‘Survivor 46’ episode 9 recap: Who was voted out in ‘Spicy Jeff’? [LIVE BLOG]
Heading into the ninth episode of “Survivor 46,” the remaining castaways had just said goodbye to fan-favorite Tevin Davis. That left nine people still in the game, three from each of the original tribes: Hunter McKnight, Liz Wilcox and Venus Vafa from Nami; Ben Katzman, Charlie Davis and Maria Shrime Gonzalez from Siga; Kenzie Petty, Q Burdette and Tiffany Nicole Ervin from Yanu. So which unfortunate castaway had their torch snuffed by host Jeff Probst this week?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 46” Episode 9 recap/live blog of “Spicy Jeff” to find out what happened on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite castaways on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Survivor” winners list and take home the $1 million grand prize.
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Survivor 46” live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” In the eighth episode, Jeff offered the contestants a bag of rice in exchange for sitting out of the immunity challenge, but the required number of people (four) did not volunteer. Hunter ended up winning that endurance challenge, with Charlie being the runner-up. At tribal council, two opposite plans to oust Tevin and Tiffany both hit a snag when Q volunteered to go home because he felt guilty about going after an ally. In the end, Tevin was booted by an 8-to-2 vote over Venus.
8:02 p.m. – The fallout from the previous tribal council started with everyone agreeing that they were universally blindsided by Q’s move to get himself voted out and his allies from The Six alliance were frustrated by the way it potentially up-ended their own plans. Q’s perspective that they didn’t understand was that in his every day life he owns up to his mistakes and was willing to fall on his own sword in this instance. He also had to explain to Tiffany why he told others about her idol, but the two of them were not able to come to an understanding on Q’s motives for doing show. Tiffany didn’t understand that he was trying to protect her because all she could see was that he was upset he was no longer in control. Meanwhile, Liz was privately upset that her big move to get Tevin out was being overshadowed and undermined by Q’s drama and elsewhere on the beach Hunter and Charlie were contemplating the benefit of getting rid of Q earlier than they thought they would.
8:08 p.m. – The next morning everyone was still upset at Q’s move because of the disruption. Ben thought that Q destroyed his own game and told Charlie that he ruined all of their chances to claim a big move by taking Q out because he essentially did that to himself. Venus tried to reason with Q and Hunter, but they still weren’t willing to work with her and so Venus was ready to get her karma on Hunter for writing her name down again.
8:15 p.m. – When Hunter got Q alone, he explained that they didn’t follow through with any of the objectives of their alliance of six and now they’re both “scrambled up.” Hunter felt like he no longer wants to work with Q or Liz and his third main ally, Tevin, is gone. That leaves him on his own with an idol in his possession and needing to win immunity in order to protect himself.
8:16 p.m. – Ahead of their next challenge, the group had to divide themselves into three teams of three. Immediately, Kenzie, Ben and Tiffany decided to be one group. Hunter asked Charlie and Marie to be on his team and so they made the second group and left Q, Venus and Liz together as the third trio. Q’s immediate thought was that they were all faced with an opportunity to get Hunter as long as his group doesn’t advance toward immunity. With that in mind, he approached Charlie and Maria to tell them that they “control it” as members of his team, insinuating that they could throw the challenge in order to take immunity away from Hunter. Both Maria and Charlie were opposed to the idea of making Hunter lose because they’re actually open to working with him in the future, but they weren’t as sure that they’d want to work with Q. Still, Tiffany is the bigger threat and that is the player they wanted to target for the next elimination.
8:24 p.m. – It was Day 17 when the players made their way to the next challenge. For this one, in their groups of three they’d compete through three parts. In the first part, the last to finish would be eliminated. In the second part, another team would be eliminated. In the third part, the three members of the last group would compete against each other for individual immunity. For some reason, Jeff decided to call out the group of Q, Liz and Venus as his bet for being first out because they stick out to him as the obvious weakest group.
8:30 p.m. – In the first part, Kenzie had the most trouble crossing a balance beam with her ball between two sticks which set her orange team behind. She was able to finally cross by the time the purple team of Hunter, Maria and Charlie was already complete with the section. Because Ben struggled for orange as well, the green team of Venus, Liz and Q struck a blow to Jeff’s predictions and became the second group to finish and advance to the second part.
8:32 p.m. – Through the second part, both groups mostly kept the same pace until the ball toss where Venus could not get her ball to land in the ring before all three members of the purple group could land theirs. That set the stage for Maria, Hunter and Charlie to all compete against each other in the final part.
