Survivor 46’s Hunter McKnight explains why he didn’t use his Immunity Idol in social media update

Hunter McKnight’s final episode as a player on Survivor 46 aired recently, and the fan favorite has shared his thoughts on the season.

Only nine players remained after Tevin Davis got blindsided at a Tribal Council where Q Burdette caused chaos. And Hunter was the only person other than Tevin who had voted for someone else (they voted against Venus Vafa).

Venus was pretty ticked off that her name had been written down, and Hunter brushed aside her complaints. That might have been a mistake.

Some Survivor fans might argue that Hunter was already the biggest target left in the game due to how good he was at challenges.

Those same Survivor fans expressed anger and frustration when Hunter got voted out with an Immunity Idol still in his pocket.

Following his early exit on Survivor 46, Episode 9, Hunter has been answering questions about his time in Fiji.

Hunter McKnight talks about the expected vote

Amid various exit interviews, Hunter used social media to explain why he didn’t use his Hidden Immunity Idol.

For much of that fateful episode, Hunter spoke about using his Idol and being guaranteed safety at the Tribal Council. He even told people he was using it. But he later kept his free pass to the final eight in his pocket.

“Anyways, let me finish explaining,” Hunter wrote on his Instagram Stories.

“Leaving for tribal, I was convinced I would play my idol, but there’s about a 2 hour period of silence as you travel/prep for tribal,” Hunter elaborated. “I believed I had Liz and Q voting with me as a unit. So I just started thinking about how the other 6 would split votes.”

“Then we entered tribal, it became obvious it was a split between me and Q. So I theorized it was a 3-3 split to prevent another ‘Tyson’ incident,” he elaborated before adding, “Since 3-3 is the way to guarantee everyone in the 6 is safe.”

“So at tribal I told Liz to vote Q and I added a vote. Hoping to make it 3-5-1.”

Hunter McKnight explains why he didn’t play his Immunity Idol

As for why he didn’t use his Immunity Idol, Hunter made a second post to his Instagram Stories about why that happened.

Hunter owned his mistake and that two-hour delay after deciding to use his Immunity Idol and the Tribal Council was too much for him. He overthought everything and felt he was safe enough to keep his Idol.

“There was a weakness in the 6, but I had convinced myself they would cover their basis and made it 3-3,” Hunter added. “They had left the door open by voting 4-2, so if I had followed through with Liz and Q, I would have gotten Ben out.”

“BUT No excuses. I misread and misplayed. So I went home, but not for lack of trying! Live and learn,” Hunter ended his note.

More news from Survivor

During a recent interview, Jeff Probst said Q wasn’t trying to quit at Tribal Council. It was a surprising revelation from the Survivor host.

The end of the latest season is almost at hand. Here is info on the upcoming Survivor 46 season finale date.

Previous episodes of Survivor are available for streaming on Paramount+

Survivor 46 airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.