Oh baby, another Survivor finale! Season 45 has been – at least up to the finale – far and away the best of the “new era” seasons. The only thing left to do is crown a worthy winner. And boy did we get a good one.
Dakuwaqa
The Final 5 head to their new beach. This “twist” is as pointless and dumb as ever. The players aren’t even phased in the least, even saying they like the new beach. Blech. No further comment, moving on.
Austin admits he was blindsided by the Drew vote, calling it the first time he truly didn’t know what was happening at Tribal. He had seen both Drew and Dee as essentially co-number ones, and now he only has one number one (usually the way it works, btw). He talks to Dee, and reassures her that he’s not taking it personally. Austin understands the game perspective, even telling her that he probably would have given Drew the idol had she clued him in.
Katurah is eyeing the Dee/Austin pairing, saying she’s “really mad they didn’t recognize this earlier.” Um, what? I don’t know how you couldn’t recognize it. Regardless of how late to the party she is, she’s still right. With such a tight two with only five players left, it absolutely poses a potential significant danger to the other three.
The next morning, the players notice a combination box. There are three stations set up around the island. They have to count the numbers at each station, using those numbers to unlock their box, earning an advantage. If their guess is wrong, they have to go back to each station and recount everything before making another guess.
Jake gets it! He earns an advantage in the upcoming Immunity Challenge. I’m a huge Jake fan so I love this for him. But in general? Hate hate hate this. As a rule, I’m not a fan of advantages in immunity challenges. But this late in the game? Even worse.
Final 5 Immunity
Crawl under and obstacle and dig up machete. They use the machete to drop a pile of sand bags, which they then muss toss bags three baskets to reveal three numbers. Those numbers are used to solve a combination lock to release a set of keys. They climb a tower, and the use keys to unlock and solve a three tier puzzle.
Jake’s advantage is that two of his baskets will start with sandbags, showing two of his three numbers. As far as advantages go, not the most egregious. But still, let’s stop with this.
Also playing for a trip to the Sanctuary.
Jake solves the combination lock first, but forgets his keys, giving up the lead to Austin. Jake makes quick work of his first tier, but is still a touch behind Austin, and the other three aren’t too far behind him either. Austin still has a slight lead starting on the third and final tier. Jake is close but leaves one piece sitting to the side that he doesn’t see. That might have made the difference, as Austin pulls out the win.
Austin chooses Jake to come with on the reward.
Dakuwaqa/Reward/Pre-Tribal
Katurah approaches Julie about voting out Dee, and Julie pitches her on Jake. She thinks it would be an easier vote, and Jake has been after her for a long time. Oh, there’s also the tiny little thing about her being completely under Dee’s thumb and never wanting to go after her. Katurah talks to Dee, and of course Dee is on board.
At reward, Jake tells Austin about his idol, and that he wants to use his idol to vote out Julie. Back at camp, Austin immediately tells Dee about the idol (duh), and they switch their Jake plan to Katurah.
Jake also tells Katurah his idol too. She tries to convince Jake to vote Dee instead of Julie. Jake becomes truly conflicted about which of the girls to target. He even considers not playing the idol for himself, and using it to save Katurah instead.
Then Austin talks to Dee about finally taking out Julie. Dee isn’t necessarily against it, but she doesn’t want to have to write Julie’s name. She says she’s writing Katurah’s name either way.
Final 5 Tribal Council
Jeff tries to ask Julie about going to a new beach, and she completely swerves and answers a completely different question that Jeff didn’t ask. I love it. I simply don’t understand how production doesn’t realize how useless and pointless this new beach stupidity is.
Jake plays his idol for Katurah. First vote is for her (from Dee) (Jake yells in excitement), second for Jake (Julie) (Jake: “Ah, shit,” what an absolute king he’s been), then Dee (Jake), then Julie (Austin), with the deciding vote going against Julie (Katurah). And Jake is upset with Katurah. She had made him swear on his Nana that he was voting Dee.
Okay, but seriously, how does this happen? No coordination, lack of trust, paranoia being so close to the end?
Even with the idol play not fully working, Jake might still get credit for the idol play. It could show some bravery and willingness to put his own game at risk for an ally. But even still, that’s probably a long shot.
Dakuwaqa
Jake confronts Katurah at camp about changing her vote. She says she didn’t make him swear on anything, but she absolutely did. But she is right in that Jake probably should have told her he was going to play the idol on her. Then she would have voted Dee. But she also tells Jake she didn’t fully trust him, so I’m not so sure on that point either. Whatever it is, Katurah’s winning chances are still next to zero, and Jake’s may have taken a big hit too.
Final 4 Immunity
Maneuver through grid of ropes, holding a bowl on a long pole, stacking their bowls. The ropes are attached to the platform on which the bowls are stacked, so if they bump that area, it can knock down their stack.
Jake and Dee are neck and neck, but Jake knocks the ropes, causing his stack to drop, giving Dee a huge lead. Jake, hustling to get his bowls back to start over, steps directly on the challenge. Jeff warns him that if he breaks the challenge, he’s out. He does exactly that. As sad as it is to see him go out that way, it’s actually maybe the exact perfect way for him to lose this challenge.
And with no one even close, Dee can take her time, and cruises to another immunity win.
Pre-Tribal
Unless Dee does something monumentally stupid – i.e. putting herself into fire and losing – she should walk to an easy win.
Jake asks Dee to put him into fire. He has had such a rough go of it in the game. Even more than the money, he just wants something he can look back on and be proud of. Man, Jake has had one of the more emotional arcs of recent memory. You really feel for the guy.
Dee actually thinks Katurah has a chance to win the game? She wants to put Jake and Katurah into fire, with Jake taking out Katurah. I mean, obviously I’m not on the island, so maybe. But how in the world is Katurah a threat to win? She hasn’t done a single thing in this game.
Austin goes to help Jake with his fire, and Jake is not as good at fire as they thought. He tells Dee about this, and he wants to be put in the fire making challenge, to be sure Katurah is gone.
Final 4 Tribal Council/Fire Making
Dee sticks with her original plan, and brings Austin to the Final 3. Jake wins. Hell yeah. Jake’s not winning this game, but what a finale for him. I’m not sure anyone ever needed something in Survivor more than Jake needed this. I’m getting choked up watching this, writing this. I haven’t had that kind of effect from a Survivor season or contestant in a long time. What a gift he was to this season.
Final Tribal Council
This was actually a really great Final Tribal. All three argued their cases well. Dee’s arguments still stood out to me as stronger than Austin and Jake’s, but they did just fine on their own. Dee’s game was just more impressive, so she had better arguments and points to make.
Dee wins, but it’s closer than I expected. She takes it in a 5-3-0 win over Austin (Kendra, Drew, and Bruce voted Austin). The way it should be. Dee played the best game for so much of the season. So often we see players in her position (correctly) targeted and voted out. But she had such a stranglehold on the Reba power alliance, she was so well insulated. And she had the challenge prowess to boot. She was the clear-cut favorite for so many episodes, it’s awesome to see that player actually go on to win the game.
Whew, what a season! Not just the best of the new era, simply a legitimately good season. It might be too soon to call it great, but it’s at least close. The cast, the 90 minute episodes, the auction (could use some tweaking but a solid start and pumped to see its return), the strategy (wasn’t next level or anything, but was still strong and fun to watch), it all worked. Now, there are still a few aspects that Jeff and Survivor production can’t let go of, like the split Tribal, but the season still worked in spite of those few pieces.
Thanks to everyone who read and followed along this season. We’ll see you back here for Survivor 46!
