“Survivor 46” recap: Finally, a Tribal Council fight!

Grab your popcorn.

There’s been a lot of talk about Spicy Jeff this season on Survivor. Hell, this episode of Survivor 46 was literally called “Spicy Jeff.” The host has been holding people accountable at Tribal Council and calling them out when appropriate. He gave the players a countdown clock as they struggled to make a decision on whether to sit out a challenge for rice. And this week he actually told Q, Liz, and Venus before the challenge they would be the first team out in the challenge and had no shot at winning.

“Prove me wrong,” he told the trio. “This is what everybody watching right now is thinking. That’s what this game is: If we can’t say what we are seeing, what’s the point in being out here?” The return of old-school-call-it-as-you-see-it Probst is such a welcome addition back to the franchise. (It should also be noted that “If we can’t say what we are seeing, what’s the point in being out here?” has been my motto writing about this show for 46 seasons now.) Back on Survivor: Thailand when Probst started adding a point of view to his hosting duties, I talked about how great it was because he served as a surrogate for the audience and could say the things in real time that we could only yell at our TV screen 6 months later and 5,000 miles away. He was our voice. And now that voice is back.

And I just wasted your time and mine writing about the thing that is not even the point I am trying to make. Because as great as it has been having Spicy Jeff back, what is even greater is having spicy players back in the game. When’s the last time we had two contestants just going at it with each other at Tribal Council? It’s been practically non-existent in the new era. The Q and Tiffany heavyweight title bout was a chef’s kiss moment that punctuated an entire enjoyable episode centered around the fallout from Q’s quit attempt last week.

And for anyone trying to argue otherwise and say Q wasn’t trying to quit and it was all some mastermind moment of diversion… yeah, no. Q tried to tap out last week, but seemingly got a free pass from both Probst and a large segment of the fanbase — the same host and fanbase that recoiled in terror when Hannah and Sean both asked to be voted out. However, a free pass from his tribemates, Q did not get. Here’s just a very light sampling of some of the reactions to Q on display this week:

KENZIE: “If you wanna leave, there’s the door, baby. Don’t make us do it for you.”
TIFF: “Shut up, bro. Play your own game.”
VENUS: “He is literally an idiot”
BEN: “Q doing that at Tribal Council was like, ‘Hey, I’m a coward and don’t want to be at the bottom and reap the consequences of my actions so please vote me out so it looks like I have the moral high ground even though I am a total idiot.’”

Wow, tell us how you really feel, Ben. But perhaps the most astute quote was something else Venus said: “I love the mess. I live for the chaos.” SO DO WE, VENUS! SO DO WE! It’s the absolute best! Did Q try to quit the game last week because he could not handle being in control of a tribe for the first time all season and deserve to be called out for it? 100 percent. As Q himself might say: BIG MISTAKE! Is he also an insanely compelling person to watch on TV who has made this season infinitely more enjoyable to watch? Again, 100 percent. Both things can be true.

I’ve said this a million times, but will say it again since I have no qualms whatsoever about sounding like a broken record… because that’s what happens when you’ve been writing about the same television show for 24 years. (Give it a try sometime.) And that thing is this: A player’s value to a season is not just in what they do and say, but what they force other players to do and say. Forcing contestants to react to chaos agents like Q and Venus is entertaining.

And because Q decided to have some sort of borderline obsessive devotion to “the Six” and also decided to ask people to vote him out, we got a tribe full of fully pissed off people. And I loved it. It all culminated with the Tiff and Q feud at Tribal, to which I say: more, please. Spicy Jeff is just the appetizer. Contentious contestants are the main course, and I feasted on this platter of anger and frustration. It may not have exactly been RC vs. Abi-Maria, but it showed these new era folks have a little fire in them after all.

Okay, let me see if I can get through recapping the rest of Survivor 46, episode 9 before Hunter asks me for the millionth time if the vote is really on Q. (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)

Liz seeks the fizz

The episode began with everyone cursing Q to the high heavens, but the most interesting reaction came from podcast billionaire Liz, who was in tears. And I don’t blame her one bit. Liz wanted to put her mark on the game — to prove she was the G.O.A.T and not a goat. She lined up her big shot, trying to orchestrate a move on arguably the biggest player in the game, Tevin. And she hit! It worked! Order the streamers! Schedule the parade! Give her the Sia money right now!

But in the midst of all that, Q went cuckoo for Cocoa-Puffs, and when everyone got back to camp, nobody was talking about Liz’s big move. It was all Q all the time. “Q stole my thunder from under me,” she told us in perhaps the understatement of the season. There are no two ways about, Liz’s move was completely overshadowed by the dude wearing the Q Skirt. Have we ever seen someone so upset after actually being successful in pulling off a huge move? Such a fascinating element of the game, and it poses an intriguing question: If a big move is made in the forest and nobody hears it, did it ever happen?

The good news for us is that Liz does not appear to want to fade into the background anytime soon. “I will not get lost in this game,” she promised. “That’s not what I want to show my friends, my family, my daughter.” And that’s not what we want to see, Liz, so let’s see what else you have in your arsenal.

Time to team up

I can’t tell you how much I really, really, really want to devote the next 1,000 words to dissecting the super-awkward handshake exchange between Charlie and Q, but I suppose we should talk about the challenge instead. The players were told via Tree Mail they had to self-separate into three teams of three, which they did shockingly quickly. Tiffany, Kenzie, and Ben grouped together, while Hunter teamed up with Charlie and Maria, and then Q, Liz, and Venus became the sad sack leftovers.

