Episode 8 Chat

Welcome to the conversation about episode 8 of season 46 of survivor!

“Hide ‘N Seek”

The summary of the episode is now finished, go ahead and read it if you missed some important details.

Feel free to head down to the comments, that is where the fun is, the play by plays, the astute observations, and of course that’s where the friendships will hopefully continue. That said, as a shy, silent lurker on Jackie’s blog for over a decade, I can wholeheartedly state that lurkers are very  welcome here as well. Soon SueGee will return and make a blog pool for us for the players who remain in the game.

I’ll be watching the show with the NY time zone tonight, typing quick notes which will display at the bottom of this post.

Did you miss something and want to see it written out? Or maybe you can’t view the show this season for some reason, but you still wonder what is going on? Don’t worry, I’ve got you. On Thursday and Friday, and sometimes on Saturday too I’ll spend about a dozen hours (between sleeping, driving a school bus, housework, and personal care) streaming and pausing the episode so that I can write out the juicy details for us to enjoy again:

• Who all was present for that conversation?
• What exactly was said by whom?
• How did the individual players perform in the challenges?
• Who voted for whom?
• What were the final words of the person voted out?
• What details were in the previews of the next episode?

On Sunday I will watch the show a third time, just for fun, with my late-watching Survivor pals. So, if YOU are also a late watcher, please don’t hesitate to add your comments to the conversation! The more the merrier!!

• BACK TO MAIN PAGE
• LINK to Episode 1 “This is Where the Legends are Made” Days 1-3
• LINK to Episode 2 “Scorpio Energy” Days 4-5
• LINK to Episode 3 “Wackadoodles Win” Days 6-7
• LINK to Episode 4 “Don’t Touch the Oven” Days 8-9
• LINK to Episode 5 “Tiki Man” Days 10-11
• LINK to Episode 6 “Cancel Christmas” The Big Merge
• LINK to “Episode Several” Days 13 & 14

Scenes from the next episode:

• Liz, Kenzie and someone in a white hoodie walk in a straight line through trees. A man’s voice calls out, “Hunter!”
• A close up of Charlie’s head and face, looking up at the tree tops. Someone says, “Hunter, where are you?”
• Up in a tan tree, we see the sole of a shoe, a bit of a red shirt and one arm, resting on a branch. Camera zooms in to a close up of Hunter’s face in that hiding place. He sits perfectly still, while his eyes roll all over, looking around.
• Tevin stands in the shelter, covering his face with his hand, laughing hard.
• Liz snidely speaks the laugh to camera: “‘Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha’… Shut up!”
• Tiffany walks alone while Q is dubbed overtop: “She broke MY rule.” Camera closes in to Q’s face: “I’m a mob boss.”
• Charlie to Maria, alone on beach: “This game is getting crazy.”
• At Tribal Council, jury member Soda covers her mouth in shock as Jeff says: “Never seen anything like this.”

 

OK, Survivor fans ready for THIS episode?? Let’s go!

Scenes from previous footage:

• Tiffany tells Q that she found her hidden immunity idol, tells camera, “This feels amazing!”
• Hunter finds his hidden immunity idol that nobody knows about.
• The immunity reward challenge, where Jeff introduces it talking about the twist: randomly divided into two groups of six, two people will be voted out tonight.
• Tim tells Q that they should go against their alliance of six and take out Hunter tonight, while he is vulnerable. Q vows to camera that Tim needs to be voted out for coming against one of their group.
• Tevin plots with Liz against Soda. Liz assures him that she is DOWN! (I like the ways she says that; she is half asleep from laying in the warm sun on the sandy beach, but can fill that word with enthusiasm.)
• Tevin plots with Maria against Soda. Tevin plots with Charlie against Soda. Tevin tells camera that he wants to be “the curator of the first blindside of the season.”
• Venus plots with Maria against Soda and Tevin. Maria sympathetically observes the efforts Venus is making, but considers her pretty oblivious.
• Tribal Council 1: Q writes down Tim, saying, “You should have stuck with The Six.” Jeff: Seventh person voted out of Survivor 46, Tim.” Ben hugs Tim goodbye and sings, “Brotherly Lo-ove!” Torch is snuffed. Tim goes.
• Tribal Council 2: Tevin writes down Venus, saying: “This is a ‘just in case’ vote. If all goes well, you will not be the one going home tonight.” Jeff: “Eighth person voted out of Survivor 46 and the first member of our jury, Soda.” Soda gives credit to a proud Venus, and she claims it. They shake hands and exchange mutual love. Tevin is appalled, sighs and says, “No.” Torch is snuffed, Soda goes.

Nuinui Night 14

Group 1 arrives back to camp well before group 2 does. Group wants to check in on Ben, make sure he is OK, hash this out. Ben tells them that there’s not much to hash out. “Tim was my first friend, so it was just, like, a bummer.”

• Tiffany says, “Honestly, I know, but still want to chat.”
• Ben to camera, next day: “I lost my good friend at Tribal Council. There was this unnamed bromance happening, the gruesome twosome twins – me and Tim.”
• A fire is started that night. Ben continues, next day: “And it kept me feeling sane during the game. It’s funny to cry over another dude, and, uh, I definitely think he was-he was my ROCK, you know?”
• Tiffany tells Ben: “What do I have to go on?”
• Ben: “Yeah. But what do you have to offer me, besides you being like, ‘we’re vibing’?”
• Tiffany, “Right, that’s probably…” the conversation fades out, giving way to the flashes we are giving of Q sitting alone by the beach, in a frustrated posture. Q tells camera: “Need to get Ben before all these other people come to the group. But they just want to talk about Bull—-, bro!”
• Back to the group at the fire, Kenzie: “Also we’re all vibing.” Ben: “I KNOW!” they all laugh. Tiffany: “Like, everybody here is fully down.” Camera angle pans out a bit, and we can see that Hunter is part of the conversation too.
• Q is frustrated at the lack of focus and locking in of Ben. The chatting drives him batty, but he tells the camera that his next move is to decide if he wants to bring in someone else to The Six alliance. He hopes the other group is voting out Venus right now, but he recognizes that time is limited to do what he wants to accomplish. I don’t think he realizes that friendly chatter is one way people bond and decide whether or not to work together. Q to camera: I’m a game player and I’m a game changer and I’m going to change the way this game is played.”

The second group returns to camp. The first group was expecting Venus to be voted out and are somewhat surprized to find out it was Soda. Kenzie, the next day has this to say about it, in private to the camera: “No one really enjoys working with her, no one trusts her- Tiff and I make eyes at each other, like, they didn’t do it, they didn’t get her!”

Q asks to “hear the Tea” about what happened, and Venus sits tall, and proudly takes credit for it in front of everyone, with Tevin whispering in the background to various people: “It wasn’t her, it was me!” Venus goes on bragging/complaining that two people voted for her (glares at Tevin), then she disses Tevin: “I’m just gonna say, I can see through bullshit, and, let’s just say a man who claims his entire identity in this game is surrounded by honesty and being an honest person straight up lied to my face the entire day and wrote my name down. And I saw through that and, you know, karma bit them in the ass.” She has everyone’s full attention through this whole personal attack against Tevin. All he did was play the game the way the game is played, and she acts as though he has done something wrong by voting for her. I enjoy Tevin, I like his voice, I like his attitude, and I like how, unlike Q, he doesn’t bulldoze his own way in this game. I do not like Venus when she turns on people like she does with Soda and Tevin. Both are decent, cool people, and worthwhile keeping around. They both play the game as well as anybody. Geez. Tiffany is like, oh, I feel bad. And Venus continues bragging, with a big smile on her face: “Oh, Soda took it real well . She gave me a BIIG hug, she was like, ‘You GOT me!’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I did.’ Then we’re like “sisters’ and then she left, and cried.”

