‘Survivor 45’ episode 8 recap: Who was voted out in ‘Following a Dead Horse to Water’? [LIVE BLOG]
Last week on “Survivor 45,” the merged tribe was shocked to learn they’d be divided into two groups of six. Both groups attended tribal council, where they ultimately voted out Sifu Alsup (who didn’t make the jury) and Kaleb Gebrewold (who became the first juror). This week, the Final 10 castaways come together to learn they’ll be competing in the Survivor Auction for the first time in years. Oh, and someone else will be voted out of the game.
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 45” Episode 8 recap/live blog of “Following a Dead Horse to Water” to find out what happened Wednesday, November 15, 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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Here are the remaining “Survivor 45” contestants (click on each name to be brought to their individual profiles): Austin Li Coon, Bruce Perreault, Dee Valladares, Drew Basile, Emily Flippen, Jake O’Kane, Julie Alley, Katurah Topps, Kellie Nalbandian and Kendra McQuarrie.
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 seventh episode, there were two immunity winners, Dee and Kellie, one from each of the divided groups. Dee’s winning group attended the Survivor Sanctuary while Kellie’s losing group was forced to live on the Lulu beach for the night. The losers attended tribal council first where Sifu was voted out unanimously. The second group voted 4-2 between Kaleb and Julie, with Katurah being the swing vote that ousted Kaleb instead of creating a three-way tie. Now Jake is on the outs with Julie since he voted for her. How will that come into play tonight? Let’s go!
8:02 p.m. – Drew was concerned with the “symbolic victory” offered to Bruce in the first Tribal Council electing to send home Sifu instead of him. When the second Tribal Council group joined them at camp later, no one was surprised that Kaleb was the one they voted out, but it was concerning for Bruce that Jake had attempted to “make a move” by not going along with the vote and sticking his neck out there to save Kaleb. Jake’s first order of business was to address his vote for Julie with Julie — he explained that it was attempt to keep Kaleb and nothing against Julie specifically. But the vote meant to Julie that there’s “no chance” she can work with him ever again and that “lines have been drawn” in an “old Belo versus old Reba now.”
8:05 p.m. – The next morning, the women woke up to realize that they have a 6 to 4 majority at this point in the game and it’d be a good opportunity for them to band together and take out the men. For Julie and Dee, the idea sounded tempting, but they’re still “four strong” with Austin and Drew and don’t want to give that up. Luckily, the women had their sights set on getting Bruce out. Kellie was willing to finally make the move against him as well (she wasn’t before) because he was increasingly becoming a burden for her own game.
8:08 p.m. – To everyone’s surprise, a boat arrived on shore to deliver the great news that at long last the “Survivor Auction” was making a return to the show. Of course, there’s a twist. Instead of being given equal amounts of money to spend at the auction, in the new era they had to search the jungle for hidden bamboo tubes of cash one at a time and bring them back to their individual baskets on the beach. Inside the tubes was the funds that each would be allotted to spend on items at the auction. As the “young kids” ran off into the jungle, Bruce took his time and very slowly made his way out. His strategy of using his “intuition” did not pay off, literally, because he only found one tube.
8:18 p.m. – It was Day 15 when the players made their way to the auction site with their wads of cash. Jeff “updated the auction for the new era” in three ways: first being the scramble for money, second being the lack of advantages up for bid, and third being that they prepared 15 items for the auction, but beyond five Jeff would draw a random number between six and 15 to determine how many more items would go up. Only Jeff would know that number and it would end the auction without warning. That mattered because the player with the most unspent money at the close of the auction would lose their vote at the next TC.
8:20 p.m. – Prior to the auction, Jeff revealed a chalkboard to track how much money everyone had: Austin – $700, Bruce – $80, Dee – $900, Drew – $520, Emily – $500, Jake – $340, Julie – $420, Katurah – $480, Kellie – $700, and Kendra – $360. Jeff drew the random number to determine the auction length and then started the bids on the first item, salty pretzels and a cold beer. After some back and forth bids, Kendra won Item 1 for $360, leaving her with no more money. Item 2 was a bowl of fries and a soft drink which went to Kellie for $500, leaving her with $200. Item 3 remained covered and went to Emily for $440. Upon the reveal, Emily had earned a charcuterie board of meats and cheeses with a glass of white wine. Item 4 was a chocolate milkshake and Dee immediately bid all $900 of her purse. Item 5 remained covered and was purchased by Katurah for all of her $480. Before revealing it, Jeff offered her the chance to switch to the next item, but she decided to stick with the original item. Upon the reveal, Katurah had bought two giant fish eyes. Though she did her best to taste a small part of them, Katurah gave the item back and returned to her seat. Instead of discarding the eyes, Jeff offered them back up for bid and Austin threw down $100 so that he could take his own big bite out of one of the eyes.
