If there is one thing that Survivor superfans took away from last night’s episode of Survivor 45, it is that 29-year-old Kaleb Gebrewold is REALLY good at the game.
During the most recent episode of the hit competition show, the Lulu tribe won the reward challenge (to the surprise of everyone), earning themselves a camp raid. Kaleb volunteered himself as the individual from Lulu who would raid another tribe, choosing to invade the Reba camp and steal their fishing gear, as well as build relationships during his time there.
While at the Reba camp, Kaleb was able to have a one-on-one conversation with every individual (Drew Basile, Austin Li Coon, Julie Alley, Dee Valladares, Sifu Alsup, and J. Maya), building connections across tribal lines and even giving the never-been-seen-before Goodwill Advantage to Drew. While this may have been good for Kaleb’s game, his Lulu tribemates quickly became suspicious…
Praising him for his charm and charisma, the three remaining Lulu members (Sabiyah Broderick, Sean Edwards, and Emily Flippen) discussed blindsiding Kaleb while he was away at the Reba camp, should they lose the immunity challenge that was to come later that day. After falling short in the immunity challenge, Emily spilled the beans to Kaleb himself, resulting in a blindside against Sabiyah at tribal council — how wild is that?
Given that Sabiyah and Kaleb were two peas in a pod at the start of the season (strategizing together, competing in Sweat vs Savvy together, and more), what led Sabiyah to the decision to turn on her friend?
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly post-elimination, Sabiyah walked reporter Dalton Ross through her thought process.
“It was a combination of him going to Reba. Now he comes back, he was able to get every person with a one-on-one, you know what I’m saying? And you see him talk to Drew and he tells us about the advantage that he got and we’re just like, ‘You mean to tell me you went over there and got everybody alone?’ Red flag,” Sabiyah shared, explaining what caused her to raise her eyebrows in the first place.
“I knew my brother was good, and me and Kaleb were friends, but that was great to have that much information and to make the decision to give it to Drew. That’s a long road, and he did it like that was nothing,” the North Carolina native continued, ultimately sharing why her and Sean decided to “have a little talk on the beach” about voting out Kaleb that fateful night.
While Sabiyah and Sean noticed that Kaleb and Emily were spending a great deal of time with one another, neither castaway wanted to interject, due to fear of seeming controlling. “We don’t want to Boston Rob them. We don’t want to mob boss like ‘Nobody leaves the camp.’ We don’t want to do that because that would mean we don’t trust them,” she disclosed, before diving into her biggest regret of her Survivor journey.
Clearly, Sabiyah was unaware that Kaleb and Emily were spending so much time together to plot a blindside against her — she didn’t think anything was suspicious regarding their growing relationship with one another!
“Me and Sean definitely should have acted more on those instead of sitting and kind of letting things happen to us. I feel like that was my biggest regret playing, is playing more passively socially and allowing things to develop more naturally, instead of taking the initiative like Kaleb did in creating that unspeakable relationship. Because had I put in the work with Emily before the day I went home, and there were moments, but it wasn’t anything to talk about,” the 28-year-old concluded.
While Sabiyah will be missed on Survivor 45, we can’t wait to see how the relationship between Kaleb and Emily will continue to blossom, especially with a tribe swap on the horizon.
To see how the rest of the season unfolds, tune into CBS every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT — Survivor 45 is sure to be one for the books!