Survivor 46 is over! A new winner is crowned in one of the closest final votes in a long time. Let’s dive into it!
Sometimes, It Takes Two
The goal of the final five vote was to get Maria out, and that meant going above and beyond to ensure that she was not able to keep herself safe for one more tribal council. When the immunity challenge got sweaty as Kenzie and Maria were neck and neck at the puzzle and a surprise twist required castaways to run back through the course to pick up a key plank of wood, Liz took it upon herself to dash back and grab Kenzie’s board in order to ensure she could comfortably solve the final combination. Was Liz running back to grab Kenzie’s board technically legal? Maybe, maybe not. Everything’s legal in reality TV competition until it isn’t. Regardless, it was a quick thinking move by Liz to snuff out any chance Maria makes the final four, and that means an incredibly pissed Maria (her face said it all) is led to the gallows for a hero’s exit. While a surprise flip from Liz was teased, common sense ruled and the strongest resume in the game had to be sent home at the most convenient opportunity.
The Maria sendoff felt a lot like Ricard’s sendoff from Survivor 41, but with the added flavor of an overly celebratory final four who felt it appropriate to give Maria’s game a standing ovation, versus a jury that was fairly indifferent to Maria for various reasons. While Maria’s gameplay was not without some pitfalls, she deserved her flowers for setting the tone as the most successful strategist in Survivor 46 combined with strong results as a surprise challenge beast. But a standing O? That seems a bit much to me. I guess we just give those out for anyone now.
The Biggest Threat to Win (???) Doomed by Fire
The final four is set and castaways are treated to a creative new challenge: the Plinko puzzle. Castaways are given a simple puzzle to build, but you must also keep a ball circulating around a large Plinko board. Let the ball drop, you are given a large time penalty. Props to production for not recycling Sim-motion for yet another final challenge and instead creating a new and creative immunity.
Despite running on fumes, Ben methodically tackled the challenge and won himself into the final tribal council. Liz fell out of contention immediately, and Charlie and Kenzie made key mistakes at the Plinko board that cost them their chance to win. That means Ben has to choose who he takes to the FTC and who he makes duke it out for fire.
The first thing Ben does is immediately take Liz off the table for a free ride, framing it to Liz that she is the biggest threat left and needs to be knocked out. While Ben seems to believe this to be true, another big reason is that Liz is a self-professed millionaire and he’d rather take someone who needs money to the end. The unintended consequence of this is now Ben has to make a decision between two of his closest island friends: the man who he’s rode and played song battle with since day one, and the woman who holds his hand through his night terrors. Ben basically cries all afternoon debating the decision, but eventually decides to bring Charlie to the end over Kenzie. A slightly flustered and annoyed Kenzie struggles at first to get a fire going, but eventually burns through her rope to earn her spot in the final tribal council against Liz, who looked pretty hopeless up there with the flint.
The big talking point coming out of this firemaking has to be Liz and her attitude towards her winning probability. It cannot be overstated that Liz was COMPLETELY bought into the narrative that she was the heavy favorite to win Survivor 46. She went as far as to not only say it in confessionals, but to say it at tribal council in front of a jury that… didn’t seem so supportive of her opinion? Nothing about her season screamed heavy favorite, in fact much of her season screamed “goat” in the same way Liz screamed at Q about Applebees. But we are talking about Liz here: she clearly lives in her own world, oblivious to the social cues and opinions of others around her. In the final days of the game it was clear that Liz was feeling herself more than she had all season… probably because she finally pooped for the first time on the beach in the last episode. She was extra quirky, extra loud, extra extra, complete with the completely flat “Meemaw cane” joke she pulled out for her final four challenge entrance.
I’m pretty sad we were robbed of a Liz final tribal council. It could have been an all-time contentious, delusional, humbling experience. But now we will never know. Was Liz secretly a wolf in quirky sheep’s clothing? Probably not. But it would have been fun to confirm that for ourselves.
Strategy vs. Story Decides the Closest Final Tribal Council in Years
The final three that outlasted everyone in Survivor 46 went into a final tribal council where basically the whole jury was still undecided on who they would vote to win a million dollars. They were tasked with deciding between two comparable players who both put together clean, understated games. Kenzie rode with the social butterfly narrative as a castaway who was friends with everyone and navigated the dynamics of the tribe cleanly to the end. Charlie took the measured strategist route, touting the options he set himself for to decide multiple votes during the game. Because both of the strategies didn’t stand out while on the beach in the way that a game like Maria’s did, that meant a lot was riding on how the two finalists would answer the questions of the jury. And because both finalists did a good job explaining their games, it left jury members with the hardest decision in seasons, with people teetering between the two right up until ink hit the parchment.
