’s going to work here.  The flaw is that it specifically tells you to dig where you found the Beware Advantage.  Between the area just not being good for digging, and the presumed finding of nothing, eventually people are going to figure out it’s a plant.  This isn’t “Holes” where people are just gonna keep digging in the hopes of finding it.  This will, of course, lead to paranoia.  Paranoia that can easily fall back on you, Jem.  Better hope it doesn’t, or this was a terrible, pointless move.  

As to our challenge?  Standard obstacle course, you know the drill by now.  Only two real obstacles worth noting: Untying a key from a floating platform, and throwing hoops up over a pole with a bar on top, to be later thrown onto a similar pole.  

The latter I mention because of recent familiarity, it being the “Carolyn Wiger Memorial Challenge” from the premiere of “Survivor 44”.  But the former?  Well, I didn’t think it was possible to flip those platforms upside-down, but Tim from Siga somehow found a way.  Power to you for finding a new way to break the challenge, I guess.  

What are they playing for?  Fish in varying quantities, which Q insists they’ll need to trade for something else.  Not sure why, exactly.  Even if they don’t get flint for winning the challenge (which they SHOULD.  There’s no reason for it to be tied specifically to immunity; the challenges themselves have no difference.  A win is a win.), food is probably more important than any other reward so far, and it’s not like the fish will be inedible.  Sashimi is a thing.  

But yeah, I’m sure hearing that from Yanu has no bearing on… Yeah, Yanu wins.  They don’t even try to hide it.  Yanu was doing well in general, but I think the reason they beat Nami is that the “throwing the hoops off the pole” part specifically had to be done by everyone playing, so Hunter couldn’t just win the whole thing for them.  Nami still comes in second over Siga, though.  Tim’s error with the platform didn’t help, but the big contributor seems to have been Maria failing hard at the first hoop-throwing segment.  Honestly, don’t blame her.  It’s a tough thing to do, and she DID succeed, eventually.  Just too little, too late, in the end.  Yanu, as predicted, trades their fish for the tarp and tool kit.  I can kind of see it, especially after the reported (but not shown) torrential downpours this season, but I still think they should have earned flint for this, and kept the fish.  

We actually save Yanu celebrating their win in favor of Nami celebrating.  Liz talks about her happiness at being able to eat something she’s NOT allergic to, but that’s not the main focus here.  Tevin insists on being the one to scale and gut the fish.  Rather than being some macho wilderness thing, this is actually a tribute to Tevin’s dad, who taught him how to do this.  The pair were supposed to do it some more; have some fishing trips together.  Sadly, Tevin ended up focussing on his career, to the point where his dad passed away before they got that chance.  

Hey, who put on “Cats in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin?  I do NOT need that right now!  This scene is sad enough as it is!

In all honesty, this is one of the best backstory segments we’ve ever gotten on the show.  It tied in perfectly with the situation, and isn’t a contrived sad moment.  Brings us closer to Tevin, which is what it’s supposed to do.  Bravo, show, and Tevin, if by some weird coincidence you are reading this, I’m sorry for your loss.  

We can’t really top the emotion of Tevin’s moment, but Yanu gives it their best shot.  Naturally, they’re exuberant about their win, and hope it will lead to more.  Hope that is quickly dashed when Bhanu compounds his “Not cut out for this show” credentials by mixing up right and left when putting on the tarp.  While still against him for the whole “inadvertent targeting” thing, Q hopes to bring this team of four to the merge, and wants them to be their best.  To this end, he coaches Bhanu on how to talk to others/answer Probst’s questions as Tribal.  Basically give generic “I’m close with everyone.” answers.  Not terrible advice, and Bhanu certainly needs the role-playing practice Q provides, but MAN does Q seem condescending towards the guy when doing it.  Like, the man’s not cut out for the show.  Fine.  That’s not a failing of character.  No need to put him down for it.  

