Survivor 43 Episode 2 Recap: “Lovable Curmudgeon” Live Blog
After the elimination of Morriah Young of “Survivor 43”, the Baka tribe was at a distinct disadvantage compared to their competitors. Thus, they entered the second episode with success in mind, as another loss of immunity would drop them down to four tribesmen, compared to six each for Coco and Vesi. So who won the second immunity challenge, and which castaway ended up having their torch extinguished by Jeff Prost?
Below, read our minute-by-minute recap of Episode 2 of “Survivor 43” / “Lovable Curmudgeon” live blog to find out what happened on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at 8:00 PM ET/PT. Then be sure to talk in the comments section about your favorite castaways from the CBS reality show, who annoys you the most and who you think will eventually join the list of “Survivor” winners and take home the big one. million dollar prize.
Here are the current tribal breakdowns (click on each name to access their individual profiles):
BAKA TRIBE (yellow): Mike “Gabler” Gabler, Owen Knight, Sami Layadi, Elizabeth “Elie” Scott, Jeanine Zheng
COCO TRIBE (Blue): Geo Bustamante, Lindsay Carmine, Cassidy Clark, Karla Cruz Godoy, james jones, Ryan Medrano
VESI TRIBE (Red): Cody Assenmacher, Justine Brenan, Nneka Ejere, Noelle Lambert, jesse lopez, Dwight Moore
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Survivor 43” live blog for the most recent updates.
20:00 — “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” In the first episode, Jeff welcomed the 18 new castaways to Fiji for the start of their 26-day adventure. After Vesi won Reward, the tribes sent Dwight (Vesi), Gabler (Baka), and Karla (Coco) on a boat to play in their first risk/reward game. Dwight ended up losing his vote, while Gabler won an immunity idol that would expire after his second Tribal Council. As the immunity challenge losers, Baka went to Tribal Council where they voted 5 to 1 to send Morriah home over Owen. Who will be elected tonight?
8:01 p.m. – Baka returns to camp and Owen apologizes for being “anxious” at Tribal Council. He says the night was ‘wild’ and he wanted to ‘poop [his] the pants.” Elie hopes the vote “builds trust” with the whole tribe. Gabler’s new goal is to find food, and he aims to make “our bacon ‘Survivor’,” which isn’t nothing but fried worms.
8:03 p.m. — At night, a storm comes and disturbs their sleep. The next morning, the Baka fire is almost extinguished except for a few embers. Sami calls it one of the worst nights he’s ever had in his 19-year-old life. Sami wants to come up with a new roof situation for the shelter. Gabler says the storm was “frightening” and the game could be more than he can handle. Owen is “worried” that Gabler won’t be able to support himself any longer.
8:05 p.m. — At Camp Vesi, Dwight and Jesse are looking for an advantage in the woods. They notice that there are three couples in their tribes: Dwight and Jesse, Justine and Noelle, and Cody and Nneka. Jesse wants Dwight, aka his “island wife,” to join Cody and Nneka in creating a strong foursome. The only person Dwight hasn’t bonded with is Cody, so he prefers joining Justine and Noelle.
8:07 p.m. – Cody is now in the spotlight as he sees a large rock formation in the distance and immediately wants to jump off it. Jesse says Cody looks crazy, but he’s really fun. Cody considers the odds of winning pretty tough, but the odds of having fun are much better. He then jumps off the rock, screaming all the way. Jesse admits that the only person he can’t connect with is Justine, and he’s annoyed by her various ticks, including her fear of spiders.
8:12 p.m. — It’s Day 4 on the Coco Tribe and the group is stretching, led by Ryan. Karla already sees divisions happening, with the girls (Karla, Lindsay, Cassidy) wanting to bring in a fourth person (James) to create a majority. The other two, Geo and Ryan, believe they have Karla by their side, but she worries about their close bond.
8:14 p.m. — While searching for almonds, Geo thinks back to his childhood in Peru and his coming out to his parents at the age of 18. His parents ended up disowning him and so he became homeless. Now he won’t let anyone stop him from winning this game. Ryan feels like he can be himself with Geo, almost like they’ve known each other for years.
8:16 p.m. – Back in Vesi, Noelle struggles with her leg restraints while Cody talks about the loss of his childhood friend, Devon, to cancer. Without going through this trauma, he would not have taken some of his risks in life. Cody again mentions his butt tattoo, “LIVIN”, and how that’s really his mantra.
8:18 p.m. – At the Baka camp, Owen embraces his title of “Junior Deputy Waterboy”. His friends back home call him a “lovely curmudgeon” – hey, that’s the name of the episode! He spills water on himself on his way back to camp and compares it to feeling like he has pee pants. Meanwhile, her fellow tribesmen are searching for the idol, with Elijah about to find her.
