Truth time: ‘Survivor 45’ began in messy fashion, with clashing personalities and an unexpected quit
“Survivor” is back again with its 45th season and 18 new contestants. For the first time in the history of the reality TV show, there will be 90-minute episodes throughout the entire season. That gives viewers more character game moments and tribe dynamics, which last week’s premiere delivered in messy fashion, with many clashing personalities and an unexpected quit at the end. As the three tribes form and the alliances begin on “Survivor 45,” read on as we break down the game and the hour and a half premiere.
Starting with the Belo tribe, there is the return of Bruce Perreault from last season after being medically evacuated 12 hours into the game. Despite proclaiming to his tribe that he did not want to be known as the leader out here, it was followed by him guiding the tribe and suggesting what to do, as noted by the ladies Katurah Topps, Kellie Nalbandian and Kendra McQuarrie, who all formed an alliance together. Meanwhile Jake O’Kane and Brando Meyer were competing in a reformed Sweat and Savvy challenge after losing the opening reward, where the two losing tribes had limited time to complete both tasks and the first would win their flint, pot and machete. Both duos ended up losing when the time ran out.
Moving over to the Reba tribe, we were introduced to Austin Li Coon, Dee Valladares, Drew Basile, Janani “J. Maya” Krishnan-Jha, Julie Alley and Nicholas “Sifu” Alsup. Not too much was revealed about the tribe dynamics, but we did get some signs of sneakiness with Sifu and Austin, with the former doing his best attempt of Tony Vlachos, looking for idols and spying on his tribemates, except for the fact that he later got caught, which is not a good look. With Austin, in the only segment of the 90-minute episode that was dedicated to any sort of advantages, he was able to find the first Beware Advantage that involved a series of tasks to obtain the hidden immunity idol, the first being to decipher a code hidden on the tribe flag, while being unable to vote at Tribal Council.
Ending with arguably the most entertaining and self-destructive tribe of the three, the Lulu tribe which consists of Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon, Kaleb Gebrewold, Sabiyah Broderick, Sean Edwards and Emily Flippen. They have not been off to a good start in any aspect of the game, starting with Emily twice calling out the return of Bruce on the marooning before the reward challenge and making a very bad impression, to Brandon having a panic attack during the challenge and narrowly losing the reward to Reba. This continued with their disastrous performance in the immunity challenge with Brandon once again struggling, leading to their loss and trip to Tribal Council. Emily targeted Kaleb after mistakenly believing he and Sabiyah retrieved an advantage when they didn’t win Sweat and Savvy, while the rest of the tribe wanted Emily out, with slight consideration on Brandon for his physical state that continued after the panic attack, to the point where Brandon wanted to play his Shot in the Dark. But the twist came when Hannah decided to quit the game at Tribal Council, due to the elements and a nicotine withdrawal.
With Hannah’s exit, it puts Lulu in a curious position given it looked like Emily would have taken her place if they voted, so we will see how she will move forward since she is clearly on the outs of her tribe due to her attitude and demeanor. Brandon will also have to work his way up too not only because of his performance, but also he was the one closest to Hannah, even trying to dissuade her from quitting before tribal. So it will be interesting to see how he navigates the coming days.
As far as the other tribes go, time will tell what the relationships will be within them. We already have Julie and Katurah lying about their careers as lawyers with the latter going as far to expose Jake for being in the legal profession, despite him stretching the truth of saying he’s a public defender. It will be exciting to see what will converge in the episode next week as we begin “Survivor 45″.
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