At least Q is putting in the effort, however.  When Bhanu politely suggests to Kenzie that she practice with him as well, Kenzie gives him the brush-off, understandably upsetting Bhanu.  Look, I’m not gonna say the man’s the easiest to live with.  Nor is he the best player.  But you need to put up at least the PRETENSE of politeness with him.  Apart from it just being the decent thing to do, you’ll need any number you can get come the merge at this point.  Even one as unreliable as Bhanu.  

Bhanu’s not the only one having a moment, however.  Maria is upset at her perceived costing of the tribe the challenge (again, probably a factor, but I feel like Tim flipping the platform was at least somewhat of a factor as well).  Ben notes this, and tries to cheer her up.  This prompts Maria to talk about how hard it is for her to give up.  She explains that her parents, after getting out of Lebanon to come to the US, instilled a work ethic in their kids to keep fighting.  Honestly, a decent enough backstory.  Not the most logical progression I’ve seen, but not the worst.  I think this one falls flat less for being bad on its own, more for Tevin’s being an EXTREMELY tough act to follow.  

Still Ben does point out that Maria found a Beware Advantage, which seems to cheer her up.  Unfortunately for her, as we the audience know, she’s found basically jack squat.  And now, after a decent amount of time digging, the tribe is beginning to suspect something’s up.  Charlie in particular notes that “Jeff will never lie to you.” In relation to the note.  Um, Charlie?  I know it was a while ago, but Danny from “Survivor 41” might disagree with that statement.  

Even if the logic is flawed, the conclusion is correct, and speculation abounds as to who may have the actual idol.  Luckily for Jem, suspicion falls on Tim rather than herself.  Makes the move slightly better, but still too risky, in my opinion.  

Back at Yanu, Kenzie makes a half-hearted attempt to cheer up Bhanu, admitting that tribe cohesion is needed.  She admits in confessional, though, that she hates needing to be emotional support for a man “about 15 years older” than her.  Um, what’s with the “about”?  Did these people not exchange ages yet?  Feel like that would have come up at some point.  In any case, while she’s insincere in confessional, she’s sincere enough to Bhanu to cheer him up, and harmony is momentarily restored.  Though it should be noted that Bhanu bemoans no longer having power in the game, leading me to question when he thought he had power in the game in the first place.  

Quickly becoming less harmonious is Nami.  Soda admits that while it’s nice to keep winning, you get the itch to strategize.  As such, she goes around in a montage to everyone on the tribe, checking in and just reaffirming bonds.  Unfortunately for her, she’s not the most subtle about this, and catches the eye of Tevin.  Naturally, Tevin is a bit suspicious about all this, and so discussed the possibility of voting out Soda with Hunter.  Hunter admits that he’s preferred Soda as a target for a while, and is happy Tevin came to the same conclusion on his own.  After talking with Liz, who’s ok with Soda going as well, they make a majority and the plan seems set.  

As to how I feel about this plan?  It’s pretty much the same as I felt about Sabiyah targeting Kaleb in episode 3 of “Survivor 45”: I see the logic, and I agree that the target needs to go sooner rather than later.  But this is too soon.  The issue for me is how thoroughly Nami has alienated Venus from themselves.  There is practically no chance she sticks with them come the merge.  Soda might be a threat, but at least for now she’s a LOYAL threat.  Take her out now, then if you lose again, you’re fine to eliminate Soda.  

Speaking of eliminations, tree mail for the immunity challenge arrives.  It mentions jumping being necessary, which is a problem for Siga.  They sat out Moriah in the last challenge, meaning she needs to be in this one.  The problem?  Well, turns out she can’t jump, something Ben tells us is kind of unusual.  Um, Ben, you’re not doing your branding right.  I think you mean “That does NOT rock.”  Still, Charlie does his best to coach Moriah before the challenge.  

Luckily for Moriah, she won’t be called to do as much jumping as she thought.  This is basically “Octopus’ Garden” first seen on “Survivor Cagayan”.  The challenge the brawn tribe of that season tried to throw, and failed.  Decent enough challenge, but again, give me something new.  Distance or height jumping will not much be required from Moriah.  

