"Survivor 46" Finale Recap - Maria for the Mill? Kenzie for the Cash? Charlie for the...Cheddar?

Who's going to take home the big check?

“Survivor 46” (CBS)

Tomorrow I’ll have full interviews with all of the final five on my YouTube Channel.

So, don’t miss a thing. Follow me here, follow me on YouTube, on X, etc…

Last Week: The cursed immunity idol claimed another victim in Hunter Tiffany Venus Q.

39 26 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” blog…

Alright, let’s check out where the tribe currently stands…

The NuiNui Tribe (wearing red)

Ben, 36 - Musician

Charlie, 26 - Law Student

Kenzie, 29 - Salon Owner

Liz, 35 - Marketing Strategist

Maria, 48 - Parent Coach

Post-Tribal Shenanigans

Welp, Maria knew she blew it. She tells Charlie that everyone told her that she couldn’t beat him at final three and they baited and switched her to get Q out.

Yeah…but Charlie should know what was up because he voted correctly.

Charlie smartly doesn’t throw her under the bus and offers to work together.

Later on, Maria tells everyone that they’re playing harder than she thought. Ouch. Maria with a lot of unforced errors these days.

Immunity Challenge Time: The players will climb through a muddy net, then through a series of obstacles. They’ll use a rope to pull down a bridge, then cross the bridge and retrieve a key. They’ll use the key to unlock puzzle pieces. The puzzle will give people the combination to a lock. The first person to open the lock wins immunity and a trip to the Sanctuary for pasta, salad, chocolate pudding, and more.

Before the challenge gets underway, Probst points out that if Maria wins, she’ll join a record-setting group of women who have won four individual immunities.

Result: Kenzie completes the puzzle, but forgets that she has to use it to determine a combination. Liz helps Kenzie figure it out, by going back and grabbing a plank from earlier in the challenge. Kenzie wins immunity.

Quick Aside: It’s interesting that Liz was able to help Kenzie when Albert wasn’t able to help Sophie in “South Pacific.”

Another Quick Aside: The clue in the puzzle was a very cool mechanic. Kudos to John Kirhoffer and his challenge team!

Maria is not pleased, and I don’t blame her. Kenzie chooses Ben for the reward because he’s never seen the Sanctuary and Liz is allergic to pasta.

At the Sanctuary (Where Good Things Happen)

Kenzie is beyond psyched that she can’t be voted out of the game at this point. And, her and Ben would be shocked if Maria is able to sway any votes while they’re gone.

Pre-Tribal Politicking

Maria and Charlie put together a plan to look for the idol and Charlie is doing his best to let Maria know that he’s still on her side…especially if she’s going to the jury.

When Kenzie and Ben return, Maria tries to use Ben’s accidental vote against Kenzie as a way to sow seeds of distrust. Kenzie agrees that she shouldn’t trust Ben, but she just doesn’t think she can beat Maria in front of the jury.

Maria keeps pushing this Ben story to others, making a good point that Ben is very well-liked by the jury.

Tribal Time

It is a big love fest for Maria with Ben and Kenzie singing her praises.

However, Liz is noncommittal about which way she is voting.

Voting Time: Kenzie, Liz, and Charlie all vote for Maria.

JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play an idol or an advantage and…nobody does.

We’ve got one vote for Ben, two votes for Maria, and the fourteenth person eliminated from “Survivor 46” is…Maria.

Post-Tribal Shenanigans

Once again, Ben has a middle-of-the-night panic attack. This time, both Charlie and Kenzie are there for him. Ben appreciates that he has people who have his back.

Liz does not want to make fire because…let me get this right…the ligaments in her wrists are too big so her joints are constantly popping in and out of place.

She…is…fascinating.

She’s also convinced that she’s the biggest threat because there have been no votes against her and she has four former tribemates on the jury. 

Oh…I wasn’t getting that impression at all. 

Immunity Challenge Time: The players will roll a ball up a ramp and onto a course. When the ball is rolling its way down the course, the players will work on a logo puzzle. They can only work on the puzzle when the ball is in the course. They’ll have to catch the ball and roll it back up. If they miss the ball, there’s a penalty and they’ll have to wait to continue. The first person to complete the puzzle with win immunity and will choose who makes fire.

Liz shows up with a cane pretending to be an old lady. This leads Probst to go all Deadpool on us and address the camera. What is happening!

Result: Ben wins immunity! Wow…that’s a great new challenge. Kirhoffer on fire!

Pre-Tribal Politicking

The group is met with four knives and four flints when they get back to camp.

When it comes time to talk strategy, Ben tells Liz that he wants her to make fire because she’s played the toughest game. She thinks she’ll be easy to beat in the end because she betrayed all of her tribemates and she’s already a millionaire.

That was an easy decision for Ben, picking between Charlie and Kenzie is much harder. Kenzie tells him that it’s just a matter of who he wants to see beat Liz.

Charlie doesn’t think he needs fire for his resume, so he tries to convince Ben to pick Kenzie.

Tribal Time

Ben is torn because Charlie has been his friend since day one, but Kenzie has been supportive of his panic attacks.

He eventually chooses Liz and Kenzie.

Fire-Making Challenge: The two competitors will attempt to build a fire that’s tall enough to burn through a rope. The first person to complete this task will join the final three.

Result: Kenzie has some trouble getting it together, but she’s eventually able to figure it out and pick up the win. Liz is the fifteenth person eliminated from “Survivor 46” and the last member of the jury.

As Probst is doing his wrap-up, Liz cries and says she would have beaten any member of the final three.

Quick Aside: Am I losing my mind? She wouldn’t have right?

Day 39 26 Breakfast

Charlie says that any one of the final three could still win the game. Well…maybe he’s 2/3rds correct.

