Survivor: Gabon
Encyclopedia
Survivor: Gabon — Earth's Last Eden is the seventeenth season of the American CBS
competitive reality television
series Survivor
. The premiere aired September 25, 2008, with the first two episodes screened back-to-back.
Applications were due on January 24, 2008. Around March 2008, 800 applicants were selected for an interview by CBS
. Out of these 800, about 48 semi-finalists were selected to go to Los Angeles in April 2008. From these semi-finalists, 18 contestants were selected to participate in the show between late June and mid-July 2008. This season, players sent to Exile Island had a choice of receiving a clue to the location of a Hidden Immunity
Idol or a comfort item.
On April 13, 2008, at the National Association of Broadcasters
's annual show, Sony announced that the 17th season of Survivor would be the first to be shot in high definition
, using Sony
XDCAM
s.
Survivor: Gabon began filming in late June. It marked the second season of the series that was filmed in Africa (Survivor: Africa
had been filmed seven years earlier in Kenya
). Reports from Gabon indicate the show was filmed around the coastal towns of Nyonie and Ekwata in the Wonga-Wongue Presidential Reserve.
Host Jeff Probst
mentioned that preproduction of the series was plagued by shipment delays, a crane toppling over and undesirable wild animals encroaching into the production area.
The winner was 57-year-old Bob Crowley
, a high school physics teacher from Maine. He defeated Susie Smith and Jessica "Sugar" Kiper
in a 4-3-0 vote at the live finale to take the million dollar prize. In addition, Bob won the $100,000 "Sprint Survivor of the Season" award, beating out Sugar and Matty Whitmore who were next highest in the popular vote.
Jessica "Sugar" Kiper and Randy Bailey returned for Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains where they placed 20th and 18th respectively. Corinne Kaplan was asked to return, but declined due to work obligations.
Sugar later returned to reality TV as a patient on Celebrity Rehab.
On Day 22, both tribes were given clues suggesting a tribal merge; they enjoyed a celebratory meal, and discovered a hidden immunity idol nearby. Unanimously, the players agreed to throw the idol away into the ocean. They then discovered they were still separate tribes, mixed by random draw, and returned to their camps. After the next Tribal Council, the tribes were then merged. With knowledge of Sugar's hidden immunity idol, the former Fang members were able to send Bob to Exile. Bob quickly discovered the idol had been found, and used the opportunity to create a false immunity idol. By conspiring with Bob, Sugar was able to convince Randy that the false idol was the real thing, and Randy was voted off after attempting to play it. Bob, on another trip to Exile, constructed a second false idol, planning on claiming it as the idol thrown by the group at the pre-merge meal, but it never came into play. Without Randy, the former Kota alliance fell apart, with Ken convincing Bob and Susie to vote with their alliance. Going into the final six, Matty and Sugar, individually, broke away from Ken and Crystal, with Sugar still feeling betrayed by Ken from earlier. Neither Crystal nor Ken could avoid being eliminated from the game; Sugar ensured Crystal's elimination by giving her immunity idol to Matty at the last Tribal Council it could be used, while Bob had reneged on a deal with Ken to give immunity to him after winning it in a challenge, leaving him vulnerable at the next vote.
The final four were Matty, Sugar, Susie, and Bob. Susie won the final immunity challenge, leading the tribe to a 2-2 tie at the Tribal Council, with Susie and Matty voting as one bloc, and Sugar and Bob as another. Bob won the fire-making tiebreaker challenge over Matty. At the final Tribal Council, the jury were critical of Sugar's backstabbing and of Susie's coattail riding. They ultimately voted Bob as the Sole Survivor, 4 votes to Susie's 3, with Sugar receiving none.
Sugar was sent to Exile Island after not being chosen in the tribal switch picks of Episode Four. She joined the tribe that lost the Immunity Challenge, Fang.
Because Matty played the Hidden Immunity Idol, the two votes against him did not count.
Combined Reward/Individual Immunity Challenge. Tribal Immunity was not in play, therefore no castaway was eligible to be exiled or eliminated.
Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge.
Exile Island was not yet known to the castaways.
There was no Reward Challenge due to a tribal switch.
Individual Immunity Challenge instead of Tribal Immunity. Marcus chose Sugar to receive Individual Immunity after he won the challenge.
There was no Reward Challenge due to a tribal switch, therefore nobody was sent to Exile Island.
As part of a love day in which all castaways got to see their respective loved ones, nobody was sent to Exile Island.
The hidden immunity idol was null after day 36, therefore Exile Island was discontinued.
Lost in fire making tiebreaker challenge.
The castaways were welcomed to the game by Jeff with just their street clothes. After introducing themselves, the tribes were divided by schoolyard pick. As traditional in Gabon, Jeff announced that the elders usually make the decisions in the tribe and therefore the oldest castaways, Bob and Gillian, started the pick. After the tribes were picked, tribe names announced, and buffs passed out, Jeff announced the first challenge for individual Immunity Idols and extra food. Marcus and GC won individual Immunity Idols and Kota won the extra bag of food. At the Kota tribe, Bob and Ace took charge and organized the campsite. At the Fang tribe, a nighttime visit by an elephant spooked the tribe. Randy hit his head on the tribe's hut, requiring a visit by the Survivor medical team to put in several stitches. At a combined Reward/Immunity Challenge, Kota pulled far ahead while digging up the puzzle bags and won by a blowout. Before Tribal Council, Michelle and Gillian were targets for votes due to their negativity and age, respectively. Michelle's negativity outweighed concerns over age and she was voted out 8-1. After the vote, Jeff announced that Fang would be taking their torches back to camp and gave them a flint.
Picked as the leader of Fang at Tribal Council, GC started the tribe's first fire and organized jobs to fix up the campsite. At Kota, Charlie and Marcus formed an alliance; the two expanded their alliance to include Jacquie and Corinne. The four discussed bringing in Bob to have a majority, though Bob would be kept out of the core alliance of four. In the early morning of day 5, GC resigned his leadership of the tribe after arguing with Gillian over waking up early and making too much noise. After receiving tree mail announcing the next challenge, Dan tried to unify the tribe by painting everybody with charcoal face paint, but the motivation did not work and Kota won their third challenge in a row. Kota selected Dan to go to Exile Island, where he chose to get a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, but he was not able to decode the clue to find it. At Fang, Randy fashioned a fishing hook out of parts from his glasses and the tribe was finally able to get some meat. Gillian suggested to Susie that the two of them form an alliance, fearing they might have been next in line to be voted out since they were the oldest women in the game; she suggested the two vote off Ken because Gillian thought he was useless. Dan's behavior after he returned from Exile Island made the others suspicious that he had found the Hidden Immunity Idol. This caused some of the Fang tribe to reconsider voting out their weakest link, Gillian, and instead vote for Dan. At Tribal Council, Gillian's weakness at physical challenges was seen as a greater concern than Dan's potential of having the Hidden Immunity Idol and she was voted out 7-1.
At Fang, the argument over who was or was not the tribe leader continued. At Kota, the rest of the tribe was annoyed at Ace's attitude of being king of the tribe. At the Reward Challenge, Ace chose Paloma to hang on to the post. However, the Fang members easily overpowered her, leading to their first victory. They also elected to send Sugar to Exile Island. The win re-energized the Fang tribe and they finally felt like a team. Meanwhile, at Kota, Paloma's poor effort at the challenge caused her to be seen as the weakest link in the tribe. Corinne talked to Bob about joining her alliance of four, though she kept him in the dark about his status in the endgame. On Exile Island, Sugar elected to receive a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol over comfort and followed the clues to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. Sugar then revealed that her father's recent death was the motivation for her playing the game. During the Immunity Challenge, Ken secured Fang's victory by overcoming Kota's lead at the tile retrieval stage and solving the numeric puzzle before Bob. After the Immunity Challenge and back at their camp, Sugar told Ace that she found the Hidden Immunity Idol while leading the others to believe she didn't have it. Paloma approached Corinne about forming an alliance and targeting Ace for elimination, due to Ace being manipulative and trying to set her up for failure at the Reward Challenge. At Tribal Council, Ace's attitude at camp was discussed, but the tribe chose to remove their weakest physical link and voted out Paloma 7-2.
After Tribal Council, Ace was upset at Kelly's animosity towards him and her vote against him. In retaliation, he targeted her for the next elimination. Over at Fang, an alliance of Dan, Matty, Randy, and Susie formed and targeted GC for elimination. The remaining members of Fang, Crystal, GC, and Ken formed their own alliance. When the tribes next gathered, Jeff announced that the castaways would rank their tribemates by secret survey according to their importance within the tribe. Kota ranked Marcus as most important in their tribe followed by Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, and Kelly. Fang ranked Matty as most important in their tribe followed by Dan, Randy, Crystal, Ken, GC, and Susie. After announcing the rankings, Jeff told the castaways to drop their buffs as they would be picking new tribes by schoolyard pick once again. Voted as most important within their tribes, Marcus and Matty stayed with their original tribes and started the draft. The new Kota was Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, and Bob, while the new Fang tribe consisted of Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, and GC. As Sugar was not selected during the process, she was sent to Exile Island. She would stay there until after the next Tribal Council and then join the tribe that lost the next Immunity Challenge. Since she had already found the Hidden Immunity Idol, Sugar chose the comfort option at Exile Island. At the newly formed Fang campsite, Crystal noticed that Kelly felt like an outcast at the old Kota and invited her to join her alliance with GC and Ken. At the Immunity Challenge, Randy scored all three goals for Kota in their shutout
victory over Fang.
