‘Survivor 46’: Q is in deeper trouble and another player gets blindsided holding an idol in ‘Spicy Jeff’

Quintavius “Q” Burdette seems to be in an impossible position after his recent shenanigans, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to take control in the ninth episode of “Survivor 46,” where his game seems toast due to his previous tribal council dramatics. But it turns out there may be other threats in this game with much more power due to their advantages; and one player attempts to use that to his benefit, however questionable it may be. Let’s break down the excess of drama that occurred in “Spicy Jeff” now that we are officially at the halfway point in the season with nine players left in the game.

We get straight to right after the last tribal council where Tiffany Nicole Ervin rips into Q for his vote-out plea to the tribe and for revealing that she had an idol. She is not the only one who has completely lost respect for him as a majority of players have declared that Q would not get their vote if he made it to the end, having practically killed his own game. But he still wants to make moves as the tribe was later informed to divide into three teams of three for the upcoming immunity challenge, pulling Charlie Davis aside and requesting him to throw the challenge for his team that consists of Maria Shrime Gonzalez and Hunter McKnight to get out the latter – completely inconsistent for someone who despises quitting challenges as evident in the season premiere when he pushed the vote for David Jelinsky for quitting the sweat task. And even though Charlie agreed to his face, he had no intention of following through.

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At the immunity challenge, Jeff Probst got a little cheeky by confidently presuming that the team of Q, Venus Vafa and Liz Wilcox would be the first team out of the running (they weren’t as it turned to be the team of Tiffany, Kenzie Petty and Ben Katzman). But the final third of the challenge was indeed Charlie, Hunter and Maria, with Charlie outlasting Hunter to win immunity, leaving him in a vulnerable spot.

Switching over to Hunter, he was not in a good spot after being the only player to vote wrong at the last tribal council, going for Venus instead of the ousted Tevin Davis. And as predicted, Venus did not take kindly to that vote, ironically mocking Hunter and Q for mistakenly believing they are in control. He also did not want to have anything to do with Q, which is why Q wanted him gone and asked Charlie to throw the challenge as Hunter was one of the biggest physical threats. The instant he lost the immunity challenge, he knew his head was on the chopping block and votes would be coming this way. Luckily he still had possession of his immunity idol, which he has managed to keep secret, up until this point.

In an attempt to gain some allies, Hunter started telling people about his idol – namely Q and Venus of all people – with a plan to vote Ben out instead. And as it stood, most of the players wanted to do a split vote on Q and Hunter as a safety precaution, but the plan turned out to be very scattered with Maria also wanting Tiffany gone and her idol being public knowledge, with Tiffany exploiting that she was going to play it tonight.

At tribal council, Probst continued taking the extra mile by bringing a cushion and offering popcorn to everyone, with the insanity escalated by Q and Tiffany exploding at each other. In the midst of all the chaos, Hunter thought he was safe and that Q would be the target, which turned out to be a mistake as the votes were tied 4-4 between him and Q, with the latter voting for Ben. On the revote, Liz was the only one not to budge from Q, with the rest of the tribe sending Hunter home with the idol in his pocket.

So what will Q do now that he’s on borrowed time? According to the “Next Time on ‘Survivor'” promo, it’s almost certain that he will be a goner with many voice overs from other contestants condemning him, particularly Liz, who looks to be having a shrieking meltdown. But Maria seems to have other plans, and it should be noted that she spent a good amount of this episode trying to vote out Tiffany, who still has her idol. Given that this season thus far has resulted in players being blindsided without playing their trinkets, would Tiffany follow that pattern? Time will tell.

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