Maryanne Oketch

Maryanne Oketch is the Sole Survivor of Survivor 42.

Early on, Maryanne's unbridled exuberance and larger-than-life personality alienated her from her tribemates on the dominant Taku tribe, which caused her to become an outsider in the merged tribe despite being in the Taku Four. After actively using her emotions as a strategic weapon and downplaying her threat level, Maryanne capitalized on an opportune moment at the final six to emerge as a late-game power player, leveraging her Extra Vote to orchestrate the blindside of Omar Zaheer. Her season-long metamorphosis, which she confidently articulated at the Final Tribal Council, allowed her to become the second Black woman to win the game in a 7-1-0 vote.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com

Age: 24
Hometown: Ajax, Ontario
Current Residence: Ajax, Ontario
Occupation: Seminary Student
Favorite Hobbies: Tabletop / video games, reading and snowboarding
3 Words to Describe You: Energetic, empathetic, and chaotic
Pet Peeves: When people don't listen to me, people who walk slowly in front of me, anything that disrupts my sleep, hypocrites, and people who don't apologize.
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Writing an article for my school newspaper that led to me being invited to consult with my university's Equity and Inclusion officer on creating a better framework and support for Black students at McMaster University. Being able to use my voice for change that not only benefitted me was so empowering.
What is something we would never know from looking at you? I am a great listener! Just because I talk a lot, it does not mean I am not listening. People are so used to hearing me when I am there, so when I am quiet, people usually don't think I'm there and I can take notice on what they are saying. Also, I check in on people and let them vent to me, which gives me more context about them that can help guide my future decisions.
Who is your hero and why? My hero is my mother. She was born into poverty in a village in Kenya as the youngest of five. My mother is so hardworking and managed to get herself out of poverty and became a doctor in Kenya and was able to provide for her mom. She then gave that all up to support my father's dreams, but then became a doctor in Canada while having three young children while dealing with the systemic racism in academic medicine. My mom sacrificed and worked so hard to give her family a better life and never faltered from her dreams. I aspire to be like her. She changed my life.
Which past Survivor will you play the game most like? Davie. Davie was someone who had loyalty to many people, had a strong core alliance and was social. Not only that but he was able to find idols and win challenges and play idols correctly to further his game. But most of all, Davie had so much fun when he was on the island, no matter if he was on the top or bottom of his tribe. Davie had the path to 6th place, and I will perfect it to 1st.
Why do you believe you can be the Sole Survivor? I believe I will win Survivor because I am a social person, and Survivor at its core is a numbers game. I have lived in diverse cities and also been in situations where I was the only black person. But in every situation, I thrived and Survivor is another place where my resilience and personality will shine. Also, I never go down without a fight. When all hope is lost, I will be searching for idols, talking to people, and convincing them that me staying is best for everyone. I am going on Survivor to win and I will do everything in my power to do so.^[2]

Survivor[]

Maryanne's journey began on the Taku tribe. Admittedly an awkward and openly emotional person, Maryanne sought to use her empathy as a weapon. After Taku lost the opening Reward Challenge, Maryanne assisted Omar Zaheer in winning the tribe flint in the "Savvy" puzzle. The next day, she volunteered to go on the journey, where she met Ika's Drea Wheeler and Vati's Jenny Kim. While Jenny protected her vote, Drea and Maryanne both decided to "risk" their votes, thus gaining an extra vote at their next Tribal Council. On Day 3, following Jackson Fox's evacuation, Maryanne had an outburst of emotion bemoaning Jackson's departure. Down in numbers, Maryanne helped Taku to win their first Immunity Challenge by helping with the puzzle.

