Ryan’s Analysis: Survivor 46, Episode 10

Survivor 46: Episode 10 "Run the Red Light" Gameplay Analysis

 "What the heck, you ho-bags?"

-Liz Wilcox

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm very hungry for Applebee's now.  I hope Survivor got paid well for that product placement because Applebee's absolutely got their money's worth.  I did feel bad for Liz on a human level in this episode, but I'll be honest, I was laughing my ass off the entire time.  The whole situation was so absurd that I couldn't help but laugh.  Oh, and someone was voted out too.  Let's take a look at who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Let's start with the Siga 3.  Maria, Charlie, and Ben were the ones who led the blindside against Tiffany in epic fashion.  It was a great move for the 3 of them.  I like how Maria was the only one to check in on Q, which made it easy for her to bring him in on the plan.  Plus Charlie won Immunity and prevented Tiffany from winning.  I guess I need to start training my grip strength.

Q's in a very bad position and I don't think he can win, but staying quiet for the most part is probably the best route for him right now.  He won Reward and made logical picks for who went with him.  It's totally fair for him not to pick Liz.  She was the only one to vote for him in the revote in the previous episode.  Plus he helped get out Tiffany, someone who wasn't ever going to work with him again.

Who Sucked:

Oh Liz.  I'm not so sure Survivor was the right show for her.  I don't think the meltdown was as bad for her game as you'd think.  She can still win if she goes to the end with Q and Venus, but it wasn't great.  To her credit, she did eventually set her emotions aside and helped take out Tiffany instead of Q.

Kenzie and Venus were both left out of the vote against Tiffany.  Nobody trusts Venus and Kenzie backed out of the Tiffany vote because she started playing with her heart and felt Tiffany deserved to stay over Q.  She really needed to take her heart out of the equation.

As for Tiffany, last week she told everyone she was going to play her Idol and didn't.  That's an effective play that we've seen work before.  However, that means that the other players are going to be incentivized to blindside her or at least split the vote to flush the Idol.  We've seen this series of events plenty of times on Survivor before.  And with all the comments about Q being the perfect smokescreen, Tiffany really needed to play her Idol.  You can always find another Idol.  It's better to be safe than sorry.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Charlies Davis for winning Immunity and blindsiding Tiffany.  It was a toss-up between Charlie and Maria, but I think Maria is the one who is going to draw attention to herself from this move and I think she's going next.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Kenzie Petty for playing with her heart, backing out of the Tiffany vote, and being left out of the vote in the process.  As a reminder, the eliminated player isn't eligible for either Award.

This season has been such a wild ride with plenty of chaotic players.  I thinking we might get Charlie turning on Maria next time and I think it's going to be very interesting.  I can't wait!

I'm excited to see what happens next! If you liked this breakdown, check out my other write-ups at www.stacysbloggoingon.blogspot.com/.