Kelly's poor performance at the challenge made Crystal, GC, and Ken reconsider their alliance with her, as they now perceived her as the weakest member of the tribe. However, they decided to target Jacquie instead, realizing that Sugar might have the Hidden Immunity Idol and with it, the trio of Ace, Sugar, and Jacquie would hold power within the tribe. They wanted to ensure that Ace in particular had as little power as possible, as he was also a physical threat. The three shared their plan with Matty to persuade him to vote their way, but he immediately informed Jacquie of the development. Jacquie tried to plead her case to Ken and Crystal, casting herself as an outsider who was not allied with Ace and really wanted to remain in the game. However, her effort was in vain, as the original Fang stuck to their plan at Tribal Council, voting Jacquie out 5-2.
Sugar arrived at Fang to join her new tribe and was surprised to see that Jacquie was voted out at the last Tribal Council. She continued to feign that she had not found the Hidden Immunity Idol, but Crystal did not believe her and targeted her next for elimination. On day 13, the Fang tribe were visited by an elephant
just across the river from their camp. At the Reward Challenge, a strategy change of tossing two fruit at a time over Ace defending the second wall helped Kota win the challenge by 2 pound (0.90718474 kg). Kota chose to send Sugar to Exile Island for the third time in a row, with Dan stating that it was a strategy move to force her to play the Hidden Immunity Idol before the tribal merge as they wanted it back into circulation. At Exile Island, Sugar once again opted for the comfort. At the Fang camp, the pressure of the game started to get to GC and he argued with Crystal. Immediately before they were to leave for the Immunity Challenge, he went off alone in the tribe's kayak, causing his tribemates to call out for him. He returned just before they left for the challenge. At the Immunity Challenge, Fang was in the lead until the last round of the challenge when Randy, the caller for Kota, tricked Ace, the blocker for Fang, into stopping and allowing the last Kota ball to reach the goal. The final points were enough for Kota to win the challenge, continuing their winning streak. Before Tribal Council, GC told Matty that he was ready to leave the game. Crystal searched Sugar's bag and found that Sugar had the Hidden Immunity Idol. Although Crystal, Kelly, Ken, and Matty believed that the upcoming Tribal Council was the ideal time to blindside Sugar, they decided instead to grant GC's wish to leave and he was voted out 6-1.
The day after Tribal Council, Matty and Ace made a pact to take each other to the tribal merger as long as Ace could keep Sugar in the game and Matty could keep Ken in the game. Matty swore on his girlfriend and Ace swore on his mother's life. Over at Kota, Dan's extra helpings of food caused conflict among the tribe while the dwindling food supplies at Fang made them rethink their rationing of food. After Ace told Sugar that he thought the rest of Fang went through her bag and discovered the Hidden Immunity Idol, she gave him the idol for safekeeping. At the Reward Challenge, Kota won their fourth consecutive challenge when Ken, Sugar, Kelly, and Crystal were unable to keep up and dropped out of the challenge, leaving an exhausted Ace and Matty to be chased down by the five men of Kota. Randy's taunting of an emotional Crystal did not sit well with her and she predicted that the old Fang and new Fang members would not get along. Kota chose to send Sugar back to Exile Island for the fourth time. Unlike her last visit where she enjoyed the food with the comfort, Sugar felt guilty about eating while her fellow tribe members subsisted on three scoops of rice. Kelly thought that Crystal crying after the Reward Challenge was a sign of weakness, but Crystal said that it was not. At the Immunity Challenge, good teamwork by Kota during the flag pole assembly versus Ace trying to assemble Fang's flag alone allowed Kota to extend their winning streak to five challenges in a row. After the challenge, Matty approached Ace about blindsiding Sugar to flush the Hidden Immunity Idol, but Ace convinced Matty not to worry about the Hidden Immunity Idol being played and to vote for Kelly, though Ace did not tell Matty that he had the idol. Crystal also wanted to blindside Sugar or vote out Ace, but Matty told her of Ace's plans. Ken talked to Matty about blindsiding Ace, but Matty told Ken that he made a promise that he could not break. Lastly, Ken talked to Sugar about Ace and she told Ken that she had given the idol to Ace. Ken was unable to convince Sugar to change her alliances, but Ken did make sure that Sugar took the idol back from Ace. At Tribal Council, none of the blindside plans came to fruition and Kelly was voted out 5-1.
The day after Tribal Council, Crystal accidentally kicked over Fang's rice supply, which upset Ace and Matty. At the Kota camp, the alliance of Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus made Dan uncomfortable and he approached them feeling left out. At the Reward Challenge, Kota continued their winning streak by shutting out Fang 3-0; Sugar was chosen to go to Exile Island for the fifth consecutive time. Back at camp, Matty voiced his frustration at Sugar's lack of effort at the challenge. Matty offered Ace a plan to vote out Sugar without Ace having to stab her in the back, but Ace wanted to vote out Crystal instead. Meanwhile, Ken talked to Crystal about blindsiding Ace. During Kota's reward picnic, a crew member of the helicopter surprised them with letters from home. At the Immunity Challenge, Jeff announced that both tribes would be going to Tribal Council, that they would be playing for Individual Immunity, and there would be a twist announced after the Challenge was done. Marcus won the Individual Immunity by defeating Sugar and Ace. The twist was that Marcus had to assign Individual Immunity to one member of the other tribe and he selected Sugar. After the Immunity Challenge, Ken, in an effort to blindside Ace, told Sugar about Ace and Matty plotting to vote her out. Later, Ace asked Sugar to give him the Hidden Immunity Idol, which made her think Ken's story was true. At Fang's Tribal Council, Ken's plan to blindside Ace came to fruition as Sugar cast the deciding vote against Ace and he was voted out 3-2. The afternoon before Kota's Tribal Council, Dan scrambled to keep himself in the game. Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus replaced Bob in their alliance with Randy, though they did not tell Bob. Susie upset Corinne by telling her she had planned to vote for her. Corinne immediately went to her alliance and told them that she wanted to vote out Susie. Corinne, Charlie, Marcus, Randy, and Bob split their votes between Dan and Susie, convincing each to vote for the other and hoping that the immunity idol would be flushed out if Dan had it in his possession. At Tribal Council, Dan was voted out 4-3.
Back at camp after Tribal Council, Marcus and Corinne addressed Susie over her opinion that she was a stronger player than Corinne. Over at Fang's camp site, the tribe tried to start over and looked ahead to an expected tribal merger. After tree mail hinted at a tribal merge, the castaways packed up their personal items and went to a beach for a feast. At the feast, a clue for a second Hidden Immunity Idol was tucked under a locked box that the castaways would open after the feast was over. Ken noticed the note first, but when he tried to get the note for himself, Charlie saw the note and forced Ken to share the note with everybody. When nobody showed much interest in going to find the idol for fear of looking greedy, Marcus proposed to dig up the Hidden Immunity Idol, but to throw it in the ocean so that nobody could use it. Although many were tempted to take the Idol, the castaways finally agreed to throw it in to the ocean. When the castaways opened the locked box, they were instructed to each draw a numbered stone from a bag. A second note was then read, stating that they had just selected new tribes. Castaways with odd numbers would be the new Fang and the even numbers the new Kota. At the new Kota, Marcus identified Crystal as the cousin of one of his friends, forming a connection with her. The two agreed not to write each other's names down at Tribal Council, but Crystal later stated in a confessional she had no intention to be loyal to him. Marcus tried to convince Susie to join his alliance with himself and Bob. At the new Fang, Corinne felt that the greatest threat to her alliance with Marcus was Matty and she wanted to vote him out next. Matty told Sugar that Ace never targeted her contrary to what Ken told her and she felt bad about blindsiding Ace at the last Tribal Council. The two formed a new alliance. Concerned over how Susie would vote at a Kota Tribal Council, Randy talked to Charlie and Corinne about throwing the next Immunity Challenge to force Fang to go to Tribal Council where the three would vote out Matty. At the Immunity Challenge, Matty outlasted Bob and he won the challenge for Fang, spoiling the Charlie-Corinne-Randy alliance's plans. Marcus tried to keep the Kota six alliance going by approaching Crystal about replacing Susie in the Kota six and voting out Ken followed by Susie, but she did not want to vote out her ally, Ken. Marcus told a different story to Susie, telling her the plan would be to vote out Ken followed by Crystal. He also promised to take Susie to the final three. Not wanting to betray her long term alliance with Ken, Crystal told Ken what Marcus told her. Crystal tried to convince Susie that Marcus's promise of a final three was not possible because Corinne and Randy disliked Susie too much to allow that to happen. At Tribal Council, Susie decided to join Crystal and Ken, and they blindsided Marcus 3-2.
