Finale Chat – Joy Ellen's Attic

Welcome to the conversation about the FINAL episode of season 46 of survivor!

If Hunter had trusted his gut and played his idol, Q would have become the 3rd member of the jury, and Hunter would have survived to see another day.
If Tiffany had played her hidden idol, Q would have become the 4th member of the jury, and Tiffany would have survived to see another day in the tribe.
If Venus had played her hidden immunity idol, it would have been a tie between Q and Kenzie who would have been the 5th member of the jury.
If Q had played his hidden immunity idol, Charlie would have been the 6th member of the jury.

Though I am based in the Mountain time zone, I’ll be watching the show with the NY/Toronto time zone tonight, typing quick notes which will display at the bottom of this post.

Did you miss something and want to see it written out? Or maybe you can’t view the show this season for some reason, but you still wonder what is going on? Don’t worry, I’ve got you. I usually start typing up the fine details on Thursday, but this week I had emergency commitments for all of Thursday and most of Friday. Even though I’m late, I’ll be spending Friday night and hopefully most of Saturday too working on this. I’ll be streaming and pausing the episode, rewinding and pausing again, sometimes even looking for deleted scenes online, so that I can write out some of the juiciest details for us to enjoy again:

Who all was present for that conversation?
What exactly was said by whom?
How did the individual players perform in the challenges?
Who voted for whom?
What were the final words of the person voted out?
What details were in the previews of the next episode?

On Sunday I will watch the show a third time, just for fun, with my late-watching Survivor pals. So, if YOU are also a late watcher, please don’t hesitate to add your comments to the conversation! The more the merrier!!

Scenes from tonight’s episode, shown at the end of episode 12:

The five sit on a the upsidedown boat to watch the sunrise together. “Final Five!” (might be Liz) They all cheer. They sit with Maria and Charlie sitting on the ground in the middle of the boat, in the foreground. Ben sits on the boat, between Maria and the water. Liz perches on the edge of the boat, between Charlie and the woods. Kenzie sits crosslegged, behind and between Charlie and Maria.
Kenzie, alone to camera: “I’m at final five. I’m like a, secret little cute assassin!”
The five walk in a slow motion line up along the beach: Charlie, Ben, Maria, Kenzie, Liz.
Maria, alone to camera: “It’s do-or-die. Like, this is the time to just go for it.”
Ben, alone to camera: “It’s such a vibe. It’s like, electric, almost.”
It’s a challenge. Players are crawling through an unframed net tunnel, through mud. Charlie just got free, Maria is almost free. Ben, Kenzie and Liz are still stuck inside like worms in a cocoon. Over top, Jeff says: “This could be worth a million dollars, right here!” Charlie sloshes through the mud towards a pail and picks it up.
Liz uses both her hands to pull her cheeks down in a frown: “Holy hot dog on a stick, this is crazy!”
Charlie, alone to camera: “I’m so close. I want to win this freaking game.”

Survivor Fans Ready? Let’s GOOOO!

The episode opens with Jeff summarizing what has happened so far this season, then he introduces us to what will happen tonight: Two immunity challenges, two tribal councils, a fire making showdown, and then the final three will face the jury who will vote on who will be the sole survivor of Season 46. Then we will immediately go to the aftershow and talk about it all.

Scenes from previous episodes:

Q searches for and finds his hidden immunity idol.
Charlie and Maria say their fond farewells, just in case, while each plans to vote out the other.
Maria wins immunity for her third time.
Kenzie, Ben and Liz agree with Charlie that they are voting Q tonight, then Kenzie and Liz bamboozle Q and Maria into thinking they are voting with those two against Charlie. Alone to the camera, Maria laughs about sending Charlie out, hopes she will get a hug. ha ha ha.
Q opts to not play his idol. 13th person voted out, 6th member of the jury.

New stuff: Night 23 Nuinui

It is a quiet return to camp. They gather under the shelter around the fire pit as usual, but before everyone can be seated, Maria tells Charlie to come with her to talk out by the water. He agrees, and follows her.

Maria, alone to camera: “I messed up tonight. I tried to take out Charlie, my closest ally, but my big move didn’t pan out, and yeah, I have to do, like, major damage control.”
Maria sits next to Charlie on the upside down boat, and begins to lie to him: “I had everybody come to me today, except Ben, to tell me that if I sat next to you at the end, I was never gonna win. They pitted me against you and did a bait and switch and made me vote for you so I look like an idiot, and now Q’s gone.”

Back around the campfire, and in private, relating to what goes on around the campfire:

Maria, alone to camera: “I’m, like, nauseated. Just trying to explain myself to Charlie, and I’m really worried my best friend in the game is never going to forgive me, and my game is done.”
Maria to Charlie: “That threesome, that’s up there, is out to get us. They messed up the alliance I trusted the most, and now it’s tainted.”
Charlie to Maria, finally getting some words in: “You know what? There’s no reason to call the party off. I still want to party, okay? Because we’re down to five people, and guess what? We just gotta think how we’re gonna play this.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “Final five, by the skin of my TEETH, Ooh! Maria! My number one ally, came for my throat. You know, it’d be easy for me to be bitter and upset, but let’s be real, if she didn’t win immunity, I was planning on doing the same thing.”
Maria to Charlie: “I’m sorry. Gawd, I screwed up.” Charlie elbows her with a big smile on his face: “What the heck, Maria?”
Charlie, alone to camera: “Maria feels terrible, she feels bamboozled, but it’s completely fake. I know it. She came for me, and I came out on top. But if one thing came out of tonight, it’s that I’m a big threat, and people are willing to write my name down. So, I have to keep every path open, keep every option open, to get to the end and go for the win, go for the million.”

I admire how Charlie had such control of his emotions to be able to do that, to keep every option open. I’ve always been more of a bridge-burner myself, so I’d have to redirect more of my brain pathways to do that. Smart play.

Back around the campfire, Maria and Charlie return to join the others.

Ben crows: “We made final five!” Charlie: “Honestly, that was a great Tribal.” Kenzie: “That was a great -” Maria: “And, Liz, you finally got your wish to vote Q off.” Liz nods slowly and contentedly. Ben: “You think that was just Liz’s wish?” Maria: “Oh, no, I doubt that.” Liz: “And that’s what’s up.”
Liz, alone to camera: “Q, my darling, you got played. ah haaa I’m so excited!
Maria to the group: “That was honestly a really good move, guys. Y’all are playing WAAY harder than I thought.”
Ben: Ya, we could have told you that, but we didn’t.”
Liz, alone to camera: “Maria says she finally sees that we are actually playing the game.” She pulls a bewildered pose. “Just a face. I don’t even have words. Just a face for that. … But at this point in the game, Maria has a giant target on her back.”
Maria to group: “Q ruined my game tonight, and I fell for it. Y’all want to let me win tomorrow?” Group: “No!” Charlie: “Definitely not.”
Maria, alone to camera: “I am on the bottom and now, you know, there’s a massive target on me. Winning tomorrow is imperative, like, this is the time to just, like, go for it. To fight as hard as I can, and hopefully either win or go down fighting.”

Opening Credits: 06:07

Straight to the first challenge. The stage is a long, narrow obstacle course, divided in 5 coloured lines. Blue, pink, green, yellow, purple. The five players enter in slow motion, Maria sporting the beautiful immunity necklace. When Jeff takes it back from her, he says it’s for the third time. She says, “One more, Jeff, I got one more in me.” Jeff pauses for a sec: “Woah.” Liz mimes a cat fight, with nails and teeth. Jeff: “That was a big prediction.” She laughs.

Obstacle course has many steps:

Start matt. Randomly selected colours are: Blue:Maria, Pink: Liz, Green:Kenzie, Yellow: Ben, Purple: Charlie.
Run to first obstacle.
Crawl through a muddy net tunnel. Charlie is the first through, the Kenzie, Maria, then Ben, and much later Liz comes through.
Find pail of water to wash the mud off your face. Finding the pail, Charlie, unable to see past the mud on his face, smacks his face with the pail and sports that bruise for the rest of the season.
Run to second obstacle.
Untie a plank from the rope that is woven through it’s little holes.
Pull plank up out of the frame it was tied to. Charlie is the first through, then Maria.
Climb through a rope web hanging through dry sand. Maria and Charlie are halfway through this when Kenzie pulls the next plank out of the frame.
Run to the third obstacle. Charlie reaches it first, Maria reaches it several seconds later.
Use sandbags to release a ball of rope, a “Monkey’s Fist” from a very high platform. Charlie and Maria’s monkey’s fists drop at the same time.
Use the Monkey’s Fist to pull a lever to release the middle part of a bridge. Maria achieves this first.
Cross the bridge and untie and retrieve a key. While Maria retrieves her key, Charlie releases his bridge.
Run to the ladder. Maria is climbing this ladder while Charlie is still untying his key.
Climb up the steep ladder, 9 rungs. (There is a slide beside the ladder.)
Use key to unlock the puzzle pieces. Maria, then Charlie, then Kenzie, then Liz, then Ben, then Liz. Yeah, Liz arrives twice. She forgot to bring her key up the ladder, so she had to run back down and get her key, then climb back up and unlock the puzzle pieces.
Complete a simple puzzle of the Survivor logo. This part is a race between Kenzie and Maria, with Kenzie in the lead by about five puzzle pieces.
Decipher the code. The puzzle will reveal the solution to a combination lock.
They don’t know this, but now they need to slide down, go through all the obstacles to the board they untied, count the holes in that board, go through all the obstacles back to the ladder, climb up the ladder again, enter the number of holes, and the number of the puzzle pieces, and the number of somethings ON the puzzle pieces…. into a combination lock.

Kenzie solves puzzle first now she has to figure out the code. Maria finishes up her puzzle while Kenzie thinks it through, clearly confused about it. Kenzie whispers to Liz to help her figure it out. Kenzie: “How many holes in my plank? Is it that plank back there?” Liz: “Holes in your plank, count the holes in your plank…” Liz looks out over the obstacle course and RUNS over all the obstacles again, to get Kenzie’s plank and bring it up to her. Maria sees what Liz is doing and realizes that she needs to do the same. Maria goes out alone to fetch her own plank. Returning to Kenzie with her plank in hand, Liz counts the holes. Liz: “34. Try 34.” Kenzie tries it. “It’s not right.” Maria comes back up and does it all alone. Jeff does not interfere in any way, just as he did not interfere when, at an earlier challenge a different player was not stopped from going back, after he finished a stage of the challenge, to help someone else complete in a timely fashion.

Open the combination lock and retrieve a hammer. Liz counts the holes in Kenzie’s board again, says “Try 35.” Kenzie tries it, it’s correct. 49-33-35
Bang the gong. Kenzie bangs her gong. Kenzie wins!
First to bang the gong wins Immunity and there’s also a reward: Taken to the Sanctuary (where good things happen) for pasta, Caesar salad, garlice bread, macaroons, chocolate pudding, wine, and soda. Kenzie wins immunity and reward!

Maria is fuming. It doesn’t seem like fair play that people can team up against someone else, yet their efforts were not disqualified, so it must be okay in this game. But, wow. Liz and Kenzie tell her, “It takes two to beat you, you’re a baddass.” Maria fumes, but to her credit–and mind, my rose-coloured glasses are off regarding her, but to her credit, she does not lash out. She is a strongly self controlled woman.

Kenzie: “Thank you so much, Liz. Like, Maria, you’re incredible, like, we had to team up to beat you. Like, that just proves, like, what an amazing competitor you are. It just made sense. When Liz saw she wasn’t gonna finish her puzzle, it was just like, Okay girl, we got to go.”

Jeff points out that the better you are the bigger the target you are.

Jeff tells Kenzie that she can invite one person to come with her. Kenzie wants to take Ben, because he hasn’t seen the Santuary yet. Buuut, Liz helped her win, so she feels like she should take Liz. Liz: “I’d go with Ben, I’m allergic to pasta.”

Liz: “Yes, what I did was wild, but I’m trying to make it to the end. And honestly, that’s all I care about. It seems like a no-brainer that tonight is Maria’s night. But this is Survivor. This is the final five. Anything can happen.

Commercials Break 20:12

Day 24 The Sanctuary

Victorious music as the camera follows the flight path of various birds, finally landing at The Sanctuary where Kenzie and Ben stand and admire their feast. Kenzie pours wine into a pewter goblet, while Ben pours some soda into a pewter stein.