8:31 p.m. – Jeff continued the auction to Item 6, the one that Katurah did not swap for. It went to Drew for $520 and was revealed to be a bowl of candy. Item 7 was a giant slice of pizza that Austin took with the rest of his $600 purse, leaving Julie with the most buying power and at risk of losing her vote. There was an Item 8, toothbrush and toothpaste, which Julie was happy to buy for $420 just to avoid losing her vote. There was also an Item 9 to be bought by one person and shared with two others. It was a whole chocolate cake, which Jake bought for $340. He invited both Julie and Bruce to join in on the fun. Jake’s purchase left only three players with money to spend: Kellie with $200, Bruce with his original $80, and Emily with $60. Much to Kellie’s relief, there was an Item 10 and so she bought it. Item 10 was a PB&J, potato chips and a fresh margarita. With Bruce vulnerable to losing his vote, Jeff announced the close of the auction and revealed that he had indeed drawn the rock with the 10 on it.
8:44 p.m. – Post-auction, Emily made the choice to fill her close ally Drew in on the brewing all-women alliance. She explained that she has a deeper connection to Drew and Austin and so that trumps the “conceptual” benefit of working with the women exclusively. Drew took the news casually and they both agreed that there probably isn’t “long-term” legs to the alliance anyway. Emily said that the women are targeting Bruce and Jake first anyway and so Drew thought it could be “convenient” because currently everyone wants Bruce out and his idol flushed. It had the added benefit of weakening original Belo. Later, Drew, Austin, Julie, and Katurah made a pact around the water well to work together and follow Katurah’s lead to target Bruce next with Jake as a backup.
8:51 p.m. – For the next immunity challenge, Jeff presented a “hold your weight” situation where each player would have to balance themselves with a rope attached to a log weighing a third of their pre-game weight that they had to hold up through balancing the weight. Last one still standing would earn immunity. But, in addition, Jeff presented the temptation of a bag of rice that could last through the end of the game, but to earn it requires four players to sit out of the challenge. Dee and Emily immediately opted to sit out. Katurah asked if they could “respect the people that sit out” and so as incentive to get more to sit out, Jeff cut a whole in the bag and let it drain out while people considered sitting out. Drew immediately jumped in and then a bit of time later when no one else would, Katurah sat out as well.
8:55 p.m. – In the challenge, all six players made it through the five minutes of the first and easiest stage of holding up their log. In the second and third stages, they moved down their rope by one and then another knot, increasing the difficulty and weight, but they all made it through those stages as well. In the fourth stage, Kellie and Kendra became the first and second to fall. In the fifth and final stage, Jake became the third player to fall followed by Austin, leaving a final face off between Julie and Bruce. In the end, Julie’s strength to hold on gave out and Bruce earned immunity.
9:08 p.m. – With the unanimous target Bruce now safe from the vote, there was scrambling to do around camp. Front and center in everyone’s mind was how safe of a backup the Jake vote would be and whether there’s another option that anyone was willing to throw out. The worry was that Bruce might give Jake his idol and so they needed to put votes on a second person just in case. Kellie was concerned that she would become that option because of how much Bruce follows her around, leaving her to be seen as closer to the original Belo group than she wants to be. The most awkward moment came when Kellie and Emily asked Jake to give a name of someone he’s willing to vote, but he clocked it as their attempt to “trip him up.”
9:10 p.m. – Knowing he was in hot water, Jake very obviously began searching for an idol. That caused more worry that he might actually find one, or still that Bruce would use his, and so Drew felt it necessary for the group to come up with a contingency plan. He brought together Austin, Dee, Julie, and Emily to discuss voting Kellie out instead so that they keep Jake around so that at the next vote they could return to the Jake or Bruce situation in order to flush out Bruce’s idol. Julie and Dee were hesitant to jump on board with that plan immediately.
9:18 p.m. – At the start of Tribal Council, Bruce very awkwardly asked Jeff to confirm that he’s the first player to not have a vote, but win immunity so that they “can have some relevance in the game.” Jeff gave him that distinction freely and then everyone clapped. It set the tone for a conversation that only became more uncomfortable as it went on, culminating in Jake stumbling through his words as he attempted to express that the people who sat out of the challenge didn’t do it selflessly. He then asked to “make a pitch,” but got hung up on his own thoughts again. Eventually he was able to communicate that he doesn’t want the game to be “dog pile” votes like it was with Kaleb, but he anticipated that this vote would be one on him simply because he tried to make a big move and “came up short.” Jake made the point that if all the votes are on him then inevitably someone is at the bottom and they will just be the victim of the next dog pile.
9:22 p.m. – After the votes were cast, Jake stood up to play his Shot in the Dark. Jake handed Jeff the scroll he chose at random after sacrificing his vote, but unfortunately the scroll read that he was “not safe.” From there, Jeff read the votes: Jake, Jake, Jake, Kellie, Kellie, Kellie, Kellie, Kellie. By a vote of 5 to 3, Kellie was blindsided and eliminated from the game. A roaring “woah” from Jake and a “what the hell, guys?” from Kellie underscored how shocking of a result it was. Kellie asked both Austin and Emily “did you do this?” and they admitted to it. Bruce, Katurah, and Kendra were left wondering how and why they were left out of the decision.
NEXT TIME: Emily tells Austin that “if Dee is in the final three, Dee wins” and Jeff reveals another twist at the challenge site, divided into groups of three, one group would all lose their ability to vote at the next Tribal Council. The groups appear to be divided into: Drew, Jake and Dee; Kendra, Bruce and Julie; Austin, Katurah, and Emily.
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