‘Survivor 45’ episode 6 recap: Who was voted out in ‘I’m not Batman, I’m the Canadian’? [LIVE BLOG]
Heading into the sixth episode of “Survivor 45,” the original Belo tribe had finally lost one contestant (Brando Meyer), compared to the four people gone from the original Lulu tribe (Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon, Sabiyah Broderick and Sean Edwards), while the original Reba tribe was still sitting pretty at six. With the “drop your buffs” moment coming up on Wednesday night, how would the long-awaited merge affect the current alliances and feuds within the game?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 45” Episode 6 recap/live blog of “I’m not Batman, I’m the Canadian” to find out what happened Wednesday, November 1, 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.
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, 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
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Survivor 45” live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” In the fifth episode, Reba and Lulu won the combined reward and immunity challenge, sending Belo to tribal council for the first time. On a journey summit, J. Maya, Kellie and Austin all chose to receive Amulet advantages, despite Austin wanting sandwiches instead. At tribal council, Austin chose to extend the power of his idol by not voting, but then used his Goodwill advantage to vote anyway (it’s not as confusing as it sounds). With only 13 people left, who will be voted out tonight? Let’s go!
8:01 p.m. – As the one blindsided by Brando’s elimination, Kendra had two options: either let the rest of them know she’s upset or play it cool and make them believe she’s ready to work with them. Emily “excepted her to be more upset,” not realizing that Kendra was actually planning on getting revenge on Emily soon (or eventually). Kendra explained in a confessional that “Survivor is the perfect place” to be petty.
8:04 p.m. – At the Lulu camp, Kaleb was still trying to build goodwill with the Belo members he was now aligned with. In that effort he went on an idol search with them, knowing that if he doesn’t get the idol himself he at least wants to know who does get it. In the search, Bruce found the Beware Advantage that told him he lost his vote until he finds a hidden idol buried underneath their shelter. The group was still keeping Katurah out of the loop and so they all stood watch as Bruce dug in the sand. By the time Katurah returned to camp, Bruce had not found the idol.
8:07 p.m. – Just a short time later, the players at Belo and Lulu received messages via boat that they’d be moving to the Reba camp. With only 10 minutes left at the Lulu camp, Bruce had to find the idol or he’d lose it forever (and not have a vote) so he went back to the shelter and luckily found the idol, restoring his vote and confirming that he can use it up until the final five.
8:14 p.m. – When the tribes all met at Reba beach, Dee was pleased to see that both Austin and Drew had made it through their recent Tribal Council because they are the closest allies to her in the game. Kaleb was equally thrilled to see the Emily was still around as well because they have a lot of trust in each other and are the only surviving Lulu members. Kendra was happy to reconnect with original Belo because they are the people she wants to continue to work with and so she offered information to them about how Emily has sided with original Reba. Bruce already had an issue with Emily because of the comments she made about his threat level on Day 1. Emily apologized to Bruce for that and Bruce accepted, but secretly he knew that he’d want to take her out as soon as he had the chance.
8:17 p.m. – Austin was also eager to share information with his old Reba allies, letting them in on how pissed he still is that J. Maya and Kellie prevented him from getting sandwiches in their journey and explaining the how the amulets they received work. In that regard, Austin was more than willing to throw J. Maya under the bus as a “common enemy” that they could use to rally every tribe around sending home. Julie was concerned that Reba members would be willing to send J. Maya home already, but she also agreed that she’d likely turn on them the first chance she gets. Ultimately, the “Core Four” of Drew, Austin, Dee and Julie were all on the same page, leaving Sifu and J. Maya out of their plans.
8:25 p.m. – Kaleb and Emily found themselves an opportunity to speak alone about how they can use their connections at Reba and Belo to remain in the middle and be “seen as numbers” to either side. They also solidified their trust in each other after being apart for a few days during the swap. From there, Kaleb went on a tour of conversations with people from every tribe to discuss how useful he’d be in getting and passing information around. What he didn’t realize is that Bruce and Kendra had eyes on him and were growing concerned with how chatty he was willing to be.
8:27 p.m. – While Kaleb was going around talking to everyone, Bruce noticed that no one was coming up to him to have game conversations, “not even Belo.” He asked Katurah “why haven’t we talked yet,” referring to the Belo members, but she didn’t have a clear answer for him. Bruce was clearly getting concerned that they didn’t have a game plan to put forth for the vote. He went to Kaleb with his issue, noting that Kaleb gets to go around talking to anyone while he is restricted because he can only have conversations with Belo players. Kaleb received that as Bruce saying he’s not allowed to talk to everyone and “not talk to the enemy.” Feeling cool with Kellie still, Kaleb asked for advice but she was on the same page as him and vocalized that she also sees Bruce as “impossible to play with.”
8:34 p.m. – At the site of their next challenge, the castaways learned that they had technically not yet made the merge because they’d still be competing for group immunity and earn their spot in the merge. To compete, the players drew rocks to divide into two teams of six. The 13th player with a unique rock of their own would be left out of the challenge and have to place a bet on the winning team, standing to win or lose along with them. The random teams were: Kaleb, J. Maya, Jake, Dee, Emily and Kellie in Red and Sifu, Drew, Bruce, Austin, Julie and Kendra in Blue. The singled out player to place a bet was Katurah. She looked at the teams and placed her bet with the fate of the Blue team.
