‘Survivor 44’ episode 4 recap: Who was voted out in ‘I’m Felicia’? [UPDATING LIVE BLOG]

John Benutty and Marcus James Dixon
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Heading into the fourth episode of “Survivor 44,” the Tika tribe was still at a numbers disadvantage as they only had four people left, compared to five each for Ratu and Soka. Real immunity idols and fake immunity idols were also running rampant on the island, setting the stage for some exciting tribal councils to come. Gold Derby’s odds predicted that Kane Fritzler or Sarah Wade would be the next person to have their torch snuffed by Jeff Probst, but what actually happened on Wednesday night?

Below, read our minute-by-minute “Survivor 44” Episode 4 recap/live blog of “I’m Felicia” to find out what happened Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite castaways on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Survivor” winners list and take home the $1 million grand prize.

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SEEEverything to know about ‘Survivor 44’

Here are the current “Survivor 44” tribe breakdowns (click on each name to be brought to their individual profiles):

RATU TRIBE: Brandon Cottom, Kane Fritzler, Matthew Grinstead-Mayle, Lauren Harpe, Jaime Lynn Ruiz

SOKA TRIBE: Matt Blankinship, Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt, Frannie Marin, Danny Massa, Josh Wilder

TIKA TRIBE: Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho, Carson Garrett, Sarah Wade, Carolyn Wiger

SEE‘Survivor’ deaths: Full list of castaways we’ve lost

Keep refreshing/reloading this “Survivor 44” live blog for the most recent updates.

8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” In the third episode, Ratu and Tika won the combined reward/immunity challenge, sending Soka to their first tribal council. Claire Rafson‘s name was instantly thrown out as a target since she had sat out all three of the immunity challenges to date. At tribal, Claire used her Shot in the Dark, but it came up as “Not Safe” and she was voted out by a unanimous 4-0 vote. Who will be voted out tonight?

8:01 p.m. – Following his tribe’s first trip to Tribal Council, Josh Wilder felt like he was in the perfect position between two alliances of two that both trust him. He was thinking that if they returned to TC that he’d be the swing vote between the two, but meanwhile the other four were aware of his belief and had instead agreed to move forward as a group of four against him. Danny Massa‘s intention was that the four of them would advance to the merge as two solid pairs.

8:02 p.m. – The Tika tribe came across two red sticks in the shape of a cross on their birdcage, but didn’t know that it was Carolyn Wiger that had placed them there. Her plan that she put into action overnight was to match that red X with a similar one next to a log back at camp where she hid her immunity idol clue and the fake idol from the birdcage hoping someone else would find it.

8:04 p.m. – Later, back at camp, Sarah noticed the matching red sticks under their log bench and sure enough there was Carolyn’s package with the fake idol. Believing it to be real, Sarah’s spirits were raised because she was feeling like she was at the bottom of the tribe and could use it to save herself.

8:06 p.m. – The tribes met up with Jeff Probst for an exceedingly rare reward challenge where the first tribe to finish would earn a large tarp and the second tribe to finish would earn a smaller tarp. In addition, the winning tribe would get to select who from each of the three tribes would go on the next journey away from camp. Frannie Marin sat out at Soka and Kane sat out for Ratu. In the simple challenge, each tribe would have to hit five targets with a long distance slingshot and then cross a cargo net.

8:08 p.m. – Soka got off to an early lead with quick hits from Danny, Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt and Josh in the same timeframe that Brandon Cottom and Carson Garrett were able to get one each for Ratu and Tika. Lauren Harpe got Ratu’s second just before Matt Blankinship got Soka’s fourth and then Danny returned for their fifth. Eventually Carolyn earned Tika’s second, but then Jaime Lynn Ruiz got Ratu’s third. Matthew Grinstead-Mayle was able to get Ratu’s fourth in one shot despite the sling on his shoulder and then Sarah got Tika’s third. Before Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho could get another for Tika, Brandon returned to get a fifth for Ratu to earn the second reward.

8:15 p.m. – With the choice of who goes not the journey, Soka decided to send Josh from their own tribe, Carson from Tika and Jaime from Ratu. Jaime was thrilled to have been given the chance to win another advantage in the game and to get to know Josh and Carson better. Carson was also excited to add another notch to his “Survivor” achievements with an advantage. At the end of their journey, each player came across a note that they’d been given an immunity idol. The catch to the idol was that it would only be good pre-merge and that they would not be returning to their original tribe. Instead they’d be swapped to a new tribe permanently.

8:19 p.m. – Josh was swapped to Tika where he was warmly greeted by a tribe that was faking their excitement that he was now a part of them. Apparently they had overheard Josh saying something about using his “steady hands” during a challenge which prompted Sarah to ask him if he’s a surgeon, but Josh denied it. Sarah and Yam Yam believed they had caught him in a  lie and that he was not to be trusted.

