‘Survivor 46’: Breaking down all of the craziness that occurred in ‘Scorpio Energy’

Christopher Tsang
·5 min read

There is a lot to unpack with the second episode of “Survivor 46.” It gave us three completely different tribes in terms of dynamics, to how rivals work together, to a secret alliance, to one of the most rocky, problematic groups filled with paranoia and borderline controversial gameplay with much hilarity. In another two-hour episode, let’s break down all of the craziness that occurred in “Scorpio Energy.”

Starting with the most cohesive and least dramatic tribe of the three, Siga (known as the vibe tribe) seems to still have the gender trios of the women versus the men, with Charlie Davis looking to be swayed into joining the girls, but also registering that he would be the bottom of that pact. In order to solidify himself further, he proposed a secret pairing with Maria Shrime Gonzalez – who seems to be the popular tribe member and also possesses an extra vote – putting them in the middle to choose between Moriah Graynor and Jemila “Jem” Hussain-Adams or Tim Spicer and Ben Katzman. It’s a tale as old as time.

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Things get a little more interesting with the Nami tribe, particularly this episode centering around Venus Vafa distancing herself further on the outs, with even her ally Sodasia “Soda” Thompson turning against her due to her personality and lack of connections. Things did not get better after the immunity challenge when she complained about a wagon running over her toe due to the tribe not listening to her. That said, she has proven to be observant, recognizing Tevin Davis as the leader and Soda hilariously always taking the tribe immunity idol away from her as it’s given. The same can be said for Randen Montalvo, who also does not seem to fit in that much more than Venus; luckily for him, he was able to find the Beware Advantage which came with the same set of rules as in the last episode for Yanu. Realizing that he needed to gain an ally, while noting that Venus and him were the outcasts, he told her about the advantage against better judgment and after the immunity challenge incident, Venus was determined to work with Randen and eventually flip on her tribe, putting the two players who initially painted the other as a target last episode in a tentative alliance. Meanwhile, Tevin and Hunter McKnight are still in a tight bond, while Liz Wilcox can not seem to help bragging about herself and the fact that she is financially successful and does not need the money – and yet she is not the one on the bottom, which says something when tribe members are less socially integrated than someone of that character.

But where situations become very crazy is the Yanu tribe, which depending on how the next episodes play out, could be in contention for one of the biggest disaster tribes in the new era in all forms of strategic gameplay. After David Jelinsky was voted off last episode, it was made clear that either Bhanu Gopal or Jessica “Jess” Chong would be the next to go. But also it’s not like the threesome of Kenzie Petty, Quintavius ‘Q’ Burdette and Tiffany Nicole Ervin trust each other all that much either with the first two being skeptical of the other due to their closeness with the third. And everyone seems to notice Kenzie’s hardcore social game after she tried to make an alliance with Bhanu and Jess to secure herself, only for it backfire immediately with Jess mouthing to Bhanu that they should vote her out the second Kenzie turned her back.

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But all that tension between the trio did not matter as after a brutal immunity challenge loss, the girls formed a plan to lead Jess to find a fake idol Kenzie made to ensure her elimination and not make her use her Shot in the Dark. Except that Jess could not even find that fake idol to the point that Q straight up gave it to her to use at tribal council claiming it was a real one he found, backing up a plan they had to vote out Kenzie. And even Jess had suspicions that the idol was fake due to it resembling the beads on their torches. To top it all off, Bhanu became extremely emotional when his name got mentioned, and unintentionally and openly revealed all of the tribe’s secret plans at tribal council in what was a panicking meltdown, to the point where he asked Tiffany directly if they were voting him out and even started packing his stuff when he was the first vote. But it was Jess who got her torch snuffed after playing the fake idol.

Yanu is clearly the most dysfunctional entertaining tribe of misfits this season, proving they will go to what could be argued as unnecessary lengths and extreme effort to ensure their positions. While they may not yet be the dumpster fire that the Lulu tribe was last season, the continued clashing personalities and hidden agendas are sure to be a recipe for more chaos. In terms of the “Next Time on Survivor” promo, Venus seems to be a magnet for starting conflict with her tribe members, with Hunter as the next target (making Liz the only player she hasn’t yet had a problem with ironically), while Bhanu is on to Kenzie’s manipulation and there is likely to be another journey. It will be exciting to see what will occur in what looks to be a suspenseful upcoming episode.

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