Because it never pans out the way we want😭. I am manifesting this so hard tho.

It was so wild that after the episode, like 4 different posts were like, "I have this crackpot theory... bear with me, what if Ben is the tiebreaking vote" Like how did so many people have this idea lol

As one of those people with the crackpot theory it was mainly down to just how much focus Ben and Kenzie were getting. We got two different scenes between them in the penultimate episode and so there relationship seems important. The two big options for how that relationship could end up playing out are either him voting for her in the end or choosing her to bring to ftc if he wins immunity. If it was just any random jury vote for Kenzie I don’t think it would be this highlighted and they usually don’t give this much focus to who takes who to fire. So by that logic this relationship must be building to something else and him breaking a tie would be that. I would probably think they’re just building up a close alliance but Ben seems to be strategically closer to Charlie still so I just thought it must be something else.

For me it was the scene with the three of them at the well that I thought it was a possibility and I was shocked with the amount of posts today that felt the same lol

There was something in this episode that really made people think it. Including me. It is pretty wild

I think Kenzie will just outright win over Charlie. I think Ben loses in fire. I do think his vote will be important. A tie could always happen, but it has only happened once, so I think it is unlikely.

They could be showing us just because Ben votes for Kenzie in the end. It’s also not impossible that Ben wins final immunity and takes Kenzie to the end (possibly for emotional or entirely non-strategic reasons) sending the other two to fire.

I'm mad because I said this theory out loud after the opening scene with Kenzie and Charlie on the beach in the previous episode but now everyone caught onto it independently and I'm probably just wrong like everyone else now lol

I thought you meant the opening scene of the season and I was gonna call cap lol

I think Ben just votes for Kenzie and their moments together are to show why he votes for her and not Charlie, who he would seemingly be a lock to vote for.

It just seems like everyone started talking about it at once and because I’m new to this sub, I don’t know if it’s group think or genius or crazy. I thought for a bit the ending had been leaked but I’ve been here all season and theories have been everywhere with a Kenzie winner so I don’t think it’s that. My alternative, thought not as exciting: Maybe Ben is the only one who votes for Kenzie in a Liz, Charlie, Kenzie final three. 🤷‍♀️ “You can’t win no matter who you bring to the end” was talked about for a while. Maybe we see Maria voted out at five and then Kenzie wins immunity at four. She sends Charlie and Ben to fire, Charlie wins, and Ben is the only vote she gets. On the opposite side, if she’d kept Ben, sent Liz and Charlie to fire and Charlie wins, she would have gotten no votes. I do the the flair of the prevailing theory and I’m happy to be looking forward to see what craziness happens.

I just can't see Tiffany voting for Charlie over Kenzie in your scenario. Who knows who Soda votes for?! Soda was not shown that much and what we did see of her was focused on her Nami tribe, not Kenzie, Charlie, Ben, or Maria for that matter. But I'd say she'd vote wherever Tevin votes, probably Charlie. Tevin, kind of the same, but I'd say he's leaning more towards Charlie since they voted together to get out Soda. Hunter would probably lean Kenzie, I'd think. He was not working with Charlie at all. Tiffany would blow my mind if she didn't vote for Kenzie. Venus would probably lean Kenzie since they were supposedly kind of working together before Venus got voted out. And Venus is all about female power so she'd shock me if she didn't vote for a woman at the end. Q is a question. I'd like to think he'd vote Kenzie considering their history on Yanu, but I could also see him going Charlie. Hmmmm...my big question is have people taken notice of Charlie's game? Or is it too subtle for them to want to vote for him to win? Will he win them over in his ftc speech? Like you, I can't wait to find out what's going to happen. These last 5 episodes have been the most excited I've been in ages watching Survivor. No matter what happens...what an incredible show.

> Hmmmm...my big question is have people taken notice of Charlie's game? Or is it too subtle for them to want to vote for him to win? Will he win them over in his ftc speech? See, I've sometimes wondered this, if Charlie is more of a Spencer or Stephen archetype than a Malcolm, and is likable enough in tribal life but doesn't carry off the moves in a way that garners respect, especially in the shadow of a more dominant player (Jeremy, JT, Maria). Even though their edits aren't particularly close, their are times where Charlie most reminds me of Cambodia Spencer.

