Survivor 46

originally aired February 28, 2024 to May 22, 2024

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

• Jelinsky (Yanu) One of several players this season who should never've been cast, Jelinsky was a moron who apparently lack any real contact with other human beings in his real life, acting as if social media really does replace it.  That's exactly how he acted, the same logic.  If you can call it that.
• Jess (Yanu) Here was a tribe that immediately presented itself as one of the worst ever assembled, the first real contender for the throne since Ulong, and the one member who was actually worth rooting for was of course almost immediately voted out, once the more obvious target was eliminated.
• Randen (Nami) His evacuation was the fatal blow to Venus's chances in the game.
• Bhanu (Yanu) I don't know why they so often cast insufferable individuals when looking for foreign players, but Bhanu was by far the most insufferable ever even while trying desperately to coast on what the casting director presumably assumed was a redeeming positive outlook.
• Jem (Siga) Aside from Jess the earliest player voted out I would've loved to have had her fate in the hands of players who weren't complete idiots, of which this season was chock-full.
• Moriah (Siga) I seriously don't know what the casting director was thinking this season.
• Tim (Siga) Another player who was almost worth rooting for but never really amounted to anything.
• Soda (Nami) I found her obnoxious, and the edit did little to convince me otherwise.
• Tevin (Nami) I found him very obnoxious, and the edit seemed to go out of its way to further convince me.
• Hunter (Nami) By the time he spoke up at the final tribal council I finally figured out why he was cast, since it wasn't to fill the survival role or challenge beast role viewers might've otherwise expected from him, nor was he much of a personality (Venus credits him twice with random acts of kindness).  But he knew how to work the finalists with questions.  Almost enough to redeem the disappointment.
• Tiffany (Yanu) Kenzie's stooge to the very end.  If you thought she gave her more than thirty seconds for that answer despite being rigid with the other finalists, you're probably right.
• Venus (Nami) One of two players who seemed absolutely destined for early exits but who somehow navigated deep into the season despite having to hustle the whole time, earns my vote for helping make the season worth watching as a result.
• Q (Yanu) Like the Specialist before him it was difficult to determine if he was crazy or merely crazy like a fox the whole season.  The tribal council he literally asked to be voted out and yet wasn't was basically the defining moment of the season.  These chuckleheads kept looking for targets when the obvious was right in front of them and would've made everything easier.  These people didn't choose easy at any point, and just kept outsmarting themselves.  So someone like Q easily earns my vote of confidence as a result.
• Maria (Siga) One of the would-be masterminds who outsmarted themselves, right down to the final vote, which even a year later she still struggles to justify.
• Liz (Nami) Someone with that many compromising allergies should never have been cast in the first place.  Period.  And despite how desperately they tried to spin it, shouting her disappointment over a silly restaurant chain reward, no matter how "deeply personal," will never feel anything less than supremely childish.  Someone has lost the plot here.
• Ben (Siga) Another questionable casting choice for someone who spent their whole time unable to overcome their aversion to the mere camping experience of the game, otherwise amiable and a rare actual personality this season, even if he struggled the whole time coming up with a recognizable gameplan (I struggle at this point to remember who exactly was in the Six, mostly since it instantly didn't matter to any of them).
• Charlie (Siga) Everyone who made it to the end was someone's stooge, and Charlie was most certainly a stooge, Maria's, and she responded to being voted out by him by refusing to vote for him despite having given him her word.  Apparently if there'd been a tie Ben would've been given the deciding vote, and that would've given the win to Charlie.  But really, I would've have been happier with that ending.  So in a weird way, thank you for being petty, Maria.
• Kenzie (Yanu) The tribe that should've disappeared ended up producing the winner, mostly because they were all shameless.  In a perfect world the most obviously shameless of them, Q, would've gotten this win, but this was one of the most wildly imperfect seasons of Survivor ever, so the player who best navigated, even surviving losing her most trusted ally well before the end, still managed to manipulate everyone into keeping her around long enough to win the season.  For that alone, for being the embodiment of the sleaze hustle that sometimes produces these results, I can be reasonably happy that she got the trophy.  But honestly, it's really a participation trophy.