Survivor Season 40 Winners at War Week 9 Recap and Live Blog

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 tribe returning to camp. Michele is annoyed she was blindsided. She wanted Wendell gone and other castaways knew this too, but she was still excluded from the vote. Michele and Nick talk together, and they say they hate these people. Michele reveals to Nick that he and Adam were on the chopping block before tribal council. Nick is frustrated, and he says he’ll play a ruthless and cutthroat game now. He wants revenge against the people who double-crossed him. Meanwhile, Adam says he was incredibly nervous during tribal council, so he is relieved to still be in the game. Adam talks to Michele, and he speculates there is a live hidden immunity idol at tribal council. He thinks a small fleur-de-lis behind Jeff’s podium could be an idol.

The next morning on Edge of Extinction, they get a letter telling them that history repeats itself. They believe this means they must go up the mountain to find fire tokens. However, Danni and Parvati wonder if the clue is hinting about the prior season with Edge of Extinction. They remember Aubry found an advantage by the steps, so that’s where they go to look. Parvati retrieves a wrapped package from a hole next to the steps. The advantage is a 50/50 chance for guaranteed safety. A castaway can flip a coin at tribal council. If the coin lands on the safe side, then that castaway cannot be voted out. Parvati and Danni wonder if they should sell this advantage to Michele for four fire tokens. In addition, instead of keeping it a secret, Parvati and Danni agree to share this with everyone else. Parvati is hoping they’ll get enough fire tokens to have something to eat at Edge of Extinction.

It’s time for the reward challenge. They will be separated into two teams of five, and they must swim out into the ocean and retrieve a net with wooden fish. They must put all the fish on a pole and carry it to a table. They must then use the fish to solve a puzzle. The winning team will win a Chinese takeout reward. A schoolyard pick will determine the teams, meaning one will be excluded from playing. After Jeremy and Kim were randomly chosen as captains, they chose their teams:

Red Team – Tyson, Adam, and Tony competing in the water with Nick and Jeremy on the puzzle.

Blue Team – Kim, Sarah, and Ben with Sophie and Michele on the puzzle.

Denise is excluded. The challenge begins, and both tribes stay fairly even. By the end, Sophie and Michele solve the puzzle first. Kim, Sarah, Ben, Sophie, and Michele win reward! However, Sarah decides to give up her reward for Nick since it was his birthday yesterday.

Back at camp, the other castaways are skeptical that Sarah gave up her reward just to be nice. They don’t think this act makes her trustworthy. Tony pulls Sarah aside and tells her it wasn’t a good idea for her to do that, but Sarah doesn’t think it’s a big deal. In his confessional, Nick says that he still doesn’t trust Sarah despite her decision to let him enjoy the reward. During the Chinese takeout reward, they open the fortune cookies and read them out loud. Later, while she is alone, Michele finds a note inside her bag and learns she has been presented with the opportunity of winning the 50/50 advantage at the cost of four fire tokens. Michele is unsure since she would have to spend all of her fire tokens. However, she thinks the fortune from the fortune cookies were a sign she should accept. One fortune told her to take the leap. She spends her four fire tokens for the 50/50 advantage.

It’s time for the immunity challenge. It’s an endurance challenge that requires them to balance on a triangular perch out in the water. If they fall, then they are out of the challenge. The last one standing will win immunity. The challenge begins, and Michele is the first to lose her balance and drop. She is followed by Denise. At the end of Round 1, everyone else is still in the challenge. For Round 2, they must move their feet up the perch to increase the difficulty. Round 2 begins, and Tyson is out next. He is followed by Jeremy and Tony. Six castaways remain in the challenge by Round 3. They all must stand on the very top of their perch. Adam is unable to make the transition, so he is eliminated. Sophie and Nick fall quickly, and they are followed by Sarah. Only Ben and Kim remain in the challenge. Ben falls into the water, and Kim wins immunity! She also wins a fire token. Before the commercial break, we hear a confessional from Tony. He compares the low profile players to hyenas and the high profile players to lions. He doesn’t want the hyenas to wait it out as the lions go after each other. He wants to get rid of one of the players he considers hyenas, which are players like Adam, Michele, and Nick.

The castaways return to camp after the immunity challenge. The initial plan is to split the votes between Adam, Michele, or Nick. Kim says in her confessional that choosing an easy target means it’ll make it easier for the larger group to be on the same page to survive the night. Her preference is to send Nick home since she doesn’t think he’s trustworthy and could be an immunity threat. Meanwhile, Nick talks game to Tyson. He wants to cause chaos and confusion, so he tells Tyson that Sophie has thrown his name out. Tyson is on board with sending Sophie home, but the plan changes when he approaches Adam and Jeremy. Adam would rather see Sarah gone. He adds that Sarah and Ben are too close, and Tyson, Jeremy, Nick, and Michele say they are on board with voting out Sarah. Kim and Denise talk later, and Denise tells Kim that one group wants to send home either Nick or Michele while the other group wants to send home Sarah. Kim is shocked, but she’s fine with voting out Sarah. She later talks to Tyson about the plan to vote out Sarah, but Tyson is wondering if they should vote out Adam. He saw how Adam got the group to change the plan from Sophie to Sarah, so Tyson thinks Adam is too dangerous. Tyson and Kim approach Jeremy to flip and vote out Adam. They tell Tony too, and Tyson reveals to Sarah that Adam was targeting her. Sarah says Adam will learn the hard way not to throw out her name. Ben thinks the decision will keep changing, so Ben confronts Adam about him saying Ben and Sarah are too closely aligned. Adam denies this, but Ben can tell Adam is lying. Adam says Ben talks to him like a child, and he’s frustrated by the conversation. Chaos continues as plans are getting revealed, which leads to plans changing. Castaways keep discussing new scenarios, and Sarah, Adam, Nick, and Tyson are the names that keep getting thrown out. Adam feels vulnerable, and he says in his confessional that he doesn’t know if there really is a hidden immunity idol at tribal council. Nonetheless, he wants to go for it.

It’s time for tribal council. Jeff asks about tonight’s vote, and Nick says that he, Adam, and Tyson are the supposed easy votes. Nick wants to take control of his own fate and find people willing to work with him. Soon enough, tribal council becomes chaotic as people start whispering to each other. Nick and Adam whisper and reveal to each other that they were told to write each other’s names. While everyone else is whispering to confirm plans with one another, Adam and Ben argue about their conversation from earlier today. Adam says that he was not gunning for Ben, but he calls Ben sensitive. Adam asks Ben if he is going to write his name down tonight, and Ben says he will not. Jeff cannot continue the tribal council discussion as different whispered conversations keep happening. As the whispering continues, Adam asks others for answers and who to vote for. However, no one gives him a direct answer. Eventually, it’s time for the vote.

Before Jeff reads the votes, Adam tries to remove the fleur-de-lis from the indentation on the podium. It doesn’t budge, and Jeff confirms to Adam that it is not an idol. Adam says it was worth a shot.

The first vote is for…

Sarah

Adam

Nick

Adam

Nick

Adam

Adam

Adam

Adam

Adam is the eleventh person voted out of Survivor: Winners at War. Adam walks away from tribal council, saying to himself that he made too many mistakes. He also decides to bequeath his one fire token to Denise.

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.

About Steven Curtis 539 Articles
Steven is a graduate of the University of West Florida with a bachelor's degree in communication arts. He enjoys watching reality competition shows, such as American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race.