The Big Picture
- Maria was impressed by Kenzie's fire-making skills and found her determination inspiring, which influenced her vote.
- Charlie was shocked that Maria voted for Kenzie over him, especially after she assured him she'd vote for him in the final three.
- Maria faced backlash from fans for her decision but stands by her choice to vote for Kenzie over Charlie in the end.
The fight for Sole Survivor of Survivor 46 became intense with multiple castaways pulling off bold moves. Fans watched Liz Wilcox help Kenzie Petty win the final five immunity challenge to target the biggest three. Maria Shrime Gonzalez had already won three challenges and had strong allies like Q Burdette throughout the season. However, her first ally started with her on Siga.
Charlie Davis was the swing vote with Maria multiple times before and after the merge. This made them powerful and what kept them in that position was that they stayed with each other while other duos turned on each other. Charlie made it to the final three, but Maria didn't vote for him. Here are 10 things the players had to say about Maria voting for Kenzie to win.
Survivor
TV-PG
Adventure
Reality TV
Game Show
A reality show where a group of contestants are stranded in a remote location with little more than the clothes on their back. The lone survivor of this contest takes home a million dollars.
- Release Date
- May 31, 2000
- Cast
- Jeff Probst
- Main Genre
- Reality-TV
- Seasons
- 46
- Studio
- CBS
- Creator(s)
- Charlie Parsons
10 There Was a "Live Tribal" With the Survivor 46 Jurors
The episode showed Tevin Davis whispering that he was stuck with two people as other cast members were voting. But fans didn't see how much more talking took place. "There was an interesting moment where the final Tribal ends," Charlie told Parade. "We just all gave our closing statements. And there's this 10 to 20-second jury commiserating. They're all whispering to each other."
The second-place finisher tried to listen to the jurors. But he took one moment as a good sign. "And I actually saw Maria nodding in agreement with certain people," he later said. "And I was like, 'OK, that's my lockdown vote. So I'm glad she's nodding with other people.'" However, Maria said there was a specific moment at final tribal that swayed her.
9 Maria Was Impressed by Kenzie Petty's Fire-Making
Ben Katzman had his first immunity win at the final four. He thought Liz was a threat since she came from Nami and there were four Nami jurors. He also believed she was a millionaire and didn't need the moment. The musician then picked Kenzie because she's good at making fire. Kenzie had a rough start but eventually beat Liz and Maria claimed this factored into her vote.
"When it came to that final Tribal Council, actually starting back at the fire, when I watched Kenzie make fire, there was a look in her eyes — a fierceness in her eyes of a powerful woman who overcame something," Maria told Entertainment Weekly. "And that spoke to me so deeply in my core." Kenzie also said she wanted the prize money for herself since she has spent so much of her life helping others. "My story was saying: I've put everybody ahead of me, as in motherhood, being a mom, and coming on the show is finally doing something for me," the mother said. "And so when those words came out of her mouth, I was stunned."
8 Charlie Is Shocked Maria Was Swayed by Fire-Making
Fire-making is risky because jurors can get swayed by the flashy move of winning it. But those who are confident in their game usually want to avoid it. Charlie told Rob Has a Podcast that now he knows he could've beaten Kenzie and Liz at fire-making because of how they were struggling to get a fire started.
"The reason I started giving advice is that it was like painfully long," he said. "To the point where I was like, he's gonna pull out matches." The law student explained this is why he was "shocked" Maria said that face-off impressed her. "The jury was like seemed upset that they couldn't make fire, so that's why I'm so shocked at Maria's answer that she's like, 'Oh, the fire in her eyes in the challenge,'" he said. "I was like, OK."
7 Maria Told Charlie She’d Vote for Him in Their Last Moments
Charlie said one of the reasons he was "shocked" by Maria's vote was because of something she said to him. "One of the very last things she said to me before getting voted out was, 'Get to the final three. You've got my vote,'" Charlie told Entertainment Weekly. "So I don't know what more I can do. It feels to me almost like it's like a perfect control experiment."
6 Charlie Heard Things About Maria in Ponderosa
Jurors go to Ponderosa once they're voted out. They can eat, sleep, and talk about the game. Maria wasn't able to spend much time there, but Charlie claimed he heard things that possibly led to Maria's vote. "I've heard that Tiffany [Nicole Erwin] basically said, 'He was coming for you for a while,'" Charlie revealed on Rob Has a Podcast. "And that like blindsided Maria and of course, I explained to her right away. 'Maria, I said that so Tiff wouldn't play her idol.'" He didn't know if that affected her decision not to vote for him. "I have been told that apparently did have an impact," he later said, but it's still unclear.
5 Maria Anticipated the Backlash
Fans were very critical of Maria throughout the season. She was accused of primarily working with men over women. The parent coach also had Q and Liz play rock, paper, scissors for a food reward. The fifth place finisher addressed this. "Listen, I have had an immense amount of hate come at me this season, which is just crazy," Maria told Entertainment Weekly. "Not something I could have anticipated. I think I did anticipate people would be upset about me choosing Kenzie, but I think you have to feel pride in what your decisions are. And I'm not going to take it back."
4 Maria Answers if Charlie Could've Done More
Some people would expect their close ally to know their game enough to have reasons to vote for the person to win. Maria was asked if Charlie could've done anything differently for her to vote for him over Kenzie. "I don't know, the thing is that I don't ever want to go back and say I should have done this," she said on Rob Has a Podcast. "I should have done that." She said she was torn between her head, which wanted Q, and her heart, which wanted Liz, for the pizza reward. This was the same for voting for the winner. "It's not about why Charlie lost for me, it's why Kenzie won," she added.
3 Charlie Says His Jury Speech to Maria Was Cut
The Survivor 46 castaways sometimes questioned Charlie's strategy. They wondered if he had just followed Maria's command and if he separated himself from her enough. The episode showed Charlie explaining this, but not his speech to Maria. "I gave a very long emotional answer about--I don't think they showed it, about Maria and really giving her her flowers in her game and saying why I had to--felt I had to take her out," he told Rob Has a Podcast. The law student said he went into detail about how he moved "pieces" against her. He thought it landed well.
2 Maria Says Talking With Charlie After Wasn’t Easy
Maria and Charlie became so close that she said he'd be "Uncle Charlie" to her kids. Did that change after Charlie's loss? "They haven't been easy, and we, I think, have mutual respect for each other," Maria told Entertainment Weekly. "We've had lots of moments. We've seen each other, we've visited each other. The children have met Uncle Charlie." She believes they'll be able to move forward and made it clear that she stands by her decision to vote for Kenzie.
1 Charlie Calls Maria’s Interviews Inconsistent
Charlie gave an update on their friendship with Parade. "Honestly, I think up until the last couple of days, I would say we had a pretty good friendship," he claimed. "You know, as good as you can get. It never would be the same as it would have been. It's a pretty heavy thing." The student revealed she texted him about what she planned to say for her post-season interviews. "And it was totally inconsistent with everything we've talked about for a year and everything I heard from Pondy and everything she said in the aftershow," he claimed. "And that definitely stung a lot."
"There's been a lot of switching up in terms of her reasoning," he continued. "And I've given her a lot of grace, including her telling me that she regretted voting for Kenzie weeks after the game, and then telling me after that that she couldn't have any regrets. So she didn't regret that anymore. So I did my best to understand and be a good friend."
It sounds like these days have been tough for the good friends. We may never know fully Maria's reasoning for her vote. But either way, her and four other jurors voted for Kenzie to win. The business owner managed her threat level, made numerous allies, and beat Liz in fire-making. Survivor46 is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. Watch on Paramount+
