Carter won the very first merge immunity in Philippines, hung the necklace around his neck, and then basically vanished into the wallpaper of Dangrayne. That's the Carter problem in one image: a track athlete with real challenge legs who never had a number, never ran a vote, just kept his head down on the bottom of the alliance and hoped to keep winning. He grabbed a second individual immunity a few episodes later, but that was the whole game plan — survive on the necklace or go.
By the endgame the Tandang bloc had cracked and Malcolm and Denise's side was running the table, picking the field clean one quiet vote at a time. With Penner gone and nobody needing to keep an immunity threat around, they finally trimmed Carter, who went out sixth as the sixth juror, still likable and still on the wrong side of the math. No idol, no flip, no angle — when the necklace came off, so did he.
