During season 46 of Survivor, no alliance of two seemed stronger than Maria Shrime-Gonzalez and Charlie Davis. They played their partnership so well that Charlie didn’t even bring her on a reward challenge. Maria even told Charlie when she was voted off that she’d vote for him. But she didn’t. Was that the right move?
Maria had one of the more aggressive game strategies, but she didn’t show her true colors until after the merge. She put together the Tiffany “Tiff” Nicole Ervin blindside, with the latter going home with an idol in her hands. All of a sudden, Maria was a power player. As Jeff Probst says, the more powerful you get in the game the more of a target you have on your back.
After the Tiff blindside, Maria started getting cocky, but with good reason: she started to absolutely dominate in challenges. You could see her confidence grow and grow until it became clear that she was probably going to win if they didn’t get her out. Elizabeth “Liz” Wilcox and Kenzie Petty had to team up to make sure Maria didn’t win the final five immunity challenge.
From that moment forward, Maria was in scramble mode. You could just see her realize those million dollars evaporate into thin air. But Maria made a crucial mistake: She turned on Charlie, and tried to get him out. The thing is, those two were crazy best buds. Charlie was even going around calling himself “Uncle Charlie” and saying he couldn’t wait to meet her kids.
Maria showed her true colors. She wasn’t really a ride-or-die with Charlie after all. It was all a ploy. If she really was serious about her relationship with him, she would not have voted for Kenzie. She basically handed Kenzie the million by going against her word. She was bitter. She realized if she wasn’t going to win, she didn’t want Charlie to win either. There’s nothing “friendly” about that.
Of course, the easiest counter-argument is that Charlie also turned on her. Regardless, Charlie’s intent was never revenge or some petty vendetta. Again, even when he was voting for Maria at the final five, he told the camera he couldn’t wait to meet her kids. Maria simply got to the point where she was like, “I don’t need him anymore.”
She played a great game, but just couldn’t handle the loss. Voting for Kenzie was petty and a pretty clear slap in the face to Charlie. In an interview with US Weekly, Charlie revealed that it was a “real sting” when he found out Maria lied to him about the voting.
“We see it in the after shows, sort of like Jeff [Probst] asked people to raise their hands about who voted for who, and then he asked Maria about her reasoning. But I found out before then.”
Charlie said he found out when everyone was congratulating Kenzie on the win. Hunter McKnight, Soda Thompson and Liz Wilcox all voted for Charlie, meaning he lost 5-3. Meaning Maria backstabbed him!
When he found that “there’s no Maria,” he said, “… she was completely avoiding my gaze. She didn’t come up, give me a hug, didn’t say anything to me, and that just sucked. I was just totally in shock and just really out of it.”
Does that not sound like a sore loser? Does that not sound like someone who wanted to get a final punch in on her biggest ally? Did she literally cost him $1 million? She did!
He was shook! Did that feel good, Maria? “You can definitely still see the remnants of shock on my face and you’re sort of [hearing it] in my tone and it was tough for sure,” Charlie said.
What would’ve happened if it was a tie? Then it would’ve been up to Ben Katzman, the third place finalist, to decide. Ben told US he would’ve picked Charlie. Man. That’s gotta suck.
Where is the friendship now? Charlie said he keeps in touch with Maria, kind of, but that their friendship is “complicated.” Like, she was a sore loser and turned on you complicated? Yeah, that can be hard to get over.
“I think we’ve reached a point where there’s too much that’s transpired. And I think it’s almost a question of trust that’s there,” he said. “Obviously, it was devastating to have a vote against me, but I stand by what I said in the after-show and understanding the result and respecting her free choice.”
Maybe they’ll both come back for the 50th, and this time, be mortal enemies. Regardless, Maria made a bad choice and prioritized money over her so-called lifelong friendship. Not cool.