Jelinsky Who? Jess Is ‘Survivor’ 46’s Real Flameout Icon

Some Survivor fans love the Parvatis and Tonys of the game. They extol the strategy of Boston Rob and Sandra, and marvel at the physical power of an Ozzy or the social strategy of Cirie. The Mount Rushmore of Survivor would include players who outwit, outplay, outlast, and a fourth thing. What is that fourth thing? After watching the first two episodes of Survivor 46, I would propose that the fourth category be a flip on the out_____ quality: flameout. And after last night, we have another all-timer to to represent for the flameouts: Jess.

Yes, Jelinsky’s season premiere flameout was instantly iconic, but let’s not let it overshadow Jess Chong! Hers was a subtler flameout, one where the embers glowed for two episodes — four hours! — before finally combusting in the final minutes of Episode 2. Jelinsky’s iconic in his own way, with his monumentally misplaced confidence and comical understanding of etymology. But Jess? Jess was terrible at Survivor, but she was great television. She was great at being terrible at Survivor.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if one was going to flameout on Survivor — and take a long, hard look at yourself: odds are you would flameout too — you’d want to do it like Jess.

I mean, this was the first photo that Survivor editors chose to show Jess’ life pre-Survivor.

ICON STATUS: ACQUIRED

Completely self-aware and possessed of an outward kind of chill that only comes when the anxiety is too much to handle, Jess wandered her way through two super-sized episodes, botching challenges, eating ants one by one for protein (“they don’t taste like anything”), overlooking a fake idol that was placed right in front of her, and dropping some of the best soundbites of 2024.

• “I have an identical twin. I’ve been competing for nutrients since we were in the womb.”
• “Do you have kids?” “No! And I’m scared to because of how I am!”
• “I’m an alien! I don’t understand myself, either!”
• “I feel like we should cook worms.”
• “That’s why I eat the ants — so I don’t have to talk”

And while every single player was a flop at this week’s immunity challenge, Jess’ continued Jessiness caused a man wearing a “Be Kind” shirt who just quoted Gandhi mere moments prior to do this:

With her social game a wreck due to a combination of no sleep, no food, no fire, and her ADHD, Jess knew she was on the outs in every way. But just because a player is a flameout doesn’t mean they have no game. I have to say that Jess responding to Kenzie’s aggressive gameplay by grabbing Bhanu and mouthing “we should vote her” the instant Kenzie turned around is some icon shit.

And I give props to Jess for her last minute attempt to whip the votes needed to get Kenzie out instead of her. It didn’t work, but at least she spotted a major threat and tried to take her out!

In the end, the Yanu tribe was going to vote out Jess no matter what. Its all about tribe strength at this point in the game, and Jess was never going to evolve into a challenge beast. Instead, she left the game as her own kind of Survivor icon — a legendary flameout. Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Flameout.