The next day, in private to camera, Tevin laughs with great energy: “Venus has taken the accolades, trying to commandeer the fact that Soda’s going home was her doing. I voted for Venus because I didn’t know if Soda had an idol and I didn’t know if Venus had an idol, AND, so I could say, ‘Soda, I didn’t vote for you. I told you I’d never write your name down in the game, and I didn’t, I wrote Venus.’ But I don’t need credit….” Clearly he does need credit, as he visits all the relationships that matter to him and remind them that Soda out was HIS score, not Venus’s. Charlie. Liz.

Liz thinks it was her idea to write Soda. It wasn’t Tevin’s idea, and it wasn’t Venus’s idea. She voted the way she has wanted to vote for a long time. She wanted Venus out from the start, and she is not happy about either of them taking the credit for a choice she made for herself.

Opening Credits 7:44

Nuinui Day 15

On the beach, Tevin, Kenzie, Hunter and Q joke about how quiet Q gets when he is hungry. He says he has ideas floating in his head, and one of them is this new invention of his, that he calls the Q skirt. I’ll try to get a picture of it, cuz its a cute, playful little interlude from someone who usually thinks only strategy and control of others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Q pulls off his red hoodie sweater (no zipper) to model it for them.
• Q in private: “So the Q skirt is essentially a hoodie flipped backwards like a pouch of a kangaroo, with two pockets. It’s gonna be the next big thing.”
• On the beach, Kenzie walks away from them as Q continues: “I even said, for a man, if you don’t want to wear no drawers, you just want to wear these, you good. For a woman, you don’t want to carry a purse when you go to the amusement parks, or a fanny pack, you don’t want that anymore, you want a little more swag…get the Q skirt. If you just want fashion, want to rip the runway in something different, and want to turn it to the side…uh huh, get the Q skirt. And it’s coming in mulitple colours.”
• Hunter: “How much it gonna cost?”
• Q: “This Q skirt here will cost less than a fanny pack, an extra bag, a sweater, a blanket, all together. It’s a one in one and it’s one for you. Buy three, get one free.”
• Hunter: “Oh! Goodness!”
• Now Q heads back to camp and sells it to Charlie in front of everyone else: “Will you buy a Q skirt?”
• Charlie: “Sign me up!”
• Charlie, in private to camera: “Q is just a really funny guy and someone who I am doing my best to stay on his good side, because I’ve learned now that Q isn’t just driving votes, he’s putting together alliances and groups of people he wants at the very end of the game. So this morning, I have perhaps my most important conversation of the game. Man, I tell you, if you ever are playing Survivor, get up at sunrise. Every single major conversation I’ve had in this game, has happened at the sunrise, when everyone’s asleep in the shelter. That’s where the moves are made.”

Dark scene, earlier in the day – probably just before sunrise, on the beach. Present are Charlie, Q, and Hunter.

• Q: “Hey Charlie, listen. Are you ready to play the game? Are you ready to play the game with people?”
• Charlie: “I’m freaking itching. I’m itching to play the game, man. Let’s friggin’ do it!”
• Q: “Well, Charlie, let’s do it then, man.”
• Charlie, (Hunter watching with rapt attention and interest): “Let’s go, let’s go!”
• Charlie in private to camera: “And as we’re talking, I realize, this is an interview for an alliance. So, I’m thinking, I want to get hired for this position, you know, I want the job!”
• Q: “Maria is going ot approach you about joining a bigger alliance. This is the first step of me saying, ‘Charlie, I want to work with you.’ We’re trying to get a six.”
• Charlie to camera: “This is the first time that I’m hearing of the six. I knew Q had some master plans, but I was never in, you know, the C suite.”
• Maria, alone to Charlie: ” I told you, I got your best interest at heart, so I”ve been, uh, trying to plant the seed for you to join this alliance for a long time.”
• Charlie: “Maria. You got my back!”
• Maria: “I told you, man, I told you.”
• Charlie to camera: “So this mystical, powerful six that Q has thrown together is made up of two Nami-Tevin and Hunter, two Yanu – Q and Tiffany, and two Siga – Maria and myself, the newest recruit.”
• Charlie to Maria: “We gotta talk though, ’cause, like, this game is getting crazy. I love the six, but the six isn’t impenetrable. The six is probably the…shakiest six that’s ever existed, because guess what? Tim was in the six.”
• Charlie to camera: “Maria seems pretty gung ho on the six. She sees it as a guaranteed way to get to the final six, and I see it as a way that I might get stuck with a bunch of people I can’t beat at the end.”

Back with the guys group on the beach, in brighter sunlight, present is Q, Hunter and Tevin. Q: “Only thing we gotta be careful of and watch is Charlie getting smart and trying to make a move. Look, I just don’t think Charlie has it to try to turn, you know what I mean? He don’t have the KILLER instinct.” Tevin nods and agrees/disagrees where appropriate.

Charlie to camera: “We’re not the first group of six in Survivor history to say, ‘Let’s get to the final six together, then duke it out.’ Something always goes awry. And I have to decide…am I what goes awry?”

Commercials Break 12:54

Nuinui Day 15

Its later in the morning so everyone is awake and gathered around the campfire, but still early enough that the sun slants the shadows of the trees long and tall along the shoreline. Q suggests to the group that they play a game of Hide and Seek, and this suggestion is accepted with playful willingness. This group loves challenges, and loves playing games.

• Tiffany tells the camera that Q has been trying to play hide and seek since they lived at Yanu camp.
• Q: “We got enough people now. AND WE ARE FULL!”
• Tiffany, smiling: “Oh my gawd, fine.”
• Everyone talks and acts like this is a childlike, playful game to do while these grown adults compete for a million dollars, isn’t that hilarious! Except Q, to camera: “I really am a kid, I really enjoy playing hide and seek, but I’m gonna use this as part of my gameplay, but everyone else, it’s just fun.”
• Q makes up a rhyme to choose Charlie to be it. I figure he wanted Charlie to be it, so he pointed and rhymed in such a way that it would come out that way.
• Charlie, laughing: “I’m not playing around, I’m gonna find you all.” Charlie points his whole arm at Q and says: “Q, I’m coming for you.” Q nods.

I’m beginning to understand that Q does not ever stop. Everything Q sees and hears becomes information about his opponents, which he interprets in a certain way and then draws conclusions that he chooses to believe strongly about each player. The way he picks apart this fun hide and seek game, so that the little details he observes equals strategic information about each player; it also reveals to us, the viewing fans, how watchfully he plays the game of Survivor: making judgements based on small bits of information, that you can probably interpret any way you want to. Really, I think the way people play this childs game reveals little about how they will play the game of Survivor, I think he jumps to far reaching conclusions that might not be accurate, but it informs his opinion of a person. He uses the hide and seek game, and the other little clues he draws his conclusions from, in the same way a fortune teller might use a tarot card, so to speak, to bring to the surface what he already subconciously senses or fears about a person. Q is paranoid, and I don’t think that I would enjoy competing against him in any capacity, because while I’d be trying to experience him as a person, he’d be measuring and judging me every second, it would be exhausting!

