Maria obv burned now that she voted Charlie. If she doesn't win immunity, she gone. That being said, she's the only one who knows another immunity idol is likely out there.

Well they kind of all know there's likely to be an iidol somewhere since as far as they know they've been played or know that others have gone home with them (I mean, Maria and Q were looking for it during the day anyways).

Rough episode for Maria - went from top of the world orchestrating a huge blindside and in control to no family letters then blindsided by closest ally and now absolutely on the bottom.

Good to get confirmation on what's been speculated ITT that Ben is just mentally toast.

Never seen anything like this run of "find idol-tell no one-get booted". The weird luck of the cast targeting people with idols they didn't know about has kind of redeemed a pretty meh season.

Unfortunately, the most likely boot order now is some combination of Maria-Charlie, leaving a final 3 of Ben-Kenzie-Liz, and a probable Kenzie win where she wins just by being kind of nice and keeping the blood off her hands. I wonder if a single one of them can make fire?

4 people in a row go home with idols in their pocket?

WORST (STRATEGIC) CAST OF ALL TIME

"Another one" - dj khaled

Yeah they’ve been showing the altruistic side of Kenzie since really early - didn’t she have a couple of scenes comforting Bhanu in the middle of the night also?

I give some credit on all these idol-going-home votes to people not screwing it up by saying the wrong thing before/at tribal. Usually there's at least one idiot making it obvious something is up.

I thought Q was about to pull out the idol on his way out to let everyone know, but it looked like he changed his mind.

He still might've and they edited it out.

Yeah I'm with you here. It's going to be Charlie vs Maria at final five. Winner of that battle will have to win immunity or they'll be making fire.

If I could bet on the winner, I'd feel pretty good betting on Kenzie.

Possible, but I feel like that's something they'd show.

My thinking is they want to minimize post tribal game talk as much as possible and if they show it, it might incenvize future contestants to act similarly.

Maybe depending on contestant reaction they'd show this one. There's no love lost for Q, so if people were basically laughing at him and Charlie had omg face, ya maybe they show it.

Random thought: I feel like Q could be an early target in season 50 for how much "chaos" he caused in this season. Seems like he will be an easy guy to rally around as the first episode boot while all the returners are feeling the game out.

Gabon - We are the worst strategic cast in the history of Survivor and will never be topped

S46 - hold my beer


Cya on season 50 Q-Skirt.

I was really digging Maria during early merge episodes and then have soured on her recently and it was hard to put my finger on why, but I think I finally figured it out.. there is an entitlement to her that is really off putting.

Like she expects things to go her way, and then takes it really personally when they don’t. I have no doubt that part of what prompted her to go after Charlie tonight was him not taking her, regardless of her claim that she understood his decision. Or the way she was so upset and needed to be consoled after Venus said some mean old things about her at tribal. There have been a few other times as well where she has framed something happening as a personal slight, and has used it to try to gain sympathy. I don’t think it’s purposeful, but subconsciously finding ways to be a victim to her advantage. It’s textbook narcissistic behavior. There is also a cockiness to her when employing her strategy, like an overconfidence that the vote will go her way, which she had gotten up until tonight.
With others, there’s often some humility built in the uncertainty of the vote e.g. “I sure hope we pull this off tonight” or “it’s either me or you tonight , hopefully it’s you” but hers are always along the lines of “it’s your turn to go tonight”.
It’s all been rubbing me wrong for a minute now.
Interestingly enough, everyone left now (except Charlie maybe) has been on the receiving end of being left out of the majority, and have had to navigate their way back into the mix. It’ll be interesting to see how Maria handles it.

I think Maria was actually acting semi strategically.

She didn't have the votes to not be voted out 5, although she'd be the favorite to win immunity with no Charlie. Then she'd likely need to beat Kenzie at FTC which is a flip.

If they got Charlie like she thought, she could convince Q to play the idol on her to take out Kenzie at 5 and basically lock up the game. Then she's up vs Q/Ben/Liz which is an auto win

It was a risk, but possibly a calculated one. Was her odds better of winning another immunity challenge then beating Kenzie, or of the Q vote finally being real?

I’m not sure if she’s good enough to be playing on that kind of level but maybe. If you’re going to take a calculated risk like that, it’s much easier with the necklace.

With that said, the convo with Charlie and the confessional after basically oh yeah, I’ll let him think we are going Q, wink wink, has me doubting it.

I’m sure she wasn’t really trying to make a big deal about the blindside, but I never thought Kenzie, Ben or Liz were ever really considering actually voting Charlie. Could be the edit but meh.

The best play would have been only Q voting for Charlie and he plays the idol. Maria's hands are clean and they won't be any more against Q than there were.

Yes exactly. There was no need for Maria to vote Charlie.

I'm still not sure why Kenzie/Liz/Ben want Charlie in the game. Do they think they can beat him? Q is an easy beat at FTC. Give yourself a chance to win and vote out Charlie. Then vote out the Kenzie/Maria.

The only chance Ben/Liz have to win is if the final 3 is exactly Ben/Liz/Q

This is only the third season I've watched (after Spencer's two seasons). Are contestants usually this naive? I thought the same thing you did when Venus was voted out instead of Kenzie. Venus/Ben/Liz/Q should have all gangeg up on Charlie/Maria/Kenzie. Unless they know they're playing for 2nd place money.

But if she thinks they have the votes to take out Charlie, from her perspective it's:

Vote out Charlie F6
Q or her win immunity at F5 and Q plays the idol for whoever doesn't win it

Your scenario:
Q and her idol out Charlie at F6
She must personally win immunity at F5 - you can say the others tried to get Q out at F6, but they've continually shown a willingness to let Q survive over bigger threats. Even getting him out this time isn't anything to do with him - it was just reducing Maria's power.

Maria has no power vs kenzie/ben/liz

Charlie goes at 6.

KBL take out non immunity winner of Q/Maria. Of course idol throws a wrench in this but none of them know about idol.

None of them are playing to win.

Granted I will say if one of them did actually win, I bet it's edited differently. Kenzie was a 'winners edit' but Liz/Ben certainly don't. Not sure if there's much more to their characters that could have been shown in a positive light, but I'm guessing their edit would be better if they actually won. Of course editors could really be leading us astray, but I don't it to this extent.

Risk going out now with a better chance of staying in tomorrow, or make sure of today and figure out tomorrow tomorrow. At this point I'd go with the sure thing.

I know what rubs me wrong about her, and we have seen it before in other contestants. I think it is the whole, "I am different schtick....... This is not the way I am in real life, so playing deceptively is going to be really, really hard for me."

But, when it comes down to it, she "always" knew she was not taking Charlie to the end, and from what we saw from the edits, it did not seem that difficult for her at all to express and act on that.

As you noted, what did seem difficult was having her feelings hurt by Venus and not getting a letter from home. What burns me a bit is that she is a Parent Coach. And while I don't know exactly what that is, I can very well imagine that part of her facilitating with parents includes advocating not sweating the small stuff, making the best of a bad situation, not dwelling on things beyond your control, accepting the consequences of your actions/decisions, etc.

So yeah, I am getting a pretty insincere/disingenuous vibe off her. Maybe it is because in her occupation she is used to controlling the agenda, and being the "specialist" or "expert," and with that she is probably rarely challenged.

Only thing I think I am sure of is that Kenzie, Charlie and Maria would all like to be sitting with Liz and Ben at F3, which is perhaps a bit different from a few weeks ago where it might have been Venus ,Q or Liz as the drag alongs.