Survivor 46: Week #1

 

 

Its time for our first update!  We have many new scoring categories and most old categories have had their point totals updated.  Let’s see how the changes impacted our game!

 We pick up at Yanu (Purple), following Jelinsky’s well-earned ouster.  Bhanu is a bundle of nerves, asking Kenzie how to get to the merge. She sees he’s unable to lie and could be a liability, despite having not eaten or slept.  And despite being, like, totally overwhelmed you guys, she tries to put herself in the middle by enlisting Bhanu and Jess against Tiffany and Q.  They don’t bite, however.  When the group gets back to camp, Jess immediately sells out Kenzie to Tiffany, and further endears herself by eating ants?  I don’t get it either.

 Meanwhile, at Nami (Orange)  Tevin and the crew joke about what the next challenge might be.  He’s closest to Hunter and Soda, and none of them get a good vibe from Venus who’s alone and lonely. We see how strong she is during her backstory, but she realizes that on Survivor, the same “not struggling” mentality might not serve her as well as showing vulnerability  (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’  to Roberta!”). Her loneliness leads her to idol hunting , which in turn leads Hunter and Randen to search.  She comes up empty, but Randen doesn’t!  He finds, opens and completes the first stage of his Beware advantage! (2 points for “Find Beware Advantage” ,  2 points for “Open Beware Advantage”, and 2 points for “Complete Stage 1 of Beware Advantage” to Dalphyne!).   

Back at the camp, Liz brags about how successful she is in the outside world, which puts Soda and Randen’s teeth on edge while Randen stresses about having to get his idol  (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’ to Dalphyne!) because he doesn’t trust anyone. Since she has no one else, Randen decides to trust Venus and breaks Rule #1: (STFU), telling her about his advantage. This development pumps her up so much that she starts planning how to use his idol – that he doesn’t even have yet.

 And finally, over at Siga (Green), Ben cheers the fire he started while we get his backstory.  Tim’s working with him and Charlie and the decide to bring in Maria because she has an extra vote.  Editorial:  THIS IS WHY YOU KEEP THAT STUFF QUIET! 

 Anyway….

 Charlie likes the “Charlie’s Angels” alliance, but really wants a 1-1 alliance with Maria, and she’s into it.  Both of them realize they re the new Malcom and Denise (5 Points each for “Bring up a previous season’s player” to Carol and Marissa!). Back in camp, Ben creates nicknames for everyone but I’m not using them.  Nicknames are my job, Ben.  Stay in your lane.  Taylor Swift Superfan Charlie realizes that he needs to up his social game (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’ to Marissa!) and starts a “Name a song by an artist” competition with Ben.  They go back and forth with Charlie naming Taylor Swift songs and Ben naming Metallica songs.  How many did they name? 20? 40? 80?  No, Charlie finally wins 107 to 106!  TIL: Taylor Swift has over 100 songs.

 At Immunity and Reward challenge, Soda and Hunter take trash-talking pot-shots at Yanu.  Q realizes that his tribe is a laughingstock right now (1 point for “Reference ‘in this game’ to Scott!)  but thinks their 5 can compete with the other tribes 5 to which Soda replies “How’s your food”?  Not sure I’ve ever seen that approach to creating a bond before but to each their own, I suppose.

The tribes are tied after the first stage with Nami taking a lead in Stage 2. It’s an intense challenge but sit-outs Moriah and Liz take the time to get to know each other.  Not sure I’ve ever seen that either. But this challenge is all about Stage 3.  They have to hold up block letters to form a word in the shape of an archway and it looks REALLY HARD.  They all fall again and again and again.  These tribes need Jen’s favorite Superman, Jonathan. Alas, he’s nowhere to be seen as they keep failing which leads to frustration and shouting at each other.  Finally, Nami (Orange) gets theirs in place, taking home immunity and the big reward followed soon after by Siga (Green) who take the small reward. (1 point for “Win Tribe Immunity Challenge” and 1 point for “Win Tribe Reward Challenge” to Carol, Jay, Ricky, Marissa, Brian, Dalphyne, Roberta and Jen!).  This means Yanu (Purple) is headed back to tribal, leading Tiffany to shout in frustration and Kenzie to immediately target Jess since she was bad at everything in the challenge.

 

Back at Nami (Orange), Tevin sees the fishing gear which makes him feel like Rupert (5 points for “Bring up a previous season’s player” to Jay!). Venus is upset that she’s not being listened to, causing her foot to get run over at the challenge. She lets her emotions out on Soda, who twice tried to grab the immunity idol from Venus after Jeff handed it to her.  She can’t wait to flip on these people.

 

At Loser Camp (Yanu, Purple), Bhanu comforts a crying Tiffany, who is in tears because of how she lost her temper.  She and Kenzie don’t think Jess is taking the game seriously, and want her gone.  For whatever reason, they fear her shot-in-the-dark so much that the create a crappy fake hidden immunity idol with a plan to have Jess find it, thinking that if she feels trouble, she’ll play it rather than roll the dice.  That’s overly complicated considering shot-in-the-dark has worked twice in the entire Survivor history.  (5 points for “Create a fake hidden immunity idol” to Roberta!). 

 

The two plant the idol and try to lead Jess to it but she won’t look where they want her to.  It’s frustrating for Tiffany and Kenzie but it’s more frustrating for us, the viewers.  Jess is smart but she’s clearly not wise. If they spent this time talking to her about a fake strategy, they’d 100% convince her she’s safe. Instead, we get to watch them panic and come up with an even more cockamamie plan – they’ll have Q give it to her, on the condition she votes the way he tells her.  AYFKM? This is more convoluted than the plot of Inception.  Q tries to sell her on it, and she buys it to his face but questions it afterword.  The tribe begins the liar’s dance about who the vote is with Jess mentioning Bhanu, Q mentioning Kenzie and no one mentioning the obvious vote, Jess.

 

At tribal, they are all kumbaya to start but they’re feeling out who they can play with, and by ‘who’ I mean Q, Tiffany and Kenzie.  Everyone else is expendable.  Jess is clearly the target, but Bhanu does his best to talk his way into votes.  He’s proud of being emotional, which is fine, but when it comes time to vote he openly asks Kenzie, Q and Tiffany who to vote for and if they’re voting for him. WTF?  Get a hold of yourself man!

 

As the votes come out, Jess plays the fake idol but it doesn’t help.  She votes for Bhanu, but everyone else votes for her and she’s sent packing.  (10 points for “First player voted out after the game starts”, 4 points for “Received vote against”, and -1 point for “The tribe has spoken” for Kristyn!).  As she leaves, Bhanu feels like a fool and he’s right to.

 

 

So what does that mean for us?   Dalphyne jumps to a small, early lead on the back of Randen’s Beware activities, while Marissa rides Charlie’s play to a 2^nd place tie with Kristyn, who just lost Jess.  Referencing previous season’s players put Jay and Carol two points behind the leaders and Ricky, Brian, Jen, and Roberta picked up a few here and there. Here’s how it all looks, in

The current scores: 

1. Dalphyne: 14
2. Marissa / Kristyn: 13
3. Jay / Carol: 12
4. Brian / Ricky / Roberta / Jen: 7
5. Scott: 2