A new episode of Survivor: Winners at War airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap and join the discussion here.
The episode begins with the voted out castaways at the Edge of Extinction. They learn the challenge to return to the game is upon them. They can spend tokens before the challenge. Natalie uses her tokens to buy an advantage in the challenge and an immunity idol. Amber gave Rob all of her tokens, and he buys an advantage and an idol as well.
Meanwhile, Jeff greets the castaways still in the game at a beach. “Drop your buffs,” he says. It’s time for the merge. Ben says in a confessional that it’s the most exciting moment in the game. This is when the battle begins. Jeff also tells them “We’re about to have twelve.” All the voted out players arrive at the beach from the Edge of Extinction. Jeff asks some of them their thoughts. Natalie says being sent there first was rock bottom. Tyson finds humor in tough situations, but he says he sometimes uses humor as a mask. He gets emotional talking about his two daughters. Rob says the Edge of Extinction is the worst place he’s ever been to, but they are not quitters. Afterwards, the challenge begins. Everyone except Amber, Parvati, and Yul bought an advantage for the challenge. The advantage is not having to dig in the sand for a string. They must go through a series of obstacles, make a pole out of sticks to retrieve a key, open the door, and then maneuver a ball through a winding track. Tyson in the lead, but everyone else is close behind. Rob is the first to get his key, but Natalie and Tyson are right behind him. They get to work on maneuvering their ball, but everyone catches up except for Amber. It eventually becomes a three-man race for Tyson, Rob, and Yul. They are getting their balls closer to the end of the track, but Yul’s ball drops halfway up the track. In a very close finish between Tyson and Rob, Tyson’s ball lands in the hole first. Tyson wins! Tyson is back in the game. The voted out players must return to the Edge of Extinction, but they will have one more chance to return. In addition, they can start attending tribal council as members of the jury.
The castaways return to camp, and they see a menu board telling them how they can spend their fire tokens. They can buy food, comfort, or advantages in the game. Tony doesn’t have enough fire tokens to buy anything, which he laments in his confessional. Nonetheless, he’s excited for the merge feast. All twelve of them gather around the table to eat. Denise tells them all about how she voted out Sandra, and Sophie notes in her confessional how Denise now has a resume. They also note how new schoolers outlasted the old school players, but they don’t think that was intentional. In Wendell’s confessional, he says he trusts Michele and Nick the most. He has also met Jeremy before the game, and he’s hoping to work with him too. Wendell and Jeremy talk together later, and they share information. Jeremy says in his confessional that he wants to work with Wendell too. However, he doesn’t like how Nick is Wendell’s #1 ally. He’d rather be his closest ally, so Jeremy wants to vote out Nick. Meanwhile, Tyson and Ben talk game. They want the big targets to stick together so they can take control of the game. “It’s going to be big threats versus little threats,” Ben says. Ben later shares this idea with Tony, and Tony calls it music to his ears. Tony says the little threats are still great players, but Wendell, Nick, Adam, and Michele are not in the spotlight like the big threats are. He says they have to go.
It’s Day 21 and the rain is pouring down on them. They are cold and shivering as they huddle in the shelter. Kim calls it survival mode, and she says it’s almost comical how miserable they are. Adam, however, says this is nothing since he went through a cyclone in his original season. Some of them wonder if anyone would be willing to spend fire tokens for a tarp. Meanwhile, there is some game talk about the upcoming vote. Wendell wants to vote out Denise. He sees her as a threat for taking down Queen Sandra.
It’s time for the immunity challenge. Rain is still pouring down on them. It’s an endurance challenge as they all must climb up a pole and hold on. The last woman and last man hanging on will win immunity. Along with immunity, they will win one fire token too. The challenge begins, and Michele is the first to fall. She takes a hard hit and Jeff asks if she needs medical. She says she’s fine. Adam is the next to fall, and he’s followed by Sarah and Tyson. Wendell is the next to fall, and Tony and Sophie fall too. Kim and Denise are the only women left in the challenge. One of them will win immunity, which ends up being Denise as Kim is the next to fall. Denise wins immunity! Ben is the next one to fall, meaning it’s a showdown between Jeremy and Nick for the second immunity. After they both struggle to hang on, it is Nick who falls next. Jeremy wins immunity!
