'Survivor: Winners At War' recap: Adam Klein voted out after wrongly believing idol was hidden at Tribal Council

Survivor: Winners At War featured Adam Klein getting voted out of the merged Koru tribe after wrongly believing an Immunity Idol was hidden in Jeff Probst's podium at Tribal Council during Wednesday night's Season 40 episode on CBS.


Adam, the winner of Survivor: Millennials vs. Generation X, was voted out of his Koru tribe on Night 23 of the game at Tribal Council instead of Survivor: David vs. Goliath winner Nick Wilson and Survivor: Game Changers winner Sarah Lacina, who also previously appeared on Survivor: Cagayan.

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Based on the votes Jeff read aloud at Tribal Council, Nick received two votes and Sarah only earned herself one vote. Six votes were shown for Adam, although it's assumed he also received the other two votes from his tribemates.

"I made one too many mistakes. Three strikes and you're out in this game, and the thought that there was an idol at Tribal allowed me to play more aggressively than I should have, and it cost me," Adam said following his ouster.


At the start of the broadcast, the players remaining in the game were Adam; Nick; Sarah; Survivor: Kaoh Rong winner Michele Fitzgerald; Survivor: Philippines winner Denise Stapley; Survivor: Cambodia winner Jeremy Collins, who also appeared on Survivor: San Juan del Sur; Survivor: Cagayan winner Tony Vlachos, who also appeared on Survivor: Game Changers; Survivor: One World winner Kim Spradlin; Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers winner Ben Driebergen; Survivor: South Pacific winner Sophie Clarke; and Survivor: Blood vs. Water winner Tyson Apostol, who also previously appeared on Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

Survivor: Winners at War, Episode 9

The Survivor broadcast began on Night 21 at the Koru camp.

Michele was annoyed and said she hates getting blindsided, especially since she had wanted Wendell out from the beginning. She couldn't believe she was on the wrong side of the vote again.

Michele then commiserated with Nick about how they hated their tribemates and viewed them all as "bumbling, fumbling idiots," according to Michele, after Wendell Holland's vote-off.

Nick worried he'd be next to go, and Michele didn't argue, saying his name had already been on the chopping block along with Adam's. Nick was prepared for bloodshed and complained to Tony about how everyone was gunning for him.


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"I feel like it is now my duty to take every single one of these people out who had double crossed me. I'm ready for some revenge," Nick said in a confessional.

But Tony assured Nick he wasn't the next target just because his buddy Wendell had been sent packing. Meanwhile, Adam was relieved and felt lucky to still be in the original game.

Michele felt very low on the totem pole, but Adam saw her placement in the tribe and paranoia as an opportunity. Adam therefore confided in Michele how he thought there was a hidden Immunity Idol hidden in Jeff's podium at Tribal Council.

Adam noticed a fleur de lis symbol was on Jeff's podium that matched what Denise had received when she found a hidden Immunity Idol back at camp. Adam was convinced that might be a live idol, and he began thinking about how it could be "a pretty epic way" to save himself.


On Day 22 at the Edge of Extinction, the women did yoga together while Yul discovered a box that read, "Open when everyone is present."

Inside the box were scrolls for all the players which read, "As a winner and a fan, you step back and assess. Sometimes when history repeats, it can lead to success."

The players realized an idol or advantage was hidden somewhere on the Edge and they must rack their memories for clues as to where it could be. The players split up and searched spots where previously idols or advantages had been found, and Natalie hoped to find more Fire Tokens just so she could buy food.

Danni questioned if this clue dated back to a previous season that also featured the Edge of Extinction, and she remembered when Aubry Bracco took a step back and stared at the steps and found a clue hidden inside a hole.

Danni informed Parvati of her idea, and they went off and looked together. Much to Parvati's surprise and delight, she found a package wrapped up in a hole of the steps.


The scroll inside the package read, "This is the 50/50 coin. The advantage allows a player to flip this coin one time at any Tribal Council. If it lands on 'safe,' they have immunity. If it lands on 'not safe,' they are vulnerable. This advantage has no value on Extinction but you can sell it to any player in the game, and for any price you want. How many Fire Tokens do you think it will fetch?"

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Parvati suggested to Danni they sell the advantage to Michele because she had the most Fire Tokens in the game. That way, the girls could buy food, like a jar of peanut butter, and eat well.

Parvati considered keeping the advantage to herself, but since people had been suffering on the Edge even longer than she, the new mom and Danni decided to be empathetic and share the news -- and their eventual food reward -- with all six people on the Edge.