• Q to camera: “I don’t think anyone thinks that this was a gameplay move, more than a ‘Q wanted to have fun and be Q’ move.”
• Charlie, on beach, yelling towards the treeline: “I’m at the boat! I’m counting to 40!”
• Everyone in the shelter scatters to hide in various directions. Eager faces. Smiles.
• Q to camera: “What this game is gonna represent for me is who can hide in plain sight the best?”
• Charlie to camera: “Survivor is a tense game, and it’s nice to just loosen up. You know, sometimes, you just got to forget the strategy and play a silly little game.”
• Charlie on beach: “38….39…40! Ready or not, here I come!”
• Charlie finds Liz, hiding under some brown palm fronds: “I did not see you at first, WOW!”
• Charlie to camera: “People are not half-assing this hide and seek game. They are diving in the tall grass, covering themselves with palm fronds, going deeper into the jungle than anyone has ever gone in this game.”
• Charlie and Liz find Venus, in underbrush, next: “I thought I was blending in.” Liz: “No, no.” Charlie: “I saw your hood.”
• Charlie finds Tevin in long grass under brown palm fronds. Charlie: “Whitney Houston!” Tevin: “Oh my gosh!” Venus didn’t see him, Charlie almost walked right by him.
• Venus to camera: “Even though it’s like a silly, stupid game of hide and seek, and it’s meant to be like, fun and bonding, it still reveals a lot about people’s personality traits and their underlying talents.
• Charlie finds Tiffany in the grass.
• Venus to camera: “Tiffany, the fact that she hid with a red buff on her head, that just tells me that she’s a little sloppy and may not know to hide those little details.”
• Liz finds Q deep in underbrush.
• Q to camera: “It was only Liz who actually walked in the woods to see me. Bad idea, Liz. ’cause now I know that you ARE playing the game, you ARE paying attention, and you DO want to win, as much as you say, ‘it’s just a million dollars.'”
• Venus finds Kenzie. She and Maria are hiding in long grass, far off the pathway. Q to camera: “Next we find Kenzie, someone in this game that I know to be a camouflage, blend in, likable person. Which shows she can go undetected.”
• Q finds Maria, after the things everyone is saying while looking for her makes her laugh. The camera person is right next to her, so I wonder if that plays into the find as well.
• Venus to camera: “Maria – super creative, like she put a little grass headdress on for herself to blend in. That says to me that she’s someone who works well with her surroundings and is really adaptable.”
• Tevin to Maria, as he helps pick the grass crown out of her hair: “If you had a sniper, we’d be gone!” Laughter.
• Q calls out: “We have 60 seconds, a mad dash, or else Hunter and Ben win. And that would suck” Tevin crosses his arms and just kind of stares at Q, then he yells out: “Split up, 60 seconds!”
• Venus: “Hunter’s somewhere stupid.” Liz: “I don’t know.” (They are both right under his tree when they say that)
• Tevin: “If I was Hunter, I would definitely get up in the tree.”
• Q: “30 seconds! And their both safe and they win the game!”
• Liz: “Where’s Ben?” Charlie: “Ben’s gotta be around here!” Ben is under a dark green blanket, behind brown stalks and covered by brown palm fronds.
• Q: “5…4..3…2…1…Game Over! Hunter and Ben win!”
• Ben yells out: “Let’s GO!” from under his blanket, as he begins to get out from hiding within sight of a pathway. Maria, Kenzie and Liz see him first.
• Q to camera: “Finding out who can hide in plain sight, and Ben has to go. Ben was not found at all in hide and seek, which means this guy is capable of playing an undercover game, but be very powerful at the end. Ben made a mistake.”
• Charlie calls out: “Hunter, you win! We’re done looking!” as everyone gathers around the fire pit in their shelter. Charlie: “Hunter, where are you?” Q looks up, and there Hunter is. In a tree, as predicted.
• Q to camera: “Hunter. you made a mistake. If I can’t find you in hide and seek, I can’t find you in this game. If you will risk going that high in a tree for hide and seek, you would take a risk and take a shot at me if you could.” Shakes his head. “Not happening, boss. And that’s what hide and seek showed me.”
• JoyEllen to readers: “Q. You over react. Chill a little. Get over yourself. Every one has as much a right to win this game as you do.”

Commercials Break 19:20

Nuinui Day 15

A shark swims deep under clear, translucent water. On shore, standing in water about 6 inches deep, Liz holds a long handled fishing tool, trying to catch a shore fish.  Tevin and Venus sit near the firepit, Tevin paints a checker board while Venus watches him. In the silence, Tevin quietly hums a tune, and smiles a bit. Venus tells Tevin she wants them “to have a little debrief chat of what happened last night.”

• Tevin: “Okay.”
• Venus: “I feel like feelings ran hot on both sides.”
• Tevin: “My feelings weren’t hot.”
• Venus: “You were sad.”
• Tevin, choosing not to argue with her at this time, nods: “Yeah, I think you had an excellent move, and I think….”
• Venus smiles proudly, nods: “Thank you for respecting it.”
• Venus to camera: “I was a little uncertain how that Soda vote would be read, because in my mind, it really was my vote. I put in the groundwork to get all the necessary votes in, to lock that down and make it solid, and now, I’m kind of the first person to pull off a blindside.”
• Venus to Tevin: “You wanna know how I pulled it off?”
• Tevin, nods: “Yeah.”
• Venus: “I never even wanted to write Soda’s name down. I had a conversation first thing that morning where she’d said that she’s not gonna work with me long-term, and I knew she was gonna come for me, so I… I pulled in the numbers as soon as I could.”
• Tevin stares at her for a while, waiting. Probably thinking as I am thinking…is this all? Are you for real?? Then he smiles his big smile, shakes his head as though impressed, and says, “Damn, that’s good.”
• Venus: “I know.”
• Venus to camera: “And in terms of damage control with Tevin, I found it to be very important for me air out some of our laundry and to actually open up a line of communication with Tevin.” Seriously, it’s people like Venus and people like Q who make me see that we are, each of us, living in our own little version of reality, and just like them I might be somewhat delusional about what is really going on around us. It’s humbling and somewhat scary. The whole time she is talking to him, everytime she looks away, he is laughing at her. Is he delusional? Or is she? Or am I?
• Venus to Tevin: “Can I ask you, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way?” She moves much closer to him. “Like, I don’t think I’ve heard you talk, like, strategy-wise, like, what you see for the next phase of the game.”
• Tevin: “I’m moment to moment.”
• Venus: “You’re moment to moment. Yes, I understand that, but, also, like, Soda was the same way and I guess in this game, like, just, like, for advice, is that you need to sometimes show a little bit of, like….commitment in a direction. But I think, for at least this next short while, we would benefit each other by being more open.”
• Tevin: “Mnn-Hmm”
• Venus to camera: “Tevin’s kind of like a fish out of water in terms of the strategy portion of this game. Like, sure, he’s a social butterfly, but I don’t think he really knows what’s going on. Like, he seemed very impressed that I was able to pull that move on him, but to me, it was like, how could you not see it in the first place, Tevin? Like, come on!” They get up to leave as Liz sits down near where they’d been seated.
• When Tevin sees that Venus is far enough away from them, he starts laughing hard, he thinks he is laughing WITH Liz, but Liz has had it with the two of them quietly disagreeing about with of them pulled off the blindside on Soda, when in her opinion, Soda was on people’s list to be voted off anyway and no one person pulled it off.
• Tevin: “She thinks, honest to gawd, that she pulled off the move that I planned for her!”
• Liz to camera: “These two are running around, Venus: It’s my idea. Tevin: Actually it was mine … ha ha ha .. shut up! I love Tevin, but I know now people are seeing him as the mastermind?”
• Tevin to Liz: “She said to me, thank you for respecting my move! haha ha ha!”
• Liz to camera: “He navigated the Soda vote without Soda even knowing. So now I need to give a signal to the other Tribemates that I’m here to play too. I’m sorry Tevin, but you got to go!”

