At the end of Survivor 45, I wrote a review on the season from the perspective of somebody like myself who was viewing the 24-year reality show for the first time. Because Survivor 45 was my first season of the show, I did not think Survivor 46 could top it.

Boy, was I wrong!

On May 22, CBS finished airing its 46th season of Survivor, and it may go down as a historic season. From the cast, to the blindsides, to the idols in pockets, this season had it all.

We start this recap with Day 1 of Survivor 46, where after coming in third in the immunity challenge, the Yanu Tribe had to send two players to compete in a SWEAT challenge. The purple tribe sends Jelinsky and Q. It is here that begins one of the most iconic seasons in recent memory.

Jelinsky and Q’s task is to fill a well with water. The twist? The buckets they are using to put the water in have holes in them. Jelinsky figures they have several hours to fill the well, which he’s correct, but the problem is his definition of several is not the normal definition. 

According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, one of the definitions of several is, “More than two, but fewer than many.” Jelinsky’s definition of several is seven.

The slot machine specialist, thinking he has seven hours to complete the challenge, is shocked when he sees the hour glass winding down on the challenge and decides to quit the challenge, to Q’s dismay.

Q is a former football player at Ole Miss, one of the top schools in the country. He played football throughout high school. He’s one of 17 kids! He’s one of the top real estate experts in Mississippi. He doesn’t quit!

Back at camp, Q convinces the rest of his tribe, which consists of Kenzie, Tiffany, Banu, and Jess, to make Jelisnky the first vote out of Survivor 46. For the rest of the season, whenever a challenge has gone for seven minutes, host Jeff Probst will tell the cast that several minutes have gone by. Jelinsky became an iconic character just like that, even though he only lasted three days on the island.

Fast forward a few days, and Yanu again loses another immunity challenge and must go to Tribal Council. Q feels so bad for losing twice he volunteers to go home, a theme that will continue throughout the season. Ultimately, the plan is to eliminate Jess, who has struggled socially on the island and is completely lost. Jess knows she’s on the bottom of the tribe, so she decides to go idol hunting, but Kenzie, Q, and Tiffany plant a fake idol and pretty much give it to Jess to make her feel safe. She plays the fake idol, Probst reveals it's not real, and Jess is promptly voted out.

From there, the Yanu drama is not over. 

Now, we get to Bhanu, who is an emotional player. He says everything that’s on his mind, and while Q is trying to coach him how to play the game, Kenzie and Tiffany are done with Bhanu; especially when Bhanu reveals to the tribe that while on a journey with Ben from Siga and Liz from Nami, he confides in them he’s on the bottom of the tribe, and Q, Kenzie, and Tiffany are controlling the entire purple group dynamic. 

Bhanu catches a bit of a break when Randen from Nami had to be removed from the game due to a stinger in his arm. The next episode and day, Yanu loses immunity again (and still does not have their fleet) due to Bhanu messing up the order in the challenge.

 Before Bhanu is promptly disposed of at Tribal Council, there’s an amazing editing scene where we see Bhanu praying to god and asking for forgiveness. Then, we see him begging Tiffany to not vote him out in one of many iconic scenes from the Tribe Stage of the game.

Now, we get to the theme of the season: idols in pockets.

Right before we hit the merge stage of the game, Jem from Siga leaves the game with an idol in her pocket. Before the elimination took place, Q, Hunter from Nami and Tim from Siga go on a journey, where they vow to form an alliance. In their mind, if they each pick one No. 1, they can get to the Final Six and then duke it out. 

Q chooses Tiffany, Hunter chooses Tevin and Tim chooses Maria. Unsurprisingly, as soon as the merge happens, this plan falls flat on its face almost immediately.

For starters, Maria is shocked when Q confronts her at camp about the plan. Maria’s No. 1 is Taylor Swift’s No. 1 fan in Charlie. Her and Tim get along, but Tim is not her No. 1. This is even more defined when Q tells Maria the plan before Tim got a chance to talk to his supposed No. 1.

The first challenge at the Merge Stage puts two teams against two, with the losers going to Tribal Council first and not being involved on the jury. Tim’s team ends up falling, and even with Q on Tim’s team, Tim leaves the island. Soda from Nami is eliminated as the first member of the Jury.