It then became time for a Reward Challenge, and Jeff divided the castaways into two teams of five. Each group was required to swim out into the ocean and retrieve a net filled with wooden fish.


After untying the fish and putting them on a pole, each group had to carry the pole to the finish and then use the fish to solve a large puzzle.

The first team to finish would win Chinese takeout waiting for them back at camp.

A schoolyard pick left one castaway unable to compete and qualify for the reward, and that person ended up being Denise.

Jeremy was the captain of the Red team, and he chose to do the puzzle, along with Nick. He also picked Tyson, Adam and Tony to swim for him.

The Blue team, led by Kim, featured Kim, Sarah and Ben swimming, with Sophie and Michele on the puzzle.

In the end, Sophie and Michele got the job done and won Reward for their Blue team.


Sarah decided to give her reward to Nick because it was his birthday, and Nick seemed overjoyed. Sarah joked she'd rather see Nick happy than be miserable eating too much.

Adam, however, said Sarah had made a mistake because she had a reputation for betraying friends in the game and he couldn't trust her as far as he could throw her.

"I gave my reward to Nick as a human being to another human being. There was no gameplay in it. It was a complete genuine decision. It was Nick's birthday yesterday. Nick got completely blindsided yesterday... Just as a world, we can be nicer to each other," Sarah told the cameras.

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Tony was shocked by Sarah's move, but she stood by what she had done. Tony wanted Sarah to be a barbaric player and worried she was getting too soft and emotional. Tony feared the castaways were not viewing Sarah as a threat who's really playing the game.

Since Nick was on the outs, Jeremy wasn't buying Sarah's explanation -- because even he wanted to talk to Nick and hopefully team up with him.


"I've done that before. I've given up Rewards. And you know what they did? They voted me out," Jeremy said in a confessional.

Nick didn't feel he owed Sarah anything, and he certainly didn't trust her any more than he used to.

While eating, Michele, Ben, Sophie, Nick and Kim looked for advantages but didn't find anything.

Michele acknowledged she was "the richest person" in the game with four Fire Tokens because Wendell had just given her one on his way to the Edge of Extinction.

Michele then discovered the 50/50 coin advantage in her bag, and learned the coin could be used at any Tribal Council until only seven players were left in the game. It would cost her four Fire Tokens, which is all she had, so she wasn't sure whether to possess it or not.

Michele decided to jump on it in order to have some power in the game.


On Day 23, the merged Koru tribe met Jeff again for the season's second Individual Immunity Challenge.

Each of the 11 castaways was instructed to balance on a triangular platform with his or her feet perched on very narrow footholds. At regular intervals, the players would move up the platform, making it more difficult to balance and hold on.

If a person fell off, he or she would be out. The winner would earn immunity as well as a Fire Token, while the next person voted out at Tribal Council would become the eleventh person voted out of Survivor: Winners At War.

Michele dropped out first, and she was then followed by Denise in the first round. In the second round, Tyson dropped first and then Jeremy was quick to follow, with Tony right behind him.

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Everyone remaining had to move to the top of the platform, essentially balancing on a thin beam. Adam couldn't even stand up, so he was out followed by Sophie, Nick and Sarah.


The challenge came down to Kim vs. Ben, and the winner was Kim.

Tyson was still concerned the low-profile players were going after the high-profile players, so his plan was to take out one of the "hyenas" and keep the big threats around as shields and allies for himself.

Tyson spoke to Kim, Ben, Denise and Tony about splitting votes between Nick and Adam, and they wanted to get Jeremy onboard.

Kim noted Nick, Adam and Michele were outcasts in the group and so it made sense for the larger group to stick together.

Ben, however, suggested they split votes between Nick and Michele, leaving Adam out of it, since they had both been tight with Wendell. The group decided to go after Nick with Michele as "the backup vote."

"I think Nick is just not to be trusted, from my perspective. I don't have a relationship with him. I also think he's a challenge threat going forward, so Nick would be my preference tonight," Kim told the cameras.


Tyson warned Nick that his name was being thrown around, and then Nick threw out the idea of targeting Sophie. He was tired of being told what to do and being an easy vote for other people.

Nick therefore created some chaos and hoped more and more people would turn on each other. With that being said, Tyson pitched the idea of voting for Sophie to Adam and Jeremy, but Adam said he'd rather vote out Sarah "a hundred thousand percent."