Kenzie: I can’t believe I won Immunity!”
Ben: “Dude. And it was, like, the most important and sickest Immunity of the season.”
Kenzie: “I didn’t care which one of us won it, as long as it wasn’t Maria.”
Ben, sitting down: “Damn right!”
Kenzie, sitting down: “Oh, Cheers!”
Ben: “To chillin’ mad hard.”
Kenzie: “To chillin’ mad hard.”
Kenzie, alone to camera: “Going into the Immunity Challenge today, there was one common goal, and it was for Maria to not win. And Liz helped me win immunity, which I was surprised at. She is so unpredictable, she’s like a secret assasin. It’s a perfect day, and I’m not getting voted out, ever. I’m here to stay, baby, like, I’m going to final four whether y’all like it or not!”
Kenzie to Ben: “Honestly, today is, like, amazing for me. Like, winning…”
Ben: “Because the high is so high today.”
Kenzie: “I know, and, like, I get to be out here with my Survivor bestie.”
Ben: “Oh, my gawd, it’s sick!”
Ben, alone to camera: “It was so sick Kenzie picked me for the reward today, because in this game, you hope to make alliances, and then you make a real friend with a person like Kenzie. Like, how can you not feel grateful to shred in a situation like this?”
Ben to Kenzie: “When I go home, I just have to catch up on all the things I ignored for years, ‘cuz I was too busy trying to rock my hardest. I’m gonna get my driver’s license.”
Kenzie: “Hell, yeah. That’s a good place to start.”
Ben: “Yeah.”
Kenzie: “If you want to be an adult, we should get a driver’s license.”
Ben: “Exactly.”
Ben, alone to camera: “On top of that, we’re sitting in Fiji, overlooking one of the most epic landscapes of all time. It’s such a vibe, it’s like, electric, almost.”
Ben to Kenzie: “What do we do when we get back? I don’t want to come in cocky and be like, “Oh, Maria tonight,” you know?”
Kenzie: “Feels like too perfect. I would be shocked if something crazy happened.”
Ben, alone to camera: “I think we’re all on the same page, cuz the enemy is so common. Maria is a whole-package threat. Multiple immunities, decimated people’s gameplay, played an epic game of deception. so unless she finds an idol or pulls a blindside, Maria’s done.”
Ben lays back, alone in a gorgeous coarsely woven hammock. Sun and shade speckle over him.

The camera pulls away from the sancturary to the familiar tribal beach shore, and then into the shelter area.

Maria: “Well, that was a fun challenge.”
Liz: “It was fun, Maria, it was fun.”
Charlie: “Oh my gawd”
Liz: “I love you, dude.”
Maria: “I love you, too.” They hug, Charlie chugs back some water, watching them hug.
Liz: “You’re just such a friggin’ competitor, dude.”
Maria, patting her on the back during the long hug: “Thank you for saying that.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “Liz, going over to Kenzie to help take down Maria — that says to me, Liz is here to play.”

Everyone goes down to the ocean to wash off the mud. Liz is still on shore taking off ashirt, while Charlie and Maria, fully clothed and soaking in the water, have a minute for a quick private conversation.

Maria: “You know, you’ve got my vote. I’m gonna spend the afternoon looking for idols. If I can find one, I’m gonna pretend I don’t have one.”
Charlie: “Yup.”
Maria: “And then you and I take out whoever we want to take out.”
Charlie: “We can think of some other tricks, too.”
Maria: “I mean, I’m up for anything.”
Charlie: “I think, that’s…I mean…that’s a great one.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “After last Tribal Council, I made sure that my door to work with Maria was open. Cuz I didn’t know what today would bring. So, I want to solidify Maria as my champion if she’s going home tonight, and as someone who’s gonna work with me, if she finds an idol.”

Maria to Charlie, on land, planning her idol hunting: “We should just check tree mail, water well, underneath, and then go the back way, and then go back down to the beach.”

Maria, alone to camera: “It’s really hard to come back to camp knowing that Liz just worked against me. I’m, like, super pissed, but at the same time, I’m like, damn! Like, maybe it just takes two people to beat me.”
Charlie to Maria, talking about the idol hunt: “This is cool, this feels like it would be a good ‘tied to a branch’ tree.” Maria: “Mm-hmm.” She walks into the underbrush to check.
Maria, alone to camera: “My plan from here is to find an idol, or convince somebody to work with me.” Charlie checks in the flippers, while next to him, Maria crouches down to rake through dry sand with a hand held tool. “I think Charlie has forgiven me, and would work with me, but that’s not enough. We need one more person.”
Back at The Sanctuary, Kenzie and Ben rough house in the water, trying to get clean themselves. Kenzie holds up her red buff like she is a bull fighter, and like a bull, Ben prepares to run through it. Ben: “Let’s go, Let’s go!”
Maria continues, alone to camera: “So, today is definitely gonna be an uphill climb, in the snow, barefoot.”
Ben and Maria are on either side of a band of long grass. Charlie waits at the other end while Maria walks towards him, about thirty feet. Maria: “I want the kids to see that Mommy did not give up!” Charlie: “Badass.”
Maria, alone to camera: “I’ve just never been one to give up, like, I just, it’s not in me to give up.”

In the brush, Kenzie walks toward Maria. They seem to be alone. Maria laughs and asks if Kenzie is coming out to keep tabs on her. Kenzie says she wants to talk to her.

Maria: “Here’s my pitch to you. You gotta know that, like, with Ben, I’ve distrusted him since day one. That’s why we’re not working together.”
Kenzie: “Yeah.”
Maria: “Like, the fact that he’s trying to convince you that he ‘accidentally’ wrote ‘Kenzie’? You wouldn’t –“
Kenzie: “I never believed that he ‘accidentally wrote ‘Kenzie’!”
Maria: “But that’s what I’m saying. You’re about to move forward with somebody who is SO deceptive, and I’m telling you, I’m an open book.”
Kenzie: “Yeah…I just don’t think I can beat you. I think I can beat Ben.”
Maria: “Yeah.”
Kenzie, alone to camera: “Maria’s selling Ben writing my name down a couple of days ago wasn’t an accident. She is fighting for her life right now, which I respect, but she’s almost making worse by being so convincing. I’m like, no, you’re even more dangerous! Her pitching Ben is foolish. There’s no way any of us are gonna fall for that.”

Maria sits in the shelter with Liz and Charlie.

Maria: “I’m gonna put myself out there, big time, cuz I’ve got nothing to lose. Ben wrote Kenzie’s name down on purpose. That was not an accident. And he lied to her face, and he’s been lying to her face.” (Kinda like how Maria is lying right now.)
Liz: “Wow.”
Maria: “Ben’s been playing a game that nobody knows, and he’s very charismatic. He is fully capable of pulling something out at Final Tribal. He could come out and say, “Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. None of you even knew that I was doing this.” “
Liz, her face changing from resigned attention to interested fear: “Yeah, what if he has this, like, rocking story? I have no idea. That’s the scary part.”
Maria: “Taking Ben to the final three is dangerous. And I think the decision is in your hands, really.”
Liz: “Well, we would all have to do that.”
Charlie, then Maria: “Three’s enough.” Maria leaves to hunt for the idol again.
Liz, alone to camera: “I know that this is crazy, but Maria really got to me about Ben and the unknown. If he drops a bomb or two, it might be just enough for him to win the game. That’s terrifying.”
Liz to Charlie: “It is good infor about Ben.” Charlie nods.
Liz, alone to camera: “I’ve been so focused on trying to get Maria out, but is that really what is best for Liz?”
Liz, to Charlie: “Ben, Ben, Ben. What she’s saying about Ben is true.” Charlie shrugs, considering.
Charlie, alone to camera: “If you had told me this morning, Maria goes to Liz and pitches Ben as the vote out tonight, I would have laughed you off of Fiji. But, it seems like Liz IS willing to do something different tonight.”

On the beach, Kenzie and Ben sit together.

Kenzie: “We’re all just voting Maria, right?”
Ben: “Yeah.”
Kenzie: “Like, why does tonight feel so heavy, when it should be so easy?”

Charlie, alone to camera: “Maria has a lot of enemies in this game. Ben, on the other hand, has friends on the jury. He’s a great story teller, he’s charismatic, and we’ve been together since day one. So, I’m worried the jury might see us as similar players. He could easily get some of my jury votes, and that’s dangerous.”

Huddled together, Kenzie and Liz compare notes and ideas.

Liz: “I don’t know.”
Kenzie: “Tonight she doesn’t have the numbers–“
They hear something and look behind Kenzie.
Kenzie continues: “For anything.”
There is a silent pause, as Kenzie waits for Liz to respond.
Kenzie: “Right?”

Maria, alone to camera: “I am so scared because tonight could be the end for me. I’ve done all I can do, but if I can pull off this move, I’m gonna win this game. And so, tonight is a massive night. It’s do-or-die for me.”

In the darkening day, the tribe walks along the shoreline together, towards Tribal Council. Front to back, it’s Ben, Charlie, Maria, Kenzie, Liz.

Part of me is still wishing for a person who presents themselves with honesty to be the winner, even though I know it is not that kind of game, so my private hope is that all these “cute and wily assasins” are just stringing everyone along like usual, and Maria’s lies about Ben won’t change their votes from getting Maria out tonight.

Commercials Break 27:12

Tribal Council Night 24

The jury watches to see who is wearing the necklace. When Venus and Tiffany see that it is Kenzie, they smile HUGEly at each other.

The tribe sits like this: left to right: Maria, Charlie, Ben, Liz, Kenzie.

Jeff: “Today was an interesting day at the challenge. Kenzie’s in the lead, Maria’s on her tail. And at that point, Liz decides I’m gonna help Kenzie. And it worked. Kenzie wins individual immunity, congratulations, But Maria, where does that sit, knowing that they were working together to make sure you didn’t win?”
Maria: “Honestly, I have no hard feelings at all. I think at 47, with 3 small kids at home, and 3 immunity challenges under my belt, I hold my head up high, and I feel super proud of the game that I played.”
Jeff: “I just want to say, there are a lot of people that look at Survivor now and feel like it’s a younger person’s game, but then somebody like you shows up, and says oh no no no, oh I still got game. I got a lot of game. And Ben, the better you are, the bigger the target.”
Ben: “That’s just how the game goes, you know? Maria’s a great player. I still think she is the MVP of the season. But, no hard feelings. We all have to out last, out play, out wit, out shred, whatever it is. The bottom line is we have to play the game.”
Jeff: “Kenzie, what Ben is saying is that you DO develop relationships,” Maria reaches out her arm and strokes Ben’s elbow lovingly. (Like she didn’t just exagerate or lie about him to the others in an effort to save herself.) “And sometimes they become like this,” Jeff threads the fingers of both hands together, “But then sometimes they do this.” Jeff knocks his two closed fists against each other. “Doesn’t mean you can’t play the game with somebody, but it does mean if I have the opportunity to take you out, I might. And it sounds like Ben is saying, I have no problem writing Maria’s name down tonight. Am I getting this right?”
Maria, nodding: “Yeah, definitely.”
Kenzie: “Yeah, Maria’s incredible. Like, an amazing woman-“
Maria: “Thank you.”
Kenzie: “I admire you, I respect you, I love you deeply. And that is what’s crazy about Survivor, is that I can look someone in the face and be like, you could kick my ass up and down this game. So, I have to write your name down tonight.”
Maria, making kissing motions at Kenzie and smiling hugely: “I totally understand.”
Kenzie: “Because you would beat all of us. You’re amazing. You are wonderful.”
Maria: “Thank you, Kenzie.”
Kenzie: “I love you.”
Maria: “I love you, too.”
Jeff: “Liz. Ben and Kenzie have been very open. They’re voting Maria. So, where are you?”
Liz: “I’m just ready to focus on the game. Sometimes I’m like a horse with blinders on. When I was helping Kenzie with the puzzle today, I wasn’t thinking about Maria’s feelings. Afterwards, I was definitely thinking about her feelings and what a jerk I looked like. And so, it’s really hard, but, Maria and I, we’re like two ships passing in the night. Like, we could have been the, like, most dynamic duo out here, but for some reason, instead of attracting each other, we just kept getting further and further apart with each vote.”
Jeff: “Charlie, where are you with Maria?”
Charlie: “Maria and I have worked-” Maria holds out her open hand, which Charlie grabs and holds with his hand. “really side-by-side a lot of this game. We’ve got 24 days together. You know, you have people that you build these insane bonds with, and then you have to vote each other out. Tonight, it’s almost like a sibling rivalry moment.”
Jeff: “Maria, from my vantage point, you’ve been very gracious about handling this pressure and having a target and even having them double-team, trying to get at you. How are you able to play the game as hard as you’ve played but also understand, you’re coming for me, if you can get me, you should get me.”
Maria: “I think any competitor knows how to win and knows how to lose. And i can honour and respect any move that takes down a fierce competitor like myself. There’s also the knowledge that my kids are watching. My kids are watching tonight.” She begins to cry. “You know, and, I plan on walking out of here with my head held high. I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of my game, and I know that they’re gonna be proud of me. And being ungracious, like, that’s not what I want them to do, and so I’m going to be an example to them.”
Jeff: “Where does that come from?”
Maria: “I guess it comes from my upbringing. You know, I’m an immigrant. I come from Beirut, Lebanon, and I grew up with, I guess, and environment of survival. You know, work hard, be determined and to be honest and to be respectful and to be gracious and to be humble. And I think to myself, my husband and I are raising 3 boys, and Daddy is strong as hell, but you know what? Mommy is too.”