Although her tribemates generally enjoyed her presence, because of her relative immaturity, Maryanne began to grate on her tribemates, particularly the quieter Marya Sherron. However, she continued to be an affable person around camp, notably offering to weave Omar a prayer mat for his daily prayers. When Taku lost the Immunity Challenge on Day 5, the majority alliance of Omar, Jonathan Young, and Lindsay Dolashewich had to decide whether to keep Marya or Maryanne. Believing that she had bonded better with the tribe, the trio kept Maryanne, and the Taku Four formalized their alliance. Maryanne also received the extra vote and shared this with her tribe, solidifying her allegiance to them.

When Taku went on an idol hunt the next day, Maryanne found and opened the Beware Advantage, the dare of which blocked her from voting lest she complied with its demands. The advantage held a powerless Hidden Immunity Idol which could only be activated when one member of each tribe said aloud a tribe-specific statement before an Immunity Challenge. Maryanne eagerly tried to activate her idol, but was met with frustration when nobody from the other tribes responded with their phrase. Though Taku continued their winning streak, Maryanne began to get in frequent disagreements with Jonathan, further alienating her from the tribe. However, Omar pushed for her to stay because she had an extra vote that could benefit the alliance. Ultimately, the Taku Four never had to turn on each other as the tribe won every remaining challenge, and Maryanne finally activated her idol on Day 11.

When the tribes disbanded on Day 12, Maryanne's team won the Earn the Merge challenge, winning an Applebee's feast. While Maryanne befriended Lydia Meredith, Jonathan recruited Lindsay and Omar into a supermajority alliance and exposed that Maryanne was the outsider on the Taku tribe. The introduction of the Hourglass Advantage revoked Maryanne's immunity and left her as a target due to her idol being public knowledge. Omar, who remained loyal to Maryanne, campaigned against Lydia instead, protecting the Taku Four and ensuring that they entered the jury phase. Despite being saved with her idol intact, Maryanne grew worried that she had become an outsider because of her quirks.

At the team Reward Challenge on Day 15, Maryanne drew the odd rock and had to sit out with no chance of winning. However, Drea Wheeler agreed to take Maryanne's place, with the latter promising to repay the former's generosity. After the challenge, Tori Meehan caught Drea with red paint on her hands and suspected something amiss; she shared this information with Maryanne and wondered if it was time to take Drea out. At the next individual Immunity Challenge, Jeff Probst agreed to give the tribe abundant rice if four people forfeited; Maryanne stepped up to help her tribe. Maryanne's association with the Taku Four continued to protect her heading into the Double Elimination, where she would attend Tribal Council with Drea, Jonathan, Lindsay, and Tori. Initially, Maryanne agreed to target Drea to defuse her idol; however, when the two women saw that Rocksroy Bailey had been voted out at the previous Tribal Council, Drea and Maryanne took a stand by playing their idols, asserting that they did not want to continue the pattern of Black contestants becoming early jurors. This resulted in Tori's elimination.

Though Maryanne initially regretted playing her idol, she found a non-Beware idol the next day. Realizing that Omar was gaining momentum by eliminating other power players Hai Giang and Drea, Maryanne plotted with Mike Turner, who shared the same sentiment. Mike promised Maryanne that he would give her his idol at the final five if they remained loyal to each other, whereas Maryanne revealed her extra vote to him to prove she was trustworthy. However, after Lindsay won the Immunity Challenge, Mike and Jonathan decided to put the plan on ice as they worried that she would play her Advantage Amulet for Omar. Despite her attempts to persuade them otherwise, Maryanne had to find another route by swinging Romeo Escobar onto her side; with his vote and her extra vote, the plan to blindside Omar came to fruition, and he was sent home in a 3-2-2 plurality vote.

Maryanne reassured Lindsay that she wanted to be in the Final Three with her and Romeo, and contemplated giving her the idol after she lost the Immunity Challenge. At the same time, both women wondered what Mike would do with the idol since he had the Immunity Necklace, claiming that he had promised both of them the idol. Mike kept his promise to Maryanne and played his idol on her at Tribal Council. Realizing that Lindsay was too strong to take to the end, Maryanne held on to her idol and joined the tribe in voting her out unanimously.

