What You Need To Know About ‘Survivor’ 42’s Forbidden Romance

survivor 42 episode 2 challenge taku
Nick Davis

SPOILERS FOR SURVIVOR SEASON 42 EPISODES 1 & 2

Survivor is no stranger to love. There’s a showmance nearly every season. It’s natural with those solitary conditions and scantily-dressed castaways. Most of them don’t last, but some have even blossomed into long-term deals. Season 42 has yet to birth anything like that, we are only 2 episodes in, after all. But there was a potential relationship that is now tragically cut short.

What is this forbidden romance tale? Is there truly a connection or has it all been blown a bit out of proportion? And have the two castaways in question made anything happen since leaving Fiji?

Executive Producer Jeff Probst returns to host SURVIVOR, when the Emmy Award-winning series returns for its 41st season, with a special 2-hour premiere, Wednesday, Sept. 22 (8:00-10 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS Entertainment 2021 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A ‘Survivor’ Tragedy

In Episode 1, Zach Wurtenberger was tragically voted off of the Ika tribe in a unanimous vote. At the next challenge, when the other 2 tribes got to see Ika minus Zach, there was a surprising reaction. Maryanne from the Taku tribe was very sad seeing that Zach had gone. Strange, considering she didn’t even seem to know his name. Jeff dug into the reaction with Maryanne a bit and found out about her previously unspoken crush.

maryanne survivor 42
Maryanne Oketch

Maryanne said that Zach has everything she’s normally drawn to in a guy.  What those things are is entirely up to you to guess, but she was clearly smitten. She even spoke to Jeff about daydreaming of a finale confession where she spills the beans about her and Zach’s secret thing.

Ok, so, obviously this situation is less of a “forbidden romance” and more “entirely in Maryanne’s head”. The 2 literally never even met before Zach’s tragically early departure. As mentioned previously, Maryanne didn’t even seem to know his name while spilling that she crushes on him. Kind of a “love at first sight” scenario. It’s a funny thing to talk about and a highlight from Episode 2. Playing into the humor of it all even more, Zach and Maryanne changed their surnames in their Twitter bios from their own surnames to each other’s surnames. Or maybe it’s a sign that they got to talking a little more after the show finished filming? That’s for them to know and us to find out.

Zach wurtenberger survivor 42
Zach Wurtenberger

‘Survivor’ 42 Moves On, And The Drama Keeps Coming

We’re still only a little ways into the season. Since it follows the same format as its predecessor season, this will also be a shorter one. In keeping with COVID guidelines, they shot with only 18 castaways for 26 days. And since a player had to leave only a couple days in, we’re already ahead of schedule at just 15 players remaining. Still, this is a great cast with a lot of potential moving forward. Who knows, there may even be more romance coming down the pipeline. Maybe even one that fairs slightly better than Maryanne’s dream cut short.

New episodes of Survivor Season 42 air every Wednesday.

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