The season finale of Survivor 45 airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap here.
The castaways arrive at a new camp after tribal council. Austin was blindsided by Drew’s elimination. It was the first time he was left out of a plan. Dee wants to do damage control with Austin, but there is no need. Austin says there are no hard feelings. The two of them spend time together at the beach, which the other castaways notice. Katurah is mad they allowed the showmance of Dee and Austin to make it this far together.
The next morning they are presented with a challenge. There are three stations scattered around the island. One has a box of crabs, the other has a display of coconuts, and the other has a pile of bamboo. They must count how many crabs, coconuts, and bamboo there are to open a box with a number combination. The first to open the box will win an advantage. The challenge begins with everyone running over the island as the three stations are very far apart from one another. Dee and Austin help each other count. Jake takes his time counting since he believes everyone will outrun him anyway. Jake also uses past Survivor winners as a mnemonic device to remember the numbers. Jake’s strategy works, and he opens the box. Jake has earned an advantage at the upcoming immunity challenge.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. They will go through a series of obstacles to release sandbags and land those sandbags in baskets. When they land a basket, a number will be revealed. They will then use those numbers to open a lock to retrieve a key to puzzle pieces. The first to assemble the three-tier puzzle will win immunity. In addition, the winner will take a trip to the sanctuary. Jeff also reveals that Jake’s advantage is that he will only have to land one basket instead of three. The challenge begins, and everyone is fairly even. Eventually Jake takes the lead thanks to his advantage, but Austin is right behind him. Jake is the first to unlock his number combination, but he loses his lead after he leaves his key to unlock the puzzle pieces behind. He has to go back for his key while Austin is the first to begin working on his puzzle. Jake eventually gets back to the puzzle. Katurah is the third to start working on the puzzle, and she’s followed by Dee. Julie has yet to reach the puzzle. Austin is the first to have his first tier completed, but Jake is close behind him. Julie reaches the puzzle portion of the challenge, and she also manages to build her first tier before Dee or Katurah. Austin builds his second tier. He only needs to build one more to win the challenge. Jake builds his second tier too, making it a showdown between Austin and Jake. Jake is making progress while Austin is struggling. However, Jake doesn’t realize he left a puzzle piece on the table, which allows Austin to pull ahead. Austin builds his puzzle first. Austin wins immunity! Austin can bring one person with him to the sanctuary. He picks Jake.
Dee, Julie, and Katurah return to camp. Katurah laments losing the immunity challenge since she doesn’t want to grovel. In addition, she wants to vote out Dee tonight. Katurah tells Julie she wants to target Dee, but Julie is not on board. Julie tells Katurah she would rather target Jake tonight, and she knows Dee would be on board with that plan too. Julie explains in her confessional that she needs to prove to the jury she was loyal to one person at least, which is Dee.
Meanwhile, at the sanctuary, Jake reveals to Austin he has the hidden immunity idol. Jake also says he wants Julie voted out tonight. Jake also asks Austin not to tell anyone about his hidden immunity idol, but Austin tells Dee right away when they return to camp. Dee and Austin say they now need to target Katurah tonight. Jake also reveals to Katurah he has the hidden immunity idol. Katurah then suggests voting out Dee tonight instead of Julie. She explains how Dee is a big threat to win the game, and Jake is now torn. He also wants his idol play to be flashy to impress the jury. Before tribal council, Dee reveals to Julie that Jake has an idol. Julie doesn’t believe this is true though. As well, Austin is now leaning towards voting out Julie instead of Katurah. He shares his thoughts with Dee. Dee tells him she still plans to write Katurah’s name tonight, but she tells Austin to do what he feels is best. Before they depart, Katurah and Jake reconfirm plans. Jake swears to Katurah that he is writing Dee’s name tonight.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff begins the discussion with the immunity challenge. He points out how Jake won an advantage, but a series of mishaps prevented him from winning immunity. Jake says it’s unfortunate, but he’s not dwelling on it. The talk turns to the vote. Julie says there is a chance she could go home tonight. Katurah feels a shift from the excitement of this morning to the reality she has a 25% of getting voted out tonight. Dee says it’s hard to read between the lines at this point in the game. Jake says Survivor is not a chessboard. Survivor is about managing the relationships made in the game. Jeff says it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be an easy vote. Afterwards, it’s time to vote.
We see Jake vote for Dee, and Julie vote for Jake. We also hear Katurah say she is changing her vote since she thinks people are voting for her. We don’t see who Katurah voted for though.
Before Jeff reads the votes, Jake plays his hidden immunity idol for Katurah.
