Warning: This article contains spoilers for ‘Survivor 45’ episode 3, which aired on Oct. 11.
In true Survivor fashion, the unthinkable happened during season 45’s third Tribal Council, and at one point, it even had host and showrunner Jeff Probst questioning the rules.
On day 7, Lulu lost their third Immunity Challenge in a row. After packing their bags, the four tribemates made their way to Jeff ready to cut their numbers down to three. Before departing for Tribal Council, Sabiyah Broderick concocted a plan to blindside her ally, Kaleb Gebrewold. Sean Edwards and Emily Flippen were both on board to eliminate Kaleb as well.
However, Emily flipped to the unsuspecting Kaleb’s side after Sabiyah came clean about having a “Beware” advantage that temporarily halted her ability to vote.
Sabiyah revealed she was only one step away from securing a Hidden Immunity Idol, but she needed to melt its wax casing to officially claim it. Because the tribe didn’t have flint — a symptom of losing back-to-back-to-back Immunity Challenges — Sabiyah told Emily she was planning on placing the Idol in a fire at Tribal Council.
And that’s exactly what she did.
Everybody on Lulu knew Sabiyah had the Idol. So, she openly melted the wax in the set’s central firepit while Jeff grilled them on the dynamics of the game and their propensity for losing Immunity Challenges.
After the wax was gone, Sabiyah became the proud owner of a Hidden Immunity Idol. And because she accomplished the Beware advantage, she regained her voting privilege as well.
But, when she walked up to the voting urn, she was met with a note regarding the Idol. It explained that it would lose its power after that Tribal Council. But, if she gave up her vote that night, she could extend its life until the tribes merged. And if she elected to lose her vote at the following Tribal, the Idol would last until the final five.
Confident Sean and Emily were locked in on eliminating Kaleb, Sabiyah chose not to vote, which was a game-ending decision.
Sean stuck to his word, but as mentioned, Emily jumped to Kaleb’s side of the fence. Before Tribal, she told Kaleb about Sabiyah’s backstabbing plot. So, as history has it, Emily and Kaleb voted for Sabiyah while Sean wrote the latter’s name down.
Two votes were enough to end the 28-year-old truck driver’s $1 million campaign.
Jeff gave props to Sabiyah for the savvy wax-melting move
Jeff debriefed about the unprecedented Tribal Council during the newest episode of On Fire: The Official Survivor Podcast with his co-hosts, Survivor: Edge of Extinction’s Rick Devens and producer Jay Wolff. Survivor’s frontman revealed that when his team created the process of retrieving that Idol — something they had never done before — they never thought about someone melting it at the voting ceremony.
“We never considered that somebody would find this idol and still not have fire,” Jeff said. “And then be smart enough adapting to use the Tribal Council fire. So when she puts it in the fire, yes there is a part of me going, ‘This is fair, right’? Because all the note says is you’ve got to burn the wax. So, I gave Sabiyah a lot of credit for saying, ‘Yeah, the only fire I have in my life right now, Jeff, is at Tribal when I’m going to vote somebody out.’ I thought it was really cool.”
So, did he think it was a good move for Sabiyah to curb her vote to extend her Idol’s life? Yes, he did.
“She decides to make a big-time move and risk it,” Jeff said. “And really, you have to. Right, Devens? I mean, it’s an Idol. You’ve got to go for it.”
“Otherwise, you did all that and it’s done,” Devens responded.
Jeff also pointed to Sabiyah believing Kaleb’s game was sunk and her vote wasn’t necessary. “But, you don’t know what is true until you vote,” he continued.
And no, no one could steal Sabiyah’s Idol at Tribal Council
A question potentially on fans’ minds watching this episode was whether or not one of Sabiyah’s tribemates could snag her idol while it cooled on the ground. At one point during Tribal, we see Kaleb’s eyes shift to the idol lying by Sabiyah’s feet. Was he considering going for it? Well, if he looked at the Survivor rulebook beforehand, he knew he couldn’t take it.
And the host confirmed that on the podcast.
“No, nobody can take an advantage or an idol from any player, ever,” Jeff said. “So, even if somebody looks into a player’s bag and they find this collection of advantages, they know they have them — that’s fine. They can’t take them. So, nobody could’ve taken it.”
With Sabiyah’s demise, only three Lulu members remain in the game. But, according to episode 4’s teaser, a tribe swap is set to shake things up.