Sitting in the ocean, in the foreground, Charlie squats, fully clothed, hands washing a piece of laundry under water, facing right. About eight feet beyond him, Ben sits in the water, knees up, elbows on knees, facing left. About eight feet beyond him, Venus sits in deeper water on a rock, hunched a bit, facing left. Ben: “I know everybody’s playing Survivor hard-core right now, but, like, sometimes you got to, like, pause the game for, like, three minutes..” Charlie looks over at him, and Ben laughs.

Tevin and Tiffany squat face to face in the sand at the water’s edge, Tiffany with a large bowl, and Tevin with a small pile of laundry.

• Tiffany: “I don’t think  it’s a bad thing that we keep Venus around for a little while.”
• Tevin inhales, rebuttal ready.
• Tiffany continues: “And, hear me out, what has she actually done to make you feel threatened by her, besides mentioning your name to people that aren’t even taking her seriously?”
• Tevin: “Right.”
• Tiffany shrugs: “Who cares?”
• Tevin: “Right.”
• Tiffany: “Let her stick around, that’s just another body.”
• Tevin: “Right.”
• Tiffany to camera: “Venus thinks she’s a power player, but she’s really not. I wanted her out bad, but I think I’d rather deal with a nuisance than a threat. So I’m trying to shift my focus now, because the point in the game where you’re just getting out obvious targets is done.” Tevin: “So, if we keep her around, right, ’cause she’s not no threat–“
• Tiffany: “That’s the thing, I don’t know who’s next.”
• Tevin: “That’s right.”
• Tiffany: “That’s the only thing. You got to wait and see how the immunity challenge shakes out and see what the options are.”
• Tevin to camera: “Tiffany is in my alliance, however, Tiffany is getting shaky. She wants to keep Venus around, so Tiffany is not lining up with what the six wants, and what the six wants is six to stay strong.”
• Tevin to Q, Charlie probably can’t hear, seated as he is on Tevin’s other side from Q: “Tiffany says Venus ain’t a threat, we can keep her around. and then I asked–“
• Q: “I know what you’re saying.”
• Tevin: “I said, Tiffany who you want to go instead of Venus then, if you don’t want to get Venus out? She said, ‘Well, let’s just see what happens in the immunity challenge and let’s just see who’s left and figure it out from there.’ So to me, I’m thinking, well, ain’t but a few people that ain’t in The Six, so you should have mentioned off one, two, three, people, but now you’re saying anybody who ain’t won Immunity you’re ready to go after, is what I read from it.”
• Maria sits beside Q, listening too. Q to camera: “Up until this point, Tiff has been my number one ally in this game, but Tiff is trying to keep members in this game that are not part of the six, like Venus, because she’s playing the old Survivor: take a goat to the end. That’s not th egame that I want to play. In this game, you have to play a Q game. If you don’t play my game and you want to go off  and do your own thing, then you’re probably not going to last in this game a lot longer.”
• Q to Tevin, Maria and  Charlie: “And if we feel like Tiff’s not gonna play get in the six, then maybe Tiff’s gonna lose. be sent home. I’m fine with that.
• Q to camera: “So I need ot confirm that our games are going in two different directions, and if so, then Tiff might be the next vote if she doesn’t win.”
• Tiffany to Q: “For me, if I had to if I had to throw out names for who I want to go next, it would either be Maria, Ben…Ben is sneaky, but he’s not as smart as Maria. And it just comes down to that for me.”
• Q to camera: “Tiff has made multiple mistakes. She’s trying to keep goats. And now Tiff brought up Maria’s name. She’s in the six, Tiff. Big mistake. Right now the six is just permission for Q to fire. If you bring up a name within the six, now you’ve given me ammunition to take you out without any recourse.”

OK. Still in game we’ve got (in order of age and alphabet:) Venus 21, Tevin 24, Charlie 26, Hunter 28, Q 29, Kenzie 29, Ben 31, Tiffany 33, Liz 35, Maria 48. That’s ten people. People I like are: Tevin, Charlie, Hunter, Kenzie, Ben, and Tiffany. Even if they don’t pull in Venus and Liz, they can get out Q and they can be free to stop playing Q’s game! The alliance of six doesn’t seem to really protect anyone anyway. Speak out against someone in it, and you’re next.

• Q to Maria: “Your name came up.”
• Maria: From Tiff?”
• Q: “Yeah.”
• Maria: “She’s making me super nervous.”
• Q: “And-and she-she’s really about keeping Venus.”
• Maria: “Yeah.”
• Maria to camera: “Tiff said my name, and so, if someone in our alliance is putting up someone else’s name in the alliance, they’ve got to go.”
• Q: “There’s just one key thing. and you can’t repeat this. Tiff has an idol.”
• Maria to camera: “Q told me that Tiff has an idol. I am actually really surprised that Q would tell me, that that makes me trust Q even more.”
• Maria to Charlie and Q: “Tiff is writing my name down.”
• Charlie: “So who’s OUR target?”
• Q: “For my game, I-I gotta go ahead and get Tiff out.”
• Maria: “So, let’s go for Tiff.”
• Charlie, nods: “Got it.
• Maria to camera: “Q’s game is all about trust. He does not want to feel anybody wavering at all. And so if you show him that you’re trustworthy, he’s gonna work with you. The minute you start looking shady, you’re out. And so, we may have an alliance of five instead of an alliance of six.”

Q is a powerful, charismatic, influential man. Given a sliver of information, he runs with it, takes it too far, paranoid. He jokingly will call himself a mob boss, but in truth, that is the kind of person he seems to be. Maria, though a powerful woman in her own right, seems to have decided to submit herself to Q, to make her will become pleasing Q. To make her game become pleasing Q. It’s sad to see. Similarly, Tiffany and Kenzie are united with Q as a threesome equal partnership from Yanu, but as Q’s new reign gains traction among the other tribemates, they may find themselves in the position of supplicant instead of partner, without even knowing when or how it happened. King Q rules with fear. He can seem playful and when playful he seems harmless and he makes you laugh, but he rules with fear. He knows how to control people, and speaking as a person who has been controlled by people like that before, I would run the other way as fast as I could and start an anti-Q alliance. He is fascinating to watch, and he also freaks me out.

• Q to Tevin and Hunter: “We need to pay attention, bro.” Tevin: “Yes.” Q: “The whole game is about to change, bro.” Hunter: “Why?” Q: “For the next vote, I need to blindside Tiff, man.
• Q to camera: “Right now, this is the biggest move yet for me, to now turn on my number one ally in the game.”
• Q: “Do not trust Tiff.” Hunter and Tevin nod: “MmmHmm”
• Q to camera: “The ideal is to keep my alliance making decisions that I want to make, under my control, under my rule. It’s almost like I’m a mob boss. And they dare not to say a name within my organization. And if they do, send ’em packing. I send ’em a Q Skirt though.”