Jeff: “Well, it’s a tough transition to make, but it is time to vote.

Maria is first to vote, she votes for Ben.
Kenzie votes Maria♡: “I literally want to be you when I grow up. You’re the coolest person in the whole world, which is exactly why this is happening, because you literally would have wiped the floor with us, like, you’re amazing.”
Ben votes Lieutenant Maria. Charlie and Maria hold hands, saying goodbye.
Liz votes Maria
Charlie votes Maria: “Listen up, future nephews, your mom kicks butt.”

When Jeff grabs the votes to read them out loud, no one plays an idol or an advantage.

Maria is voted out. It is a sombre moment. Charlie and Maria share a strong hug. Ben calls her Lieutenant Mom as he hugs her tight. Liz gets a hug. Kenzie and Maria hug tight too. Many more of the same kind words are said back and forth.

Jeff snuffs Maria’s torch, she turns around and says it has been a pleasure. The remaining four stand to give her a standing ovation.

Maria’s last words: “You know what? I feel amazing. I played such a good game. I’m 47 and, you know, I smoked some of these guys. It felt really good to know that, at my age, at my stage of life, like, I still got it.”

Commercials Break 35:47

Nuinui Night 24

Everyone: “Final Four!!!” Screams, cheers, clapping, hugging, whooping, dancing.
Ben: “Come here, Meemaw!” Yells Ben, as he pulls Liz into the four person hug. “Let’s goooooo!”
Liz, alone to camera: “Holy hot dog on a stick, I made it! Ta-freaking-da, baby! Final four feels amazing, but honestly, I knew it was gonna happen.”
Charlie: “Congrats to you all. That was an emotional Tribal Council, though.” Liz: “It waaaassss.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “As sweet as it is being in the final four, Tribal was hard.”
Ben and Kenzie create a fire.
Charlie continues, alone to camera: “I knew that if I was going to have a shot at this title, Maria couldn’t be there with me.”
Ben: “Winning immunity tomorrow is gonna be a burden, though, dude.”
Charlie: “Yeah, that’s a laaaaht of power.”
Liz: “It’s a lot of power.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “This whole game, I’ve been all about options, and tomorrow, the only way to have options is to win. You have to be wearing the necklace, otherwise you’re at the mercy of whoever is wearing it.”

Everyone falls asleep around the campfire. Time passes. Thunder sounds in the distance. The wind picks up. Ben pants rapidly, panic beginning. Liz wakes up and looks his way. Ben calls out: “Aah!” Then he wakes up, as beside him, Kenzie stirs. “Sorry, I’m so, so sorry.” A ways away, Charlie sits up and looks over at Ben.

Ben: “One more night. One more night. One more night. One more night.”
Ben, alone to camera: “At night, I don’t know what happens. Some nights, I have a reason why I freak out, but last night I had all the reason in the world to chill — you know, I had a reward, we got Maria out. But, I have this hysteria, and I have to calm down for a minute. It takes a while.”
Ben to Kenzie: “It’s like, I enjoy the day and then this happens. I kind of just want it to be over.” He cries.
Kenzie: “We’re so close, Ben, you’re so close.”
Ben, alone to camera: “It’s weird. It’s like I wake up from a dream, and this jolt of electricity bumps me up like Beetlejuice.”
Ben: “It’s like I’m actually going mental, bro.” Charlie and Ben are going for a walk together in the dark. “I’ve been suffering since, like, day 13 or whatever.”

Charlie: “I know.”

Day 13: Kenzie: “Ben, is that you?” Ben groans: “Yeah. Hold my hand just a little bit.” Kenzie: “I’m right here, breathe through it.”
Day 17: Ben, groaning: “Ah, yeah.” Kenzie rubs his back. Ben: “I need water.”
Night 20: Ben: “I feel like I don’t stand a chance, you know?” A tear rolls down his face, into his hair. Ben: “Against, like, myself, not the game or anything.”

Ben, alone to camera: “I thought I went into this game really having conquered some of my demons, but the big lesson for me in life is how do you let go of trying to control what you can’t? And how do you trust in yourself and believe in who you are despite your fears?”

Kenzie and Ben on the beach at night. Kenzie sits on the upside down boat, and Ben stands near her. Ben: “I don’t show up for myself, I don’t think. What if that was the whole journey of all my stress?” Kenzie: “I think that’s a beautiful lesson to learn.”

Ben, alone to camera: “But at the same time, I feel very blessed because people show up for me. They believe in me.”
Charlie and Ben hug in the dark. Charlie: “Anti-Anxiety Hug.” Ben, tiredly: “Let’s go!” Charlie: “We got you, bro.”
Ben, alone to camera: “To me it just comes down to, like, I went through it. I didn’t quit. And thank gawd I had Kenzie and Charlie.”
Laying down beside each other, on their backs. Kenzie: “You’re definitely getting through it. We’re at final four.” Ben, faintly: “Yeah, dawg.”

Commercials Break 39:21

Nuinui Day 25

The sun rises on the beach. Charlie and Ben walk to fetch the tree mail. They are singing: “Tree mail, tree mail” “Where do you get your news?” “Tree mail, tree mail.” “Gathering all the clues!” “Yow!” There is a bit of a dance that goes with their song. As soon as Ben picks up the scroll, he sings, “Siga!” “Ahaaa!” “Let’s go!”

Charlie: “Dude.”
Ben, almost in unison: “Dude.”
Charlie: “The last two Siga?”
Ben: “The first pair remaining.”
Charlie, hitting Ben on his shoulder: “Dumb and Dumber, baby!”
Ben: “Let’s go!!”
Charlie, alone to camera: “I’ve been alone with Ben since day one. You know, we started the Dumb and Dumber alliance after we botched the Savvy challenge. We’ve become more than friends, friends doesn’t cut it anymore.

Ben and Charlie bring the mail to the upsidedown boat, where Liz and Kenzie are already seated, huddled together to keep warm in the coldness of daybreak. Ben hands the scroll to Kenzie who reads it out loud to them all. The scroll is tied with “sick” beads.

Charlie continues, alone to camera: “The problem is, this is the pinnacle of the Survivor dilemma. We’re friends, but we’re friends going to war.”

“Cognitive acuity is a priority.
Time management is ever higher.
A perfect balance of both today.
May prevent you from making fire.”

Everyone: “Oooh!”

Charlie: “Last immunity challenge!”
Ben: “Let’s go!”
Kenzie: “Final four!”
Liz: “I mean, I’m in!”

Liz, alone to camera: “The final four challenge is the most important challenge of the entire game. Especially for me, because I’m so nervous about fire-making. I have this really weird condition, where the ligaments in my wrist are too big for my body? And so my joints are constantly popping in and out of place.” She demonstrates. There is a noticeable sound of joints crackling over and over. (Over and over and over, and the sound just won’t stop! She keeps doing it, and they keep filming it.) “So, I haven’t been practising fire very much because my hand starts cramping up, and I don’t want to look like a complete dum-dum.” Ben starts a fire for the campfire. Liz continues, alone to camera: “I’m getting this feeling that everyone thinks Liz is the number one threat. We definitely need to throw her into fire. I’ve never had my name written down. I have four Nami members on the jury. And so, if I make it to the final three, I can literally see Jeff with the parchment.” Ben paints the little flowers on either side of Kenzie’s eyes. Liz continues: “The winner is Liz! Whooo!” She stretches out her arms as she whoops. “I hope I win this immunity, otherwise, I got to make fire, I just know it.”

Commercials Break 41:35

Day 25 Challenge

Walking along the beach towards the challenge grounds, Ben leads the way, then Kenzie, followed by Charlie, then Liz. As they approach Jeff, Liz supports her body with a wooden cane on one side and Charlie’s crooked arm on the other side. In a shaky voice, Liz jokes that she’s an old lady named Mee-Maw. Jeff: “25 days. This is what will happen to you.”

Kenzie gives back the immunity necklace, the Jeff explains the challenge to them. “For today’s challenge, all you have to do is solve a simple Survivor logo puzzle.” While splitting your attention between solving the puzzle and checking if it is time to run over and catch your falling ball.

A giant Survivor pinball table is tilted at a steep angle, and serves as a timer.

Behind each puzzle station, positioned so that while players work on their puzzles, their backs will be to them, is a large monolith. Maybe 15 feet tall. It leans back at a fairly steep angle. There is a channel to the left that players will roll their ball up to the top. Ball passes to a lever that will move to allow the ball to roll back down the main part of the structure, which resembles a pin ball machine, with many blocks that will slow the steady downward progression of each ball. At the bottom there is a metal trough.

Players must catch their ball BEFORE it touches the metal trough and toss it back up to the top. If the player misses the ball, and it hits the trough, the player must wait while the ball completes rolling down five shallowly tilted metal troughs and is released at the bottom. This is a penalty time during which the player cannot work on their puzzle, and this penalty takes about the time it takes for the ball to roll down the regular part twice, so it is a real setback.

So, really, all they have to do is finish a simple puzzle while keeping their timer going. During the entire challenge, their focus will be split, making it difficult to concentrate.

Ben: “But you’re still in, you’re not out.” Jeff: “You’re still in.” Ben: “Yeah! That’s sick!” Liz: “Just whoever completes it first.” Charlie: “You’re just slow.” Ben: “Yeah! Hey, Jeff, I want to say something real quick. I barely slept more than two hours a night for, like, 14 days. And it’s, like, been the most intense time of my entire life. And, uh, I don’t know, I’m just ready to rock, dude. That’s it!”

Jeff continues: “First person to finish, wins immunity. Guarantees themselves a spot at the final three. Let that sink in. Where you get a chance to plead your case to the jury about why you deserve the title of Sole Survivor and the million dollars that goes along with it. Plus you have enormous power because you decide who you put next you in that second spot, and who you force to make fire to earn that third spot. Biggest challenge of the season.”

Positions are drawn, and it ends up the stand left to right in this order: Liz has red. Kenzie has green. Charlie has orange. Ben has purple.

At the beginning, Liz has trouble getting her ball to the top of the timer tower. It takes her a second try to learn how strongly she needs to roll the ball.
Kenzie and Charlie and Ben run back in time to catch their balls. Before they finish, Liz is back too and it seems like everyone is at about the same stage of the challenge. At first everyone does fine.
In Charlie’s toss, his ball slipped past a couple lines of the wood maze at the top of the tower, so the ball came down much faster than he expected. Charlie is the first to miss catching his ball and he gets the first penalty. Once Charlie rejoins the challenge, Kenzie is in the lead, then Ben, then Charlie, then Liz.
Liz goes back to the tower earlier than she needs to, just to be safe. She looks beside her at the status of the balls on the other towers, and while her attention is elsewhere she fumbles her ball and drops it into the metal track. She must wait through a penalty now.
Ben heads back early everytime, he doesn’t take any chances with the timer.
Kenzie tosses her ball to the top while Liz is still waiting, and she tosses it over top of the tower, landing it in the sand beyond. Kenzie must run to fetch her ball and try again. Once back, it takes her three tosses to get enough power behind the ball so it can reach the wooden maze at the top. By then, Liz is back in the game.
Ben and Charlie are side by side in the lead, then Kenzie, then Liz.
Charlie JUST saves his ball from touching the metal trough. Right afterwards, Kenzie cuts it just as close.
Ben continues to play slow and steady, always ready to catch the ball way before it is within reach.
Charlie cuts it too close, misses a second ball, has to wait.
Kenzie and Ben are in the lead now, then Charlie, then Liz.
Charlie returns to the game, just as Liz drops her ball a second time and faces a second penalty time.
Kenzie and Ben are neck in neck, but Ben finishes first.
Ben wins immunity! Charlie and Kenzie go to hug him right away, this is he first immunity win.

Jeff: “I found it remarkable, given that just a few minutes ago, you walked in here saying, I’m so distracted. I can’t focus. And you get a challenge that requires split focus. And of all four, you had the most focus, it was clear. Where did that come from? What is that inside you that you, when you need to, you can get that gear?”

Ben: “Today, I was just like, I have to show up for me, cuz I’, always trying to be somebody’s hype man. And at, like, 1:00 in the morning, I’m like, it’s okay dude, I love you, you came this far. And when I got here, and I was like, wow, it’s like a pachinko machine or something. It brought out, like, the little kid in me. And I live to be my inner child, that’s why I’m in a rock band. You know what I’m saying? And this was, like, the most meditational, transcendental shred-itation game of the entire season. So, I just was in th emoment, and I didn’t think about anything else. I know that’s a word scramble, but, that’s how my brain is.”

Jeff: “It was beautiful, no it was beautiful. You found meditation where everybody else saw chaos.”

Ben scores a hug from Jeff, and the tribe heads back to camp to practise fire making and to make their cases to Ben, why he should take them along with him.

Overtop, Ben: “I was so down on myself, and I could have quit when I was at my lowest, but I didn’t. And for some reason, the determination just came out and then I won immunity. It’s so sick! 13 year old me, who got made fun of for everything and told I wouldn’t get anywhere. Who’s gonna be able to tell me what now, dude?”