Several castaways expected a merge notice via tree mail, but instead the tribes received a Reward Challenge note. Before the beginning of the Reward Challenge, Charlie and Corinne were very upset at Marcus being voted out at the last Tribal Council. Fang came from behind to win the Reward Challenge. Corinne announced that Fang was going to send Bob to Exile Island, hoping that he would find the Hidden Immunity Idol, but not knowing that Sugar had already found the idol. At Exile Island, Bob followed the clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol and found the location where the idol would have been. Unable to find the idol and thinking that Sugar may have found it, Bob fabricated a fake Hidden Immunity Idol that he hoped to use as a bluff. On day 27, before the start of the Immunity Challenge, Jeff announced that the tribes had merged. Susie and Sugar were the only two castaways to get a fire started during the Immunity Challenge, with Susie being the first to burn through her rope. The castaways returned to the old Fang campsite, found that they had received new food supplies, and named themselves Nobag ("Gabon" backwards). The alliance of Charlie, Corinne, and Randy saw Sugar as a swing vote at Tribal Council to vote for Crystal, whom Randy wanted voted out. Sugar told Charlie and Corinne that she could not live with Randy any more and Corinne tried to convince Sugar that if she voted with their alliance that they would vote Randy out next. To get revenge for forcing him to share the note about the second Hidden Immunity Idol at the feast, Ken decided to blindside Charlie by fabricating a story that Charlie was the brains behind the Kota alliance. Ken told the story to his alliance of Crystal, Matty, and Susie who believed his story and agreed to vote for Charlie. Ken told the same story to Sugar in an effort to get her vote for Charlie. At Tribal Council, Crystal confronted Randy over why he disliked her so much. Sugar joined the alliance of Crystal, Ken, Matty, and Susie, because she did not want to align with Randy and Corinne, and Charlie was blindsided 5-4.
Not knowing that Sugar had the Hidden Immunity Idol, Bob told her that he did not have it and showed her the fake idol that he made. Instead of a Reward Challenge, a Survivor Auction was held. The second item up for bid was unknown as it was covered. After making the winning bid, Ken discovered he had won the right to send somebody to Exile Island and take their money. He chose Bob who immediately departed for Exile Island. For the second to last item at the auction, Corinne won a sealed bottle with a note that would give her an advantage at the next Immunity Challenge. Randy won the last item of the auction, chocolate chip cookies to share with the tribe. Sugar declined the first cookie offered to her which Randy then split between Matty and Corinne. Without taking one for himself, Randy offered Sugar the last cookie. She took it and gave it to Matty which upset Randy. At Exile Island, after getting no additional help from the Hidden Immunity Idol clue, Bob decided to go on a personal safari instead of looking for the idol. After the auction, Corinne and Randy talked to Matty about joining their alliance with Bob. Instead of joining with Corinne and Randy, Matty lobbied his alliance to vote out Bob next instead of Randy. Randy decided that the only option available to his alliance was to annoy the Fang alliance, get them to all vote for him, pull out the Hidden Immunity Idol that he assumed Bob had found, and blindside Susie at Tribal Council in revenge for her flipping to the Fang alliance. Randy told Matty that Matty had "whored [himself] out" to the original Kota alliance, at which point Matty rescinded his voting off order and gave into his alliance's want of voting Randy off. At the Immunity Challenge, Corinne's sealed note that she bought at the Survivor Auction stated that she would skip the first round and go directly to the final round. Despite her advantage, Ken defeated her and Matty in the final round. After the Immunity Challenge, Bob told Sugar that he still did not have the Hidden Immunity Idol and she told him that he should give his fake idol to Randy. Figuring that he had nothing to lose and it would keep him in the game, Bob agreed to Sugar's plan and gave Randy the fake idol. At Tribal Council, Randy pulled out the idol before the votes were read. Jeff announced that it was a fake idol and Randy was voted out 5-3.
Back at camp after Tribal Council, Bob was upset at all of the laughing when Randy was voted out. Corinne and Sugar argued over how to play the game. At the Reward Challenge, the castaways got to view a short video clip from their loved ones before the schoolyard pick. Jeff said that the castaways' loved ones were not around the corner and he only had the videos of them. Because "today is all about love" according to Jeff, nobody was sent to Exile Island. The schoolyard pick resulted in one team of Susie, Matty, and Ken and another team of Crystal, Sugar, and Bob; Corinne was not picked, so she could not win. The team of Bob, Crystal, and Sugar came from behind to win the first round of the challenge and moved on to the final round. Bob won the Reward Challenge by quickly solving his sliding puzzle first. While Bob was watching the video clip from his wife, she paused and said that there was "something I wanted to show you" and moved off-camera. Contrary to what Jeff said at the start of the Reward Challenge, Peggy, Bob's wife, was in Gabon and she stepped around the corner to surprise Bob. Bob and Peggy then walked hand in hand to the Nobag campsite to meet the rest of the castaways. After introducing his wife to the tribe, Bob turned and whistled to signal the other castaways' loved ones to make an appearance. Matty proposed
to his girlfriend, Jamie. The loved ones departed camp before sundown. Bob shared with Corinne a plan to blindside Matty where Bob would make up a second fake Immunity Idol and tell the Fang alliance that it was the idol that Marcus threw into the ocean. Bob's story was that Marcus only threw the bottle into the ocean, had hidden the idol around the camp, and told Bob where it was. At the Immunity Challenge, Bob won by throwing his second ball one zone from the center. With Bob's win, Corinne expanded upon her blindsiding plan with Bob by concocting the story that Bob would have played the idol tossed into the ocean at the next Tribal Council, but since he won Individual Immunity, he would give Corinne the lost idol. Bob and Corinne hoped that the threat of Corinne having an idol would deter the Fang alliance from voting for her and would instead vote for Matty. Corinne told the story to Ken, which he believed and he suggested that Bob and Corinne approach Crystal with their plan. Bob told the story to Crystal and showed her the second fake idol. Crystal and Ken talked about their voting strategy under this plan where Ken would vote for Matty, Crystal would vote for Corinne, resulting in a 4-3 vote split between Corinne and Matty, respectively, Corinne would play the lost idol negating votes against her, the lost idol would be flushed, and Matty would be going home. At Tribal Council, the vote went as Crystal and Ken planned, Corinne's bluff was called and she was voted out 4-3.
After the castaways returned from Tribal Council, Matty was upset because Ken voted for him. Ken told Matty about Bob and Corinne's Hidden Immunity Idol, but Matty did not believe him. Ken confronted Bob about the fake Hidden Immunity Idol. Bob promised Ken that if he won the next Immunity Challenge that he would give the immunity necklace to Ken. Bob won the Reward Challenge and chose to take Crystal and Ken along on the trip and to send Susie to Exile Island. While on the trip, Bob reiterated his promise to give the immunity necklace to Ken. Ken decided that he would only take it if he felt he was in danger of being voted out. On Exile Island, Susie selected the comfort choice because she knew that Sugar already had the Hidden Immunity Idol. Back at camp, Matty tried to get Sugar to give him the Hidden Immunity Idol. After returning from the reward trip, Crystal yelled at Matty for him questioning Crystal and Ken's loyalty to him. The yelling made Sugar change her opinion about Crystal and Ken. She told Matty that he would not be going home after the next Tribal Council and hatched a plan to take out Crystal and Ken. At the Immunity Challenge, Bob won immunity for the second time in a row and the fourth challenge in a row. Ken told Crystal, Matty, and Sugar that Bob would give him the immunity necklace if they all told Bob that they would be voting for Ken, so they should tell Bob that and then vote for Bob instead to blindside him. Sugar told Bob of Ken's plan, that she would not vote for him, and to vote for Crystal. At Tribal Council, Bob and Ken said that their agreement over the immunity necklace would be that Bob would give it to Ken if Bob felt that Ken was in danger of being voted out. Jeff stated that this Tribal Council would be the last Tribal Council where the Hidden Immunity Idol could be played. Sugar was openly wearing the Hidden Immunity Idol. Before the voting started, Jeff asked Bob if he was going to give up the Immunity necklace. Bob stated that he was not going to give up the necklace as he thought Ken was not going to go home. Before the votes were tallied, Sugar gave the Hidden Immunity Idol to Matty who then presented it to Jeff. The votes cast against Matty were negated, leaving only the votes against Crystal to count (even though she had already received four of the six votes). She was voted out with a vote of 4-0.
Ken felt that Bob reneged on his deal to hand over the immunity necklace at the last Tribal Council. Sugar worked on re-establishing Ken's trust in her even as she plotted with Bob to vote out Susie and Ken next. At the Immunity Challenge, Bob narrowly beat Sugar, winning immunity for the third straight time and the fifth consecutive challenge. At Tribal Council, Ken felt confident going into Tribal Council that he would not be voted out, but that confidence was misplaced as he was voted out 4–1.
Before the start of the final Immunity Challenge, the Final Four took the traditional journey honoring the castaways voted out before them. Susie broke Bob's challenge winning streak by having built the tallest house of cards after 30 minutes. Sugar thought about forcing a tie at the next Tribal Council due to her loyalty towards Bob for being a father figure
. Bob went off into the trees to practice starting a fire, anticipating a fire making tiebreaker challenge. At Tribal Council, Sugar did force a 2-2 tie between Bob and Matty. The tiebreaker challenge was fire making, which Bob won after resuscitating his initial fire; Matty did not manage to even get one started.
