Following a Dead Horse to Water
Season 45 • Episode 8
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Survivor Season 45 Episode 8, “Following a Dead Horse to Water.”]
The Survivor auction is back! For the first time since 2015, Survivor players got to bid money on food items in the always fun reward challenge. Of course, Jeff Probst and the team weren’t going to bring back this fan-favorite without some new rules for the new era. Everything in Episode 8 forced the survivors to make quick decisions and punish those who didn’t act fast. This even applied to Tribal Council voting plans, which were curtailed by the immunity challenge winner.
The Survivor auction gives players a break from the physical reward challenges and lets them win rewards with money instead. In past seasons, food, advantages, and messages from home were on the table, and contestants were each given a lump sum of money with which to bid. This time, they had to earn the money themselves by racing into the jungle to find bamboo tubes full of cash. They could only place one tube in their assigned baskets at a time, requiring them to run back and forth from the beach to the jungle. Bruce Perreault didn’t put the pedal to the metal here, assuming that “slow and steady wins the race.” That choice came at a literal cost.
The most money collected was Dee Valladares’ $900; meanwhile, Bruce collected just $80. They were bidding solely on food items at $20 increments. Previous iterations saw Probst starting the bidding for random items at $40, but that didn’t happen this time. The stakes were raised by Probst drawing a numbered rock, its number only being revealed to him. There were 15 items available, but the number determined that there would only be 10 actually put up for auction. Additionally, the players were only guaranteed five items. After that, they would have no way of knowing which item was the last one. Whoever ended the auction with the most money left over lost their vote at Tribal Council.
Kendra McQuarrie ditched her cash fast, bidding all of her $360 on a bowl of pretzels and a cold beer. Kellie Nalbandian spent $500 on a bowl of fries with ketchup and a soda, and then her remaining $200 on a margarita, PB&J sandwich, and chips. Dee spent all of her $900 on a chocolate milkshake, the highest bid of the day. Jake O’Kane cashed in on a chocolate cake that he shared with Bruce and Julie Alley. As always, there was a less appetizing food option — two enormous fish eyes (in the past, it was often fruit bat soup) — that Katurah Topps bought first, followed by Austin Li Coon. Drew Basile got a bowl of candy, and Julie got to brush her teeth.
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With his $80 still intact (he barely bid anything), Bruce ended with the most leftover money and lost his vote. That didn’t bode well for him, as Katurah had sided with the powerful alliance of remaining Reba members (Drew, Austin, Julie, and Dee) to get Bruce out. In last week’s recap, I said Katurah would need to make some strong decisions to capitalize on voting Kaleb Gebrewold out. This Reba alliance proved to be a smart move.
The individual immunity challenge stakes were raised by a rice negotiation. Four players needed to sit out in order to get the giant bag, which Probst stabbed a hole into the bottom of to make the players make their decisions faster. Bruce, Austin, Julie, Jake, Kellie, and Kendra played for immunity, and unfortunately for those who wanted him gone, Bruce won. This couldn’t have come at a better time.
“No vote, he’s got an idol in his pocket, and he’s got an immunity necklace on. Not a bad day to be Bruce,” Kendra said in confessional after the challenge. “Can’t get rid of Bruce! Bruce is gonna be here forever! He’s my ball and chain!” Kellie said in her own solo interview. The women, who had been toying with the idea of an all-woman majority alliance (there are five women left and four men), grouped together to figure out a new name.
The plan was to “dog pile” on Jake, who tried to make amends with Julie after trying to vote her out with Kaleb in Episode 7. Jake caught wise to the plot against him and asked Bruce to consider giving him his idol. He also didn’t hide that he was searching for one of his own.
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Drew sensed a big risk in voting Jake out and concocted a plan to vote Kellie out and “return to the question of Bruce or Jake” before the next Tribal. Drew gathered Austin, Dee, Julie, and Emily on the beach to propose this plan. Katurah, whom Drew said he wanted to work with earlier, was notably not brought into this circle.
In Tribal, Jake knew he was on the outs and saw no point in pretending otherwise. He made a pitch to the tribe, saying that whoever’s next on the bottom is making the wrong move voting him out because they’ll be next unless they make a bolder move. He also hinted he had an idol or would play his Shot in the Dark and warned that he could come out on top of a split vote because of this.
Jake played his Shot in the Dark, which forfeited his vote for a shot at safety. “Does lightning strike twice?” he asked as Probst revealed his fate. But it didn’t. Jake was not safe after sacrificing his vote, but with Bruce’s vote gone for the night, that meant there were only eight votes in the bucket.
The first three votes went to Jake, and the next four to Kellie. The shocked Kellie turned to Austin and asked, “Did you do this?” He shook his head yes. A fifth and final vote went to Kellie, sending her home in a blindside that shocked her and her allies. Kendra cried as she left, but Emily had clearly made an enemy in the jury when Kellie replied to her “good game” with “you did this?” The credits revealed that it was the Reba alliance — Austin, Julie, Drew, Dee, and Lulu’s Emily — who took her out.
It looks like the Reba-Belo war has a clear stronger side. Did Drew, who orchestrated this blindside, just become the most powerful player in the game? Next week, three players lose their votes.
Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS