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.

Survivor 45

 originally aired September 27, 2023 to December 20, 2023

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

• Hannah (Lulu) First person to quit this season.  
• Brandon (Lulu) Engineered a quit.  Neither should have even been cast in the first place.  Likely just to emphasize for newer viewers that this remains an actual challenge just to endure the reality of the game.
• Sabiyah (Lulu) Will best be remembered for melting the wax on an advantage at tribal council.  Which didn't prevent her from being voted out.
• Sean (Lulu) This whole tribe was probably as close to another Ulong as Survivor has yet managed to produce, just a bunch of pathetic players who couldn't figure out why they were even playing the game.  Two exceptions notable exceptions, as basically with Ulong (way back in Palau, the season with the epic challenge showdown between eventual winner Tom & Ian, who dominated Koror and the season as a whole). Another quitter.
• Brando (Belo) Basically his exist helped define the games of several players (Austin, Drew, Emily, Kendra) who made it deeper, thus beginning to demonstrate there were actually people playing this season.
• J. Maya (Reba) Someone who tried unsuccessfully to navigate the chaotic voting strategies that ultimately defined the season.  I liked her, but too little too late but somehow too soon, because again, this was how long it took for gameplay to actually come into play.  So you might actually consider her the key to unlocking everyone else's game, the player who was the biggest threat and most needed eliminating.
• Sifu (Reba) Loved watching this guy, an actual player worth watching for something other than strategizing, which happens increasingly rarely in these later seasons, a fun personality who was of course unable to factor into anyone's strategies probably mostly because he was too likable, at least by viewer standards.
• Kaleb (Lulu) Easily the smartest member of Lulu and probably of the whole season, which was why he, too, needed eliminating early, although he at least made it to the jury.
• Kellie (Belo) I found most of the women to be indistinguishable this season, weirdly most of the ones that made it deep into the game and even winner of the season.  They just kind of existed as fairly anonymous players.  Kellie was most anonymous.
• Kendra (Belo) Anonymous, too, but almost possessor of a huge ego that drives pretty much every decision she makes, and an obnoxious personality she uses to compensate.
• Bruce (Belo) The poor shlub evacuated within minutes of the first episode last season (still wonder if he'll ever sue for the way they edited it so callously) comes back this season and is immediately and inexplicably the target of smear campaigns from Emily and Katurah, the latter all season long as if the game has never had returning players before (you could tell very quickly how stuffed the casting was with the worst possible vetting this season as far as any awareness of the game).  So he ends up feeling as if he's a bad guy because of how he's treated (although like Sifu, a personality viewers might actually enjoy).  All that being said, the domineering camp personality was a trope in early seasons ripe for votes.  I just don't buy into it, with Bruce, as Katurah seemed determined to despise him from the start, and just kept coming up with excuses as to why.  Had nothing to say in the edit of final tribal, only came up in relation to Emily's first episode tirade against him in the reunion.  Done very, very wrong.  But at least got to play a season, and lasted deep into the jury phase.  Needs a third chance, hopefully with more players capable of grasping the game.
• Emily (Lulu) Kaleb helped her turn around her social game, and she became a wild card no one understood as being allowed to remain on the board so long, so that she might have won the season given a chance.
• Drew (Reba) Probably the only player visibly aware that there was more than Survivor 45 to the legacy of the game this season, and as such a classic player in a season like this.
• Julie (Reba) Eventually defined by other players as the "mom" of the season and therefore a threat to win, but such an anonymous player otherwise.  This is the way the jury deliberated, and why the season played out the way it did, so many players like this just screwing up real chances at deliberate gameplay.
• Katurah (Belo) Such a hateful player, like Kendra working on therapy while being oblivious to the fact instead of playing the game.  Really needs to work on self-awareness above everything else, one of three lawyers in the season and most proud for basing her entire gameplay on hiding the fact.  Never once seemed analytical, so it's hard to see how she makes a living.
• Jake (Belo) Scrapped and clawed his way through the season, no one really willing to work with him but somehow surviving nearly to the end being able to successfully navigate, mostly because these people really didn't have a clue how to play.
• Austin (Reba) Probably the purest player this season, clever and deliberate and able to navigate the unsteady waters.  His romantic alliance with winner Dee brought with it allusions to Boston Rob & Amber, but never really felt like it, and wasn't the same kind of feel-good showdown at final tribal council.  In my texting group this season I called him Barry Allen, because he looks somewhat like Ezra Miller.
• Dee (Reba) So many standout players, and even someone winning who could make a legitimate case, and yet I was only satisfied with her actually claiming the prize when I heard my niece approved.  I suppose she earned it, but I wish she hadn't felt so anonymous until the tepid showmance bloomed.  It's kind of telling that this wasn't the obvious target for elimination in a season like this, as it's been since Romber.