8:20 p.m. — Elie and Jeanine talk about who they want to vote for if they go back to tribal council. This is juxtaposed with the three guys comparing their waterlogged feet and laughing with each other. The girls think it’s “weird” the guys haven’t even started talking about the game yet. What the girls don’t know is that Sami is proposing an alliance between boys, where they would have an advantage of 3 against 2 on the girls. “We would be stupid to lose to them,” he said.
8:25 p.m. – It’s day 5 and time for the second immunity challenge. For today’s competition, players must dive into the ocean and swim to a cage, jump over the door, and release a massive 400-pound snake. They must release the snake and swim with it to shore, where they must untie ropes to reveal number tiles that will unlock puzzle pieces. In addition to immunity, the first tribe to complete wins a full “Survivor” fishing set as a reward, while the second tribe wins a smaller fishing set. Noelle and Karla sit for Vesi and Coco respectively.
8:30 p.m. — Baka is the first to release his snake, followed by Coco. Jeff has fun noticing how Cody looks like he’s “riding the snake” lol. Nneka is called out for not helping the Vesi tribe so much. “You can never rest on ‘Survivor,'” Jeff says as Vesi seems to falter in the puzzle part. Baka wins the challenge, earning immunity and the big fishing reward. Moments later, Coco comes in second place, winning immunity and the small fishing kit. This means that Vesi will go to tribal council.
8:40 p.m. — Back at camp, Vesi is moping after losing his first challenge. “We got our asses kicked,” Cody proclaims. Cody tells Jesse that Nneka is “atrocious”, but she doesn’t seem in danger since she’s part of their alliance. Justine and Noelle think that Nneka has to leave because of her poor performance in the competition. Nneka is “not surprised” that her name was thrown out so soon. She hopes that her relations can count on the tribal council.
8:45 p.m. — The Baka celebrate their victory in the challenge. Since the tribe only eats coconuts, fishing gear will definitely come in handy. Elie is in tears for doing the challenge so well, especially since she grew up with ADHD and dyslexia. Later, Elie gives some advice on how to use the Hawaiian slingshot, but Gabler doesn’t seem to want to listen.
8:50 p.m. – A big talking point at camp is whether Gabler’s immunity idol expires at the game’s second Tribal Council (which would be tonight) or the second Tribal Council Gabler attends (which would be in the future). Jeanine calls it a “necessary act” that they search Gabler’s bag in secret to uncover this information once and for all. She confirms that it’s good for Gabler’s second tribal council, so the idol is still in play.
8:55 p.m. – Vesi is still in scramble mode, Justine trying to get Nneka out of the game. Since Dwight lost his vote last week, it’s now complicates things. Jesse and Cody think Justine is the biggest threat so they want to take her out. We see a flashback of Justine telling Jesse that she has a “good lying face” – yuck. Jesse tells Dwight that they are in the “pineapple zone”, which means they can talk honestly to each other. Dwight isn’t too receptive to dating Justine. She then approaches them and calls out Jesse for not being entirely trustworthy.
9:00 p.m. — Cody wants to know how to spell “Justine” — yes, there’s an E at the end. He then begins walking through the jungle in search of the idol, even though it’s a “Kiss of Death” in-game. He’s about to give up when he sees a beware perk placed in plain sight on a stump. Cody opens the scroll where he learns he has found an immunity idol bracelet. In order for the idol to gain power, he must persuade all the tribesmen to give them their special beads which are attached to their bags. He cannot steal the pearls, they must be voluntarily given to him. If he fails to acquire all the pearls, he cannot vote in the tribal council.
9:10 p.m. — It’s going to be “almost impossible” for Cody to get the pearls from anyone because they’re all superfans of the show. He confesses everything to Jesse, who then tells Nneka what is going on. In a masterful move, Cody decides to put his pearls on his palm-shaped hat, then asks everyone else to help him make the hat more dazzled. One by one, everyone gives their beads to Cody, with Noelle the only one to resist; she has already made a bracelet with her pearls.
9:18 p.m. — Vesi is coming to tribal council for the first time. Cody shows Jeff his hat and promises to help make a hat for whoever gets home. Justine tells Jeff that the tribe is split into three pairs, and Jesse pretends to offer Dwight to lock up their bromance. The topic shifts to idols and benefits, and some people clearly have no idea what’s really going on behind the scenes.
9:25 p.m. — It is time to vote. The six people go to the voting booth, but how many actually voted? Jeff counts the votes and reads them aloud: Justine, Nneka, Cody, Justine… and there’s one more vote! In a flashback, we see that Cody was able to acquire the remaining pearls in no time. The fifth vote goes to Justine, so she is eliminated with three votes in total. Dwight seems angry with Jesse about this decision and he says they’ll “talk later”.
NEXT WEEK – The Coco tribe builds a community until they “cut each other’s throats”. Dwight says his island marriage to Jesse is strained and he’s sleeping on the couch. And Sami reveals to Gabler that Elie looked in his bag, which makes Elie his new #1 target.
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