[Spoiler] Wins After Thrilling Jury Pitch Showdown

Living the Survivor Dream

Season 45 • Episode 13

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Survivor Season 45 finale.]

Survivor Season 45 has its winner. In an episode where every member of the Final Five made a mistake that could have killed their game, the best jury pitch won out in the end. The eventual winner didn’t describe their game the best at first, but they shifted the tide in their favor in a jury pitch showdown that will be remembered as one of the new era’s best.

The Final Five was Katurah Topps and Jake O’Kane, plus three of the Reba Four alliance, Julie Alley, Dee Valladares, and Austin Li Coon. The players had a numbers puzzle to solve on the beach that would win them an advantage in the penultimate immunity/reward challenge, and with lots of running added to the brainteaser, it was designed to physically and mentally exhaust the survivors. Running on fumes in the final days may have caused everyone to make the following mistakes.

First off, Julie made the mistake of doubting that Jake had a hidden immunity idol. Jake told Austin during their sanctuary reward, expressing his intention to protect himself and vote Julie out. Jake conflated getting along with Austin with being in an alliance, but Austin has never acted as though they were close. Dee, on the other hand, was Austin’s last remaining No. 1 ally after Drew Basile‘s elimination last week. Of course he was immediately going to tell Dee about his idol — they’re in a showmance!

Ever since this showmance emerged around Day 20, Austin has made clear that he’s only interested in complete transparency with Dee. He held nothing back in strategy talks with her, assuming that was being reciprocated. But Dee still kept some cards close to her chest. No matter how close she got with Austin, he was never brought into the Dee and Julie circle of trust that never faltered. Austin’s failure to recognize this had a big impact in the finale, even with his individual immunity win guaranteeing his spot in the Final Four.

The Final Five Tribal Council vote was Jake and Katurah’s last chance to make a big move that would boost each of their resumes. Realizing this, they worked together to hatch a plan to vote Dee out instead of Mama J. Jake showed Katurah his idol. Knowing that Dee would never vote Julie, and knowing that Dee, Julie, and Austin likely were not voting the same way, they agreed that Jake would play his idol on himself and they would both vote for Dee. Their goal was to break up the showmance, and as long as they were the only two players who wrote the same name, they would win the night.

CBS

Everything went according to plan until Katurah entered the voting booth. Dee voted for Katurah, Jake voted for Dee, Julie voted for Jake, and Austin voted for Julie. Katurah panicked at the last moment, convincing herself in that everyone was voting for her. She changed her vote from Dee to Julie, which became her game’s biggest failure. Katurah’s face went from thrilled to horrified when Jake played his idol on her, realizing that she squandered her chance to split up Austin and Dee. (Later on, Jake said he believed Katurah’s genuinely surprised reaction to that act of protection would make him look better to the jury than if she clearly knew it would happen.) The underdogs staged a successful vote, but not the one they planned.

Jake’s last attempt at a big move was a failure once again and he blamed Katurah for it back at camp. But like Katurah rightly told him in response, he made the mistake of not telling her about his plan to protect her from elimination. That plan wasn’t that savvy, either. The votes weren’t going to Katurah; there was no majority agreement in this final elimination vote of the season. That goes to show Jake’s poor social game. Had he had better relationships with more players, he would’ve been able to extract information that would inform how he should play his idol. Katurah, on the other hand, did have the bonds to gather intel, but she doubted herself inexplicably in the voting booth and sealed her fate.

The difference between Katurah and Dee — and Dee and every other player this season — is that when Dee’s made a decision, nothing could make her change it. Her alliances were so strong, she knew she could vote exactly how she wanted without fear. Some players, like Austin, tried and failed to convince her to change course throughout the season, but she never did and the votes always worked in her favor. Even in the final elimination, she knew her greatest ally, Julie, was going home. She didn’t stop it from happening, because the time finally came to prioritize her own game over Julie’s, but she also refused to write Julie’s name down and told Austin as much. It was Austin and Katurah’s votes that made Mama J the last player voted out of the season.

Jake fumbled once more when getting himself disqualified from the final individual immunity challenge. He fumbled his way through a barred obstacle so much that he broke the structure, seemingly out of frazzled carelessness. Jeff Probst called out Jake’s lake of care for keeping the structure in tact and warned that if he broke it, he was out. That’s exactly what happened seconds later. Austin and Katurah fought hard to stack their discs and catch up to Dee but never did. Dee’s stacked discs didn’t drop once, securing her win and giving her the power to choose who would join her in the Final Three and who would make fire.

Jake made a desperate plea to make fire, convinced he could win and finally have a moment of pride after constant strategic losses and no individual immunity wins. Dee didn’t want Katurah in the Final Three because she finally caught on to Katurah’s sneaky strategy of keeping her moves quiet but deadly. She asked not to be sent to fire, but Austin wanted to go to fire against Katurah for a final resume booster. He and Dee could both win next to Jake, he thought, but the same couldn’t be said with Katurah at their side. He knew this was him asking Dee to give him a chance to make himself look good and no one else. Dee, once again, couldn’t be convinced. She sent Jake and Katurah to fire, and Jake won. Had Katurah stuck with her Dee vote, she very well may have made it into the Final Three.

CBS

Then came the pitches. The jury asked great questions, and at first, Dee was giving some of the worst answers. She gave credit to other players for the success of the Reba Four alliance and just all around wasn’t advocating for herself well. She also made a snide comment to Bruce Perreault about his unplayed idol, which did not land well. Jake and Austin were both giving better pitches, but there was a shift halfway through. The jury wanted a Dee and Austin showdown, and that’s what they got. For the rest of the pitches, Jake barely spoke. It was clearly down to the showmance.

Austin made a great argument about how he schemed for his former amulet to gain power, among other strong arguments. Dee finally shared the information she needed to share to prove her game was better. The first was her incredibly strong social game and how those relationships gave her every piece of intel she needed. Dee was never blindsided all season long, even when she made it look that way to protect Julie. Protecting Julie and herself was also a major selling point. And when Austin incorrectly said that she never told Julie about his plan against her, Dee revealed he was wrong.

Emily Flippen and Julie asked how they stopped the showmance from impacting their strategies. It was in this moment that Austin learned she kept their relationship separate from her game, and he didn’t. This was also the moment Dee won the game. Her explanation of how she kept her secret from Austin while making sure Julie voted for Emily. Not because it would protect Austin, but because it was the best for both of their games.

No one plays a perfect game in Survivor, but as always, the jury pitches can make or break your game. Dee was voted the winner of Survivor 45. We think this is the best Survivor season of the new era. What about you? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to TV Insider for a winner exit interview.

Survivor, Season 46, Premieres Wednesday, February 28, 8/7c, CBS