You Made Your Bed, Now Lie In It

After last week’s snooze of an episode—you know I’m right—this week’s Survivor, episode four of season 46, was bound to be better, and you know what? It was. And it took care of some old business from the last episode.

Before we get into that, just a reminder that all season long I’ll be recapping every episode of Survivor 46. Make sure you’re subscribed to the Parting Shot podcast and my newsletter For the Culture for all things Survivor-related. (And everything else entertainment-related.)

If you forgot what happened last week, I wouldn’t blame you, because it was all rather dull. Read my full recap, but in a nutshell, the always-on-the-bottom tribe Yanu was once again on the bottom—shocker—and Yanu’s Bahnu kept up with his campaign of tears, oversharing, confusion, and downright bonkers game play. He was bound to be voted off—although there was some talk about Q blindsiding Kenzie—but ultimately the tribe was saved from going to Tribal Council because surprise, Nami’s Randen had to leave the game early because of a medical emergency. (He turned out to be fine.) Despite this, Bahnu still managed to not only cry, but also overshare.

Are things different this week? Well, let’s get into it.

Yanu

We meet Yanu at the end of day seven. Jeff just left their camp after informing them about Randen’s departure and that there will be no Tribal Council. They’re ecstatic, for good reason. They’ve lost everything the past seven days, have no means of making fire, no tarp, nothing. You’d think they’d just bask in the moment of good luck, but, well, you’d be wrong.

Last episode Bahnu went on a journey with two members from other tribes and proceeded to tell them everything that’s been going on at Yanu. (That’s Survivor 101, keep your cards close to your chest, information is power. Bahnu did the opposite of this.) So now he feels like he needs to tell Q and Tiff what he said. He casually just says he told them Kenzie was the mastermind of the tribe and that Q and Tiff are a pair.

“Did I say something wrong?” asks Bahnu. Yes Bahnu, yes you did.

“He gotta go,” Tiff tells Q after Bahnu leaves.

In a confessional, Bahnu says, “I shouldn’t have said that to them. But I said it in good faith, because I wanted to be honest with my tribe.” This right here is what’s wrong with Bahnu’s game—he’s too honest. In the last episode Bahnu said, “I didn’t come to Survivor to win a million dollars, I came to win a million hearts,” which is just wild. Tiff, talking privately with Kenzie about what Bahnu has told her, said, “If you wanna win a million hearts, go volunteer.” Exactly!

My favorite quote from this private one-on-one between Tiff and Kenzie comes from Kenzie.

“Why did he even come out here? He could have just gone camping,” said Kenzie. This. All of this.

The next day—day eight—we find Bahnu praying on the beach.

“He can sit there and pray all he wants. He’s made his bed, he’s gotta lay in it,” said Q. It’s not looking good for Bahnu.

Then Kenzie announces there’s tree mail, and it looks like it’s going to be a food reward challenge. This changes everyone’s mood.

Siga

Meanwhile at Siga, the news about a food reward challenge excites them. But before they focus too much on that, they decide to hunt as a tribe for a hidden immunity idol.

What they don’t know is that Jem found a Beware Advantage last episode. Because she can’t do anything with it, she decided to have a little fun. So, she re-hid the box containing the Immunity Idol—she can’t access it until she finds the key, which won’t come until they lose a challenge—and placed the letter of the Beware Advantage in a place the rest of the tribe would find. Well, Maria does find it, reads it to the tribe, and it says there’s a box right underneath where the letter was found. Jem just stands there and watches them dig, knowing full well there’s no box there. Hey, you’re stuck on an island, ya gotta entertain yourself somehow, right?

Nami

Over at Nami, they’re having a gay old time, and for good reason. They’ve literally won every challenge, their camp is comfortable—mostly thanks to Survivor MacGyver himself, Hunter—and even though they’re down a player after Randen’s departure, it doesn’t seem to have impacted their morale at all.

After learning about the food challenge, Soda and Tevin start to sing. Suddenly producers add music to what they’re singing. I guess now Survivor is a musical? It was a weird—and fun—moment.

Reward Challenge

Listen, immunity is fine and all, but when you’ve been living off coconut and rice for eight days, the prospect of food seems better, right?