And here's the big surprise: I picked out nine players worth remembering for gameplay (and sometimes through sheer force of personality), a new record, supplanting Palau in my ranking based on that criteria (with Dee ranked 10th among winners), which is kind of surprising since it was very far from a traditional season as far as gameplay went, which was refreshing and frustrating at the same time, since too much aggressive gameplay isn't fun to watch but a lower level is also hard to appreciate.  But the number of players that needed to be eliminated in order for things to play out the way it did was impressive, and the players who did make it to the finals deserved, uniformly, to be there, too, regardless of the outcome or how I felt about it.  It's nice to know I can still be pleasantly surprised by Survivor.  A most interesting season indeed.

Survivor 44

originally aired March 1, 2023 to May 24, 2023

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

• Bruce (Tika) If people begin suing Survivor, it might be this guy at some point.  The edit clearly shows exactly how and when he smashes his head and gets a concussion, which ends up leaving him medically evacuated, to dramatic, apparently entertaining effect (the smash, not the evacuation).  And he's immediately shipped right back to play in Season 45!
• Maddy (Ratu) During the earliest part of the game there was tremendous gameplay, leading to a tribal council where nearly everyone had and/or played advantages, leaving to Maddy's exit.  Tremendously misleading, as it turned out, for the season as a whole.
• Helen (Tika) As I've pointed out before, watching Survivor these days means a texting party every week for me, and this season I spent a lot of time complaining, since I thought this was a bad season.  Helen's ouster was the result of Carson deciding to keep Carolyn around.  Long-term this worked out extremely well for both of them.  As a viewer I couldn't possibly have enjoyed the results less.  Carson was an early candidate for someone I could actually root for, but he turned out to be someone I couldn't care less for, since he formed an alliance with two players I loathed.  And who both outlasted him.
• Claire (Soka) Ha.  The player who thought she didn't need to compete in challenges.  Turns out to not be a winning strategy.  At all.
• Sarah (Tika) At this point it was very clear Tika was made up of knuckleheads.  Who in this kind of season ended up producing the winner.
• Matthew (Ratu) This knucklehead, however, played for a different tribe, and very early in the game foolishly climbed a rocky protuberance, fell from it, dislocated his shoulder, and kept participating in challenges.  This in itself doesn't sound laughable.  It sounds courageous!  Valiant!  But he kept using his bad arm.  And eventually got medically evacuated because of it.  I see no good defense of any of that.
• Josh (Soka) A player who was kind of almost worth rooting for.  
• Matt (Soka) This season's showmance was one of the few highlights.  One of the very few positive, viewer-friendly things to emerge from it.  More on this when we reach his sweety.
• Brandon (Ratu) The extreme problem this season was that they didn't cast players who viewers could easily root for.  Or at least featured an edit worth savoring.  Brandon was one of the many bland personalities who might have otherwise been worth rooting for.
• Kane (Ratu) Almost by default someone I could bother watching without disdain.  Kind of interesting.  Didn't really know how to play.  This was a whole season of players who didn't really know how to play.
• Frannie (Soka) Matt's sweety.  If either of them had been as strategic as Frannie tried to be before she was voted out, they could've basically had the game in the bag.  But that's the kind of season this was.
• Danny (Soka) I dubbed him Ninja Dan based on one fleeting sequence in the edit.  I loved this guy.  An actual personality!  But surrounded by knuckleheads.  A whole season of knuckleheads.  Aside from "Mannie," really the only reason to care this season happened at all.  
• Jaime (Ratu) Hey, look!  Another bland personality!
• Lauren (Ratu) Hey, look!  Another!
• Carson (Tika) The cheat code challenge player who basically wasted all his geeky knowledge by having no real idea how to play the game socially, eventually putting all his chips in the Yam Yam/Carolyn bucket, which, as I noted in a text, gave the two of them more power than the one of him.  Which led to his ouster.
• Carolyn (Tika) If even a smidgen of her personality was an act (which she was oblivious enough to admit at final tribal, which probably cost her all remaining hope of any votes), then wow! did she wildly miscalculate.  The edit was almost Carolyn all season (with most of the rest of it given to Yam Yam), leaving viewers with someone most of them probably couldn't stomach.  Who made that call???
• Heidi (Soka) Bland personality like Lauren the editing half-heartedly tried to redeem with a sympathetic factoid.  If the edit had bothered with any of them, I don't know what kind of viewing experience this would have been, but it would have been far less obnoxious.  Which I think would have been better than what we got, regardless of outcome.
• Yam Yam (Tika) Wow.  So obviously from the very beginning Survivor has tried to present a representative sampling of society, and this is sometimes peppered by quirky casting choices, including the lively foreigner, which almost always backfires.  Yam Yam checked a lot of boxes for the casting director, none of which entertained me in the least bit.  I couldn't stand the guy.  You're gonna see his name listed at the very bottom of winners.  I have a new all-time low.  If Carson hadn't legitimized Yam Yam and Carolyn, they would never in a million years have lasted to the finals.  Not even to score easy votes.  They maneuvered, but only out of sheer lucky opportunity, since this season was chock full of players who didn't have the first clue what they were doing.  I have in the past bitterly complained about "master strategists."  This season I found out I would vastly prefer "master strategists" to clueless knuckleheads.  I really blame the edit for how this season played out, though.  Heavily featuring two players guaranteed to alienate even some parts of the viewership is a terrible idea.  They were not even remotely balanced by anything else.  Carson certainly couldn't.  They didn't even try with Ninja Dan.  "Mannie" almost did, but very inconveniently both were voted out early in the jury phase.  Yam Yam was the yuppie's delight.  For the more affluent members of the fanbase, I'm sure he was a delight.  For me he was just an entitled brat who smiled his way to victory.  He isn't even particularly representative of any Puerto Rican I ever met, which is the even more insulting part of it.  He doesn't have to represent Puerto Ricans as a whole, but if you go out of your way to cast a Puerto Rican, and you have someone like Heidi sitting next to him in the finals and you give her all of two minutes to voice the authentic journey he claims to represent...Just a total disaster of a season.  The Ulong of seasons, really.
  