Q — who said before the season he would never throw a challenge, but then later claimed he threw the water platform one — tried to get Charlie to throw it for his team so Hunter would not win it again. It was a strategy Charlie wanted absolutely no part of, especially because Charlie is something of a challenge beast himself. The dude was a division 1 athlete, and not just any division 1 athlete, but a cross country runner. Competitive XC runners are no joke. For one thing, they have crazy endurance, which comes in handy in Survivor challenges. They also have a super high pain tolerance. (Also, handy.) Think about it: A cross country athlete’s entire sport is the punishment given out to other athletes when they get in trouble. If you’re a football or basketball player and you do something wrong, what do they make you do? Run! But for people like Charlie, that’s not discipline you hope to avoid, that’s just your regular sport. I personally think anyone who signs up for that sport — and this includes my own two collegiate running children — is clinically insane.

While Q, Liz, and Venus did make Probst eat his words about them being the first ones out (mostly thanks to Kenzie hilariously not being able to get over the balance beam with her ball), the three-stage contest did indeed end up with Hunter, Charlie, and Maria heading into the individual portion of the competition. And, indeed, it once again came down to Hunter vs. Charlie, and this time the guy with endurance and pain management experience pulled out the win, perhaps lessening his disappointment this week of having to hear and read all those lukewarm Taylor Swift album reviews. (On the bright side, 31 new song titles to choose from for his Metallica rematch with Ben.)

Kenzie enters the chat

Yanu really is the gift that keeps on giving. There was so much happening back at camp heading into Tribal in terms of the moving target. But the real shocker for me was Kenzie. Not only did she just openly tell Q to his face, “I’m not working with you right now,” but then she dropped the bombshell of the episode when she mentioned that she wanted to make a move on… Tiffany?!?

Never saw that coming. I thought those two were almost on a Charlie and Maria or Tevin and Hunter level of closeness, yet here was Kenzie not just going along with a Tiffany vote, but actually leading the charge to make it happen. Savage. Perhaps if they had bonded over a 1960s black-and-white sitcom with a bumbling deputy they would have been closer. Or maybe Kenzie just saw résumé-obsessed Liz acting all depressed and wanted to do anything in her power to avoid that same sad fate.

But the fuse blew out on the Tiffany plan once she told Charlie she was going to flush her idol. By the way, can we pause for the cause to acknowledge what a smart player Tiffany is? Most people are just like “Yay, I have an idol!” But Tiff thinks about all the angles. She knew now that the idol was common knowledge, it put a much bigger target on her back and that the best way to remove it was to remove the idol. But she also knew that if she played it, a replacement idol would likely be coming back to the beach — a replacement idol that could end up in someone else’s hands. Decisions, decisions…

But Tiff was not the final target.

The Hunter becomes the hunted

If you were channel surfing… wait, do people even channel surf anymore? Can you streamer surf? Is that thing? Anyway, the point is, if you stumbled across this Tribal Council and did not know what you were watching, your first reaction most likely would have been something along the lines of, “Man, this Hunter guy is really freaking out.” Well, that’s not entirely true. Your first reaction would have been “Why is the host eating popcorn?” But your second reaction would have been that Hunter was freaking out. Not just freaking out, but FREAKING OUT!

On one hand, he came off as super paranoid, continually asking over and over if Q was really the vote. On the other hand, he was right to be worried! Hunter was the actual target. Not only that, but half the people he was asking were actually voting for Q, either just as a split vote to protect against an idol, or because they were out of the loop. In a way, Hunter would have looked worse had people not been voting for him because he would have come off as super paranoid and annoying. By being sent out of the game, he was at least vindicated in his worry. And I’ve never been the kind of guy to blast someone for not playing an idol. Hunter clearly knew there was a risk it was him. This was no blindside, but he decided to gamble. It didn’t work, but that doesn’t mean it was a dumb move. He just guessed wrong.

If I’m going to blast Hunter for anything, it would be for telling everyone about his idol before Tribal. He didn’t need the idol to try and move votes onto Ben. He could have still done that and then played his idol in case the move — which was a longshot anyway if you are counting on your mortal enemy Venus as one of the five votes you need — did not work. Also, half the power of an idol is the spectacle of the idol. Playing an idol nobody knows about is far more powerful in the impact it makes as opposed to an idol everyone already knows you have. And impact is important when there are current and future jury members present. Something for future players to consider.

But, of course, Hunter did not play his idol and was sent home on a revote after he and Q tied on the first round. I know he’s bummed, but if Hunter wants to reclaim Survivor glory, he will make the ultimate baller move and show up on the jury with breakup bangs at next week’s Tribal Council. Or at least bring some Ponderosa popcorn for the suddenly snack-obsessed host.

But what a great episode. Lots of pissed off people, a challenge face-off rematch, rapidly shifting strategy talk, a thoroughly devastated victim — all the ingredients for a satisfying 90 minutes of television. But we’re not done! We’ve got an exclusive deleted scene showing Q dealing with the aftermath of his attempted quit, as well as an exit interview with poor Hunter. Jeff Probst not only weighed in on the episode, but we also talked to the Hostmaster General about plans for Survivor 50! Okay, now I guess we’re done. But fret not: There’s always another scoop of the crispy just around the corner. Unless, of course, your name is Phillip Sheppard.

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