Her entire story is uh-mazing and she's probably THE most important in the cast, even though she never gets regarded as such. Like, yes, Richard Defined The Game and all that, but Borneo's entire development is best seen through Kelly's perspective. She's super young and still trying to figure out her moral compass. When the alliance started just on Tagi, she was all about it because she didn't give a **** about Dirk or Sean. But once the merge hits and Kelly is introduced to Pagong, a tribe full of people her age and more on her wavelength, her moral values really started to become questionable. She didn't mind the alliance back on Tagi when it was at the expense of people she didn't care about, but then when she had to vote out Pagong (the people who probably remind her of herself), she has a harder time coming to terms with it and views the alliance as amoral. Objectively speaking, her inconsistency in her morals is a huge character flaw but it's so Kelly.

So yeah, as Pagong is getting knocked out one by one, Kelly keeps going back and forth on how she feels about the whole thing. One episode she's down with it, the next she feels a genuine sense of conflict in voting out one of her friends. She becomes extremely conflicted about her part in the alliance and throws a stray vote in Jenna's elimination ("J for Jenna" is suuuuuch a fantastic episode omfg). It's an extremely passive and weak-willed form of resistance, which again is so true to Kelly's character. She hates being in the alliance and is willing to express that by voting for Sean instead of for Jenna, but at the same time she knows where her bread is buttered. As much as she hates the alliance, it's a huge benefit to her and she's too self-interested to completely go against Tagi.

As the show progresses, everyone's becoming more and more sick about Kelly's inconsistent morals and feeble attempts to please her conscience and the alliance that has consumed her life on the island. It's what ultimately led to the tragic falling out between her and Sue, and Richard was entirely sick of her as well. Her "friends" on Pagong were so cynical of her too, because as conflicted as she may have been, she did nothing to help them stay in the game. This leads Kelly being isolated by everyone and she becomes the island pariah. Tagi doesn't trust her for one bit but they continue to use her as a number, and the people she relates to the most on Pagong don't really like her that much. This leads to her almost getting voted out at F6 instead of Colleen. And then when Kelly makes it to the end and loses, we take her conflicted morals and weak-willed gameplay and conclude that that's how you lose Survivor. You need to be cutthroat and focused and have the ability to compartmentalize personal matters and game matters if you want to win, and that's exactly what Rich did.

You're absolutely right that despite being America's sweetheart she was a hugely sarcastic wench, but that's a huge part of her appeal to me <3 She's aloof yet endearing. She has zero tolerance for bull**** and is largely cynical about the whole Survivor experience, but is still very charming and adorable. She's the type of person that only works in the early 2000s, in that reality TV is new and fresh and not something for wannabe models and actors to do. She's the type of person who is largely cerebral and partook in the show to learn about herself and other people.

I also loooove her FTC performance, between calling out Richard's flawed social game and drunkenly voting for Kelly to win with the voting confessional "maybe this money will make you be... nice or something" <33333333

Yes, rats and snakes was incredibly harsh, but it's the most iconic moment in Survivor history and the perfect ending for Sue's story. She presents herself as rough and tough and invulnerable, but it's all a shield for how vulnerable she actually is. The confessional where she breaks down and reveals that her best female friend from high school tragically died when Sue was in her late teens/early twenties puts everything into perspective, and it was effectively the turning point it her entire life. The brash and strong Sue that we see on Survivor is a byproduct of that tragedy, as she went from being a waitress/bartender to the owner of a hunting camp out int he wilderness away from everyone. She rid herself of her femininity and emotions because they're signs of weakness to her, and she closed herself off to others, to the point where she hasn't had a female friend since.

Enter Kelly, who Sue adores, which is something I don't think Kelly ever fully understood. Kelly is the first female friend that Sue had since the tragedy. Kelly was also 23 during Borneo, which is around the age that Sue's best friend had passed away. Sue opens up to Kelly in hopes of starting a friendship, but risks the possibility of being hurt again. She told us that she'll never **** Kelly over, no matter what, and she would've willingly lost the game to her. But in the biggest tragedy in Borneo, Sue's faithfulness to Kelly isn't rewarded. Kelly starts to slowly drift away and bond more closely with Pagong, but then Sue had enough when Kelly started voting away from the alliance. Kelly's leaving the rest of Tagi out to dry, and I don't doubt that it hurt Sue especially that the two times that Kelly voted differently were when Jenna and Colleen, two young females, were voted out.

That's how we got to the screaming match at F5 and everything after that. Sue/Kelly tie the vote against Rich/Rudy at F4, but then for whatever reason Kelly decided to switch her vote in the revote and send Sue packing. Sue finally let her guard down after however many years and finally opened herself up to others again, and it was all for nothing. She used her speech at FTC to unload on Kelly not just for the stuff that happened on the island, but moreso for everything in the last 15-20 years. All the pain, all the bitterness, all the grief, and all the hurt were thrown at Kelly, and the speech was fully intended to tear her down. But even then, I think Sue's more mad at herself. She's mad at herself for dropping all of her facades and allowing herself to become vulnerable and trusting of others again. She doesn't want to help anyone else, she doesn't want to invest her feelings into others, because it will surely end in heartbreak once again. It's the ultimate a beautiful tragedy.