‘Survivor 45’ episode 5 recap: Who was voted out in ‘I Don’t Want to be the Worm’? [LIVE BLOG]
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Heading into the fifth episode of “Survivor 45,” Lulu was still the only tribe to lose a player — in fact, they lost four (Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon and Sabiyah Broderick from the original Lulu, and Sean Edwards after he swapped over to Reba). Last week’s tribe swap resulted in all of the remaining players being mixed up, with new alliances forming and fresh threats emerging. So who was the fifth person to have their torch snuffed?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 45” Episode 5 recap/live blog of “I Don’t Want to be the Worm” to find out what happened Wednesday, October 25, 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):
NEW BELO TRIBE: Austin Li Coon, Brando Meyer, Drew Basile, Emily Flippen, Kendra McQuarrie
NEW LULU TRIBE: Bruce Perreault, Jake O’Kane, Kaleb Gebrewold, Katurah Topps, Kellie Nalbandian
NEW REBA TRIBE: Dee Valladares, J. Maya Krishnan-Jha, Julie Alley, 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 fourth episode, there was no reward challenge as the players instead learned they would be dropping their buffs and swapping tribes. At the new Belo, Emily joined with Austin and Drew to create a strong trio. At the new Lulu, Katurah continued being annoyed by Bruce. And at the new Reba (which lost immunity), Sifu seemed to be a blindside option until Sean revealed he wanted to return home to be with his husband. Sean may be have been voted out, but the real drama came when Dee voted for Sifu. So who will be going home tonight?
8:01 p.m. – In the fallout of Sean asking to be voted out, Sifu wanted to know from the other three how his name ended up on one of the parchments. Privately, Dee explained in a confessional that she voted for Sifu because she wanted to get rid of the chaos in their tribe. But when asked by the others who wrote Sifu’s name down, Dee denied it, as did J. Maya and Julie. When Sifu let the women know that Sean told him on his way out that he didn’t write Sifu’s name down, the women were angry that Sean would attempt to blow up their game after they had built a plan to save him. Because all three of the women insisted that they voted Sean’s name, Sifu told them that Sean must have been lying, but he still thought one of them must have.
8:05 p.m. – The next morning it was Day 10 in the game and players on all three tribes could think of only one thing: food. The Belo tribe went around the horn naming all of the yummy things they were daydreaming about, up until Kendra saw a worm in the dirt and suffered through the anxiety of possibly eating it for the protein. Eventually she put it in her mouth, but in the attempt to swallow it choked it back up and ran off refusing to do it.
8:08 p.m. – At Lulu, the lack of nutrition got to Jake in the form of an unexpected faint once again. Kellie who had also witnessed the first faint a few days prior was worried that something was wrong, but recognized that Jake was more concerned with possibly being pulled from the game. As a nurse, Kellie did her best to get him to “give [himself] a break” and not be too hard on himself for showing weakness. In his confessional, Jake described his journey to overcome weight issues by working really hard to get in shape and live healthier in the last two years.
8:17 p.m. – During an afternoon when Kaleb, Jake, Bruce and Kellie were all out for a water run together, Katurah took it as an opportunity to look for an idol on her own. While she was digging in a tree, the group of four approached her and Kaleb called our her name. Katurah did her best to play it off, but it was clear that they all saw her looking for an idol. It spooked Jake, Bruce and Kellie, but Kaleb pulled her aside privately later in order to build trust. Kaleb said he called out her name to give her a heads up because he wants to work with her. For Katurah, Kaleb coming to her was the “show me action” she was looking for in order to trust someone. What she didn’t know was that Kaleb was pulling everyone in the tribe aside individually for similar trust building moments. In all his conversations Kaleb realized that Kellie was the one everyone else wanted to work with and so he needed to be most honest with her. To build trust with Kellie, Kaleb confessed that the Lulu idol was already found and it went home with Sabiyah.
