Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 46 as they list their top moments in various important categories. This includes the most essential information, the stand-out castaways, and the key moments from the week.
Here, Christine and Gia break down all the action from the latest episode.
Become a Patron
Get exclusive content and features by supporting Inside Survivor on Patreon.
Top 3 Moments
Ben Makes a Mistake
Gia: Last week, I assumed that Ben voted for Kenzie as a safety vote, which I admittedly found surprising, given how close they’ve become. It turns out that the truth is even more shocking, which is that Ben voted for her by accident due to how depleted he’s been feeling. A reverse Natalie Anderson anyone? Kenzie was understandably upset at seeing her name, but it didn’t stop her from continuing to help him when he woke up from night terrors. Nonetheless, the game persists.
Letters from Home
Christine: Charlie thought he was just winning a Chinese takeout reward, only for Jeff to reveal that it would also include letters from home. Charlie had previously made an agreement with Maria that if either of them won a reward, they wouldn’t take each other. Charlie took Liz and Kenzie over the devastated but understanding Maria, and the three tearfully enjoyed their letters from home. It’s a shame the show has seemingly given up on doing the full loved ones visit (or even just a virtual visit), but the letters at least give us a small glimpse into some of these players’ lives.
Charlie vs. Maria
Gia: For weeks, many had been wondering if Charlie and Maria were ever going to go after one another, and this week, we got our answer. Both sides seemed to agree separately that they didn’t want to risk going to the end with their counterpart, and now was a good time to vote them out. Charlie’s side got a little more complicated when Maria won immunity, leaving Q as his only viable option. Despite it originally seeming like Q’s new idol would be Maria’s saving grace, Q became the fourth person in a row to be blindsided with an idol, and Maria’s scheme was blown wide open.
Top 3 Contestants
Charlie
Gia: Going into the finale, this is Charlie’s game to lose. His track record has been stellar throughout the season, but it’s only recently that he’s set himself apart from his competitors as the greatest contender for the win. His game started off more subtlely, but he was able to grow as other players made themselves bigger targets. Even his immunity wins have failed to make him a target to others. With this last move of blindsiding Q under his belt, I think Charlie wins if he makes it to the end. He just needs to get there.
Maria
Christine: This week was the long-awaited clash between Charlie and Maria, and despite winning another immunity, Maria firmly lost this battle by losing her loyal number in Q. This week treated us to the rare instance of a tight duo turning on each other in the same round, with neither of them fully realizing the extent of the scheming that the other person was up to. Charlie made a big mistake in telling Maria the vote was on Q, but Maria made an even bigger mistake of not pushing Q to play his idol.
I know she was holding onto the hope he would play it for her at the next vote if she needed it, and there’s a chance he still wouldn’t have played it even if she told him he needed to. But once Charlie told her about the vote, Maria had the power to more or less guarantee she’d get her way by encouraging Q to play his idol, and instead, she lost both an ally and his idol. Maria could still very easily comp out and win, but that’s about her only option at this point, even if she somehow repairs the bridge she burned with Charlie.
Ben
Christine: Ben is playing a quieter social game. He’s been a firm ally for Charlie and Maria while maintaining a close personal relationship with Kenzie, which set him up nicely here to be involved in this Q blindside. Now, Ben’s bizarre Kenzie vote blunder wasn’t his finest moment, but the way he handled it and how it seemingly brought him even closer to Kenzie is a testament to the kind of game he’s playing. Ben seems like a shoo-in to make it to the end at this point, but whether he’d be able to sell his low-key game to the jury remains to be seen.
Advantage Watch
Idols
Gia: I can’t believe we are writing the same scenario for the fourth week in a row. This time, Q found the immunity idol while Charlie, Liz, and Kenzie were off on reward. Unlike the previous times, Q was the actual vote this round. However, like his predecessors, Q wanted to take the risk and keep his idol for one more round, but instead, he was voted out with it in his pocket/Q-skirt.
Fallen Comrades
Q
Christine: After losing three idol-holders in a row to the Q smokescreen, it’s only fitting that Q went out with an idol in his pocket because he believed his name being thrown out was, once again, just a smokescreen. It’s a shock to lose him just before the finale, but we were lucky to have such a big, unique character for as long as we did. He took us on a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows and played a role in bringing us a lot of this season’s drama, and I look forward to his inevitable return for season 50.
Gia: Q leaving just short of the finale episode is such a profound loss for this season. How do we even summarize the twists and turns that he brought to 46? On a season full of colorful personalities, Q stood out week to week as the character to watch. His unique gameplay and record-breaking end will be debated for seasons to come, but that’s part of the appeal to both him and the season as a whole. I’d say I hope that he returns for a second chance at some point, but I feel like his return is all but guaranteed if the season allows it.
Written by
Ben makes the contenders field over Kenzie? What in the world hahah. She’s the one with the social game to sell to the jury, not Ben. This finale is definitely positioned as coming down to Charlie vs. Kenzie.
Attributing Q’s vote-out as a blindside to Charlie is also pretty curious. He almost blew up his own spot by unnecessarily telling Maria about it, and it’s Kenzie and Liz who get the credit for making Maria sure enough the votes were going the way she wanted so that she didn’t tell Q to play his idol.
Very sad we don’t get an opportunity to see Q perform at final tribal council. Would have been amazing television. He’s gotta be on Season 50.