'Survivor' season 46: Who was voted off and why was there a Taylor Swift, Metallica battle
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the latest "Survivor" episode.
It didn't take long for tension to rise between and within the three tribes on "Survivor" 46.
Two episodes into the reality competition show, which premiered its latest season on Feb. 28, alliances have already been formed and betrayed leaving loyalties up in the air.
The 17 remaining castaways vying for $1 million have shown they're willing to overcome hunger, dehydration and failure to earn the title of "sole survivor." From fake idols and brutal challenges to even a song challenge, here's what happened on episode two.
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Taylor Swift vs. Metallica song battle
Along with the chaos of living on an island with a bunch of strangers comes a lot of free time. When tribes aren't building shelter or seeking food, they must decide how to pass time.
At the Siga tribe camp, law student and fulltime Swiftie Charlie Davis challenged musician Ben Katzman to see who knew their favorite artist more. In a rapid back and forth the two named songs, for Charlie one by Taylor Swift and for Ben one by Metallica, until they could not think of anymore.
The team found the battle oddly entertaining, with the exception of Jem Hussain-Adams, who was ready for it to end. Over 200 songs later, Charlie won after naming 108 compared to Ben's 106.
"If only I knew the really bad albums a little more," Ben said.
"I don't believe in any really bad Taylor Swift albums," Charlie replied.
Challenge stirs heat between and within tribes
In the second immunity and reward challenge of the season, the three tribes competed for fishing gear, to keep their flint and to avoid going to tribal council.
Before the game started the Siga and Nami were shocked to not see David Jelinsky, who was voted out in the first episode for giving up easily. After multiple players teased the Yanu tribe for their first loss, an unamused Q Burdette expressed eagerness to get started, saying "right now we're down to five and we'll see if their five is better than our five."
"How's the food?" teacher Soda Thompson from the Nami tribe said, teasing Yanu for not having eaten yet in days.
During the challenge, the players had to assemble a cart, dig out a chest, move the cart through an obstacle course and eventually solve a puzzle. For the puzzle portion, the teams had to build a bridge out of lettered blocks to spell the word "Persistence" on two sides while holding the pieces together.
The challenge ended up becoming a brutal mission for all three tribes, who were neck and neck for the win. The Nami tribe was the first to win, followed by Siga and leaving Yanu beyond frustrated after two consecutive defeats.
Player gets fake idol ahead of tribal council
Some tension on the Nami tribe lingered after the challenge when data analyst Venus said she was upset at her tribemates for running her toe over with the cart. However, most the root of the episode's drama was found at the Yanu camp, who blamed software engineer Jess Chong for their loss. Tiffany Ervin had an emotional breakdown at camp, regretting her outburst after their tribe lost and fearing others' perception of her.
Knowing she's on the chopping block, Jess tried to turn the tribe against salon owner Kenzie for being a social threat. Kenzie, who had suggested an alliance with Jess earlier in the episode, threw out the idea of making and planting a fake hidden immunity idol for Jess to find. Kenzie and Tiffany crafted a bracelet, using whatever materials they could find.
When Jess was unable to find the fake idol, Q gave it to her directly. He also repeatedly lied to her about its legitimacy when she was already skeptical about it.
Paranoia gets to 'emotional' player right before vote
After a unanimous vote for Jelinsky, tribal council was anything but straightforward.
Jess tried to sway her tribemates into voting for Kenzie while paranoia consumed IT quality analyst Bhanu Gopal, who worried his teammates would vote him out for being too emotional. Jess had told Bhanu earlier that Kenzie and Tiffany worried about his emotional outbursts being a liability.
Right before the vote, Bhanu approached Kenzie, Q and Tiffany one by one whispering to ask who to vote for. Ultimately, Jess was voted off with four votes against her and she voted for Bhanu.
"I feel like a fool," Bhanu said.
The next episode airs Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. EST/PST on CBS and Paramount+.
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