Hello all, welcome back to the Edit Bay! This weekly feature takes a dive into the edit of the latest Survivor episode, analyzing the key stories, main characters, and top winner contenders.
For those new to The Edit Bay, it is a condensed version of Edgic, highlighting some of the stand-out story beats from the most recent episode. It also includes my weekly Edgic ratings for each castaway at the end of the article.
OVERVIEW
As Survivor 46 winds down, two players stand out amid the chaos as top contenders. Kenzie and Charlie have the cleanest edits of those remaining, both packed with strategic insight, splashes of personal content, and clearly established duos. As the others succumb to the madness or fall by the wayside, Kenzie and Charlie are riding the wave.
This past episode all but concluded the Nami downfall, with the two obstacles, Liz and Venus, being the last remaining of the old orange tribe. Hunter, much like Tevin, was doomed from early on when they chose to focus their sights on Soda despite recognizing Venus as a potential wrench in their plans. Ultimately, Venus voted for them both.
It also continued the theme of leaving people in the game too long, even when their danger level is recognized. We’ve seen it with Venus, and we’ve seen it several times with Kenzie and Ben. As we saw in this episode, Kenzie is now turning her sights on Tiffany, which was foreshadowed early in the season when Q and Tiff acknowledged Kenzie as a late-game risk.
So, with the Yanu three looking like the next most likely to implode, it leaves the old Siga members of Charlie, Ben, and Maria. If the theme stands up, then Ben has the potential to upset the Charlie and Maria partnership. We’ve seen him grow closer to Kenzie over the past few episodes, so Ben making a late-game move and causing the old Siga to splinter wouldn’t be shocking.
Then, we have the recurring theme of abrasive personalities that have no shot at winning, even if they make it to the end. Probst introduced this theme at the marooning mat, and I still believe it is vital to the endgame. Venus has been the biggest mascot for this theme throughout the season. She has been shown to rub people the wrong way with her approach, even if her strategies make sense. She’s also claimed moves that the edit (and her fellow players) have thrown doubt upon. This is all prime FTC loser material.
But Venus has new competition in the form of Q. After his “vote me out” nonsense at the last tribal council, he’s turned himself into the camp pariah. Nobody wants to work with him, and none of them respect him. Some have said they would never vote for him, even if he makes it to the end. So, could Q be that personality that has no shot at winning? It’s certainly possible.
Maria and Tiffany are two previous contenders that have started to drift down the chart. Maria has fallen into a secondary role, mostly portrayed as Charlie’s partner, rather than having a strong narrative of her own. She wants to be able to claim moves of her own but finds herself being led by others or having to fall in line due to the chaos.
As well as being way too MOR for way too long, Tiffany’s edit has landed in the trap of emotional conflict. She’s been drawn into Q’s madness, potentially distracting her from what is happening. For example, she had no idea Kenzie and others were plotting to blindside her if not for her declaration of flushing her own idol. Those early ominous signs on Yanu look to be coming back to haunt Tiffany.
Liz has had a good couple of episodes, but much like Maria, her story is about struggling to land a move. Yes, she got Tevin out, but, as she said herself, the move was immediately overshadowed by Q’s antics. In this episode, she made it clear she wanted Q gone but wasn’t able to make it happen, as other players swung the target onto Hunter.
So, it’s really down to Charlie and Kenzie, both of whom had solid edits in this past episode. Kenzie’s sudden targeting of Tiffany might have come out of nowhere, but she explained her reasoning. And it’s not as if she is low on allies; the edit constantly shows how easy she finds it to make bonds. Hunter even called her his number one in this episode.
And even when the plan switched, she got to talk it through and explain why she was okay with it. At the same time, we saw her say that Tiffany wouldn’t even end up playing the idol, which is exactly what happened.
Charlie’s edit was a little quieter than his past few episodes, but his content was strong. His refusal to back down to Q’s plan of throwing the challenge paid off, as he outlasted Hunter and won the immunity necklace. And he gave his thoughts on the vote and the pros and cons of taking out Tiffany before mostly slipping into the background of the chaos.
So, as it stands, I find it hard to see anyone other than Kenzie or Charlie winning this season. Maybe an outside shot of Ben if the edit is going for a more character, personality based winner? He was the first person to suggest Hunter as the target in this episode. But, if that was the case, I’d expect Ben’s edit to be much bigger. He’d need to really step up in visibility in the next few weeks to convince me he had a chance.
EDGIC CHART
| Name | EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11 | EP 12 | EP 13 | EP 14 |
 Ben |
OTTP3 | OTTP3 | MOR4 | UTR2 | MORP4 | UTR1 | OTTP3 | UTRP1 | MOR2 | |||||
 Charlie |
CP3 | CPP4 | UTR2 | MOR3 | CP4 | MOR3 | CP4 | CP4 | MOR3 | |||||
 Kenzie |
CP4 | CPM5 | MORM4 | MORM4 | OTTP4 | MOR3 | CPP4 | MOR2 | CP4 | |||||
 Liz |
UTRN2 | OTTN2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | UTR1 | UTR1 | UTR2 | CP3 | MORP2 | |||||
 Maria |
MORP3 | MOR2 | INV | MORP3 | MOR3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | MOR2 | |||||
 Q |
MOR3 | CP4 | CPM5 | CP4 | CPP3 | CP5 | OTTN4 | OTTM5 | OTTN4 | |||||
 Tiffany |
MOR4 | MORP5 | MOR4 | MOR4 | MORP3 | MOR3 | MOR3 | CPN3 | OTTN4 | |||||
 Venus |
MORN3 | CPM4 | MOR3 | UTR1 | MORN2 | CPN4 | CPN4 | OTTN4 | MORN3 | |||||
 Hunter |
CP2 | UTR1 | CPP2 | UTR1 | CP5 | MOR4 | MOR2 | MOR2 | CPM3 | |||||
 Tevin |
CP4 | MOR2 | UTR1 | CPP3 | UTR1 | MOR3 | CP3 | MORN3 | ||||||
 Soda |
MOR3 | MORN3 | INV | MORM3 | UTR1 | UTR2 | MOR3 | |||||||
 Tim |
MOR2 | UTR1 | INV | UTR1 | MOR3 | CPN4 | MORN2 | |||||||
 Moriah |
MORP2 | UTR1 | UTR1 | OTT3 | MOR3 | CP4 | ||||||||
 Jem |
MOR2 | UTR1 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPN5 | |||||||||
 Bhanu |
MORP4 | OTTN4 | OTTM5 | OTTM5 | ||||||||||
 Randen |
UTRN1 | CP3 | OTTP3 | |||||||||||
 Jess |
OTTM4 | OTTM4 | ||||||||||||
 Jelinsky |
OTTN5 |
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