Pagong Tribe, which would always wear yellow, would camp on the NorthWestern shore of the island. On the Pagong Tribe was Gretchen Cordy, Jenna Lewis, Gervase Petersen, Greg Buis, Colleen Haskell, Joel Klug, B.B. Andersen and Ramona Gray.
Tagi Tribe, which would always wear orange, would camp on the NorthEastern shore of the island. On the Tagi Tribe were Susan Hawk, Sonja Christopher, Sean Kenniff, Stacey Stillman, Rudy Boesch, Kelly Wiglesworth, Dirk Been and Richard Hatch.
Not the same on Tagi Beach. Richard Hatch positioned himself in a tree branch, wanting to take the time to talk with the others. This did not fly well with the other tribemates, as Sue put it very succinctly: "Action, Richard! Action!" Richard was outvoted and eventually went to help put the shelter in place.
In the challenge for Immunity in those first three days, Tagi tribe lost probably due to Sonja Christopher's stumble in the water. The teams had to swim out to a platform and carry fire back to the shore on a raft-like rig, lighting torches along the way, and she lost her footing. Sonja was the first voted off the island.
Tagi was concentrating on fishing: eating anything other than rice rations. The tribe all took turns rafting out and setting traps. Richard revealed to his tribemates that he was gay as they all sat around talking one afternoon. Sean spent an elaborate amount of time building "Super Pole 2000" and didn't catch one fish, which Sue was all too ready to point out.
In the challenge for Immunity, the tribes had to eat live larvae. First to refuse, throw up or not finish would lose Immunity for their tribe. The first round went well, everyone having eaten one. Each tribe had to choose someone who they thought was the most squeamish from the other team for the tie-breaker. Tagi chose Gervase Petersen and Pagong chose Stacey Stillman. Stacey finished hers first, although Gervase (extremely squeamish) gave it a good shot. Pagong was sent to Tribal Council where B.B. Andersen was voted off the island.
On Pagong Beach, fishing didn't seem as important as tapioca. The hunt was on for tapicoa root to make something ~ anything ~ other than rice. They came across a mud volcano during their hunt and all took a communal mud bath. But the hunger pains were getting worse.
At the first reward challenge, Jeff Probst revealed that B.B. Andersen had been voted off the island - and this made Rudy nervous. He was the last of the "old guys" and the voting pattern was certainly becoming clear. For the reward, the teams had to swim out to a ring, dive down and move a treasure chest up to the shore as a team. Tagi succeeded in this and won scuba diving equipment. Richard was elated. He knew the tribe was going to eat well from then on.... and they did. Richard was as good as his word and cemented his position in the tribe for at least a little while longer.
Pagong's inability to catch fish led Joel to catch and cook a rat. With Ramona and Gervase sitting by, grimacing, Joel went ahead and started eating. He offered some to his tribemates and was not surprised by their reactions. Gervase: "It's on! To the break of dawn! Like hot buttered pop corn!" Ramona: "Hey, don't hog all the rat, Joel!"
The Immunity Challenge had the teams build a stretcher and rescue one of their stranded tribemates somewhere in the forest and bring them to a mock first-aid station. Pagong won and sent Tagi to Tribal Council where they voted off Stacey Stillman.
Meanwhile, on Tagi Beach, Sue's vision was to get some tapicoa and nuts to eat. As she searched and foraged, Sean's vision was to create a bowling alley, putting Sue's nose out of joint. Sean thought Sue should relax while Sue thought Sean should be more helpful. It seemed to Richard that opinions and complaints were all over the place and this is where he decided the best thing to do was form alliances.
The Reward Challenge had the two tribes creating an S.O.S. that a plane flying overhead would see clearly. At stake was a large knife, pillows, blankets, hammocks and a spice rack ~ to spice up their rice. Pagong elected to put a smiley face in the sand with logs, branches and fire. Tagi wrote "Tagi is groggy" in the sand and put on yellow rain coats and laid in a circle beside their sign. Tagi won.
Sue, Kelly, and Richard formed the island's first alliance. Initially they asked Rudy to join but he was reluctant to "gang up" on anyone. The Pagong Tribe weren't thinking that way, instead carrying on as usual.
The Immunity Challenge was long and complicated. The ultimate goal was to dig up and open a buried treasure chest before the other tribe. Tagi won the challenge, won Immunity and sent Pagong to Tribal Council where Ramona Gray was voted off the island.
