‘Survivor 45’ episode 4 recap: Who was voted out in ‘Music to My Ears’ after tribe swap? [LIVE BLOG]
Heading into the fourth episode of “Survivor 45,” the Lulu tribe was down three castaways (Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon and Sabiyah Broderick) after they lost yet another immunity challenge. The Belo and Reba tribes were still sitting strong at six members apiece, but all of that was about to change as the remaining 15 castaways are told, “Drop your buffs,” in the first tribe swap of the new era. So how did everything play out on Wednesday night?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 45” Episode 4 recap/live blog of “Music to My Ears” to find out what happened Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite castaways on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Survivor” winners list and take home the $1 million grand prize. Jeff Probst once again hosts the long-running competition series.
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SEE Everything to know about ‘Survivor 45’
Here are the current “Survivor 45” tribe breakdowns (click on each name to be brought to their individual profiles):
BELO TRIBE: Brando Meyer, Bruce Perreault, Jake O’Kane, Katurah Topps, Kellie Nalbandian, Kendra McQuarrie
LULU TRIBE: Emily Flippen, Kaleb Gebrewold, Sean Edwards
REBA TRIBE: Austin Li Coon, Dee Valladares, Drew Basile, Janani “J. Maya” Krishnan-Jha, Julie Alley, Nicholas “Sifu” Alsup
SEE‘Survivor’ deaths: Full list of castaways we’ve lost
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Survivor 45” live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” In the third episode, Lulu got a taste of victory as they won their first reward challenge. However, that feeling was short-lived as they lost their third immunity challenge in a row, sending them back to tribal council. Emily was once again on the outs, but when she was told by Sabiyah and Sean to vote out Kaleb, she quickly went to Kaleb and spilled the news. At tribal council, Sabiyah melted her candle, transforming it into an immunity idol. But she didn’t use it, and ended up being eliminated (with the idol in her pocket) by Kaleb and Emily. Who will be voted out tonight?
8:02 p.m. – When they returned to camp, Kaleb and Emily had to deconstruct for Sean why they blindsided him in the vote to send Sabiyah home. Sean did his best to show respect for their move and admitted that Sabiyah was “calling all the shots” and lamented that he was left out of the loop. Sean said he is willing to move forward as long as they are, but Emily was concerned that his quick change in emotional demeanor was not genuine. For Kaleb, the vote was the “first sign of trust” that he had in the game because his social investment in Emily had paid off and she disclosed the plan the other two had to blindside him.
8:06 p.m. – When the Lulu tribe entered the beach for what they thought would be a challenge, the jaws from Belo and Reba members dropped immediately to the sand. From the perspective of the other tribes, Sabiyah was a strong competitor and vocal leader of the tribe, suggesting that there may have been idol plays at stake at their Tribal Council. From Jeff’s prompt, Emily said she takes some “perverse enjoyment” from the other players not knowing what happened and what their tribal dynamics are like. With that in mind, Jeff confirmed for them that it was time for a swap “for the first time in the new era.”
8:12 p.m. – In the swap, Jeff had each player choose a new buff at random in order to randomly divide the 15 remaining players into three new tribes. Oddly, four members of original Reba (Sifu, J. Maya, Julie and Dee) remained in Reba alongside Sean from Lulu. Four members of original Belo (Bruce, Jake, Katurah, and Kellie) went to new Lulu alongside Kaleb who remained. And then Emily went over to new Belo with original Reba members Austin and Drew while Kendra and Brando got to remain at their original beach. Without a challenge to compete in, Jeff sent the new tribes back to their beaches to figure out their new dynamics.
8:21 p.m. – When Bruce arrived at the Lulu beach he quickly realized it was the same beach that he began season 44 on with the Tika tribe. The memories of his injury and premature elimination brought emotions to the surface, but he was committed to a “reset” where he was in a clear majority with three of his original tribe members. As the only original Lulu member, Kaleb had the tough job of presenting himself to the others as malleable to their dynamics. Katurah offered Kaleb that opportunity by asking him what Brandon said about the journey that he shared with Bruce, but in that interaction Katurah quietly shut Bruce down from adding to the story. Katurah’s motion made it clear to Bruce that she does not trust him and that he may have a potential conflict on his hands.
8:23 p.m. – In a private conversation with Kaleb, Jake said that he’s open to working with him and that he’s close with Bruce, but that “anyone is on the table.” They committed to each other that they’d ensure both make it to the merge together. Jake’s perspective was that in the new era of the game he’d have to be ready to “jump ship” from his original alliance as needed and that a connection to Kaleb could help.
8:25 p.m. – At Belo, the most evenly split new tribe, Emily understood that this was new life for her because she could take what she’s learned about her social game and bring it to a new group of people with fresh first impressions. In the spirit of openness, Emily told them that she was on the outs and that Sabiyah was running their camp. It was important to her that she disclose Sabiyah’s wax idol and that she gain trust by being fully transparent. The strategy worked to change Drew’s impression of Emily and so he was actually willing for him and Austin to pull her in so that they’d have a three-person majority over the two original Belo members.
