Survivor’s Charlie Davis Unpacks Aftermath of THAT Shocking Vote: ‘There’s No Reason for Me to Have That Friendship in My Life’
The following contains spoilers from Wednesday’s season finale of Survivor 46.
It’s got to sting when your No. 1 ally and best in-game friend doesn’t vote to give you a million dollars.
More from TVLine
Charlie Davis played a sturdy game. He created strong bonds, he flexed some strategic muscle and he won a couple of clutch immunity challenges. And yet, he fell two votes short of victory. After avoiding the Final 4 fire-making challenge (which is what you’re supposed to do, people!), Charlie articulated his game well, took credit for his biggest moves and still fell just shy of victory, partly because his island bestie Maria voted for Kenzie instead. (Read our full finale recap here.)
Below, TVLine talks to Charlie about Maria’s shocking jury vote, the current status of their relationship and what he wishes he would’ve done to secure the win.
TVLINE | Charlie, you were so close to this big win! How are you feeling now that everything has aired and the secret’s out?
CHARLIE DAVIS | It’s a lot of emotions at once. I’m really proud of the game I played. It was a hell of a season of Survivor and I’m really happy to be a part of it. It was just so fun watching everything back. But at the same time, this last episode was definitely tough to watch back, watching myself get really close and seeing Jeff read my name three times to win just to ultimately not quite get there was definitely tough. It was tough in the moment, sort of reopened old wounds now, but yeah, that’s the balance of it all.
TVLINE | Maria didn’t vote for you. We saw your very diplomatic thoughts in the after show in the moment, but do you have anything to add about that now that you’ve had time to gather your thoughts?
I definitely stand by everything I said, especially about Kenzie and respecting the game of Survivor and how a winner is chosen. But it was brutal. It was really brutal to find that out at the after show and to have to process that in the moment was really tough. It hurt a lot. I thought her reasoning was rather interesting. It wasn’t the most fun to hear. It’s been a bit of a rocky relationship. I stand by everything I said, but yeah. Very devastating. Very brutal.
TVLINE | Have you talked to her since filming wrapped?
Yeah, we’ve talked. I think up until, honestly, like a week ago, we were pretty good friends and on fine footing. But it’s frustrating, obviously, [that] her not voting for me changed our relationship. It probably wouldn’t ever be what it would have been, which is fine. I think a lot of people think you have to be friends, best friends with everyone, coming out of Survivor, but it’s definitely not the case.
We’ve obviously talked a lot about why she voted the way she did and she’s always been very consistent with her answers that she said in the after show, which I don’t necessarily love that much. Obviously I wish she would have voted for me, but I respect the consistency. Except there’s been times where she told me she regretted her vote for Kenzie, that she wishes she would have voted for me only to flip back on that and then say, “I can’t have any regrets.” And then this past week she sort of opened up an entirely new can of worms and brought up completely different reasons for her vote than she’s ever had. It felt to me like she’s doing that to sort of save face from backlash over this vote, which I don’t want her to get any backlash. I want to make that abundantly clear. There’s no reason for that whatsoever, but in terms of our personal relationship, it definitely felt like a slap in the face. So that’s really where we’re at and I don’t wish her any ill will. She’s a lovely woman. She’s a great woman, her kids are awesome, great family, but there’s no reason for me to have that friendship in my life. I’ve got a lot of great friends and she’s got a lot of her great friends and that can be fine. That’s OK.
TVLINE | Ben told the “On Fire” podcast that he would’ve voted for you in a tie-breaker. Does that make the loss better or worse?
First, I’ll shout out, Ben. We had a really tight relationship out there all the way through. We saw it a little bit in the pre-merge, but it really was all the way through post-merge too. Not just on a personal level very deeply, but we were working together very closely strategically, especially after Tim was voted out. I would say I was definitely Ben’s No. 1 and I would say he started to become my other No. 1 along with Maria. I think viewers might be a little bit surprised at hearing it based on what they’ve shown on the show. But it didn’t surprise me at all. Ben told me that basically right after the show ended that he would have voted for me in a tie, so it’s gratifying in a sense, but it’s like, guess what? He didn’t get to cast the vote. It’s wild. That’s the drama of the season, that it was that close. Literally one vote would have changed the winner. But that is what it is.
