Spoilers ahead for the 48th season of CBS’s Survivor.
For the first time in a long time the winner of Survivor feels truly deserving of the title of “Sole Survivor”. Kyle Fraser successfully navigated being in the middle of the social hierarchy for the entire season to earn the title of Sole Survivor. Kyle was a very well-rounded player who was not only a social threat, but he was very strategic and athletic as well. He is exactly the type of player that I always hope ends up winning once the final votes are cast.
We have had some other worthy winners in the new era such as Dee Valladeres. Unfortunately, there has seemed to be more undeserving winners such as Maryanne Oketch and Erika Casupanan. I have nothing against Maryanne and Erika personally. They seem like wonderful people. I just personally did not think that they accomplished enough individually in their respective seasons in order to be deserving of the title of Sole Survivor.
Neither of them did much strategically or physically all season. They both appeared to fit the architype of being a “passenger”. This means they intentionally fly under the radar in order to make it to the final tribal council. This is a very sound strategy if you want to make the final three in Survivor. However, up until recently, if someone used this strategy they were almost guaranteed to never actually win the entire competition. For some reason in the new era of survivor this no longer appears to be the case. Multiple “Passengers” have walked away with the title and one million dollars. Call me crazy and old fashioned but I prefer for my Survivor winners to have a strategic bone in their body.
Kyle and his partner in crime Kamilla, were the exact opposite of passengers this season. I wrote about earlier in the season how Kamilla was easily my favorite player this season. I could tell right away how intelligent and social she was. She was almost never mentioned as a potential vote out candidate this season despite almost always playing from the bottom of the social hierarchy. To me this is a true testament to just how solid her gameplay was all season.
According to the players of this season after the final tribal council meeting, Kamilla would have been the unanimous winner had she made it to the final three. Credit needs to be given to Kyle for winning the final immunity challenge and subsequently eliminating Kamilla in the fire making challenge.
Ontop of his impressive strategic moves throughout the season Kyle also had one of the greatest final tribal performances in a very long time. I was making jokes to my wife once it was clear that he was going to be in the final three, that if he did not dominate in the final tribal council meeting he should be ashamed. He is a freaking lawyer for heaves sake. His job is literally to talk to juries and convince them to take his side in a debate. If he had failed to win over these Survivor jury members he should have been deeply ashamed.
I will be honest. At the beginning of the final episode, I was not completely sold on Kyle being the winner. I thought Joe had the most impressive resume to this point. As the episode went on and Kyle made the case for himself, he completely won me over and I was straight up rooting for him by the end of the episode.
The moment that completely won me over, as well as the jury, was the reveal that he was behind the Shahin vote out and not Eva and Joe like they tried to claim. He successfully undermined what they believed to be their best strategic move of the season. In doing so he convinced the jury that he was the best player sitting there and walked away with the million dollars. Go Kyle go!
The most entertaining stretches of Survivor seasons are usually when the tribes merge into one giant tribe. The first few votes after the merge are usually incredibly exciting. That was not the case this season. A major theme of this season was loyalty. Alliances stayed firm with one another picking off the weaker members of the tribe. This led to a slow middle of the season. It felt like we were just waiting for the end of the season to arrive and the real games to begin.
Previously in Survivor the end of the seasons has not been the most entertaining. At this point in the game, it is pretty obvious who is going to win, and it sometimes feels like a slow march to the inevitable. That certainly was not the case this season. Thanks to the forementioned loyalty that the best players showed each other, every player in the final five had a legitimate chance to win. That is almost never the case. The final episode was one of the best Survivor finales in a long time. It was such a fun viewing experience and I could not be happier.
I cannot wait for Survivor 49 this fall. Next spring Survivor 50 will be the first all-star season since 2020. It should be totally LIT.
Please like and subscribe so I can provide for my 4-month-old puppy Napolean!
A bientot!
Bennie's Blasts 
Leave a comment