On Day 25, Romeo won the Final Immunity Challenge and had to decide between pitting Maryanne or Jonathan in the fire-making challenge against Mike. Putting their friendship first, Romeo decided to take Maryanne to the end. Mike then joined the pair in the Final Three with Jonathan being eliminated.

Entering Final Tribal Council, Maryanne's game was poorly understood by the jury. As such, Maryanne articulated that she had to downplay her strategy to not be targeted early like her fellow younger players. She later explained that eliminating Omar ensured her more possible pathways to the end. Firstly, Mike would have played his idol on her at final five and had he turned on his word, she had her own idol to protect herself. Secondly, had Mike won the Final Immunity Challenge, he would have taken her to the Final Three before giving up immunity to compete against Jonathan in the fire-making challenge. Thirdly, Jonathan, Lindsay and Romeo all committed to her that they would have taken her to the end.

In the end, Maryanne's strong narrative won the jury over, and she was awarded the title of Sole Survivor in a 7-1-0 vote, making her the second Black female winner of the series.

Episode	Tribe Affiliation	Challenge	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1	Taku	Marooning	Reward	No	Lost
1		Forty Two	Immunity	No	1st
2		Can't Find My Way Home	Reward/Immunity	No	Lost
3		Spiral Architect	Reward/Immunity	No	1st
4		Tangled Up Sled Slide	Reward	No	Won
4		Beyond the Tuna	Immunity	No	1st
5		Ramplified	Reward/Immunity	No	2nd
Tribes Disbanded, Day 12
6	None	Rolling Stones	Reward/Immunity	No	Won¹
7	None	A Bit Tipsy	Immunity	No	Lost
Tribes Merged, Night 14
8	Kula Kula	Basket Case	Reward	No	Lost
8		Can't Buoy Me Love	Immunity	Yes²	Lost
9		Bermuda Triangles Case	Reward/Immunity		Shared³
10		Walk This Way	Reward		Lost
10		Bow Diddley	Immunity		Lost
11		Uncomfortably Numb	Immunity	Yes	Lost
12		Dizzy Miss Lizzy	Reward		Invited
12		Stair Down the Walls	Immunity		Lost
13		Giant Tick	Reward/Immunity		Lost
13		Simmotion	Immunity		Lost
Sole Survivor, Day 26
Notes: ^1 The unchosen sit-out from the challenge (Rocksroy) was exiled. There, he was given an hourglass which he may choose to break to strip the winning team of their immunity, transferring it to the losing team and himself. Rocksroy broke the hourglass and Maryanne lost her immunity. ^2 Maryanne elected to sit out of the challenge to help her tribe win a supply of rice. ^3 The challenge was played for team reward and individual immunity, with the last person standing winning reward for their team. Maryanne did not win immunity, but was on the team that won the reward.

Episode	Maryanne's Votes	Voted Against Maryanne
1	Taku Tribe Immune
2	Marya	-
3	Taku Tribe Immune
4	Taku Tribe Immune
5	Taku Tribe Immune
7	Lydia	Lydia, Romeo
8	Romeo	-
9	Tori	-¹
10	Hai	-
11	Drea	-
12	Omar + Omar²	-
13	Lindsay	-³
Jury Votes for Maryanne	Chanelle, Drea, Hai, Lindsay, Omar, Rocksroy, Tori
Sole Survivor, Day 26

^1 In "Game of Chicken", Maryanne used a Hidden Immunity Idol before the vote, making her ineligible to receive votes.
^2 In "Caterpillar to a Butterfly", Maryanne used an Extra Vote advantage, allowing her to vote twice at Tribal Council.
^3 In "It Comes Down to This", Mike used a Hidden Immunity Idol on Maryanne, but did not negate any votes against her.

