‘Survivor 45’ episode 9 recap: Who was voted out in ‘Sword of Damocles’? [LIVE BLOG]

John Benutty and Marcus James Dixon
·13 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Heading into the ninth episode of “Survivor 45,” Kellie Nalbandian had just been shockingly blindsided at tribal council by a dominant group of ex-Reba and ex-Lulu players. That game move temporarily saved Jake O’Kane (though he still wasted his Shot in the Dark) and made every remaining ex-Belo contestant question their place in the pecking order. So who ended up having their torch snuffed this week?

Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 45” Episode 9 recap/live blog of “Sword of Damocles” to find out what happened Wednesday, November 22, 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.

More from GoldDerby

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 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 eighth episode, the auction returned for the first time since 2015, only with a few new twists. After losing his vote at the auction, Bruce rebounded by winning the individual immunity challenge. Back at camp, Jake thought he was going home, but Austin and Drew wanted to blindside Kellie instead. At tribal council, the guys’ plan worked perfectly. Jake used his Shot in the Dark (it was Not Safe) and Kellie was ousted thanks to the five votes of Austin, Drew, Dee, Julie and Emily. Who will be going home tonight?

8:02 p.m. – Reactions to Kellie’s blindside were starkly different between Kendra and Jake. Kendra, one of her closest allies, was distraught and left wondering what her path forward could be while Jake, who thought he was going home, saw a new lease in life for him in the game because he could change his strategy entirely. Bruce realized that if they were ready to blindside Kellie that if he didn’t have protection through immunity and his idol that it would have been him instead. He was also surprised that Kellie was on board with a plan to take him out. Immediately, Kendra and Katurah began discussing Dee as the biggest threat on Reba and the need to target her as soon as they can.

8:05 p.m. – Katurah saw herself in a swing position where she could side with old Reba still and feed them information about the plans of old Belo. She told them that Kendra is looking to target Dee, but Austin felt reassured that they now have two idols at their disposal to thwart any plans against them. Old Reba’s number one priority was to flush Bruce’s idol and then they’d need to focus on Kendra and Jake who were still threats as well.

8:08 p.m. – The next morning, Bruce was still spiraling from being told that Kellie saw him as “overbearing” to her gameplay and that being a reason why she was willing to make moves against him. Bruce doesn’t see himself that way and so it presented him with a reflection moment about who he is outside of the game versus who he is inside of the game. He was also disappointed with Jake’s “over-celebration” to be saved in front of Kellie during a moment of her own sadness and shock. Drew realized that Bruce was sad, identifying it as him realizing that he was. playing an “imaginary” version of the game in his head and now he has to confront the “reality” of his situation.

8:11 p.m. – For Emily, she needed to start thinking about whether Austin and Drew are closer to her or Julie and Dee within the old Reba alliance. She knew that Austin was getting close to Dee so it was a sensitive topic. Drew and Austin were hesitant to say anything definitive about going after Dee, even when Emily pointed out that she can beat them all in the final three, which triggered Emily a bit. That being said, Austin knew that Emily was in a tough spot because of the old Reba dynamics and was cognizant of having to keep her on side at the same time he protected Dee.

8:13 p.m. – A message arriving in the afternoon hinted that only one player will win immunity, but that they’d need to divide the tribe of nine into thirds. The idea came up that they should try to make the division “balanced” with Drew saying each third should get “one of the strongest men, one of the strongest women, and one of the “weaklings left over.” That resulted in the first group of Jake, Dee and Drew, a second group of Austin, Emily and Katurah, and a third group of Bruce, Kendra and Julie. At this point, everyone was anticipating that each group of three might need to vote someone out and that left Julie in the most vulnerable position. With that in mind, Austin gave Julie one of his idols ahead of the challenge so that she’d be able to use it if she needs to.

8:20 p.m. – For the challenge, the groups of three ran an obstacle course in three stages: balancing a ball walking on a balance beam, build a rope bridge and then land balls on high rings, and then as individuals hold discs up with out-stretched arms. In each stage the last group to finish would be eliminated, leaving only three to compete in the final stage. The group that makes it to the final stage would also win reward to feast on chicken at the sanctuary. Last, there’s a twist that for the group that is eliminated in the first stage everyone would lose their vote at the next Tribal Council, but go on a journey for a chance to earn it back.

8:23 p.m. – Both Austin and Kendra were able to cross the beam with their ball on the first try, but Jake, the first to go in the red group, struggled with fall after fall. Blue was the first group to get all members across the beam, all before Jake finally crossed on his own. The yellow group finished as well, leaving Drew the last player to attempt the beam for the red group. The last part of this stage was to dig out three rope rungs where the red group caught up and found all three of theirs first. Yellow found their three ropes next, leaving blue the group out of contention. Austin, Emily and Katurah all lost their vote and would go on the journey later in the day.

8:32 p.m. – In the second stage, Bruce was the first player overall to complete his rope bridge, followed by Drew and Jake. Dee was able to finish before Julie and Kendra, giving red a chance to move on to the ball toss first. Once blue go to the balls, Bruce was able to balance a ball on their top ring right away and then Jake placed red’s ball on their top ring as well. Julie and Dee both got another ball for each group on the bottom ring, leaving Kendra and Jake throwing the final ball to the middle ring. Kendra completed the task first, sending blue through to the final round and earning reward for herself, Julie and Bruce.