8:21 p.m. – Ratu was greeted by Carson who brought his nervous energy over as a new member of their tribe. In order to build trust, Carson immediately threw Yam Yam and Carolyn under the bus by naming them a tight pair. Matthew lost out on all the work he put in to bringing Jaime over to his side, so in his own effort to build trust with Carson he disclosed to Carson that Brandon had already played their Birdcage Idol and that Jaime found the idol that was placed back into the game afterward. He did not tell Carson that Jaime’s idol was actually fake and that he was the one with the real idol, but Carson bought it completely and felt like he had a new ally in Matthew.

8:24 p.m. – Jaime saw her journey to Soka as an opportunity to start fresh and she had confidence in the power of her two idols (not knowing one is fake). Frannie recognized Jaime coming over as a vote as easy as the one they were planning to make against Josh, and that the only wrench in that plan would be an idol. Their group of four decided to keep watch while Danny went through Jaime’s bag to see if she has an idol, but he didn’t find anything so either she didn’t have one or she was keeping both of them on her person.

8:30 p.m. – For the immunity challenge, Jeff brought the new tribes in for a water course that required players to jump from a high porch to grab a hanging key and then traverse a balance beam before swimming to the finish-line platform where once all members arrived two could assemble a puzzle.

8:32 p.m. – Brandon and Josh were the first to finish for Ratu and Tika, respectively. Next to follow was Danny for Soka, Carson for Ratu, and Sarah for Tika. Lauren jumped, but missed her key for Ratu and then swam to the finish line which meant that Brandon or Carson would have to swim back and recover Lauren’s key. While Brandon swam back, Heidi finished for Soka and and Yam Yam struggled to get across the balance beam for Tika. Frannie got through the course easily for Soka and they began their puzzle just as Brandon crossed the beam a second time for Ratu. Yam Yam finally finished which gave Carolyn the okay to start just as Kane fell from the balance beam twice for Ratu. Carolyn caught up and then passed Kane, putting Ratu in last place.

8:36 p.m. – Kane finished the beam on his third attempt, getting Ratu to the puzzle stage while the other two were still working on it. Soka had Heidi and Matt on the puzzle and finished first. Carson and Lauren were on the puzzle for Ratu and Josh and Sarah were on the puzzle for Tika. The race to finish the puzzle was neck and neck until Ratu was able to finish just in time with Tika only six pieces away from completing theirs.

8:43 p.m. – Faced with the reality of having to vote another player out, the original Tika members agreed that it’s in their best interest to vote Josh out. Yam Yam said that Josh is probably going to vote for him because he’s the threat and Carolyn is not. He asked Carolyn to not be offended by it, but she was clearly brought down by the idea of being the decoy vote again and being told what to do by other people. Sure enough, Sarah and Yam Yam talked to Josh later and said they want to play with him and it’d make sense for all of them to vote Carolyn out. Thinking she has an idol, Sarah was determined to make Josh feel safe so that she wouldn’t have to play hers, but said that if he plays his then she would have no choice but to play hers as well.

8:45 p.m. – Later, Josh went to Carolyn with the offer to work together. He told her he has an idol and he’d be willing to use it on her so that that when they vote against her, they could both vote for Sarah and take her out instead. Josh showed her the idol in order to build the trust with Carolyn. It was a shocker to Carolyn that Josh would be willing to play the idol for her and she didn’t necessarily want to damage her trust with Yam Yam, but she wasn’t feeling positive about the way he speaks to her in the game. Carolyn’s decision was coming down to going with the flow with original Tika or letting her emotional side take over and allow her to stand up for herself and make the decisions she wants to make rather than have them dictated to her.

8:51 p.m. – At Tribal Council, Yam Yam dug himself a deeper hole with Carolyn when he made the metaphor of kids in a classroom where “maybe he doesn’t want to be her friend anymore” and would prefer to replace “her” with the “new kid.” Carolyn interpreted his words as suggesting he’d replace her in the tribe with Josh. Yam Yam tried to take back his words by saying, “I’m just saying it as an idea. I’m not saying ‘Bye Felicia.'” Carolyn told Jeff that “I’m Felicia” with her head in her hands. She said she thinks Yam Yam made a slip of the tongue that he regrets, but Sarah tried to back him up by saying it’s a regular occurrence that there’s a misunderstanding between the things Yam Yam says and Carolyn being upset by them. Later, Yam Yam reiterated that Josh could potentially be a gateway to him making an alliance with players from original Soka, which further aggravated Carolyn’s concerns that she was being left out of his plans.

8:56 p.m. – After the votes were cast, Josh decided to play his idol for himself. Sarah did not play her idol. Jeff read the votes: Josh, Josh, Sarah, Sarah. The 2-2 result left Yam Yam’s jaw on the floor, Josh grabbed Carolyn’s hand in thanks, and Sarah with tears in her eyes watched Jeff snuff her torch.

NEXT TIME: At Soka, Jaime gets caught between Matt and Frannie, everyone at Ratu is sharing information with Carson, and Yam Yam butts heads with Josh at Tika.

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