Welcome to Season 46’s Next Time On Survivor weekly feature on the Inside Survivor site! If you’re new around here, I’m Steph from sunny, tropical, humid Singapore. This is a tiny space where I give my best attempts at understanding preview trailers and make my predictions for the show’s next episodes.
The trailers for the finale don’t reveal much besides some standard shots and soundbites to hype up the episode, but one thing I noted was the idol searching. In the last episode, Q revealed to Maria that he found an immunity idol. Knowing he got voted out with it, I’m sure she would be hunting for the rehidden idol. Whoever finds it will probably play it at the final 5 tribal council to guarantee their spot in the final 4. I don’t think they’ll take the chance, especially after the past few blindsides.
In a secret scene preview after last episode’s tribal council, we hear Maria correctly assessing that she’s on the bottom of the tribe. She wasn’t part of the Q blindside and was the only one who voted for Charlie. Maria’s definitely going to be the target to beat in the finale, and I’m sure we’re going to get a bunch of conversations about not letting her win the next immunity challenge.
The same secret scene also gives us some insight into what Liz thinks of Maria. She gives an annoyed confessional, showing her disdain towards Maria’s comment that the other players are finally “actually playing the game.” My guess is that this strain is going to play out further in the episode and the two will end up targeting each other as they’re unable to set aside their differences to work together.
Overall, my prediction for the finale culminates with Kenzie winning. She’s been getting such positive responses from her tribemates because of the great relationships she has cultivated. She hasn’t burned bridges with the players on the jury, except perhaps Q. And I could very well see her debating her way at final tribal council, emphasising her social strategy. She’s worked her way from the mess that was Yanu, through her minority position at the merge, and finally having solid alliances for her end game.
I’m not really sure how to go about predicting the rest of the episode, as it could really go so many ways, especially with the hidden immunity idol in the mix. I’ve had a feeling that Charlie and Maria may go all the way to the end with each other. And though we’ve seen them finally splitting up in the last episode, I feel that there’s still this sense of balance keeping them together as they both decided to turn on each other at the same time. I’m wondering if this duality will continue, and they both get to the final tribal council, even while attempting to get each other out the whole journey there. They both are the contenders to win the immunity challenges, so there is a high chance they will be able to get to the end.
Working backwards then, I predict that Ben will be the next to go, as he’s the easy vote out at this stage. He doesn’t seem to be participating much in the strategising, but rather just tagging on to whoever invites him on board first. Then, my guess is Liz versus Maria for the fire-making challenge, so we’ll see this pair go head-to-head against each other.
What do you think will happen in the finale? For the last time this season, leave your predictions in the comments!
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My guess is Maria finds the Idol, Charlie wins immunity at 5. Everyone votes for Maria. Maria votes for Liz and Liz gets 5th. Kenzie wins final immunity and makes Charlie go head to head with Maria in fire and Charlie beats her. Or Charlie wins immunity and chooses to go against Maria in fire and beats her. Or Maria decides she needs to take out Charlie wins final immunity and goes against Charlie in fire and gets eliminated. But Charlie winning fire is just short and Kenzie wins 5-4 with Ben being the tie breaker. Been predicting a Charlie vs Kenzie final showdown all season
Stephanie, what do you make of the preview where Jeff says “Are you serious? What is happening?” It seems there is something unprecedented that will happen.
I love your posts and look forward to reading every week! Thanks for the great work!