Soda’s elimination is where Survivor 46 goes to a whole new level because both Tevin and fellow Nami member Venus try to take credit for Soda’s elimination. On top of all this chaos, Venus and Tevin are rivals and are trying to eliminate each other. While Nami won immunity at every challenge during the Tribe Stage of the game, the other players realize Nami is not Nami Strong. 

After a mad scramble at camp just before Tribal Council, the elimination of Tevin will go down as one of the most controversial Tribals in the history of the show because of one man: Q.

Q’s coaching and controlling mindset of the game goes to the extreme when at Tribal, unbeknownst to anyone, he tells the Survivors left in the game to vote him out. He says he’s the one why there was such a mad scramble at camp just before Tribal (this is due to the fact he’s trying to blindside Tiffany because Tiffany views Maria as a threat). Everybody is talking among everybody. In the middle of the chaos, Charlie reveals to Tiffany that Q told him about her hidden immunity idol. 

Tiffany, who once put her whole trust in Q, is now enraged, and even though the plan to eliminate Tevin does go through as planned for Tiffany, she now knows she’s a target, and she knows Q is untrustworthy.

The next episode, Q decides that in order to get back in everybody’s good graces after nearly blowing up everybody’s whole game, the gang should play hide and seek. Yes, THE hide and seek!

In a confessional to the camera, Q reveals he has a strategy behind the hide and seek. If players are going to take playing a simple game like hide and seek seriously, then they are making a BIG MISTAKE because they are too big of a threat to continue on in the game.

Up to this point, Hunter had been dominating challenges, but when Charlie wins immunity, the majority of the group sees it as an opportunity to take Hunter out. 

While Hunter finds an idol, he is convinced by Kenzie not to play it at Tribal Council because the plan is to vote out Q. A screaming match between Tiffany and Q commence, leading to another highly explosive Tribal. 

The distraction convinced Hunter Kenzie was telling him the truth, so he didn’t play the idol. As Q would say, Hunter made a BIG MISTAKE, becoming the second member of the Jury.

Now that Q has essentially become the ultimate smokescreen and enemy No. 1 at the same time, Maria sees this as an opportunity to befriend Q and use him as a vote. She also uses the numbers to her advantage to blindside Tiffany with an idol in her pocket. The combination of Maria, Charlie and Ben from Siga, Q from Yanu and Liz from Nami (reluctantly) use their votes to send Tiffany home with an idol in her pocket.

 The majority did not tell Kenzie about the blindside to ensure Kenzie would have to start making decisions on her own, as she and Tiffany have voted the same way since day one on the island.

Now, why was Liz reluctant to vote out Tiffany and not send Q packing? Because Liz, ever since Q blew up Tribal Council, has had a vendetta against the real estate agent. Liz believes Q intentionally tried to sabatosh her game by pulling what he pulled at Tribal the night Tevin went home.

To make matters worse, on the episode where Tiffany goes home, Q wins a reward challenge. The reward? Applebees, something Liz and her daughter order every single Wednesday before watching Survivor. Not only that, but the burger available is the EXACT burger Liz orders. To top it all off, Liz is allergic to a lot of things on the island and hasn’t had solid food in nearly three weeks.  

Yet, despite all of this, Q chooses his former Yanu members and Maria to go on the reward challenge with him to try to get Tiffany and Kenzie back on his side.

Liz is not happy about Q’s choice and has an emotional breakdown at the challenge site in another iconic moment of the season.

Fast forward to the next episode, and Maria wins immunity and a pizza reward. Her first choice for the reward is Ben, who has been having panic attacks at night and is struggling as the game continues. Maria claims she wants to feed people who have not eaten, but she makes Liz and Q play Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine who comes along with her and Ben. Ultimately, Q’s Rock covers Liz’ Paper, and Q goes with Maria and Ben, leaving a bad taste in the rest of the players’ mouths.

 Q had just eaten Applebees the day before. Liz is still praying for something she can eat on the island. The fact Maria made Liz play Rock, Paper, Scissors just to protect her No. 1 does not go over with everybody who’s back at camp.

