“Survivor 45” Recap: ‘No Man Left Behind’

HOLLYWOOD—I was greatly pleased with the second episode of season 45 of “Survivor.” There was plenty of movement in strategy and gameplay that caught my attention and I’m eager to see how it unfolds. This week’s episode, ‘No Man Left Behind’ saw Emily continuing to build a bridge with her tribe at Lulu. Yes, Sean, Sabiyah and Kaleb are a tight three and might go after Emily if they head back to Tribal Council.

Emily caught on that a vote was missing, and called out Sabiyah, and Kaleb and Sean were not able to cover it. She is perceptive people; so that is a great thing to catch, even if no one else caught it. Over at Belo, Jake took a very scary tumble that frightened Kendra. It felt like he might have suffered a slight stroke from my perception, but he noted he may have inhaled too much smoke. Thankfully, it wasn’t a medavac. Kendra and Jake bonded over that recent incident. I like this pairing. At Reba, Austin was stressed about finding that hidden Immunity Idol, but he need alone time to search for that power. He took Drew to act as a decoy for him, and Drew is not the best at creating a diversion. Dee spilled to Julie that she is worried about Drew and Austin, and they spotted Drew digging. Instead of causing a scene, Dee slowly called Drew out and he was nervous as hell. Guilty as sin.

Nice diversion Drew pointing the finger at Sifu, which was a damn smart lie. Dee is right with her intuition; she knows these guys are lying. Damn, I like Dee, the girl is perceptive as hell. Wow, only 15 minutes in and we have a reward challenge that involves fruit platters, and the winning tribe can send a person to another tribe to steal an item, inflict punishment and gather Intel. Lulu had an impressive lead and they won the reward. Yeah, this was a massive win for the tribe to boost some morale, with Reba winning the smaller fruit platter.

If Lulu is smart they are going to take flint so they can start fire back at their camp. They choose Kaleb and he was given an advantage where he could forge a relationship with another player at a different camp, who perhaps lost their vote and give them that vote back. Now this is an interesting twist that I like that helps with the social bonding, and as expected it was Reba that was about to get raided.

Kaleb asked the right questions and learned that Drew gained an advantage. He seemed to bond with Drew and gave that advantage, which is going to give Austin his vote back. Drew informed Dee about the advantage which is smart, but dangerous because it seems like she might know these two were lying. Back at Lulu they feasted on fruit, as Kaleb was bonding, but I think he’s being perceived as a big threat.

Back at Reba, Austin and Drew decided to fill in Julie and Dee a bit on that advantage. Dee and Julie played ball, and found the hammer that helped locate the idol for Austin. To be honest, I would have kept things mum and said nothing. They lied to you, why not lie to them. For a third consecutive time, Lulu lost the Immunity Challenge and is headed back to Tribal Council. This is intriguing because Sabiyah and Sean were talking about blindsiding Kaleb. Kaleb has built a bond with Emily and it might pay dividends here.

There is ONLY 3 votes because Sabiyah cannot vote, which means Kaleb could be the swing unless, Sean decides to align with Emily that I just don’t see happening. Sabiyah is playing people as she plans to take out Kaleb. Emily is a power player, and she made the move to alert him of the truth that he’s the target. Kaleb open your eyes because Emily is being honest with you, the people you think you can trust you cannot. This could be a very interesting vote because I really have no idea who might be headed home.

At TC Sabiyah tossed her candle into the fire which Jeff called her out on it. Emily rolled her eyes at the reveal. Kaleb revealed details about his visit to Reba and I could tell Jeff was annoyed at the constant fire picking of the candle by Sabiyah as he was trying to conduct important conversations. I bet this is only going to be a reveal that it’s a clue to locate the idol; it is NOT the actual idol people.

Something tells me Sabiyah still will not be able to vote tonight, we’re about to see a blindside, as Sabiyah learned she can only use the idol once, but she would have to sacrifice her vote similar to Austin to extend the life of her idol. If she votes herself out, by not casting a vote, this is literally an epic blindside of a move. Stupid she got booted from the game being greedy. You had an idol and a vote, there is no way you should have gone home Sabiyah.

It makes it even worse that she had an idol and could have saved herself. Not to mention, Kaleb knows Sean voted against him, so Sean is on the bottom and now Emily is in the middle. I feel like we have a swap next week we have to have one. Man that was a good TC; can’t recall one that interesting since the big one that transpired on ‘David v. Goliath’ that sent John home.  Yes, we have a swap and this is great because it changes the game up in a major way. I love that we’re seeing the gameplay change and those potentially at the bottom can shake things up. Until next Wednesday “Survivor” fanatics!