Several (S46: Episode 7)

It’s officially the merge! (“Episode Several” has to be the first time a post-merge episode has been named after a player who was voted out first in the game. Jelinsky has no idea how to play Survivor, but at least the guy figured out how to stay #relevant!)

Within the first few seconds of this episode, we see some serious beef between Venus and Soda because Venus is convinced that Soda is the one who wrote her name down at tribal. This, of course, is not true, which Charlie soon reveals. Soda’s demise in this episode makes me think that the choice to so strongly distance herself from Venus was perhaps her biggest mistake in the game. Had she been able to “tame the beast” that is Venus, she may have actually had more control, and been able to use Venus as a shield. 

It’s time for the first individual immunity challenge, and once again, the group is split in half based on a rock draw. All I have to say is WHY. WHhHhHhHHHHYYY do we need two weeks in a row of the large group being randomly split in half??? Why not just do formal tribe swaps at that point so we can actually see some new alliances and lines drawn?! Creating smaller groups, and leaving the early-merge portion of the game up to such “chance” has to be one of my least favorite parts of the new era. Put that big group in one tribal council and gimme some CHAOS!!! Anywho, Maria and Kenzie end up winning individual immunity on their respective “tribes but not tribes”, and Q claims that he botched the challenge “on purpose”.  

When the groups get back to their separate beaches, there are some obvious options for who to target based on original tribal lines, (Charlie for the purple group and Hunter for the orange group), but in the end, both Charlie and Hunter end up escaping the torch snuffing. On the orange beach, Tim seems to dig himself into a deep hole by creating the narrative that Hunter needs to go so they can “even out the numbers”. Had he framed it differently, I think he could have gotten the Yanu 3 on his side, but his approach made it way too clear that Siga was his continued #1 alliance. So Tim became the new target. And if Q doesn’t check his ego and start including Kenzie and Tiff in the decision making process, I fear he will soon face the same fate as Tim. Over on the purple beach, Nami self-cannibalized with Soda, Venus, and Tevin all targeting each other, and Charlie essentially being an afterthought. In fact, Charlie and Maria barely had to lift a finger to protect their alliance because the rest of the group self imploded fully on their own! If this is any indication of what’s to come, it’s likely we’ll see some continued chaos within the original tribe alliances. 

What am I looking forward to in this next episode? I want to see some Venus and Tevin beef after Venus took full credit for Soda’s blindside that Tevin definitely wants credit for. Plus, I want to know what Tevin’s strategy was behind voting for Venus even though he orchestrated the Soda vote! Was he trying to save face with Soda? Was it a backup option just in case things went awry with the Soda vote?

Final thoughts: I think Venus is getting a Season 41 Xander edit right now. Even though she technically has some strategic chops and savvy, the rest of the cast simply doesn’t seem to buy into her as a threat, and if you get to the end without being given any credit or weight, you’re going to have a hard time convincing the jury that you’re a deserving winner. 

Now let’s check out the league cause there are some MAJOR shake ups in the standings!

Thanks to individual immunity and some tear shedding, Maria and Kenzie were the massive point earners this week with Maria bringing in 31 points for her tribes and Kenzie bringing in 28 points. This was a huge difference from the castaways like Tim and Soda who brought in 3 and 6 points for their tribes respectively. 

Because of these big point gaps AND the merge bonuses officially being added to everyone’s tribes, we saw some serious movement in the standings. Strega Mandi leaped from 19th place to 1st place! Connor, Tribemaster Liv, Adam, Robbie, Kathy, and Maggie all fell out of the top 10 into lower rankings. Sari also jumped from 19th to 3rd, and Edrick climbed from 22nd to 4th place. Just goes to show, you never know what’s gonna happen over here on Vukelulu beach!

With the departure of Soda, Cousin Lori, Kathy, Jill, Peach, and Allison K. all say goodbye to their Sole Survivor pick. Seth is the only one to lose his Sole Survivor pick due to Tim’s departure. 

While there are plenty of people with 4 people left on their tribes, Edrick is the only person with 5 players on his tribe which puts him in an excellent position to continue climbing up the standings.

NOTE: There was a formula error on last week's spreadsheet that led to the total points being tallied incorrectly. All points have been remedied, and are now up to date. Sorry for any confusion!

-Tribemasters Liv + Brian