8:20 p.m. – At Reba, Dee, J. Maya and Julie needed to figure out a plan to combat how Sean threw them under the bus by telling Sifu one of them voted for him. They all still believed that Sifu is in possession of a hidden immunity idol (because he told them he does, with a fake idol he fashioned) so they needed a way to circumvent the possible use of it at their next tribal. At one point Sifu told J. Maya his approach to martial arts, saying “one of [his] favorite things to do” is catching his opponent off guard. J. Maya took it as a thinly veiled threat that he believes she’s the one that voted for him and that he’s ready to make a move against her.
8:24 p.m. – At Belo, Brando was concerned about his position in the tribe because the one original Belo he was swapped with, Kendra, is the one he has the weakest connection to. Brando felt a stronger connection to Drew because of the nerd factor and the two of them bonded over their interest in Pokemon. Brando offered a “nerd alliance” with Drew and Emily, but privately Drew called it “garbage” because the last thing he wanted to allow was six original Belo members to make it to the merge. Drew shutting the alliance down pushed Brando back into the arms of Kendra and so they needed to get Emily on-side if they were going to have a majority over Drew and Austin. When Brando was able to get Emily alone, he offered loyalty to her, pitting Emily squarely in the middle with the decision in her hands whether she’d work with old Reba or old Belo going forward.
8:32 p.m. – Bruce continued to get under the skin of Katurah at Lulu, shutting her down when she suggested that they hold off on eating one day because they were already running low. Bruce called it “the dumbest idea” and then proceeded to dictate orders to other members of the tribe like that Kaleb should collect wood. Katurah was happy to see Kaleb finally witnessing how unbearable Bruce can be. Kaleb recognized it as an opportunity to not show Bruce that he’s annoyed and instead simply do his bidding so that if or when the time came for Kaleb to take a shot at Bruce, Bruce wouldn’t see it coming.
8:35 p.m. – Back at Reba, J. Maya concocted a plan to convince Sifu that she’s the one that voted for him (she wasn’t) so that he’d feel comfortable enough to not play his idol. In this way, she was willing to be a decoy so that she, Dee and Julie could easily vote him out at their next tribal. J. Maya’s idea gave Dee a different idea that it might present the chance to vote J. Maya out instead because she and Julie weren’t sure they could even trust her long term.
8:41 p.m. – For their next challenge, Jeff offered the tribes both reward and immunity in a competition to be the first two tribes to get through a wooden jungle gym, unlatch a bushel of sandbags with a hook, and then shoot targets with a slingshot. In addition to safety from Tribal Council, the first tribe to finish would earn 10 fresh fish and fixings as reward and the second tribe to finish would earn a smaller spread. Belo chose to sit Emily out and Lulu chose to sit Kellie out, much to her chagrin.
8:44 p.m. – Kaleb got Lulu out to a fast start in the first stage, but then J. Maya managed to bring Reba into the lead after the second pass. In the third and final pass through the first stage, Bruce brought Lulu back into the lead while Brando struggled and made Belo fall further behind. Julie worked the hook for Reba on the second stage and got them a major head start on the sling shot. Drew did Belo no favors in his slow progress with the hook, still working as the other two tribes took passes on the slingshot. J. Maya was the first to hit a target and then Dee hit one right after her for Reba just before Bruce could hit Lulu’s first target. It took only a few shots for Sifu to get Reba’s third target, earning them the first prize finish. As Austin struggled on the slingshot for Belo, Katurah hit her target and then Kaleb took his time to hit Lulu’s third to take the second prize finish.
8:49 p.m. – In addition to the reward and immunity, Reba got to send one player from each tribe on a journey. Reba selected J. Maya to go (won a rock-paper-scissor battle over Dee) and then picked Kellie from Lulu (because she had to sit out the challenge) and Austin from Belo (because they already had a connection to him from original Reba and thought he could give information). Jeff clarified that Austin would be back to his tribe in time to go to Tribal Council with them.