8:39 p.m. – For the challenge, the two teams had to perform as a group and then divide themselves into pairs. The first stretch of the challenge was purely physical with all six members participating in the moving of heavy sandbags and a cart after crawling through mud. Because J. Maya got tripped up in the mud pit, the Blue tribe got off to an early lead. The pair of Drew and Austin took on the second stage of the challenge for Blue, working through an oversized puzzle. They were mostly done with the puzzle by the time Jake and Kellie got started on the Red puzzle. Once completed, the Blue team had Julie and Kendra decipher the phrase using the images on the puzzle. This third stage proved easy for the Blue team and they finished it before Red was anywhere near completed their first puzzle.
8:53 p.m. – At the merge feast, Sifu was the first to speak from the winning Blue team about who should be a target for elimination. He said that J. Maya is the one he wants to vote out, surprising the Belo members that an original Reba would be willing to vote a Reba player out. Austin and Julie were also there as original Reba members and backed up Sifu’s claim that J. Maya can’t be trusted. But Julie didn’t want it to rest at J. Maya so she brought up Kaleb and Emily as the only Lulu players left, giving them up as an option for original Belo and original Reba to agree on. Kendra and Bruce spoke up to say that Kaleb should be the target because he’s a threat, but Katurah was confused because she was under the impression that original Belo was going to use Kaleb as a number while they needed it.
8:57 p.m. – Back at camp, Jake was worried about attending his first Tribal Council of the season and said that he’s “scared” of the vote. He spoke to J. Maya and said that he doesn’t want her to go so they discussed Kaleb and Emily as easy options. J. Maya and Dee also talked about going for Kaleb and the need to remain “Reba strong.” But when Dee spoke with Jake, she threw out J. Maya’s name which shocked him. Dee also communicated J. Maya’s name to Kaleb and then Jake went to Kellie with the tea that Dee was willing to send J. Maya home. Kellie knew that if J. Maya were to go then she and Austin would get an upgrade to their amulet so it was something she’d definitely be willing to do.
9:02 p.m. – When everyone was back together at camp, the Belo women met to get on the same page about J. Maya and Kaleb as the options. Katurah fought to keep Kaleb, but Kendra wanted him gone. Kellie agreed with Katurah that taking out one of the Reba women was the best option for them long term. Later, Katurah emphasized to Bruce that her vote would be for J. Maya no matter what because Kaleb is still useful to them.
9:04 p.m. – When the Reba men found out Kaleb is an option they switched their plan to taking him out instead of sacrificing J. Maya because it would keep Reba strong. In order to upgrade his own idol, Austin knew he had to sacrifice his vote which would require ensuring enough votes in the right direction for his missed vote not to matter. Eventually Emily caught wind of the new plan to send Kaleb home and out of a sense of responsibility and loyalty to him, Emily went to Kaleb and said that he definitely needs to play his Shot in the Dark because the votes are “pretty strongly against” him. She even informed Kaleb that Bruce doesn’t like him and wants him out. From there, in order to try to save himself, Kaleb let the Reba players know that Bruce has an idol and he no longer wants to work with Belo so he’d instead be willing to work with Reba.
9:12 p.m. – At Tribal Council, Drew told Jeff that the larger tribe was overwhelming for him because everyone is an extrovert and he felt out of place among them. He added that it’s stressful because of the size of original Reba and original Belo. J. Maya echoed that sentiment by saying it was overwhelming to try to build new connections with people with so little time to prepare for the vote.
9:15 p.m. – Because there are only six players up for elimination, Kaleb opened up that he heard his name tossed around as an option and it felt true to the “Lulu curse” he and Emily have felt the whole time out there. Emily pointed out that the curse would end because it’s no longer a tribe game and they’re all preparing to play as individuals regardless of what tribe they started on. Kaleb had a “final thing to say” by naming J. Maya as the biggest strategic threat, urging everyone to write her name down. He countered that he’s been talked about as a physical threat, but the block of women from original Reba are a strong group and that it would be beneficial for Julie and Dee to get rid of J. Maya in order to lower their own threat level. J. Maya said that what Kaleb is doing right now is exactly what makes him a threat in the game and Dee backed her up by showing that Kaleb is making himself look untrustworthy.
9:18 p.m. – At the voting booth, we saw J. Maya write Kaleb’s name down and Austin sacrificed his vote in order to extend the life of his hidden idol. After all the ballots were cast, Jeff asked if anyone wanted to play an idol or advantage, to which Kaleb replied that he’d be playing his Shot in the Dark. To do so, Kaleb sacrificed his vote and chose one of six scrolls hoping that it would provide immunity. Jeff opened the scroll and it said: SAFE. No votes for Kaleb would count. Jeff read the votes: Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, Kaleb, and Kaleb.
8:23 p.m. – With all votes not counting and Kaleb now safe, a re-vote was necessary. Kaleb could not vote and no one else could play a Shot in the Dark. Before they returned to the voting booth, everyone got up to discuss their options. The names tossed around were J. Maya and Emily, mixed in with some heartfelt congratulations and big smiles for Kaleb’s lucky achievement. After the next wave of votes were cast, Jeff read them aloud: J. Maya, Emily, J. Maya, J. Maya, J. Maya, J. Maya, J. Maya. The six votes were enough to unanimously send J. Maya home.
NEXT TIME: Though they are merged, Jeff breaks the news to the castaways that they will compete for immunity on two teams again and that two people will be voted out. Jake wants to take control of the game by targeting Dee, but she has her sights set on Kaleb.
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