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.

Survivor 41

 originally aired September 22, 2021 to December 15, 2021

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

• Eric/Abraham (Yase) I don't remember him.  I've got scores of seasons on this blog where I simply don't remember players.  He's one of them.
• Sara (Ua) Ua was such a stupid tribe.  Every time someone got voted out early from this tribe, it's safe to assume it was because of how stupid this tribe was.
• David/Voce (Yase) I don't remember Eric as Eric or Abraham, but I know David was consistently identified as Voce by the show.  I wasn't a huge fan of the season early on because not just Ua was busy being stupid.  Yase merely benefited from Ua being even more stupid.  Voce was someone who got sacrificed by short-sightedness.
• Brad (Ua) Stupid Ua being stupid.
• JD (Ua) Stupid Ua being stupid.
• Genie (Ua) Stupid Ua being stupid.  Seriously.  Just look at how often they went to tribal council, out of three possible tribes.
• Sydney (Luvu) The big victim in Erika's big move, the move that almost handed victory straight to the Core Four, when she "turned back time."
• Tiffany (Yase) Someone who if she'd been interested in making good decisions could easily have changed the outcome of the game.
• Naseer (Luvu) Lovable character and yet not a particularly great player.  Too often a pawn in someone else's game.
• Evvie (Yase) Like Tiffany someone with great potential to make things happen who just could never bring herself to do so.
• Shan (Ua) Every week I text my sister and her friend during the show.  I always referred to Shan as "Evil Preacher Lady."  The originator of the Core Four, an all-black alliance meant to try and capitalize on the unrest of summer 2020, who stooped to any level to get herself ahead.  Including basically ditching any real allegiance to the Four with a secret alliance to Ricard.
• Liana (Yase) Until she got snookered into the Core Four by Shan I was a big fan of Liana, who ditched any semblance of strategic integrity and thus a shot at winning.
• Danny (Luvu) For most of the game I just thought of him as Deshawn's plus one, even if he was technically the celebrity player of the season, having played in the NFL.  I just think he never really considered playing the actual game.
• Ricard (Ua) Obviously you know my opinion of Ua as a whole, which included Shan and Ricard.  Apparently viewed as the most obvious potential winner, and thus his ability to actually make it to the final four was itself impressive, having outlasted his closest ally.  But I just never cared for him, especially how he became a bitter jurist.
• Heather (Luvu) Absent from about half the season's editing, she rallied in a big way to become an unlikely major strategic threat late in the game.
• Xander (Yase) The internet seems to agree with me that this guy was the one true highlight of the season and deserving winner, but the jury couldn't bring itself to recognize his brilliant gameplay, not just with advantages but maneuvering around players.  To dismantle the major alliance, its allies, and those who kept letting it happen, he had no choice but to play the game he did.  And he got no votes at all.  This was a terrible jury.
• Deshawn (Luvu) Dismantling the Core Four was the most brilliant thing he did, his own alliance, knowing it wasn't actually to his advantage, and clearly he was right, as he ended up in the final three and was at least acknowledged with a vote.
• Erika (Luvu) One of my least favorite winners, not particularly because she was so unlikable but because she seemed to go out of her way to do everything the hard way, the total opposite of Xander.  All three finalists had the same basic strategy, eventually, and needed to do a ton of maneuvering to get to the end, but Erika did it in the least graceful way possible.  And the jury clearly didn't want to give the win the player who did it best.  When she "turned back time" it turned the whole season around.  And then Deshawn dismantled a cynical alliance, and Xander kept pulling off miracles.  But a bad ending rubs the charm off the season, unfortunately, plus too few players really worth rooting for.