Commercials Break 27:01

Day 16

Immunity Challenge is set up for ten individual people. There are ten 15 foot high poles with five stripes on each: Yellow, green, purple, green, orange, blue, green, yellow, purple. Tribe walks in carrying water bottles and many are carrying their bags. They stand, L-R: Liz, Kenzie, Maria, Tiffany, Venus, Ben, Charlie, Tevin, Q, Hunter. Jeff takes back the two Immunity Necklaces from Kenzie and Maria. Jeff introduces the challenge as a Survivor classic that he never gets tired of seeing. “You’re gonna hold on to a pole for as long as you can. When you drop, you’re out. Last person left standing wins immunity, guaranteed a spot in the final nine. Losers, Tribal Council, where somebody will be the ninth person voted out and become the second member of our jury.” Jeff introduces the twist. Talks about how in this new era of Survivor, they start with very little or no food. He offers a bag containing enough rice to feed the tribe until the end, which they can only earn if either 4 people sit out of the challenge, or if 2 people give up their vote for tonight and still compete. Liz, because of her food allergies, has eaten very little-even from rewards, but she CAN eat rice. Players gush about how fun the challenge looks, that they all want to play it. Eventually Liz agrees to sit out. Q agrees to sit out as well. Charlie considers sitting out, but there is no fourth person who offers themself. All compete.

• Light Yellow – Kenzie is 3rd off
• Light Green – Q is first down and off.
• Light Purple – Ben is 4th off
• Dark Green – Charlie is 9th down at around 20 minutes
• Dark Orange – Liz feels weak from the start, and is second down and off.
• Medium Blue – Hunter wins and shows off a bit up there before climbing down.
• Pink – Tiffany 6th off after several minutes
• Medium Green – Tevin 7th down
• Dark Yellow – Venus is 8th down after more than 15 minutes
• Dark Purple – Maria is 5th off

Within seconds, Q, then Liz, then Kenzie, then Ben are down and off their poles. From the sidelines, Q angrily shakes his head: “Damn! We coulda had rice, man!”

Tevin whistles playfully and talks about birds sitting out in the ocean, sitting on poles all day with Jeff. Jeff says that the longest this challenge has ever gone was when Ozzy won after hanging on for two hours. Tevin says he is ready to beat Ozzy today. Jeff says that they have been up there for seven minutes. Tevin begins to slip, Kenzie coaches him to find his foot, but it’s Tiffany who slips down next. Tevin slides down shortly after.

At fifteen minutes, Venus looks pretty comfortable, Hunter and Charlie do not. Charlie slips down, climbs back up – repeatedly. Hunter slips and climbs back up as well. Venus stays as still as her confident predictions boast. People root only for Charlie, not for Hunter nor Venus. Venus slides down.

Charlie asks Hunter how he is doing, and Hunter assures him that he is doing well, found a couple rotations that work well for him. Charlie loses hope, but hangs on a bit longer to attempt to negotiate for rice before dropping down.

Hunter does some fancy moves before sliding down, not tired at all. Winner of Individual Immunity. “I’m ecstatic about winning. I was surprised when people didn’t sit out, ’cause there were a few people I was like, do you really think you have a chance to win this? But as of right now, my game plan is to vote for Tiffany. It seems like everyone’s on board, and now, like, we have an opportunity to take care of it, so why not? I don’t see why anyone would want to change it.”

Commercials Break 41:35

Tribe walks along beach, back to camp from the challenge. Upon arrival at camp, Q enters first, sits alone on a log and tensely cracks the bones in his neck. Moments later, when everyone else enters, they cheer for Hunter. Q just bows his head and ignores it all. Tiffany sits herself right next to Q.

• Kenzie: “All that tree time paid off!” Hunter laughs: “Yeah!”

Q jumps up and storms out of the group, sits alone on the beach in the shade. Q, later, in private to the camera: “I’m frustrated, like, the challenge has pissed me off so much, because we gave up rice.”

• Back on his shady bit of beach, Liz and Tevin come and join him, sitting one on each side. Q: “All these people that want to try the challenge.”
• Liz: “Let it out, babe.” Q: “Bro, it-it was – it was just idiotic! This man, in a game of hide and seek, chose to hide in a – tree.”
• Liz: “Oh, Hunter?” Q: “You think you gonna hang on a damn pole longer than Tarzan? Git the hell out of Dodge. They can cancel Christmas, I ain’t think they gonna hang on tht damn pole longer than that boy.”
• Liz leans against Q’s closest shoulder, laughs, then they pull apart: “Whoooo! Tell me how you really feel, baby.”
• Q: “Real mad. That was a bad decision, man.”
• Q to camera: “Now we have to go out and try to find food.”

Q and Tevin on the rocky shore, Q flips rocks, Tevin has the sling thing ready. Q continues to camera: “It doesn’t affect the vote, it is time to send Tiff to the jury because she broke my rule: If you target anybody within the six, you go home.”

• Hunter approaches Tevin and Q. Tevin: “We talked about it a little bit earlier, you still want the same plan or you want to do something else?”  Hunter: “Still Tiff?” Q nods.
• Tevin to camera: “We already knew what was up, we said, hey if Tiffany doesn’t win immunity today, she’s gone. She’s messing with the six alliance, therefore, she got to go.”
• Q: “Okay, we got threee right now.”
• Tevin: “Maria will go for it, Charlie will go for it.”
• Q: “You think Liz would go for that?” Tevin: “Yeah.” Q: “That’s all we need.”
• Tevin to camera: “In addition to the plus one alliance, I belive that Liz would vote with us, as she has in the past Tribal Councils. So, if this plan goes down, Tiffany will be blindsided tonight.”

Charlie, Liz, Ben and Maria sit along the shady tree line of the beach. Charlie: “How’s it going over here?”

• Liz: “All I know is I’m thinking…Liz, do you just want to stay in the game? “
• Ben: “Or do you want to play the game?”
• Liz: “Or do you want to play and have a fuckin shot?” Maria: “Yeah.”
• Liz: “I mean, I’m just gonna say it.” Ben: “Say it.”
• Liz: “If this gets out, like, I’m gone tonight.” Maria: “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Charlie: “Yeah.”
• Liz: “I want Tevin gone. I love Tevin, we’ve been number ones, but he made a really big move with Soda.”
• Ben: “Do you think that he’s the most logical threat right now?”
• Liz: “Yes. I, personally, I would like Tevin out.”
• Liz to camera: “I want to blindside Tevin. I’ve realized who Liz is, and Liz is a fighter.”

Liz sitting on shoreline to Venus: “Yeah, yeah. Let me just be real with you…”

• Liz to camera: “I’m looking back at the last 15 days, laughing at myself at how many times I let someone else take the lead, and I’m done with that.”
• Liz to Venus: “It’s got to be Tevin tonight.”
• Venus: “Okay.”
• Venus to camera: “Thank gawd, finally, people have come to their senses and have realized how big of a threat Tevin is.”

Ben and Kenzie walk through the long grass together.

• Ben: “From what I’m hearing, a lot of people are dissatisfied with Tevin after how their vote went down last time…” Kenzie: “Okay…”
• Ben: “And I think if we all, maybe, work together, and try to get Tevin…” Kenzie: “Okay…”
• Ben: “We could probably form a comfortable, maybe chill alliance for a vote or two.” Kenzie: “Okay.”
• Kenzie to camera: “Tevin’s got the social charisma like I’ve never seen, he’s so likable. In real life, amazing. In a game where we’re competing for a million dollars, gotta go.”
• Kenzie to Ben: “Gam time, brother.” K
• enzie to camera: “Also the Yanu three has been driving so many votes in this game, and right now, I don’t want to be leading all of the votes to put a bigger target on Yanu.”

