A new episode of Survivor: Winners at War airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap and join the discussion here.
The episode begins on the morning of Day 12 at Dakal. Nick believes the tribe is now a cohesive unit without Tyson. However, he finds out that Tyson bequeathed him a fire token. Although it didn’t work out between Nick and Tyson in the game, Nick believes there’s still a chance he and Tyson could work together if Tyson returns from the Edge of Extinction. Later, Yul talks to Wendell and Sarah about his friend Jonathan Penner. He played with him on his first season in Cook Islands. He tells them that Jonathan’s wife has ALS. He gets emotional talking to them about the hard times Jonathan and his wife are going through.
The two tribes later greet Jeff, and he lets them all know that there is about to be a tribe swap. They draw wrapped bundles with buffs inside, randomly putting them on new tribes.
Dakal – Denise, Jeremy, Kim, Sandra, and Tony
Sele – Michele, Nick, Parvati, Wendell, and Yul
Yara – Adam, Ben, Rob, Sarah, and Sophie
After the new tribes are determined, they return to their respective camps (with Yara having to go to a new beach and rebuild shelter). At Dakal, Jeremy thinks Kim is on the bottom. Since he and Denise are the only former Sele numbers, he hopes Kim will flip on Tony and Sandra. Later, Denise and Kim talk about working together, and they say they get good vibes from each other. Meanwhile, Tony is aware that Kim could flip on him and Sandra. He says he, Sandra, and Kim are big threats in the game and need to protect each other. He compares the game to lions and hyenas. If the lions go against each other, then the hyenas will just come from the sides and claim victory. Tony later talks to Kim about why it’s important for them to stay together. Kim is agreeable with Tony, but she admits in her confessional that she does not think staying loyal to Dakal is her best move. She does not trust Sandra or Tony.
Nick thinks the tribe swap worked out perfectly. Parvati, however, knows that she and Michele are outnumbered. She believes they can work their way in. Parvati and Yul played for the very first time on Cook Islands, and Yul tells her that she is his wife’s favorite player. In addition, Nick confesses to Parvati that she was his high school crush. Parvati thinks this can help Yul and Nick want her to stay in the game. Elsewhere, Michele and Wendell used to date, and the awkwardness between them in palpable. They finally talk, but Wendell apparently wants to keep his distance from Michele. Parvati and Michele later talk, and they are hopeful they can stay in the game. Michele admits in her confessional that Wendell broke her trust in real life, so she’s doubtful she can trust Wendell in the game.
At Yara, Sarah blames Tyson on Amber going home. In her confessional, she notes how she and Sophie are outnumbered. Nonetheless, she could use her steal-a-vote advantage to save Sophie and herself. They ask how Ethan was voted out, and they learn about the tension among Rob, Adam, and Ben. They tell them the truth about how Rob voted for Adam, so Sarah thinks there could be a free agent and she might not need to use her advantage. Sarah tells Ben individually they could work together, and Sophie tells Adam individually they could work together. However, Sophie is worried that there could be too many cracks, so she wouldn’t blame Ben, Adam, and Rob sticking together out of self-preservation. She goes hunting for a hidden immunity idol, as does the rest of the tribe. However, Sophie finds it first. She also has to give half of it to someone else by sundown, and she chooses Sarah.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. They must go through a series of obstacles and then throw sandbags at blocks. Once they knock down all the blocks, they then must build a block tower. The first tribe to correctly build a tower will win immunity. Yara takes the lead early on, and they stay in the lead as they are the first to knock down all their blocks. They must build a block tower with no repeating colors on the sides. They make little progress by the time Sele and Dakal get to work on their block towers too. The other tribes catch up, and Parvati and Wendell are the first to build their tower. Sele wins immunity! Sophie and Adam start over for Yara, but Jeremy and Sandra have solved it for Dakal. Dakal wins immunity! Yara will go to tribal council tonight.
Yara returns to camp. Rob promises Ben and Adam that he will not write down their names, but he wants to make sure they don’t scramble against him. After they agree to vote for Sarah tonight, he implements a buddy system. They must stay at camp all day long and not leave each other’s sides. For most of the afternoon, they all stay at the shelter together with no game talk. Sarah and Sophie eventually leave camp to retrieve water. They are bothered by Rob’s controlling ways, but they know Ben and Adam are the swing votes. The hidden immunity idol is activated after Sarah returns half of it to Sophie, but they are hoping to save it for later. Ben and Adam also admit that they don’t like this style of game play from Rob, but they both want to make the decision that benefits their game the most.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks about the difference between playing this time compared to their first seasons. Sophie says last time she played, there were two big alliances going against each other. This time there are a lot of intertwining alliances. Adam adds that everyone in this game is good. Not being bad at the game is enough to survive the vote. Jeff asks about how the tribe was around camp after the challenge. Sophie says she wasn’t able to get a moment alone with any of the boys. Sarah and Sophie say they got seven to eight words out of them today. Jeff asks about cracks in the game, and Sophie says she wants an alliance. Sarah candidly tells Ben, Adam, and Rob to ask anything out of them to work together. Rob admits it’s a good selling point, especially since he, Adam, and Ben aren’t a tight trio. However, Rob says Survivor is a game about numbers. Ben agrees that it is a numbers game, and they have to go with experience and their gut. Ben admits that he, Rob, and Adam talked by the well and then returned to shelter with no more game talk. “Sometimes less is more,” Rob says. Sophie says Rob wins the game by corralling people to have the same mindset, and Rob counters that people go far in the game that way. Afterwards, it’s time for the vote.
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Sarah
Rob
Rob
Rob
Rob is the sixth person voted out of Survivor: Winners at War. After Rob gets his torched snuffed and walks away, Rob bequeaths his fire token to Parvati.
And that wraps up tonight’s episode of Survivor. Thanks for reading, post your thoughts in the comment section below, and come back next week for another live recap.