The Final Three spent their last day at camp eating the traditional feast and burning down one of the huts at the campsite. At the final Tribal Council, Charlie asked Sugar and Susie why they felt they should be voted at the "top of the totem pole" even though they were ranked the second lowest and lowest, respectively, among their tribes before the first tribal switch. He asked Bob if the "intimate cuddling and spooning all night long" was more enjoyable than he would liked to admit. Crystal asked no question of Susie, asked Bob to tell her something that Sugar didn't tell him to do, and asked Sugar why she voted her out. Ken asked Susie why she thought she deserved the million dollars and his vote, asked Sugar why she back stabbed him, and Bob about their deal over the immunity necklace. Corinne asked Susie if she would be willing to have her vocal cords removed if she were to win the million dollars. She asked Bob to show the nasty side of Bob and make her believe that he did not like Sugar. She did not ask a question to Sugar, but instead took the opportunity to insult her by making a callous comment about her deceased father, to which Sugar gave an obscene gesture
. Marcus asked no questions of Susie, what Sugar would do to honor her deceased father if she were to win, and for Bob to give one example of a situation were he was responsible for his decisions. Randy asked Susie to elaborate on the time that Susie said she felt sorry for him and Sugar and Bob if they considered the consequences of putting him on the jury when they gave him the fake Hidden Immunity Idol. Matty asked Susie to tell him why Bob and Sugar were less deserving that she was of the million dollars, Sugar to reveal something that she felt that she did was evil, and Bob why Sugar and Susie were more deserving of the million dollar prize than he was. In the end, the jury voted Bob the Sole Survivor with a vote of 4-3-0 over Susie.
Sugar was sent to Exile Island after not being chosen in the tribal switch picks of Episode Four. She joined the tribe that lost the Immunity Challenge, Fang.
playback (2.33 million viewers), according to Nielsen prime DVR lift data
from September 22, 2008 – November 23, 2008.
for a brief, uncensored glimpse of Marcus's genitals when the tip
was partially exposed through the fly
of his boxer shorts
. The exposure occurred on the season opener during the second Immunity Challenge while Marcus raced alongside fellow contestants.
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
competitive reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series Survivor
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...
. The premiere aired September 25, 2008, with the first two episodes screened back-to-back.
Applications were due on January 24, 2008. Around March 2008, 800 applicants were selected for an interview by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. Out of these 800, about 48 semi-finalists were selected to go to Los Angeles in April 2008. From these semi-finalists, 18 contestants were selected to participate in the show between late June and mid-July 2008. This season, players sent to Exile Island had a choice of receiving a clue to the location of a Hidden Immunity
Immunity (reality television)
Immunity in reality television is a concept that is widely used in weekly elimination-type reality television shows by which a contestant participating in such a show may not be "kicked off" or eliminated from competition in a particular time period...
Idol or a comfort item.
On April 13, 2008, at the National Association of Broadcasters
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
's annual show, Sony announced that the 17th season of Survivor would be the first to be shot in high definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
, using Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
XDCAM
XDCAM
XDCAM is a a series of products for digital recording using random access solid-state memory media, introduced by Sony in 2003. Four different product lines — the XDCAM SD, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD422 — differ in types of encoder used, frame size, container type and in...
s.
Survivor: Gabon began filming in late June. It marked the second season of the series that was filmed in Africa (Survivor: Africa
Survivor: Africa
Survivor: Africa is the third season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed during 2001 and aired from October 11, 2001 - January 10, 2002 on CBS. It was set in Kenya's Shaba National Reserve on the African continent....
had been filmed seven years earlier in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
). Reports from Gabon indicate the show was filmed around the coastal towns of Nyonie and Ekwata in the Wonga-Wongue Presidential Reserve.
Host Jeff Probst
Jeff Probst
Jeffrey Lee "Jeff" Probst is an American game show host, executive producer and a reporter. He is best known as the host of the U.S. version of the reality show Survivor.-Biography:...
mentioned that preproduction of the series was plagued by shipment delays, a crane toppling over and undesirable wild animals encroaching into the production area.
The winner was 57-year-old Bob Crowley
Robert Crowley (Survivor contestant)
Robert "Bob" Crowley is the $1,000,000 winner of the American television show Survivor: Gabon. On December 14, 2008, it was revealed that he had been voted the winner, receiving four out of the seven votes and thus beating out hairdresser Susie Smith and pin-up model Jessica "Sugar" Kiper...
, a high school physics teacher from Maine. He defeated Susie Smith and Jessica "Sugar" Kiper
Jessica Kiper
Jessica Michele Kiper is an American actress and singer. Kiper was also a runner-up contestant on Survivor: Gabon where she placed third. She was more commonly known to the viewing audience during her run on Survivor as Sugar. She returned to Survivor to compete on the show's 20th season:...
in a 4-3-0 vote at the live finale to take the million dollar prize. In addition, Bob won the $100,000 "Sprint Survivor of the Season" award, beating out Sugar and Matty Whitmore who were next highest in the popular vote.
Jessica "Sugar" Kiper and Randy Bailey returned for Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains where they placed 20th and 18th respectively. Corinne Kaplan was asked to return, but declined due to work obligations.
Sugar later returned to reality TV as a patient on Celebrity Rehab.
Season summary
The players were divided into tribes by a schoolyard pick, with the oldest players, Bob (Kota) and Gillian (Fang) starting the process. It became evident that Fang was the weaker tribe, losing many of the reward and immunity challenges, even after a tribal switch; however, a core alliance between Matty, Ken, and Crystal developed. On Kota, a series of alliances were formed, further expanded upon the first tribal switch when joined by Randy. Both the hidden immunity idol and Exile Island were in play; the winning tribe on reward challenges was able to send one of the losing tribe's members to the latter. At Exile, that player had the option of a clue to the immunity idol hidden near Exile (ultimately leading to a string of hidden clues to the idol), or to relax in a small shack with a provision of fruit and a hammock. Sugar was the second player to visit Exile, and found the idol on her first visit; taking the strategy from previous seasons of keeping the number of players that have visited Exile small, Sugar was repeatedly sent back to Exile, where, isolated from both tribes, she relaxed most of the time. Sugar's idol was eventually discovered by Matty, Ken, and Crystal, and they decided to bring her into their group, with Ken convincing her to vote off her own alliance partner Ace who he claimed was using her for the idol.On Day 22, both tribes were given clues suggesting a tribal merge; they enjoyed a celebratory meal, and discovered a hidden immunity idol nearby. Unanimously, the players agreed to throw the idol away into the ocean. They then discovered they were still separate tribes, mixed by random draw, and returned to their camps. After the next Tribal Council, the tribes were then merged. With knowledge of Sugar's hidden immunity idol, the former Fang members were able to send Bob to Exile. Bob quickly discovered the idol had been found, and used the opportunity to create a false immunity idol. By conspiring with Bob, Sugar was able to convince Randy that the false idol was the real thing, and Randy was voted off after attempting to play it. Bob, on another trip to Exile, constructed a second false idol, planning on claiming it as the idol thrown by the group at the pre-merge meal, but it never came into play. Without Randy, the former Kota alliance fell apart, with Ken convincing Bob and Susie to vote with their alliance. Going into the final six, Matty and Sugar, individually, broke away from Ken and Crystal, with Sugar still feeling betrayed by Ken from earlier. Neither Crystal nor Ken could avoid being eliminated from the game; Sugar ensured Crystal's elimination by giving her immunity idol to Matty at the last Tribal Council it could be used, while Bob had reneged on a deal with Ken to give immunity to him after winning it in a challenge, leaving him vulnerable at the next vote.
The final four were Matty, Sugar, Susie, and Bob. Susie won the final immunity challenge, leading the tribe to a 2-2 tie at the Tribal Council, with Susie and Matty voting as one bloc, and Sugar and Bob as another. Bob won the fire-making tiebreaker challenge over Matty. At the final Tribal Council, the jury were critical of Sugar's backstabbing and of Susie's coattail riding. They ultimately voted Bob as the Sole Survivor, 4 votes to Susie's 3, with Sugar receiving none.