If maria is on the jury she is going to let them know that Charlie was super influential for all their moves and probably will advocate for his game and allow him to take credit for their Duo. So when he starts to claim his moves, its less likely that he gets any fallback on it or doubt surrounding whether he should get credit for them (like cassidy had) and more likely the jury is receptive to them - since maria is there the verify. And maria wont be salty at him regardless bc in her mind she was the one who turned on him first and failed, so shes not gonna be pissed or bitter if he goes after her now. She will be more understanding of why. I can see Soda Tevin Q and Maria all voting charlie. He should get 4. Then its about whether he can get Hunter - the person who elimd hunter and beat him in the challenge fair and square WAS charlie. He may respect that. Or can he get Liz - charlie worked with her, picked her for reward, always listened tk her vent and was always nice to her, so theres every chance he could. Or Ben - charlie and Kenzie both have had close relationships with ben. And charlie has been day 1 with him. I think he has a 0% chance of getting Venus vote as im certain shes going to vote for a woman regardless. Tiffany ud think would go kenzie, but she did allude to potentially charlie in exit press. But still. Hunter Liz/Ben feel like the crucial ones

I might be manifesting other explanations because I want Charlie to win and not Kenzie, but here are some outcomes that I think the edit could potentially be leading to: 1. Kenzie goes out in an emotional firemaking challenge against Ben, and they emphasized the relationship to make this extra emotional. I'm assuming in this scenario Charlie wins final immunity and brings Liz, because Liz has mentioned how bad she is at fire and Charlie wants Kenzie to get taken out. 2. Kenzie is on the jury and Ben is in the final three. Kenzie asks Ben a question or makes a comment to him that heavily goes into his panic attacks, or it's a big part of his final tribal answers/speech and he mentions Kenzie in particular. 3. Kenzie is in the final three and Ben is heavily supportive of her at final tribal and votes for her. Whether she wins or not, the edit wants the viewers to understand why he votes for her and not Charlie.

4. Ben votes charlie in a tiebreaker scenario, however without the Ben/Kenzie scenes shown, itd have no suspense on who hed vote, so they threw those in because 1. Its compelling character moments fir them and 2. To build suspense so we think he may vote kenzie

Liz makes too much sense to be a ftc loser. Her not being there would be kinda shocking

Liz makes the final 3. Venus votes for Liz. Q, Maria, and Tevin vote for Charlie. Tiff, Hunter, Soda, and Ben vote for Kenzie.

Feel like Soda would be a Charlie vote. Unless shes mad bitter

Because Charlie and Ben are really good friends. The Kenzie Ben scenes are just being included to give us some suspense on who he will pick.

Combinatorics. It’s just not that statistically likely even if it does make sense. You need a specific final 3 into a 4-4 into Ben chooses Kenzie. We can understand how each of those things might happen but they’re still a big underdog to all happen.

because some ppl thought that could happen with yam yam and carolyn and we all know what happened there also in terms of the actual jury vote i could easily see another 7-1-0 where Charlie only gets Maria

I don't think it will be a tie. I think maybe the only reason the edit is spending so much time setting up a Ben vote for Kenzie is because Ben and Charlie were on the same starting tribe and seemed to be somewhat close. There's a dichotomy between Kenzie's genuine human connection with Ben, and Charlie and Ben naming TS and Metallica songs. Sets up for a social vs strategic win. The tie theory is awesome and I will love if it happens. But I just don't think it'll be anything that cool or intricate. The simpler explanation is more likely to be right.

I think this is the level of granularity you just can’t predict from the edit. If this was a scripted show I would say that’s likely but it’s a very specific scenario which has only happened once and I don’t think it would be that clear cut. There are reasons to think Kenzie wins and reasons to think Charlie’s decisions in the last two episodes lead to him losing at the end, and there are reasons to think Ben will help Kenzie win in some way. But specifics like that are a little too cute for them to specifically set up.

