Survivor 43

 originally aired September 21, 2022 to December 14, 2022

The order in which players were eliminated and the impact they left behind:

• Morriah (Baka) Her ouster basically led to Gabler winning.
• Justine (Vesi) Her ouster helped solidify Jesse & Cody's alliance.
• Nneka (Vesi) Another elimination that helped solidify Jesse & Cody's futures.
• Lindsay (Coco) Basic paranoia did her in.
• Geo (Coco) His ouster solidified Cassidy's gameplay.
• Elie (Baka) Gabler's game really begins here.
• Dwight (Vesi) The gameplay this season was not dominated by master strategists or even anyone who just thought they were, but by players who just kind of made it up as they went along, resulting in a lot of interesting little moments as things happened, one of which was all the scrambling that led to Dwight's ouster.
• Jeanine (Baka) Sometimes a player just comes off as unpleasant in the edit, and that was Jeanine, whom I never found easy to root for.  But she was a prime mover that needed eliminating.
• James (Coco) A would-be godfather who just didn't have the numbers on his side.
• Ryan (Coco) Sometimes Survivor casts people who are just easy to root for regardless of their gameplay, and Ryan was one of several this season.  Definitely someone it'd be nice to see play again.
• Noelle (Vesi) Noelle was definitely another of those, especially after one of those personal triumph moments in a challenge that felt earned for a change.
• Sami (Baka) Here's a guy who really seemed much older, and wiser, than the young age that kept being repeated to viewers (19), who in the end didn't really have as much wisdom as he seemed, but was still well worth rooting for.  Bring him back!
• Cody (Vesi) Just one of those personalities (the kind we really haven't seen since the early seasons) that I always find really easy to like, a wild spirit, but one that also definitely knew how to play the game.
• Karla (Coco) I just never could stand her.  Sometimes it's completely the edit's fault.  Sometimes it's the personality we see.  I didn't see anything to really like.  Made allies I didn't like either.
• Jesse (Vesi) That huge move in the 11th hour was destined for an explosive final tribal council that was defused into banter in the reunion, but how could you not like this guy?  Good gameplay (except, y'know) and a backstory he didn't try to use for sympathy (at least when it counted).
• Owen (Baka) Tried so, so hard to be a good strategist, but never figured out that he really just needed to buckle down and make a solid alliance or two.  It's not just about making the finals.  It's never just about making the finals.
• Cassidy (Coco) I didn't much care for her and the mean girls clique until she separated herself from the pack both literally and figuratively by producing a sympathetic backstory for long-time viewers (she used to watch with her sister, who has since passed away).
• Gabler (Baka) I loved this guy from the first episode, which I watched after the Entertainment Weekly recap made such a big deal about a dude named Gabler being so inexplicably important to the edit (I always try to watch live, but sometimes it doesn't work out).  Just an interesting dude, and so contrary to what Survivor has been casting for so long, and obviously a mindful player and strategist, even when no one gave him credit (which was literally the whole season).  He made for a great tribal council, which I think everyone present was pleased to discover.  His much-repeated decision to gift the winnings to veterans started to sound less and less interesting, because he wasn't nearly as interesting at the reunion (I think producers, and Jeff, were blindsided) as he was in the edit.  But that left plenty of room to clear the air between players who would have otherwise been pretty upset that night.  A rare positive ending for a season.

Survivor 42

 originally aired March 3, 2022 to May 25, 2022

The order in which players were eliminated and the impact they left behind:

• Jackson (Taku) Transgender player medically evacuated when producers realized they were in the midst of transitioning .
• Zach (Ika) Sorry, don't really remember him...
• Marya (Taku) Vaguely remember the edit trying to make her memorable due to the death of her brother during the early pandemic.
• Jenny (Vati) Mostly memorable in the crazy tribal council in which she was voted out.
• Swati (Ika) Gosh, I don't even remember her name at this point, but she played a very desperate "we're good buddies!!!" (with everyone!!!) strategy that absolutely deserved to backfire.
• Daniel (Vati) If this had been a traditional season I would've loved to see the live reunion and hopefully producers acknowledging him as an audience favorite, since I liked him, anyway, although he clearly didn't know how to make alliances.  He was, if nothing else, really easy to root for, especially after rallying from dislocating his shoulder almost instantly.
• Lydia (Vati) A casualty of Omar's late-edit turn into a would-be evil genius.
• Chanelle (Vati) Tried single-handedly to turn untrustworthiness into a selling point.  Somehow did not work.
• Rocksroy (Ika) Another player I found very easy to root for, but didn't have the numbers to help him along.
• Tori (Ika) She went home solely because Drea and/or Maryanne freaked out when they saw the first two members of the jury were black.  A somewhat understandable moment given the season taped in the relative shadow of the BLM matters protests of 2020, and the previous season had a far bigger fallout.  Given producers attempting to look for relevance, this was probably to be expected in some fashion.
• Hai (Vati) Never quite put his eggs in the same basket.
• Drea (Ika) Gosh, understandable though it may be, her freakout was still a shocking turn for a player I thought was pretty rational before that tribal council.  She tossed all thought of gameplay immediately out the window in that moment, and she'd been playing so well!  And, I don't know, as someone watching a game, I'd been rooting for her.  Then I just couldn't.
• Omar (Taku) His late-stage evolution into a would-be evil genius was baffling, either something the edit completely left out of his previous gameplay or something that spontaneously generated when the numbers shrank.  I don't have a clue.  Clearly it didn't work out the way he thought it would.  Sort of emblematic of the season, though, which chugged along without a lot of overtly idiotic strategists (who have a penchant for ruining seasons when they clump together) and instead with what was for much of it a fairly pleasant experience.
• Lindsay (Taku) Her competitiveness and/or possible inferiority complex eventually got the best of her, so that she made enemies where she didn't need to, and I just couldn't root for that.
• Jonathan (Taku) The nature boy who almost went all the way!  Fans have been waiting for a player like that, who had a dependable ally (Mike) an' everything!  But the edit suggested the women didn't like him despite his bending over backwards to run the camp.  A true challenge beast.
• Romeo (Ika) The edit tried really hard to rationalize why anyone should root for him in the finals, but he was almost complete dead weight all season.  Although fortunately skinny dead weight!
• Mike (Vati) A rational jury would've had no trouble giving Mike his due.  There's no question how he got to the finals.
• Maryanne (Taku) I can be happy with Maryanne as winner, I really can.  Usually when I see an obvious winner end up losing I can be kind of bitter about whoever beat them in jury votes, but Maryanne was obviously likable and somehow didn't actually turn everyone off with that personality, and handled the jury well, never had to be defensive, and even explained a few things (including the immunity no one knew about) to make her a stronger candidate than she probably was.  The edit might have missed a few things about this one.