8:40 p.m. – In the third and final part, the last three standing had to outlast one another by standing on a narrow perch with just their heels with their shoulders and butt needing to stay pressed against the back post. Hunter showed early signs of struggle, but he was able to last longer than Maria who dropped out first. In a “showdown rematch” between Hunter and Charlie, Charlie was able to squeak this one out for the win and earn himself immunity after Hunter dropped shortly after the 10 minute mark.
8:51 p.m. – Back at camp, the larger group was happy to have options between Q, Hunter and possibly another blindside. Q felt like “the writing’s on the wall” for him despite knowing that it’s his “own fault” because of his antics at the tribal council. Tiffany was adamant that she wanted Q out, but he was set on turning everyone against Tiffany instead. His first order of business was to clear the air with Kenzie, but she told him that she’s “not working with” him “right now.” Still, Kenzie and Venus thought that it was “the perfect time for a blindside” because of the distraction of Q and Hunter.
8:54 p.m. – Kenzie’s plan was to go to Maria, Hunter and Charlie with the idea of pulling the blindside on Tiffany. Even with Tiffany as her closest and longest ally, Kenzie knew she’d eventually have to come for Tiffany and better now than later. They named Ben as their potential fifth vote in order to coordinate this move. Hunter was relieved to think that he wasn’t as “dead in the water” as he anticipated he would be. Privately, Maria and Charlie were excited to have options on the table, but frustrated that this move would be “Kenzie’s plan” and not their own so they weren’t sure if they wanted to help Kenzie make her big move.
8:56 p.m. – When Charlie approached Tiffany to make her feel comfortable, she said that she wants to flush her own idol because everyone knows about it and that makes it a problem, not an asset. Tiffany’s worry is that people are lying to her and she doesn’t need to play the idol and she is very aware that if/when she plays it, it’s going back into the game for someone else to find it. Charlie was dismayed by the realization that Tiffany is going to play her idol and their blindside could be thwarted.
9:02 p.m. – Because of Tiffany’s plan to play her idol, Maria “shelved” the blindside and talked to Ben and Charlie about a new plan to take advantage of Hunter not having immunity and taking him out instead. Ben told Kenzie about the new plan, but she called it “boring” and wanted to consider Q instead. That being said, she was willing to follow the lead of what everyone else wants to do.
9:05 p.m. – The more conversations that happened around camp, Hunter grew worried that he was being lied to and that he might need to use his idol after all. Once he decided he wants to play his idol, he told Q that he was going to do that and they should rally a couple votes to put on Ben instead. Hunter also approached Venus and Liz with the plan against Ben and told them about his idol, but it was “so last minute” that they just wanted to “stick with Q and be in the majority.” Venus told Ben about Hunter’s idol and then the information spread very quickly across camp just minutes before they all left for tribal council so everyone was left guessing if Hunter was bluffing or if it was real.
9:13 p.m. – At tribal council, Jeff wanted to start by addressing what happened at the last one because he was still flabbergasted by how “unique” it was. He brought in a pillow for his seat and a bowl of popcorn just in case things lit up again. But instead of eating the popcorn himself, he passed it to the players and it provided Liz the opportunity to eat something she isn’t allergic to for the first time in 72 hours.
9:16 p.m. – Once conversation started, Tiffany and Q started going at it over their difference of opinion about why and how Q communicated to other people that she has an idol. Eventually Tiffany said that Q was pushing both Venus and Hunter’s names “this morning” as people to vote out, lighting up a lot of glances and whispers to begin among everyone else. Ben was still bothered by the “slap in the face” that Q keeps insinuating he’s the only one playing the game and none of the rest of them are. In the whispers, Kenzie told Hunter she’s voting for Q and Venus was bothered that Maria seemed to be defending Q’s “crazy.” Charlie and Tiffany also gave Hunter indicators, both verbal and non-verbal, that they’re voting for Q. Over and over Hunter questioned to Venus and Kenzie if they’re really voting for Q because of his worry about not playing his idol, but they very clearly acknowledged that it is indeed Q this time.
9:23 p.m. – Once all the votes were cast, Jeff asked about idols and advantages, but this time there was no one willing to play anything. Jeff read the votes: Q, Hunter, Q, Hunter, Q, Hunter, Q, Hunter, Ben. That left a 4-4- tie so a re-vote was necessary with only Q and Hunter as options. In the re-vote tally: Q, Hunter, Hunter, Hunter, Hunter. With an idol in his pocket, Hunter was the 10th person voted out and the third member of the jury.
NEXT TIME: Some are still gunning for Q because of the chaos while others like Maria rather make a “game-winning move” by working with Q instead.
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