"Survivor 45" Finale Recap - And the Winner Is...
Why was someone disqualified during the final challenge?!
Quick Note: I’ll have full exit interviews with the final five on my YouTube Channel tomorrow.
So, don’t miss a thing. Follow me here, follow me on YouTube, on X, etc…
Last Week: Dee got rid of Drew without giving Austin a clue.
39 26 Days, 18 Players, 1 “Survivor” Blog
Let's take a look at the tribe as it currently stands...
The Dakuwaqa Tribe (wearing orange)
Austin, 26 - Grad Student
Dee, 26 - Entrepreneur
Jake, 26 - Attorney
Julie, 49 - Estate Attorney
Katurah, 35 - Civil Right Attorney
Quick Aside: I wrote and illustrated a graphic novel! It’s about professional wrestling (but it’s really about marriage), if you’ve ever enjoyed any of my writing or my “Survivor” press, I’d really love it if you’d check it out. ORDER YOUR COPY HERE!
Post-Tribal Shenanigans
Austin admits that he was blindsided and he points out that it was the first Tribal where he was surprised by the vote. Dee and Austin sneak away to chat, she apologizes for not telling him what was up, but he doesn’t seem that upset. Although, he does say that if she had tipped him off, he would have played the idol for Drew.
While they’re patching things up, Katurah is using this moment to shine a light on the fact that they’ve let a couple get so deep into the game. Well, she’s not wrong.
The next morning, the quintet finds a combination lock box. They’re told there are three stations around the island. They’ll need to count the number of items at each station to get the combination to the lock. The first person to open the box will receive an advantage.
Mystery box showing up out of nowhere? Very “Squid Game.”
Quick Aside: One of the stations has live crabs. I’d forget the advantage and just start cooking the crabs.
Jake uses “Survivor” winners to remember all three numbers. Apparently the combination is JT, Denise, and Gabler.
Good thing one of those numbers wasn’t five.
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will crawl under an obstacle and dig up a machete. They’ll use the machete to cut down some sandbags. They’ll throw the sandbags at three targets that will reveal the combination to a lock. Once the lock is open, they’ll receive a set of keys. They’ll climb a tower and use the keys to unlock a three-tier puzzle. The first person to complete the puzzle will win immunity and a visit to the sanctuary for a steak dinner.
Quick Aside: The puzzle is the Fitzgerald Special, so in my book, it technically isn’t done until someone kicks it over.
Jake’s Advantage: Two of his targets will already be opened, so he only has to hit one.
Result: Jake’s advantage paid off until he forgot to take his keys up the tower. Also, Jake misplaced a puzzle piece in his final level. This allowed Austin to take the lead and win the challenge.
And he kicks it down!
Oof…and Jeff makes sure to show Jake the piece he missed. Ouch.
Austin is allowed to take one person on reward and he chooses Jake. Aww…good guys.
Steak Your Claim
Back at camp, Katurah makes her move to get rid of Dee. But, Julie isn’t having it. Probably not surprising. Julie still wants Jake gone for targeting her four months ago.
Dee says they need to get rid of Jake because he’s an attorney. Hilariously, she says this while she’s sitting next to Katurah and Julie.
Meanwhile at the Sanctuary, Jake owns up to having a hidden immunity idol and states that he wants to send Julie home.
Sigh… I know Jake needed votes to make something happen. But, that vote should have belonged to Katurah.
Sure enough, back at camp, Austin immediately tells Dee.
Oh, and Jake immediately tells Katurah. She makes the pitch that Dee is a bigger threat than Julie. They seem to agree on this course of action, but Katurah makes him swear on his grandmother.
Eventually everyone learns about the idol. And in a bit of a shocker, Austin eventually floats the idea of getting rid of Julie. Dee doesn’t hate this idea, but she won’t vote for Julie.
Tribal Time
Probst manages to get in another shot at Jake for squandering his challenge advantage. Aww…why you gotta do him like that, Jeff?
And the rest is mega vague.
Voting Time: Dee votes for Katurah, Jake votes for Dee, Julie votes for Jake, Katurah changes her vote because she’s pretty sure everyone is voting for her, and the rest of the votes are secret.
JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play an idol and…Jake does. He plays his idol for Katurah. We’ve got one vote for Katurah, one vote for Jake, one vote for Dee, one vote for Julie, and the fourteenth person voted out of the game is…Julie.
Ha! As Julie is leaving she tells Katurah to go to law school.
Wow…so if Katurah didn’t change her vote, Dee would have gone home.
And has there ever been a final five where every eligible person received a vote?
Post-Tribal Shenanigans
Back at camp, Jake immediately spills the beans to Dee that Katurah was targeting her and switched her vote to Julie. Apparently Jake is very upset about being made to swear on his grandmother.
Quick Aside: I said this during the Power Rankings; Jake needed a solid partner in this game. Every big move he’s tried to make has been undercut by whoever he tries to work with.
Immunity Challenge Time: The players will put a bowl on a stick. They’ll walk over an obstacle, then place the bowl on a perch. If they hit the obstacle, the perch will rock and potentially cause their bowl stack to fall over. The first person to stack all of their bowls will be the first member of the final three and get to decide who has to make fire.
Result: It comes down to Dee and Jake, but Jake knocks his stack down. He’s so frustrated that he accidentally breaks the obstacle and Jeff disqualifies him. Dee manages to play a perfect game; never knocking over her bowls and winning the challenge.
Pre-Tribal Politicking
Jake begs Dee to not take him to the final three. He wants a chance to prove himself in front of the jury. Dee has no problem with this.
When Katurah and Dee sit down to chat, Dee tells her that she’s afraid that the jury might like Katurah more.
Ultimately, Dee hopes that Jake will be able to eliminate Katurah.
However…Austin wants to make fire as well. But, he knows that Dee would not want that because it would make his jury case stronger if he wins.
Austin goes to give Jake fire-making pointers, but Jake is a mess. So, Austin argues the point that Jake might not be the guy to get the job done.
Tribal Time
Wow…Probst asks Katurah what happened back at camp, and she gives a masterclass in telling your story to the jury. She says that Dee said she was afraid to take her to the end because she didn’t think she could beat her. Then she says that she’s had to keep most of her moves a secret because she didn’t want to be a target, but Dee knows exactly which moves she’s made.
Austin then says that he doesn’t think he’ll get to make fire because Dee doesn’t want to let him look good by winning.
And finally, Jake says that he asked to make fire.
Dee then confirms that she’s taking Austin to the final three.
Fire-Making Challenge: The first person to make a flame that’s tall enough to burn through a rope will be the last member of the final three.
Result: It isn’t even close, Jake picks up the win.
Ha! And Jake tells Katurah that she’ll be an amazing lawyer someday. Please tell me she’s gonna break the news to them on air.
Sure enough, Katurah finally confesses and everyone is amused.
Day-26 Brunch
Kaleb says that Jake might deserve his vote because he had the hardest path.
Kellie thinks Dee’s social game was so good that people didn’t vote her out even though it was in their best interest.
Kendra likes Austin because he’s a challenge threat who never had his name written down.
Bruce says he’ll vote for someone who owns up to their good, bad, and ugly.
Emily believes that Jake was the most lied-to and gaslit person in the game. Everyone treated him like a pawn, but he was able to make it to the finals.
Drew is rooting for Austin. Even when things didn’t go Austin’s way, he still walked out unscathed.
Julie points out that Dee insulated herself with people who had her back. She also risked her game to keep Julie safe.
Katurah is going to vote for the strongest strategist. She wants to see people who were actively making moves.
Final Tribal Time
Kendra kicks things off by telling them that she wants to hear their truth. Jake says that he came on “Survivor” and jumped out of his comfort zone. He admits to having moments of sadness, but he was sad on “Survivor” so it was still awesome.
Dee loves Jake’s energy, but she came on the show to retire her parents. But the good times are right now. The goal is to win the million, but take things day by day.
And, Austin thinks the crazy thing about this story was that he was an alternate and didn’t know he’d be playing until just before the game started. So, he was all in. When he found the Beware Advantage, he immediately cracked it open because he came to play.
Katurah asks how they’ve faced their fears. Austin starts by saying that he was afraid of getting close to someone and then having to lie to them. He admits that he voted for Julie three times.