Kenzie approaches Tiffany and Liz who are talking together in the grass under a tree. Tiffany: “Liz – Liz wants…”

• Liz: “We got to vote for Tevin.”
• Tiffany: “Liz is on board.”
• Kenzie: “Ben just told me the same thing.”
• Liz: “Okay, good. We’re voting Tevin.”
• Tiffany: “Yes.”
• Liz: “But if it gets back to Tevin, it’s gonna be -“
• Tiffany: “But, also, he has an extra vote so he could flip that on any of us.” Kenzie: “Yeah.”
• Tiffany to camera: “Tevin is a HUUGE threat. Also, Tevin has an extra vote in his pocket, and the deeper we get into the game, the more power that extra vote is gonna have.”
• Tiffany walks up to Q who is sitting in the shady sand along the tree line of the beach. “What’s up with you?” Tiffany to camera: “But right now, Q and I have a great working relationship, we share information freely. I absolutely cannot leave him out of a vote at this point in time.”

Okay, so far, voting against Tiffany we have Q, Hunter, and Tevin; and voting against Tevin, we probably have: Liz, Maria, Ben, Charlie, Venus. Kenzie, Tiffany. Liz has repeatedly asked that it not get back to Tevin. I know that Tiffany doesn’t know that Q is plotting against her, but she is in that “comfortable, maybe chill alliance for a vote or two” alliance that Ben mentioned to Kenzie. Why involve anyone else and complicate things at this point?  Too much trust in the wrong people, a misplaced sense of loyalty to Q, on Tiffany’s part.

• Tiffany to Q: “Everybody who I spoke to today is saying Tevin. Everybody.”
• Q: “Who?”
• Tiffany: “Liz the one who brought Tevin name up to me. And she said that she spoke to Charlie, Ben and Maria and they was with it. She was like, Listen…”
• Q: “I think Liz is playing, man.”
• Tiffany: “Well, I’m gonna tell you right now, if you don’t vote Tevin, people gonna be looking at you next. You better get on board.”

Poor Q. Liz is making plans and gathering votes in the direction she wants, without his permission or control? He likes to think he is in control of everyone and everything and now, the person he wants to blindside is telling him information he knew nothing about so he can get on board and be safe?

• Q to camera: “The idea of a plan being changed last minute, doesn’t sit well with me.”

Pause a moment here to laugh at the irony of this statement from Q if you need to. How often hasn’t he frustrated Kenzie and Tiffany when he keeps coming back to them before a Tribal Council to tell them to vote for someone different than they decided before, and then flip flopping for a while over it? And was Liz even in on his plan to target Tiffany? I don’t think this is a plan change for any body but you, Q.

• Q and Liz are both in the shelter, alone. Q to Liz: “Tiff was telling me about the plan.” Liz: “Yeah.”
• Q: “Is that real, coming from you? Or is that just talk?”
• Liz: “Yes. You talking about T?” Q: “Tevin, yeah.” Liz: “Yeah. Yeah.”
• Q: “That’s real?” Liz: “Yeah. I feel like just about everybody’s on board. So Hunter and Tev are pretty much the only ones left out of the vote.”
• Q: Silent staring into space. Q to camera: “I’m not the driver in the Tevin vote and my game is based off of me being in control, so I wanted to gain control again.”

Q sits on a log on the beach, and Hunter sits down beside him. Q: “Everybody you think is working with us has flipped. Tevin is the one that’s going home tonight.”

• Hunter: “They’re voting for Tevin?”
• Q: “All of ’em. Every single person in this camp.” Hunter: “Okay.”
• Q: “We can’t stop it. So there’s no need to even bring it up, because then they gonna know I said something.” Hunter: “Uh huh.”
• Q: “You see what I’m saying?” Hunter: “Mm Hmm.”
• Q: “I ain’t trying to fuck my game over trying to save one person. But I know if we wrtie Tiff name down, she’s gonna be here tomorrow. She’s not going home.” Hunter: “Okay.”
• Hunter: “I don’t know, dude, I still think the plan’s gonna go.” Q: “Hunter?” and looks at him meaningfully.
• Hunter to camera: “Q says it’s actually Tevin, and we don’t have the numbers anymore, but it just seems so off the wall for me. Tevin’s good for all of our games, and we made an alliance based off Andy Griffith. I want to keep Tevin here. And so, it’s like I’ve gotta go and do this damage control and get ahead of what’s going on, so it doesn’t just completely destroy my game.”
• Hunter to Q: “I just want to go talk to some people, I gotta get a pulse on it and see what I need ot do.”
• Q to camera: “Hunter walks right past me to go to talk to other people, and I’m like, oh man, this guy, he’s doing exactly what I did not want him to do, especially moments before going to Tribal.” Q. People need to play their game. You gave him information that he needs to act on to save the person he pulled into the alliance, and his own game, he is not your pawn.

Q jumps up and follows after Hunter, tries to cut him off. Looks like all the other players are huddled in small groupings here and there along the beach as well, and many of them watch as Hunter tries to get past Q and Q tries to stop him. I see Kenzie and Ben, I see Charlie and Maria. Hunter and Q march past Venus.

• Hunter: “Can we talk with them real fast? Can we talk with them?”
• Venus: “Oh, without me there?”
• Hunter: “Yes.”
• Q to camera: “I made a mistake, and now this plan is all screwed up, I should have kept my mouth shut.” Hunter is just scrambling to be part of things, I don’t think anything is screwed up, Q just over estimates his own influence.

Small group, L-R: Q, Liz, Hunter, Maria, Charlie all sit on beach together. Q sits kind of facing Hunter, his body language showing how badly he wishes to control him.

• Hunter: “The reason we targeted Tiff is because she, like, went after Maria. Tevin never did that. I guess the decision is, are we fine with Tevin leaving right now? He trusts us so much, that guy’s just sitting back there, thinking it’s all fine.” Camera shows a shot of Tevin happily whistling, alone at the shelter.
• Hunter: “Y’all – I mean – “
• Charlie: “No, no, I-I hear you, I hear you, I’m thinking.”

Kenzie, Tiffany, Venus and Ben sit nearby. Venus keeps a close watch on the other group, where Hunter leans back into the sand, to wait for Charlie’s response.

• Venus: “Hunter just fell onto his back.”
• Ben: “Anticipating chaos.”
• Kenzie: “Hunter’s talking strategy?”
• Venus: “For the first time in my life I’ve never seen that man run to someone and talk trash. Oh he just, now he’s gesturing over here. Now he’s gesturing over here again.”
• Kenzie: “So, we still have the numbers, right?” Tiffany: “Yeah.” Ben: “Definitely.”
• Ben, knuckle punches with Tiffany: “All right, bro.”
• Venus to camera: “The plan is Tevin. There’s peace in the castle, the kingdom is calm. But now all I see is this conversation on the beach, and my radar is going off. Something’s afoot.”

Venus jumps up to go over to Hunter’s group: “I’m gonna go break it up, you know what? who cares? There are no rules, I can go sit there.”

• Liz: “Here comes Venus, just so you know.”
• Venus: “Hi. What’s up?”
• Liz: “Venus, I love you. I’m really sorry, I have to talk to them, I know that’s gonna piss you off.”
• Venus: “I’m sorry, but y’all also realize the sun is setting and we all have talks, so, like, can y’all wrap it up in the next few minutes?”
• Charlie: “Yes.”
• Hunter: “Sure.”
• Venus: “Thank you.”
• Charlie: “Yes.”

