‘Survivor 46’: Breaking down where all players stand after ‘Cancel Christmas’ merge
The tribes converged – though didn’t officially merge – at the start of last week’s episode of “Survivor 46,” resulting in a race against time for one castaway to find an idol, and the standard immunity challenge making half the members safe, complicating the impending vote. And where do players now stand now that they are all on one beach? Let’s break down Season 46 Episode 6, “Cancel Christmas,” as the three individual tribes are no more.
After the shocking blindside of Jemila “Jem” Hussain-Adams on the Siga tribe, Moriah Gaynor felt on the outs as she was the only one who didn’t vote for her, but Siga agreed to put on a united front when the tribes came together for the strategic longevity of all of them, given that it is likely that their five will be going up against the quintet of Nami, leaving the threesome of Yanu in the middle. Speaking of Nami, Hunter McKnight received further instructions for his Beware Advantage once they were notified that Yanu and Siga would be coming to their beach, leaving him limited time to find the key to the boxed idol. He ultimately was able to find it on the rock steps near camp (amidst an argument between Sodasia “Soda” Thompson and Venus Vafa), securing his idol, but he still would not be able to vote at the upcoming tribal council due to failing the challenge at his last journey.
SEE ‘Survivor’ deaths: Full list of castaways we’ve lost
Once everyone commenced, there was no time wasted to regroup on previous alliances, such as the one formed on the last journey with Hunter, Tim Spicer and Quintavius “Q” Burdette, where they agreed to each bring in their closest member on their tribe to the alliance being Tevin Davis, Maria Shrime Gonzalez and Tiffany Nicole Ervin — the only problem being that Tim never communicated with Maria about the newly formed alliance and when he finally did, she was very hesitant given her tighter bond with Charlie Davis. Meanwhile, as expected, Venus jumped at the opportunity to flip on Nami, wanting to work with Yanu, while Q grew wary of Moriah as a threat for what was an insignificant reason – stating that her favorite player was Aubry Bracco.
At the earn-the-merge immunity challenge, we got one of the most disproportionate teams randomly drawn since this new era with Kenzie Petty being the only woman on a team of men and Charlie being the only man on a team of women (to the point where they hilariously disclosed their heights one by one), with Tiffany sitting out. To the shock of no one, the former team won the intense challenge and the merge buffs. At the reward feast (that included Tiffany since she correctly predicted them to win), everyone went around to state who they wanted out from the other team, with Hunter and Tevin promptly saying Venus and Tim and Ben Katzman reluctantly saying Moriah, leading the Yanu three to go for Siga. But Venus had plans of her own to want a man to go home, thereby pitching Charlie, to the chagrin of Q, who considered putting her back as a target.
At tribal council, both Venus and Moriah caused a riot knowing one of them was about to be voted out, with Venus vehemently declaring her outsider status and identifying bigger targets in the men, but what sealed the deal was Moriah revealing the truth about her being on the bottom and being left out of the last Siga vote, leading Hunter and Q to question her timing and honesty. When it came time to vote, Moriah played her Shot in the Dark unsuccessfully and it was a unanimous vote against her, with the exception of Charlie voting for Venus.
So what happens next? On the “Next Time on Survivor” promo, there will be a split double tribal with the group divided into teams, which means two players will go home and one will possibly not make the jury, while Tiffany looks to stray away from Q. Even though Venus escaped this tribal council unscathed, her declarations and personality to wear her heart on her sleeve and go rogue puts her on shaky ground, so she needs to find a solid alliance fast if she expects to last long in this game. And the Yanu three may finally come to a halt with Tiffany making a decision of who to stick with long-term. With the official merged tribe splintered in two, all bets are off and anyone can be vulnerable.
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