That’s another episode of Survivor 46! Yet another idol goes home in the pocket of a castaway… a Q-skirt pocket no less! Let’s dive into what happened.
Emotions Peak in the Final Six
With only a few days (less than several) left to go before day twenty six, people are starting to reach the end of their rope as starvation and fatigue settle in. Ben’s previously mentioned night terrors have only gotten worse as he has lost the ability to sleep and it has boggled his mind to the point where he is just casting votes for his allies rather than his enemies. Yes, he voted for Kenzie because he just forgor 💀. Thankfully, Kenzie is a tattooed angel sent from heaven who will still sit there and love Ben and hold his hand in the night (just politely ignore that she called him a dumbo in the confessional not even a minute beforehand).
The letters from home also got people in their feelings, especially Maria. While she understood the decision from Charlie to not take her on reward, it didn’t stop her from not only dying a little inside, but also breaking her heart into not just two pieces, but three pieces. The emotion from Maria in general was shocking from the usually collected mom (when she isn’t choosing people for a pizza party). Maria crying on two occasions wasn’t on my bingo card. Turns out the ambush Venus set up for her at the last tribal council got to her, and left her crying on the boat bench outside of camp. I’m interested to see how this new evidence affects the Venus postgame image cleanup tour.
Once Maria got her day of tears out the way, she locked back into Survivor and planned a big move against her game-long ally Charlie.
Maria and Charlie’s Professional Breakup
The drawn out separation of Survivor 46’s Malcolm and Denise is official now. I just ate up the peak cinema that was the Maria and Charlie alliance appreciation chat spliced with dueling confessionals of the two allies committing to backstabbing each other. It’s been teased for many episodes, but now the plans are set. Charlie has kept his options for the past couple days, and it has presented him with a fantastic side alliance of Liz, Kenzie, and Ben that are more than happy to team up and take out a big threat in Maria. The reward challenge was a perfect opportunity for Charlie to solidify tactics with the two girls while keeping Maria out of the loop, because Charlie believes Maria wants to take him to the end.
Things almost turned completely around on Charlie in the worst possible way. Maria was not banking on taking Charlie to the end. They both viewed each other as Malcolm and Denise, and every Survivor fan knows the original power couple turned on each other before the final tribal council. Maria was completely at peace with cutting out Charlie and replacing him with Q. With a special advantage sitting in Q’s pocket combined with immunity around her own neck, she went into the final six tribal council with confidence that she just orchestrated another big blindside.
Cancel Christmas
Maria, everyone’s primary target, won another immunity which meant another audible was needed. Q latched onto Maria and it served him greatly, but his proximity to the major threat left him once again in the crosshairs. Last time Q survived because Venus acted shady, this time Q could actually take matters into his own hands: he had the hidden immunity idol. What could possibly go wrong!
Survivor 46’s immunity idol is clearly cursed, because whoever holds onto it immediately gets overconfident and assumes they can save it for later. The same thing happens to Q: even though we can see that everyone on the beach wants to weaken Maria by blindsiding Q, Q and Maria believe that they actually have the numbers with Liz and Kenzie to blindside Charlie, while believing that Charlie and Ben are going to fail to vote out Q.
My initial watch doesn’t give me the obvious clues as to why Maria and Q believed that they were in such a favorable position that they didn’t guarantee the duo’s safety with the idol. It’s a testament firstly to how well Charlie pre-planned the move to dethrone Maria from the power seat. Maria believed she was getting to the backstab of Charlie first, but in reality Charlie’s plan had already come together by the time Maria began even considering the move. It’s also a testament to how Kenzie and Liz have hidden their true allegiances. The fact that Maria and Q just took the loyalty of Kenzie and Liz for granted says a lot. It makes sense with Liz: I think people just assume Liz will do whatever you say. With Kenzie it is a bit more surprising… I’ll credit an excellent social game and her ability to present herself as everyone’s friend as the reason Maria assumed Kenzie was on her side.
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The Cody Assenmacher “L I V I N” Award: Liz
Boy, Liz was feeling herself. What taking a shit does to a person. She was getting quirky in the challenges and making one too many random noises for the camera. Maybe she would’ve been voted out sooner from just being so annoying if she was better fed.
Oddest Survivor Memorabilia: Sanctuary Themed Chinese Takeout Boxes
Jeff, quit trying to make the Sanctuary (Where Good Things Happen!) a thing. I’ve watched old seasons, I know you just use the Sanctuary (Where Good Things Happen!) as a money saving venture where you just serve the castaways food from the staff cafeteria instead of giving them lavish rewards!
Most Underrated Trauma: Ben’s Camping Trauma
Where’s a sob story backstory package from Survivor production? I’m shocked they didn’t lean into this angle more… he just casually dropped that he had a horrible camping experience in high school that apparently still haunts him.
Disclaimer: I hope Ben is doing well and I’m not trying to make light of this, I admire how he has toughed it out despite the mental toll his sleeping struggles are taking on him.
MVP of the Episode: Charlie
He won the battle against Maria by taking out Q. But Maria still stands.