Tagi Tribe used the parachute that delivered their reward to put up a canopy over their eating area. The tribemates were getting on each other's nerves, each thinking the other was doing too little or complaining too much. Something needed to be done to bring everyone's spirits up.
The next Reward challenge was for food. They had to use blow darts, throw spears and use sling shots to hit clay pots under various fruits. Next they had to have a spear throw to see who came closest to the center of a bullseye. Whoever won would win all of the fruit as well as three chickens. Pagong, thanks to Joel, won it all. Their spirits rose immeasurably and they named the chickens Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. While Pagong ate fruit, Tagi ate eel which was caught by Richard. As long as he had the spear and snorkel equipment, Tagi would not go hungry.
Speculation at Pagong surfaced about Greg and Colleen. They would sneak off in the night and sleep in the forest and go off on their own for long walks. Most of the tribe called Greg the leader but he bolstered against the title. He didn't want to be put in that position.
On Tagi, the speculation surrounded Dirk Been. He was losing more and more weight and looking thinner by the minute. When Sean and Dirk went off to search for tapicoa, Richard, Sue and Kelly hung back and discussed who would be next voted off the island. It was definitely between Dirk and Sean, although they seemed to lean more toward Sean at that time.
The Immunity Challenge had one person in a boat rowing out to pick up the other tribe mates who were waiting in the ocean. This challenge pitted Kelly against Gervase. Kelly because this was her profession, Gervase because he couldn't swim. Pagong won the Immunity Challenge thanks to Gervase's strength and sent Tagi to Tribal Council once more. Dirk Been was voted off the island.
At Pagong, the tribemates were immersed, once again, in mud. They decided that all of the chickens had to be eaten before the merge so "the other guys" wouldn't get any of the rewards from their hard work. Gervase started digging his own grave when he commented "Girls are the stupidest things on the planet next to cows" which did not go down well around the camp. He tried as best he could to do some damage control but he only seemed to hurt himself more as well as draw attention to the fact that: Gervase doesn't do anything!
At the Reward Challenge, the teams had to go into a shed in the middle of the night and search for three items. Tagi duplicated one of their items, sending a shopping bag full of canned food back to Pagong Beach.
Pagong finally started talking about the merge and how they would go about getting rid of the Tagi members. Gretchen, however, seemed reluctant to join any voting alliance and that seemed to deflate the plans and schemes of the others. Meantime, it surfaced between the women that Joel was a bit of a chauvenist. The women were getting a little annoyed at his condesending mannerisms.
The Immunity Challenge was presented to the tribes in the form of two Special Forces Green Berets, delivering their instructions. An obstacle course had been set up on the sand spit with the help of the U.S. Army. On the eve of the Merge, it was imparitive for Tagi to win the challenge. If they lost and had to vote another member off the island, they'd be seriously outnumbered by the Pagong Tribe, giving them the voting advantage. If Pagong lost the challenge and had to vote a member off the island, the two teams would be equal going into the Merge. Tagi won the Immunity Challenge, sending Pagong to Tribal Council where they voted Joel Klug off the island... and headed toward the Merge with even numbers.
They arrived to find a full dinner spread at a proper dinner table, four bottles of wine and real beds to sleep in. They immediately decided on Tagi camp to be their base and decided on the name Rattana to be the name of the new tribe. The next day, the two paddled their way back to the Pagong camp. Jenna rushed on the beach and told the former Pagong Tribe they had 5 minutes to pack up their belongings, choose three luxury items, and move it all to the Tagi camp. Rattana was born.
Deep into the night, stories were shared. Greg put it very nicely by saying, "This new group is like a banquet of stories and excitement." Rudy grumbled about the "sex stuff" they were talking about and he simply wasn't interested.
In the night, it rained and the crowded shelter leaked on half of it, leaving the tribe soaked. Most of the day was spent filling in and restructuring the roof. Then the first merged immunity challenge came up. Now they were playing for themselves. The immunity challenge was two parts. First they had to submerge and see who could hold their breath the longest. The last three under water would move onto the next round. Sean, Gervase and Greg won the first round. Next they had to swim out to a buoy by using a ladder under water and release floats along the way as they made their way to the end. gervase did not even try, being a weak swimmer. Greg won by a very slim margin and was immune at the next tribal council. Sean, never one to ruffle feathers, started his alphabet voting strategy, feeling that was the fairest way to go. Tagi kept their alliance strong and surprised everyone from Pagong by voting off Gretchen, the strongest member of Pagong and the biggest threat.