Commercials Break 53:34

Awaiting the return of the tribe to their camp, four fire making kits are arranged on a log: Four rustic knives-pointy end wedged down in the log, with four pieces of flint leaning against each knife.

As they enter the space, everyone compliments and congratulates Ben on his win. Ben: “Cowabunga! You rock! Well, listen, I know we all want to get into it, but I’m gonna be honest, like, I don’t have…” Liz: “No, no, we want to rest, dude.”

Ben, alone to camera: “I am so proud of myself! No one would call me a challenge beast. I was the kid they didn’t pick for dodgeball, you know what I’m saying? Wearing this necklace as a Survivor fan, it’s just like, Damn! I did it! To hear Jeff just say, “Ben’s got it!” like, that’s crazy! You know? After all my panic attacks, and all my fears, it’s just a confirmation: When in doubt, if you rock out, it’s all gonna work out.” The music changes to a more anxious ridden sound. Bens smiling face falls. “And then the weight of winning hit me. I’m in the final three, and this necklace allows me to pick who’s gonna sit next to me and who’s gonna go at the fire. I have to think, who can I beat at this final three? So I feel like, no matter what, it’s a difficult thing. And some people need the money more than others. Some people are in different situations…”

Liz sits on the beach beside Ben.

Liz: “So, Ben, what are you thinking?”
Ben: “Yeah, I mean, obviously, I’m very close with Kenzie, and Charlie’s like, my day one. and, uh, I think you kind of unintentionally played the hardest game out here.”
Liz: “I mean, I’m super flattered.”
Ben: “Yeah. I mean, I feel like that’s why I’m gonna ask you to do fire tonight. I don’t think I could beat you. Yo, you outlasted the whole Nami tribe. You know what I’m saying? You went without eating.”
Liz: “I mean, I know Nami’s on there, but I betrayed all of them. I mean, that’s another thing, everybody on that jury already knows, like, I’m a millionaire. Like, I don’t need the money.”
Ben: “Yeah, yeah. Obviously, I need it. I think I’m the most broke person of the four that are here, you know?”
Ben, alone to camera: “She was like, “I got money. I just want to make it further.” I’m broke! You know? Like, I share a space with my parents. So, to me, it just confirmed that I don’t want her in the final three.”
Liz: “Yeah, well, I’m out. I’m last jury. I suck at fire. I can barely hold a knife. Like, hear my wrists?”
Ben, alone to camera: “And on top of that, Liz has the most homies on the jury. She’s the last person on Nami because people didn’t think she was a threat. Now she’s here!”
Ben and Liz hug, then Ben walks away to make his next decision: Who is he gonna put up against Liz?
Liz sits alone on the beach, cries. Liz, alone to camera: “They’re on to me, and I’m pissed. Ben just told me, “Liz you’ve been playing the hardest game.” Like, that I’m gonna win, that I’m the winner!” Laughs. “I knew the fire making was the hole in the plan. My fricken loose-ass wrists–” She swings them around again, making that horrible sound. “–can’t hold things for nothing. But I’m not gonna give up. I guess I need to practice fire.” Final scene finds her in the woods, fire starting kit in hand, setting up a space to practice in.

Ben and Kenzie sit together around the cold fire pit. Ben sits on the log, and Kenzie sits in front of the fire pit, practicing how to start fire.

Ben cries to Kenzie: “It’s like, I’m having a hard time…” Kenzie scootches up to the log, to sit closer to him. “picking between you and him.”
Kenzie: “I know.”
Ben: “Charlie’s my day one. But it’s like, you are also equally as important to me in this game.”
Kenzie: “So then it just comes down to who can beat Liz.”
Ben: “Yeah.”
Kenzie: “And who you want to have that on their resume.”
Ben: “I know.”
Kenzie: “It’s okay. I’m good with whatever choice you make.”
Ben: “Yeah.”
Kenzie: “I’m gonna practice all day.”
Kenzie, alone to camera: “This season, my fire-making’s been great. So, tonight, would I like an opportunity to build fire? Yes. Positives going into fire against Liz is I think I can beat her. Another positive is that it would be great for my resume, but it doesn’t make it any less anxiety-inducing. Like, I’m still freaking out, even if I have to do it. But, for all I know, Ben could be, like, “Yeah, I’m gonna make Charlie do it.” and then I’m freaking out for nothing!” laughs.

Charlie sits over on a log by himself, also practicing his fire starting skills. He is the only one shown so far who has succeeded in producing flame.

Ben: “Coming to check in on my boy.”
Charlie: “What’s up, my man?” Then he looks up at Ben, and sees his face. “Are you okay?”
Ben, with tears in his voice: “Yeah, you want to have a chat?”
Charlie: “Yeah, what’s going on, dude?”
Ben: “All’s good, it’s a heavy decision.”
Charlie: “Yeah, what’s…Talk me through it, what are you – what’s going on? Sit, pop a squat.”
Ben: “It’s like, I know I want to put Liz in. And it’s like, I don’t know whether to pick between you and Kenzie.”
Charlie: “Is Kenzie practicing?”
Ben: “She’s practicing.”
Charlie: “Isn’t she good?”
Ben, tears covering his face: “Truth is, you’re kicking the most ass at fire.”
Charlie: “You’re seeing one right here, but I’ve been kind of struggling, too.”
Ben: “Yeah.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “Yeah, the competitor in me is like, well, maybe I could beat Liz. But the other part of me just says, I don’t think I need fire-making on my resume. I don’t really want it on my resume. And it makes me want to just say, Look Ben, just take me with you. You know, take the easy way to the final three.”
Charlie to Ben: “At the end of the day, would…if I asked you, if I was like, would you take me, would you take me?”
Ben: “I haven’t made that decision.”
Charlie: “Right. And I know it’s hard cuz I know you’re really close with Kenz, but listen, she can probably beat Liz.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “I need to get in front of the jury. Forget about the fire!”
Charlie to Ben: “Unless YOU go in.”
Ben: “No, I -“
Charlie: “Then, cuz, you know, then that’s all in your hands, but..”
Ben: “Yeah, I’m not doing that.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “Ben has all the power today. His goal is to have Liz out of the game. I’m solid at fire, but, you know, fire is fluky, and I’m sure Liz is no slouch. All it takes is one lucky strike.”

Camera shows us Liz struggling to start a fire. Suddenly she has a lucky strike that produces flame….which soon goes out and becomes smoke. Liz, alone to camera: “Fudge! Arghhh! I feel like I know how to do this, but then I don’t know how to do it. Ben was like, oh my gosh, there’s absolutely no way I can beat you at the end, which is obvious.” Liz begins again, talking to herself: “It’s gonna be over for them.” Fire goes out again. “Wow, I’m on a roller coaster of emotion. You can do it, cuz you are the winner.” Liz lays back on the underbrush. Liz tries again: “I will not be beaten!” She yells out a loud, frustrated groan.

Charlie and Kenzie sit alone together, both practicing fire starting.

Charlie: “Is that Liz yelling? She just, like, literally screamed.”

Liz tells the camera that she is feeling better now. She tries again and succeeds in getting a fire going that stays.

Kenzie, near the fire pit, keeps trying. Kenzie, crying, alone to camera: “I’m feeling scared. I know I can make fire, I”ve done it a hundred times, but, there’s something about, like, cracking under pressure. I can’t get anything to catch on fire, and, like, ugh! I just need to get it together!” We see Liz succeeding at another fire. We see Charlie starting again. Kenzie, tears streaming down her face, continues: “This is like, the pressure point, but any challenge there is, I’mm gonna face it head-on, and I’m gonna give it my all, even though I’m scared. I know I can do this. I can do this.”

Charlie, frustrated, throws down his fire starting tools. Alone to camera: “This is it. After tonight, the final three is set. The weight of that pressure — it’s suffocating.”
Alone, Liz has a fire burning. Ben watches as both Kenzie and Charlie try to build fire in front of him.
Kenzie: “Did you make your choice?”
Ben: “No.”
Ben, alone to camera: “I’m trying to figure out who I think has a better chance at beating Liz. Charlie’s really good at fire,” Ben begins crying. “but the hardest part is, Charlie’s been my number one from day one! I LOVE the kid! And the other side is Kenzie. She’s been one of the best friends I made out here, and she’s been my number one through my panic attacks. She’s been a sweetheart. I don’t know how I’m gonna lean one over the other. I have to think wisely. It’s heavy, bro. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

The tribe makes its way towards Tribal Council. Liz leads the way, then Kenzie, Ben and Charlie.

Commercials Break 1:02:59

Tribal Council Night 25

As the Final Four enter the Tribal Council area, the jury reacts with surprise to see the immunity necklace around Ben’s neck.

They sit, left to right: Kenzie, Ben, Liz and Charlie.

Jeff: “We get to our final Immunity Challenge. On the surface, it’s very simple: Just solve the Survivor logo puzzle in front of you. But there was a twist. Ben, you were the only person that didn’t make any mistakes in the challenge. Explain that, because you walked i nand said, “I am all over the place today,” and yet, something crystallized, and you were perfect in that challenge.”
Ben: “You know, I didn’t go into that challenge expecting to win. I said that cuz it was true. I haven’t been able to sleep, night terrors, panic attacks. It’s just very, very brutal. For some reason, today, I just decided to say this is it. I’m just gonna go for it. I don’t know, I had a blast, it just came together.”
Jeff: “Charlie, you were in it for a while, but a couple of mistakes cost you this challenge. What did you reflect on this afternoon?”
Charlie: “Today’s Immunity challenge is potentially the one with the most power of the season. Ben’s, of course, safe tonight, but tonight he can do whatever the heck he wants. So, it was a lot of reflecting, but there’s not much time for reflection when all I was really doing was making fires all day.”
Jeff: “Kenzie, you were very close. Would have been your third individual immunity win. You, too, had issues, not with getting the ball late, but with just getting the ball up the ramp, and those few extra tosses were the difference. You were a few pieces behind.”
Kenzie: “Yeah, I was three pieces behind. And they will probably haunt me forever. Like, crumbles. I’m happy for my friend, but here we are.”
Jeff: “Liz, what was your experience today?”
Liz: “Liz, you’re the biggest threat. You’re definitely going to fire.–” Jury silently reacts with eye rolls, raised eyebrows, looks at each other -suggesting she probably isn’t the biggest threat in their minds. “I don’t know who’s going against you.”
Ben, nodding: “Yeah.”
Liz: “And then I just fell apart, cuz I suck at fire!” She laughs. “And, um, I knew this was the ONE hole in my game. And I’m gonna go to fire. I mean, he’s totally right. I’ve never had my name written down, so, he’s smarter than he looks.”
Jeff: “So, Ben, you had one easy decision. You knew Liz, immediately.”
Ben: “Yeah.”
Jeff: “So then the debate became Kenzie or Charlie.”
Ben: “Yeah, and when it came down to Kenzie and Charlie, I mean, Charlie’s the first friend I made out here. I know that’s not great when it comes to talking about your strategy, but if somebody can give you a little bit of kindness, it goes a long way, whether they know it or not. And the hard part is, my friendship with Kenzie is very similar, except I only met Kenzie at the merge. But I’d say her impact on me feeling sane? It’s like, I can’t oversell it. Like, I’m playing Survivor, but I’m hanging out with my homies and having, like, a real human experience that, like, you know, it sucks that I have to make this decision.”
Jeff: “So, Ben, are you ready to tell us your decision?”
Ben: “So, it’s gonna be Liz and Kenzie tonight. Going at it for fire.” Kenzie closes her eyes, frowns, and shakes her head. She hasn’t raised fire all day. Charlie nods. Liz closes her eyes and sighs.
Jeff: “Which means, Charlie, you made it to the final three. You will take that second spot. This is what you dream of, because getting to the final three is as much as any player can do. You’ve gone as far as you can go. What’s the feeling?”
Charlie: “I’m grateful to Ben, you know, in this moment. Because of the relationship and the bond that we’ve built, he’s gonna take me to the final three. And getting there with that bond means just as much to me as making fire.”
Jeff: “Kenzie, what’s it like to hear that, when you can hear a little bit of emotion in Ben’s voice, and he’s very clearly saying, it wasn’t easy for me because of love and friendship?”
Kenzie: “Yeah, there is emotion, like, we have, like, fallen in love with each other, and it’s so complicated. But at the same time, as annoyed as I am that I have to do this, I am grateful that I’m not getting my name written down and that I get a chance to try, you know? That’s exciting.” She laughs and looks over at Liz. “We’re gonna give it our all, baby! It’s down to the ladies tonight!” Liz smiles wryly, and slowly shakes her head. “Like, it is what it is.”
Jeff: “All right. It is time for the final-four fire-making challenge. The winner will take the third and final spot at our final Tribal Council. Kenzie, Liz, take your spots.”

Kenzie sits to the left, and Liz to the right. When the show starts again, I’ll outline where they are sitting in relation to the jury, to Jeff, and to Charlie & Ben.

