‘Survivor’ 46 recap: Sometimes two isn’t better than one

Are you prepared for a double elimination? Because that’s what is about to happen on episode seven of CBS‘s Survivor season 46. I’ll tell you one thing: this double elimination is proof that sometimes two is not better than one. That said, at least one of the two voted off will be the first member of the jury.

Before we get into that, just a reminder that all season long I’ll be recapping every episode of Survivor 46. Make sure you subscribe to the Parting Shot podcast and my newsletter For the Culture for all things Survivor-related. (And everything else entertainment-related.)

Let’s briefly go over what happened last week. For a full rundown, check out my recap. The biggest thing that went down last week was that the tribes merged, igniting the game in a major way. The remaining three members of Yanu, the perpetually losing tribe, became the deciding vote in a split Tribal Council that sent Siga’s Moriah home. On the sidelines, it seems like Venus is setting up a men vs. women game play that could be very interesting. Let’s see how that will shape out this episode.

Now that they all have their buffs after that last Tribal Council, the fully-merged tribe is called Nuinui. As they head back to their beach, Venus is feeling it. You see, Moriah got most of the votes at Tribal, but one was placed for Venus, and she thinks it came from Soda, whom she’s had a contentious relationship with since they were members of the Nami tribe. (The kicker is, it didn’t come from Soda, it came from Charlie.) Venus and Soda immediately go off to fight it out, annoying Tevin, who is over both Venus and Soda.

“They are digging their own graves and showing the people how toxic and dangerous they are to the game,” Tevin said in a confessional. “And I hope they continue to do that because it will slide them closer to that snuffle and me closer to that million dollars.”

Eventually, Charlie tells Venus he was the one who voted for her, pissing off Q because he wants old members of Siga and Yanu to take out parts of the old Nami tribe. Q confronts Charlie, and Charlie agrees and apologizes, but he realizes something as he does this.

“Q is running this show,” Charlies says in a confessional, “and nobody is allowed to have any other ideas… we’re doing it Q’s way or the highway. So,” insert dramatic pause here, “I need to get Q out of the game.”

Can he do it? Let’s find out.

Random Moment That Will Become Important

Something is wrong with Ben. During the night he wakes up from a dream in a panic. Kenzie, who has a family history of people with anxiety, helps him. Clearly this is the producers telling us to watch these two. Something is going on here. Could it romance? Setting up a potential betrayal? Crazier things have happened on Survivor, but I’m telling you, there’s a reason they showed us this moment.

Individual Immunity Challenge

They arrived by boat at a dock surrounded by triangular platforms with little divots on them. What could this be? Naturally something they’ll barely be able to stand on.

And that’s exactly what Jeff Probst says. For this Immunity Challenge, they are to balance on these little divots, moving up each divot in regular intervals. If they touch or fall off the triangular platform, they’re out. The last person left standing wins Individual Immunity.

But there’s a twist. (Of course there is.) They’ll be randomly divided into two groups of six, meaning that not one, but two people will earn Individual Immunity. The bad news? Both groups will be going to Tribal Council, and two people will be voted out.

That said, it’s not all bad, because they’re also playing for reward. The person who lasts the longest wins for their group a nice little coffee/tea party with sandwiches and snacks. While they’re snacking on all these delicious goodies, the losing group will be voting out one of their members. Once the winning group is done, they’ll go to Tribal Council to vote out of their members. That person will be the first member of the jury.

Group one—the purple group—consists of Charlie, Maria, Venus, Liz and Soda.

Group two—the yellow group—consists of Ben, Tim, Q, Hunter, Kenzie and Tiffany.

As the challenge begins, producers splice in moments from a past season that featured this challenge. They’ve been doing this a lot this season, showing clips from older seasons. Could this be their way of telling us an All-Stars season is upon us? Perhaps for Survivor season 50?!

While they’re competing, they decide to play a pitiful version of the alphabet game, with each member screwing up the rules of the game. It’s a fun little distraction to the monotony of the moment.

All members make it through the first round. As the second round begins, Q and Soda are out, followed by Ben.

There’s a great moment where Tim asks Jeff, “What’s up?”

