“Survivor”: Season 46, Episode 6, Reviewed

On April 3, “Survivor” released episode six of season 46. The tribes merged, leading to some fascinating conversations and countless possibilities for how the rest of this season will play out.

The episode began with Nami, Siga, and Yanu learning that the tribes were merging! A boat was on its way to take them to Nami’s beach. While 12 of the players were excited, one was stressed. When Hunter found his beware advantage, he learned that when his tribe lost he would receive information as to how to find the immunity idol. His vote was lost until he found the idol. If his tribe didn’t lose, the same thing would happen at the merge. With Siga and Yanu’s boats speeding towards camp, Hunter hurriedly figured out the clue and found his idol, giving him extra power in this game.

At the merge, the tribes started to feel each other out. With only three members, Yanu was not a threat for the time being. All Siga members were noticeably hesitant to give a name — they seemed tight. Nami, on the other hand, was fractured. Tevin and Soda immediately threw Venus under the bus as a player to target from their tribe. Venus’s young, rebellious energy is starting to remind me of “Survivor: Vanuatu” star Eliza Orlins. Similar to Eliza, the fans love her, but her fellow castaways don’t. They both play hard but not subtly, so they can appear untrustworthy. In this episode, Venus pushed Tim and Moriah hard about whether Siga will stay together. She’s going after valuable information, but Tim and Moriah left this conversation more wary of Venus than bonded to her. They knew Venus was willing to work with them, but they still wanted to take her out instead of aligning with her — she appeared to be too much of a strategic threat.

In the last episode, Q pitched an alliance to Tim and Hunter at the Advantage journey. He wanted them to each pull in one person to form a six-person alliance. Q chose Tiffany, Hunter chose Tevin, and Tim chose Maria. Q talked to Maria and Tevin about this. Hunter had told Tevin, who was also on board. However, Tim had not told Maria. Maria was especially surprised when Q told her about the alliance, as she had multiple allies on Siga whom she considered herself closer to than Tim. She played this off well, though, and agreed to the alliance. Q left this conversation trusting Tim less, but my biggest takeaway from it was Maria’s fantastic social game.

At the immunity challenge, the 13 castaways still didn’t have their new merge buffs. They drew rocks, splitting into two groups of six (Ben, Hunter, Kenzie, Tevin, Tim, and Q versus Charlie, Maria, Moriah, Liz, Soda, and Venus). Tiffany drew the odd rock, so she got to bet her immunity on who she thought would win. She went with the first group. It was a physically grueling challenge that culminated in a circular dragon puzzle. Charlie, Maria, Moriah, Liz, Soda, and Venus put up an admirable fight, but they were physically outmatched in this challenge. The other seven players became immune and earned their merge buffs.

Back at camp, the victorious seven gorged themselves on a merge feast — sandwiches, fruit, and meats galore. On the other hand, the rest of the tribe was scrambling to stay.

Nami had already pitched Venus as a name, and Siga reluctantly pitched Moriah, who was the only Siga to not vote against Jem last tribal council. Because Nami seemed much more fractured than Siga, Yanu wanted to take out Moriah instead of Venus. Venus didn’t help herself; she was trying to flip the vote on Charlie instead. She wanted the women to maintain the advantage in this game. This was another example of Venus playing too hard. She had a good idea, but it wasn’t smart to execute it when her name was on the chopping block. Venus should’ve just gone for the highest likelihood of her staying one more vote. It didn’t matter in the end — Moriah became the first merge boot from Survivor 46.

The tribal politics made this a fascinating merge episode. There are dozens of ways this post-merge could play out, so tune in next week to see how it continues to unfold.