Commercials Break 1:08:00

Kenzie sits closest to the jury. Liz sits closer to Ben & Charlie. They are seated somewhat behind Charlie & Ben, yet a little bit closer to the jury than the men are. Jeff sits across from Ben&Charlie. The blazing firepit is kind of in the middle of everyone.

Liz has a spark, a small flame – but it fizzles out.
Kenzie has completed a lot of preparations, but has not yet started any flame.
Liz gets another flame, but it goes out, too.
Kenzie begins to panic, dances off some energy, talks herself through it.
Kenzie has flame, she builds it up and it hasn’t died yet.
Liz gets flame, but out it goes.
Kenzie’s fire is still building, it weakens, but then it recovers and continues burning.
Liz gets more flame, but out it goes again.
Jury is obviously rooting for Kenzie. Charlie calls out a tip and Liz repremands him, “Charlie, she f**kin knows!”
Liz acheives another flame, but it goes out too.
Kenzie’s fire grows big enough to begin hitting the string.
Kenzie’s fire burns through the string, and her flag goes up.
Kenzie wins!! Liz stops what she is doing, and claps for Kenzie.
Kenzie drops to the floor and covers her face with her hands.

Kenzie and Liz hug, Liz tells Kenzie that Kenzie knew she was winning that. Ben joins the hug from behind Kenzie. Liz rolls her eyes. Charlie puts his hand around Liz’s shoulder. Liz cannot smile, but she does congratulate Kenzie. The four of them sit back down in their final four spots.

Jeff: “Kenzie, let’s start with you, congratulations. You’ve made the final three, you’ve earned your way in. What is the feeling right now? I know it’s been an emotional 25 days.”

Kenzie, crying: “Yeah, I mean, I’ve been at the bottom since Yanu, and I’ve been earning it the whole way, so it just made sense. And it’s so ironic that we set the record for the longest time without flint, and …” She gestures at the fire making setup. “Earlier today, when I couldn’t catch a fire, I was like, of course my journey’s gonna end without fire, it started without fire. But I redeemed myself with that today?” BIG exhale. “It’s just really overwhelming. Like, my, I couldn’t get a flame all day today, so my confidence was shot. I was like, well, you know—I’m just very grateful. I earned it.”

Jeff: “Liz, I know you’ve had some very fun times and you’ve had some very low lows. What’s the big takeaway from this journey?”

Liz: “You learn so much about yourself, and the game is so much bigger than you think it is.” Sniffs. “But I am very proud of my game.” She pauses to look over at Kenzie and Charlie and Ben. This next part is to them. “It was really over for you guys, it really was.” Jury looks at each other again. Quiet disaggreement. Liz begins to cry. “I would’ve beat all of you!” Venus’ face, OMG!

Jeff tells her it’s time to go, grab your torch. As she gets up and makes her way over to Jeff…

Charlie: “Chelsea’s gonna be proud.”
Kenzie: “Love you, Liz.”
Liz: “I’ll love you tomorrow.” All laugh.
Kenzie: “Take your time, mama.”
Liz: “No, I love you now.”
Liz drops her torch into the torch holder beside Jeff: “Oh, God bless America.”
Jeff: “Liz, the tribe has spoken.” Liz sighs a final groan, and sobs on her way across the bridge exit.

Liz’s final words: “So close! So pissed. I made it 25 days. I did everything I thought that I would do. I really think I would have won, but, so did they, and now I’m here.”

A tribe of three makes their way along the beach back to camp.

Commercials Break 1:15:40

Nuinui Day 26 Sunrise

This scene is breathtaking: As the morning sun clears the horizon, somehow you can see the splashes of individual waves that are rolling in front of the sun.

The Final Three sit together against the upside down boat to watch their final sunrise together. Left to right: Charlie, Kenzie, Ben.

Charlie: “Last day.”
Kenzie: “Wow. Soak it all in, boys.”
Charlie: “I will not forget these.”
Kenzie: “The sunrises? No, me either. Be pretty hard.”
Charlie: “Yeah.”
A little later, Charlie: “Here comes the sun!” All raise their arms up in the air and scream out cheers.
Ben: “All right!”
Charlie, alone to camera: “I’ve been out here for 26 days, and listening to everyone’s stories, their accomplishments, their struggles, their dreams … has changes my perspective on the world. That’s been priceless.”
Kenzie: “I don’t think anybody would have picked this as the final three.” She smiles over at Ben.
Ben: “I couldn’t have done it without you two.”
Kenzie: “Thanks, Ben.”
Charlie, alone to camera: “I think every single one of us, in this final three, could win the game. So, it’s intense, it’s exciting, but it’s also really scary because tonight the jury has all the power.”

The jury (without Liz) is shown in a glamour shot, sitting or standing on props on the sand, among sunlit trees. They look FORMIDABLE! Left to right: Q stands with one foot propped on a wooden crate, his arms resting on that knee. Soda stands in a bright yellow sundress. Maria sits in front of Soda, in a pink and orange striped sundress. Sitting on the same table as Maria, Venus has one leg raised on a wooden crate. Tiffany perches on a corner of that same table, wearing a white romper. Behind her, Hunter stands. In front of him, Tevin balances on top of a stack of two crates, one hand holding on to a tree branch. None are smiling.

Tevin: “Being on the jury is one of the most powerful things in the game. Tonight, WE decide the Sole Survivor, who deserves to win the million dollar prize. What did you do? How did you utilize us -or not utilize us- to get past us?

Charlie, Kenzie and Ben make their happy, skipping, cheering way to the shore, where a boat has landed, and two people hand over a tray and a bucket of FEAST! Yes, there is a feast, and nobody is saying, “But I can’t eat that!”

Ben, alone to camera: “The best part about the final three morning is the feast.”
All: “Cheers to the final three of Survivor 46!” Champagne glasses of orange juice are clinked together. There are pastries, muffins, fruit and juice. Maybe champagne, maybe reed matts to sit on.
Ben: “Guys, we’re eating like humans again.”

Ben, alone to camera: “I’m chillin hard today, but tonight I have to give the performance of a lifetime. My game was a game of honesty, built around being myself and relying on my social cards. Everybody called me a vibe person. Tonight is about showing that a vibe or chillin isn’t about being one-dimensional. It’s not me using it as a gimmick, it’s about showing I played a hard game from day one.”

The jury weighs in about Ben:

Q: “Ben outwitted, outlast, outplayed us. The game he played was to rock out and fly underneath the radar. If he can articulate that he was behind moves, he could receive Q’s vote.
Soda: “Ben shreds. Ben rips. Ben rocks. That’w who Ben is. He’s a social threat playing an emotional game, that really worked for him. But it’s “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast,” not Outlove.”

Kenzie, rehearsing, alone to camera: “Wait, I came out here…to have the adventure of a lifetime…to make new friends…and to play a good game. No, I came out here…to have the adventure of a lifetime…to make new friends…and to win a million dollars.”

Kenzie, alone to camera: “My game has been about adapting and knowing when to sit back and when to step up. I had a fake idol play. I was a huge part in taking out the biggest threats in the game, and I beat Liz in fire-making. My biggest challenge tonight with the jury is that I’ve written a lot of their names down. I don’t think anybody’s holding back tonight. I know I’m not. Like, guns are blazing. I know my story’s better than Charlie and Ben’s, it’s just about how I sell it.”

The jury weighs in about Kenzie:

Venus: “Kenzie’s social game was brilliant. I don’t think there’s a single person who disliked her or didn’t get along with her, but I want to hear from her specifically, what moves she made. You have to have played the game to earn my vote.”
Tiffany: “Kenzie is somebody who cares about people, and I do believe that’s why she lasted so long in the game. Friendship aside, gameplay at the forefront, I deeply feel that she’s the best candidate right now.”

Charlie, rehearsing, alone to camera: “I had power in the game to send home who I thought … I had power in the game to send home … or to work with … who I thought was going to be able to carry me forward to another vote.”

What I can see and decipher of Charlie’s chart in the sand:

M-SAGO
T-A G
S-OAT
I-OPAT
H-RTAO
T-TSAOE
V-EPAOT
Q-BTF I
M-ROEA
L-(can’t see)

Charlie, alone to camera: “I played a very strategic game, worthy of the title of Sole Survivor. I built alliances, constantly. I never closed a door to anyone, and I’ve always made sure that I put myself in a position where I was safe, but I also had power. But, a lot of what I did was in the shadows. Tonight I want to pull back the curtain on what I’ve done. The biggest hurdle is what the heck is the jury thinking of me?”

Hunter: “Charlie has done a good job of having his finger on the pulse. And he’s also been winning immunity challenges, and so, he has, potentially, a story to tell that is worth a million dollars.
Maria: “Charlie and I worked together so long, that I’m pretty sure I know all of his moves, except when it came to him trying to take me out. But my criteria is not friendship. I want to make sure that the person I write down tonight deserves this money.”

The final three walk together towards the water well, and playfully joke about things they wanted to do in Survivor, but hadn’t had the chance to do yet: basically win!

Another power pose of the jury (without Liz). While the final three make their way to the Final Tribal Council, various jury members speak.

Venus: “There’s always a chance to change the jury’s minds. Every single person can sway me with what they have to say.”
Q: “It’s not won yet. You can go in and change minds, so don’t blow it.”
Soda: “I’m not just gonna hand money out. You need to have DONE something.”
Maria: “If you can’t connect the dots for me, I can’t give you my vote.”
Tevin: “What did you do? Tell me that, and stand on it. If you can do that, you’ll get my vote.”
Liz: “Right now, I have no idea who I’m gonna vote for.”
Tiffany: “A million dollars is a lot of money. I’m not just GIVING it to you cuz you cute or we homies.”
Hunter: “I’m about to give somebody a million dollars. Show that you knew what you were doing and why you deserve to win this game.”

The final three sit together in front of Jeff and to the left of the jury. Left to right, it’s Charlie, Kenzie, Ben. Jeff: “Glad to see you’re smiling, You SHOULD be smiling, you made it to the final three. You did what 15 other players could not do. You survived every Tribal that you went to. And now, one of the most unique aspects of Survivor is that the power shifts from this side to the jury. 8 players who also were in this game, but were voted out – they decide who wins based on who they think played the best game. Tonight, you have one job. Convince them it’s you. This is where you step up and claim your victory, that you’re the one deserving of the title of Sole Survivor and the million dollar cheque that goes along with it.”

Commercials Break 1:22:12

Jeff: “We’ve been forming the jury for many days. Tongiht is your first opportunity to ask them the questions you need to decide who played the best game.”

Tiffany: “Good evening, and on behalf of myself and everybody sitting here on the jury, we want to say congratulations on making it to final three. We have very specific questions for you guys tonight, and we’re looking for very specific answers. Also, please understand, we are not looking for Taylor Swift lyrics. We are not looking for pop culture or rock and roll references. We are looking for serious and thought-provoking responses. And with that being said, can you articulate one move that you made ON YOUR OWN that changed the course of the game? I would like Ben to go first.”

