Survivor 46 finally reached the phase where players had to “earn the merge.”
The new episode began with the three tribes receiving important Tree Mail indicating it was time to drop their buffs.
As Survivor fans know, this is when a tribe swap or merge takes place. And since they were past the point of doing a tribe swap (it didn’t happen this season), everyone knew what was next.
The three surviving members of the Yanu Tribe (Kenzie, Tiff, and Q) had some new life but were outnumbered. Siga and Nami each had five people who had made it to Merge Day.
Before meeting Jeff Probst, Yanu and Siga got in boats to head to the Nami beach. But at Nami, Hunter scrambled to find the key to his Hidden Immunity Idol box. The producers ramped up the drama, but Hunter found it just in time.
As a reminder, Jem went home with an Immunity Idol in her pocket during the previous episode. It meant nobody from the Siga Tribe was hiding it.
Survivor 46, Episode 6, recap
Venus loved meeting new people when the tribes came together. She spoke to the camera about it being a treat. Meanwhile, Tevin was talking down Venus. This led people (especially Q) to notice cracks in the Nami Tribe.
Viewers were reminded about the new Survivor power alliance that had formed. It had some legs as the conversations began. But would it work? Q approached Maria about the plan, but it was revealed that Tim never chatted with her about it. Oops.
Day 13 of Survivor 46 saw the final 13 players meet Jeff for the game to begin for real.
Survivor Limbo and an Immunity Challenge
Two groups of six were randomly drawn to compete for the Immunity Idol.
The winning team would acquire Immunity, a merge buff, and the merge meal. Everyone else would be at risk of getting voted out at Tribal Council.
Kenzie, Hunter, Tim, Q, Tevin, and Ben (Purple) were on one team, seemingly giving them a considerable advantage. Soda, Venus, Charlie, Maria, Moriah, and Liz (Orange) were on the second team. Tiff was the odd person out, and she picked the team with five men to win.
The challenge was a massive obstacle course and a three-stage puzzle where everyone had to participate.
It came down to Charlie and Venus vs Hunter and Q on the final puzzle stage. Despite what Jeff called “lopsided” teams, It was an extremely close finish.
Hunter was too good at the puzzle, securing safety for the team of Hunter, Kenzie, Q, Tim, Tevin, Ben, and Tiffany.
A Tribal Council before the official merge
Soda, Venus, Charlie, Maria, Moriah, and Liz were the six people at risk of getting voted out at Tribal Council.
It also meant the remaining Yanu members were all safe. TIff, Q, and Kenzie suddenly held some power. Someone from Siga or Nami was about to go home.
A tense discussion happened at the Merge Feast, where Moriah and Venus were the names tossed out by their tribemates.
When Venus heard that Moriah had become the primary target, she got upset and tried to push for Charlie to get voted out. She didn’t want a woman to go home that night.
By pushing to save Moriah, Venus put herself at risk. And people were scattered and running around, trying to figure out what the plan would become.
Moriah gave up her vote to play her Shot in the Dark. She was deemed to be “Not Safe” for the vote.
Jeff read the votes as Venus, Moriah, Moriah, Moriah, Moriah, Moriah, and Moriah.
Moriah Gaynor was the sixth person eliminated from Survivor 46.
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Jem revealed why she didn’t use her Immunity Idol in a note to Survivor fans. She also asked viewers to stop attacking her fellow alums.
Survivor 46 airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.