“Thanks for the shout out, Tim,” Jeff replies, as Tim chuckles.

“No Jeff, that’s how Black people ask what time it is,” Q responds. Everyone laughs.

The remaining members make it through this round. They’ve all lasted so long that the last bit of this challenge requires each of them to stand on the top of the triangular platform on one foot. (This is where I’d be in the water. Actually, let’s be real, I’d have had the boat driver turn the boat around and take me back to camp.)

As they all lift a foot, Charlie drops first, then Tim, followed by Venus, Liz, Hunter and Tiffany. This leaves Kenzie as the last remaining member of the yellow group standing, winning her Individual Immunity. Just as this happens, she drops. It’s a showdown between Tevin and Maria on the purple side. Tevin wobbles but holds on, but ultimately, it’s not enough, and he drops. Maria wins Individual Immunity and reward for the purple group.

Now it’s time for them to plot who will be going home.

The Plot Thickens

Because Maria held out the longest at the challenge, the purple group gets to plot their strategy for who they’ll vote out at Tribal Council over tasty treats. Considering what happened earlier in the episode between Venus and Soda, it’s clear that all eyes—especially from Tevin—will be on them. However, as Venus says in a confessional, her target that night is Charlie. In another confessional, Tevin indicates that it does seem like Charlie would be the obvious pick—he’s the only non-Nami member of this group without immunity—but that’s not what Tevin wants. Not only does Charlie have Tevin’s support, he also has Maria’s. Which means Tevin wants to be the mastermind of the first blindside of the season.

After they binged the food, the real plotting begins. Charlie knows he’s on the hot seat, and his only way of staying is through Maria and Tevin, but everyone is too in their food coma to talk. Eventually he and Soda talk, and she tells him what he already knows. If she wants to stay “Nami strong,” she needs to vote Charlie. But Soda wants Venus out like yesterday, and she’s willing to work with Charlie to take Venus out. They plot to make Venus feel so secure to blindside Venus. Soda brings Tevin into the plan, and he seems on board.

But, nothing is ever as it seems on Survivor, you should know this by now.

While Tevin wants Venus out, he’s keen on making a big move. So, he goes to Liz to plant the seed on voting Soda out. Liz is on board. He moves on to Maria, and she’s on board. Finally, Tevin tells Charlie the plan, and he’s on board.

Meanwhile, Venus recognizes that nobody is talking to her, which is suspicious. She goes to Maria and throws out the idea of blindsiding Tevin, which Maria thinks is ridiculous. Then Venus goes to Charlie to sell this Tevin plan, but then she also throws out Soda. (My girl Venus is all over the place. It’s very confusing.)

During this entire section, one thing is clear: this is Charlie’s episode. Not only are there so many shots of Charlie and his devilish smile, but producers are setting him up like he’s the child in the middle of a messy divorce between the old Nami tribe, and he’s just watching the parents fight it out. There’s even a moment where he overhears Maria school Venus on her approach, and it’s like watching a little kid listen in on a very adult conversation.

“It’s becoming clear to me the cracks on Nami are more like oceans between continents. They are ready to go at each other’s throats,” Charlie says.

When all this plays out, it becomes clear to Siga’s Maria and Charlie that even though there’s only two of them against other Nami tribe members, they hold the power in this vote. (Which is wild.)

While Maria’s purple group wined, dined and tore each other apart, the yellow group is forced to go back to Siga’s old camp to plot who they’ll vote off that night at Tribal Council. Q starts things off in a confessional revealing he intentionally threw the challenge because he didn’t want immunity, instead he wanted to see how strong his alliance with Tim and Tiffany was. (This is a stupid move, and it will backfire on him, mark my word.)

Q and Tim want a Nami member out, and Hunter is the only member from Nami in the yellow group. Even though Hunter is technically part of this Q/Tim alliance of six, Tim sees the opportunity here: get Hunter, arguably one of the strongest players, out now. The kicker is, Hunter has a secret Immunity Idol. Will he use it? Who knows. But Q doesn’t agree with Tim’s plan because he wants to honor his alliance. Instead, he wants to vote for Ben. But Tim is holding strong with taking out Nami members no matter what.