Ben: “That’s a hard one. For me, I got dealt a hand that really sucked when I entered the merge, and I had to rely on my social game. I felt one thing that I did help contribute to, that was sort of a move, was go to the people who had given me an opportunity to talk and people who had been on the outs of their crew, bringing people together, mainly going to Kenzie, Charlie and Liz.”
Tiffany: “So, your move was that you brought Kenzie, Charlie and Liz together to change the course of the game?”
Ben: “That’s right.”
Q: “Of getting me out.”
Tiffany: “Of getting Q out too…Okay.”
Ben: “Yeah. Which was late, but again, like I said, I was not dealt the best hand.” Charlie raises a finger to interrupt.
Tiffany: “Charlie, you have something to say?”
Charlie: “Yes. Just, on that point, when this alliance came together, Kenzie, Ben, Liz and Venus all wanted Q out in the final seven vote. But a big part of my game was making sure that there was a four going into six, cuz I needed Q and Maria as shields, and if Q had gone out there when Maria won immunity at final six, I probably am sitting on the jury.”
Tiffany: “Okay, well since we’re on you, can you tell me what the move is that you made that changed the course of the game?”
Charlie: “My…the move that I would pick would be the Hunter vote. At the Hunter vote, there was actually an initial plan from Kenzie to blindside you, Tiff. But Hunter’s a real social threat and strategic threat, especially given he’s got strong allies of Soda and Tevin on the jury. That was also the day that I beat Hunter in individual immunity. You know, that was, to me, a big accomplishment. So I thought that was the time to go after Hunter and build out my options.”
Hunter: “Not to take away the move that you made, but I came into this Tribal gonna play my idol. I had the Shot in the Dark and the Idol in my pocket. And the person that actually convinced me not to is, uh, Kenzie. She, like, sold me on that.”
Tiffany: “Okay, thank you. Kenzie?”
Kenzie: “Okay, so, post-merge, I wanted Tim to go. I knew I couldn’t beat him, and a lot of us had that thought. But at the same time, Tiff and Q, who were my number one allies, did not like Ben at all. So it was back and forth between Tim and Ben all afternoon. Q would come over to me and be like, it’s Ben, Let’s vote Ben, he has the idol –“
Q: “No, no, no. I was NEVER gonna vote Ben.” (Q kept changing his mind between Ben and Tim and sometimes even Hunter, and Tiffany went along with Q. Tiffany and Kenzie were frustrated with the wishy washiness of Q and laughed about him together.)
Kenzie: “To me…Tiff?”
Tiffany: “I have to agree with Kenzie. We went back and forth–“
Q: “No.”
Kenzie: “Thank you.”
Tiffany: “-Several times-“
Kenzie: “Yes, you did.”
Tiffany: “-between Tim and Ben that day in the woods, which is why I also was upset.”
Kenzie: “All day.”
Q: “Y’all did, right?”
Kenzie and Tiffany in unison: “No, YOU did! With us!!”
Q: “No, no, no.”
Kenzie: “You might have woken up with that Tim, but you had Ben at 2 o clock, you had Tim at two thirty, you had–“
Q: “Nope.”
Kenzie: “At the last minute, you said, “Fine, you can have Ben.” And then I said … and go Tiff–“
Q: “Wait, Tiffany said SHE wanted Ben, not Q.” (points to himself.)
Kenzie, running frustrated hands through her hair: “I’m saying you guys were arguing about it all day.”
Q: “You wanted Ben out–“
Liz: “Q, I’d like for Kenzie to answer the question.”
Tiffany: “Well, I’m not about to argue on this jury right now.”
Kenzie: “Okay, Right.”
Liz: “I don’t want to argue.”
Kenzie: “Regardless, when I was playing with someone like Q, I can’t fight with that! Obviously! He doesn’t remember what he says to me! You know what I mean? So I had to play in a way that Q WOULD hear me and think it was his idea. Like, that was an intentional move that I wanted. And when I won immunity. We went back and forth all day, and I was the last one with the whisper that made it happen.”
Tiffany nods, Q makes a “I give up” mime.

Venus: “The question I have for each of you is, what is one mistake that you made in this game, that you were ultimately able to flip on its head and capitalize on to use to your advantage? Charlie.”

Charlie: “Okay. V, I’m so glad this question came from you. At the very first vote in merge limbo, there were, I don’t know, ten votes for Mo and one vote for Venus. Also after that vote, Q gave me a big old thump on the back. And let me tell you, when Q thumps you on the back, you notice it. He took me down to the boat, lecturing me on, you know, why I shouldn’t have done that move. I was very receptive to everything you said, and I wanted to, in that moment, build a relationship with someone who was having a lot of power early in the game. The next morning, Q invites me in to the six! And I was part of a new alliance! So, very fun.”
Maria: “I just want to be clear that I invited you into the six. So you came into the six on MY invitation.” (Q invited Tim, Tim brought Maria, Tim got voted out, Maria brought Charlie, but she didn’t invite him until AFTER Q talked to Charlie about it.)
Charlie: “Yes, you were my recommendation letter into the six. I didn’t have one.”
Hunter: “In hindsight, it’s not that –“
Tiffany: “It’s literally, like…”
Hunter: “–it’s just not great to be–“
Tiffany: “No, no, no.”
Hunter: “–part of the six.”
Maria: “You don’t want to be part of the six. The six is…”
Tiffany: “You probably should have just left that part out then.”
Charlie: “I just, I love the six.”
Q: “Being in the six was a one-way ticket home.” Everyone who was in the six has been laughing this whole time, and they all laughed louder after Q (the creator of the six) said this.
Kenzie: “Like, y’all can keep your six.”
Hunter: “We just never talked about it.”
Tiffany: “It was a pathetic excuse for an alliance.”
Q: “So, Kenzie, you’re up, good response though.”
Kenzie: “One mistake I made was I got cocky. I wasn’t paying attention. I got confident, I got comfortable, and ultimately, Tiff went home. Tiff and I were like, “Don’t even play the idol, girl! Like, you’ll get into six, we’re good!” We were riding too high together, okay?”
Tiffany: “We were. I’ll be the first to admit it, I got cocky, too, girl. That’s why I’m over here!”
Kenzie: “Yeah, we — that hit me like a bullet train. I immediately started rebuilding relationships with everyone, paying attention to who was working with who, and it became very apparent that Maria and Q were number ones, which led the three of us and Liz coming together to ultimately take out the two biggest threats who had started working together at that vote.”
Q: “So, of course. Did y’all come together at six? or seven? Cuz at seven, why would Ben write your name as the contingency plan?”
Hunter: “Cuz he was drunk on pizza.”
Q: “That’s what I’m saying, so I’m confused.”
Kenzie: “That is the question of the hour. We worked together at seven, but just because Ben wrote my name down, whether it wasn’t an accident or not, I didn’t go home.”
Q, gesturing at Venus: “Well, she had an idol. If she would’ve played it, you would have.”
Kenzie: “Maybe. But we were working together, and we all ultimately decided.”
Liz: “That is true.”
Kenzie: “Yeah. Thank you, Liz.”
Tevin: “But, just to address the accidental voting. I know you had ate pizza, but were you a bit lackadaisical in the tribe, and you weren’t listening during Tribal, and that’s–“
Ben: “No. I think, on top of me having pizza in my stomach, I have been having night terrors since about day 13 or 14. The truth is, I lost my bearings. I was really as out of it as it could be.”
Tevin: “Yeah, Okay. Got it.”
Hunter: “And we can all appreciate that. There’s a lot of us looking back at Tribal Council, should have seen red flags. I mean, we’re talking about idol, idol, idol, idol. And so, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, you know–“
Ben: “Yeah.”
Hunter: “–sometimes Tribal’s are a little bit crazy, and we miss things.”
Ben: “Yeah.”

Tevin: “Hi, y’all. So, my question to you all tonight, is I want your one best example of how you used one of us sitting up here on the jury to further your game and make it to the final three. Let’s start with Ben.”

Ben: “All right. At some point in the game, I was stuck with Q and Maria for, like, three days straight. For those three days, all I was fed was, “This is what you need to do, this is who you shouldn’t trust.” Nobody asked me what my input was on anything. There was no moment where it was like, Hey, this is what I think our next move has to be.–” Throughout Ben’s words, Q and Maria are frowning at him, feeling defensive. Venus is trying not to grin at his charming naive honesty.
Maria: “Well, that’s the point.”
Q: “So, can I ask the follow-up question?”
Ben: “Totally.”
Q: “Why WOULDN’T you assert your ideas –“
Maria: “Yeah.”
Q: “–on the group to try to make a move of your own?”
Ben: “I took my “chillin hard” approach, which was, I’m gonna listen, I’m gonna hear what they have to say, and using that information is what I went to Kenzie with, and I went to Charlie with, what I went to Liz with, and it’s what allowed me to slip through the cracks, whether I was thought of as a threat or not.”
Jury: “Straight forward. Thank you.”
Q: “Kenzie, you’re up.”
Tevin, nodding: “Yep.”
Kenzie: “So, after the Tiff blindside, I was out for blood, and then I had to manage my emotions. I wanted Q out immediately after. I was so upset, I was so hurt. But I had to placate and pretend to go with numbers to gain Q’s trust back and get back in good graces. And that’s how quick I went from devastated crying all night, out for blood to, Okay, I’m back working with the guy that I want out of here so I can get him out tomorrow if I can gain his trust today.”
Jury: “Great, Thank you, Excellent. Concise.”
Q: “Charlie?”
Tevin: “Charlie?” (This is Tevin’s question, not Q’s)
Charlie: “Uh, so, for me, the person that I used was actually Tevin. For me, coming into the merge, Nami (orange) was an enigma. They’re either the best actors in the world or there are really cracks everywhere.”
Nami Jury, smiling with pride: “Yeah.”
Charlie: “But there was so much information going around, because Soda was telling me she was tight with Tevin, but here Tevin was, saying he wanted to blindside Soda, and what I figured out from that is that Tevin was the power player.”
Tevin, nodding: “Okay. Thank y’all.”
Charlie: “Yeah, yeah.”

Hunter: “Last Tribal Council, Ben was on the hot seat and had to lay out a lot of information as to who he saw as threats, who can make fire and not. So, my question is gonna be for Charlie and for Kenzie. If you were in Ben’s seat, who would you put in fire and why would you do it?”

Kenzie: “I would have put the exact same thing that Ben did. I would have gone against Liz. I know that these two boys have a similar game and that I have a better chance at beating them than I had beating Liz. And I would have taken a chance on myself. That’s what I would have done.
Hunter: “Awesome. Appreciate it. Charlie?”
Charlie: “Yes. So, if I had won the necklace that day, I think I would have done things a little bit differently. I think I would have taken Liz with me to the final three. I think, personally, my game could stack up well against hers. I think that’s someone that I could have beat, despite her being a threat.”
Hunter: “Okay, well, then, was there any moment that you thought, hey Ben, let me do this? Let me put myself in, because Liz isn’t the threat?”
Charlie: “My game has been all about getting to this moment. So I didn’t feel the need to push insanely hard to get into fire for a move that I didn’t think was going to buy me all that much.”
Hunter: “Right, and I appreciate that. But I hope getting to this point in a safe way doesn’t hurt you, right? You said your goal was to get to this point. I HOPE your goal was to win this game.”
Charlie: “You better believe it. That has been my laswer focus this whole time. My goal was to win this freaking game.”
Hunter: “Okay.”
Charlie: “Yup.”

Soda: “I have been on the jury the longest. I’ve been listening to a lot. Ben, my take on you was that you were playing an emotional game and that you had no agency. Charlie, my take on you was that you were playing the middle very closely with Maria, but you did not set yourself apart from her. And Kenzie, my take on you was that you were brought into votes pre-merge, and post-merge, you said tell me who to vote for. Now, I’ve heard a lot of information that, you know, contests some of those things, but I want each of you to take thirty seconds to either prove me right or persuade me why I’m wrong.”

Tiffany: “Also, I’ll be the thirty second timer. When I say “time” please stop.”
Soda: “Kenzie.”
Kenzie: “So, I’m a social player. I’m not the loudest voice in the room. I’m not the one who’s gonna be a driving force, but I AM a number, and I am also thinking strategically. Like, my social game IS my strategic game. They are one and the same. I know they’re supposed to be separate, but I’m a people person. I’ve had deep conversations with each of you. I’ve, like, held half of you while you’ve cried about various things. Like, yeah, I got brought along on votes. That’s how I ended up here. I’ll take it. I’ll own it. It’s true.”
Tiffany: “Time.”
Kenzie: “I’m not gonna say I drove a vote. Okay.”
Soda: “Time. Nice ownership, thank you. Charlie?”
Charlie: “Maria and I were partners in crime for a lot of the game, but by the time Maria was winding back her fist to throw a punch at me, I had already put the pieces in place that were setting up her demise. I put together the four that protected me from the punch that you and Q threw at me at final six, and ultimately voted both of you out of the game…at six, and at five, exactly how I designed, after the Tiffany vote. I thought that I needed to –“
Tiffany: “Time.”
Charlie: “–differentiate –“
Soda: “Time. Ben?”
Ben: “Oh, yeah, I mean, I’ll definitely agree. I’m probably the most emotional person, most cries in this game this season, but that’s what I had to do, and it crushed me that I felt I came into the merge with this plan that got wrecked, and I was very fortunate that how emotional I was opened the doors to make friendships and bonds that allowed me to be part of moves that I wanted to be part of. And, yeah, I openly admitted I was a goat for a few votes. But when the turn came to not be that, the only way that would have happened–“
Tiffany: “Time.”
Ben: “Yeah. Cool.”
Soda: “Time. Thank you all so much. I know that was hard, um, but you all did great.”
Ben: “All good.”

Q: “The most important thing for me and my vote is this simple question. What do you plan to do with the money? And how will it change your life? Ben.”

Ben: “You know, I’m a musician. I get a lot of great things in my life, but I don’t make a lot of money. I want to give my parents some sort of retirement, cuz they’re hard working immigrants that always put food on the table and weren’t around because of how hard they worked. And at the same time, I want to join up with my best friend’s nonprofit program and help bring music education back to schools in South Florida. It’s an initiative I’ve already been a part of called, “Young Musicians Unite.” And having an artistic expression for kids is a way for them to feel comfortable with who they are, which is something I had to learn the hard way cuz nobody gave me that opportunity when I was a kid.”
Q: “Thank you, Ben. Charlie?”
Charlie: “Number one: family is more important to me than anything. And to be where I am at in my life–you know, I’m 25 years old, and a million dollars is a whole lot of money. Life-changing. I can set up the rest of my life for me and my family. You know, part of this experience has been getting to meet and know all of you. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that every single person here had something bigger than themselves they were playing for. I’ve talked with a lot of you about the work that I do. I’ve worked a lot in immigration law. There’s a lot of organizations that I would want to make a donation to, and I would also want to, you know, bet on myself and pay for law school with this money.”
Q: “Thank you, Charlie. Kenzie?”
Kenzie: “I’ve been in my career since I was 15 years old. Not because it sounded fun, I would have loved to enjoy high school like a normal kid. I couldn’t. I started working in salons when I was 15, got my beauty license by the time I was 17, opened my salon by the time I was 24. I opened it to give people a place to work. I don’t make any money off of the chairs that I rent out. If a business person looked at my business plan, they would lose their minds and be like, “You could make so much money off of this.” It’s not about the money. The business is not about the money. It’s about providing people an opportunity. So THIS money would be mine, for me. I would invest it and I would set up myself so I don’t have to be 70 years old doing bang trims on kids, okay? Like, I’m trying to set myself up to have a family and to be able to be financially secure in myself. This was MY venture. My life is — has been for everybody else.”
Q: “Thank you so much.”
Kenzie: “No problem.”

