Review: Survivor, "Sword of Damocles" | Season 45, Episode 9

A twist designed to throw the game off its axis only manages a slight wobble

There’s some new twists to discuss in tonight’s Thanksgiving week episode of Survivor, but we need to start this review by talking about Bruce’s narrative arc in this season.

Returning from Season 44, Bruce had a built-in narrative: he played, he got injured, and now he’s back for redemption. But as soon as Emily called out Bruce during the initial marooning, it was clear that there was going to be no hero narrative for Bruce. He was immediately defensive, and when Belo got to camp he was primarily framed through Katurah’s objection to him bossing everyone around. Even the people who ended up in his alliance found his presence to be “overbearing,” and Kellie left the game last week at a breaking point with his presence in their alliance.

Throughout the season, I’ve been reluctant to embrace Katurah’s feud with Bruce, because it felt like her sheer—and justified—disgust with this man was going to be her downfall. But as Katurah started to fly under the radar, and Bruce’s idol combined wi…