Dee feels the same way. She was afraid to betray her alliance. She says her two number ones were Julie and Austin. And when Julie’s time was up, she supported Austin, but she refused to write her name down.
Jake says there’s a lot of pressure at law school to not fail out. So, he was afraid of failing. But, he kept getting back up and getting back into the game.
Drew thinks the Reba Four might be a mystery for most of the jury, so he wants Dee and Austin to clarify how that worked out. Dee says that they’d have open and honest conversations, then decide on a course of action. She can’t take credit for most of the moves because they were a team effort.
Austin agrees with most of what Dee said, but he thinks he put his all into it, especially in challenges. But, since Dee was viewed as a big threat, she was just trying to get to the next vote while he was trying to figure out how to get the entire alliance set up for the endgame.
Dee disagrees, saying she wasn’t afraid because she trusted her alliance. And after the tribe swap, she played a role in every single elimination.
Austin counters, saying that in the tribe swap, he and Drew were down numbers and they were able to get rid of a Belo and bring Emily on board. He then claims his biggest move was getting rid of Kellie because it allowed him to turn his amulet into an idol. He also takes credit for voting out Kendra.
Aha…but then Dee says that while getting Emily was helpful, she was responsible for bringing in Katurah. And, she says that she was behind the Kendra vote because she’d always see Kendra talking with Drew and Austin.
And…Kendra had a bit of a crush on Austin, so she had to go. OK, that’s cute.
Austin finishes off this exchange by saying he was the most insulated player in the game. His name was never written down.
Emily asks Dee if she made a move specifically with her brain and not her heart. Dee says her heart and her brain aren’t separate. Dee thinks relationships are key and the strategic moves will come from her relationships. She thinks her biggest strength in the game was being authentic.
Kaleb congratulates Jake for everything he was able to accomplish despite being on the outs. Jake says that right after Kaleb was voted out, he started focusing on relationships.
Drew says that Jake shouldn’t sell himself short because he kept attempting big moves. Jake says he kept taking big swings, but Austin and Dee were complacent after a while and didn’t do as much.
Kellie asks about the moves Austin made with his advantages. Uh oh…
Austin tries to swing this in his favor by saying that he never had to use an idol on himself, but Emily points out that he did let his number one get voted out while he had an idol. Austin responds by saying that while he would’ve loved to have Drew by his side, they would have split votes.
And now that we’re talking about the Drew blindside, Dee makes the point that it only worked because she kept that information from Austin. She then makes the point that information is more valuable than an idol. She then teases Bruce for having an idol and not playing it.
Dee’s hilarious.
When asked about his idol, Jake said that he kept the move to play it for Katurah a secret so he’d get her genuine reaction.
Julie asks if Dee and Austin are in a showmance, and if so, did it effect their gameplay? Dee admits that Austin is an attractive man, but she likes him as a person too. She says it wasn’t intentional or strategic, but obviously something blossomed.
Austin agrees and says he knew voting out Julie would hurt her and she knew voting out Drew would hurt him. But they made those moves because they were best for their individual games.
Emily pushes back and says that when the decision was made to vote out Julie, they told Austin not to tell Dee and he did and it screwed everything up. So, she wants to know if it was a sign of weakness that he wasn’t willing to keep a secret from someone he had feelings for.
Austin responds by saying that Dee never told Julie. Uh-oh…
Dee then confesses to being the one who spilled the beans.
Ouch…
Dee then goes on to say that Julie wanted to target Austin with that vote, but she wouldn’t let her.
Welp…enjoy your million, Dee.
Voting Time: Julie votes for Dee, Kendra votes for Austin, Emily votes for Dee, Drew votes for Austin, and the rest of the votes are lost to the magic of editing.
JPro tallies and returns, we’ve got one vote for Dee, one vote for Austin, one vote for Dee, one vote for Austin, one vote for Dee, one vote for Austin, one vote for Dee, and the winner of “Survivor 45” is…Dee!
Verdict: Wow, that vote was much closer than I expected.
I’m not one for season rankings, but this one felt pretty good. I think Dee is a fantastic winner in a season full of a lot of memorable characters.
Welp, that’s it! Check out my exit interviews with the final five on YouTube this Thursday.