I’ll give this challenge this: I don’t know who’s losing.  Granted, Siga hasn’t had much in the way of “targets” yet, so their loss is less likely, but anything is at least plausible tonight, lending a tension to this episode we’ve not really had since the premiere.  

Sure enough, Siga has the early lead.  Nami is in second, but Yanu isn’t far behind.  That is until Hunter gets to shooting the baskets, whereupon Nami immediately takes first place.  Is anyone surprised at this point?  Honestly, if there’s a mark against Hunter winning at this point, it’s how much of a challenge threat he’ll be come the merge.  

Not that Yanu is completely out of it.  Tim takes a major spill by trying to jump onto the platform he has to shoot from, to the point where I’m thinking we may get another evacuation at this point.  Tim also has some trouble sinking the baskets, and Q’s shooting does tie it up 2-2.  In the end, however, Yanu’s deprivation is their undoing, and Siga wins.  Again.  So we get group we’ve seen the most of going to tribal.  Again.  How exciting.  

Even the episode can’t pretend there’s mystery at this point.  As soon as Bhanu goes over, everyone else talks openly about how it has to be Bhanu at this point.  To his credit, Bhanu at least has the sense to check up on them, and overhears this.  He’s naturally devastated, and sets about looking for an idol.  Given his limited options and knowledge, I can’t really blame him, though no one left thinks there’s an idol.  Tiffany has one, and they doubt a second will get added.  Bhanu, despite not knowing this, eventually reaches the same conclusion.  He’s really out of options at this point.  No idol, and no vote means he can’t use his shot in the dark.  He thus resorts to begging, pretty much the only option he has left. All he has to lose is his dignity.  

However, in a rarity for the show, they don’t even pretend he has a chance.  No one gives him the time of day, and he tells us he’s just going to use Tribal Council to make sure he tells his story.  Yes, the show is going for emotion over strategy, and I’ve got to admit, it works.  Bhanu’s tale is not anything we haven’t heard from him before, but he tells it well, and with a good score behind it, it’s touching nonetheless.  Even his tribe is pretty sincere in their compliments toward him, admitting that while he’s terrible at the game, they still like him as a person.  And without any eye-rolls for once!

About the only misstep is that it’s SUCH a foregone conclusion that we don’t get a vote.  Bhanu may not have been the best player, or even a good player in basically any respect, but dude at least deserves the dignity of a formal vote-off.  Plus, I don’t like how this muddies the waters of whether this is a quit or not.  I say it isn’t, but I could see there being a disagreement in the fanbase.  

As to the outcome, I’m both sorry and not sorry Bhanu is gone.  For all my criticisms of his game, I did genuinely like the guy, and feel bad for him going.  Even if his “honesty isn’t a part of this game” realization should have been something he knew before going out.  At the same time, the three remaining Yanu are definitely the better players, and thus more interesting to me going forward, so in that respect, I’m ok with this.  Sorry, Bhanu.  This just isn’t your game.  

I will admit, despite lacking in mystery post-immunity challenge, this episode was ok.  Not one of the greats, but a pretty good hour and a half of tv.  The emotional notes hit just right, and sometimes that’s all you need.  And hey, if nothing else, we got to hear tree mail again.  That’s a nice touch.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 3: “Things That Don’t Rock” for $300

Catchphrases.  I don’t need to explain to you what they are.  They’ve been a staple of tv since basically tv began.  Yet overall, not that common on “Survivor”.  Fair share of memorable quotes, and a few things from Probst that could be catchphrases (“Got nothing for ya”, “The tribe has spoken.”, etc.), but overall not as much of a thing as in other shows.  As Ben demonstrates tonight, that’s probably because trying to create a catchphrase for yourself on “Survivor” sounds really freaking forced!  Granted, in Ben’s case it’s so forced it comes back around to be funny.  But you get my point, and I’m getting ahead of myself.  