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Katurah
Jake
Dee
Julie
Julie
Julie is the fourteenth person voted out and the seventh member of the jury. Julie takes her elimination in stride. Jake is displeased Katurah didn’t stick to the plan.
The castaways return to camp. Jake says tribal council sucked. He’s mad that Katurah asked him to swear on his nana to write down Dee’s name tonight and then vote for someone else. Katurah says she couldn’t trust Jake and figured there would already at least be one Julie vote out there. If she added another vote for Julie, then she would have a better chance surviving tribal council.
It’s time for the final immunity challenge of the season. They must carefully walk through a rope grid as they use a long stick to build a stack of bowls one at a time. The first to stack all of his or her bowls will win immunity. The challenge begins fairly even, but eventually Jake and Dee are in the lead after Austin’s stack falls. Jake’s stack is nearly done, but then they all fall down. Dee is now firmly in the lead. Jake is frustrated and walks too aggressively through the rope grid, ultimately breaking it. Jeff tells Jake he is out of the challenge and must sit out. Eventually, Dee places her last bowl. Dee wins immunity!
They return to camp. Dee celebrates her win. She has won the most immunity challenges out of anyone this season. Dee is guaranteed a seat in the Final 3. She also must decide which two must face each other in the fire-making challenge. Dee’s ideal Final 3 is with Jake and Austin. Dee talks with Jake, and he pleads to her to not take him to the Final 3. He wants to make fire himself. Jake is emotional as he expresses his disappointment of how nothing has gone his way throughout the game. He needs to make fire to have at least one move he can claim as his own. Dee talks to Katurah next. Dee says she plans to take Austin with her to the Final 3, so she’ll likely go against Jake in the fire-making challenge. Katurah goes to practice making fire. She also cries in her confessional. She regrets not voting out Dee when they had the chance, and Katurah says she only has herself to blame. Meanwhile, Austin suggests to Dee to put him in the fire-making challenge instead of Jake. Dee doesn’t want to do that, but she may change her mind after Austin sees Jake practicing. Jake is struggling making fire, and Austin tells Dee she should put him in the fire-making challenge against Katurah. Dee is torn. She wants Katurah eliminated, but she doesn’t want Austin to add another move to his resume.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks Dee about her decision tonight. Dee says she had individual and honest conversations with everyone. Katurah says Dee was straightforward and told her she doesn’t want to sit with her in the Final 3. Katurah says she kept her moves hidden, but it’s backfired tonight since Dee knows her moves and is the reason why she is making fire tonight. Austin says making fire is an opportunity to make a move in front of the jury. Jake tells Jeff that he wants to make fire. He doesn’t want someone else to bring him to the Final 3. Jeff asks Dee for her decision. Dee says she’s bringing Austin to the Final 3. Jake and Katurah will compete in the fire-making challenge.
The fire-making challenge begins. Jake is the first to get a flame. Katurah gets a flame too, but it goes out quickly. Jake’s fire is growing. It reaches the rope and eventually burns through it. Jake wins the fire-making challenge! Katurah is the final member of the jury. Jake is proud of himself and wishes he could go back in time and tell his 15-year-old self about this. Katurah reveals to everyone she’s a lawyer, and she’s grateful for the experience of being on Survivor.
The Final 3 enjoy breakfast the next morning. While they discuss the jury, we hear some of the confessionals from the jurors. Kaleb says Jake had the hardest path to get to the end. Kellie is impressed by Dee’s social game and how people were unwilling to vote her out. Kendra says it’s impressive how Austin never had a vote cast against him. Bruce wants them to “own who you are.” Emily says everyone treated Jake like a pawn, but he could be a dark horse. Drew is rooting for Austin. He says he went through this game unscathed. Julie is impressed how Dee insulated herself with people who had her back. Katurah wants to vote for the person who played the best overall game. She won’t reward passive gameplay.
It’s time for final tribal council. Kendra begins the discussion and says she wants to hear their truths. How did they make this opportunity their own and not waste a single second? Jake feels like he gave it his all in every aspect of the game. Even during the hard times, he was still grateful to be on Survivor and he loves the game so much. Dee says her reason to make it to the end of the game was for her family. She says she wanted to take it day by day and just have fun. Austin reveals he was an alternate and didn’t know he was going to be playing until 72 hours before the game started. He also wanted to do everything he could and experience as much as possible.
Katurah asks them how did they face their fears in the game. Austin says he was most worried about blindsiding people due to the relationships built in the game. Dee was also fearful of betraying her allies. Jake says his fear was failing. He says he tackled a fear of failure in this game, which he’s been able to overcome.
