“Lulu losers,” no longer! Well, sort of…
Wednesday’s episode of Survivor served up solid relationship building, action, idol hunting and more, but it was that bombshell of a vote that left our jaws scraping the floor.
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The good news is that Lulu won its very first challenge, which scored them a large basket of fruit and a smidgen of their dignity back — yay! The bad news: They lost the subsequent immunity challenge, which landed them right back on those Tribal stumps for the third week in a row.
But there was hope for our Season 45 standout, Emily! Sabiyah had previously pitched Kaleb as the next to go, citing his affability, challenge abilities and speaking strength as reasons why she wouldn’t want to sit next to him in the finals. Which all makes sense! But ditching him so early? When he’s clearly needed for wins? Debatable. But if your name is Emily, you’re cheering inside because another person is on the chopping block, which could mean another couple days in the game.
And that’s when Emily pulled an audible. She went directly to Kaleb — the guy who was kind to her and coached her through her difficult early days of the game. And Kaleb’s social groundwork wound up saving his game. Thanks to Emily’s tip-off (and knowing that Sabiyah might not have a vote), Kaleb and Emily wound up casting the only two votes that sent Sabiyah down that dark and dusty trail. And boom goes the dynamite!
But this supersized episode gave us plenty of other things to “dig deep” into:
REBA | Austin and Drew seem to have the strongest connection thus far, but they almost botched their alliance of four when Dee and Julie found Drew digging and grew mighty wary of their activities in the jungle. And let’s be honest: They looked suspicious af! But after Kaleb gifted Drew with the Goodwill Advantage (which he was forced to hand out as part of Lulu’s reward challenge win), Drew and Austin reeled the women back in by letting them in on the secret. This new advantage lets the holder restore a lost vote, and in a game with so many risked votes, that could seriously come in handy. Alas, it seemed like Dee and Julia’s faith in the guys had been restored, but only time will tell!
In addition, Austin and Drew found the Reba idol, but only thanks to Dee and Julia, who found a clue attached to a rope hidden under the palm tree in question. Why didn’t the women keep it for themselves? Did they at least consider that? I’ll definitely be asking them in a future exit interview.
IMMUNITY IS BACK UP FOR GRABS | The challenge included a cumbersome cart, a set of keys and a massive cube puzzle, and real talk, that puzzle looked mean! I couldn’t help but feel for Lulu. The looks of defeat and their watery eyes were entirely heartbreaking! But hey, at least it gave us a suspenseful vote, right?
STRATEGY | When Emily ran to Kaleb to give him the warning that he was gonna go, he didn’t seem too bothered… because Sabiyah had already told him she was going to use his name as a decoy. What made him believe Emily and agree to gun for Sabiyah? A gut feeling? A closer-than-shown relationship with Emily? I was half expecting Kaleb to not believe her — since he already expected her to think he was the target — but in the end he wrote “Bia” on his parchment. Will this bond Kaleb and Emily for the rest of the game? Could they be a powerful duo for the long haul? Maybe. They’re both intelligent players and very capable in challenges… but they’ll have to survive the impending tribe swap first.
THE TRIBE HAS SPOKEN | Before we bid farewell to Sabiyah for good, we have to mention her sheer audacity of trying to melt her wax figurine at Tribal. Lulu never had fire, so I applaud the boldness in this move! She even brought tools to help her get the job done, getting up from her seat to periodically tend to her project. (“So we’ll just let that cook, if that’s alright.”) Jeff seemed tickled, and honestly, so was I!
Unfortunately for her, she thought her Kaleb plan was done and dusted, which gave us one tasty blindside to hold us over until next week. (Read our exit interview with Sabiyah here.)
Now it’s your turn! What did you think of Episode 3? Were you surprised/sad/shocked to see Sabiyah taken out so soon? Go full tilt boogie in the comments section and let us know!
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