Bhanu is, understandably, a bit shaken up about Tribal Council last time.  After all, Jess wrote his name down, and if her idol had been real, he would have been gone.  Luckily for him it was fake, though he is curious to know how that happened.  He gets let in on the plan, and how the idol was made, but everyone else is largely dismissive of his concerns, saying he should just be happy to be hear.  Bhanu’s unreliability and incapacity to keep secrets are reiterated, he channels the spirit of Jelinsky by quoting “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em”, and cue intro.  

Following our awesome intro, we go back to Yanu to reiterate just how much they suck!  Why, Kenzie tells us they suck so much that they don’t even sleep in their shelter, opting for a nearby cave instead.  Hey, I guess it worked for Chuay Gahn on “Survivor Thailand”.  I mean, the shelter itself kind of sucked due to the latrine situation, but in terms of tribe success post-merge, not a bad trajectory to be following.  

Kenzie reiterates that they must be one of the most pathetic tribes in recent history.  Well, Kenzie, I’ve got good news for you!  You can’t know this at time of filming, but last season had a tribe that was even MORE pathetic than you!  You all are a hot mess, don’t get me wrong, but at least none of you quit!  Yet!  As such, you look slightly less pathetic in comparison.  Good job!… In timing your season to come after the last one!

Bhanu, still desperate to save himself, tries to talk to Kenzie about getting something going.  Kenzie, while friendly in tone, just asks him to come up with a plan, making it clear that she’s not that interested in working with Bhanu.  She says, rightly, in confessional that while he’s a nice guy, he can’t keep a secret, and so is just not cut out for the game.  A fair assessment, and one Q would not necessarily disagree with.  Still, Q sees some value in Bhanu, so their talk goes somewhat better.  Granted, this talk does involve Q comparing Bhanu to Phillip Sheppard (“Survivor Redemption Island”) and himself to Boston Rob (too many seasons to name at this point, but most relevant here is “Survivor Redemption Island”).  Probably not a comparison one would be flattered by.  

But hey, at least it means someone wants to keep Bhanu around!  Bhanu reacts to this news… with paranoia.  He’s not sure if this is just Q pulling the wool over his eyes to avoid a Shot in the Dark.  Granted, a pretty reasonable concern, but at this point, Bhanu, can’t look the proverbial gift horse in the proverbial mouth.  

As a side note, when Bhanu talks about Kenzie, he compares her to a “Mermaid-Dragon”, meaning beautiful and charming in the front, deadly in the back.  Not sure he quite nailed the metaphor, but I do know I want Bhanu to read me “The Little Mermaid” now.  No text to follow, just him making up the story based on memory alone.  I feel like it would be awesome!

Morning at Siga brings a group idol hunt, something that basically everyone mocks.  Moriah talks about how everyone keeps one eye for an idol, and one eye out for a “bulge”… Meaning an idol in a pocket, get your minds out of the gutter!  Charlie is particularly dismissive of the idea, saying he wants the idol for himself.  Naturally, such arrogance means he must get the “dodo” edit of being right by the idol and not seeing it!  

In fairness to Charlie, this one is particularly deviously hidden.  While plainly visible in a broken stump of a tree branch, it’s only visible from the camera angle we get, which is facing the path.  Looking FROM said path, you’d basically never see it.  As such, props to Jem for both finding it, and for not cluing Charlie in, since he was right beside her!

Jam states that she hopes the Beware Advantage is “A simple process”.  Famous last words.  As you’d expect, Jem’s note is similar to the ones found by Tiffany and Randen before now.  Dig beneath where you found the Beware Advantage, what this actually is.  Jem does so, though credit her for actually WAITING to do so unlike those other two.  Sure enough, she finds a box that says she doesn’t get another clue until her tribe loses, and until then, she has no vote.  Interestingly, however, Jem adds another bit, which says that additional rules would follow if she reaches the merge having never lost immunity. 

