I finished Santa Carolina last night and I definitely enjoyed the endgame more. It was entirely the Ashley show, and despite her being a gamebot I enjoyed her because she played the game in an interesting way that was fun to watch. She was just head and shoulders above everyone else strategically and she pretty much ran a clinic on how to us the vote countback tiebreaker as strategy. Like, the entire chain of events where she makes a F3 with GiGi and Sade on Reward, uses them to spread votes at F7 on every guy remaining, and then use those votes to take out Izak in a 2-2-2 tiebreaker is brilliant and shows how much potential that tiebreaking method has. The Kaseran boot was also a fantastic episode and once again shows that often times the best episodes are
not ones where the audience is blindsided. We all knew his fate was sealed as soon as he lost the Immunity Challenge but it was still gripping watching him come to that realization and melt down once Ashley told him she was voting for him.
GiGi winning is definitely disappointing because look at her edgic strip, but I can't be that mad about her win because Ashley definitely screwed up by not taking her out lol. GiGi had four locked Jury votes from all of Chibudu and I think she would've stood a better chance against ProVerb, who although he was very cheerful and ^_^ he also had a lot of people talk **** about him for being completely useless around camp. I don't know how many of the Chibudu votes Ashley would've been able to snag if it was her and ProVerb in the F2 but I think she could've stood a better chance.
But in spite of this season picking up during the merge, it's definitely my least fave SA season so far. I don't dislike it but it has a looooot of flaws. The premerge is slow and full of quitters and lame unanimous votes, it takes a while for storylines to pick up, and the editing is really atrocious. I think this cast actually had a lot of potential but the show just did not know how to product an edit that would create long-term storylines. Like you kind of got there with Okkert and Ashley, but I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential in Hanna, Louw, Izak, GiGi, and kind of Kaseran from a narrative standpoint. The season definitely has its merits and I wouldn't say not to watch it, but I wouldn't particularly go out of my way to recommend it and I'm perplexed as to how this is The Best Season before Philippines.
1. Ashley (yes she's a gamebot but she lives up to the hype. If you have any doubt of the potential of vote countback as a tiebreaking method just watch her entire merge game and get back to me. I really hope she comes back for an All-Stars season because she seems like the type of person who can actually acknowledge her mistakes and learn from them)
2. ProVerb (just very good-natured and seemed like a lot of fun? Didn't have the most prominent edit but I appreciate how it was divided between "ugh Pro is so lazy and useless around camp, he is WORTHLESS 
" and him giving confessionals like "yeah I only got this far because of moves other people made but I'm still thankful to be here ^_^" and his jury speech about how Ashley USED and ABUSED him and THREW HIM AWAY when she didn't need him anymore, followed by giving her a round of applause and congratulating her for doing so 
)
3. Izak (they really ****ed up by not giving him a better edit in the kidnapping episode and the merge episode because he randomly turned into a big factor in the merge? He had a cute storyline about how he wasn't going to be a sheep and how he was going to play the game bravely and courageously and it led to some unexpected turns like Timbila giving up their numbers advantage and then flipping back one round later. The events that led up to his boot were also a lot of fun, including the storyline about "ugh Izak is such a poser, always prancing around in his red Speedo" which 
)
4. Sade (she was a fun narrator!)
5. Hanna (she was fun and cute when she was shown, and she was apparently a big challenge threat? She really should've been a MORP merge boot fallen angel who got taken out in a deadlock tiebreaker but alas)
6. Okkert (he was fun as a challenge beast who helped lead his underdog tribe and served as what seemed to be the final boss for Timbila, BUT towards the end of his stay he was kind of a little too whiny about how people weren't playing the game when it was just that he didn't have the numbers)
7. Louw (his jury speech was kind of awful and soured me on him BUT I actually enjoyed him when he was in the game and I think he had a lot of potential as a beta male who kept punching above his weight and routinely got beaten by Okkert and Chibudu as a whole. I don't know if I would've enjoyed him more with a better edit but I think he could've been A Big Character)
8. Cindy (I think she had potential as a Miss South Africa who was randomly REALLY good at the survival aspect of the game but I could also see her being kind of a purist who didn't want to strategize so I didn't particularly miss her once she left)
9. GiGi (she won Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina. And I guess according to Gys's jury question he proved that exotic dancers aren't sluts)
10. Darren (he was kind of rootable in the beginning when he was desperately trying to figure out alliances and even on Day 2 when he called Jub Jub out for bathing in the drinking water but then he lasted like two or three episodes too long and just had the same exact storyline of being on the bottom of his tribe and having no allies)
11. Sandi (idk her but I think she seemed nice like once or twice?)
12. Gys (he was a vaguely likable underdog in his boot episode for reasons I can't really remember *BUT* he also had one frightening quote about how he wanted to boot Sade next out of Chibudu and keep Hanna because "she's part of our clan" aka she speaks Afrikaans like all the other white people in the tribe and unlike Sade 
)
13. Garth (he cut his leg in the first Challenge and then couldn't walk so he was voted out first)
14. Christina (she quit like Day 2 or 3 bc she missed her kid)
15. Lady Lea (idk her)
16. Kaseran (he thought he had the game on lock after Timbila got the numbers in the merge and just thought he was untouchable and was indignant to anyone overtaking him, which made his loss that much juicier when Ashley knifed him at F5 after we had so many confessionals about how "Ashley would NEVER lie to me. I trust her with my life. I would never make any decision without consulting Ashley first!")
17. Craig (took up a lot of cameratime in the first few episodes and was REALLY annoying and would've been a hell demon if he lasted any longer)
18. Jub Jub (was really rude and unpleasant and did dumb **** like use the drinking water to wash off and then get mad at people getting mad at him about it. And he acted like he was all tough and mighty but then he quit episode 2 bc he had a rash on his balls GOODBYE)