Ben says his game was one of honesty and that he played hard from the first day.

Q thinks Ben flew under the radar and if he can prove he drove some moves, he could get his vote.

Soda thinks Ben’s a good person, but did he play a strong enough game?

Kenzie says her game has been about knowing when to hang back and knowing when to step up.

Venus is a big fan of Kenzie’s social game, but she wants to know what moves she made.

Tiffany thinks that Kenzie is the best candidate.

Charlie says he played a strategic game and he never closed a door to anyone. He’s worried that his moves have been in the shadows.

Hunter thinks Charlie did a good job of keeping his finger on the pulse of the game.

Maria knows all of his moves except for when he tried to take her out.

Final Tribal Time

Tiffany leads us off, and warns the competitors against using Taylor Swift references or rock-and-roll lyrics. I can support that.

She asks Ben about a move he made by himself that changed the game. He says he had to rely on his social game and bring together people who were on the outs to eliminate Q.

Charlie says he protected Q earlier in the game because he needed shields. Tiffany then asks Charlie about a move that he drove, and he takes credit for the Hunter vote, saying that at the time, Kenzie wanted to target Tiffany.

Hunter follows this up by saying that Kenzie convinced him not to play his idol when he was eliminated.

Kenzie’s solo move was when she got rid of Tim despite Q and Tiffany wanting to get rid of Ben. Q disagrees saying he was never going to vote for Ben, but Tiffany has Kenzie’s back.

Venus asks everyone to name one mistake they made where they were able to flip it on its head and capitalize on it. Charlie mentions when Moriah went home and Charlie had voted for Venus. Q took Charlie aside and gave him a lecture, and Charlie used this to make his way into The Six. Maria disagrees, saying that she brought him into The Six.

Hunter makes a joke about The Six not being the best place to be.

Kenzie thinks she got cocky and that’s why Tiffany went home. She convinced Tiffany not to use her idol. But with Tiffany out, she got back into the game and reevaluated what she was doing.

Ben discusses accidentally voting for Kenzie and how his panic attacks had been getting the best of him.

Tevin wants to know how that used a juror to advance their game.

Ben was told what to do by Q and Maria, and he’d use that information to go to other players.

Kenzie was out for blood after the Tiffany blindside. She wanted to get Q, but had to go with the numbers to get back in Q’s good graces.

Charlie says that he used Tevin because Nami was an enigma. Tevin said he and Soda were tight and Soda wanted Tevin to be gone. So, Charlie was able to figure out that Tevin must be a power player.

Hunter asks Charlie and Kenzie who they would have had make fire. Kenzie says she would have gone against Liz, because the guys had a similar story and she would have had a tough time beating Liz.

Good…answer…

Charlie says he would have taken Liz to the end because he thinks his game stands up well against hers.

Bad…answer…

Hunter follows up and asks Charlie if he asked Ben if he could make fire. Charlie said his game was about getting to the final three and he didn’t think he needed the fire moment to win.

Soda thinks Ben was a follower, Charlie didn’t set himself apart from Maria, and Kenzie was told who to vote for post-merge. She asks them to change her mind.

Kenzie says she’s not the loudest voice in the room, but she’s always thinking strategically. She eventually owns being brought into votes.

Charlie says that Maria and him were partners in crime, but by the time Maria was winding up to knock him out, he’d already put the pieces in place to take her down.

Ben agrees that he’s the most emotional person in the season, but that opened the door for him to make friendships.

Finally, Q asks what they’ll do with the money and how it will change their life. Ben says he wants to give his parents some kind of retirement and he wants to help his friend’s music education non-profit program.

Charlie says family is tops for him, so he wants to set them up for life. He knows everyone was playing for something bigger than themselves, and he works with immigration law and wants to make a donation to those causes. He’d also pay for law school.

Kenzie has been working since she was 15 and she hopes to invest and set herself up so she doesn’t have to cut hair forever. She’d also like to start a family.

Charlie makes a closing statement saying that he never closed a door and kept his options open.

Kenzie says she went on every Sanctuary award because she’s a social butterfly. She thanks Liz for helping her win the final five challenge.

And Ben is proud of being emotional and everyone rocks.

Initial Thoughts: I don’t think Ben has a shot. Great guy, fun character, not the winner. Charlie played the best long-term game, Kenzie came on strong at the end. Both are worthy champs.

Voting Time: Soda votes for Charlie, Q votes for Kenzie, Hunter votes for Charlie, Tiffany votes for Kenzie, and the rest of the votes are secret.

JPro tallies and returns. We’ve got one vote for Charlie, one vote for Kenzie, one vote for Charlie, one vote for Kenzie, one vote for Charlie, two votes for Kenzie, and the winner of “Survivor 46” is…Kenzie.

Maria did not vote for Charlie…that’s a shocker. During the post-show, Maria said it was because of how Kenzie did in the fire-making challenge and that Kenzie’s story moved her. And as she’s saying this, Charlie looks like he’s about to vomit.

He maintains his composure and says that the jury always votes for the right winner.

Verdict: Wow, I’ve got to admit, I was leaning Charlie. But, I think Kenzie is a very worthy winner.

And other than that, I think this is a season of vibrant, interesting characters and kinda forgettable gameplay. I’d love to see Q again, Tevin again, Venus again, but I honestly don’t know what I’ll remember about this season this time next year.

Power Rankings Results: Austin Li Coon had Liz, Ben, and Kenzie in the right spots for six points. While Frannie Marin had Maria, Liz, and Ben in the right spots for six points. A tie!

Welp, that’s it! Check out my exit interviews with the final five on YouTube tomorrow.

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And, be sure to check out the official “Survivor” podcast - “On Fire with Jeff Probst”