8:56 p.m. – Back at camp, Belo wanted to be mature and “respectful” about their scrambling, allowing people to go off in private conversations. Kendra and Emily decided together that Drew would be the better target over Austin. In his time with Drew, Brando attempted to forge an alliance with old Reba where he’d vote with them to take out Kendra in the hopes that it would convince Drew that they’d feel comfortable not voting him out. In truth, Brando wanted to be loyal to Kendra and would pull in Emily to take Drew or Austin out instead. Drew did not fall for Brando’s game though and when he had time with Emily he informed her what Brando attempted. Emily didn’t understand why Brando would approach Drew with that and so when she asked him about it, Brando said that it was Drew’s idea. Emily could make more sense of Drew initiating that conversation so she was inclined to believe Brando over Drew. Kendra was not pleased to hear that her name was being thrown out as an option.
9:00 p.m. – On their journey, Kellie, J. Maya and Austin were faced with a new dilemma: sustenance in the form of sandwiches and juice or strategy in the form of three amulets that they’d use together to gain power (with a twist). The note explained that three amulets give them the power of an extra vote, two amulets give them the power of stealing a vote, and one amulet has the power of an idol. They’d have to make a decision as a group with majority ruling. Right away Austin said that he would vote for sustenance. He explained that he also didn’t want the amulets because they’d put targets on their back and would give them each reasons to vote each other out. J. Maya countered by saying she wants the amulets, leaving Kellie in the middle of the two with the decision-making vote.
9:08 p.m. – J. Maya pitched that the amulets would give them options and offered a pack that “no one touches the other until seven players in the game.” Austin still wanted the sandwiches, but he knew better than to refuse a pact with two other players so he caved and allowed them to take the amulets instead of the sandwiches. Austin understood them to be a “symbol of war” and knew he’d take revenge out on them by making sure that he’s the last one standing to use the amulets as an idol. In confessionals, J. Maya called it the best day of the game so far and Austin called it the worst.
9:10 p.m. – In the interest of full transparency, Emily went to Drew with Brando’s declaration that Drew started the conversation about Kendra, but Drew fiercely denied it. Emily admitted that she didn’t necessarily trust Drew because it didn’t make sense. That Emily wasn’t trusting of him, Drew knew that he and Austin would have to consider the option that Emily isn’t voting with them.
9:11 p.m. – Upon his return from the journey, Austin told the tribe a half-truth. He was honest about the sustenance option, but dishonest about a second option which was “sweat” that required them to carry coconuts up a hill and they failed. He pulled Drew aside later and told him the truth about the amulets and asked if he should be honest with Emily about it as well. Drew explained why he was nervous about Emily, so they figured that Austin being honest would be another way of pulling her back in to their side. Austin also pointed out that he’d be able to sacrifice his vote in order to extend the life of his idol and then regain his vote through the Goodwill Advantage.
9:21 p.m. – At Tribal Council, Belo stated the obvious that this was the moment where they’d decide which direction the game goes based on who is sent home. Four of the players were casting a vote for the first time and so they saw it as an opportunity to match their words to their actions. Brando pitched himself as a well-connected player because of how strong original Belo is, but Drew countered that it also makes Brando a threat because that means he already has numbers and doesn’t necessarily need more at the merge. Austin told Jeff that there are cracks in both original Reba and original Belo and their decision would be about the “long haul.”
9:25 p.m. – In the voting booth, Austin extended the life of his hidden idol by sacrificing his vote and then restored his vote by using the Goodwill Advantage. When asked, no one played a public advantage or an idol and so Jeff read the votes: Drew, Brando, Drew, Brando, Brando. Kendra was shocked that Emily had made the decision to work with Drew and Austin instead of her and Brando and was initially unreceptive to Emily’s apology as Brando walked out.
NEXT TIME: With 13 people, the three tribes celebrate the merge. Drew, Austin, Julie and Dee meet as “the strongest four” while Bruce tells Kaleb he is “powerful and may not realize it.”
SEEexclusive predictions: Who will win ‘Survivor’?
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