Um, WHAT?  I’m assuming that was part of EVERYONE’s rules, so why are we just hearing about it now?  I get not doing it in Tiffany’s, since the premiere had a lot to get through, and Yanu lost anyway almost immediately after, but why not read it with Randen’s?  You’re telling me that in the thinly-stretched two hour episode we had last week, there wasn’t room for Randen to say an extra SENTENCE to clarify this?  

Look, the reason I’m mad is not because of “production lying to us” or anything like that.  Nor am I mad about the rule; it makes sense.  But what this does is imply that it wasn’t RELEVANT UNTIL Jem got the idol, implying Siga never goes to Tribal pre-merge.  Or, in the event of a swap, that Jem never goes.  Way to suck out what little tension this season has so far, show!  Should have just made it something read with all finds, so that it gave nothing away.  

Still, good for Yanu.  More incentive for someone to throw a challenge.  About the only way they’re going to win one at this point.  

Well, I tell a lie.  There IS another plausible way for Yanu to win, but that’s getting a bit ahead.  Still, we do need to go to the tribe that could plausibly lose naturally, Nami.  Not that we see it at the start.  Indeed, things are all good at Nami, with Hunter working on building a bed; Tevin in a funny aside asking him to make a Temperpedic.  Liz dubs Hunter “Survivor MacGyver”, which may just be a coincidence, but I’m choosing to believe it’s an intentional shout to to Stephen Fishbach’s turn on “Survivor Cambodia”, since that season and player are both amongst my favorites.  She’s not alone in praising Hunter, with basically the whole tribe getting in on the act.  

Yes, everyone loves Hunter!  Even Hunter loves Hunter, giving us his backstory on choosing to forego a full ride scholarship to medical school to teach in his hometown.  I’d say this one hits pretty well, but that’s mostly because they mix in a good bit of comedy with the heartfelt-ness of it.  While it’s cool that Hunter decided to take a lesser-paying job that he’s passionate about and all, it’s also funny to see JUST HOW MANY “Survivor” puzzles he has lying around his home.  And not 3-D printed ones that I could tell; dude seems to have carved these himself.  Wouldn’t be too weird, but again, the sheer quantity alone is pretty funny.  

Did I say everyone loves Hunter?  I mean MOST everyone loves Hunter.  To his credit, while the dude is the center of his tribe socially (Soda and Tevin only seem more so because their personalities are louder, and thus they make better narrators), basically no one has caught on, which speaks to his smarts.  No one, with one exception.  

Yes Venus, in a good perceptive moment, has made note of Hunter’s standing, and so goes out to actively target him.  She goes to Randen to warn him of this threat, something Randen seems clueless on.  That said, while Venus HAS definitely made an excellent observation here, she’s really bad at pitching it.  The main thing she says is “Just use your eyes, and you’ll see.”  Um, Venus?  Randen DID use his eyes, and he missed it completely!  You might need some, I don’t know, EVIDENCE to back up your claim, if people can’t see it for themselves?  

Ok, ok, I’m being a bit harsh here.  Venus DOES point out his being central to the tribe dynamics, which IS the sort of evidence she should bring up.  That said, her initial dismissive “pitch” coupled with Randen still not seeming to get it at the end of the scene, is grounds for some light internet mockery nonetheless, in my opinion.  

Enough dilly-dallying, on to why Nami might lose.  Randen has woken up having slept funny on the bamboo, and now he’s got numbness in his right arm and leg, along with some stiffness in his neck.  Medical does end up coming out to take a look, but as no medevac was advertised prior to the season, he’s naturally cleared to stay in the game.  The doctor says it’s most likely a pinched nerve that should go away on his own.  Still, Randen’s not going to be much help in challenges, but hey, if it goes away on its own, then he should be fine down the road.  All he needs is for there not to be a challenge today!

Oh look!  A challenge in the very next scene!  Who could have guessed?

