'Survivor 46': Tiffany Nicole Ervin on Liz Wilcox's Applebee's breakdown, not letting Q Burdette 'mansplain' the game
Ervin is headed to the jury after being eliminated with a 5-3 vote, and an idol in her pocket
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From a blindside elimination to an Applebee's meltdown, Wednesday night's episode of Survivor 46 (on Global TV in Canada, CBS in the U.S.) was a whirlwind of emotions. It all ended with Tiffany Nicole Ervin heading to jury after a 5-3 vote over Q Burdette.
Once again, this is a circumstance where someone is leaving the game with the Beware Advantage idol in their pocket. But Ervin explained that she did have a strategy going into Tribal.
"I didn't play the idol on a whim," she told Yahoo Canada. "There was some thought behind it, there was some strategy and there was definitely some risk taking involved."
"You guys didn't get to see it a lot on camera with me and Charlie [Davis], we had a really good working relationship. We were super tight. And Charlie and I had discussed possibly using the idol to like blindside Maria [Shrime Gonzalez] down the line, or what have you. So that was a thought in my mind, combined with the fact that everybody was really, really, really fed up with Q at that point. ... It just came down to me taking a calculated risk and hoping that things worked out. Big risk, big reward. Or big risk, big fail."
Watch Survivor Season 46 by adding the STACKTV channel to your Prime Video subscription. 14-day free trial then $12.99/month
As we've seen throughout the season, there have been multiple times when Burdette has communicated that he doesn't particularly want to be on the island, even trying to quit the game. For Ervin, she recognized that it's "super" frustrating to be leaving when there is someone who seemingly doesn't want to be there.
"It's almost an insult to the game of Survivor," she said. "He's always the guy that's like, 'I'm going fall on top of my sword. I'm going to be a Survivor martyr.' Like, boy, if you want to go home, just walk out the door."
"He wanted to be like, 'Oh, well, they got me out.' And nobody was providing that avenue for him. It was like, if you want to give up, you're going to have to do it the proper way. We're not going to give you an out. And it did feel like a slap in the face, because up until that point, Q was definitely checked out of the game. But smart on the people that are still there because they're like, we're going to use this to our advantage and we'll just drag him along until we're done. Good for them, I guess."
What we didn't see in the 'Survivor 46' Applebee's breakdown
We can't talk about the latest episode of Survivor 46 without talking about Liz Wilcox breaking down, after the challenge winner, Burdette, won an Applebee's feast. As we know, Wilcox has several allergies and dietary restrictions, so she hasn't been able to eat much on the island. But on the menu for this challenge reward was the Applebee's burger she gets every Wednesday when she goes to the restaurant with her daughter.
After Burdette's win, he was allowed to choose three people to join him, and he chose Ervin, Kenzie Petty and Maria Shrime Gonzalez, as Wilcox was sobbing. Wilcox was in complete rage, yelling that she sees the others eat every day and that Q "threw off" her game.
"Take that awkward feeling that you saw on the other side of the TV and multiply that by like 10, and then that's how awkward it was," Ervin recalled. "In that moment, you can't really do anything besides kind of just let her have her moment."
But Ervin also revealed that what we didn't see in the episode was that both Petty and Gonzalez offered to give up their spots for Wilcox, but Burdette wasn't having it.
"Kenzie and Maria volunteered to give up their spot and Q was like, 'No, I chose what I chose,'" she revealed.
"Had I been in the winner's position, I don't know if I would have picked Liz, but also I can't say that I would have reacted in the same way as Q, because Liz didn't write my name down in the Tribal before. So my heart might have been a little bit more softened. ... At that moment, I don't really think there was any reason why Liz should have expected Q to take her, because there was nothing about this man's gameplay or personality that should have led her to believe that he would take her."
'Q's personality type is easy to manipulate'
Ervin's next stop in her Survivor experience is the jury, going to Ponderosa with Hunter McKnight, Tevin Davis and Soda Thompson.
"I was not ready for it," Ervin said. "I was basically a deer in the headlights up until I got on the boa."
"When we pulled up to Ponderosa I said, I don't want to talk to anybody. Let me get off this boat. Go to my room. I don't want to be bothered. I get to Ponderosa, Hunter, Soda and Tevin are outside clapping, just so open and welcoming. ... It kind of just melted that ice block that was around me. ... It just became like a big, super fun, happy adults fun time camp."
Watch Survivor Season 46 by adding the STACKTV channel to your Prime Video subscription. 14-day free trial then $12.99/month
But when it came to the events that led to her having to leave at this point in the game, Ervin identified that there is something related to playing with Burdette that she "could have change," but she's not sure it's something should "would have changed."
"I realized that Q's personality type is easy to manipulate," Ervin said. "He's somebody that needs to feel in charge, he needs to feel like ... he's big dog, and I totally could have rolled over, I could have been like 'Oh my gosh you're such a smart man. Let me go along with what like what you want to do. Tell me what to do Q.'"
"But every fibre of my being is just like, I am a woman, hear me roar. I am not going to let you mansplain to me how to play this game. I don't care. Especially when you're loud and wrong. No part of my being could have remained silent in those moments where Q came at me and it just felt contradictory and wrong. ... That ended up being a detriment to my game, because ultimately everybody used that emotional distraction to kind of take me off of my strategy course, but I could have batted a couple eyelashes. ... But I'm not doing that. That's not who I am."
Even though her time was cut short, with all the discussions swirling about Survivor 50, set to be played with all returning players, Ervin would absolutely participate if she's invited.
"Unequivocally. Yes, for sure. Without hesitation," she said.
"I did way better at this game than I ever thought I would. ... I didn't think I would get out there and kind of just really hit the ground running, and be this little strategy girly. ... Now that I know that this is something not only that I enjoy, but something that I'm good at, without hesitation I'm going back."
