'Survivor 46' Runner-Up Charlie Davis Says His Relationship with Maria Permanently Changed After Her Jury Vote

Charlie Davis

Survivor 46 is here! Every week, Parade.com's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off of the island.

Being in the middle is a position Charlie Davis knows "All Too Well." From Day 1 to 26, his game was all about keeping options open, making people feel "You Belong With Me." One of the contestants in the chaos of Survivor 46 was having Charlie and Maria Shrime Gonzalez as the primary decision makers, as they made their "Wildest Dreams" come true pulling off some massive blindsides over that "Cruel Summer." But the two were aware that Matsing had already been Mat-sung, and took shots at each other. Fortunately, Charlie had taken a "Fortnight" to insulate himself with allies, so when Maria struck, he could simply respond, "Look What You Made Me Do." Given his strategic strengths, Charlie hoped the jury could "Shake It Off" with their blindsides and write him a million-dollar check with a "Blank Space" for his name. Unfortunately, his game behind the curtain game back to bite him, and they were not "Enchanted" enough with his arguments to give him the win.

Charlie said at one point that grip strength is the most important thing in Survivor challenges. And he proved how key that was with the grip he had over the game this season. Within the first few days, he was caught in the gender war of Siga, starting the 26-day theme of Charles in charge. Amidst a tumultuous game of dramatic meltdowns, arguments, and devastating blindsides, Charlie and Maria served as the turnkeys for every move. However, a central theme of Survivor 46 was number one allies turning on each other. So it was only a matter of time before it happened to Charlie in Maria. By the time Maria had loaded up, though, she faced an artillery from Charlie, who had helped assemble a group that took it all the way to the Fiinal Four. On Day 25, Charlie told Ben Katzman to take him to the end, emblematic of his game to get what he wants while shining a spotlight on others. Unfortunately for Charlie, though, he couldn't shine enough of a light on his in the shadows gameplay, as the law student lost his million-dollar verdict.

The day after the finale, Charlie spoke with Parade.com about what surprised him most about the final Tribal Council, how he reacted to his perception of being Maria's "jester," and what his relationship with Maria is like now.

Related: Read our Survivor 46 pre-game interview with Charlie Davis

I have to say, you approached the devastation with your loss with so much grace in the after show, using your time to both prop up Kenzie's win and talk about your journey. What was it like watching it all back last night, especially now getting some additional context and color through watching the whole season?
It was tough. Honestly, when people ask me that, I always say, "You can feel a lot of emotions at once at the exact same time." So it was pretty hard to watch back, you know, I'm not gonna lie. It just felt heavy. It felt like I was reliving the exact moment. Especially watching final Tribal, just knowing exactly what's coming, was really tough. At the same time, I am very proud and grateful for the experience. But, I mean, it sucked. That's there's a big part of it that sucked. So it was it was a lot at once. But yeah, I did have a great support system. They were there to cheer me up and and gas me up. So that was awesome. And luckily, I've had about a year to get ready for this moment. But it certainly reopens the wounds a little bit. 

Well we have to open the wounds a little bit further and talk about this vote. Obviously a lot was up in the air. So how confident were you about what the results would be by the time Jeff brings the urn out? And what votes were you surprised about one way or the other?
So it was actually interesting. There was an interesting moment where final Tribal ends; we just all gave our closing statements. And there's this 10 to 20-second jury commiserating. They're all whispering to each other. And I was like, "Whoa, what's going on?"

Live Tribal, baby!
And so obviously, I'm listening to what's going on very intently. And I saw certain people nodding to each other, things like that. Then there was a moment where Liz even said, "They can't do that. What are they doing?" I don't know any of what they're saying. And Jeff was like, "That's the game." And I actually saw Maria nodding in agreement with certain people. And I was like, "Okay, that's my lockdown vote. So I'm glad she's nodding with other people." So, honestly, I did feel good. And there were a couple of moments at final Tribal that didn't make the air that I thought were pretty big moments for me in terms of outlining my strategy. When I played, I honestly didn't allow myself to think it the whole game. But when Jeff was walking down with the votes, I thought I had a really good shot at winning.

And, just based on all of that, I don't know if I had a guess for the exact count. But I did think I may have narrowly edged it out. Obviously, it was the narrow flip side of that. But, hearing the people's explanations, I guess it's somewhat in line with what I expected. I didn't actually get to watch the aftershow much. I remember Hunter and Soda basically gave the reasoning for voting for me, which was basically--and I hesitate to use the word "strategy," because social game is strategy--I'll call it "gameplay." Moving, actually determining vote outs, control over the game. I think I tended to get more of those votes from people who consider that their biggest factor. And maybe lost some of the votes that were like Q on the money, Maria on identifying with starting a family or seeing fire in someone's eyes. So, that's sort of how I started to think about it in terms of how I ended up breaking down. So I think I was right to assume that maybe the jury credited me most of my game, but I didn't quite see that a lot of jurors wouldn't be voting that way.