Jeff Probst showed up in a boat for the Reward Challenge and brought with him a big heavy crate. They guys helped him move it to the beach and when he opened it, they were all instantly happy. It was a television and he had videos from home. Jeff showed them all brief glimpses of their video from home, to give them a taste of what they'd get if they won the challenge... until they got to Jenna. Jenna's family had not sent one in time. She was completely devastated and her tribemates felt her devastation. The challenge was to shoot their arrow closest to the bullseye in an archery competition. The winner would see all of their video and send a video home from the island. Greg won the challenge and invited everyone to watch it with him. But Jenna couldn't watch. She shot arrows and hit closer than Greg every time... except when it counted. Her arms raw from the bow, her eyes red from her tears, Jenna was devastated.
The next Immunity Challenge involved a jungle rope maze with 5 check points along the way. They had to stay attached to the ropes, pick up a marker from all 5 checkpoints and get back to base. Some of the ropes led to dead ends so they had to plan and take great care where they went. Gervase won with Jenna a close second. The hike to Tribal Council was on again.
In Sean's alphabetical voting strategy, Gervase was supposed to be next but he won immunity so he was safe from it for good. Sean would not go backward, just keep going forward through the alphabet, which meant Greg was next. At the water hole, Gervase was telling his former Pagong tribemates that they should get together and pick off the Tagi tribe. They had four votes, they could get those people. Kelly was becoming weary of the alliance she had formed with Sue, Richard and Rudy and was starting to waver. Sue was keeping on her: "just vote who we say and shut up!" Greg was voted off the island and left in dramatic fashion, pretending to cry and whine "I don't wanna go." And then there were Eight.
Richard went fishing again and brought in some rays but Rudy burned them and this infuriated Richard. So much so that he decided he was going to stop fishing for a while and make them hunger for it. Sue, Kelly and Jenna paddled out to their fish traps and caught a very big fish. They brought it back to shore hoping it would bug Richard. It did. The Reward Challenge came up and the reward was a bar-b-que and letters from home. The challenge was another rope course, but this time it was up in the trees. Colleen won the reward challenge by getting back to base first. Jeff allowed Colleen to pick one person to share with her and she immediately picked Jenna because Jenna did not get the video. It was all about the letter from home from her perspective and Jenna could not have been more thrilled. They ate steak, hamburgers, shish ka bobs, hot dogs, chips and drank beer. They talked at length about forming an alliance with Gervase and hopefully getting Sean to join them. Jeff brought the letters to the women and Jenna was in 7th Heaven.
This was also Richard's birthday. He was 39 today and had intended for a very long time to celebrate his birthday in his birthday suit. So Richard spent most of the day walking, sitting and lazing around naked. Sean revealed to the tribe that he was voting alphabetically. He was very open about the fact that Jenna was next unless she won immunity today. The immunity challenge was strategic. They had to step onto a red square and flip the square behind them over. When they ran out of red squares to step on, they were out. It involved a lot of thinking ahead. Rudy won Immunity for the first time.
Colleen and Jenna decided to let loose and play for a while which appealed to Kelly, so she joined in. They dressed alike, pretended to be super heros and did each other's hair. This made Richard and Sue very nervous about the alliance. They didn't like the fact that Kelly seemed to be spending a lot more time with the Pagong ladies and a lot less time being with Sue, Rich and Rudy. Colleen, Jenna and Gervase decided to give Richard the birthday present of being voted off the island by trying desperately to form an alliance against Tagi. Sean stuck to his now publicly known alphabetical strategy, not thinking it would make a bit of difference, and voted Jenna and the Tagi alliance fell in line behind him. With Greg sitting as the first member of the jury, watching and listening, Jeff Probst announced: "J" is for Jenna... she was voted off the island. Sean was clearly devastated by this and now was seriously rethinking his strategy.
Tree mail came for Gervase. His son had been born while he was on the island and everyone had a cigar. Gervase was very open about the fact that he had two children from a previous relationship and a daughter and now a son with his current girlfriend and he'd never been married. Rudy didn't like this at all and was vocal about it. But then again, Rudy was very vocal about everything he liked and didn't like. The reward challenge came in and it was for a big slice of pizza and a phone call home. The contestants had to move along some boards over the water by being the fastest. Gervase won the competition and was able to speak to his girlfriend about their new son, Gunner. But first, a big slice of pizza, which he shared with everyone else.
The Immunity Challenge came up where they had 3 minutes to gather driftwood to stack it in a firepit, take their staff out to the water where there were floating flames, light their staff and bring it back to the beach and light their fires. The first flame to burn through a rope and raise their flag was the winner of Immunity. Richard won and gave his tribemates a little celebratory dance that was like watching jello on a plate. Anyway, Richard would not gather any votes at the next Tribal Council.
