Hello all, welcome back to the Edit Bay! This weekly feature takes a dive into the edit of the latest Survivor episode, analyzing the key stories, main characters, and top winner contenders.
For those new to The Edit Bay, it is a condensed version of Edgic, highlighting some of the stand-out story beats from the most recent episode. It also includes my weekly Edgic ratings for each castaway at the end of the article.
OVERVIEW
Survivor 46 has reached the merge and the second half of the season’s narrative is beginning to take shape. This episode resolved some lingering pre-merge stories, while others were put on the back burner, and some new threads were introduced.
I said last week that this episode could have been crucial for Moriah, given her blindside by Jem’s elimination. It had the potential to be a launching point for a new arc. While it was a crucial episode for Moriah, it wasn’t the start of a new arc but rather the end of her story. But her elimination set the stage for what’s to come.
We now have this Siga versus Nami battle with the Yanu 3 in the middle. Yet, within each group is distrust and contentious relationships. As Hunter said in this past episode, “Nami is a mess,” as we’ve previously seen tension between Hunter and Venus, Hunter/Tevin and Soda, Venus and Soda… pretty much Venus and everyone. And we were told, “Liz hates Soda,” too, even though we haven’t seen much visual evidence of this.
Siga has been the “vibe tribe,” but this episode showed cracks in the shiny exterior. They tried to put up a united front, but it ended with Moriah revealing the truth on her way out. Elsewhere, there was distrust and confusion around Tim for his part in the Journey alliance, including his misread on how much Maria trusts him.
Finally, there’s Yanu, who came into this episode as a united trio and played their position in the middle perfectly. But there’s too much lingering tension from the old purple tribe days to believe this is the start of a full-on underdog story. Q has spoken of his desire to take out Kenzie across multiple episodes, so I expect that thread to be revisited in the coming episodes.
Now, for one last time, before we move into individual stories next week, I want to break things down by tribe and see where the members stand story-wise, heading into the back half of the season.
YANU
Kenzie’s first confessional of this episode set out Yanu’s arc pretty clearly.
“It took Yanu a really long time to get our stuff together, but once we got it, we got it,” she said. “Just, like, reigniting the fire this morning, and it caught in three seconds… that’s how we’re doing. We finally have that spark that’s gonna keep us going.”
Yanu has found a renewed energy to propel themselves through the latter half of the season. They used their position in the middle to dictate the way of the vote in the Nami versus Siga battle. And I do see all three of Kenzie, Tiffany, and Q sticking around for a while longer. But will this be a Tika 3 repeat, with them all making the final four together? I’m not so sure about that.
There is too much unfinished business from the pre-merge to make me believe the Yanu 3 will stay tight until the end. Q has talked many times about how much of a threat Kenzie will be if she makes it deep, which lays the groundwork for him to make an attempt on her at some point. Q’s fledgling Journey alliance also points to him verging off from the Yanu trio. Plus, he showed reservations about the women outnumbering the men.
The problem is, I don’t think Q’s edit is as strong as Kenzie’s or Tiffany’s. He’s had decent air-time and some solid strategic talk and was leading the narrative this past episode. But he’s also talked frequently about keeping the so-called “liabilities” around instead of threats like Kenzie. Yet he has failed to follow through on this time and time again.
Also troubling is how others in the game pinpointed him as a duo with Tiffany. That’s bad in a game sense. In an edit sense, what’s worse is that we’ve never had a scene of Tiffany and Q cementing themselves as a true duo. Compare that to Tiffany and Kenzie, who had a duo scene in the very first episode of the season.
It’s nice that Q has the Journey alliance and some other budding relationships, but there are also red flags all around that alliance. Tim is already distrusted because of his lack of commitment to the group. Plus, we know Maria and Charlie are a duo, which suggests Maria isn’t sticking with this Journey group.
All signs point to Tiffany and Kenzie outlasting Q and possibly even being the ones responsible for his ouster. Tiff and Kenzie both had solid edits in this episode, even if not wholly complex. Tiffany got to talk up her happiness about making it to the merge, and she was the one to voice concerns about Siga not being willing to spill a name, which made her want to vote out Moriah instead of Venus.
