The merge brought all the chaos to Survivor 46! In "Cancel Christmas," the sixth episode of the season, we saw all the remaining contestants come together at the same camp. Jeff Probst revealed they're not a "tribe" yet! The new era rules mean that the contestants must play their way into the tribe, which seven castaways did before heading to tribal council to vote out of the six players from the losing group.
Halfway through the game, lines could not be less clear than they are, and it resulted in one of the weirdest post-merge targets I can remember in recent history.
Spoilers ahead for episode 6 of Survivor 46!
Moriah Gaynor voted out in interesting tribal council
So, as I mentioned, there were some stipulations on who was safe at tribal council and who was eliminated. At the immunity challenge, the group was divided into two groups to compete. The winning group would have immunity while the other six players would be up for elimination.
Hunter, Tevin, Q, Ben, Kenzie, and Tim were on the winning group. Tiffany, the odd person out, chose the group that eventually won the challenge, so she was safe from the vote, as well. That left Charlie, Maria, Venus, Moriah, Soda, and Liz as the six players who could be voted out.
Immediately, it became clear that Moriah and Venus were two players who were on the chopping block. Essentially, it just came down to former tribe lines plus the three safe Yanu votes as swing votes. Prior to tribal council, Moriah realized she was on the outs, and she played her Shot in the Dark after voting. Unfortunately, it was revealed that she was "Not Safe," and Jeff proceeded to read the votes. There was one vote for Venus, but the rest of the tribe voted for Moriah. Charlie was the only one who didn't vote for Moriah.
Why Moriah was voted out
I had a hunch that Moriah would be up for elimination right after the merge. Siga just went to tribal council, and she was the only person on her tribe left out of the vote to take out Jem. She voted for Ben instead. It's never a good sign to see a player on the bottom heading into the merge, especially with the way this game was playing out. The Yanu players seem solid. Nami has a few cracks, but Siga's crack, for some reason, was the one that the tribe wanted to exploit.
For me, it's pretty clear that Moriah was targetted simply because she was the name that the Siga tribe was willing to give up. Tim and Ben, who won immunity, tossed out Moriah's name as possible vote when they were pressured by the Nami and Yanu members.
Q got a bad vibe from Moriah because, and I'm not joking, she gave nerdy vibes and said her favorite Survivor ever was Aubry Bracco. Everyone knows Aubrey as a strategic mastermind and epic gameplayer, but like, that's not a reason to target someone, right? For Q, apparently, it was.
Q's suspicions with Moriah weren't unfounded, though. She was lying to him, as were the rest of the Siga tribe, which was revealed at tribal council. Moriah was in a tough spot, but she chose to lie and say that she was tight and aligned with the Siga tribe in voting out Jem. And, that's not true, Ellen.
It's unclear to me why the Yanu and Nami tribe inevitably chose to keep Venus in the game, but perhaps they were worried about the idol, Venus playing her Shot in the Dark, or Moriah's confession about (gasp!) liking Aubry, and that sealed Moriah's fate.
She is the first member of the Survivor 46 jury. Who will win season 46? There are only 12 players left, and a few players have a great chance to win the game.
The game is only about to heat up from here! In the clip for episode 7, Jeff revealed that two people will be eliminated at tribal council. Episode 7 airs on Wednesday, April 10, on CBS.