Reality TV

how entertained I suddenly am by everything Liz Wilcox does after finding her soooo annoying in every way at the beginning.

Even 2-3 weeks ago when she started getting funny with the Applebees meltdown part of me was saying “stoppp moaning about pooping and allergies, you CHOSE to go on survivor.”

But now? Her demeanor fully changes after food reward AND a BM creates the best day of her life?!? Found myself rooting for a shocking immunity win with that energy ☁️✨

I hated her grating little song/cheer for Nami during the tribe challenges, now she’s scatting her way into tribal and I’m loving every minute of it💀🤭

She went from crying about Q’s tribal tantrum stealing her thunder w the Tevin/Soda boots to (with Kenzie) making Maria feel so comfortable they were voting Charlie that they sent Q and his idol to the jury?? I never would’ve thought she’d make the merge let alone F5.

Bonus points for her wacky victory kick making it into that ortho shoe commercial 🤠

To be clear, I know her only path to actual victory was a cursed goats-only FTC because she’s made it clear she doesn’t need the money, and I wouldn’t necessarily even want her to win for that reason lmao. But goddamn it that 35-year-old grandma’s character development arc just astonishes and tickles me

Kenzie casting the "dysfunctional family" narrative. Sure it could not be intentional, but I choose to believe it's a very strategic move by her.

Kenzie's obviously not the shotcaller of the tribe, she's not the one leading the votes, she's not the one taking charge of the strategy, she's just chilling, laughing with her competition, making them feel better at night, giving hugs, giving a box of tissue.

What do you do when you're the likeable floater and not the master strategist?? Say everyone is crazy and doesn't know what they're doing. She knows she's likeable enough to pull off saying the things she said, she literally called Charlie a dog 💀.

Idk I just feel like shrouding the jury with narratives to butter them up for ftc in case you get there is a really underused yet effective move. They only get so much info about what's happening aside from what they hear at tribal.

Q may have gone home, but he's the first player to ever go home with an idol in their Q-Skirt.

In all seriousness, one of my favorite players from the new era, I really hope he gets brought back for S50. He might not have always been right, but he played the game his way and it was never boring to watch imo.

So Few Advantages

Aside from the fact that this season's broken the record for most idols unplayed and voted out, it's been so refreshing to have pretty much everyone able to vote since at least the merge, and no major wacky advantages. The New Era definitely was advantage/twist heavy for 41 - 44, and it eased up a bit in 45, and 46 has (from what we know) just been idols and Maria's one extra vote, and two of the idols post-merge haven't even been tied to Beware Advantages.

Everyone getting to vote makes for such more exciting tribals too. Can you imagine the lack of excitement around Q's "vote me out" tribal if like three people couldn't vote for whatever reason?

I know there's a bit of recency bias here, but 46 has felt the closest to pre-New Era Survivor (at least post-Merge), and I'm really hoping we see this trend continue into Season 40-several and beyond.

Thoughts?

...that it just happened 4x.

It's very funny to watch four in a row (and five/six in the season) go home with an idol in their pocket.

Probably the defining gameplay of the season, for viewers.

But none of the castaways know it's even happening.

1. Randen told only Venus.

2. Jem told no one.

3. Hunter told everyone, last-minute, but seems to have been regarded as a lie to save himself.

4. Tiffany is the only truly KNOWN idol.

5. Venus told no one. Hinted at it to Charlie.

6. Q told only Maria

So despite all the players going home with their idols, almost none of them have been targeted for their idols. Weird.

Kenzie and Liz completely sold the vote, and I feel like their edit was relatively small in terms of how the vote played but their ability to lie was key in Charlie staying here. They didn’t even realize how important it was to lie to Maria and Q because they had no idea he had an idol, however them two successfully lying was absolutely pivotal in this particular vote. It’s not easy to do that at all, and it seemed like they had Maria and Q utterly convinced as evident in Q not playing his idol. Also, I don’t care what you think about her as a character on this show, but Liz especially has been really f***ing good at lying these past couple votes

The next person walks in and and says "dang guys I had an idol and didn't play it!"

Like they must also be losing it, right?? 🤣🤣