What Tiffany’s edit needs post-merge is a more individual story arc. She’s been a consistent MOR presence, always giving us her thoughts on where things stand. But her personal journey and goals are underplayed. We know she’s in the middle of the Kenzie and Q drama, which means she’ll probably be forced to choose between the two eventually. And we know she has an idol, which she reminded us of in this episode. So, right now, those are her likely her main story beats.
Kenzie is similar to Tiff; she, too, lacks that individualized story. This latest episode basically involved her playing the Yanu cheerleader. But unlike Tiff, her pre-merge edit was more rounded and complex. She had a lot of the recent winner traits, including a strong intro, pre-merge rivalry, a notable duo scene, plenty of doubt, and a consistent strategic presence.
She is also a player we’ve been told is a threat if she makes it deep, which seems to be foreshadowing a late-game run.
SIGA
The Sigas spent this episode trying to convince everyone they were the strongly united good vibes tribe. But, in the end, they were exposed and left voting out one of their own members. So what does this mean for the remaining Siga tribemates?
Charlie probably had the best episode of the OG Sigas. He wasn’t too in our faces, but the content he received was solid. He talked us through his thought process, his opinions on Venus and her game, and recognized that Siga might be in danger despite his desire to keep them together. He even pointed out how he’d be willing to cut Moriah loose if it meant protecting his own interests, which is what ended up happening (though he actually voted Venus, likely as part of a Shot in the Dark precaution).
He also has the established duo with Maria, which has been brought up in multiple episodes. This partnership is obviously important. Then there’s the friendship with Ben, which has developed over the course of the pre-merge. This could become crucial to Charlie’s narrative, especially if he, like Tiffany, ultimately has to choose between two close allies.
As for Maria, her edit has fallen off a bit in recent weeks. This episode itself was perfectly fine for her, even if not memorable. We got an update on where things stand with her, where she told us she didn’t fully trust Tim and committed to the Journey alliance to keep her options open. And as mentioned above, her partnership with Charlie is clearly significant to the story.
But what let Maria down was the lack of follow-up on last week’s vote. Maria seemed to be part of a women’s alliance with Jem and Moriah, even telling us she trusted them more than the men. Yet, in the end, she went with Charlie and voted out Jem. But there was no explanation in this episode, nothing to say why she did what she did (or why she used her extra vote) and what it means for her game moving forward.
Tim had a big episode and was one of the characters driving the narrative forward alongside Q. He had a lot of strategic chatter and explained what he was thinking and planning. But there are a lot of ominous signs floating around Tim’s edit. He’s been shown to not have the strongest grasp on his relationships or the tribe dynamics.
For example, he picked Maria as his number one last week, yet this episode showed he hadn’t filled her in about the Journey alliance. Even worse, Maria straight up said she doesn’t see Tim as her closest ally, putting both Charlie and Ben above him.
On the flip side, we’ve been told how close Tim and Ben are by others, but we haven’t seen a great deal of evidence. There hasn’t been a significant Tim and Ben bonding scene in the same way we’ve seen Maria and Charlie or Tiffany and Kenzie or even Charlie and Ben. And his lack of commitment to the Journey alliance also spells disaster. All of this suggests Tim isn’t long for this game.
Then there’s Ben, who was kind of a background character in this episode. He has been the biggest proponent for Siga’s good vibes, but the good times can’t last forever. Perhaps the edit was protecting Ben in this episode, seeing as a Siga member went home, partly at Siga’s hands. It would undermine his good vibe strategy had he received too much focus in Moriah’s boot.
A big episode could shoot Ben back up the rankings next week. But right now, his edit is saying likable supporting character rather than main draw winner contender.
NAMI
Then there’s Nami, the messiest of the remaining tribes. Despite winning every pre-merge immunity challenge and getting their way with this past vote, the Nami group has some serious cracks.
Hunter laid those cracks out in this episode, straight up saying that Soda hates Venus and Liz can’t stand Soda. And we know from previous episodes that Hunter and Tevin don’t get along with Venus, plus they’ve talked about voting Soda out. The orange tribe is an implosion just waiting to happen.
I get the sense that Nami is going to be the cause of its own downfall. They seem primed to ruin their own numbers advantage, leaving whoever is left from Siga and Yanu to pick up the scraps.
