“Survivor” Season 46, Episode 10, Reviewed

On May 1, "Survivor" released episode 10 of Season 46. It was the most emotional episode of the last few years, and one of this season's best.

When the episode started, Liz was pissed. The rest of the tribe chose not to include her on the last vote, ostensibly leaving Liz on the bottom. Tiffany and Venus explained to her that the plan came along at the last minute, but that didn't make Liz feel better.

Elsewhere on the beach, Maria talked to Q. Q has been a social pariah since he asked people to vote him out two tribals ago, but Maria trusted him. She knew Q was a good person and that he meant it when he said he wanted to work with her.

The next day, the Survivors competed in an Applebee's reward challenge. It included quesadillas, wings and the beef mushroom burger. Liz was especially excited for this reward. Her Wednesday night ritual is taking her daughter to Applebees before watching “Survivor,” meaning this challenge was a potential means of eating the food she loved and engaging with a treasured part of her home life. Because Liz is also allergic to many things, including coconut, chicken, and most fruits, she hasn't been able to eat much of anything on “Survivor” and has consumed zero calories since the merge. She can eat beef, though, so this was a reward she could partake in. Liz was starving both physically and emotionally for this reward.

The challenge was an obstacle course followed by tossing a sandbag onto a very tall perch. Q killed the obstacle course section and had a sizable lead going into the sandbag toss. The toss took him a while, but he ended up winning. Liz finished last, considerably behind everyone else.

After winning the reward, Q got to pick three people to go with him. He first picked Tiff, and then Maria, then Kenzie. Liz screamed at Q. She thought he should've picked her because of her dietary restrictions and because, according to her, he blew up her game in the last Tribal.  Liz's outburst was the most entitled thing I've seen someone do on “Survivor.” Q is on the bottom of this tribe, and has to play for himself in this million-dollar game. He won the challenge and, with that, the ability to pick people who he could potentially sway to work with him. He chose the three most likely to work with him going forward — the one woman who has expressed interest in doing so (Maria) and his two remaining original tribe members (Kenzie and Tiffany). Liz clearly didn't want to work with Q and, as Q pointed out, Liz also voted against Q in the last Tribal Council.She wasn’t at all entitled to experience a reward that she lost, especially that badly. I understand why Liz wanted to go on this reward so desperately: she was starving, wanted to feel close to her daughter, and the beef mushroom burger was the exact item she ordered on Wednesday nights. However, I lost a lot of respect for how Liz handled this situation. If she wanted to go on the reward so badly, she should've done better than last place.

At the reward, Q did his best to build an alliance. He wanted the Yanu three (Kenzie, Q, Tiffany) and the Siga three (Charlie, Ben, Maria) to take out Venus and then Liz in the next two votes. This plan would take them all to the final six. Maria was on board, but Kenzie and Tiffany were not. The second Q walked away, Kenzie and Tiffany started talking about how they still wanted to take him out.

When Kenzie, Maria, Q, and Tiffany got back to camp, Tiffany started yapping about how amazing the food was and how no one even ate the beef mushroom burger because they were so full. Tiffany didn't read the room whatsoever, understandably angering Liz even further.

The immunity challenge was endurance. Each player used a rope coil to hold up a bucket weighing 25 percent of their day one weight. Jeff offered the players a chance to take an individual jar of rice to sit out of the challenge, which I'm very confident was just a way for the producers to get Liz some food. She took it.

Venus and Ben got out quickly, then proceeded to root against Q under their breaths. Q eventually dropped, followed by Kenzie and Maria. After over a half hour, Tiffany dropped, leaving Charlie as the immunity winner. He had specifically trained his grip strength for years, knowing it was important for “Survivor.” As a longtime viewer, I think that's awesome.

Back at camp, Maria and Charlie wanted to keep Q and vote Tiffany out. Tiffany had played an impressive social game and was a challenge beast. On top of that, she had a publicly known idol — Tiffany was a massive threat. The problem for them was that everyone else was anti-Q. Liz had been stewing in her hatred for Q since the reward challenge, Venus and Ben didn't respect Q because of his almost-quit, and Kenzie and Tiffany lost trust in Q several votes ago. It was time for Charlie and Maria to work their magic.

Maria first convinced Ben, which wasn't hard because of their Siga connection. Ben, Charlie, Maria, and Q now made four votes out of eight. They didn't want to tell Kenzie, as she was now too scared Tiffany would play her idol to make a move against her. This left Liz and Venus. Charlie convinced Ben and Maria that Venus was too much of a wild card, so they set their sights on Liz. Their plan to save Q depended on the person who hated him the most

Ultimately, Liz went with Siga's plan. Five votes went against Tiffany, three against Q. Tiffany was confident enough that Q was going home that she didn't play her idol. She was eliminated, leaving only seven players left.

In modern “Survivor,” almost everyone who gets cast is a superfan. They see the game strategically, tending to not to get too mad when things don't go their way. Because of this, heated disputes are rarer than they used to be. It was refreshing to see raw emotion play such a large role in this episode, even if it didn't ultimately drive the vote. Liz's emotions made this episode feel important. I was impressed that she put her feelings aside to make the correct move — that's not easy. This is the last season 46 recap of the semester, but tune in on Wednesday, May 8, for the next episode of “Survivor.” My winner pick is Charlie.