The tribes meet and learn what they’ll have to do to get the food. They’ll start off in a paddle boat in the water, which they’ll row to a dock with a key. They’ll have to get the key and then row to shore. There they’ll use the key to unlock a set of rings on a pole. Each player will have to throw the ring up and over the pole. (It’s a tall pole.) After that, they’ll have to take the rings and climb under a trunk. Once everyone is under the trunk, they’ll race to another pole—yes, I’m thinking of pole jokes—and toss them up and over this similarly tall pole. First tribe to win will get lots of fish and supplies to cook them with. The second tribe will get slightly smaller fish. The last tribe gets nothing.

Before they even start, Q informs Yanu that even if they win, they’ll have to trade the fish for desperately needed supplies. (Remember, they’ve got nothing.)

When the challenge starts, Siga takes an early lead, but then somehow Tim capsizes the dock with the key, setting them back a lot. Nami then gets the key first, and then Yanu. Once at shore, Yanu and Nami compete to get the rings off. Hunter at Nami gets the first one off, but then Yanu takes the lead. (For the first time this entire game.) Meanwhile Siga is struggling. They’ve made it to shore, but they just can’t get the rings off the pole.

Yanu gets under the trunk and starts throwing the rings on the other pole. One after one, Q places the ring. It’s clear Yanu is going to win this. But then Nami makes it under the trunk, and Hunter starts throwing the rings. (A race between Q and Hunter is incredibly fun to watch, for the record.) While Hunter gives Q a run for his money, Q pulls it out for Yanu and they win.

“I told y’all I’d make up,” Q yells in excitement. This is such a wonderful moment, and it’s the type of moment Survivor fans always look forward to. They’ve been struggling so much, they needed this win. Let’s hope it changes their trajectory.

Hunter then wins it for Nami, placing them in second place. Siga, having only barely made it to the last pole, loses. That said, Siga’s Ben, who wasn’t participating in the challenge, did yell out the best line during the challenge: “It’s not your mindset, it’s your grind set.” I don’t even know what that means, but I love it.

As expected, Yanu trades their reward for a much-needed tarp and supplies (but no flint). The Yanu tribe has figuratively found the fire, but will it lead to them literally finding their fire?

Food Changes Everything

Over at Nami, Tevin decides to clean the fish they won. It becomes an emotional moment, because we learn Tevin learned how to do this with his dad who recently passed away. Tevin, speaking matter-of-factly, says that this is his small way of connecting with his dad while out at Survivor. That’s such a special aspect of Survivor, a little thing like fish can be woven into a heartfelt moment.

Soda brings up an interesting point about Yanu. When you win as much as they have, you have a lot of down time at camp because you don’t have to go to Tribal Council. Which means it gives her time for her to work her social strategy. We see her talking with—and about—everybody. She’s playing this game hard, and honestly it worries me. Like, is she playing too hard? (And Tevin seems to be seeing this. He’s shifting his alliance from Soda to Hunter, and Hunter is on board, even willing to blindside her if they have to when—or if—they go to Tribal Council.)

Once Yanu gets back to their camp, they get super-excited not just over their win, but also over their supplies. It doesn’t last long because they’re struggling to set up their tarp. (It’s comical at this point.)

Q decides to take Bahnu aside and attempts to coach him into playing a social game. He’s attempting to train his emotions, teach him some techniques. It goes, well, let’s just hope it works out for the best, right? (I’m scared.) While Q has patience with Bahnu, Kenzie does not. It’s gotten to the point where once the tension is felt, Bahnu just walks away. Awkward!

Well, Bahnu is taking it hard. “I’m so stupid,” he says to himself. He’s just walking around talking to himself, realizing he’s just a puppet at this point. Kenzie, though, feels bad for making Bahnu spiral and goes to apologize. He accepts it, and it seems to be genuine, but we’ve seen Bahnu spiral before, so will it last?

Siga’s morale is low, especially Maria, who really struggled to get the rings over the pole. But Charlie puts a lot of it in perspective, saying that it was just a reward challenge, it was just fish. It’s honestly a great point, and wild that after eight days of hunger he’s still able to have that level-headedness.

Once they get over the loss, they return to looking for the buried box mentioned in the Beware Advantage. Charlie, though, isn’t having it. He knows someone is playing with them, and now the rest of the tribe is beginning to think that too. Jem, however, who knows where it’s buried, is just letting them spin themselves into a tizzy, right down to blaming Tim for hiding it. (I fear this is going to backfire on her.)

Immunity Challenge

The tribes get tree mail about the Immunity Challenge. It’s clear that it’s going to involve jumping of some kind, which worries Siga’s Moriah because she can’t really jump. (Honestly, I can relate.) Charlie helps her, and it’s not looking good.

