‘Survivor 46’ Top 8 power rankings: Charlie and Maria are playing the middle to perfection

This week on “Survivor 46,” the remaining eight players will enter the final stretch of a game where for the first time in the “new era” it truly feels like anyone could still win. The original Nami tribe was well-positioned to dominate the post-merge game, but has imploded in miraculous fashion sending three of their own home as the first members of the jury. Soda Thompson, Tevin Davis and (as of last week) Hunter McKnight now sit on the sidelines and will help determine which of the final eight cashes in that million dollar check.

Among their choices are: the two unlikeliest Nami players to outlast the others, Venus Vafa and Liz Wilcox; all three of the Yanu players that rebounded from a tribe-decimating start to the game, Kenzie Petty, Tiffany Nicole Ervin and Q Burdette; and three Siga players that have successfully played the friendly card, Charlie Davis, Maria Shrime Gonzalez and Ben Katzman.

SEE ‘Survivor: All-Stars’ dream cast: Our Top 20 ‘New Era’ contestants

Below is our latest take on how each player’s chances of winning currently stands and what it will take for them to make it to the final tribal council. Agree or disagree with our “Survivor 46” Top 8 power rankings? Sound off with your own thoughts in the comments below.

1. Charlie Davis
2. Maria Shrime Gonzalez

Though “The Six,” an alliance that could have easily controlled the latter part of the game if they’d stayed loyal, is all but gone, its the two players that were unknowingly tapped into the alliance as after-thoughts that come out of it in the best spot. Maria was brought into the group by Tim Spicer who she never really saw as a close ally of her own and then once he was gone, she brought Charlie in to replace his spot. While Nami was eager to give up their numbers advantage at the start of merge, Charlie and Maria kept a low profile and have skated through the turbulent first few merged tribals pretty much unscathed. From where they sit now, each seems legitimately loyal to the other first and foremost and both are of the same mind that it is in their best interest to allow more chaotic players like Q and Venus to remain in the game as the biggest targets.

We have yet to see a big play from Maria, who was dismayed by Kenzie wanting to turn on Tiffany because she had seen that as her own big move to make, and she’ll need to muster one up soon if she intends to have a resume to speak to at the end. Charlie has played the better social game and him disclosing to Tiffany that Q told him about her idol currently sits as one of the more cunning, albeit slight, moves of the game because of the way it severed the ties between the Yanu three.

If there’s a thread to find among the “new era” winners, it would be an expect ability to play the game from the middle. Right now, in this game, no one is doing that better than Charlie, and by extension, his closest ally Maria. Unless the others catch on — and catch on quick, they must — these two could sail smoothly to the end.

3. Kenzie Petty
4. Ben Katzman

If there’s a twosome that can potentially rival Charlie and Maria for a couple of those final tribal council seats it will be fast-friends Kenzie and Ben. While not playing the middle exactly, Kenzie and Ben are keeping just as low of a profile while also managing to stay above the fray of drama. For anyone that thought Kenzie might remain loyal to Tiffany until the end, that was put to bed last week when Kenzie initiated a potential blindside of her Yanu ally and admitted that she “knows” one of them will have to take the other out before the end. Had that planned played out, we’re 50/50 on how that might have turned out for Kenzie — it had the potential of solidifying trust with a new block of players, but also the unintended consequence of putting herself in the “strategic threat” hot seat going forward. It works out better for her that both Tiffany and Q are still in the game and are on everyone’s minds as the next “must go” players, creating a path for her and Ben to get at least to the final six where they may actually be in a power position from the middle.

5. Tiffany Nicole Ervin

Whether she knew she was making the move or not, Tiffany’s two-fold decision to tell everyone she wanted to flush her own idol and then choosing to not play it like she said she was going to is going to go down as one of the most savvy plays of the season. Had Tiffany not threatened to play her idol, she likely would have been sent home in a blindside, but now she’s bought herself another few days in the game where she can actually flush it as a protective move. But while it gives her a longer lifespan, Tiffany has no one in the game fighting on her behalf and everyone in the game coming for her with knives drawn. The other seven have made it clear that they don’t want to sit next to Tiffany in the end so whether she can even get to the end is a huge question mark.

6. Venus Vafa
7. Liz Wilcox
8. Q Burdette

Three players that do actually have a fair chance of making to the end, though probably not together, are the three that are seen as the least threatening to sit next to in front of a jury. Venus has been maligned by everyone in the game since day one on the Nami beach and try as she might to lay claim to this big move and that big move, a jury made up of players that think they made the moves Venus claims for herself is never going to respect her enough to cast that vote in her favor. Liz made the mistake of boasting about her financial well-being back home which inevitably puts her on the back foot in front of a jury, but it’s a series edit that emphasizes her outward display of frustration and stubbornness each week that raises the biggest red flag for a Liz win — we just don’t see it.

And then there’s Q, the player who thinks he is running the entire game and thinks he’s doing so in a new way (neither of which are true). Somehow Q was both the founder of “The Six” alliance and the destroyer of it — spearheading the first mutiny on Tim and then propelling the idea that Tiffany should go simply for naming Maria as an option. And as “The Six” crumbled, Q brought chaos to tribal council in a way that deeply unsettled Hunter, Charlie and Maria who otherwise were ready to go to bat for him and disrupted his trust with Kenzie and Tiffany. Very quickly Q went from the player everyone wanted to work with to the player no one will vouch for. It’s hard to imagine that a jury will come back around to a point where they’d see order and intent in the way Q has played rather than a series of chaotic jumps from one mindset to another, the latter of which does not indicate a “here’s my vote for the winner” mentality.

SEE exclusive predictions: Who will win ‘Survivor’?

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