Based on everything we’ve seen so far, Venus seems like the prime candidate to screw up Nami’s plans. She has been an outcast from the beginning and already talked about flipping on her old tribemates. Her edit in this episode was pretty good in the sense that she was a central character who talked through her strategies.
But the problem is that Venus is never able to get her way. People brush aside her suggestions, even if she’s giving valid reasons. And it all comes back to Probst’s opening speech about how some personalities just don’t gel with the group. That is Venus, to a tee. Even when she’s speaking facts, her personality puts others off. I could see her helping dismantle Nami and then sitting at the FTC facing a pissed-off jury.
So, if Nami does start falling soon, who are the most likely boots? Soda has already been mentioned as a potential target, and we’ve had a consistent focus on her tense relationship with Venus. And the fact that we didn’t see Soda forming any new bonds or story threads in this episode would make her an ideal candidate for an upcoming boot.
Tevin and Hunter have been established as a duo, and Venus has pointed out how she doesn’t trust Hunter and sees Tevin as the controlling “King” of the Nami tribe. In addition, Hunter has also been highlighted as a challenge threat, and this episode focused heavily on him wanting the idol to protect himself against a “take out the challenge threat” onslaught.
A positive for Hunter is that he commented on the Moriah boot; he told us why her going made sense for his game. Tevin did the same, though he had less air-time than Hunter across the episode. Hunter and Tevin also have connections to the Journey alliance, though, again, we haven’t heard much about that from Tevin’s perspective.
Venus could most certainly attempt to split up this duo, and if she’s successful, I would say Tevin is the more likely target than Hunter. Simply because of Tevin’s ominous confessional in this episode, where he said, “I have not trusted Venus since day one… She’s been spinning narratives on me. And all of those things line up in a way that make me feel like I can’t trust Venus at all, and therefore she must go.”
But Venus didn’t go; she is still around, and that could prove to be detrimental to Tevin’s game.
Then there’s Liz, who didn’t even get a confessional in this crucial episode. What can you say? She isn’t presented as a mover and shaker in the game, nor is she shown as a threat. So she could just be one of those background players that floats along in the background for a while. Or perhaps she’s the victim of some idol or advantage play.
CONTENDERS
Top Contenders: Kenzie, Tiffany
Second Tier: Charlie, Hunter, Maria
EDGIC CHART
| Name | EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11 | EP 12 | EP 13 | EP 14 |
 Ben |
OTTP3 | OTTP3 | MOR4 | UTR2 | MORP4 | UTR1 | ||||||||
 Charlie |
CP3 | CPP4 | UTR2 | MOR3 | CP4 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Hunter |
CP2 | UTR1 | CPP2 | UTR1 | CP5 | MOR4 | ||||||||
 Kenzie |
CP4 | CPM5 | MORM4 | MORM4 | OTTP4 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Liz |
UTRN2 | OTTN2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | UTR1 | UTR1 | ||||||||
 Maria |
MORP3 | MOR2 | INV | MORP3 | MOR3 | MOR2 | ||||||||
 Q |
MOR3 | CP4 | CPM5 | CP4 | CPP3 | CP5 | ||||||||
 Soda |
MOR3 | MORN3 | INV | MORM3 | UTR1 | UTR2 | ||||||||
 Tevin |
CP4 | MOR2 | UTR1 | CPP3 | UTR1 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Tiffany |
MOR4 | MORP5 | MOR4 | MOR4 | MORP3 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Tim |
MOR2 | UTR1 | INV | UTR1 | MOR3 | CPN4 | ||||||||
 Venus |
MORN3 | CPM4 | MOR3 | UTR1 | MORN2 | CPN4 | ||||||||
 Moriah |
MORP2 | UTR1 | UTR1 | OTT3 | MOR3 | CP4 | ||||||||
 Jem |
MOR2 | UTR1 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPN5 | |||||||||
 Bhanu |
MORP4 | OTTN4 | OTTM5 | OTTM5 | ||||||||||
 Randen |
UTRN1 | CP3 | OTTP3 | |||||||||||
 Jess |
OTTM4 | OTTM4 | ||||||||||||
 Jelinsky |
OTTN5 |
Written by