Venus walks away.

• Hunter: “Can we just vote HER out?” Maria laughs. Charlie bows his head.
• Liz: “Charlie, I want to know what you think, you seem really upset.”
• Charlie: “I’m not upset, no. I’m just feeling, like, all the whiplash of today. It’s like -“
• Hunter: “So, then you guys want to go back to Tiff? Like, is that what you would prefer, or…”
• Charlie: “Listen, I’ll do whatever y’all want at this point.”
• Q: “I know, but we got to come together as a whole.”
• Hunter: “I would rather keep the original and go Tiff.”
• Liz: “Y’all do whatever you want. I’m voting Tevin.”

Charlie to camera: “I have no freaking clue what’s gonna happen because of this chaos that’s been whipped up at the 11th hour.”

• Charlie and Maria stand together on the beach, stretching their arms above their heads.
• Charlie: “We can still do Tevin if you want.”
• Maria raises her eyebrows and widens her eyes: “Tiff has an idol.”
• Charlie: “Now, I don’t know what the heck’s going on. So, so-“
• Maria: “I don’t know what hte heck’s – I don’t even know who’s name to write down. I’m so confused.”

Charlie to camera: “Half of the tribe wants to get out Tiff.” (no, only three people want to do that.)

• “The other half wants to get Tevin out of the game.” (According to my math, it is actually seven, five if you don’t count Maria and Charlie.)
• “And at this point, Maria and I are at another crossroads. In my eyes, Tevin is the better option than Tiff. Tevin orchestrated the Soda blindside, but this threadbare alliance of six is thinking about voting out Tiff because Tiff threw out the name Maria, and ultimately Maria’s my number one. This alliance has zero legs, it’s going nowhere. It’s the loosest use of the word “alliance” that has ever existed, but, once again, Maria and I have to commit and we have to make a decision.”

The tribe packs up to go and then walks along the beach in the sunset towards learning their fate at Tribal Council.

Commercials Break 50:47

Tribal Council Night 16

It feels dark by the time the tribe enters Tribal council. Jeff waits at his spot, and Soda sits in the jury area, her face expressionless, except a tight smile in response to Tevin’s wide smile at her, and eyebrows raised at Venus.

• Jeff: “Well all right, I guess we’ve gotta start with the rice negotiation, it’s 16 days with very little food. Q, you tried, you were the first to say, “I’ll volunteer.” Wisely so, ’cause you were first out of the challenge. Has there been any discussion about that?”
• Q: “I had a bit of a temper tantrum back at camp, after. I was still upset and mad. I mean, I think five people were out within two minutes, and there was only gonna be one winner and one loser tonight. So, everyone suffered when I think the odds were in their favour to feed everybody for another nine days.”
• Jeff: “Liz, another thing that is very difficult to try to understand until you’re here, is what hunger, after 16 days, feels like. Are you surprised that the group couldn’t make a deal?”
• Liz: “I was surprised that Q sat out. I thought I was gonna be the only one to step up, because I can’t eat coconut, I can’t eat papaya. Even some of the rewards I have barely been able to eat. I haven’t even gone to the restroom yet.”
• Jeff: “Tiff, is the rice negotiation just an indicator of where the game is?”
• Tiffany: “Oh, absolutely. Nobody feels safe enough to step out. Everybody feels like they need to compete for immunity, and that was blatantly obvious. They said food is not as important as safety.”
• Q: “But, Jeff, I want to stop before we get deep into the Tribal. The only person that’s going home tonight is me.” Q has everyone’s attention as he pauses before continuing. “And I’ll tell you why.”
• Jeff: “Wait, wait, w–You mean you’re predicting your vote out?”
• Q: “Yeah. Well, I don’t think anyone here, coming into the Tribal Council was voting for me, but I’m gonna ask everybody to vote for me. Then all of these nine folks are going back to camp today. I feel like-“
• Jeff: “Let me just interupt real quick. Is this news to everyone?” “Yeah!” “Yes!” “What is going on?” “What?”
• Tiffany: “Q, what are you talking about?”
• Q: “So, if someone goes home tonight, and it wasn’t the right way, because, like I say, there’s probably five people here right now, who are like, “Who the heck am I voting for?”  because of mistakes that I made in the game, and I want everybody to start just playing the game hard. You have a new beginning.”
• Jeff: “Kenzie, it’s clear what he’s saying, right? To everyone, he is saying, “Vote me out.” Is that clear to everyone?” “Yeah, it’s clear, but, like, what?” “Yeah, it’s clear, but it doesn’t-”  “Yeah.” “But it don’t make sense.” “But I don’t understand why.”
• Tevin: “The math isn’t math-ing, because I’ve talked to Q, and I know that Q is here and he wants to play the game, and I guess it’s just kind of out of the blue, and it’s just very unexpected. It’s not something that was even hinted towards. I mean, it is completely off-brand.” “Yeah.”
• Jeff: “And, yet, Ben, we just talked about how competitive – it’s so competitive, you wouldn’t give up your shot at immunity for rice, and here’s somebody saying, “Guess what? Merry Christmas.”
• Ben: “You know, Q and I did not get off to a great start, but everybody knows he’s been playing hard, and in a genuine way.”
• Kenzie to Tiffany, over top of Ben: “Did you know about this?” Tiffany: “No, I have no idea what’s going on.”
• Ben tries to continue (They are sitting on either side of him, behind him): “So it’s like this, th- even me, who’s been like, kind of skirting around him, is like, uh, what? This is actually, like, probably the most bonkers thing I would have expected tonight.”
• Jeff: “Tiff.”
• Tiffany: “I’m like, very confused, Jeff, I don’t know where this is coming from because I’ve known Q since I got here, and Q’s a competitor. So this is completely, like, comping out of left field for me.”
• Q: “It’s – it’s not me giving up, Trust me. I want to play, and I’ve been playing since day one. But again, when something don’t sit right with me, and I feel partially responsible for it, I gotta own up to it and say, you know what? I’m not gonna steal someone else’s joy and dream, especially in this game, where you only get an opportunity to potentially play once–“
• Charlie: “I think you can own up to it, person to person, without leaving the game, and I don’t think anyone wants you to go.” Overlapping agreement.
• Q: “And I-I know y’all don’t, but someone is going to get voted out because of last minute things that happened, and I feel partially responsible for it, and I’m big enough to say that I want you guys to go on and play. I’m serious about this now, I want y’all to go on and play, but start playing the game. Cause everybody have a new opportunity.”
• Jeff: “So, Kenzie, on one side, Q’s volunteering, which means nobody else here is going home. On the other side, Q is a vote, and he’s probably in an alliance with one or two or three or who knows how many people. So that also will impact the game.”
• Kenzie: “Yeah. Q saying go ahead, fresh start, what if you were a part of my plans, five plans from now? That’s not a fresh start for me, that’s undoing the plans that I’ve been building. Like, it’s gonna be wacky no matter what, like, it’s not, like, we’re gonna go back to camp and be like, well, Q’s gone, no worries! like, we’re all kumbaya!”
• Tiffany: “Because all we gonna do is go back with a bunch of questions.”
• Kenzie: “We know exactly who you were talking to last.”
• Tiffany: “But we can’t get answers.”
• Tevin: “Jeff, but at the same time, Q is a grown man, and this is a game for not one dollar, not one thousand dollars, but one million, and if someone wants to walk out of the game willingly, then I’m not going to coddle them to say, stay.”
• whispering, whispering, whispering.
• Tiffany: “Can we talk for a minute?”
• Liz: “Can we talk?”
• Jeff: “Yeah, it’s your Tribal.”
• Ben to Kenzie and Liz: “Is this not the dumbest — I feel like he just doesn’t want to be at the bottom.”
• Tevin walks toward Ben’s group, “I guess we’re at a Live Tribal, Jeff.” Jeff shrugs. Soda puts her hands over her mouth in shock.
• Tiffany crouches down with Tevin, Liz, Kenzie, and Ben: “Why is he acting like this when we are all supposed to be on the same page?” Liz: “I don’t know! That’s why I’m just sitting here!” Tiffany: “It’s like, Dude, what is up?” Ben: “I don’t care for the shenanigans.” Tiffany: I don’t understand why–“
• Charlie and Hunter stand in the back, above Maria and Q, who are huddled together. Charlie gestures to Hunter: “Look at this!”
• Maria to Q: “Let’s figure out which way we’re gonna go, and what’s the right vote. You don’t have to take this on your shoulders.” Q smiles at her, seeing that he is getting exactly the response he wants: “I know, I know.”
• Charlie to Hunter: “Now I have no clue, look what’s happening. At this point, it could be anyone!” Hunter: “I don’t know.”
• Ben looks around: “This does not rock.”
• Maria whispers to Tevin: “I’m trying to tell him, stay in the game, you don’t have to do this. But do you want him to stay, or do you want him to go?” Tevin: “If he’s this unhinged, he needs to go.” Maria: “Well, that’s my concern, he may do it again.” Charlie joins them: “What’s going on?” Tevin: “Maybe we just stick with what we said and just do Tiff.” Charlie: “Yeah.” Tevin: “But he’s gonna be miserable at camp if we don’t vote him out.” Charlie: “He doesn’t get that luxury. He’s throwing a wrench in everything right now.”
• Q, Tiffany and Kenzie stand together. Q to Tiffany: “I know you were getting votes. Y’all weren’t gonna have enough votes to vote Tevin out.” (yes they were) “You would’ve went home.” (no she wouldn’t have.) Tiffany: “So, what is going on right now?”
• Soda mouths “wow” as her eyes watch everything going on.
• Tevin, Maria and Liz huddle together. Charlie has his back to them, listening closely. Maria to Liz: “Like, where are you standing in this?” Tevin: “Do you just want to do Venus?” Maria: “Yeah.” Tevin: “I guess, because, if he goes, it messes up things.” Liz: “I mean, he’s annoying the shit out of me right now.” Maria: “I just need to know who are we voting for.” Tevin: “Me too.”
• Tiffany whispers to Charlie: “Keep it real with me. Were y’all gonna vote for me tonight?” Charlie whispers back: “That’s what they wanted to change it to after Tevin.” Tiffany: “Is that still the plan?”
• Liz whispers to Q: “I’m sticking with my plan.” Q: “For Tevin?” Liz: “Yes. I can’t go back on it because that’s no respect. No respect.” Q: “Okay.”
• Tiffany to Charlie: “Listen, if that’s the case, let me know so I can get my-” Charlie: “You do not need to. You will waste whatever you have. They told me you have an idol.” Tiffany: “Who told you that?” Charlie: “Q.”  Tiffany: shocked look on her face. Charlie: “I swear to gawd, Tiff.” Tiffany, loudly: “Kenzie, come here.”
• Charlie backs away from Tiffany, Kenzie goes to Tiff. Hunter and Tevin watch them. Venus watches Q and Liz. Maria and Ben huddle together.
• Tiffany to Kenzie: “Q told Charlie and Maria that I have an idol.” Kenzie nods and turns away, “Oooh, spicy!”
• Tevin bends over to Hunters bowed head: “We should just do Venus. He’s fucked up The Six.” Hunter groans, tiredly: “My, Oh, my goodness. This is the dumbest thing ever.”
• Everyone returns to their seats.
• Jeff: “Wow.”
• Tevin, to Ben: “I don’t know who, I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”
• Q: “Okay.” Q gives the camera in front of him a small smile that no one else sees.
• Jeff: “Never seen anything like this.”