Drew asks Dee and Austin to explain the Reba 4 alliance. Dee says they had open and honest conversations and voted together. She admits she got lucky being put on the Reba tribe. Austin thinks he helped keep the Reba alliance strong. Dee says she had a strong social game. After she separated from Drew and Austin after the tribe swap, she still had control of the game. Austin counters that he and Drew were able to bring in Emily and give them an extra number. Austin thinks his biggest move was the Kellie vote as it upgraded his amulet to an idol. Austin adds he just needed Kendra and Bruce gone to make it to the end of the game. Dee argues that she also brought in Katurah, which was a number for them too. Dee said she needed Kendra gone because she was making bonds with Austin and Drew, and she successfully got them to agree to vote Kendra out. Austin points out he was the only person to never receive a vote in the game. Emily needs to hear Dee give an example of when she made a move with her brain and not her heart. Dee thinks the two go together. She says it’s a downfall to be too strategic. She just needed to focus on building her relationships and being authentic to stay in the game.
Kaleb gives kudos to Jake for making it to the end while being on the outs. Jake says he tried to focus on relationships so people didn’t want to vote him out. Jake says Dee and Austin never had to make big moves since they were in a comfortable spot, but he always tried to take big swings.
Kellie asks Austin what did he do with the advantages he found in the game. Austin says it’s impressive that he didn’t need to play it. Emily points out how he could’ve saved Drew with his idol, but he played it on himself. So, it was a wasted idol. Dee says it’s more important to have the information than the advantages. Dee says she didn’t tell Austin Drew was going home, which is a credit to her gameplay. Jake says his plan with his idol was to make people think he was safe. Katurah asks why didn’t he tell her ahead of time he was going to play it on her. Jake thought it’d make a better impression with the jury.
Julie asks Dee and Austin about their showmance. Did it influence their gameplay? Dee says it’s real and wasn’t strategic. Austin agrees it was genuine and wasn’t a game move. Emily asks Austin if it was a sign of weakness that he couldn’t keep a secret from Dee during the Emily vote. Julie would’ve been voted out if Julie didn’t know about it. Austin says Dee didn’t tell Julie ahead of time, but Dee reveals to Austin that she did in fact tell Julie ahead of time. Dee says that even at this point in the game, she was able to keep that secret and make her own moves.
It’s finally time for the vote. Who will the jury vote for? Kaleb shouts out “Jake!” before we see him write down a name. We also see Julie and Emily vote for Dee, and Kendra and Drew vote for Austin. But who wins?
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Dee
Austin
Dee
Austin
Dee
Austin
Dee
Dee
DEE VALLADARES WINS SURVIVOR 45!
It’s time for the reunion show, which will once again take place moments afterwards there on location instead of months later in Los Angeles. Jeff asks about the close vote. Kendra said she was open-minded. Kellie says they had a slight inclination who to vote for, but she wanted to see the fight and fire. We also see all the jurors’ votes, and Bruce was the third vote for Austin.
Jeff asks about Emily’s transformation throughout the game. Emily is thankful for the people who figuratively held up a mirror to her face. She learned things about herself playing this game. Jeff shifts the discussion to Kaleb’s successful Shot in the Dark play. Kaleb jokes he’s the luckiest person he knows. Jeff asks about the relationship dynamics within the Reba 4. Austin jokes that girls must be better at playing people than men. Kendra is into astrology, and she predicted that Austin and Dee would fall for each other. Jeff congratulates Dee on her win. Dee said winning was her only option. She wanted to retire her parents and take care of her loved ones.
Jeff discusses the blindsides next. Kellie says she blacked out when she was voted out. She jokes she’s honored to have been the first vicious blindside of the season, but it did hurt. Bruce admits that Emily persuaded him to not play his hidden immunity idol, so that’s why he was voted out with an idol in his pocket. Emily says she wanted credit for making that move, which is why she told everyone afterwards. Drew says he felt humiliated when he was voted out, but he says it should be received as a badge of honor since it meant people saw him as a threat.
Jeff checks in with a few more people. Jeff brings up how Austin was an alternate who ended up getting cast at the last minute. Austin says it was borrowed time, so his plan going in was to just make the most of it. Julie says Survivor is a second act in her life. She also reveals to everyone that she’s also a lawyer. Jeff tells Jake that the jury still respected how he was able to hang in there until the end of the game. He thinks the audience will really like Jake since he’s very authentic. Jeff says Katurah was able to overcome obstacles in the game. Katurah says it’s refreshing to have moments of uncertainties, but still being able to push through. The discussion ends with Drew encouraging people to apply to be on Survivor. The episode ends with a preview of Survivor 46, which features audition videos of the new castaways.
And that wraps up Survivor 45. Thanks for reading, and come back in the spring for Survivor 46!