Adam reminded Jeremy and Tyson that Ben and Sarah were extremely close in the game.

"Then let's do it. Sarah," Tyson said.

Nick told Michele the plan but warned Michele that no one else could know. Denise was also told to vote for Sarah, and Nick explained that Sarah was tight with a lot of people.

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Denise talked to Kim afterward about how one group wanted to vote out Sarah, and Kim said she was fine with that. Kim, however, expressed to Tyson how she wasn't pleased with the Sarah vote, and Tyson threw Adam under the bus for getting everyone onboard.

Since Adam had the power to control people in Tyson's eyes, Tyson recommended to Kim they vote out Adam.

Tyson thought Adam was "more dangerous as a player" and so he tried to rally troops in Jeremy, Tony, Sarah and more. Tyson even told Sarah that Adam had been gunning for her.

The new plan was for everyone to vote Adam out, and Sarah said it was a big mistake to throw her name out.

"Your ass is going to go home," Sarah bragged to the cameras about Adam.

Ben expected the group decision would change one or two times, so he just hoped the target wouldn't end up on his own back.


Ben confronted Adam about whether he had thrown Sarah under the bus. Adam denied being the one to come up with the plan, but he refused to give Ben any names, which pissed Ben off.

"Ben talks to me like I'm a child who needs to be scolded. He's a lot more like Boston Rob than he would ever want to admit," Adam told the cameras. "This conversation pisses me off more than any other conversation I've ever had on Survivor."

Multiple plans were floating around and confusion was heightened. Tony and Jeremy were quickly shown agreeing to vote for Nick, and then Nick was shown saying Sarah was the vote.

At one point, Tyson appeared to be in trouble, but Adam still planned to vote for Sarah. Adam also hoped an idol awaited him in Jeff's podium as he had suspected.

At Tribal Council that night, Sarah announced the game was no longer cagey and things had been absolutely "chaotic" at camp. Tyson agreed everyone had been running in circles.

"I've played this game three times, Jeff, and I've never seen it like it was today," Jeremy said with a big smile, before Denise noted she had aged years in just a day.


All hell had broken loose, according to Nick, and he declared he was tired of his name being brought up. Nick called the war "sad," saying everyone was afraid to make a move.

As Nick spoke, Jeremy was shown whispering to Tony, and then Tyson said "Adam" to Ben, who assured Tyson that he was good.

Ben and Jeremy then whispered to each other, as did Sophie and Sarah. Kim asked Jeremy if he was changing his vote, and he replied, "No." Jeremy told Adam and Ben that he was good and everything was good.

Adam then ran over to Nick and the guys quietly discussed how they had been told to write each other's names down.

Whispers continued to break out throughout the tribe, and then it appeared Nick and Adam agreed to vote for Sarah. Adam told Sophie he didn't feel safe, but she said he was going to be fine.

Adam announced he was concerned that Ben was voting for him as Michele whispered to Jeremy and other pairs continued to talk privately amongst themselves. Ben and Adam's conversation escalated into an argument, and their alliance was clearly broken.


Adam accused Ben of being "sensitive" and going after him, but Ben insisted he wasn't writing Adam's name down that night. Adam revealed he was worried his name was being written down.

Nick declared he felt better about his position in the tribe, but since he was told to write Adam's name down, Adam felt even more paranoid.

Adam therefore asked the tribe as a whole whom they were voting for, and everyone remained silent. Adam could read the writing on the wall and seemingly assumed most -- if not all -- of the votes were coming his way.

After votes were cast, Adam ran to the podium and tried to remove the fleur de lis -- but it didn't work and nothing could be removed from the wood. Adam was upset and said, "It was worth a shot. I thought maybe it was an idol!"

As Adam's tribemates and the jury shared some laughs at his expense, Jeff took things one step further by teasing Adam and making him think it was real.

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"I want to play that!" Adam yelled.

"If that is an idol, it would be historic. The first idol ever hidden at Tribal Council in plain view of all players selected by you and played by you," Jeff said.

After a moment of hesitation, he added, "That is not a hidden Immunity Idol."

Jeff then read the votes in the following order: Sarah, Adam, Nick, Adam, Nick, Adam, Adam, Adam, and Adam.

On Adam's way out he said, "I really thought it might be something. I was worth a shot."

"Always," Jeff agreed, before snuffing Adam's torch.


Adam chose to bequeath his one Fire Token to Denise also she knew he was going home.

"Screw all of you!" Adam said playfully.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski