Survivor 45 Recap: Love (and Betrayal) Are in the Air

Do you feel that? Could it be... love? That's certainly what it feels like on the latest episode of Survivor 45 (ep. 9 "Sword of Damocles"). All signs are pointing to a little love connection between top players Dee and Austin. But could the euphoria of a budding romance blind them from their game play? And could it give other players like Emily, Drew and Bruce an opportunity to sneak in there and really change things up? It certainly seems that way. Purely based on this episode, it's clear that alliances are quickly crumbling and each one of them are realizing their end game could be impacted if they don't break loose now and make a big move. (It also seems like they need a shower real bad. Just sayin'.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's a full recap of what happened last week, but basically everyone wanted Bruce out, but he won immunity, so the tribe decided to blindside Kellie (even though all signs were pointing to Jake being on the outs). If you want this recap delivered to your inbox every week, subscribe to my newsletter For the Culture. And while you're at it, listen to The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott podcast.

OK, so things started off this episode as they seemingly have every episode this season: Jake is on the bottom and is trying to climb his way back up again, and everyone wants Bruce out. When Bruce learns that Kellie, who he thought he was working with, actually said that Bruce was overbearing and controlling, it hits him hard. He goes to a low place. It's honestly refreshing to see, because we've rarely seen this self-reflective side of Bruce this season, where he hears something and actually listens, takes it in, instead of getting irrational (and frankly, arrogant about it).

Meanwhile, Austin is sitting pretty with idols and his alliance of Drew, Dee, Julie and Emily. The kicker here is Emily is clearly at the very bottom of this alliance, because she's the only non-original Reba tribe member like the others, and Austin very clearly recognizes this. Emily wants to work with just Austin and Drew, which would help their game play in the long run, but Austin wants it both ways (the pretty ones always do). It's quite a love triangle Austin finds himself in, not to mention the actual love situation it's looking like he and Dee are in. (More on that later.)

THE CHALLENGE

Before they head to the challenge they get tree mail. (It's like email, but in a tree.) They're told to split their nine-person tribe into thirds. They decide to do this strategically, putting a strong player into each third. So they go with Jake, Dee and Drew in one group; Katurah, Austin and Emily in another group; and finally, Julie, Bruce and Kendra are in a group. They don't know what any of this means, but Austin is worried for Julie because if there's a situation where her, Bruce and Kendra have to vote against each other, Bruce and Kendra will vote out Julie. So Austin gives her one of his idols, just in case.

Then they get to the challenge, and it's a doozy! So it's broken up into three rounds. The team that doesn't make it past the first round loses their votes at Tribal Council. (But they will have a chance to earn it back on a journey they're forced to take.) The team that doesn't make it past the second round just goes back to camp to plot. (And eat rice.) Then, in the third round, the remaining three players compete against each other to win immunity from being voted out at Tribal Council. They also get to go eat rotisserie chicken. (I really hope it's from Costco, because those chickens are delicious. Do they have Costco's in Fiji? Somebody Google that for me.)

Well, in the first round they have to balance a ball on a disk while walking across a balance beam. After that they have to dig up some rope rings. Katurah, Austin, and Emily are the group that comes in last and will have to go on a journey to earn their votes back for Tribal Council.

In the second round, they take those rope ring thingys and make a bridge out of them. Oh, and then they have to throw some balls on to a thing. Anyway, Jake, Dee and Drew are out in this round, so they just gotta go back to camp.

Which means Julie, Bruce, and Kendra make it to the final round and will get that rotisserie chicken. Yum. But who will win immunity at Tribal Council? Well, they have to balance some disks on their fingers to find out. The last one standing wins immunity. And for the second time in a row, Bruce wins individual immunity. (Which resulted in a big eye roll from everybody else, because they all have been itching to get this man out.)

It also should be noted that for the second week in a row, the two oldest players in the game, Bruce (46) and Julie (49), were the last two remaining in the challenge. This is just incredible, and Jeff Probst talked about it on his official Survivor podcast On Fire.

As Julie, Bruce, and Kendra are leaving for their feast, Kendra says, "Thanks Jeff, that was fun." To which Drew, who has to go back to camp to eat unseasoned rice, mockingly replies, "OK." (I love the drama.)

THE PLOT THICKENS

So back at camp, Jake is once again trying to get in the good graces of others, this time with Drew and Dee. They humor him, but it's clear they don't care. They all decide to make some rice. As Drew and Dee watch the rice, Jake walks off. Not only do Drew and Dee mock Jake's attempts to get back into the game, if you will, but then they eat his rice. Well, Drew does. To his credit, he didn't realize he was doing it, but then they both laugh about it. Now listen, I love an evil character, but mean-spirited arrogance is just not sexy. For this reason alone, these two are at the top of my list to go home.

Then, over at Costco (not really), Julie, Bruce and Kendra are enjoying their one rotisserie chicken. (This is how you can tell they didn't get it from Costco. Because those chickens are only $5, and based on Survivor's ratings, you just know they could afford for them each to get their own chicken.) Anyway, Kendra throws out Dee's name to go home, saying she's a good player and needs to get out now. Julie, however, doesn't want to do this, and instead throws out Jake. Kendra and Bruce are both fine with this.

Now to Austin, Katurah and Emily's journey. So, they had to hike through some jungle to do a math problem. (Seriously?) Well, Katurah is confident but stressed. Austin is like, I might look like a pretty boy, but I'm in grad school, I got this. And Emily, who should be confident as an investment analyst, is actually super stressed because mental math isn't her thing. Well, Katurah and Emily both don't figure out the math problem in time, but Austin does. (I recently interviewed Matt Bomer about his show Fellow Travelers, and while I was talking to him I was like, it's not fair to be that movie star handsome, talented and nice. Like ya gotta lose one. I'm getting the same vibe from Austin. Like he can't be handsome, a physical threat and smart. He needs to lose one.)

Well, once everyone gets back to camp, everyone gets into plotting mode, and in Austin's case he goes into lying mode. The first thing he does with Emily and Katurah is say that they all lost their votes for Tribal Council. Which means there will only be six votes at Tribal. (But really seven because of sneaky Austin.) Austin does decide to loop his core alliance (Drew, Dee, Julie and Emily) into the lie, effectively giving them (Austin) control of the game.

However, when he does this, a little dissension begins to brew. You see, Jake wants the target off his back, so he's all for sending Kendra home, and so is Austin, Drew and especially Dee because they both have had it out for each other. But Julie is stuck, because she just convinced Kendra and Bruce at the not-Costco chicken reward that they should go for Jake. Emily also thinks the focus should be on Jake, not Kendra. But Dee is dead set on Kendra, and Austin wants to make Dee happy. Why? Well, here's where the icky love stuff starts.

So, Dee and Austin have been very handsy. We're talking lots of hugs, laughs, all the signs of young love. And everyone seems to be noticing it. Kendra, while at not-Costco, even called it out. Survivor romances are definitely a thing, some have even have gotten married. Sure, it's nice to see, but rarely do we see it from two players whose dominance over the game seems to be growing more and more with each episode. And the venom that Dee has for Kendra not only blinds her from seeing the logic of taking Jake out, but it could also blind Austin. I'm sure we'll see how this plays out in future episodes.

Right before Tribal Council, Kendra begins to sense something. The vote is almost too easy. Why would everyone so casually be fine with voting for Jake? And does that mean there's a blindside coming, and is she the target? Let's find out.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

At tribal, while everyone talks about the possibility of three votes missing from the total, Kendra begins to panic. She admits that she didn't consider one of the three who went on the journey could potentially be lying about losing their vote. She turns to Emily, then Austin. "Did you lose your vote?" He says yes. (King Liar.)

Well, this moment proves to be Kendra's swan song, because everybody does vote Kendra out. She takes it like a champ though. Oh, and once again Jake is shocked that he's still there.

The preview of the next episode looks exciting, because it's clear these alliances are breaking. There's a tease of my queen Emily plotting with Bruce (who, on day one, she spoke out against), and Drew and Jake go at it. My popcorn is ready!

Who Needs to Get Snuffed?

Dee or Drew. After that rice moment, and them laughing about eating Jake's rice, I was like, BYE PUMPKIN!

Who Should be the Sole Survivor?

I'll be honest, I've had a soft spot in my heart all season for Bruce. I've enjoyed his comeback story. But it's going too well for him. Right now I see Katurah sneaking in there. I don't know what it is, but I feel like she's going to be in the top three at the very least. And I really want to see her have to work for Bruce's vote in the end. (Because she's been the queen of hating on Bruce this season.)

Watch Survivor every Wednesday on CBS or anytime on Paramount+ to follow along as I react to every episode this season.