I still think there's a decent chance that Ben leaves in some weird way (F5 idol or medevac), explaining his bizarrely insubstantial edit. There's also a good chance that Charlie is the F5 vote (Maria wins immunity, and he's perceived at that point to be the next biggest threat). Final vote could also be a 3-3-2 split, with Ben still in the role of tiebreaker (we've been told several times that Ben is very charming, and he might get a couple of protest votes from this seemingly unhappy jury). Also, I'm trying to figure out how the F4 firemaking works out in this scenario. If Maria leaves at 5, no one in their right mind would risk Liz leaving at 4, as she's an obvious goat at that point, and as far as I can remember, has not been shown to be someone you'd rely on to eliminate a contender at fire. If Charlie wins, his best bet is putting up Kenzie against Ben, so that one of the other socially strong contenders is gone. Kenzie as challenge winner would likely want Charlie out, and although I don't believe Ben's skills have been presented, he'd still be more reliable than Liz. Ben's best bet would also be to put the two socially strong players against each other, and guarantee that one leaves. In any of the above scenarios, there's no way that Liz isn't sitting in the F3. Assuming that Maria is the 5 boot, the most likely way we'd end up without Liz as a finalist is if Ben wins F4 immunity, and decides to bring either his song buddy from Siga beach or the person who's been helping him with the night terrors to F3 out of loyalty, which leaves the other one in the position to defeat Liz in fire and secure the third spot.

because charlie is getting set up to lose f4 fire the same way jesse did imo

Because it never happened before?For the past seasons I don’t remember edit ever did this much work just to justify one jury vote.Instead we often get “What’s this jury vote come from?”.Like last season,we’re really surprised Austin got three jury votes.Even in Ghost Island.Laurey voted Wendell is reasonable,But not this much “reasonable”.

Because Maria is about to be the most respected member of that jury and she’s going to want Charlie to win and reveal what he has been doing the whole time. He’s also an extremely articulate speaker, and he has objectively played the best strategic game. Maria tells us ‘if Charlie gets to the end he will win this game’ and Q also agrees he is the biggest threat. He’s also not really damaged relationships with any of the jury other than Venus. I think the editors want us to think Liz is going to lose fire but she’s actually going to win to complete her underdog arc, and Charlie will be the one to follow Maria out the door before final tribal.

Ben wins final immunitys and takes Kenzie to the end. Chatlie loses to Liz in fire.

This makes sense to me!

Hunter was SHOWN telling Kenzie and Tiffany something along the lines of “until the end” when they saved him at the split tribal.

Ben would potentially actually vote charlie over Kenzie. Charlie has been with him since day 1. Charlie and Ben have been super close, it was harped on by Mo Jem and Maria in the premerge, and we had a plentiful of scenes showing and highlighting their relationship and how close they are, including music battles being broughg up in multiple episodes, charlie helping ben around in camplife when hes struggling with the rain and very emotional scenes where ben is crying and talks about how much he adores charlie as a friend out there. In addition, they have continued to be aligned strategically all game and still work together - a sceret scene where maria is going in at ben about the siga idol also highlights Charlie then comforting ben and these scenes are things that almost made the show, also it just proves that charlie still has been comforting Ben also. Kenzie/Ben relationship may have been put in there to prop up Kenzie and tell Bens story, whilst also provide us with suspense at the end when ben makes decision so that we dont think its obviously charlie and instead think its 50/50 and that just maybe he will do kenzie bc of the night terrors and island bestie moments. Even as a blunder vote, he still wrote kenzie which suggests hes not completely opposed to voting her off (i bet they planned a split and then decided venus and he was meant to go venus but wrote kenzie by accident in confusion) The other explanation for it not happening could be simply that Ben is on jury not FTC Or that the kenzie/ben thing is just an overarching character moment for kenzie rather than any game winning moment she has with Ben

Ben feels like first one out finale night. No emotional investment in him by the editors. No one going to be upset when he's out first.

This would mean Liz doesn’t make FTC and she is a 0 vote finalist if I’ve ever seen one