After that obvious yet hilarious joke, we examine the challenge itself, which is not that great.  Tribes race from the water to shore over a series of obstacles, including over a rolling log.  Once on shore, they dig up sandbags which they must then land on a series of disks high in the air.  First two to do so win immunity and varying amounts of shelter-improving equipment.  Standard stuff by this point.  I bring up the description only because you may remember the ending segment of this challenge as the one where JD choked on “Survivor 41”.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, it’s the one where he said “Money”, and then choked.  That fun memory earns the challenge a few points, but overall, otherwise forgettable.  

Randen naturally sits out the challenge, due to his injury, and his contributions to Nami show up FAST!  Despite Yanu still not having fire, and literally having to walk from exhaustion at one point during the challenge, Nami is still in last up to the beach.  Siga has the firm lead up to that point, notably having the innovative strategy of having the rest of the tribe roll the log in the correct direction with the hands to help ease the journey of the person going over it.  Nami is also similarly innovative, even in last, with Hunter grabbing onto Tevin’s legs as he goes over, thus pulling the both of them over.  

That said, tossing sandbags onto small disks is a tricky thing to do, especially since, as Q demonstrates, vibrations can knock them off.  Understandably difficult, but hey, I can’t knock any of these people.  It’s not like any of them have practiced this before…

CRASH!

COACH: I have.  

ME: Coach!  What the hell?  You’re not even on this season!

COACH: Hey, you were talking about tossing things!  How could you do so without my years of expertise in the area of tossing things?

ME: Very easily, and without a hole in my wall?

COACH: Ah, get over it, you wimp.  Besides, you were CLEARLY leading up to a point with that line, and what else could it be, other than me?

ME: Hunter.

COACH: What?

ME: Yeah, Hunter.  When we had his flashback, amongst the items he’d crafted for challenges was a bunch of sandbags, implying he’d done this sort of thing.  It’s actually some pretty subtle foreshadowing, and I wanted to give production their due on that one.  

COACH: But he doesn’t do it better than me, right?

ME: Given that he brought his tribe back from last place to first with seemingly a minimal number of tosses, and your team didn’t even win the equivalent challenge on “Survivor Tocantins”, I’d say he’s objectively better than you.  

COACH:… If you’ll excuse me, I have a dragon to slay.  

(COACH exits, brandishing a katana from nowhere.)

Yep, Hunter pulled it back, thereby sucking most of the tension out of the challenge.  There was no puzzle, and Nami was severely weakened, so Yanu had a shot of beating them.  Siga?  Minimal tribe dynamics, and while there is a CHANCE Jem asked them to throw, we never saw her do it.  

So yeah, Yanu loses, but to their credit, it was closer than any of their previous losses.  Really, the problem seemed to be that they didn’t have an ace on the sandbag throwing.  How the other teams seemed to do it was to find one person who had the right touch, and let them get into a rhythm.  Hunter was that for Nami, and after some false starts, Charlie ended up being that for Siga.  Q and Tiffany both landed their fair share of bags, but both kept switching out, thus preventing either of them for getting into a rhythm.  Not knocking them at all; for all my jokes about Coach and Hunter, this is not something easily prepared for.  You kind of have to learn it in the moment, and Charlie just learned it faster.  

Along with first place, Nami gets to pick who goes on a journey, thus explaining why this episode had a challenge at the 30-minute mark.  They pick Liz from themselves, along with Ben from Siga and Bhanu from Yanu.  I’m a little surprised at the Liz pick, since she seems to have been somewhat on the outside of that tribe, but can’t knock the other two.  

Before checking out our journey, we check in with Yanu.  Everyone’s a bit bummed, but Q is beating himself up, even dancing around asking to be voted out.  He puts most of the blame for the challenge loss on himself, comparing it to his time as a high school athlete where he blew an important game, and had to see it in the headlines of his local paper afterward.  Kind of a flashback, but kind of not.  We get no photos, just some background music implying a large crowd over Q’s narration.  Oddly, somehow more effective.  Yeah, it’s not a tear-jerker, but Q is clearly beat up, and you can sympathize with the guy taking so much of the responsibility for the tribe on his shoulders.  