Kelly confided in Colleen that the whole thing sucks. They are really nothing more than sitting ducks and that's just not fair. So they tried to talk Kelly into joining them in an alliance. Meanwhile, Colleen created a T-Shirt with a little duck: "sitting duck" on it and Gervase's T-Shirt said "target" with a big bull's eye fashioned with tape. A huge storm was moving in and nerves were fraying. Sue and Richard watched Kelly's movements with interest and knew that she was compromised. Sean dropped his alphabetical voting strategy and was now voting in his own best interest. But the Tagi alliance held up and Gervase, the "target" was voted out.
The Reward Challenge was for a night on a yacht which included a hot shower, a full dinner and a real bed. It was a multiple choice game of trivia that they had to compete in. Sean won the challenge and, the next day, he was taken out there for his reward. Much to his utter joy, his father was aboard and he spent the most wonderful evening. Having been asked who he would like to join him for breakfast, he chose Richard (even though he had promised Kelly he would choose her right up to the last second) and Richard went out there in the morning and shared a wonderful breakfast. Sean was in deep doo-doo with Kelly and he certainly heard about it. When they returned, Sean's father came with them, bearing gifts for the other tribe members that their families had put together for them. It lifted the spirits of everyone for a short while and gave them the drive to go on for the next six days. Kelly had a grudge against Sean, Sue had a grudge against Kelly, Colleen had a grudge against the Tagi alliance... the game was getting dirty.
Next up was the Immunity Challenge. They had to stand on a plank over the water as long as they could. Last one standing got immunity. Richard and Sue had decided it was time for "wishy washy" Kelly to go. One by one the tribe mates fell, Richard sang a rousing rendition of "99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall" much to some people's annoyance. They really wanted Colleen to win when it finally came down to Kelly and Colleen. Eventually Colleen fell in and Kelly won Immunity. Colleen was voted off the island. The jury now consisted solely of former Pagong members. Now it was the Tagi tribe against each other.
Kelly went to Richard and told him what had happened, saying, "I don't understand where this is coming from because I tried to make the Pagong team think that we weren't going to eliminate them one by one. I thought that was part of the gig. Sue doesn't have all the facts. I was trying to pretend that we weren't going to eliminate them one by one, as I said before, and I thought that was part of the plan, we had said when the come we were going to split up, try and hang out with them. I wasn't trying to work them for myself at all. They all wanted to vote you off. They all came to me and say hey, we can be a majority and vote you off. I didn't." Kelly, having stated her case, left Richard who was pleased at this development. It played to his advantage. Meanwhile Sue, who was trying to deep sea fish, got stung by a ray and her hand swelled up really badly. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain.
The days dragging on, the relationships falling apart, the last few survivors dreamed of going home again. Tree mail brought a new Reward Challenge in the form of a bucket of mud. The tribemates had to go to the mud volcano and, using only their bodies, carry as much mud as they could and get it into their buckets. Whoever had the most mud won a cold beer at a local bar where they'd watch the first episode of Survivor. Kelly, once again, won the challenge and was whisked away, blindfolded, to the "Survivor Bar" for beer and munchies and a preview of the show.
Sue and Kelly came to a sort of agreement. They'd co-exist on the island, be civil, but as far as any friendship or alliance was concerned, all bets were off. Neither one of them would let the other get into the final three. Sean knew that he had to win immunity and he was determined, no matter what, to get to the final 4. Tree mail revealed the next Immunity Challenge. It was a video camera that showed Jeff Probst in a sort of "Blair Witch Project" sort of scene telling them to get to the beach at sundown for the next challenge. Once there, Jeff told them stories of jungle lore and spirits. The contestants then had to run into the jungle, find masks placed in different locations and answer the questions written there on their individual cameras and get back to base to win. Again, Kelly won immunity. At Tribal Council, Sean was voted off the island. Now there were the original four core members of the Tagi alliance left.
The finale of the show had the jury being able to ask each of the last two a question. Nothing spectacular came from this, except for the fact that a spurned and burned Sue went on a rambling rampage about snakes and rats and how no-one should vote for Kelly. It made the other jury members extremely uncomfortable and as for Kelly, she was just so tired, she hardly cared anymore. The final vote was split down the middle and Richard Hatch won the million dollars by one vote. It was finally time to go home and get back to their lives.
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