TVLINE | You said in the moment that the jury always picks the right winner, but we’ve seen bitter juries and jurors before! Do you still believe that?
I still stand by what I said. Even a bitter jury is just a jury that’s feeling some sort of emotion, so I think it’s ultimately… I don’t put blame on myself for this. I think it’s very hard to predict what a jury is going to do and what they’re going to think about people. You can get a general sense, but it’s very hard to pick up on because there’s a lot of politics and big things that happen at Ponderosa which you have no idea about. The jurors are all talking to each other, and what they’re saying and what they’re feeling are very difficult to pick up on.
But I stand by what I said at the after show that the jury gets it right. Kenzie did play a great game. There’s a weakness of my game to underestimate her threat level. I’m giving myself grace because I had a lot of reasons to think that I could beat Kenzie, just based on how people were talking about her game in the game, which is ultimately the only information that I have. I’m not sitting with the jury at Ponderosa listening to them and how things might change.
TVLINE | The penalty in that final immunity challenge. How difficult was it to wait for that ball to mosey its way back to the bottom?
That was brutal, man. It was awful. I mean, that felt like it lasted forever. I did my best to be looking at the puzzle and planning what pieces are gonna go where, but that time penalty was killer. If there’s someone in the challenge like Ben who never hit the time penalty, if you hit the time penalty once, you’re done. I mean, that’s just how that challenge works. Ben crushed it, to his credit. He was awesome.
TVLINE | Liz thought she was a shoe-in to win the game. Was she delusional out there or was that just the way the edit looked?
I think it’s a mix. I think Liz maybe played a better game than some of the viewers or jurors would have given her credit for. But it was honestly probably worse than what they even showed in terms of the jury’s reaction when she said that. I was watching the jury very closely that night, and their reactions very much seemed to be the opposite of that. That being said, you never know if Liz gets to the Final Tribal. Maybe she says certain things that really change their mind. Who knows? As a player in the game at that moment, I sort of said this in a diplomatic way at Final Tribal, but I basically think I could have beaten Liz. Who knows if Liz gets up at Final Tribal and maybe is a whiz with her words and is able to spin things and turn the jury around. But I think it’s very hard to completely change a jury’s mind. I’ll say that.
TVLINE | Is there anything, looking back, that you think you could’ve done that would’ve made the jury see you in a different light and maybe give you the win?
I think my posture going to Tribal Council, I could have been a little more aggressive, a little more assertive. I was worried about coming across as cocky or arrogant or something like that to the jury. It’s not that I didn’t assert myself when I needed to, but just overall, I would have swung a lot harder in certain areas and swung back at certain answers that Kenzie gave, which I was like, “Whoa, what are we talking about here?” But I didn’t want to come across like I wasn’t even giving her a chance to speak. But ultimately, I didn’t win, so maybe I wish I would have gone back and swung a little harder.
TVLINE | Do you regret not asking Ben to put you into the fire-making challenge? Could that have tipped the scales in your favor?
With hindsight, maybe the jury wanted me to do some sort of flashy move and if Kenzie is never there, Maria never sees the fire in Kenzie’s eyes and maybe that changes everything. But I really couldn’t predict that that would be such an important factor for some people. As I said in the show, I don’t view it as a crazy important move for your resume. The flip side of it is I was sort of using it strategically. So while we were practicing for fire, once I knew I wasn’t gonna be in, I was bouncing back and forth and helping Kenzie and Liz with their fire-making. I think I could have beaten either of them, but I thought it was more valuable to try to lock up the loser’s jury vote over anything and I do think that helped me get Liz’s vote. She was like, “you’re my miracle.” So I was happy with how I played it. It’s tough for me to say in hindsight if I would have gone into fire. Man, if I’d gone out on fire after asking to be put in, I would have felt like a total idiot.
TVLINE | Season 50. All returnees. Do you want to play this wild game again?
Listen, I would say 99.9% of Survivor players are suckers to return. I can’t say I’m different, man. So many high, highs out there. It’s just a crazy-ass game, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s addicting.
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
