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
Kendra Targets Dee
Gia: Kellie’s blindside left all of Belo in shock, but it hit especially hard on Kendra. With the women’s alliance over before it could truly begin, she set her sights on Dee in retaliation. This was one of the main conflicts of the episode, further cementing my assumption that one of the two would be going this week. Sadly, this proved correct, with Dee coming out victorious and Kendra being voted out unanimously. Of course, let’s remember that 2 of the 9 players left didn’t have their vote, which makes the results of this crucial point in the game all the more frustrating.
A Vote Lost, A Vote Gained?
Christine: This week, we saw production once again innovate a new way to stop everyone from voting after the merge. The tribe was divided into three groups of three to compete in a multi-stage immunity/reward challenge. The winning group, Bruce, Julie, and Kendra, won a chicken feast at the Sanctuary (where good things happen!), and Bruce won individual immunity.
Meanwhile, the first team eliminated, Austin, Emily, and Katurah, all lost their votes and had the chance to win it back by going on a journey to complete a math challenge. Austin was the only one who won his vote back but lied to everyone outside of his alliance and said he didn’t. In sum, this challenge and twist took up a LOT of airtime this week, and I just don’t think it added anything of value to the episode.
Ricegate
Christine: While the winners enjoyed chicken on the ground of the Sanctuary and the vote-losers went on a journey, Jake, Dee, and Drew were stuck back at camp with just their rice. Now fully in power, the two Rebas took the opportunity to flex it by eating most of the rice instead of sharing it with Jake. This is the kind of casual old-school food-related villainy we don’t see much in this era of Survivor. I feel bad for Jake, but it’s still fun to see this kind of pettiness play out occasionally.
Top 3 Players
Dee
Christine: Love her or hate her; Dee is running the Reba alliance. Everyone defers to her and what she wants, and she continues to get her way. These past two weeks have been a bit concerning for her as more and more people start to pick up on how great she’s playing and how powerful she is, but she maintains a firm grip on the Rebas. If she can continue managing her relationships, with Julie in particular, who wasn’t happy about Kendra being the vote, she should remain well-insulated enough to survive being the target for at least another round or two.
Julie
Gia: If the edit isn’t purposefully misleading us, I think Julie is going to be the first Reba defector. Her frustrations with the group are becoming more pronounced, and her plan to take out Jake being diminished might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Let’s not forget that we never saw her return Austin’s idol, which is an odd editing choice on production’s part if she did. My guess is that we will either see her return it in a flashback in the next episode, or she’s never going to. And what fun will it be if she doesn’t?
Bruce
Gia: Bruce’s edit has been so intriguing to me through this season. In the last episode, it felt like Bruce had reached his peak villain edit, with him unknowingly saving himself by winning individual immunity. This episode, he was more aware of just how much danger he is in, and he used it as a lesson that he can hopefully grow from. He got his second immunity win in a row, to boot, and his target is diminishing as Reba’s is growing. After seeing a photo of the next episode’s challenge, I think there’s a strong possibility that he can win again. If not, I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility that he’ll find himself safe yet again.
Advantage Watch
Idols
Gia: With the Advantage Amulet in its final form, Austin’s two idols and Bruce’s one are the only current advantages in the game. While neither of them played their idols this round, the treemail message spooked Austin enough to give one of his idols to Julie, only for us to not see her return it to him afterward. Did they just run out of time, and we’ll see it in the next episode, or is Julie going to keep it for herself? I can’t wait to find out.
Fallen Comrades
Kendra
Christine: I wasn’t ready for this day to come so soon. Kendra is hands down my favorite character of the season, and her energy will be missed. She set herself up well on OG Belo, but she was never able to recover from losing Brando at the swap. This week was unfortunate because once Emily and Katurah lost their votes, Kendra lost basically any hope of things flipping her way. I thought Kellie and Katurah would each make it at least a bit further into the merge, but Survivor is full of surprises. At least we can rest easy knowing that Kendra will be serving iconic facial expressions from the jury bench from here on out.
Gia: Oh, Kendra, you were a remarkable presence on Survivor 45. I enjoyed every second we had her on screen, whether she was riding high or fighting for her life. She never hit her stride strategically once the swap happened, but I believe that is more a testament to OG Reba’s strength than a weakness of hers. She will be remembered in the game for her warm presence and her hopes of championing women in the game, and I hope she will still do that as a member of the jury. As a player, however, she will be missed dearly.
Written by
I doubt Julie will flip, and I don’t think the edit is hinting that she will. Every vote needs to have some sort of disagreement behind it, so that the viewers don’t know what’s going to happen. Since the Kendra vote was probably the most “boring” of the season so far, they needed to make it interesting, so they Julie being a little frustrated and wanting Jake out. I have a good feeling she’ll still be besties with Dee and won’t flip on the Rebas.
Nice round up!
I doubt Julie will flip, and I don’t think the edit is hinting that she will. Every vote needs to have some sort of disagreement behind it, so that the viewers don’t know what’s going to happen. Since the Kendra vote was probably the most “boring” of the season so far, they needed to make it interesting, so they Julie being a little frustrated and wanting Jake out. I have a good feeling she’ll still be besties with Dee and won’t flip on the Rebas.