Time to vote. Q is first up, Soda rolls her eyes at him as he walks past. Kenzie’s up: “That was the dumbest thing ever.” Ben: “Dumbest Tribal ever.” Liz: “Oh my gawd.” Tiffany votes Tevin and says: “At this point, I don’t know if this the real plan, the fake plan. This is what I was told, and we want to flush the extra vote tonight.” Venus: “I have a fucking headache now.” Hunter, shaking his head: “Whatever.” Tevin: “I’m as confused as hell. I don’t know what the hell going on, Q, but clearly you been out of Mississippi too damn long, ’cause your brain is gone. But. We can talk about that when we get back to camp. I’m gonna put this down. Give me some good luck.” He writes Venus.

As Jeff prepares to tally the votes, no one plays any advantages or idols. Hunter is wearing a pair of glasses that I don’t recall seeing on his face until now: Venus, Tevin, Venus, Tevin, Tevin, Tevin, Tevin, Tevin. Tevin goes home, second member of the jury. Tevin reacts dramatically, physically expressing his surprise. Hunter frowns and shakes his hand.

Tevin: “Y’all can go eat worms and slugs.” All chuckle. Several people call out that they love him. Ben calls out that he rocks. Tevin: “Y’all say that now.” Hunter deflates and shakes his head. Tevin switches gears, smiles at Jeff as he places his torch in the stand, “Oh, this is so exciting, Jeff!” The tribe has spoken, torch is snuffed. Ben calls out again: “Tevin you rock!” Tevin says back, “This doesn’t rock.” as he walks away. Hunter looks to his side, over the tribe, shaking his head, looking for someone to catch his glance. No one does. Hunter is alon-er now than he was before.

The tribe picks up their torches and makes their way back to camp. Ben is grinning. Soda is frowning,

Commercials Break 1:03:50

Scenes from the next episode:

• Tiffany to Q in the darkness, after Tribal: “Why wouldn’t you give me a heads up? You —-.”
• Tiffany to camera the next day: “Are you stupid? Are you dumb?”
• Kenzie to Q: “I’m mad!”
• Kenzie to camera: “Everybody’s turning on everyone.”
• Maria to Charlie on sunny beach: “I need her gone.” Charlie is wearing a dark green sweater I don’t remember seeing yet.
• Charlie to camera: “This game is flipped on it’s head.”
• Venus lays on beach with Q and Hunter. Says to camera: “These bumbling buffoons, these two dum-dum meatheads.”
• Kenzie at camp, wearing glasses, whispers: “Spicy.”
• Q walking on to beach, makes eye contact with Charlie, says to camera: “I’m a gonna give ’em hell. They can cancel Christmas.”

How everyone voted: Hunter-Venus, Maria-Tevin, Charlie-Tevan, Q-Tevin, Venus-Tevin, Liz-Tevin, Kenzie-Tevin, Ben-Tevon, Tiffany-Tevin

Last words from Tevin:

“I was absolutely blindsided, which is actually kind of epic. I was a little bit confused tonight about Q’s antics, but I am so happy at every single thing that I’ve done here. I have shown myself and I am so thankful for the opportunity to do this thing that I’ve been watching since I was a little boy. This is a dream come true, and God is so good.”

Speaks those indistinct words again, that sound like a different language – maybe he is speaking in tongues.

 

See you all next week!!