Can I confess something here? I started this season off really not digging Charlie. I don’t know what it was about him, maybe I have a natural inclination to not like lawyers, who knows. But after spending these past four episodes with him, I think I’m becoming a Charlie fan. Am I changing? Am I becoming a good person? Who am I?

OK, so as expected, the immunity challenge involves jumping. They have to climb up a rope ladder of a tall tower in the middle of the ocean. (Only on Survivor, right?) Then they’ll have to leap into the ocean, climb up onto a crate, and then jump back into the ocean. Two players will have to swim under the surface to release a net full of buoys. They’ll bring those buoys to a dock, where each player will throw a buoy into a floating net into three baskets. The first two tribes in first and second place win immunity, the losing tribe goes to Tribal Council and lose their flint.

Q, Hunter and Tim start things off. (Hunter is swimming in a shirt, which, for this fat kid, makes me proud.) Hunter takes an early lead as usual, leaving Tim and Q far behind. Eventually they all get to the end but need to wait for the rest of their tribemates to make it to the last dock before they can throw the buoys.

While they wait, Bahnu sets Yanu back because he skips a part of the challenge. It’s massive. If they lose this, it will be on him.

A funny moment from this challenge is when Charlie jumps in the water. As we’ve seen previously, he’s a big Taylor Swift fan, and he screamed her name as he hit the water. Listen, I’m not a huge Swiftie, and clearly he’s doing this to get her attention, but like, I can’t help but admit it’s cute.

In the end Siga gets to shoot their buoys first, but Tim slows Siga down. Just as this happens, Hunter steps up to the plate and displays the beast he clearly his. One by one, he throws a buoy into the net and wins immunity once again for his team.

It’s a race between Yanu and Siga. Siga takes a lead, but Q does his best to finally get a win for Yanu. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. Siga dunks the last buoy and wins immunity for the tribe.

Literally every episode it’s been Nami in first, Siga in second, and Yanu in last. The drama is good, but it’s getting a little old, you know what I mean? That said, this is the most expected Tribal Council in the history of Survivor: Bahnu is going home.

Pre-Tribal

Back at camp, it’s dark for Yanu. Tiff, Kenzie and Q know they’re voting for Bahnu to leave, and they’re basically ignoring him. They’re not even trying to hide how they feel about him. Bahnu separates himself and tries to find a hidden immunity idol that he won’t find because Tiff has it.

Part of me wants to feel bad for him, but I can’t. I feel like he should know that he’s done this to himself, not to mention how dramatic he is. Literally before tribal he has a fight with God. Yes, I said God. He points to the sky and yells, “I’m mad at myself, and I’m mad at him. If you wanted to end my story so soon, you shouldn’t have put me on Survivor in the first place.” What is happening?

He then goes to Tiff on his knees begging for her to help him. While he cries—and tells him to get up—she tells him she’s going to write his name down tonight.

Wandering through the woods alone, Bahnu seems to settle himself and realize he can’t do anything. He says he knows he’s going home and vows to tell his story at Tribal Council. Settle in, this is going to be interesting.

Tribal Council

Jeff starts things off talking about all the things Bahnu revealed to the other tribes when he went on that journey. This leads to the situation Bahnu is in, revealing he’s on his way out, and it is what it is. Jeff then lets Bahnu tell his story.

He reveals he lied to his tribe when he said he had a good life. He was born into poverty in India to a teenage mother and abandoned by his father. She later got married and moved away, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents. He says he grew up on the streets and worked hard to better himself. He’s the first one in his family to graduate high school, earn a college degree and move to the United States. He wanted to be on Survivor to represent all the other Bahnu’s out there.

Let’s hope those other Bahnu’s will be better Survivor players. (Listen, I’m not mean, I empathize with his story, and he’s a good person, but also like… he shouldn’t have played Survivor.)

Literally his departure was so expected they didn’t even vote. Jeff just snuffed his torch.

Who Needs to Get Snuffed?

Right now, I’m just glad Bahnu is out. I feel like now the game can start. He sucked up so much attention from everybody else. He’s a nice guy, but this game was not meant for a sweetheart like Bahnu.

Who Should be the Sole Survivor?

I’m kind in the Team Hunter camp. He’s wildly good.

Watch Survivor every Wednesday on CBS or anytime on Paramount+ to follow along as I react to every episode this season.