Survivor 46: Messy and Mesmerizing

Survivor 46 may be my favourite season of the New Era. And it really comes down to one thing: humour. I was laughing my ass off at every episode. Survivor 46 excels at many things, but at the end of the day, I watch TV to be entertained. And oh boy, I was entertained.

In these retrospectives, I always praise the casting. I am once again praising the casting. We’ve never had players like Ben, Tevin, Liz, Kenzie, Hunter, etc.. Venus was constantly bringing the drama. And Q is easily easily easily in my top 5 favourite Survivor players ever.

It’s the messiness for me. The majority of this cast was terrible at Survivor. Look at the idols, all of the pettiness, and the shade being thrown. These guys openly hated each other. When was the last time we saw so much vitriol? Liz hates Soda, Tevin hates Venus, Ben hates Q. That is extremely compelling TV to me, and really emphasizes the social experiment aspect of the whole thing.

The season will be remembered for these dramatic character moments. So many iconic Survivor memes were born. King Jelinsky made a meme within only one episode. We haven’t even mentioned the whole Bhanu arc, which is its own self-contained season. I’m personally not a huge fan of the pre-merge, but in a vacuum it’s hilarious.

The flip-side of Survivor 46 is the lack of gameplay and strategy moments. Were there any standout moves, blindsides, or powershifts? I’d argue no. Tiffany’s blindside was the most surprising, but it gets undercut by the fact it happened to four other people. To me it was obvious very early the Charlie/Maria duo was out maneuvering everyone, and the eliminations were written in the sand.

Let’s talk about the winner and the runner-up. I’ll start by saying I’m a Charlie fan. He played a masterful game. Always in the perfect position to control votes but he never got any backlash. If I played Survivor, I’d strive to be like Charlie. Kenzie also played a masterful game. She made genuine connections with everyone, survived the entire Yanu collapse, and kept her threat level shockingly low.

Survivor is a social game. This season especially reminded me of this. My philosophy is there’s only two things you must do in Survivor: never get voted out and get enough jury votes to win. That’s it. If you make it to the end, and you get all the jury votes, you played the best game. Kenzie did more than Charlie to secure the votes of that specific jury.

The nuance is that Maria kind of betrayed Charlie by not voting for him. If Maria votes Charlie, it’s a tie, and then Ben votes Charlie as the winner. Maria has no obligation to vote Charlie, or even not be bitter, but we were all expecting Charlie to get that vote. Was Charlie robbed? With exasperation, my answer is no. But damn you have to feel for the guy.

Survivor 46 isn’t a typical season of Survivor. It can maybe only be appreciated if you know how “normal” Survivor usually is. Survivor 45 is a much better example of quintessential Survivor, much more about strategy and maintaining strong relationships. But like I said, the only thing I care about is being entertained. Survivor 46 excels in that category, and that’s why it holds a special place in my heart.