“Survivor”: Season 46, Episode 7, Reviewed

On April 10, “Survivor” released episode seven of Season 46. The only way I can describe it is freaking awesome. It reminded me why I love this show, and had me smiling for ninety minutes on a Wednesday night — what more can you ask for?

The episode started with Venus accusing Soda of voting for her at the previous Tribal Council. It made sense that her mind went there — Venus and Soda had been feuding the whole game. However, the mystery vote came from Charlie. He owned up to this vote, which frustrated Q. Charlie intentionally voted for Venus to confuse her, causing her to think a fellow Nami member (like Soda) took a shot at her. I get why Q was frustrated — Charlie’s plan was working wonders. However, his subsequent criticism of Charlie illuminated an issue in Q’s game: his inflexibility. It’s Q’s way or nothing, and multiple players, including Charlie, are starting to harbor resentment for that.

That night, Ben had a panic attack. Amidst heavy breaths, he called out for help. Kenzie rushed to his side and consoled him — a heart-warming , human moment. Kenzie and Ben are not aligned, but she wasted no time doing what she could to help him in a stressful moment. I’ve been critical of Kenzie this season for her “mean girl” behavior towards  Yanu, but this moment made me realize that she’s not all bad. Ben quickly felt much better, largely due to Kenzie’s support.

As soon as I saw the immunity challenge, I got incredibly excited. It was a “Survivor” classic: the perch challenge. In it, players have to stand on a perch in the water, slowly ascending to smaller foot ledges. At the challenge, the Survivors also learned that Jeff would split them into two groups, with the winner of each group receiving immunity. This meant that both groups would be going to Tribal. The purple group was Charlie, Liz, Maria, Soda, Tevin, and Venus. The yellow group was Ben, Hunter, Kenzie, Q, Tiffany, and Tim. Players stayed on for about 45 minutes before switching to the most challenging section, standing on one foot. I was especially hyped to see this part. In “Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs Favorites 2,” Andrea Boehlke and Brenda Lowe stayed up on their perches for five hours each. They went onto one foot of their own volition — the winner couldn’t have been decided otherwise. It was awesome to see “Survivor” take something that players implemented organically and make it a part of a challenge’s structure, especially something that occurred twenty seasons ago in Season 26.

Once they switched to one foot, players started dropping like flies. Kenzie narrowly edged out Tiffany for yellow, and Maria eeked it out over Tevin for purple. Maria lasted longer than Kenzie, so her group earned the right to go to Tribal Council second. That was a big deal, as the player eliminated from the first tribe to visit tribal would not make the Jury.

Back at camp, strategic beauty ensued. Hunter was the only Nami in the yellow group, and Tim saw that as an opportunity to weaken their numbers. In the game, Nami was up five to four (Siga) to three (Yanu), so he wanted to even things up a bit. Tim also saw Hunter as a massive immunity threat and wanted to take him out before he could string together multiple immunity wins. Tim told Q this, but Q was not happy about it. Q is loyal to the “plus one” alliance that he orchestrated with Hunter and Tim at the Advantage journey, which consisted of Maria and Tim from Siga, Hunter and Tevin from Nami, and Q and Tiffany from Nami. Tim’s willingness to vote out a member of that alliance put off Q, especially after Tim failed to tell Maria about the alliance before the merge. Q shifted the target onto Tim instead. Kenzie and Tiffany were not too pleased about how much Q called the shots, but they obliged. Tim went home, becoming the last player eliminated before the jury phase of the game.

The purple vote was even more complicated. The tribe was split into four Nami (Liz, Soda, Tevin, Venus) and two Siga (Charlie, Maria). Maria had immunity, so Charlie was the only Siga player available to be voted out. This could’ve been an easy decision, but it was far from it. Charlie didn’t end up receiving a single vote. Soda wanted Venus out because of how much Venus distrusted her. Venus wanted Soda out for similar reasons, and also because of how tight she perceived Soda and Tevin to be. Tevin wanted both Soda and Venus out, as he thought both were shady, untrustworthy gamers. Liz wanted to lounge on the beach, and do whatever Tevin told her to do. Somehow, the Siga majority held all the power in this vote. They decided that Soda was a bigger threat than Venus, and blindsided Soda. Soda and Venus shared a meaningful hug as Soda exited the game. I enjoyed seeing that heated rivalry give way to mutual respect.

This episode was action-packed, and now only ten players remain: four Nami, three Siga, and three Yanu. Tune in next weekend to find out who is eliminated next, and how this thrilling game will continue to unfold.