Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 46 as they list their top moments in various important categories. This includes the most essential information, the stand-out castaways, and the key moments from the week.
Here, Christine and Gia break down all the action from the latest episode.
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Top 3 Moments
Siga Finds an Advantage
Christine: In the last episode, we very belatedly saw Jem find the Siga Beware Advantage. At the top of this episode, she decides to be a little sneaky and re-hide the advantage note and wait for her Siga tribemates to find it in front of her. Maria snags it, but no one can locate the next clue. Moriah gets suspicious (uttering the hilarious phrase “Jeff will never lie to you,” which was definitely not true for Survivor 41), and Jem, Mo, and Maria discuss the possibility that Tim replanted the idol clue. For now, everything seems to have gone exactly according to Jem’s plan.
Soda’s Got to Go-da(?)
Gia: All we have been hearing on the Nami front thus far is how Randen and Venus are at the bottom of the tribe. With Randen gone, it was a safe bet to assume that Venus would be next to go unless she found the idol. Now we learn from Tevin that they are considering voting out Soda should they lose an immunity challenge. They worry that she will be too great a social threat, to the point that it will be a detriment to their games. We didn’t see this scenario play out in this episode, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we experienced a Nami tribal council sooner rather than later.
Bhanu Spills the Tea (again)
Gia: Randen’s medevac may be devastating, but it was treated as a second life for Yanu, particularly Bhanu. However, this relief is short-lived when he tells his tribemates about how he spilled the tribe dynamics on the advantage journey. Needless to say, they were not amused by this revelation. I went into this episode thinking that there was some chance Bhanu could survive, but this was just the beginning of the end of his game.
Tribe Breakdown
Nami
Christine: While Nami lost Randen last week, we didn’t spend too much time on his exit, and they were quickly back to their old ways with singing and complaining about singing and plotting to get each other out while they’re still safe. Oh, and Liz is still allergic to everything. In all seriousness, the situation on Nami is not great. If they keep winning and go to the merge with all this animosity, they could be easy pickings for a decimated Yanu and a generally more united Siga.
Siga
Christine: Siga has winning tribe-itis in that on this dominant tribe of six, we’re running out of dynamics to explore. Jem’s shenanigans with the Beware Advantage could be setting up something interesting, with Tim taking the fall for it or it somehow falling back onto Jem. But none of this really matters as long as they keep winning immunity challenges.
Other than all the business with the advantage, most of what we heard from Siga this week was about Mo’s lack of jumping skills and Maria’s frustrations with losing the reward challenge. It was nice to see them face a little adversity by losing out on the reward, but, unfortunately, their overall dominance is leading to so much stagnation in the game.
Yanu
Gia: Oh, Yanu, they could never make me hate you guys. Even when we get more of the same as the previous episode, they never fail to entertain from beginning to end. From the Coach Q segment to Bhanu begging Tiffany not to vote for them to Kenzie’s palm frond scrunchie, what isn’t there to love about the current disaster tribe? Now, the former tribe of six has been whittled down to a trio, and I can’t wait to see where their story goes from here. It seems like they’ve finally moved past the worst of things, but nothing is guaranteed at Yanu.
Top 3 Contestants
Q
Gia: Q has done everything possible to make Bhanu a suitable ally for his long-term game. In this episode, we saw his final attempt in the form of Coach Q. His Ole Miss roots came out to shine here, and I have a feeling it was only a matter of time before we saw the Q that his bio highlighted. This was my favorite segment of the whole episode because it showed a lighthearted, strategic side to Q and the Yanu dynamics as a whole. Bhanu may be gone, but I hope Q finds a new protege soon for my entertainment.
Jem
Christine: Jem’s big moment this week was re-hiding the beware advantage in an attempt to frame someone else for having it and sending her tribe on a wild goose chase. It’s too early to see how this will pan out for her. So far so good since she’s been able to pin it on Tim. But I worry that this was ultimately a bit of an overplay in the long run and that her better bet was to just lay low and not draw attention to the advantage in the first place.
Tevin
Christine: His tribe still hasn’t gone to tribal yet, but Tevin is already plotting big moves. Surprisingly, he planted the seeds for a potential Soda blindside if they lost a challenge. They’re ostensibly allies, and Venus is clearly at the bottom, so the decision to target Soda comes a bit out of left field. Tevin is in this game to shake it up and make a big move. Whether he follows up on this plan remains to be seen. It could have just been the product of boredom after winning so many challenges. But the fact that he threw it out as an option is noteworthy and could impact the game in some capacity moving forward, even if he doesn’t follow through with it.
Fallen Comrades
Bhanu
Christine: Bhanu is one of the most character-y characters we’ve had on Survivor in a while. He was a total mess. Love him or hate him, he was the main character of this early pre-merge. Sure, he wasn’t cut out for this game at the end of the day. But the golden days of Survivor were filled with people who probably should have just gone camping. It’s part of the game, and this season is not worse for having Bhanu on it.
It’s unfortunate that Yanu lost so much, and Bhanu’s story became such a major focus of the season, to the detriment of other storylines. But that, of course, isn’t all Bhanu’s fault. I will take this time to say that I really hated that they didn’t cast any votes for Bhanu at tribal. As so many others have said, it sets a very strange precedent, and I don’t understand why production decided to do this.
Gia: Bhanu will be remembered as the undisputed star of the pre-merge. He brought the drama, the twists and turns, the emotional reactions to anything and everything. In some ways, I’ll miss his presence, as no moment with him was boring. However, he had a full arc in his four episodes, and his send-off was one for the books. I still think they should’ve voted, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t impact the final product. This really feels like the close of a chapter in Survivor 46, and now we have a new chapter to look forward to.
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