Jeff gives Charlie, Kenzie and Ben 30 seconds each to talk about something they think was not brought up that is pertinent to their games.

Charlie: “A pattern I wanted to highlight was “never close a door.” Always keep my options open. Everyone here knows that I’ve strategized with them at one point or another in the game. It’s what gave me options. It’s what let me see my position in the game, stay safe and have power. That’s how I feel like I got here today, and I really just wanted to hit that point home to all of you. I think I’ve played hard. Thank you for listening.”
Kenzie: “Oh, to sum it up, um, I went on every Sanctuary reward because I am a social butterfly. I competed in every single challenge, from the first one to the fire-making. Won two of those, thanks to some help, because you get by with a little help from your friends. I came in here trying to make friends, and thank you all for listening. Um…Yeah. I just love you all. Thank you so much.”
Ben: “Not that I think it stacks up against them, but, uh, with everything I’ve been through in my life, I did want to come here and be the emotional me and not the bravado frontman performer version of me. And even though I had a hard time with the night terrors, I got from the bottom and had fun climbing my way through moves towards the end. I played the game I wanted to play, and I’m glad I got to meet y’all, because y’all rock, and…who rocks?”
All: “You rock!!”

Jeff: “Charlie, Kenzie, Ben, it’s not easy to sit in those seats and defend your game, but you have to claim your victory, and one of you just did. The question is, who? The only thing left to do is vote.”

Commercials Break 1:39:47

With great ceremony, the jury goes up, one at a time to vote for the winner, and then Jeff reads out the votes. The way he reads them, it is a neck in neck tie between Charlie and Kenzie right up until both of them have three votes. Kenzie wins, 5 votes to 3.

Soda voted for Charlie
Tevin voted for Kenzie, though he admitted that right up until he cast his vote, he was unsure whether to vote for Kenzie or Charlie to win.
Hunter voted for Charlie: “Man, you played a great game. I’m nervous that maybe the last two Tribal Councils may have tripped you up, but you explained it really well. Great job, man.”
Tiffany voted for Kenzie
Venus voted for Kenzie
Q voted for Kenzie, “I’m proud of the game you played. You deserve a start at a new life.” Going into Tribal, he had intended to vote for Charlie. Kenzie’s answer to his question changed his mind.
Maria voted for Kenzie
Liz voted for Charlie

Of course Charlie is shocked, at first it looked very much that he might win, and then it looked like it might at least be a tie, but then Kenzie won. Kenzie and Ben hug, Charlie joins in the hug from Kenzie’s back side. The jury runs up to hug them too. Behind them, the set gets changed, some cameras get moved, and champagne and pizza gets set up for the after show.

Commercials Break 1:44:38

For most of this part of the episode, I confess I was quite distracted by the heartbreak evident on Charlie’s face, that his closest ally, Maria, voted against him to win, in spite of everything she told him throughout the game. I don’t think he minds not winning as much as it hurts that Maria wasn’t solid friend for him. He is seated in front of Maria, to her left a little bit. Every time the camera shows Charlie’s face, we also see Maria in the background. Everytime the camera shows Maria’s face, we also see Charlie in the foreground.

Jeff: “….which means Maria, arguably your strongest bond in the game, was the difference in this being a 4-4 tie. What happened? Because I’m sure that is going to be Charlie’s number one question.” Tevin looks, with concern, at Charlie’s downcast face while Maria answers.
Maria: “Yeah. I think, um, I’ve said this before, I’m a competitor and the fire in this woman’s eyes when she made fire last night, that, to me clinched it for me. She owned her game, and her story just really moved me. This woman deserves to have this money for her, to start her life, to start her family, and I’m so proud of you —” Charlie takes a long drink of his champagne. “–and I can’t wait to see this beautiful family that you create.”
Kenzie: “Okay, I’m gonna be calling you, like, how do I get – this – out of me?” Mimes birthing. All laugh.
Jeff: “Tevin, the single most unique thing about Survivor is that a jury of people who played in the game decide the criteria. Maria just said that it wasn’t even about gameplay, it was about fire in the eye and Kenzie’s story. What does it say about what it is we reward?”
Tevin: “Well, I think that we are all having human experiences out here, while playing this game, and we are using our human experiences to help inform how we play the game: strategically, physically, or socially.”
Jeff: “Tiff, are you surprised by tonight’s vote? Because, it can’t get any closer than a 5-3, without it being a tie.”
Tiffany: “Um, I’m not surprised by tonight’s vote at all, cuz some of us knew Kenzie’s game very well. Some of us knew Charlie’s game very well. And for some people this Final Tribal made a difference and their votes changed. For some people, it just solidified what we already thought.”
Jeff: “Who changed their vote tonight?” Q, Hunter, Liz, Venus, Soda raise their hands. Hunter, Liz and Soda voted Charlie, so they had intended to probably vote Kenzie. Q and Venus voted Kenzie, so they had probably intended to vote Charlie. Maria did not raise her hand, so she had decided BEFORE Tribal to vote against Charlie’s win.
Hunter: “It has vacillated back and forth. At Final Five, I was like, okay, Charlie’s doing a really great job, but then Charlie kind of let up, in my opinion, the last two Tribals. But he really brought it tonight, and explained his game, he had a plan to get himself in a position to get to the final three, executed it, like really, really well. And that he could articulate that, to me, you know that won me over.”
Q: “Yeah, so, my decision was based off my question alone, at the end. And then, being a guy who understands what that money means, and how far it can go. In my eyes, Kenzie was honest, she was working since she was 15 years old, and this is her time, her moment -” Maria vigorously nods. “–to kinda get ahead in life. And coming from where I come from, I reward things like that, so that’s what got my vote.”
Soda: “I think it reaches back to Tevin’s point about it being a human experience and a game. There’s a duality. We’re full of multitudes. Like, I was literally on the fence so hard! My heart said Kenzie, my brain in Survivor, and the fan, said Charlie. And that was the decision for me.”
Jeff: “So, Charlie, what’s the feeling right now? Because as I read the last vote, I saw Kenzie’s excitement, and I saw your despair. What’s your reaction to Maria NOT voting for you?”
Charlie, after a long and thoughtful silence: “I’ll be honest, I was a surprise. You know, one of the last things we talked about, was how, you know, she literally told me, “You better get to the end. My jury vote is going to you.” But, of course, I was like, please let there be a tie! You know, every single “Charlie,” I thought, Oh my gawd, my life is about to change. I could win. And then the fifth “Kenzie” comes through, and it’s gone, but that’s Survivor. And listen, I’m a firm believer in this game, and I want to say this right now. The jury picks the right winner. And Kenzie deserves this prize. She deserves this title, because the jury gave her the vote.”
Kenzie: “Thank you Charlie.”
Charlie: “You deserve this win. You played an incredible game.”
Kenzie: “So did you.”
Charlie: “I’m incredibly proud of you. And that’s how I feel in this moment. Of COURSE there’s gonna be moments I play back, based on what I hear tonight, but I have a lot to be grateful for in my life. I came out here, not knowing what was gonna happen, and just being grateful for every single moment and squeezing every thing I could out of it. That’s how I feel about my experience and that’s all I can say.” Tevin reaches across Maria to place an approving hand on Charlie’s shoulder.
Jeff: “That attitude, to say, “This is the decision, and I accept it, and I’m moving forward,” really says a lot about your character as a young person.”
Jeff: “Ben, not getting any votes doesn’t mean you didn’t play a good game.”
Ben: “Oh, it doesn’t BOTHER me, you know, I mean, finish your question though, he he he!”
Jeff: “Well, it’s just because often somebody in the final three gets no vote, and it feels like, oh, they didn’t play a good game, it’s just they felt other people played a better game. How do YOU feel about your game?”
Ben: “I mean, listen, I did everything I said I was gonna do from day one: I’m gonna go with my gut. I’m gonna be emotional. I’m gonna try and be as honest as possible. And, it got me to the end. Whether it was because of my game play, right, or anything else or being a goat, but I still got to make some moves I’m proud of, and be a part of a couple decisions that were totally sick, and uh, you know, what I feel so stoked about here is A. I didn’t quit. I didn’t get to play the game I wanted to, cuz I went a little crazy. It was very hard to maintain myself. But at no point did I tap out.”
Charlie: “I just want to tag something onto Ben, and I think Kenzie would agree with this, Ben has been through the wringer, with the panic attacks and the anxiety. He’s shown the most strength and the most resilience out of anyone here, you know, he’s embodying what a survivor is.
Jeff: “It’s gotta feel good.
Ben: “Well, you know, with Carolyn from Season 44 got no votes, and she’s one of the main reasons I was out here. And I know she’s one of the reasons a lot of people apply.”
Jeff: “And why is that? What did she break through or give permission to?”
Ben: “Because I think she gave permission for herself to take risks knowing that she’s had certain issues and knowing that she wanted to just take a chance on something. And it’s such a cliche to hear people say, “I got something else out of this game,” but it’s as true as it gets. And I think the thing I got for me is I know that I’m gonna show up for myself even when things get dark and don’t rock. You know what I mean? And I did.”
Jeff: “All right, Kenzie, you’ve had a moment now to let it settle in. Let’s just review, because, what I remember from the beginning, was the blind optimism, and Tribal after Tribal, as Yanu kept losing, you’re like, “I still got the blind optimism.” Then you didn’t have the flint, and all these things were happening. Do you remember that moment where you said, “okay, I’m gonna have to really grit through this.”
Kenzie: “You know, where I find strength is in uplifting other people. I’ve always been like that. Like, I had to, like, talk Q through missing his wife. And Tiff and I cried a lot, you know. So the moments where I thought I was going to give up, I held it together to get all of us through, like, we can all do this! It’s like, that was the driving force.”
Jeff: “And what is the feeling, given that you do now have a million dollars? And, as you said, that will change the way you’ve been living you life since you were a teenager?”
Kenzie: “It’s literally life-changing. I can’t. I couldn’t be more proud of myself, and I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone around me, and I couldn’t be prouder of myself, not only for how I’ve played this game, but for how I’ve lived my life…how I’ve always continued to give back, to everyone else, and I finally took a chance on myself. Selfishly. This is the most selfish thing I’ve ever done. Which is hard for me to admit, like even when I was, like, hugging everyone I was, like, “I’m sorry I did this to you! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you to play your idol, Hunter, but, like, here I am!” You know, it’s very hard for me to have a selfish venture, for me to own something, and that’s what this was. So when Q asked me what I was going to do with the money? I wanted so badly to be, like, “I’m gonna open a non-profit too!” But, no! That’s not why I came out here. I came out here for me. It’s really one of the first times, in my life, I have done something FOR ME. And it just, it’s indescribable, like, I am very, very proud of myself, for owning that, and I’m gonna change my life!”
Jeff: “Congratulations.”
Ben, screaming while everyone claps: “KENZIE!”

Commercials Break 1:54:05

Idols and Advantages. We are shown an amusing montage of the four people voted out with the four idols that left the game without being played.

Hunter to Q: “I have an idol, and I’m playing it tonight.”
Tiffany: “Tonight I’m betting I can keep my idol in my pocket because Q is going home.”
Venus: “If I get to save the idol for another vote, then that just speaks to more of why I deserve to win.”
Q: “If I feel any spooks or dupes, I’m playing the idol for myself.”
Hunter tucks his idol deeper into his pocket when Jeff asks if anyone has an idol to play.
Tiffany calmly sits at Tribal Council and confidently leaves her idol unplayed.
Venus sits strong and sure at Tribal Council and does not play her idol.
Q sits tall and strong, and does not play his idol at Tribal Council.
Jeff: “Hunter,”
Jeff: “Tiff,”
Jeff: “Venus,”
Jeff: “Q,”
Jeff: “The tribe has spoken.”
Jeff snuffs Hunters torch.
Jeff snuffs Tiffanys torch.
Jeff snuffs Venus’ torch.
Jeff snuffs Qs torch.

Jeff asks what motivates them to choose to not be safe, when they could be safe, and they each have a chance to answer him. Venus and Tiffany both express game philosophy and being a betting girl, and wanting to save the protection for the next vote.