I am interested to see how he handles this moving forward… I assume he continues to pursue Maria’s exit, but it was interesting to hear that Charlie (and Ben) wanted to keep Maria in the loop. Honestly, he got very lucky that it didn’t ruin his game. He makes a good point: if Maria does win the final five immunity (certainly a possibility), then he can continue to play his options. He can point to the fact that he tried to warn her, and parlay that into a butt-saving agreement in the last vote to reunite the Siga three against Liz or Kenzie. This would make the final four and final three more complicated, since Charlie’s whole FTC pitch is riding on separating from and blindsiding Maria…
Goat of the Episode (or, the You Didn’t Play Your Idol Award): Q
Let’s make sure we celebrate what was a prime LeBron level performance from one Quintavius “Q” Burdette. The man was such television gold that he was able to get a Survivor purist like me begging for what would have been an iconic idol play, when four episodes ago he basically soft quit Survivor because he couldn’t protect Tevin from getting voted out. The inflated ego, the overwhelming passion, the football-coded teamspeak, the mischievous smile, the ability to withstand utter hatred and unhinged Liz tantrums for days like a cockroach in the apocalypse, the cheeky catchphrases, the insane psychoanalysis of a game of hide-and-seek he set up, the inventive genius of the Q skirt… I could go on and on. Q made the best TV of any New Era castaway we’ve seen, and he has done it unapologetically and in stride with all the memes he has embraced. He should be the first name on the cast for Season 50. I already know he is thinking of ways he can top the strategies he implemented in his first season. In fact, put him on the Challenge! He would be perfect for that show as an athletic pot-stirrer.
But alas, the power of the Q skirt could not overcome the voodoo curse placed on this season’s hidden idol. We all knew, deep down, he was doomed the second he found that stupid package. I still can’t get over the fact that FIVE people have been voted out with idols this season, and FOUR PEOPLE IN A ROW have succumbed to the idol curse. This trend will certainly cause a shift in the Survivor meta. I imagine all the superfans going into Survivor 47 and 48 will be playing their idols like it is burning a hole in their pocket.
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PLAYER TIER LIST:
OUT OF THE GAME
18. Jelinsky
17. Jess
16. Randen
15. Bhanu
14. Jem
13. Moriah
12. Tim
11. Soda
10. Tevin
9. Hunter
8. Tiffany
7. Venus
6. Q
NO CHANCE OF WINNING
5. Liz
She said it herself. She can’t win challenges, she can’t do fire, and she has no alliances. Liz is well set up to be at the final tribal council as a goat, and she can take the moral victory home to her daughter and celebrate at Applebee’s.
4. Ben
I’d say Ben has a slim chance of winning… if Ben’s sole storyline about his night terrors wasn’t being used just to make Kenzie look like Survivor Mother Teresa. His game is simply a lesser version of Charlie’s as a Siga and Kenzie’s as a good vibes social player.
COULD WIN IF THINGS GO HER WAY
3. Maria
Maria’s prowess as a player has been recognized at this point. But even if she does survive the final five vote that everyone wants to send her home at, and the unpredictable final four firemaking, will that be enough to beat Charlie or Kenzie with a jury that will have some mixed feelings about her? I’m feeling it is unlikely, especially after being caught unaware with the Q blindside. This means Charlie and Kenzie have to be out of the picture for Maria’s ideal FTC.
FAVORITES TO WIN
2. Kenzie
The wildly positive season long vibes of Kenzie put her in a position to win Survivor 46 if she gets to the end. What she has going for her is that she has zero enemies and a lot of jury friends; the kind and positive attitude she has presented to her tribe has kept her in the loop for almost all the votes, and she survived a chaotic starting tribe to navigate to the final five. The holes in her game are the case-making resume moves; there’s no vote she championed that wasn’t just what the majority of the tribe was already on board to do. The one vote she really pushed was blindsiding Tiffany, but then she backed out of it hours before the rest of the tribe blindsided her… without Kenzie’s knowledge.
A winning Kenzie season feels to me like Danni Boatwright’s winning season in Survivor: Guatemala. Danni wasn’t ever a strategic leader, but she was well connected and liked and rode with the right people to the final two for her eventual victory assisted by a bitter jury against Stephanie. Realistically Kenzie doesn’t have a resume like Charlie or Maria, but she is certainly well-liked and could charm a jury that prefers her over the Siga duo.
I’ve also generally been super wary of crowning Kenzie victor, which is why I’m betting on Charlie over her. It was only two seasons ago that Carolyn’s insanely positive edit drew zero votes in FTC, and five seasons since the fandom was duped by Xander’s positive edit. Kenzie is more likely to perform well in a FTC situation as a better speaker… but I just can’t get over the itch that the angelic, heart of gold, mermaid-dragon Kenzie we’ve been presented editwise could be driven more by being a very marketable castaway rather than being a Survivor mastermind.
1. Charlie the Swiftie
While I am predicting Charlie to come out on top, this is by no means a slam dunk. Charlie has told us through confessionals that he’s separated himself as a strategic player and put together a clean season of Survivor by leveraging his position in the middle as a swing vote, but does the jury see him as an autonomous player or as someone who rode Maria’s coattails for the whole game? Charlie also is at risk to be targeted if Maria wins immunity in final five, and he will all but be guaranteed for firemaking if he doesn’t win immunity at final four.
But even if the path has pitfalls, I think in the final three Charlie’s combined social game, strategic involvement in every single vote, and speaking skills with a jury gives him the best on-paper case to win Survivor 46.
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One more episode. Who wins the chaotically wonderful Survivor 46?