Survivor: Winners At War

 originally aired February 12, 2020 to May 13, 2020

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

• Natalie (Sele/San Juan del Sur) A victim of the early voting strategies targeting existing relationships (Jeremy), only to make it back in the game later and prove quite adept at maneuvering 
• Amber (Dakal/All-Stars) Same as Natalie; wife of Boston Rob.
• Danni (Sele/Guatemala) Even among winners it's apparently bad form to appear too desperate.
• Ethan (Sele/Africa) The battle lines between old school and new school players quickly found an early victim in a very classic old school player.
• Tyson (Dakal/Blood vs. Water) Brilliant as he was in his winning season, he didn't have the leverage to get far this time, and too many schemers around him.
• Boston Rob (Sele/Redemption Island) Even one of the undisputed best players ever couldn't overcome the numbers.
• Parvati (Sele/Micronesia) Another brilliant player who couldn't overcome the numbers this time.
• Sandra (Dakal/Pearl Islands, Heroes vs. Villains) A two-time winner became a huge target, and brilliant tribal council strategy made sure she was taken out.
• Yul (Dakal/Cook Islands) A classic old school player too good for his own good in this setting.
• Wendell (Dakal/Ghost Island) Never found the solid allies his game depends on.
• Adam (Sele/Millennials vs. Gen X) Minus the absolute perfect mix of tribemates around him, Adam looked like a much different player.
• Sophie (Dakal/South Pacific) You can go back and look at what I thought of her originally, but this was the most pleasant turnaround of the season for me.  She was a much easier player to root for this time!
• Kim (Dakal/One World) In her original season pretty easy to project as winner or very close.  This time there was no such guarantee.
• Jeremy (Sele/Campodia) Always worth rooting for!  Just a hugely underrated player of this game.
• Nick (Dakal/David vs. Goliath) Generally proved he knew how to play the game regardless of what's happening around him.
• Denise (Sele/Philippines) Honestly, since I'm doing this recap well after the season, a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its many disruptions, I don't remember what Denise did.
• Ben (Sele/Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers) What made me like him so much his previous season was that he basically accomplished a huge turnaround from the kind of player he basically is, because scrambling made him look good.  He had no such redemptive arc this time.
• Sarah (Dakal/Game Changers) Loved her the first time, didn't love her the second time, when she won, and now I can say I love her again.  So on average, I think she's a great member of the Survivor legacy.
• Michele (Sele/Kaoh Rong) Clearly knows how to play this game despite being an under the radar player (or perhaps because of it), making it to the finals in her second attempt (and of course winning the first one).
• Natalie (Sele/San Juan del Sur) Something of reality TV competition royalty at this point, I guess.
• Tony Vlachos (Dakal/Cagayan) Such a favorite even before this, becoming the second-ever two-time winner, in typically brilliant fashion.  I don't know how a guy with such well-known tactics (see what happened the second time he played) can pull this off, but that just goes to show.  As deserving a win as there's ever been in this game.  A true legend.