Contestants
| Contestant | Original Tribe | First Switch | Second Switch | Merged Tribe | Finish | Total Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michelle Chase 24, Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
1st Voted Out Day 3 |
8 | ||||
| Gillian Larson 61, Temecula, CA Temecula, California Temecula is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States with a population of 100,097 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it the lowest populated American city over 100,000 population. It was incorporated on December 1, 1989... |
2nd Voted Out Day 6 |
8 | ||||
| Paloma Soto-Castillo 23, Downey, CA Downey, California Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died... |
3rd Voted Out Day 9 |
7 | ||||
| Jacquie Berg 25, Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean... |
4th Voted Out Day 12 |
5 | ||||
| Danny "GC" Brown 25, Portland, OR Portland, Oregon Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States... |
5th Voted Out Day 15 |
6 | ||||
| Kelly Czarnecki 22, Buffalo Grove, IL Buffalo Grove, Illinois Buffalo Grove is an affluent village located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and in Cook and Lake counties in Illinois, United States. The town was named for Buffalo Creek, which was itself named for bison bones found in the area.... |
6th Voted Out Day 18 |
8 | ||||
| Ace Gordon 27, Naples, FL Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007... |
7th Voted Out Day 21 |
5 | ||||
| Dan Kay 32, Boston, MA |
8th Voted Out Day 21 |
4 | ||||
| Marcus Lehman 28, Atlanta, GA |
9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24 |
3 | ||||
| Charlie Herschel 29, New York, NY |
align="center" rowspan=9 | 10th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27 |
5 | |||
| Randy Bailey 49, Eagle Rock, MO Eagle Rock, Missouri Eagle Rock, Missouri is an unincorporated community in Barry County.It is located on Route 86 near Table Rock Lake.Eagle Rock has a state campground, public marina, and the... |
11th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30 |
5 | ||||
| Corinne Kaplan 29, Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
12th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33 |
4 | ||||
| Crystal Cox Crystal Cox Crystal Cox is an American track and field athlete and was a contestant on the seventeenth season of the reality show Survivor.- Olympics :... 29, Durham, NC Durham, North Carolina Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census... |
13th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36 |
11 | ||||
| Ken Hoang Ken Hoang Ken "Kenny" Hoang is a Vietnamese American professional electronic sports player who plays Super Smash Bros. Melee and has earned $50,000+ USD doing so.... 22, Westminster, CA Westminster, California -Government:In the state legislature Westminster is located in the 34th, Senate District, represented by Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Tom Harman respectively, and in the 67th and 68th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Jim Silva and Van Tran respectively... |
14th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37 |
7 | ||||
| Matty Whitmore 29, Pacific Palisades, CA |
15th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38 |
5 | ||||
| Jessica "Sugar" Kiper Jessica Kiper Jessica Michele Kiper is an American actress and singer. Kiper was also a runner-up contestant on Survivor: Gabon where she placed third. She was more commonly known to the viewing audience during her run on Survivor as Sugar. She returned to Survivor to compete on the show's 20th season:... 29, Brooklyn, NY |
2nd Runner-Up | 0 | ||||
| Susie Smith 47, Charles City, IA Charles City, Iowa Charles City is a city in Floyd County, Iowa, United States. The population was 7,652 at the 2010 census a decrease of 160, or 2%, from 7,812 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Floyd County. Charles City is a significant commercial and transportation center for the area, located on U.S... |
Runner-Up | 7 | ||||
| Robert "Bob" Crowley Robert Crowley (Survivor contestant) Robert "Bob" Crowley is the $1,000,000 winner of the American television show Survivor: Gabon. On December 14, 2008, it was revealed that he had been voted the winner, receiving four out of the seven votes and thus beating out hairdresser Susie Smith and pin-up model Jessica "Sugar" Kiper... 57, South Portland, ME South Portland, Maine South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state. Founded in 1895, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,002. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is situated on Portland Harbor and overlooks the skyline of... |
Sole Survivor | 2 |
- The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.
Sugar was sent to Exile Island after not being chosen in the tribal switch picks of Episode Four. She joined the tribe that lost the Immunity Challenge, Fang.
Because Matty played the Hidden Immunity Idol, the two votes against him did not count.
The game
| Episode Titles | First air date | Challenges | Exiled | Eliminated | Vote | Finish | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reward | Immunity | ||||||
| "Want to See the Elephant Dung?" | September 25, 2008 | rowspan=2 | None | rowspan=3 | 8–1 | 1st Voted Out Day 3 |
|
| colspan=2 | |||||||
| colspan=2 | 7–1 | 2nd Voted Out Day 6 |
|||||
| "She Obviously Is Post-Op!" | October 2, 2008 | 7–2 | 3rd Voted Out Day 9 |
||||
| "It Was Like Christmas Morning!" | October 9, 2008 | None | Sugar | 5–2 | 4th Voted Out Day 12 |
||
| "This Camp Is Cursed" | October 16, 2008 | 6–1 | 5th Voted Out Day 15 |
||||
| "He's a Snake, But He's My Snake" | October 23, 2008 | 5–1 | 6th Voted Out Day 18 |
||||
| "It All Depends On the Pin-Up Girl" | October 30, 2008 | rowspan=2 | rowspan=2 | 3–2 | 7th Voted Out Day 21 |
||
| 4–3 | 8th Voted Out Day 21 |
||||||
| "Apple in the Garden of Eden" | November 6, 2008 | None | None | 3–2 | 9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24 |
||
| "The Brains Behind Everything" | November 13, 2008 | 5–4 | 10th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27 |
||||
| "Nothing Tastes Better Than Five Hundred Dollars" | November 20, 2008 | Survivor Auction | 5–3 | 11th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30 |
|||
| "I Was Put On The Planet For This Show" | November 27, 2008 | Recap Episode | |||||
| "The Good Things in Life Aren’t Easy" | December 4, 2008 | None | 4–3 | 12th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33 |
|||
| "The Good Guys Should Win in the End" | December 11, 2008 | 4–0 | 13th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 36 |
||||
| "Say Goodbye to Gabon" | December 14, 2008 | None | None | 4–1 | 14th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37 |
||
| 2–2 | 15th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38 |
||||||
| Reunion | December 14, 2008 | Jury Vote | 4–3–0 | 2nd Runner-Up | |||
| Runner-Up | |||||||
| Sole Survivor | |||||||
- In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.
Combined Reward/Individual Immunity Challenge. Tribal Immunity was not in play, therefore no castaway was eligible to be exiled or eliminated.
Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge.
Exile Island was not yet known to the castaways.
There was no Reward Challenge due to a tribal switch.
Individual Immunity Challenge instead of Tribal Immunity. Marcus chose Sugar to receive Individual Immunity after he won the challenge.
There was no Reward Challenge due to a tribal switch, therefore nobody was sent to Exile Island.
As part of a love day in which all castaways got to see their respective loved ones, nobody was sent to Exile Island.
The hidden immunity idol was null after day 36, therefore Exile Island was discontinued.
Lost in fire making tiebreaker challenge.
Episodes 1 and 2: "Want to See the Elephant Dung?"
- Tribal Reward/Individual Immunity Challenge: The tribes would have to race across the plain and up a hill. The first castaway from each tribe to the top of the hill would win an Individual Immunity Idol that would only be good at their tribe's first Tribal Council. The first entire tribe to the top of the hill would win.
- Reward: An extra bag of corn and beans
- Reward/Immunity Challenge: Six tribe members would be belted together and have to race through a swamp, over a net wall, and under and over a series of hitching posts. The six would then have to dig up three bags of puzzle pieces and deliver them to the three remaining tribe members. These three would then assemble the puzzle pieces to win the challenge.
- Reward: Flint and Immunity
The castaways were welcomed to the game by Jeff with just their street clothes. After introducing themselves, the tribes were divided by schoolyard pick. As traditional in Gabon, Jeff announced that the elders usually make the decisions in the tribe and therefore the oldest castaways, Bob and Gillian, started the pick. After the tribes were picked, tribe names announced, and buffs passed out, Jeff announced the first challenge for individual Immunity Idols and extra food. Marcus and GC won individual Immunity Idols and Kota won the extra bag of food. At the Kota tribe, Bob and Ace took charge and organized the campsite. At the Fang tribe, a nighttime visit by an elephant spooked the tribe. Randy hit his head on the tribe's hut, requiring a visit by the Survivor medical team to put in several stitches. At a combined Reward/Immunity Challenge, Kota pulled far ahead while digging up the puzzle bags and won by a blowout. Before Tribal Council, Michelle and Gillian were targets for votes due to their negativity and age, respectively. Michelle's negativity outweighed concerns over age and she was voted out 8-1. After the vote, Jeff announced that Fang would be taking their torches back to camp and gave them a flint.
- Reward/Immunity Challenge: The tribes have to roll a large ball through a series of gates. At two points along the course, a tribe member would have to climb atop the ball to retrieve of set of keys. At the final gate, the keys would unlock three chains that blocked the gate. The first tribe to go through all the gates and roll their boulder atop a short pedestal wins.
- Reward: Fishing gear and Immunity
Picked as the leader of Fang at Tribal Council, GC started the tribe's first fire and organized jobs to fix up the campsite. At Kota, Charlie and Marcus formed an alliance; the two expanded their alliance to include Jacquie and Corinne. The four discussed bringing in Bob to have a majority, though Bob would be kept out of the core alliance of four. In the early morning of day 5, GC resigned his leadership of the tribe after arguing with Gillian over waking up early and making too much noise. After receiving tree mail announcing the next challenge, Dan tried to unify the tribe by painting everybody with charcoal face paint, but the motivation did not work and Kota won their third challenge in a row. Kota selected Dan to go to Exile Island, where he chose to get a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol, but he was not able to decode the clue to find it. At Fang, Randy fashioned a fishing hook out of parts from his glasses and the tribe was finally able to get some meat. Gillian suggested to Susie that the two of them form an alliance, fearing they might have been next in line to be voted out since they were the oldest women in the game; she suggested the two vote off Ken because Gillian thought he was useless. Dan's behavior after he returned from Exile Island made the others suspicious that he had found the Hidden Immunity Idol. This caused some of the Fang tribe to reconsider voting out their weakest link, Gillian, and instead vote for Dan. At Tribal Council, Gillian's weakness at physical challenges was seen as a greater concern than Dan's potential of having the Hidden Immunity Idol and she was voted out 7-1.
