Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 45 as they list their top moments in various important categories. This includes the most essential information, the stand-out castaways, and the key moments from the week.
Here, Christine and Gia break down all the action from the latest episode.
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Top 3 Moments
Big Toe Energy
Gia: The best part of the 90-minute episodes are that we finally get to see camp life segments that would’ve been relegated to secret scenes otherwise. This week, we got to learn about Dee’s abnormally large big toe and the bonding moment it created for Reba. Was it important to the outcome of this episode? Perhaps not, but I’d like to think that this will foreshadow Dee’s immunity run for any balance-related individual challenges.
Advantage Journey
Gia: The Advantage Journey is back for the Survivor 45 pre-merge. They changed things up for this season, with individual players not relying on their co-travelers’ decisions to make their own. Drew, Bruce, and Brandon went on this week’s journey and were given the option to risk their vote for a secret power. What I liked most about this segment was that we saw every result played out. Bruce protected his vote and didn’t play for the power; Brandon played and lost, and Drew played and won Safety Without Power.
Sabiyah’s Idol Hunt
Christine: The hunt for an idol was on over at Lulu, as the majority tried to prevent Emily from getting anything that would help her stay in the game. Brandon was the person to ultimately find the Beware Advantage but decided it wasn’t worth the risk (although he would risk and lose his vote on his journey later on), letting Sabiyah open it instead.
Sabiyah completed the first task of finding the correct tree to look in (which seemed much easier than Austin’s task) and used Brandon as a human ladder for the next portion of her search. By the time she reached the last step, though, she realized all hope of being able to vote at Lulu’s upcoming tribal was lost. In a cruel twist of fate, she would only be able to retrieve the idol from the wax it’s encased in by using fire to melt it, which Lulu was still sorely lacking.
Tribe Breakdown
Belo
Gia: Belo is in a really interesting position going into episode 3. They seem like the tribe who is least likely to go to tribal council anytime soon, and yet we’re learning about all the possible avenues this tribe could take when they inevitably have to cut their numbers down.
In the premiere, we learned about the alliance of Kendra, Kellie, and Katurah, and now the ladies have brought Brando into the fold. We also know that Bruce and Jake are a tight pair that have bonded with Brando and Kellie as well, meaning that their first tribal together could be messier than I anticipated. That being said, this tribe is simply not allowed to lose, as I do not want any of them going pre-merge.
Lulu
Christine: Lulu was, once again, an absolute mess this week. We had a confrontation between Sabiyah and Emily regarding the previous tribal council, a mad-dash idol hunt, Emily’s unexpected redemption arc, Brandon losing his vote, and another disastrous challenge performance. It’s hard to see any universe where they don’t continue to get decimated unless a tribe swap saves them. With Brandon gone, maybe they’ll be able to pull it together in the upcoming challenges, but the odds aren’t looking good, especially since they still don’t have fire.
Reba
Christine: Despite not going to tribal, we still saw some interesting alliance developments on Reba this week. Julie and Drew established themselves as an unlikely duo and pulled in Austin (who made a bit of progress on finding his tribe’s idol) and Dee to establish a majority, leaving J. Maya and Sifu on the outs. Within that alliance, Drew and Austin also bonded over Drew’s Safety Without Power and Austin’s Beware Advantage.
Outside of the alliance, Drew told the entire tribe about his advantage to garner their favor. As it stands, Drew and Julie appear to be at the heart of Reba, and as long as no one else loses a vote, their alliance seems to be in a very secure position going into a hypothetical Reba tribal.
Top 3 Contestants
Katurah
Gia: Katurah’s confessionals are what got her onto top billing of this round-up due to the fact that they’ve been playing in a loop in my head since last Wednesday. She’s been a hilarious character in both episodes so far, and the fact that she’s on Belo means that I’m not too worried about her visiting tribal anytime soon. Her one-sided beef with Uncle Bruce was just as funny to listen to on the rewatch as in real-time. However much screen time production plans on giving her, just know it should be doubled.
Drew
Gia: Drew (Basile? Still unclear.) had a great episode this week. He’s starting to build his Survivor army, and he has a nice little militia over on Reba to show for it. Austin, Julie, and Dee have joined his majority alliance, and Austin even told him that he found the clue to an immunity idol. Throw in his new Safety Without Power advantage, and I’d say he’s the player with the strongest arsenal going into episode 3. I do think that this will eventually lead to him becoming a big target down the line but for the upcoming episodes? I’m not too worried that he’s going anywhere.
Kaleb
Christine: After finding himself on the receiving end of Emily’s shenanigans in the premiere, Kaleb decided to give her a chance to salvage her game. The two had a heart-to-heart about Emily’s approach, leading her to the revelation that she needed to stop treating her fellow players like stock options and more like people. This moment of reconciliation sealed Brandon’s fate and further insulated Kaleb from the vote.
I was impressed to see Kaleb be willing to give Emily the opportunity to learn and grow into an ally he could potentially trust rather than writing her off completely. It’s still a risk to keep her around after everything that went down in the premiere, but it might be worth it for Kaleb if she sticks by him for giving her a chance.
Fallen Comrades
Brandon
Christine: As I said last week, oh, Brandon! Brandon’s time on Survivor was a comedy of errors. Just about everything went wrong for him, except for his social game. Everyone liked him, but he just became too much of a liability to keep around, and he lost his vote, to boot. Despite his rough run on Survivor, he left the game on a positive note and clearly appreciated the experience regardless of the outcome. I hope Sabiyah is able to secure that idol so his time as a human ladder won’t be for naught.
Gia: Brandon’s journey during his time on Survivor was a tough one, with almost everything that could go wrong for him doing so. And yet, somehow, he still had a smile on his face in spite of it all. On top of being an unbelievably kind and optimistic person, he got to live out his dream and the dreams of so many Survivor superfans. His time on the island may have been short, but I hope he feels the love and support I and many others are sending him.
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