It was clear early on that Kenzie’s social game had paid off for her jury management. Her answers received a lot of positive reactions from the group from the very start and I think heading into this final tribal council she had the advantage. Charlie was the one tasked with the uphill climb as he tried to convince the jury that much of the season ran through his strategic decisions, and he wasn’t just riding Maria’s coattails. After some early resistance, Charlie started to sway some of the jury with breakdowns of his input on some of the biggest votes, while Kenzie had to concede that she did a lot more following on votes than she would have preferred. Charlie’s efforts to win over the jury was not enough, and Kenzie won Survivor 46 in a 5–3 vote. Tiffany, Venus, Tevin, Q, and shockingly Maria voted for Kenzie. Liz, Soda, and Hunter voted for Charlie.
The 5–3 result doesn’t fully explain how close this vote was. Kenzie and Charlie were basically equal in resume by the end of it all, and at the reunion a simple Jeff poll revealed a lot of the jury were swayed off of their original position. There was no clear divide or obviously bitter jury — it was truly a result left to the whims of the individual jury members. I’d argue this vote was even closer than other tight/controversial votes like Ghost Island and Kaoh Rong. While Ghost Island ended in Survivor’s only tied FTC so far in the show’s history, dissecting the result showed a clear split where castaways who were aligned against Dom voted for Dom to win, while castaways who were allied with Dom voted for Wendell. No clear demographic split exists in Survivor 46. Kaoh Rong was a close tribal council between Aubry and Michele, but the votes of bitter jurors against Aubry by Scot and Jason (and Michele being able to remove pro-Aubry juror member Neal in an awful twist) had a big impact on the result. There seems to be no bitterness in Survivor 46’s vote from the surface level view.
Charlie came very close to winning, but his strategic accomplishments were not enough to woo the required number of jury members against Kenzie’s emotional pleas and passionate responses. With the result in hand, I rate Charlie as a better version of Gavin, Edge of Extinction’s runner up. Both played clean games of Survivor, but lacked the flashy game moves that some jury members wanted to see. Would his season have been different if Maria was able to be voted out at seven or six? Could he have owned a Maria blindside with more success in the FTC? Would a lengthier stay in Ponderosa give Maria the time to reflect and cast a winning vote for her season-long number one? Questions that I’m sure Charlie pondered for a long time after that night.
Kenzie Petty — Mermaid Dragon Millionaire
Kenzie caps off what was a textbook game of social Survivor with a million dollar check to cash in for her business. From day one, Kenzie was planting the alliance seeds that would propel her to where she finished her game on day 26. She sat in a powerful spot in the Yanu trio, working together with Tiffany and Q to dictate three early, chaotic votes in a flailing tribe. Her social cunning earned the respect of her tribemates and marked her an early threat. The Yanu trio was able to stop the bleeding and avoid complete destruction before the merge, where they benefited from immunity during mergatory and a fortunate draw in the split tribal council that allowed them to control the Tim vote at final twelve. Kenzie settled her game down and cozied up with power players in Siga and Nami, but Q threw a complete curveball that forced her to adapt her game. Kenzie’s social maneuvering allowed for her to stay in the loop on what was going on, since she had built a positive relationship with just about everyone in the game at this point. Kenzie had to adapt again when Tiffany was blindsided, which is when she built key casual alliances with Ben, Liz, and Charlie. She rode along with this misfit alliance through the Venus, Q, and Maria votes, and overcame early nerves to win firemaking.
Kenzie struck a perfect balance in her Survivor game: she was important enough to be included in key strategic conversations, but was harmless enough to avoid getting targeted. It’s the definition of an under the radar game. It was shocking and impressive that Kenzie was never considered as the target of a single vote in the post-merge. While her gameplay is missing the flash that the top Survivor players usually bring to the table, her positive energy and good vibes were second to none.
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Biggest Betrayal: Maria Snubbing Charlie
We have to talk about this. Maria and Charlie were calling themselves Survivor 46’s Malcolm and Denise. This is basically Malcolm deciding to vote for Lisa at the very end because “he was charmed by her story”.
Looking at the big picture, there were two jury members that swung the result of the final vote. One was ultimate wild card Q, who said he was voting solely on who he thought needed the money the most. It made sense that he, a self-made successful business owner, would vote for Kenzie to win the money, an aspiring self-made successful business owner.