Episode 3: "She Obviously Is Post-Op!"
- Reward Challenge: One member of each tribe would hang on to a post. Two members of the opposing tribe would attempt to remove the tribe member from the post and drag them across the sand to the finish line. The first tribe to get the member of the other tribe across the finish line would receive one point. The first tribe to score two points wins.
- Reward: Blankets, a hammock, pillows, and a mat
- Immunity Challenge: One at a time, six tribe members would slide down a water slideWater slideA water slide is a type of slide designed for warm-weather or indoor recreational use at water parks. Water slides differ in their riding method and therefore size...
. They would then swim out to retrieve a numbered tile, then run up the hill they slid down to drop their number off. Once all six tiles were retrieved, the remaining castaway would use the tiles to solve a numeric puzzle. The answer to the puzzle is a combination to open a locked chest which holds an ax. The first tribe to open their chest and use the ax to cut a rope that would raise their tribe's flag would win.
At Fang, the argument over who was or was not the tribe leader continued. At Kota, the rest of the tribe was annoyed at Ace's attitude of being king of the tribe. At the Reward Challenge, Ace chose Paloma to hang on to the post. However, the Fang members easily overpowered her, leading to their first victory. They also elected to send Sugar to Exile Island. The win re-energized the Fang tribe and they finally felt like a team. Meanwhile, at Kota, Paloma's poor effort at the challenge caused her to be seen as the weakest link in the tribe. Corinne talked to Bob about joining her alliance of four, though she kept him in the dark about his status in the endgame. On Exile Island, Sugar elected to receive a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol over comfort and followed the clues to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. Sugar then revealed that her father's recent death was the motivation for her playing the game. During the Immunity Challenge, Ken secured Fang's victory by overcoming Kota's lead at the tile retrieval stage and solving the numeric puzzle before Bob. After the Immunity Challenge and back at their camp, Sugar told Ace that she found the Hidden Immunity Idol while leading the others to believe she didn't have it. Paloma approached Corinne about forming an alliance and targeting Ace for elimination, due to Ace being manipulative and trying to set her up for failure at the Reward Challenge. At Tribal Council, Ace's attitude at camp was discussed, but the tribe chose to remove their weakest physical link and voted out Paloma 7-2.
Episode 4: "It Was Like Christmas Morning!"
- Immunity Challenge: The tribes would play a lacrosseLacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
-like game on the water. Each tribe member would be on a raft and have a paddle. Each round, Probst would toss a ball into the water. The castaways would paddle around the playing field, using the paddle to pass the ball from one tribemate to another. The first tribe to throw the ball three times into their opponents goal would win.
After Tribal Council, Ace was upset at Kelly's animosity towards him and her vote against him. In retaliation, he targeted her for the next elimination. Over at Fang, an alliance of Dan, Matty, Randy, and Susie formed and targeted GC for elimination. The remaining members of Fang, Crystal, GC, and Ken formed their own alliance. When the tribes next gathered, Jeff announced that the castaways would rank their tribemates by secret survey according to their importance within the tribe. Kota ranked Marcus as most important in their tribe followed by Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, and Kelly. Fang ranked Matty as most important in their tribe followed by Dan, Randy, Crystal, Ken, GC, and Susie. After announcing the rankings, Jeff told the castaways to drop their buffs as they would be picking new tribes by schoolyard pick once again. Voted as most important within their tribes, Marcus and Matty stayed with their original tribes and started the draft. The new Kota was Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, and Bob, while the new Fang tribe consisted of Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, and GC. As Sugar was not selected during the process, she was sent to Exile Island. She would stay there until after the next Tribal Council and then join the tribe that lost the next Immunity Challenge. Since she had already found the Hidden Immunity Idol, Sugar chose the comfort option at Exile Island. At the newly formed Fang campsite, Crystal noticed that Kelly felt like an outcast at the old Kota and invited her to join her alliance with GC and Ken. At the Immunity Challenge, Randy scored all three goals for Kota in their shutout
Shutout
In team sports, a shutout refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball....
victory over Fang.
Kelly's poor performance at the challenge made Crystal, GC, and Ken reconsider their alliance with her, as they now perceived her as the weakest member of the tribe. However, they decided to target Jacquie instead, realizing that Sugar might have the Hidden Immunity Idol and with it, the trio of Ace, Sugar, and Jacquie would hold power within the tribe. They wanted to ensure that Ace in particular had as little power as possible, as he was also a physical threat. The three shared their plan with Matty to persuade him to vote their way, but he immediately informed Jacquie of the development. Jacquie tried to plead her case to Ken and Crystal, casting herself as an outsider who was not allied with Ace and really wanted to remain in the game. However, her effort was in vain, as the original Fang stuck to their plan at Tribal Council, voting Jacquie out 5-2.
Episode 5: "This Camp Is Cursed"
- Reward Challenge: A tribe member would toss fruit through a hole in a wall to two members of their own tribe. An opposing tribe member would stand in front of the wall and use a club to try to knock away the fruit as it was thrown through the air. Once a piece of fruit is caught by a tribe member, it would have to be thrown through a hole in a second wall defended by a second opposing tribe member. The tribe that catches the most fruit by weight after five minutes would win.
- Reward: An herb garden, salt, oil, chili sauceHot sauceHot sauce, chili sauce or pepper sauce refers to any spicy sauce made from chili peppers and other ingredients.-Ingredients:There are many recipes for hot sauces - the common ingredient being any kind of peppers. A group of chemicals called capsaicinoids are responsible for the heat in chili peppers...
, and all fruit collected from the challenge
- Reward: An herb garden, salt, oil, chili sauce
- Immunity Challenge: One member from each tribe would roll a large ball made of interwoven sticks down a hill. A blindfolded tribe member at the bottom of the hill would attempt to block the opposing tribe's ball with a shield and the aid of a caller. Behind the blocker would be a row of seven goals of varying point values. If a tribe's ball made it past the blocker and into a goal, they would be awarded the specified number of points. The tribe with the most points after five rounds would win.
Sugar arrived at Fang to join her new tribe and was surprised to see that Jacquie was voted out at the last Tribal Council. She continued to feign that she had not found the Hidden Immunity Idol, but Crystal did not believe her and targeted her next for elimination. On day 13, the Fang tribe were visited by an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
just across the river from their camp. At the Reward Challenge, a strategy change of tossing two fruit at a time over Ace defending the second wall helped Kota win the challenge by 2 pound (0.90718474 kg). Kota chose to send Sugar to Exile Island for the third time in a row, with Dan stating that it was a strategy move to force her to play the Hidden Immunity Idol before the tribal merge as they wanted it back into circulation. At Exile Island, Sugar once again opted for the comfort. At the Fang camp, the pressure of the game started to get to GC and he argued with Crystal. Immediately before they were to leave for the Immunity Challenge, he went off alone in the tribe's kayak, causing his tribemates to call out for him. He returned just before they left for the challenge. At the Immunity Challenge, Fang was in the lead until the last round of the challenge when Randy, the caller for Kota, tricked Ace, the blocker for Fang, into stopping and allowing the last Kota ball to reach the goal. The final points were enough for Kota to win the challenge, continuing their winning streak. Before Tribal Council, GC told Matty that he was ready to leave the game. Crystal searched Sugar's bag and found that Sugar had the Hidden Immunity Idol. Although Crystal, Kelly, Ken, and Matty believed that the upcoming Tribal Council was the ideal time to blindside Sugar, they decided instead to grant GC's wish to leave and he was voted out 6-1.
Episode 6: "He's a Snake, But He's My Snake"
- Reward Challenge: The tribes would be tethered to a 20 feet (6.1 m) long, 200 pounds (90.7 kg) cloth snake. The tribes would start at opposite ends of an oval course. Both tribes would run counter-clockwise around the course and try to catch up to the other tribe. If a tribe member could not continue, they may unhook themselves from the snake and the remaining tribe members would continue the challenge. The first tribe to catch the other tribe and touch one of the opposing tribe members would win.
- Reward: Croissants, fruit tartsTartA tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard....
, chocolateChocolateChocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
éclairs, coffeeCoffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, and teaTeaTea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
.
- Reward: Croissants, fruit tarts
- Immunity Challenge: The tribes would divide into three pairs. Each pair would be tethered together by a rope. The first pair would crawl under a cargo net, race through the jungle, go through an obstacle, retrieve two sections of a flag pole, and return to the starting line. The next pair would run the same course with an additional obstacle to retrieve the next two pieces of the flag pole. The final pair would run the course with two additional obstacles and retrieve the final two pieces of the flag pole. The first tribe to collect all of the flag pole pieces and assemble their flag would win.
