Living the Survivor Dream

Living the Survivor Dream
Episode Information
Version	United States
Season	45
Episode Number	13/14 (666)
Original Release	December 20, 2023
Episode Chronology
Previous	"The Ex-Girlfriend at the Wedding"
Next	"Aftershow"
Subpages

Living the Survivor Dream is the season finale of Survivor 45.

Challenges

• Reward/Immunity
• Immunity

Challenge: High Deck Matsui
The castaways must complete a low crawl before using a machete to cut through rope and release sandbags. They will throw the sandbags at targets which, when hit, will reveal numbers that they will then use to solve a combination lock. With the lock solved, a key will be released, which they will bring up to a tower to release bags of puzzle pieces. The first person to build their three-tiered puzzle wins.
Additional Stipulation: For finding a Challenge Advantage at camp, Jake only needed to hit one target instead of three.
Reward: A steak dinner at the Survivor sanctuary.
Winner: Austin Li Coon (shared with Jake O'Kane)

Challenge: On Shaky Ground
While negotiating a tripwire obstacle, castaways must attempt to stack seventeen bowls on a wobbly platform using a fork. The first person to finish their stack and return to their table without the stack falling over wins.
Winner: Dee Valladares

Tribal Council

Day 24

Tribal Council 14: Dakuwaqa
Voted Against	Voter
Julie (2 votes)	Austin, Katurah
Dee (1 vote)	Jake
Jake (1 vote)	Julie
Katurah (used Hidden Immunity Idol)	Dee (vote not counted)
VOTED OUT: Julie Alley

Voting Confessionals

Dee was shown writing down Katurah's name, Jake was shown writing down Dee's name, while Julie was shown writing down Jake's name. Katurah's vote was not shown during her confessional.

	Katurah	“	(voting against Julie) I'm changing my vote, because I'm pretty sure everybody's voting for me.	”

Final Words

	Julie	“	My biggest fear was to be the first person voted out and it turns out I'm the last person voted out. I guess they didn't want to take me to Final Three and I'm going to take that as a compliment, but right now, I'm hoping I made my kids proud.	”

Day 25

Tribal Council 15: Dakuwaqa
Fire-Making Challenge
Participant	Result
Jake	Won
Katurah	Lost
ELIMINATED: Katurah Topps

Final Words

Katurah's final words were not aired.

Final Tribal Council

Tribal Council 16: Jury Vote
Voted for Winner	Voter
Dee (5 votes)	Emily, Julie, Kaleb, Katurah, Kellie
Austin (3 votes)	Bruce, Drew, Kendra
Jake (0 votes)	None
SECOND RUNNER-UP: Jake O'Kane
RUNNER-UP: Austin Li Coon
SOLE SURVIVOR: Dee Valladares

Voting Confessionals

Julie was shown writing down Dee's name and Drew was shown writing down Austin's name.

	Kendra	“	(voting for Austin) Austin, I am so proud of the way you played this game. From start to finish, hearing all of your strategy, when they just thought you were a cool surfer dude. Kudos to you. You played Survivor.	”

	Emily	“	(voting for Dee) I guess heart really does win Survivor, but girl, if you spend one penny of this million dollars on that boy, I will personally fly to Miami and take it from you.	”

Final Results

Hannah 18th	Brandon 17th	Sabiyah 16th	Sean 15th	Brando 14th	J. Maya 13th	Sifu 12th	Kaleb 11th	Kellie 10th
Kendra 9th	Bruce 8th	Emily 7th	Drew 6th	Julie 5th	Katurah 4th	Jake 3rd	Austin 2nd	Dee Winner

Trivia

Secret Scenes

• Final Four Fallout: The Final Four return from Tribal Council and have a heated discussion.
• Final Three Letters: The Final Three read the letters they wrote to themselves just before they started SURVIVOR.

On Fire with Jeff Probst

• Sole Survivor

Other

• The name of the Day 24 challenge is a reference to baseball player Hideki Matsui.
• This episode marks the first time in the U.S. series that a contestant was eliminated in a 2-1-1 decision with four counted votes.
• This episode marks the first time that a contestant has been disqualified from a challenge for breaking its setup.
• Each of the Final Three came from a different post-switch tribe: Austin from Belo, Dee from Reba, and Jake from Lulu.