Tiffany and Hunter each get a chance to describe the adventure of finding their hidden immunity idols before merge.

Jeff guides the conversation to hunger, and the rice negotiation. Kenzie explains how she fasted before Survivor, but the hunger she experienced in the game was a different level. Yet, all the players came to compete, and they are all still alive.

Commercials Break 1:59:24

Jeff talks about the music, the dancing and the singing.

Soda and Tevin sing.
Maria teaches Siga to tango.
Charlie and Ben do their song title competition.

Jeff leads the group in more conversation and reminiscing.

Ben: “The first week of the game was like being at, like, summer camp, you know what I’m saying? I almost felt bad for everybody around us? Cuz we just didn’t stop, you know?”
Jeff: “So Tevin, how do you know when it’s okay to step outside the box and say, let’s just have some fun?”
Tevin: “I think it’s always okay, I did that from day one. I was not scared to have fun, and to be myself, and to sing, and dance, and I was like, well, if it blows up my game then well, I’m going out being me. And, so, I was always singing, or, or, running around with Q, trying to hide in bushes, got all kind of bugs up on me, it was fun!”
Jeff: “Tiff, I’m really feeling a theme, and maybe it does echo back to Survivor 44, and in some ways, Carolyn….”

Ok, hang on a sec, how many of us remember who Carolyn is? Once I looked her up, I remembered her, she made a big impact on me too. But, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, let alone who a survivor competitor is from a couple seasons ago. Here’s a photo of her, to job your memory:

Jeff: “…about permission to just be who I want to be.”
Tiffany: “First of all, I only know how to be me, I don’t know how to be anything other than me. It just so happened that I got placed on an island with all these people that think exactly like I do! And I think it’s such a beautiful juxtaposition because this has been a crazy season, blindside after blindside after blindside, crazy competitions, you can get into arguments with the people on your tribe, and guess what? You can still have the time of your life while doing it.”
Jeff: “I love hearing that. And Liz, when it comes to unique people on this show, you’re up there!”
Liz: “Oh, thank you!” giggles shyly.
Jeff: “And that’s a compliment, be–“
Liz: “It is!”
Jeff: “–cause that’s one of the reasons I love Survivor, is I like seeing different types of people come out and try to take on this crazy adventure. So what part of yourself came alive out here that you were surprised?”
Liz: “I’m happy that I stood up for myself,” She begins to cry. “I didn’t get to plead my case, but I did play very, very hard. And very intentionally.”
Kenzie, nodding: “You really did.”
Liz: “Except for yelling at Q. That was — that was the only thing, you know, I didn’t mean to do.”

Over 46 seasons, there have been a handful of phrases from players that have sort of become part of the lexicon.

“You know what? I can get out too!”
“I shant say, because the game is afoot.”
“I say, stick to the plan!”
“And that’s why I brought my bag of tricks with me today.”
“Thats not the idol.” “What is it?”
“Jeff, I’m a former special agent.”
“And the queen stays queen.”
“Iron sharpens iron, baby.”
“Let it be in the end the way mother nature intended it to be, for the snake to eat the rat.

Jeff brings it back to Jelinsky. “Does the word several, which we all NOW know, means seven…” Venus interupts him to say the next season should be called season forty several. Jeff says it won’t be. Seasons 47 preview coming up.

Commercials Break 2:03:43

Weight loss during the game.

Charlie lost the most weight: 22 pounds, 14% of his body weight. Charlie looks pretty freaked out about this.
Liz lost 13% of her body weight.
Hunter lost 11% of his body weight.
Tevin lost 10% of his body weight.
Everyone else lost around 8% of their body weight.

Preview of Season 47, coming next fall, a season which I am looking forward to watching, and will gladly write about again:

Lush green foliage, bats flying around, quiet and mysterious music.
The tanned hand of a strong man holds an anvil that strikes steel.
The hand of an artist pulls out a paint brush from a collection of used and cleaned paint brushes.
In the back ground the anvil strikes repeatedly, like the clanging of a bell.
Through the leaves, we view a yellow frame and a red frame, probably part of a future challenge.
In the background we see many video clips of a variety of creative hands, dirty with the work of creating something. Writing, painting, melting, carving. These scenes are puntuated with iconic Survivor set contents like wooden sign posts, challenge sets, idols, etc.
Every Survivor story begins with an empty page. It’s up to the players to leave their mark.
A man, late twenties with long, tangled, thick, curly dark hair and wearing dark blue: “I want to forge my own legacy in this game.I want to be the very first head on the Mount Rushmore of the new era.
A boat with Survivor flags waving in the wind holds several people: A man wearing a light cap and a light blue shirt, a woman wearing a pink jacket, a woman with red hair wearing a whitish plaid jacket, someone wearing a camo jacket.
A woman, early twenties, hoop earrings, long brown hear: “This will be the most important chapter of my life.”
A different woman, early twenties with a big smile, short dark hair held by a red buff: “Survivor is a completely blank page right now.”
A man, early thirties, dark beard, red buff around his neck, wearing black: I want to come here and really be one of those big name players that people are saying, ‘We want to see this guy.”
A woman, late twenties, yellow buff in her long blonde hair, pink tank top, tan pants, sturdy sandals: “People look at me as an underdog, that’s Miss Delaware or whatever, she has nothing more to her, and I’m like, I’m a big dog! Woof!”
A man, early forties, short dark hair, yellow buff, tan slacks, yellow top: “I have no outdoor skills. What am I doing here? I went camping as a cub scout. I threw up and went home!”
Woman, early forties, red buff in her long dark dreads or braids, red top, green pants: “I am ready to forge my own path.”
Man, late thirties, long black hair, powerfully built, blue shirt, black pants, blue buff around neck: “I want to be the fastest person out here, I want to be the strongest person out here. I wish they had a bench press competition, ‘cuz I just hit three hundred.”
Woman, late fifties, sophisticated makeup, long white-blonde hair, medalian choker necklace, black top, blue jeans: “My final words will be I’m 59 and I beat all your asses.”
Woman, mid thirties, long dark hair, red buff around her waist, red swimsuit top, black pants, red and white striped shirt: “I’m either gonna blaze my own path out here, or I’m gonna burn down this island.”
Man, early twenties, yellow buff in long brown hair, white top: “It has to be victory or glorious death.”

Questions I have:

1/ Are Charlie and Maria still friends? According to online reports, it doesn’t seem like it.

2/ Did Kenzie finally get married? According to online reports, yes, and she is also pregnant. Baby is due to be born in September 2024.

3/ It’s clear that Survivor is valuable to people as an EXPERIENCE, yet recently I wondered what do players get paid to play? We all know that that the winner gets $1,000,000.00; A quick online search told me that the two runners’ up will each get $110,000.00, and that every other player gets $2,500 per day. I’m not sure if this is accurate because I haven’t fact checked it yet. If it’s true, and if the jury is paid up until the final day, and if the final three receive a wage PLUS the big payout, and assuming the jury gets the daily wage even though they are out of the tribe, then this is the amount of money that each player came out of this experience with:

Kenzie: $1,065,000.00
Ben & Charlie: $175,000.00
Soda-14, Tevin-16, Hunter-17, Tiffany-19, Venus-21, Q-23, Maria-24, and Liz-25: $65,000.00
Tim, 14 days: $35,000.00
Moriah, 13 days: $32,500.00
Jem, 11 days: $27,500.00
Bhanu, 9 days: $22,500.00
Randen, 7 days: $17,500.00
Jess, 5 days: $12,500.00
Jelinsky, 3 days: $7,500.00

Thats it folks!

Season 46 is officially history.

I WILL be doing this again next time. Join me if you want to, I’d love to keep seeing you.

If the link you’ve saved does not work anymore, that is because I am hoping to edit the original link to change the layout of my overall website. So, if it doesn’t work for you anymore, please just remember to go to motherguru.ca and follow the Survivor links from there. I’m thinking about ways to make a more obvious pathway to the current episode.

20 thoughts on “Finale Chat”

Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 6:48 pm

Hi Joy,
I’m a tad late coming in to follow along!
Whew, the end of another Survivor season!! Who will win?

1. Joy says:
  
  May 22, 2024 at 6:53 pm
  
  Hi Sharon N! So nice to see you are here! What do you think so far?
  
Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 7:04 pm

Most have left gracefully and I’m glad Maria left that way too.

1. Joy says:
  
  May 22, 2024 at 7:11 pm
  
  Me too. It can’t be easy, knowing you are an excellent competitor to find yourself out played. it takes real class.
  
Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 7:07 pm

I want Charlie to win, so fingers crossed. Of course, depending on who wins the challenge, I think it will be Charlie or Kenzie out next.

1. Joy says:
  
  May 22, 2024 at 7:10 pm
  
  I do too, but honestly, I’d be happy for any of these four to win, they are all so unlikely and they worked so well together to get this far.
  
Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 7:15 pm

Dang, Ben gets to choose.
If he’s smart and thinking, he’ll have Charlie make fire with Kenzie.
Most of the jury wouldn’t vote for Liz to win, so she’s a likely pick to sit with him.

Joy says:

May 22, 2024 at 7:22 pm

Ooh, I forgot that Liz is a millionaire already and does not need the money. Ben thinks that she would win over him, but because of her already obvious wealth, I agree with you that people probably won’t vote for her to win.

Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 7:46 pm

Wow, Ben took Charlie!!
Liz thinks she would win vs Ben, but I doubt that. It doesn’t seem like anyone liked Liz very much. All the whining over food.

Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 7:53 pm

“there is a feast, and nobody is saying, “But i cant eat that!””

Ok, you got me… I laughed right out loud!!!

1. Joy says:
  
  May 22, 2024 at 8:12 pm
  
  LOL! Thanks Sharon N!
  
Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 8:42 pm

Somehow, I’m not suprised about Kenzie. I figured it would be between Kenzie and Charlie, but a big thing for several on the jury (particularly Q) was apparently what she’d do with the money.

Sharon N says:

May 22, 2024 at 9:07 pm

Joy, thank you for your dedication and efforts. It’s appreciated.
See you next time…

1. Joy says:
  
  May 23, 2024 at 10:16 am
  
  It’s been my pleasure, Sharon N
  
Anne says:

May 23, 2024 at 7:14 am

I know all is fair game on Survivor, but it didn’t seem right to me that two players team up to defeat a third. Now, maybe I’m bitter because I thought Maria should have won and I do ask myself if I’d feel the same way if someone helped her win against someone I didn’t like. Just had to have my say.

1. Joy says:
  
  May 23, 2024 at 10:14 am
  
  Survivor is a unique game, Anne.
  
  Each of us always think the winner ought to be a certain person because they impress us in one way or another.
  
  Meanwhile, a different player is impressing someone else in a different way, and people are rooting for them to win instead.
  
  One thing I like about Survivor, a detail that used to frustrate me, is that the winner does not have to be the best challenge winner, or the nicest person, or the person who faced the most challenges.
  
  As Charlie graciously states when HE didn’t win, and his heart was still smarting from learning that Maria had voted against his own win,
  “The jury picks the right person to win.”
  
  Fans of Maria, and certainly Maria herself, might have thought that Maria would win Survivor if she had only been permitted to win that specific immunity challenge, but no one can predict who the jury would have actually chosen. Even the jury can’t predict what would have happened if Maria had won that challenge instead of Kenzie & Liz, because even last night five of them changed their planned vote based on how the questions were answered.
  
charla says:

July 17, 2024 at 8:38 pm

Hi Guys, I haven’t been a Survivor watcher for years but had followed Jackie for Big Brother for eons- Probably season 7. Is there any blog friends from there updating this year?
When I checked in a few days ago on Jackies blog I was in shock over her death and Jons as well.
ChaCha

1. Joy says:
  
  July 18, 2024 at 10:27 pm
  
  Hi Charla, ChaCha,
  Since the loss is fresh for you, let me just express my sadness for your loss. I too loved Jackie and the things she wrote about the shows we all love. I also love how she pulled so many of us together over the years. I enjoyed Jon’s comments, as well as your own — even though I mostly lurked and rarely commented.
  I’m sorry that I don’t know of anyone covering Big Brother, especially not the way that Jackie did. Maybe if you visit her facebook page there will be word of something similar.
  All the best,
  Joy
  
Karen says:

July 18, 2024 at 11:58 am

Does anyone know of a similar spot for BIG BROTHER gatherings?

I just read the news of Jackie’s passing and I’m so very sad.

1. Joy says:
  
  July 18, 2024 at 10:29 pm
  
  Hi Karen,
  I’m so sorry that you’re just finding out now that Jackie has passed away.
  Personally I do not know of another blog like Jackie’s, but I heard that she kept a facebook group as well and discussed all the reality shows there. I wonder if anyone on that page has announced creating a platform for Big Brother fans?
  I wish you the best.
  And if you (or ChaCha, above) do find a place, please post a link here for others to find.
  Thank you!
  Love,
  Joy

20 thoughts on “Finale Chat”

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