With Maria winning immunity, Charlie has the ultimate power in the vote, as he’s been working with Maria since the day the game started, but he knows that outside of a few immunity wins, his resume is weak compared to Maria’s, as she got credit for the elimination of Tiffany. The man who can recite every single Taylor Swift lyric is going to have to turn on Maria. However, is now the right time?

Venus, Liz, and Kenzie are all in on finally eliminating Q while Maria, Q, and Ben are focused on finally eliminating Venus, who has struggled connecting socially with anybody on the island.

However, what nobody knows is that Venus found Tiffany’s idol! Right before Tribal Council, Venus, in an indirect way, tries to tell Charlie about the idol. She tells him if he votes for Q, she guarantees him a spot with her in the Final 4. Charlie ultimately decides to trust his No. 1 and keep Maria happy and vote for Venus. Meanwhile, Venus was so convinced Charlie was going to vote Q that she becomes the third person in a row to be banished from the game with an idol in her pocket!

The next episode, Q finds Venus’ idol that she went home with. He decides to tell Maria, as she is now his No. 1. Maria does not tell anyone else because she comes up with a plan to blindside Charlie and separate her resume even more. Maria believes she has convinced Q, Ben, and Kenzie that the time to turn on Charlie is now. She tells Q not to play his idol… you already know where this is going!

Charlie, Ben, Kenzie, and Liz eliminate Q with an idol in his pocket. The other two votes went to Charlie. Now, Charlie knows Maria tried to blindside him, selling up the ultimate finale. 

Episode 13, the final episode of the season, kicks off with the aftermath of Maria trying to blindside Charlie. Maria tries to tell her No. 1 she was tricked by Q, but Charlie isn’t buying it. We go to the next day, Day 24, where the penultimate immunity challenge of the season commences. To win immunity, contestants had to solve a puzzle that revealed a code to unlock. Kenzie finishes her puzzle first, but she cannot decipher the clue on the puzzle to finish the challenge. 

With Maria right on Kenzie’s tail, Liz decides she is not going to win the challenge and is so desperate to eliminate Maria because she feels that is the only way she can win the game, that she HELPS Kenzie solve the puzzle to win immunity in one of the most controversial ways to end a challenge in recent Survivor history. With the win by Kenzie, Maria goes home, setting up the Final Four.

The way the Final Four works is there will be one more immunity challenge on Day 25. The winner will get to choose one person to take with them to the Final Three, where they will be questioned by the Jury. The other two will compete in fire making, with the loser becoming the eighth and final member of the Jury.

The immunity challenge falls the way of Ben, who after all his panic attacks on the island has finally won immunity on the penultimate day of the game. Ben immediately decides to send Liz to fire. Liz, knowing her wrists cramp up, knows she can’t make fire and her game is over. She has a meltdown on the beach. She’s distraught. She knows if she got to the Final Three, she would win the million dollars. She was so close to her dream, yet so far away.

In the end, Liz ends up falling to Kenzie in fire making. The choice between Charlie and Kenzie to compete against the sole remaining Nami player in fire making wasn’t easy for Ben, as Charlie and him have been great friends since Day One, but Kenzie was his No. 1 since he got to the Merge Stage and helped him with his panic attacks nightly.

In the end, after being questioned by the jury, after a five to three vote, the winner of Survivor 46 is… Kenzie!

Q, Tevin, Venus, Tiffany, and… Maria (!) voted for Kenzie. At the After Show, Maria revealed her decision to not vote for Charlie had to do with the fire she saw in Kenzies’ eyes after she won the immunity challenge on Day 24, and the fact Kenzie is going to use the money to help herself after starting her beauty career at 15-years-old was the cherry on top.

There was never a day on Survivor 46 when there wasn’t a twist, even when it came down to the Jury vote on Day 26. From idols in pockets, to Hide and Seeks, to praying, to ultimate blindsides, to a (somewhat) controversial victory, Survivor 46 had it all.

In honor of Jelinsky, now we wait for Survivor Forty Several, premiering Wednesday, Sept. 25 on CBS.