The day after Tribal Council, Matty and Ace made a pact to take each other to the tribal merger as long as Ace could keep Sugar in the game and Matty could keep Ken in the game. Matty swore on his girlfriend and Ace swore on his mother's life. Over at Kota, Dan's extra helpings of food caused conflict among the tribe while the dwindling food supplies at Fang made them rethink their rationing of food. After Ace told Sugar that he thought the rest of Fang went through her bag and discovered the Hidden Immunity Idol, she gave him the idol for safekeeping. At the Reward Challenge, Kota won their fourth consecutive challenge when Ken, Sugar, Kelly, and Crystal were unable to keep up and dropped out of the challenge, leaving an exhausted Ace and Matty to be chased down by the five men of Kota. Randy's taunting of an emotional Crystal did not sit well with her and she predicted that the old Fang and new Fang members would not get along. Kota chose to send Sugar back to Exile Island for the fourth time. Unlike her last visit where she enjoyed the food with the comfort, Sugar felt guilty about eating while her fellow tribe members subsisted on three scoops of rice. Kelly thought that Crystal crying after the Reward Challenge was a sign of weakness, but Crystal said that it was not. At the Immunity Challenge, good teamwork by Kota during the flag pole assembly versus Ace trying to assemble Fang's flag alone allowed Kota to extend their winning streak to five challenges in a row. After the challenge, Matty approached Ace about blindsiding Sugar to flush the Hidden Immunity Idol, but Ace convinced Matty not to worry about the Hidden Immunity Idol being played and to vote for Kelly, though Ace did not tell Matty that he had the idol. Crystal also wanted to blindside Sugar or vote out Ace, but Matty told her of Ace's plans. Ken talked to Matty about blindsiding Ace, but Matty told Ken that he made a promise that he could not break. Lastly, Ken talked to Sugar about Ace and she told Ken that she had given the idol to Ace. Ken was unable to convince Sugar to change her alliances, but Ken did make sure that Sugar took the idol back from Ace. At Tribal Council, none of the blindside plans came to fruition and Kelly was voted out 5-1.
Episode 7: "It All Depends On the Pin-Up Girl"
- Reward Challenge: In two roped off squares, three members of a tribe would toss a breakable ball back and forth. An opposing tribe member would attempt to smash or knock the ball to the ground. The first tribe to break the opposing tribe's ball would score a point for the round. The first tribe to score three points would win.
- Reward: A helicopterHelicopterA helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
ride to a picnic. Not announced at the Challenge were letters from home.
- Reward: A helicopter
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would compete in a head-to-head logrollingLogrolling (sport)Logrolling , is a sport that originated in the lumberjack/log driver tradition of the northeastern United States and Canada, involving logs in a river or other body of water...
contest in a single-elimination tournamentSingle-elimination tournamentA single-elimination tournament, also called a knockout, cup or sudden death tournament, is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match or bracket is immediately eliminated from winning the championship or first prize in the event...
. The final round would have three castaways rolling the log at the same time.
The day after Tribal Council, Crystal accidentally kicked over Fang's rice supply, which upset Ace and Matty. At the Kota camp, the alliance of Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus made Dan uncomfortable and he approached them feeling left out. At the Reward Challenge, Kota continued their winning streak by shutting out Fang 3-0; Sugar was chosen to go to Exile Island for the fifth consecutive time. Back at camp, Matty voiced his frustration at Sugar's lack of effort at the challenge. Matty offered Ace a plan to vote out Sugar without Ace having to stab her in the back, but Ace wanted to vote out Crystal instead. Meanwhile, Ken talked to Crystal about blindsiding Ace. During Kota's reward picnic, a crew member of the helicopter surprised them with letters from home. At the Immunity Challenge, Jeff announced that both tribes would be going to Tribal Council, that they would be playing for Individual Immunity, and there would be a twist announced after the Challenge was done. Marcus won the Individual Immunity by defeating Sugar and Ace. The twist was that Marcus had to assign Individual Immunity to one member of the other tribe and he selected Sugar. After the Immunity Challenge, Ken, in an effort to blindside Ace, told Sugar about Ace and Matty plotting to vote her out. Later, Ace asked Sugar to give him the Hidden Immunity Idol, which made her think Ken's story was true. At Fang's Tribal Council, Ken's plan to blindside Ace came to fruition as Sugar cast the deciding vote against Ace and he was voted out 3-2. The afternoon before Kota's Tribal Council, Dan scrambled to keep himself in the game. Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus replaced Bob in their alliance with Randy, though they did not tell Bob. Susie upset Corinne by telling her she had planned to vote for her. Corinne immediately went to her alliance and told them that she wanted to vote out Susie. Corinne, Charlie, Marcus, Randy, and Bob split their votes between Dan and Susie, convincing each to vote for the other and hoping that the immunity idol would be flushed out if Dan had it in his possession. At Tribal Council, Dan was voted out 4-3.
Episode 8: "Apple in the Garden of Eden"
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would hold two poles on the tops of their hands up against a board over their heads. Any movement in their hands would cause the poles to drop to the ground. The last person who does not drop their poles would win immunity for their tribe and keep all of its members safe.
Back at camp after Tribal Council, Marcus and Corinne addressed Susie over her opinion that she was a stronger player than Corinne. Over at Fang's camp site, the tribe tried to start over and looked ahead to an expected tribal merger. After tree mail hinted at a tribal merge, the castaways packed up their personal items and went to a beach for a feast. At the feast, a clue for a second Hidden Immunity Idol was tucked under a locked box that the castaways would open after the feast was over. Ken noticed the note first, but when he tried to get the note for himself, Charlie saw the note and forced Ken to share the note with everybody. When nobody showed much interest in going to find the idol for fear of looking greedy, Marcus proposed to dig up the Hidden Immunity Idol, but to throw it in the ocean so that nobody could use it. Although many were tempted to take the Idol, the castaways finally agreed to throw it in to the ocean. When the castaways opened the locked box, they were instructed to each draw a numbered stone from a bag. A second note was then read, stating that they had just selected new tribes. Castaways with odd numbers would be the new Fang and the even numbers the new Kota. At the new Kota, Marcus identified Crystal as the cousin of one of his friends, forming a connection with her. The two agreed not to write each other's names down at Tribal Council, but Crystal later stated in a confessional she had no intention to be loyal to him. Marcus tried to convince Susie to join his alliance with himself and Bob. At the new Fang, Corinne felt that the greatest threat to her alliance with Marcus was Matty and she wanted to vote him out next. Matty told Sugar that Ace never targeted her contrary to what Ken told her and she felt bad about blindsiding Ace at the last Tribal Council. The two formed a new alliance. Concerned over how Susie would vote at a Kota Tribal Council, Randy talked to Charlie and Corinne about throwing the next Immunity Challenge to force Fang to go to Tribal Council where the three would vote out Matty. At the Immunity Challenge, Matty outlasted Bob and he won the challenge for Fang, spoiling the Charlie-Corinne-Randy alliance's plans. Marcus tried to keep the Kota six alliance going by approaching Crystal about replacing Susie in the Kota six and voting out Ken followed by Susie, but she did not want to vote out her ally, Ken. Marcus told a different story to Susie, telling her the plan would be to vote out Ken followed by Crystal. He also promised to take Susie to the final three. Not wanting to betray her long term alliance with Ken, Crystal told Ken what Marcus told her. Crystal tried to convince Susie that Marcus's promise of a final three was not possible because Corinne and Randy disliked Susie too much to allow that to happen. At Tribal Council, Susie decided to join Crystal and Ken, and they blindsided Marcus 3-2.
Episode 9: "The Brains Behind Everything"
- Reward Challenge: The tribes would use a three man slingshotSlingshotA slingshot, shanghai, flip, bean shooter or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the off hand, with two rubber strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket which holds the projectile...
to shoot an oversized golf ballGolf ballA golf ball is a ball designed to be used in the game of golf.Under the Rules of Golf, a golf ball weighs no more than 1.620 oz , has a diameter not less than 1.680 in , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits...
along three golf holesGolf courseA golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
. The tribe that put their ball in the hole using fewer shots would receive one point. The first tribe to score two points would win.- Reward: An overnight trip to a Gabonese village.
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would make a fire large enough to burn through a rope using flint, steel, and a box of fire making supplies. The first castaway to completely burn through their rope would win.
Several castaways expected a merge notice via tree mail, but instead the tribes received a Reward Challenge note. Before the beginning of the Reward Challenge, Charlie and Corinne were very upset at Marcus being voted out at the last Tribal Council. Fang came from behind to win the Reward Challenge. Corinne announced that Fang was going to send Bob to Exile Island, hoping that he would find the Hidden Immunity Idol, but not knowing that Sugar had already found the idol. At Exile Island, Bob followed the clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol and found the location where the idol would have been. Unable to find the idol and thinking that Sugar may have found it, Bob fabricated a fake Hidden Immunity Idol that he hoped to use as a bluff. On day 27, before the start of the Immunity Challenge, Jeff announced that the tribes had merged. Susie and Sugar were the only two castaways to get a fire started during the Immunity Challenge, with Susie being the first to burn through her rope. The castaways returned to the old Fang campsite, found that they had received new food supplies, and named themselves Nobag ("Gabon" backwards). The alliance of Charlie, Corinne, and Randy saw Sugar as a swing vote at Tribal Council to vote for Crystal, whom Randy wanted voted out. Sugar told Charlie and Corinne that she could not live with Randy any more and Corinne tried to convince Sugar that if she voted with their alliance that they would vote Randy out next. To get revenge for forcing him to share the note about the second Hidden Immunity Idol at the feast, Ken decided to blindside Charlie by fabricating a story that Charlie was the brains behind the Kota alliance. Ken told the story to his alliance of Crystal, Matty, and Susie who believed his story and agreed to vote for Charlie. Ken told the same story to Sugar in an effort to get her vote for Charlie. At Tribal Council, Crystal confronted Randy over why he disliked her so much. Sugar joined the alliance of Crystal, Ken, Matty, and Susie, because she did not want to align with Randy and Corinne, and Charlie was blindsided 5-4.