Post-Survivor[]

On November 11, 2021, between the filming and airing of Survivor 42, Maryanne attended her castmate Mike Turner's wedding, where she introduced Mike and his bride Staci's first public appearance as a wedded couple.
During the airing of Survivor 42, Maryanne and castmate Zach Wurtenberger jokingly changed their respective Twitter display names to "Maryanne Wurtenberger" and "Zach Oketch" after she revealed she had a crush on him in "Good and Guilty".^[3] Both Maryanne and Zach however confirmed they were just friends. In fact, it was Zach who led Maryanne into meeting her current boyfriend, video game designer Konner Howell.^[4]
On October 13, 2023, Maryanne and Konner got engaged.^[5]
After the conclusion of Survivor 42, Maryanne and castmates Lydia Meredith and Swati Goel did an interview for Teen Vogue speaking about their experiences as young women on the show.^[6]
Maryanne and castmate Omar Zaheer appeared in the audience of Big Brother 25 during the live eviction on November 2nd, which happened to be the same episode that Survivor legend Cirie Fields was evicted in.^[7]

Trivia[]

Maryanne is the youngest member of the Taku tribe.
Maryanne is currently the youngest winner by date of birth.
Maryanne is the first female winner since Denise Stapley to win after a season that was also won by a woman.
Maryanne is the second Black female winner, following Vecepia Towery.
- Maryanne is the first Kenyan and African-Canadian winner and the second consecutive Canadian winner, following Erika Casupanan. Erika and Maryanne are also the first pair of women of color to win consecutive seasons.
Maryanne is tied with Natalie White, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, Sarah Lacina, and Erika Casupanan for the most jury votes received by a woman, with seven.
- Erika and Maryanne achieved this with the smallest juries of the group, as Survivor 41 and 42 only had eight jurors.
- Erika and Maryanne also have the highest percent of jury votes received among female contestants, with 7 of 8 or 87.5%.
Maryanne is the first female winner to start on an orange tribe.
- She is also the first female winner to be a member of a purple merged tribe.
- She is the first winner since Tony Vlachos and first female winner since Jenna Morasca to have never been a member of a blue tribe.
Maryanne is the third contestant to have been born in Germany, after Jerri Manthey and Gabby Pascuzzi.^[8]
Maryanne is one of six Black women to have found a Hidden Immunity Idol, along with Taj Johnson-George, NaOnka Mixon, Sabrina Thompson, Shan Smith, and Drea Wheeler.
- Maryanne is the first Black woman to find multiple idols.
- Maryanne and Drea are the first two Black women to find and play an idol.
Maryanne and Drea are the first women to play idols before the votes were cast.
Maryanne is the first woman to have an idol played on her while she was in possession of an idol herself.
- She is the third person, after Parvati Shallow and Malcolm Freberg, to be given an idol while she was already in possession of an idol herself.
Maryanne is the second person on Survivor 42 to allow her idol to expire unused, after Lindsay Dolashewich.
- Lindsay and Maryanne join Kim Spradlin-Wolfe as the second and third women to be immune at the last time their idols could be played; Maryanne achieved this when Mike played an idol for her.
Maryanne is the first person whose Extra Vote contributed to a plurality vote.
- Maryanne is tied with Xander Hastings for the longest time in continuous possession of an Extra Vote, at 18 days.
In Survivor 42, Maryanne shared that she had watched every episode of Survivor except six episodes of Tocantins. After returning home, she finished those episodes with her mother.^[9]
After the season, Maryanne confirmed that she and Zach had previously interacted with each other on the Survivor Reddit forum before being cast on the show.^[10] Prior to and during the airing of Survivor 42, Maryanne made several posts without divulging her identity, secretly alluding to her participation in the season.
Maryanne currently owns the Taku tribe banner, which she purchased from the Survivor 42 prop auction.^[11]
Maryanne is the third winner, following Denise Stapley and Ben Driebergen, to be born on January 1.

References[]

Preceded by Survivor 41 Erika Casupanan	Sole Survivor Titleholder Survivor 42 Maryanne Oketch	Succeeded by Survivor 43 Mike Gabler