And just like that, another Survivor season is over. In the closest vote since Dom and Wendell tied during Ghost Island, North Carolina beauty salon owner Kenzie Petty pulled off an upset win over law student Charlie Davis. Kenzie, who was given the nickname the “Mermaid Dragon” by her pre-merge tribemate Bhanu, pulled it off by getting a crucial immunity win at the Final 5, beating Liz in the firemaking challenge to get into the Final 3, and relying on her incredible social game. Well, those three things and, in a shocking turn of events, a game-winning vote from Charlie’s number one ally, Maria.
At F5, it was Maria’s or Charlie’s game to lose. When Kenzie (with an assist from Liz) won F5 immunity, the castaways gave Maria a respectful vote-out. Then, the path to the win was pretty clearly laid out in front of Charlie. And he would have won, had Maria, who told him that she would vote for him if he got to the end, not flipped at the very last minute and written Kenzie’s name down. That tipped the scale from being a tie, which would have resulted in third-place finisher Ben breaking the tie and giving Charlie the win. What a wild ending to an uneven season.
Kenzie’s got The Rizz: Kenzie played a pretty much flawless social game, forming friendships with everyone no matter what side of the vote they ended up on. It’s why she emerged victorious, beating fellow final three contestants Charlie Davis and Ben Katzman by a vote of 5-3-0, even after openly admitting she was not the driving force on any big blindsides of the season. “Yeah, I got brought along on votes,” she told the jury in a refreshing bit of honesty. “I’ll take it. I’ll own it. It’s true. I’m not going to say I drove a vote.”
The path to victory was a team effort: Kenzie’s path to victory actually began with a key move during the finale’s first immunity challenge. After solving the puzzle, Kenzie could not figure out the clue to “Count the number of geckos, puzzle pieces, and holes in your plank.” But Liz Wilcox read the clue and abandoned her own attempt to win the challenge — racing back to retrieve Kenzie’s plank for her and deny Maria Shrime Gonzalez from winning a record-tying fourth immunity challenge victory.
OMG that new F4 challenge gave me agita: Kenzie’s victory there ensured that the biggest threat in Maria was sent to the jury. Then, after a sleep-deprived Ben surprised everyone by winning the final challenge (in which players had to solve a puzzle while catching a ball before it dropped to the bottom of a giant Price Is Right Plinko-like structure), the one contestant who can legitimately claim to be rockin’ like Dokken had to choose whom to bring to the end with him, and which two players to send to the fire-making competition.
That painful fire-making challenge: In the end, Charlie got the fast pass to the final three, while Kenzie and Liz battled it out in fire. It wasn’t much of a battle. After a slow start, Kenzie took control of both her flint and the game — taking out Liz and giving herself another notch on her résumé.
The jury’s ground rules: “We are not looking for Taylor Swift lyrics. We are not looking for pop culture or rock & roll references. We are looking for serious and thought-provoking responses,” noted juror Tiffany Nicole Ervin to kick off the proceedings. Later, Soda Thompson literally put each contestant on a 30-second clock to rebut her impressions of them, cutting them off immediately when they exceeded their time limit.
Et tu, Maria? While Charlie appeared to have the firmest strategic ground to stand on thanks to his game control from the shadows, it was Kenzie’s social skills that stood out. In the end, Charlie did not even receive Maria’s vote, as his former island bestie joined Tiffany, Tevin Davis, Q Burdette, and Venus Vafa in voting for the winner, while Liz, Soda, and Hunter McKnight gave their votes to runner-up Charlie, who will have to console himself by listening to lots and lots of Taylor Swift on repeat.
While Maria’s vote was a shocker, I was also surprised that Liz and Hunter voted for Charlie and that Q voted for Kenzie. Watching Charlie in the immediate aftermath was pretty tough because the dude looked absolutely devastated. At least he took Jeff’s consolation prize of being called “Taylor Swift’s number one fan” in stride. In her exit interview with EW’s Dalton Ross, Maria once again explained her vote, expressing that she has no regrets.
Q: Charlie said you told him “Get to the final three so I can vote for you.”
I told him, I said, “If you get there, you’ve got my vote.” The thing changed when I saw that fire. It was nothing I saw coming. It triggered me on an emotional level. It triggered me on a personal level. It went beyond the game. And so like I said, there is a very fine line between choosing between your heart and choosing between your head. And I could have voted strategically. I could have voted with my heart, and I chose to vote with my heart for a woman who wanted to do something for herself for once.
Well, there you have it. All’s fair in love and a competition for a million dollars. Thoughts on the season overall? I think it got off to a slow start, with so much attention focused on the Yanu/Bhanu show, but picked up once we hit the merge. The game play was frustrating at times, too, as four players in a row were voted out with idols in their pockets. Is it time to get rid of immunity idols? I love Kenzie as a winner, though. Her truthful admission about how much the prize money would change her life was relatable. She was a great character and I’d love to see her play again, but we’ll probably have to wait a while for that, as she announced a few weeks ago that she’s pregnant with a little Virgo baby boy.
And while Survivor may be 24-years-old, the fan base currently is as pumped up as ever. The trailer for Season 47, which is filming now, revealed two popular podcasters are among the contestants: Rob Has a Podcast’s Aysha Welch and Pod Save America’s Jon Lovett. Do you think they’ll bring back Jelinksy as a surprise reveal? (Here’s the list of rumored contestants.) And that’s not all to look forward to! Jeff announced last month that Season 50 will be all returning players and Australian Survivor is doing a highly anticipated “Australia vs. USA” season, which will have all-star players from both franchises. It’s a good time to be a Survivor fan.
I am okay with the Kenzie win, but she does not need to come back. She was not THAT great a player. The only winner in the new era who I would like to see again is Dee.
I read an interview where Kenzie was asked if she’d come back and she said, Nah I’m good. She said she accomplished everything she wanted to and will cheer her friends from the sidelines.
Loved it for Kenzie that she won, hated it for Charlie that he got burned in such a spiteful way, glad Maria has been called out for the fraud that she was. She was high on her own supply and forgot she was on a game show with receipts. #venuswasright
As a Day 1 Survivor fan, it is an great time. Thank you for covering the finale. I love it when my fandoms meet up. Survivor and Celebitchy are my constants in my life, LOL.
I disagree about Kenzies social game. Kenzie and Tiff were very mean girl, especially to Jess before the merge. Also Kenzie would have never beaten Maria in that final 5 immunity challenge if Liz had stopped trying to win and went all the way back to get the board and go through the obstacles course again to solve the puzzle. I felt so bad for Charlie. Maria was just bitter. When Jeff asked who had changed their choice after the 3 had answered questions Maria did not raise her hand. Then when Jeff asked her about her vote for Kenzie she said she intended to vote for Charlie but after seeing the fire in Kenzie’s eyes during the fire challenge was just bullsh*t.
Anyway Charlie was very gracious. I hope they have him come back as a return player.
This was a fun season. In the end, Kenzie is a good and likable winner. But people like Q, Venus, and Liz made this season funny and enjoyable to watch. They are all the correct type of interesting personality to stir up drama without actually being evil.
I have listened to Aysha on RHAP! I hope she does well!