“Survivor”: Season 46, Episodes 3 & 4, Reviewed

On March 13, and 20, “Survivor” released episodes 3 and 4 of season 46. It was a sad pair of episodes; two Survivor dreams were lost in different, but similarly heartbreaking ways.

Episode 3 began at Yanu’s beach, where Tiffany, Q, and Kenzie chastised Bhanu for giving away too much information at the previous episode’s Tribal Council. In modern “Survivor,” each player has a shot in the dark to play once a season, giving them a one-in-six shot at safety in exchange for their vote. Because of this, every vote needs to be a blindside. Bhanu needed to work on his poker face.

“Survivor” then flashed back to four days ago, when Siga did a group idol hunt. Jem found the beware advantage in a tree directly next to Charlie. She did a masterful job playing it off — Charlie had no clue. Like when Tiffany found the advantage in episode 2, Jem can only look for the idol once her tribe loses an immunity challenge. Until she finds it, her vote is lost.

On Nami, we learned that Hunter built dozens of replica “Survivor” puzzles and challenge segments before coming on the show. I’ve seen people do this before, but not even close to the extent to which Hunter did. His dedication blew me away.

When Nami woke up the next morning, Randen told Tevin that the right side of his body felt limp. He was scared, so he had the medical team look at it. Dr. Will gave a working diagnosis of a trapped nerve and said they’d keep a close eye on it going forward.

The immunity challenge came down to landing five sandbags onto perches of different heights. It was a challenge Hunter had built, so he dominated it for Nami. Charlie (Siga) and Q (Yanu) were separated by just one bag, but Charlie pulled it out in the end. Yanu lost the immunity challenge yet again.

Back at Yanu’s beach, Tiffany and Kenzie were set to vote for Bhanu. However, Q distrusted Kenzie. He saw Bhanu as a more loyal ally going forward, so he spoke to Tiffany about blindsiding Kenzie. This ultimately didn’t matter, as Dr. Will pulled Randen from the game. He feared a disc pressing on a nerve in his neck, so they rushed him to a hospital for imaging. Randen is fine today, but he was understandably crushed about having to leave the game. I’m crushed about it too. People spend years applying for “Survivor”, so losing this opportunity for a medical reason is gut-wrenching.

Because of Randen’s exit, Tiffany and Q never had to decide who they would send home. Both Bhanu and Tiffany went forward thinking they would’ve stayed in the game anyway.

At the start of episode four, Bhanu overshared again, telling Tiffany and Q the information he gave up to Nami and Siga. While on the advantage journey with Ben (Siga) and Liz (Nami), he said that Kenzie was the mastermind of the tribe and that Q and Tiffany were a tight pair. This was too much insight to give out, as it put a massive target on all three of their backs. Bhanu admitted this was the death knell for his game. Q tried to “retrain” Bhanu to keep information to himself, but it was too little too late. Tiffany and Kenzie were entirely out on Bhanu.

On Siga, Jem re-hid the beware advantage she found to throw suspicion off of herself. At first, I thought this was a bit too risky; the advantage said to dig directly below where it was found, so I thought that when the rest of the tribe found nothing while digging, they’d be able to trace it back to her. Maria found the beware advantage with the entire tribe around, so they all dug for it together. They cleaned the entire area out — nothing to be found. However, Jem shifted the suspicion to Tim. Siga knows someone found and re-hid the beware advantage, but they have the wrong culprit — impressive, devious work by Jem.

On Nami, Tevin noticed how hard Soda was playing. She is constantly scheming, and Tevin realized that she will probably use those relationships to move against him at some point. He pitched taking her out to Hunter, who was on board. Hunter’s biggest competition for closeness with Tevin is Soda, so taking her out is ideal for him.

After Yanu lost yet another immunity challenge, they didn’t bother to hide their decision. Bhanu had just made too many mistakes in the game. Even Q admitted that Bhanu was too much of a liability to keep around. Bhanu had previously lost his vote in his journey with Ben and Liz, so he couldn’t even play his shot in the dark. His desperation was rather sad — he got on his knees and begged Tiffany to keep him. Bhanu is a lifelong “Survivor” fan, so I can empathize with him. He knows that he played horribly, and knows that he likely won’t get another shot to do better. Bhanu became the fourth person eliminated.