8:28 p.m. – Sean continued to show his effervescence at the Reba beach, knowing that he was outnumbered by the other four and would need to get in good graces and build connections if he had any chance of staying in the game. Sean emphasized that he was the one blindsided by the Lulu TC and so the swap was what he needed. When the original Reba members got together they all agreed that Sean is likable and they’d be able to work with him, but their initial inclination would be to remain “Reba strong” and vote him out. Out of fear, they went through his bag just to be sure he doesn’t have an idol that could complicate their plans.
8:31 p.m. – Sean and J. Maya had a strong connection immediately and privately declared to each other that they’d be willing to work together. J. Maya told Sean that Sifu was a target of the tribe and that there’s a possibility they would vote him out instead of Sean if their new tribe loses. J. Maya tried to convey the danger of Sifu as a threat to Julie and Dee, but it worried Julie to make that big of a statement prematurely. Julie’s main thing was that Sean brings good energy to camp, but it would need to transition into challenge strength as well in order to be useful at this stage.
8:39 p.m. – Once Drew and Austin finally found time alone, the duo reflected on how much power they have in the game. At this stage they had between them one idol, a goodwill advantage, and a Safety Without Power. Austin believed that Emily would be an additional opportunity to gain power in the game by pulling her in so that they’d take an original Belo player out and gain overall control looking toward the merge. When they got together with Emily, she was keen to work with them and said that’s how she wanted the chips to fall as soon as she saw that she’s on a tribe with them.
8:42 p.m. – Kellie was “extremely grateful” with the swap because she had been playing the middle between the guys and the girls at Belo. In the swap, she was placed with two of those guys and so she was in a position to start off the new tribes in a majority with Bruce and Jake. A perceptive Katurah noticed that Bruce, Jake and Kellie were bringing Kaleb into their conversations so she pulled Kaleb aside on her own in order to throw Bruce under the bus. With a clear objective of wanting to take Bruce out because she finds him annoying, Katurah wanted Kaleb to think that the original Belo tribe was waiting to vote him out. Kaleb was just happy to hear from Katurah that there are in fact divisions at original Belo and so he’d have a way through the game without being the easy vote if they lose.
8:49 p.m. – For their first challenge as new tribes, Jeff offered immunity to the two tribes that could carry a large wooden cage out of the water and then shoot balls into tall baskets quickest. In the water portion of the challenge, all three tribes kept pace and made it to the beach around the same time. Once they reached the shore, Lulu pulled ahead by using their strength to advance the cages across the beach quicker than the others. Lulu was so far in the lead that Kaleb was already shooting baskets as Reba and Belo started digging so that one of their members could crawl out from the cage in order to rebound balls. In fact, Kaleb managed to score all three of Lulu’s baskets before either tribe even began shooting.
8:56 p.m. – Austin quickly got two balls in the baskets for Belo, followed by one successful shot for Reba from Sifu. With a series of misses from Austin, Sifu was able to even the score with their second shot, but then Austin managed to make Belo’s third. The end result was that Lulu won immunity for the first time and Reba would be headed to TC for the first time, though it would officially be four out of four trips to TC for Sean.
9:05 p.m. – The challenge loss was a huge let down for Sean who had suffered his own fourth straight loss despite his hope that coming to Reba would have been reset his chances in the game. He also realized that he had an uphill battle ahead of him because his four tribe mates all came from the same place and were unlikely to let him squeeze in. Sean offered himself “to be a number,” but the tone around camp was that they’d remain “Reba strong.”
9:07 p.m. – Still wanting to target Sifu because of the threat of an idol play, J. Maya continued to press to Julie and Dee that they should take him out in a blindside. Dee agreed that Sifu is “erratic” and they’d easily bring Sean in to an alliance, but Julie understood that without Sifu there is no way they could have had a chance at the day’s challenge. She wanted her alliance members to see that the best way to save themselves would be to win challenges and they’d need Sifu in order to do that. But on the other hand, Julie believed that if it’s what Dee and J. Maya wanted to do then in order for her to stay in the game, she needs to stick with them and not ruffle feathers. The women went to Sean and told him to vote Sifu, but Sean couldn’t help but feel the paranoia of another blindside (on him) in the works.
9:14 p.m. – At TC, Jeff wanted to know what options Sean has in a tribe that could use him as an “obvious vote.” Because they were interested in potentially blindsiding Sifu, the Reba tribe played the part of making it appear as though they all agreed that Sean would in fact be the clear consensus vote. Even J. Maya voiced her concern that challenge strength is important which underscored why they may benefit from getting rid of Sean who has done nothing but lose. Sean’s case was that he’d be a loyal player that could be used as a number to take a shot at someone else.
9:20 p.m. – Before they could get to the vote, Sean took a moment to be “completely honest” with his new tribe in sharing that his experience growing up in the conservative world of Mormonism as a gay man meant that he lost “many many years” that he could reclaim from the show. But he also realized through the game that his “true adventure” is being back at home with his husband and that he’d like them to vote him out so he could return to his “dream at home.”
9:24 p.m. – Still, Jeff left the question up to the group by asking them to go to the ballot box and vote. There was no play of an advantage or idol and so Jeff read the votes: Sifu, Sean, Dee, Sean, Sean. As Sean exited the group and hugged everyone, Sifu asked in his ear if he voted for him to which Sean replied “no.” That vote we know came from Dee as shown during the voting process.
NEXT TIME: Sifu boils over “like a volcano” for the vote he received and the Lulu and Belo tribes are faced with their own signs of being ripped apart by deception.
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