They go to Tiffany, and she hears Tim’s argument about Hunter, but sees it for what it is: Tim, a member of the Siga tribe, is just thirsty to get a Nami member voted out because a Siga person went home at the last Tribal Council. Q and Tiffany bring Kenzie into the mix, saying Tim must go, but Tiffany wants Ben. She’s worried about Ben’s social game.

Hunter realizes he’s on his own and knows he needs to play his Immunity Idol.

This is the moment where we see why that moment between Kenzie and Ben was so important at the beginning of this episode. Kenzie goes to Ben to explain how things are shaking out. Ben knows he’s in the hot seat, and he’s willing to take the risk.

This is where the Yanu alliance between Q, Tiffany and Kenzie starts to falter. Since Ben is chill with taking the risk, Q leans into that, making it seem to Tiffany and Kenzie that Q is all over the place. Even though Tiffany wants Ben out, she’s not convinced he isn’t playing Q. Kenzie and Tiffany go their own way in this old Yanu alliance.

“This is not the Q show,” Tiffany tells Kenzie, referring to him telling them how to vote. “At some point, that ain’t gonna work for us.”

One thing is clear: both Tribal Councils will be interesting tonight.

Tribal Council # 1

The yellow group is first up. The person voted out in this Tribal Council will go home and will not be a member of the jury.

Q starts things off by laying out that an old member of Nami or Siga needs to go because the old Yanu members have the lowest numbers. Hunter points out that he’s the only member from Nami in this group, and he’d much rather be with Yanu at this moment than anybody else. Tim points out that Hunter got Nami here, and that’s why he needs to go. Hunter points out that he only got Nami here to save himself and that Nami is a mess right now. (That’s an understatement.)

Then the attention points to Ben. He makes it personal and brings up the panic attack he had and how Kenzie helped. This aligns him to Yanu in an unexpected way. Its clear Hunter isn’t the fourth member of Yanu, Ben is.

As Jeff is about to read the votes, Hunter decides not to play his Immunity Idol. For a second, I’m worried, is another player about to leave with an Idol in their pocket? Well, turns out Hunter is good, because in the end they turned on Tim. He’s out. I’m honestly not surprised. This whole season it’s been a lot of players playing so hard and fast. Jem did it, and now Tim. May this be a lesson to future Survivor players, be cool y’all.

Tribal Council # 2

OK, now we get to find out who the first member of the jury will be. Clearly, it’s a showdown between Venus and Soda. Charlies makes it obvious that he’s the one with the target on his back, because he’s the only member of the Siga tribe who doesn’t have immunity. This prompts Jeff to turn to Soda, and she agrees.

“It’s kind of clear where the numbers are right now,” Soda says. I think these words might come back to haunt her. Jeff even gets her to elaborate on just how safe the Nami members are. Oh Jeff, we see what you’re doing.

This goes on for a while, with Charlie leaning into the story that he’s worried and that he’s on the bottom, but Venus is blunt: this is an act, and I’m secretly on the bottom. (I love Venus’s honesty.)

As Jeff is about to read the votes, Charlie decides not to play his Shot in the Dark advantage, a big sign to all the members of Nami that something is up. We soon see what exactly that something is: they blindsided Soda. The look on her face says it all, she’s shocked.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Soda asks Venus. Venus says it was, but we all know it was Tevin.

She leaves crying, but also happy. She’s proud of her game, but also proud that she’s the first member of the jury.

A double elimination episode has become a staple for Survivor, and honestly, they always hit. This one is no different. Early on it seemed like Soda would be a strong social player, and she was, but to see her get voted out so early? Genuinely a surprise. And now that we’ve got a jury, the real game begins.

Who Needs to Get Snuffed?

I’m leaning towards Q. There’s something about his game play that is throwing me off. He’s really good, but perhaps gets a little too lost in the shifting strategies.

Who Should be the Sole Survivor?

Charlie is a favorite, and I really like him and would love to see him win from behind. But I feel like the real players showing their true colors right now are Tevin and Kenzie. I’m going to keep my eye on them.

Watch Survivor every Wednesday on CBS or anytime on Paramount+ to follow along as I react to every episode this season.