8:35 p.m. – In the third and final stage, Jeff pointed out that this challenge has never been won by a male player, hinting that Kendra and Julie might have an advantage over Bruce. Kendra was the first to show major slips, but saved herself from falling out multiple times. Eventually, with fingertips holding her discs up, Kendra slipped and left another showdown between Julie and Bruce. Just as Kendra did, Julie showed signs of struggling and her discs began to slip and eventually fell. That gave Bruce his second individual immunity in a row and a spot as the first male to win that type of challenge.

8:45 p.m. – Bruce earning immunity for a second time meant that the group would be unable to flush his idol for a second week in a row. The three players that returned to camp didn’t know how to strategize just yet because they couldn’t speak with the reward winners or the three players that all potentially don’t have a vote. Still, Jake was comfortable telling Dee and Drew that he’s “basically a free agent” because original Belo was already voting for him at the last TC. His goal was to build trust with the old Reba players and that he’s “open to conversing.” Drew and Dee discussed the potential of playing idols on both Dee and Austin because they anticipated that everyone would be throwing votes at them and they can use them to take Kendra out instead.

8:49 p.m. – At the reward, Kendra had the opportunity to eat chicken for the first time in 15 years and Bruce was revitalized from the emotional hole he felt he was in earlier in the day. Kendra expressed her nervousness for the vote and took the chance to ask Julie how she feels about the old Reba crowd. Julie said that she feels she’s at the bottom of that group and knows she needs to “make a move at some point.” Kendra said she’s nervous about Dee and Austin’s connection and Julie could “hear what she’s saying” about Dee being a threat. Privately, Julie said that she would never write Dee’s name down and wants to go to the end with her. Instead, Julie said it would be better to go with an easy vote and take Jake out. Bruce and Kendra replied that “tribal lines are gone” and they’re willing to vote Jake because “he’s unpredictable.”

8:56 p.m. – For the group on the journey to regain their vote, they each had to follow their own path where they found their own unique chance with a logic math puzzle to complete within three minutes. With “9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = 100” in front of them, they had to place three plus signs and one minus sign in order to make the equation correct. Both Austin and Katurah felt okay with the idea of math while Emily was seriously anxious about it. In the end, Katurah and Emily failed to solve the puzzle and Austin was successful.

9:06 p.m. – Prior to the rest of the groups returning, Drew gave Jake assurances that he wouldn’t be the target and they agreed that going for Kendra could be the best and safest idea. When everyone returned, Emily, Katurah and Austin told the larger group that they all lost their votes, but Austin thought it’d be an advantage for only the old Reba to know that he actually did have a vote. That meant that the four old Reba players would have a 4-3 advantage and they can “pick who goes.” Immediately, Drew, Austin and Dee all agreed that Kendra would be the one to go.

9:08 p.m. – Julie told Dee about the conversation at the reward where Kendra and Bruce admitted to a willingness to vote for Jake. Dee thought that was perfect because they could let them think that Jake would go, but “Kendra’s gotta go.” That annoyed Julie because she felt like she put in work to get Jake out, but was shot down by the rest of her alliance who didn’t include her in figuring out the group agenda. Separately, Kendra and Bruce discussed the likely situation where they’d be told it’s Jake, but the group would actually vote her instead. Later, Kendra was reassured by Emily that the vote was definitely going toward Jake.

9:14 p.m. – When Emily spoke to Drew she said that everyone is voting Jake, but Drew said he thought it was Kendra. That was a surprise to Emily and so she asked who came up with that conclusion. Drew said it was Austin, Dee and himself. Like Julie, Emily was not happy to hear Kendra’s name because she’s not a big threat and so she tried to get Drew to see that Jake is way closer to Bruce than Kendra is. Drew went to the old Reba alliance with the idea of Jake, but Dee pushed back again that it has to be Kendra because she’s trying to get Dee out which makes her a threat. The fact that Dee was getting paranoid made Drew paranoid, leaving it up in the air as everyone made their way to TC.

9:18 p.m. – Jeff opened TC up with acknowledgment that the Kellie blindside is one of the all-timers throughout seasons and wanted to know how that impacted everyone left in the game. Kendra said that Kellie was her first friend in the game and Dee admitted that it shows that any of them can go home at any time. Jake said that even though he was safe, he felt that obviously he’s at the bottom still and he can only hope that it “did shift the game.” When asked about his back to back wins, Bruce called his immunity “not a good thing, but it’s a big deal.” Bruce explained that while you want to protect yourself, it “paints a big target on your back.” Jeff also pointed out that there’s a potential three people that didn’t get their vote back, but it remains unclear and unknowable how true that is. Kendra seemed surprised by the idea that any of the three might not have lost their votes, which is something she didn’t even think about.

9:25 p.m. – At the ballot box we saw Kendra vote for Jake and Jake vote for Kendra. With no advantage or idol necessary to anyone, Jeff read the votes: Jake, Kendra, Kendra, Kendra, Kendra. Because of the majority, it was never revealed that Austin lied about his vote.

NEXT TIME: Emily goes to Bruce with a plan to break up “the Reba four” while Jake and Drew no longer see eye to eye.

SEE exclusive predictions: Who will win ‘Survivor’?

Be sure to make your predictions to influence our reality TV racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the next episode airs on CBS. You’ll compete to win eternal bragging rights and a spot on our “Survivor 45” leaderboard. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.