Survivor 46: Week 3

We start off back at Yanu. Kenzie feels like their bolt-from-the-blue non-Tribal night means their luck is finally changing but her mood is quickly dashed by Bhanu, who tells Tiffany that at last week's journey,  he told Ben and Liz that Kenzie is the tribe mastermind, and that Tiffany is close with Q.  Tiffany's reaction doesn't require description:

 

Nor are words necessary to describe Kenzie’s reaction:

Here’s the thing about Bhanu – he’s not a dumb person.  He is ignorant on how to play the game and does not understand “STFU” at all.  If he had thought out “I’m dead at this tribe, maybe sharing info with other tribes will buy me good will at the merge”, then what he shared makes sense.  It’s obvious, however, that he is not capable of that level of gameplay because if he was he’d HAVE KEPT HIS DAMN MOUTH SHUT.  He’s so boneheaded that he doesn’t realize what he said was wrong, and that Q, Tiff any Kenzie would be mad at him.   And that makes him the worst Survivor player ever.  It’s not particularly close, either.

 

 At Siga, Jem re-hid the Beware advantage near the water well and acts shocked when Maria finally spots and opens it (2 points each for “Find Beware Advantage” and “Open Beware Advantage” to  Carol!).  The tribe follows the instructions, dig under where the advantage was found but all they find is ants. Jem looks like she’s ready to burst out laughing but somehow, she holds back.  Brilliantly sneaky game play on her part.

 At the reward challenge, Venus, Ben and Moriah sit out (2 points for “Volunteer to sit out a challenge” to Dalphyne and Kristyn!).  They have to paddle in from the ocean and jump onto a platform holding a key.  Nami and Yanu handle this with relative ease but Siga’s Tim flops around the platform like he’s drunk, flipping it over.  In what must be Opposite Day, Yanu takes a commanding lead as Q nails the third stage and they finally win reward!  Maybe Kenzie was right!  (2 points for “Win Tribe Reward” to Roberta!). Siga finally finishes Stage 2 as Nami’s MacGyver seals the 2^nd reward (2 points each for “Win Tribe Reward” to Ricky, Scott and Jay!).  Yanu really wants food but they want a tarp and a toolkit even more, and Jeff lets them make an even swap.

 At Nami, Liz is allergic to all the fruit and the coconut and we get Tevin’s backstory when he asks to clean the fish.  Soda, MacGyver and Tevin are a solid three, except that Tevin thinks Soda’s playing him  He wants Venus gone first, but Soda would be ok too.  MacGyver wants Soda out because he’s not sure if Tevin’s more loyal to him or Soda, and that is some smart game play.  Of course, it only matters if they ever lose an immunity challenge.  Liz is also fine with Soda going first. Maybe she’s allergic to Soda too?

 At Yanu, spirits are way up as they setup the tarp while Q tries to teach Bhanu about social and strategic gameplay.  All I can picture is Adam Sandler sitting in the 4^th grade desk in Billy Madison

 

Bhanu tries out some of the new skills Q’s taught him on Kenzie and she snaps at him, asking why should she have to help him play Survivor.  And she’s right.  She apologizes to him a bit later but that’s just damage control.

At Siga, Ben tries to find positives in the loss but Maria is clearly upset, noting that as immigrants success was viewed as survival (1 point for “Mentions LGBT/alternate lifestyle / race / culture” to Carol!)  and we get her immigrant from Lebanon backstory.  Man, she’s really killing herself over this loss.  Looks like Q might have a rival wanting to carry his martyr's cross.  Meanwhile, Charlie doesn’t like that Maria told the whole tribe about finding the advantage because now everyone’s looking for the box.  He should be more worried that the whole tribe is being played by Jem, to the point that Moriah tells Jem she thinks Tim hid it. Best game play of the season so far!  They return to find treemail explaining that the immunity challenge involves jumping, worrying Moriah whose 1” vertical gets her paranoid and Charlie’s instruction has both me and Carol laughing out loud.  Oy.

At the immunity challenge, Tevin, Jem and Moriah sit out (2 points for “Volunteer to sit out a challenge” to Jay, Brian and Kristyn!)  while MacGyver is ridiculous yet again.  He’s this season’s Superman.  Bhanu messes up the path forcing him to restart and further estranging himself from the tribe while Moriah easily makes the jump, cheering all the way down

 

 Siga has a lead at the third stage but MacGyver quickly dispatches it earning immunity for Nami (2 Points for “Tribe Immunity Win” to Ricky, Jay and Scott). It’s a shootout for the final immunity spot. The combination of Bhanu’s lack of speed and Q’s poor shooting leave Yanu on the outside looking in again as Tim finishes off the challenge for Siga (2 points for “Tribe Immunity Win” to Dalphyne, Marissa, Kristyn, Carol, Brian and Jen!).  Bhanu has to go here.

 At the loser tribe, Kenzie asks Bhanu if he’s ok and he replies “no”, hands her a coconut and walks away.  He finds Tiffany and falls to his knees begging for his Survivor life.  She’s stone cold though, and tells him she’s writing his name down.  In his vignette, he thinks 5 seconds of honesty ruined his game.   Clueless to the last.

 At tribal, Bhanu tells his backstory about being poor but it’s to no avail. They’re all open about voting Bhanu and since he lost his vote at last week’s journey, he can’t even play his shot in the dark.  In one of the easiest Tribals in Survivor history, Bhanu is voted out 3-0

 

So, how does all of this affect our scoring?  On the strength of Maria finding and opening a Beware advantage (which I’m counting because it was re-hidden), Carol moves into 2^nd place just two points in back of Ricky whose MacGyver pick looks really good right now. Jay meets Jen and Dalphyne at 3^rd place while the rest of us flop around at the bottom of the current scores:

1. Ricky: 31
2. Carol: 29
3. Dalphyne/Jay/Jen: 28
4. Kristyn: 26
5. Marissa: 24
6. Brian: 20
7. Scott/Roberta: 13