Survivor 46: Episode 4 "Don't Touch the Oven" Gameplay Analysis

 "Welcome to the game."

-Jeff Probst

Well, that wasn't what I would call a typical episode of Survivor.  A friend of mine called the episode boring, and I can see that in terms of gameplay, but I saw the episode as more of a character study of Bhanu, which I did find interesting even if there wasn't a ton of interesting gameplay to discuss.  But there was still enough to figure out who played well and who sucked!

Who Played Well:

Starting over on the Nami tribe, both Hunter and Liz were smart to latch onto Tevin's idea to turn on Soda.  Taking her out helps both of them and I like that neither of them brought up the idea first.  Hunter was also incredible in the Immunity Challenge giving his tribe a comeback win.

Over on Siga, Jem's idea to plant a fake Beware Advantage was risky, but worked out for her ultimately.  As of now, no one seems suspicious of her and she managed to get a bullseye solidly onto Tim's back, which is great because they are in opposing alliances.  I also liked how Moriah threw out Tim's name.  It doesn't really matter if it's true or not or even if she believes it or not.  The target is on someone who isn't in her alliance and I loved how Jem jumped on board to really throw Tim under the bus.

Moving onto Yanu, Tiffany, Q, and Kenzie undoubtedly made the right movie in taking out Bhanu.  He was just way too much of a wild card to keep around.  I like Q's attempt at coaching Bhanu just in case they weren't able to vote him out, but that's something you need to be careful doing.  You don't want to come off as condescending.  It also wasn't great that Kenzie snapped at Bhanu, but at least she apologized.

Who Sucked:

Going back to Nami, Soda is obviously being too transparent with her gameplay.  It's good that she's checking in with everybody, but by doing it so much, she's making her alliance feel uneasy.  That said, I do think Tevin is scheming against her too much.  That's something that could easily get back to Soda and blow up his game.  I think he's getting anxious to play the game, which we see a lot from tribes that don't go to Tribal Council for an extended period of time.  He should wait to do this level of scheming and plotting until after they lose an Immunity Challenge.

I didn't get enough from Venus, Ben, Charlie, Maria, or Tim to say either way.

As for Bhanu...oh Bhanu.  He came into the game believing that being likable and honest was enough to win and when he discovered it wasn't, he spiraled out of control.  He was simply too unpredictable and strategically lacking to keep around.  His meltdowns didn't help his case and neither did revealing what he said on his journey in the last episode.  He seems like a nice guy, but he's terrible at Survivor.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Jem Hussain-Adams for her successful fake Beware Advantage play and getting the target squarely on Tim.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Soda Thompson for playing too transparently and making her alliance uncomfortable.  I don't give either Award out to the eliminated player because I think that's too easy, but if I did, it would got to Bhanu, hands-down.

Now that the Bhanu Era of season 46 is over, I'm hoping we can get a better look at the dynamics on Nami and Siga.  I'd like to see one of those tribes go to Tribal Council just so we can see what happens.