Survivor 45 Recap: The Revenge (or Curse?) of the Sandwich

Listen, I’ve always believed that sandwiches hold special powers. They are, quite literally, a perfect food. And in episode six of Survivor 45, an overlooked sandwich from last week gets its revenge this week, to the detriment of one of the players. (Oh, and there’s a merge too, no big deal.)

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This episode goes full throttle from minute one. Everyone on Lulu (except Katurah) hunts for an immunity idol, but Bruce is the lucky one to find it (sort of). Instead of actually finding an immunity idol, he finds a clue to the location of an immunity idol and will lose his vote until he finds it. (Ugh.) As he searches, they see a boat, which could only mean one thing: the merge! Bruce needs to find this idol before they’re forced to leave their beach. Just like a good Angelina Jolie thriller, Bruce desperately searches, finding the idol in the nick of time. Katurah (when she finds out) is going to hate this because, well, she hates Bruce.

Speaking of the merge, everyone coming together is usually a joyous occasion, but this one is filled with a little joy, but more plotting and revenge.

First things first, Austin is still angry he didn’t get that sandwich last week. (Honestly, I can relate.) Just to catch you up, Austin, J. and Kellie were sent on a quest and had a choice between an amulet with limited power or a sandwich. J. and Kellie picked the amulet, so Austin went along with it reluctantly. Now that they’ve merged, Austin wants J. out (the leader of the sandwich drama).

Beyond Austin’s culinary beef with J. (see what I did there?), the merge also puts a target on Kaleb and Emily’s back. You see, they are the only surviving members of the old (and cursed) Lulu tribe. This means both of them need to hustle to, well, survive.

Kaleb starts things off, quickly forming alliances with Reba and Belo, doing what he can to avoid the Lulu curse. It seems to work. Everyone likes Kaleb and seems to agree with his game play. That is, everybody except Bruce. He sees Kaleb as a threat, especially since nobody seems to be talking to Bruce. He sees Kaleb working them and knows Kaleb will ultimately work to vote them all off (but always with that million dollar smile). Determined to take Kaleb out and regain leadership control, Bruce starts to lobby, with some success.

Meanwhile, Emily and Bruce have their own things to hash out post-merge. You see, on day one, Emily called Bruce out for having an advantage in the game because he had briefly played last season, but had to leave for medical reasons. The two made amends, but neither of em left it in a spot where either of them are supporting each other. Those dynamics will certainly be fun to watch in episodes to come.

While the rest of the tribe seems to be celebrating a dancing bug (it’s the little things, you know?), Emily and Kaleb get to plotting. They know they need to start taking out Reba tribe members in order to make it to the end, which means targeting J., Julie and Dee. If they’re able to do this, they’ll be in good shape, but considering they both have the Lulu curse hovering over them, it’s certainly not guaranteed.

The challenge finds the players competing in an obstacle course ending with a puzzle. (Where’s Carson Garrett from 44 when you need him, right?) They’re split into two teams, red and blue, with Katurah left team-less because she chose the blank rock. She smartly chose the blue team, because they ultimately won. This means everyone on the red team are on the chopping block, which just so happens includes original Lulu’s Emily and Kaleb, not to mention Reba’s J., so basically everyone they’ve all been talking about to vote off. Funny how that works out.

While we’re talking about the challenge, you should listen to Jeff Probst’s On Fire, the official Survivor podcast. This week he breaks down how they build these amazing structures for the challenges.

Back at camp, the consensus is that Kaleb has to go. It makes sense, and not just because of the Lulu curse. From the beginning of the merge he’s been wheeling and dealing, which obviously put a mark on his back. Whereas Emily has kept a low profile, all the while doing whatever she needed to in order to put her in the good graces of Reba and Belo members. Bruce leads the charge with voting Kaleb out, but then the tides shift to J. (Insert dramatic music.) Kaleb makes the case that Reba is too strong, and they need to start chipping away at it, and guess who eagerly joins the vote J. off parade? Austin. (He really wanted that sandwich.)

OK, so we’re at Tribal Council, and wow, this one had me all jumpy. So like, everyone is there together for the first time, which is awfully exciting, but the kicker is only the losing team from the challenge can be voted out. It quickly turns into a showdown between Kaleb and J. Kaleb lays it all out, calling out the Lulu curse and basically says he and Emily are on the chopping block.

Emily says the game is now an individual game, and that, “if there’s a Lulu curse, it ends tonight.”

Then Kaleb sets his sights on Reba. He says he might be a threat, but he’s not a strategic threat (whatever that means). To him, the biggest threat is coming from the Reba alliance of Julie, Dee and J., and that J. needs to go. This, obviously, makes J. turn on Kaleb. The two go back and forth right before the vote.

OK, this is where it gets good. Before Jeff is about to read the votes, Kaleb plays his shot in the dark, to the excitement of everybody except J. and Emily. Everyone is on pins and needles while Jeff unravels Kaleb’s shot in the dark. Will he be safe, and thus any votes for him will be deemed useless, or will he not be safe?! Well, he’s… SAFE! And the crowd goes wild.

Oh, but wait, it gets better! So Jeff reads the votes and every single person voted for Kaleb (who couldn’t vote because he played his shot in the dark). Everyone is legit dumbfounded. They have to vote again, this time Kaleb will be fine, but Emily and J. are in the hot seat.

Everyone gets up and starts lobbying. J. is pushing hard for Emily, and people assure her they’ll vote for Emily. While Emily pleads for people just to not vote for her. (She couldn’t care less who they vote for.) In this moment it feels like Emily is going home, that damn Lulu curse. Personally, I’m distraught, Emily is my girl, she cannot go home now.

They vote again. As Jeff reads the votes, it turns out all those assurances people gave J. were actually blindsides. J. gets the most votes. (Phew, Emily is fine, so I’m mentally in a good place again. This also shows how smart of a game Emily is playing. She rightly knew to keep even soft alliances in play for a moment just like this.)

What an episode! The anxiety was just off the charts! On the bright side, at least now I have something to talk about with my therapist this week.

Who Needs to Get Snuffed?

While I loved Kaleb’s luck this episode, I do feel like he’s on his way out. He’s too vocal, which I feel like will be his downfall.

Who Should be the Sole Survivor?

Emily is still in the lead to win for me, but Austin’s sandwich revenge was delicious TV (literally).

Watch Survivor every Wednesday on CBS or anytime on Paramount+ to follow along as I react to every episode this season.