That said, strategically, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING Q!  Even if the challenge loss was all your fault (and while he was a contributing factor, it being all on him is debatable), you DON’T say that to everyone, especially when they weren’t blaming you!  It’s just bad strategy.  Ugh, maybe we WILL get some quits after all.  

Now, I’m not trying to be too hard on the guy here.  Like I said, I can understand the frustration with the situation.  That said, he does go a bit over-the-top with the anguish (“Why does my life have to be the hardest path?” is a bit much), and this will make some stuff he says very ironic later.  Even Tiffany, his own ally, kind of thinks less of him for not handling the loss well.  

About the only fortunate thing for Q in this situation is that everyone seems dead-set on voting out Bhanu at this point.  They’re especially worried that he’s spilling everything to the other tribes while on the journey.  

Cut to said journey, and yeah, their fears are 100% justified.  Bhanu breaks down, and Liz and Ben do their best to provide some comfort.  It’s a genuinely nice scene, and when Bhanu talks about being accused of being too emotional, Ben is sure to tell that “That Does Not Rock”.  And yeah, emotions have a place in the game, but Bhanu clearly can’t control them even when the situation demands it, as evidenced by the aforementioned spilling of all tribe dynamics.  

To be fair to Bhanu, however, even if he weren’t being emotional, spilling the tea right now is kind of a smart move for him.  You already think you’re going to be voted out, and with good reason, so why not take revenge on those planning to vote you out anyway?  In the unlikely event you DO survive the night, you’ll come across as more open to the remaining players, and thus they’ll want to work with you more.  Granted, you’d probably piss off those on your remaining tribe, but again, they’re against you anyway, this won’t change your fate in and of itself.  

Speaking of fate and rocks, that’s the deal with today’s journey!  Everyone draws a rock from a bag.  Blue rock means you go on to risk your vote in a challenge, white rock means you go back empty-handed.  No lost vote, thankfully, but nothing extra either.  Much as I said I didn’t like the little game in the premiere, I don’t like full randomness either.  Players need SOME agency beyond challenge ability on these journeys, and this takes it away from them.  At the very least, those who draw the blue rock should be able to walk away after seeing the challenge.  

Bhanu actually wants the white rock, not trusting his challenge ability and preferring to rely on his Shot in the Dark.  Given what we’ve seen, I can’t blame him.  Unfortunately, Bhanu’s bad luck continues, as it’s Liz who draws the white rock.  Then, he and Ben are faced with building a cube puzzle in a tight time limit, something neither of them is particularly keen on.  Ben even informs us that puzzles fall into the category of “Things That Do Not Rock”.  Keep saying that Ben; I’m sure it’ll catch on.  

Both lose the challenge, and everyone heads back to camp.  The word of the day at both Nami and Siga is Bhanu’s intel on the inner workings of Yanu, which everyone praises Liz and Ben for getting, despite the fact neither of them did much beyond just let Bhanu talk.  Ben, however, lies a little bit, saying he won’t find out if he won the game or not until Tribal Council.  Frankly, this lie seems pointless to me.  I get not wanting to give away that you’ve lost your vote, since Ben think’s it’s a 3-3 split between men and women right now.  Probably want to let your allies know that in private so they can prepare for one less vote on their side.  But this lie seems oddly suspicious.  The reason not to tell people about losing your vote, as Ben says, is because it makes you a target.  However, acting suspicious about something this simple… Also makes you a target.  Not seeing the upside to this lie over just saying you gained nothing and didn’t lose your vote, is what I’m saying.  That’s plausible.  It’s what happened to Liz, after all.  

As to Bhanu… Well, give him credit, the man learned not to say everything at once!  He gives a brief overview of everything, but doesn’t admit to losing his vote, nor how much information he gave the other tribe.  Granted, he does admit to losing his vote to Q, but that makes sense, since Q is the one guy who’s seemed to want to work with him left, and hey, might as well try everything to save yourself.  

