Survivor 46: Episode 2 "Scorpio Energy" Gameplay Analysis

 "It's like talking to a billboard."

-Randen Montalvo

You know, I really want to be on Survivor, but if I get on, can we not do this Immunity Challenge?  Holy crap, that looked brutal.  It's nice to have evil Jeff back, but damn.  Calm down there, Satan.  This was a crazy episode with the Yanu tribe being a total trainwreck.  It may not have been good gameplay, but it was certainly interesting.  Let's take a look at who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Let's start on the Nami tribe.  The only person I have here is Randen.  I'm a little iffy on going for the Beware Advantage, but I like that he used it to forge an alliance with Venus.  He didn't have a ton of options and made the best of a bad situation.

Moving over to Siga, Charlie and Maria made a sub-alliance within the Charlie's Angels alliance and can now exert total control over the tribe.  They're in a great position.  Make Malcolm and Denise proud!

Moving over to Yanu, Tiffany and Q made a good move in taking out Jess.  I liked their attempts to get a fake Idol into Jess' hands to stop her from playing her Shot in the Dark and taking out Jess is an especially good move for Tiffany.  There's an argument to be made that Q should have joined Jess and Bhanu to take out Kenzie, but with the erratic behavior of those two, I don't blame him for not flipping.

Who Sucked:

Going back over to Nami, we have some bad social games happening.  Venus' attitude seems to be souring her tribe against her, but Tevin and Soda seem to be going a little too far in lowering their association with her.  If Venus gets her hands on an Idol, Tevin and Soda are just asking to get Idoled out of the game.  I do like that Venus made an alliance with Randen and I don't like that Soda got into it a little bit with Q at the challenge.  Smack-talking just isn't worth alienating a potential future ally. 

We also have Liz and I have no idea what her deal is.  No one seems to have figured her out yet.  She really needs to stop bragging so much.

Going back over to Yanu, Kenzie is probably scheming and plotting too much.   Her strategizing made its way back to Q, who doesn't trust her anymore.  Getting rid of Jess was good for her though.

Bhanu really should have been leaping at the opportunity Kenzie presented him.  Even if he didn't fully intend to align with her, he needed to say yes to her alliance proposal.  He and Jess had the opportunity to change the game and didn't take it.  Not to mention his meltdown at Tribal Council.  People already thought he was too honest and could give away the game and that perception has only increased after that Tribal Council.

We really didn't get enough from Hunter, Ben, Jem, Moriah, or Tim for me to say either way.

As for Jess, like Bhanu, she needed to leap at the opportunity to join Kenzie, even if it wasn't true.  Trying to throw Kenzie under the bus was smart, but she needed to do more.  Plus she was pretty bad at the challenge.  I'm guessing she was majorly dehydrated because she was stumbling through this game like a sleepwalking zombie.  She seems like a really nice person, but she obviously isn't built for Survivor.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Tiffany Nicole Ervin for being part of the plan to get Jess a fake Idol and take her out.  That was a really good move for her and she's absolutely in the best position on her tribe.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Bhanu Gopal for not joining Kenzie's alliance, being too honest at Tribal Council, and preceding to have a paranoid meltdown after getting called out.

Yanu is such a mess and I love it.  I'll be very curious to see if they can turn their fortunes around.  I seriously doubt it.   Either way, I'm sure it'll be entertaining.