The other was Maria, for obvious reasons. I haven’t read any post-finale interviews yet; I’m going to need to hear a deeper explanation as to why she chose to snub her day one, number one ally. Was she seriously so influenced by some of Kenzie’s homestretch tribal council speeches? Or did she feel maybeeee a bit bitter that Charlie was trying to take some credit away from her.
The only interesting reunion moment (what a waste of a reunion by the way… we didn’t talk about Applebees at all) was when Jeff Probst asked Charlie point blank what he thought about Maria voting for Kenzie. The long pause gave you all you needed to know about what Charlie was thinking deep down. He thought Maria’s vote was guaranteed, even beyond the late game affirmations. I think Charlie would’ve 100% voted for Maria if the shoe was on the other foot.
If I were in Charlie’s shoes, I honestly don’t think I could continue any sort of post-game relationship with Maria after this. It was a stab in the back, plain and simple.
Best Jury Moment: Q Trying to Fight his Former Yanu Allies
It really is the most Q thing ever to try to completely derail the final tribal council in an effort to defend his decisiveness (or lack of) in a vote the Yanu three made 12 days ago. Never change Q.
The Tanjiro Kamado Award: Ben
Gotta give some props to the rocker. The journey may have ended in zero FTC votes, but Ben learned a lot about himself and lasted the whole twenty six days, capping it off with a locked-in final immunity performance. He did all this while experiencing night terrors consistently since the merge. He fought his demons and slayed them by accomplishing a feat few Survivor players can claim. Or, he shredded his demons and rocked his way to the end of the game.
Legacy Talk — Rating Kenzie’s Win Against Other New Era Winners
It’s the 4th best win in the new era, slightly above Yam Yam and below the Erika/Maryanne tier. Shocker that the two hairstylist winners won in basically the same way: charm everyone to death. Kenzie’s win is better because she wasn’t targeted like Yam Yam was (Yam Yam was often the backup on split votes in case of an idol), and Kenzie won against a better castaway in the final tribal council. Yam Yam didn’t have to fight as hard against Carolyn or Heidi as Kenzie did against Charlie.
Most Concerning Survivor 47 Teaser Quote: Young Guy with Fluffy Curly Hair
“I want to forge my legacy in this game. I want to be the very first head of the Mount Rushmore of the New Era”
Like bro, that’s a lame ass monument.
The Returner Heat Check
SEASON 50 LOCKS: Quintavious “Q” Burdette, Venus
These two were serving on another level compared to the rest of the cast and should be a shoo-in for whatever Season 50 ends up being.
POSSIBLE RETURNEE CANDIDATES: Kenzie, Hunter
Kenzie has the social game, the winner title, and captures the “mother” aura like no other (congrats on the pregnancy!). Hunter’s challenge skill and down-to-earth personality would round out a good returnee cast.
UNLIKELY TO RETURN, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE: Charlie, Maria, Tevin, Tiffany, David “Several” Jelinsky
Maria and Charlie’s strategic success in Survivor 46 should earn her consideration for a second chance. Maria got the hero’s exit Ricard did which makes it seem like they want her back, but I don’t know if she has the popularity to warrant it. Charlie also was charming and played well enough, but I’m unsure if he is an early call for a return cast. If they do both come back, they have to be on the same season… because those game dynamics would be juicy!
Tevin clearly was valued as a strong narrator (which I agree with) and based on the show liking him a lot, I think he would be considered for a future season. Tiffany’s raw emotion and respected presence as a gamer on the island gives her a good second chance resume. And few first boots have scratched the surface of “legend” status like Jelinsky has; it could earn him a second shot… making him the second first boot to return since Fransesqua.
THE HALI FORD ZONE: Bhanu, Liz
While Bhanu and Liz certainly made their mark on Survivor 46… I would cringe if I had to watch them in a second season. They are not good enough at Survivor, and their personalities were grating. Let’s let their iconic moments live on untouched by a second Survivor chapter.
NO WAY: Ben, Tim, Morriah, Randen, Jem, Soda, Jess
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Survivor 46 is over! Final thoughts before the summer break? I’m comfortable saying this is the best New Era season we’ve gotten, because the castaways brought to the table entertaining messiness not seen in any season we’ve gotten in the New Era. Jeff Probst! Messy is good! People want engaging drama with their reality TV! I think Survivor 47 is going to have a tall mountain to match the energy we got this season, especially if the format continues to stay exactly the same. But you already know I’ll be at my TV, ready to overanalyze and enjoy whatever comes next.