Q, however, is not convinced Bhanu should go.  Yep, the reasonable suspicion of Kenzie is still around.  Q says that Bhanu, while a nice guy, needs someone to lead him in this game.  You know, the guy who was talking about falling on his sword for a minor setback earlier!  Yeah, that’s definitely the guy I want coaching me through this game!  Look, I get it, Q overall is a team player, and most of the time, yeah, I’d want him in my corner building me up.  But for him to say THIS about himself, in literally the same episode he was effectively talking about QUITTING?  That’s so hypocritical, it wraps back around to being kind of hilarious.  

Whatever, Q’s hypocrisy aside, he goes and pitches the idea to Tiffany, bringing up that Bhanu will be a number for them that they can control, whereas Kenzie has a mind of her own.  As Tiffany says, this is a valid point, and is much better misdirection than the “Q falls on his sword” stuff from earlier.  Why did we need that, again?  That said, Tiffany admits she’s still leaning Bhanu for his overall messy gameplay, which I’d say is the sensible choice.  Look, Kenzie is a threat, no doubt about it, but Bhanu, while he can be lead, is messy in gameplay.  He’s shown time and again he has little to no filter, and that’s just too big a liability to drag to the end, even as a goat.  Moreover, although neither of them know this, there will be an ample target on Kenzie later.  You see, when Bhanu talked about the tribe dynamics to Liz and Ben, he built up Kenzie in particular as the “mastermind”, meaning there will be PLENTY of people willing to take out Kenzie come a swap or a merge.  Not knocking them for not bringing this up; just saying in the aggregate, it’s another point in the “Vote off Bhanu” column.  

But all of that stuff?  Doesn’t matter!  With about 10 minutes left in the episode, we cut over to Nami, which can only mean one thing.  Yes, sadly, Randen’s side has not gotten better, and after consulting with a neurological specialist, it’s been decided that he needs to be pulled from the game.  An understandable decision, but I am sorry to see Randen go.  I won’t act like he was my favorite or anything, but he was either going to upend the whole tribe dynamic, or overplay and go out in a blaze of glory.  Either way, would have been fun to watch.  

And he didn’t even get to pass along his beware advantage to Venus, as it’s non-transferrable.  I get not being able to do that in-game (since that would render losing one’s vote somewhat moot), but I feel like there should be an exception if you’re pulled from the game.  After all, then you’re doing it to have one final lasting impact on the game, not to save your own skin.  Have a heart, production.  Thankfully Randen is confirmed to be ok in his final words, and hopefully he’ll get to fulfill his wish to play again someday.

After there’s commiseration at Nami, there’s cheering at Yanu.  Kind of insensitive cheering, to be honest.  Kenzie does pay lip service to Randen, but mostly they’re just happy they don’t have to go to Tribal Council.  Similar to Rupert being somewhat insensitive to Jenna’s quit on “Survivor All-Stars”, it’s not a good look, but you get where he’s coming from.  

And thus, Bhanu’s episode arc of trying everything and getting basically nowhere, only to be saved at the last minute by something out of his control, is complete.  A decent arc, but still kind of a disappointing episode.  In fairness to the show, however, there wasn’t much they could do this time.  I appreciate them not making it obvious that Randen was going until the very end, but at the same time, it made everything before seem kind of pointless.  There were good moments in this episode, but Randen needing to leave when he did just took the proverbial fire out of everything.  Comparisons will doubtless be made to Matthew’s exit on “Survivor 44”, but there it was the culmination of the pre-merge arc following his invention of the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM).  As such, it felt a lot more satisfying, despite being the obvious outcome.  Here, it’s just kind of a thing that happened in this episode that derailed all the other drama.  Again, not that production could have done anything about that.  They worked with what they have, and to be fair, the emotional beats generally did hit home, Q’s hypocrisy aside.  Sadly, however, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you just can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.