They castaways return to camp. Tony, Jeremy, and Ben talk game, and Jeremy says he wants Nick to go tonight and bring in Wendell to work with them. Ben is fine with Nick going, but he doesn’t think Nick is much of a threat. He says all Nick does is insert himself to everyone else’s conversation, and we see scenes of Nick awkwardly walking up to different groups of people already talking. Jeremy asks Nick his thoughts, and Nick proposes voting out Adam. He says it’ll be an easy vote since he’s close to Denise, but Denise is immune tonight. Ben, Adam, and Sophie talk game, and they discuss voting out Wendell. Sophie has recognized Wendell as someone working closely with Jeremy. She says Jeremy has a lot of influence right now, but he won immunity. She also sees Tony, Jeremy, Ben, and Tyson trying to control the vote. Sophie shares her thoughts with Tony, and he says he’s fine voting out Wendell tonight. Tony proposes voting out Wendell tonight to the group, but they don’t think Jeremy will be agree. Ben later approaches Jeremy about voting out Wendell, which Jeremy is not on board with this. He tells Ben that Wendell can be a shield for them. He throws out the idea of voting out Adam tonight. He’d rather see Nick go, but he’ll go with an easy vote to protect Wendell tonight. There are now last minute game talks as people discuss whether or not to switch their votes to vote out Adam and keep Wendell. Denise says in her confessional that she’s close to Adam, but she’s fine with going with the flow. Adam is concerned something is up, and he talks to Sophie. Sophie says she’s voting for Wendell tonight. She tells him she hopes he won’t be blindsided since she’ll be blindsided too. She says he’s being paranoid. Nonetheless, Adam is still worried. He knows something is up as he’s only heard Wendell and Nick’s names being thrown out, but no official decision has been made yet. He’s not ready to go yet, and he doesn’t want to go to the Edge of Extinction.
It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks Tyson if the game feels different now that he has returned. He says he doesn’t want to go back to the Edge of Extinction, so he won’t be as talkative this time around. Jeff asks if sending Tyson back to the Edge of Extinction will be the easy vote, but Sophie says the game is not that simple. She didn’t hear Tyson’s name today. Tony adds that the game has changed since Tyson was voted out, so the reasons they got rid of him may not necessarily mean much tonight. The talk of the vote continues, and Denise says tonight is the defining vote. Jeff questions if it really is a defining vote with twelve of them still there. Wendell says it will tell them some things. Adam adds that some of his conversations has been so quick that he wonders if they’ll make a difference, but he wanted to have conversations with everybody. Jeff asks them if checking in too much could be a hindrance. Nick wants to double-check too. He wants to make sure the plan he’s been told is still in motion, but he doesn’t want to be the paranoid guy either. Sophie says it’s okay to be a little bit out of the loop. She wants to prove to her alliance that she trusts them and doesn’t have to talk to everybody. Sarah says everyone is holding their cards close and not revealing much. Jeremy compares their game play to sparring. Adam is still unsure how the vote will go since people did not want to talk. Tony compares the vote to an ocean. He says they need to swim with the current and not against it to stay alive. Afterwards, it’s time for the vote.
Jeff reads the votes. The first vote is for…
Adam
Wendell
Adam
Adam
Wendell
Wendell
Wendell
Wendell
Wendell
Wendell
Wendell is the tenth person voted out of Survivor: Winners at War. Wendell is blindsided, but he tells them it was a good play. Nick asks Michele is she knew, and she says she did not. “Yeah, me neither,” he tells her. After Wendell walks away, we see Wendell bequeath a fire token each to Michele and Nick.
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.