You mention unshown things at final Tribal Council. From my perspective, it looked like you were low-energy and almost defeated at points. So what didn't we see that led you to believe you were going to squeak out the win?
So there were a couple. I will say, I think one of my mistakes going into final Tribal is I told myself I didn't want to come off as arrogant or cocky. So I did have sort of a passive demeanor on at final Tribal. So I'd say that's more what it was, just my resting face. I don't know. Maybe with all the weight that came off, it looked very sad. I think I just explained my game in a lot more detail. So talking about the perception that I was Maria's "jester," or whatever Kenzie called it, which I guess potentially jurors were thinking. But I think I very much dispelled that at final Tribal,  much more than just my last answer to Soda's question.

My whole strategy was, as we were saying, options. That Kim Spradlin strategy. But it really started at the Final Seven vote where I was moving against Maria, because it started to come into my head, this whole idea of credit. Maria saying she wanted credit for the Tiff blindside, Kenzie being all up in arms about getting her number one out, things like that. So the Hunter vote didn't really happen, in my opinion, how they showed it on TV. I wanted to keep Tiff in the game for next time, and then sort of set that up as Maria's downfall. So I wanted to basically let her walk over the landmine of getting the sole credit for that move. And they showed it a little bit, where I go to Kenzie immediately after Tiff is voted out. Venus was actually also down there. And I was like, "Going after Maria a lot harder" with both of them, and really blowing her threat level up. And so I had many threads to talk about for a long time in the game where I was very much doing my own thing against Maria. And I talked about that a lot of final Tribal, and I think that's ultimately what got me the votes that I did. 

Let's stay on the Maria train. What was the secret sauce that led you two to work so well together for so long in the game? And did you always have the intention of taking her out before the end?
I mean, we did work well together. I would say we had a lot of trust. It was really interesting. We did trust each other a lot in the game. By the same token, I think we did see the game very differently, at least [in] who to work with, who to trust, and what was a good strategy to get to the end. Which is ultimately, I think, why I started to put things into place to diverge from her. Just for an example of the difference, when she got into the Six, and was telling me about the Six. I was invited into this glorious alliance; she was all hyped about it. And I was like, "This kind of sounds like it sucks. What are we talking about here?" Also, I'm like the substitute, so that's lower than the bottom of this alliance. And they just voted out someone. So I just saw it a little bit differently.

And I think that's sort of where I started to at least put my brain to work of, not necessarily putting words into action, but [thinking], "Maybe I need to play a little bit differently than her." Because I felt like I was having to sway her a lot into what I wanted to do. And I think when you do that enough, it's going to diverge naturally. That's to say, we obviously had a great relationship out there all the way to when she left the game. So, very strong strategic relationship, despite all of that.

Now let's go from strategic to personal. Because we saw that ominous scene on the boat where you talked about being friends long after the game and meeting each other's families. But I would imagine her not voting for you may have complicated things. Where do the two of you stand less than a year after playing?
It's really interesting. Honestly, I think up until the last couple of days, I would say we had a pretty good friendship. You know, as good as you can get. It never would be the same as it would have been. It's a pretty heavy thing. We've obviously talked about it quite a bit. But yeah, literally, in just the past couple of days, she sent me a text about what she was going to say in her exit press. And it was totally inconsistent with everything we've talked about for a year and everything I heard from Pondy and everything she said in the aftershow. And that definitely stung a lot.

There's been a lot of switching up in terms of her reasoning. And I've given her a lot of grace, including her telling me that she regretted voting for Kenzie weeks after the game, and then telling me after that that she couldn't have any regrets. So she didn't regret that anymore. So I did my best to understand and be a good friend. But, just the last couple days, I think it's just a little too deep. [I'm] not going to put the effort into into that relationship just the same. So no ill will towards her at all. I don't want any internet ill will towards her. But in terms of our relationship, we don't have to be friends. I don't dislike her. But it definitely won't be what it could have been.

Well let's finish with a different Siga relationship. You talked early on about your struggles fitting in socially. But it seemed like Ben was the key to you getting to showcase and embrace who you are. Talk to me about this "Dumb and Dumber" bond that lasted from Day 1 to Day 26.
Oh, man, it was awesome. I wish that storyline sort of continued into the postmerge, because if anything, it only got stronger. Ben and I were super tight, not just on a friendship level. But we strategize together a lot. Really, right after the Tim vote, Ben was eally down in the dumps. I don't know if you if you know. There's a secret scene where Maria confronts him, and he was really upset. And I went and sat with him in the water for a while. And really after that, I gave him a pep talk. I was like, "Ben, get your head in the game. We got a lot of game to play."

And from then on, we were strategizing very tight all the way to the end of the game. To the point where I would say he was almost equally my number one. To quote Dee, [he's] "my other number one." So that was a super tight relationship that I had. And we just had so many fun moments. They show Kenzie a lot with Ben and his panic attacks. But honestly, one of my favorite moments was literally the last night out there. We were on the beach, and Ben had woken up with a panic attack. And you just do whatever you can to cheer him up. And I was fireman carrying him on my shoulder, running up and down the beach yelling Lord of the Rings quotes, because we both like Lord of the Rings. So that's just one example of the shenanigans that we got up to. But there was a whole lot more. We had a lot of fun. He's a great guy, and a better player than people give him credit for.

Next, check out our interview with Survivor 46 winner Kenzie Petty.