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All those blindsides of peeps with unused immunity idols in their pockets. Ben winning the final individual immunity challenge. Maria voting for Kenzie, not Charlie, and Kenzie winning the million. And the Liz move you mentioned below. That was a big surprise too.

I have mixed feelings about it. I was rooting for Maria so I wasn’t happy about what Liz did to help Kenzie win that challenge because that move sealed Maria’s fate. Objectively, if it wasn’t breaking any rules, Liz actually made a big move doing that (and I could not stand Liz but credit where credit is due). They all needed to get Maria out if any of the rest of them were going to have a chance of winning the million. So I don’t see Liz’s move as only to help Kenzie. It helped Liz, Charlie and Ben too. We don’t see one player help another player win individual immunity very often because, usually, everybody is trying to win immunity themselves. But haven’t we seen a few times when a couple of players were battling it out in an endurance challenge and one of them stepped down on purpose? I think “giving” a player a win like that is akin to what Liz did.

If Maria, Charlie and Kenzie were final three, I would have been okay with any of them winning. I think the part of Survivor that players mess up most often is managing the jury. I was surprised that Charlie didn’t make a stronger case for himself because he was so articulate in his confessionals. Maybe he didn’t try hard enough because he thought he had the win?

I think Maria, Charlie, Kenzie and Ben all played good social games. And they all won individual immunity challenges (even Ben!). Kenzie did survive the tribe she started on, including going ten days without fire. And then she made fire to get to final 3. I think Kenzie might have just come off better (more genuine?) when answering the juries questions.

I was as shocked as Charlie was that Maria didn’t vote for him. But Maria had every right to be swayed by Kenzie (and by other jury members like Tiff). I know a lot of people are assuming that Maria was bitter. But I’m not convinced. At the end, Maria and Charlie were both gunning for each other. Nobody is obligated to stay with their main alliance until the end. I just don’t see Maria as the villain some see her as.

Although I was sorry to see Maria go, I loved that the remaining players gave her a standing ovation and all hugged her. Clearly, she was well liked and respected. But also clearly she had to go when they got the chance.

Maybe somebody else will pick up doing what Sia was doing. If there was a Sia award this year, who do you think she would have given it to?