Spicy Jeff (S46: Episode 9)

The episode kicks off with the return to camp and everyone is understandably flabbergasted and pissed at Q for what just transpired at Tribal Council. I was holding out hope for the possibility that we’d maybe find out that Q was doing this on purpose as a part of some unhinged yet masterful evil plan. But it turns out he literally was just offering to quit because he felt like he should “fall on his sword”??? I’m so not about this martyr BS he’s pulling and here at Vukelulu, we are personally offended by Survivor quitters. But that being said, he’s continued to create chaos and mayhem and has just been an overall fascinating person to observe which is at least more entertaining than other quitters from recent seasons. As Venus best stated it…

We quickly see tears from Liz who worries that her big move of taking out Tevin is going to be overshadowed by Q’s antics. What’s interesting here is that she essentially wanted to vote Tevin out for this exact reason. He was taking credit for the Soda move which she wanted to own. Now this overshadowing has happened for the second vote in a row and we have to wonder if this obsession with getting her flowers in the moment will end up being the end of Liz (*cue the mental breakdown she appears to be experiencing in the previews for next episode*). If it were me, I think I’d actually be really grateful that Q’s chaos caused people to be distracted from my major move against my #1 ally. It would help take the target off my back after orchestrating a blindside and I would intentionally tell that story in the end. This season seems to have a theme of people being hyper-obsessed with building their resumes as quickly as possible. I imagine this stems from there being quite a few people in the New Era who’ve made it to final tribal, but see little to no votes because they have trouble articulating their game and remain perceived as a goat or non-threat to the jury. It’s definitely an aspect of the new game style that all of us future (aspiring) players should continue to noodle on. 

The individual Immunity Challenge is ONCE AGAIN broken up into smaller groups, minimizing the opportunities for us to actually watch every player compete. @Jeffery, I am BORED with this plot. Please change it.

Hunter, Maria, and Charlie’s team gets to the end and Charlie comes out on top as the winner. Back at camp, the shuffle begins. Kenzie wants her moment in the sun to make a big move so she starts campaigning to blindside Tiff (her day 1 #1 ally). I understand her wanting to work off of the momentum of everyone just learning that Tiff has an idol. But I do wonder if the fact that she wasn’t able to get this plan over the finish line means that it’s going to come back to haunt her. Tiff is highly aware of the target that the idol is putting on her back and talks about wanting to basically flush it so she can move forward without that target so she’s definitely on her toes. 

We see a glimpse of Maria and Charlie’s conversation where Maria expresses slight concern over Kenzie being able to take credit for the Tiff blindside if they choose to go through with it. Ultimately, they end up swinging momentum back to the Hunter vote and pull off a blindside after a revote between Q and Hunter. Hunter had the hunch that he should play his idol and based on exit interviews, it sounds like he was planning on playing it all day because he knew the Siga 3 were voting for him. But during tribal council, he felt convinced that Tiff was going to vote for Q after hearing how angry she still was at him during tribal. And that was enough to make him feel like he had the numbers in his favor. In my opinion, if you know that at least a third of the votes are coming your way, you gotta play that idol. Could it possibly “go to waste”? Sure. But when you’re certain you’re getting that many votes, play the idol, and then hussle your ass off the next day to find it again when it’s back in play (and you’re still in the game). 

Onto the league - 

This was overall a pretty low scoring week across the board. That means there weren’t many shake ups in the top 10. In fact, not a single person exited or entered the top 10 between this episode and the last. That being said, Hunter was on six of our top 10’s tribes and was the Sole Survivor pick for four of our current top 10 so we can anticipate that next episode might bring us something a little more interesting!

With the departure of Hunter, Edrick (who was our last remaining person with all five tribe members) is now officially down to four tribe members. Edrick, Amanda S., Connor, Adam, Tribemaster Liv, Robbie,and Anna all lost their Sole Survivor pick. Additionally,Emily, Anna,and Kathy are now all down to one remaining tribe member.

-Tribemasters Liv + Brian