Episode 10: "Nothing Tastes Better Than Five Hundred Dollars"
- Survivor Auction: Instead of a Reward Challenge, a Survivor Auction was held. Items bought and their value were:
Contestants Item(s) Bob Nothing (sent to Exile Island by Ken) Corinne A secret item to be used at the next Immunity Challenge ($500) Crystal Nothing Ken The right to send someone to Exile Island and take all his or her money (Mystery item) ($340) Matty A cheeseburger with French fries and a soda ($400) Randy Beer and peanuts ($180), spaghetti with garlic bread and wine (Mystery item) ($280), and chocolate-chip cookies to share with everyone ($20) Sugar Peanut butter and chocolate (Mystery item) ($340) Susie A hot bath and fresh clothes ($340) - Immunity Challenge: In the first round, the castaways would race across a series of balance beams carrying a bag of puzzle blocks. The first two castaways to bring all three of their bags would go to the final round in which each player must stack all of their pieces like a line of domino tilesDominoesDominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...
while avoiding ropes that would topple the tiles that were already stacked. Once all of the blocks were properly stacked, the castaway would start a chain reaction which would release a flag. The first castaway to raise their flag would win.
Not knowing that Sugar had the Hidden Immunity Idol, Bob told her that he did not have it and showed her the fake idol that he made. Instead of a Reward Challenge, a Survivor Auction was held. The second item up for bid was unknown as it was covered. After making the winning bid, Ken discovered he had won the right to send somebody to Exile Island and take their money. He chose Bob who immediately departed for Exile Island. For the second to last item at the auction, Corinne won a sealed bottle with a note that would give her an advantage at the next Immunity Challenge. Randy won the last item of the auction, chocolate chip cookies to share with the tribe. Sugar declined the first cookie offered to her which Randy then split between Matty and Corinne. Without taking one for himself, Randy offered Sugar the last cookie. She took it and gave it to Matty which upset Randy. At Exile Island, after getting no additional help from the Hidden Immunity Idol clue, Bob decided to go on a personal safari instead of looking for the idol. After the auction, Corinne and Randy talked to Matty about joining their alliance with Bob. Instead of joining with Corinne and Randy, Matty lobbied his alliance to vote out Bob next instead of Randy. Randy decided that the only option available to his alliance was to annoy the Fang alliance, get them to all vote for him, pull out the Hidden Immunity Idol that he assumed Bob had found, and blindside Susie at Tribal Council in revenge for her flipping to the Fang alliance. Randy told Matty that Matty had "whored [himself] out" to the original Kota alliance, at which point Matty rescinded his voting off order and gave into his alliance's want of voting Randy off. At the Immunity Challenge, Corinne's sealed note that she bought at the Survivor Auction stated that she would skip the first round and go directly to the final round. Despite her advantage, Ken defeated her and Matty in the final round. After the Immunity Challenge, Bob told Sugar that he still did not have the Hidden Immunity Idol and she told him that he should give his fake idol to Randy. Figuring that he had nothing to lose and it would keep him in the game, Bob agreed to Sugar's plan and gave Randy the fake idol. At Tribal Council, Randy pulled out the idol before the votes were read. Jeff announced that it was a fake idol and Randy was voted out 5-3.
Episode 11: "The Good Things in Life Aren’t Easy"
- Reward Challenge: The castaways would be split into two teams of three by schoolyard pick. The unpicked castaway would be ineligible to win the reward. The teams would be roped together and have to race through a swamp to collect seven sprocketSprocketA sprocket or sprocket-wheel is a profiled wheel with teeth, cogs, or even sprockets that mesh with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. The name 'sprocket' applies generally to any wheel upon which are radial projections that engage a chain passing over it...
pieces at two different stations. After collecting all the sprockets, the team would have to assemble them on a board in order to turn another sprocket which in turn would raise a flag. The members of the winning team would move on to the final round to individually solve a sliding puzzleSliding puzzleA sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a puzzle that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes to establish a certain end-configuration....
. The first castaway to solve the puzzle would win.- Reward: A video from their loved one, pizza, beer, and brownies. Not announced at the challenge was an in-person visit from their loved one.
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would be asked trivia questions about Gabon. For each question answered correctly, the castaway would earn one ball. After four questions are asked, the castaways would throw the balls that they won down a hill at a target divided into zones. The castaway who throws their ball into the zone closest to the center of the target would win.
Back at camp after Tribal Council, Bob was upset at all of the laughing when Randy was voted out. Corinne and Sugar argued over how to play the game. At the Reward Challenge, the castaways got to view a short video clip from their loved ones before the schoolyard pick. Jeff said that the castaways' loved ones were not around the corner and he only had the videos of them. Because "today is all about love" according to Jeff, nobody was sent to Exile Island. The schoolyard pick resulted in one team of Susie, Matty, and Ken and another team of Crystal, Sugar, and Bob; Corinne was not picked, so she could not win. The team of Bob, Crystal, and Sugar came from behind to win the first round of the challenge and moved on to the final round. Bob won the Reward Challenge by quickly solving his sliding puzzle first. While Bob was watching the video clip from his wife, she paused and said that there was "something I wanted to show you" and moved off-camera. Contrary to what Jeff said at the start of the Reward Challenge, Peggy, Bob's wife, was in Gabon and she stepped around the corner to surprise Bob. Bob and Peggy then walked hand in hand to the Nobag campsite to meet the rest of the castaways. After introducing his wife to the tribe, Bob turned and whistled to signal the other castaways' loved ones to make an appearance. Matty proposed
Proposal of marriage
A marriage proposal is an event where one person in a relationship asks for the other's hand in marriage. If accepted, it marks the initiation of engagement. It often has a ritual quality, sometimes involving the presentation of an engagement ring and a formalized asking of a question such as "Will...
to his girlfriend, Jamie. The loved ones departed camp before sundown. Bob shared with Corinne a plan to blindside Matty where Bob would make up a second fake Immunity Idol and tell the Fang alliance that it was the idol that Marcus threw into the ocean. Bob's story was that Marcus only threw the bottle into the ocean, had hidden the idol around the camp, and told Bob where it was. At the Immunity Challenge, Bob won by throwing his second ball one zone from the center. With Bob's win, Corinne expanded upon her blindsiding plan with Bob by concocting the story that Bob would have played the idol tossed into the ocean at the next Tribal Council, but since he won Individual Immunity, he would give Corinne the lost idol. Bob and Corinne hoped that the threat of Corinne having an idol would deter the Fang alliance from voting for her and would instead vote for Matty. Corinne told the story to Ken, which he believed and he suggested that Bob and Corinne approach Crystal with their plan. Bob told the story to Crystal and showed her the second fake idol. Crystal and Ken talked about their voting strategy under this plan where Ken would vote for Matty, Crystal would vote for Corinne, resulting in a 4-3 vote split between Corinne and Matty, respectively, Corinne would play the lost idol negating votes against her, the lost idol would be flushed, and Matty would be going home. At Tribal Council, the vote went as Crystal and Ken planned, Corinne's bluff was called and she was voted out 4-3.
Episode 12: "The Good Guys Should Win in the End"
- Reward Challenge: The castaways would race through a swamp and over several obstacles to retrieve one of three balls. They would then return back to the start and toss the ball into a net. The first castaway to retrieve all three balls and get them into the net would win.
- Reward: An overnight helicopter trip to a gorillaGorillaGorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
sanctuary in Loango National ParkLoango National ParkLoango National Park is a national park in western Gabon. It protects diverse coastal habitat, including part of the 220 km² Iguéla Lagoon, the only significant example of a typical western African lagoon system that is protected within a national park....
, a meal, a shower, and a bed to sleep in
- Reward: An overnight helicopter trip to a gorilla
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would be blindfolded during the challenge. At the starting line would be a Gabonese mask. At the other end of a net obstacle would be a duplicate mask with some pieces removed. Three bags of puzzle pieces would need to be carried across the net obstacle one at a time. The puzzle pieces would then need to be assembled to replicate the mask at the start line. The first castaway to correctly replicate the mask would win.
After the castaways returned from Tribal Council, Matty was upset because Ken voted for him. Ken told Matty about Bob and Corinne's Hidden Immunity Idol, but Matty did not believe him. Ken confronted Bob about the fake Hidden Immunity Idol. Bob promised Ken that if he won the next Immunity Challenge that he would give the immunity necklace to Ken. Bob won the Reward Challenge and chose to take Crystal and Ken along on the trip and to send Susie to Exile Island. While on the trip, Bob reiterated his promise to give the immunity necklace to Ken. Ken decided that he would only take it if he felt he was in danger of being voted out. On Exile Island, Susie selected the comfort choice because she knew that Sugar already had the Hidden Immunity Idol. Back at camp, Matty tried to get Sugar to give him the Hidden Immunity Idol. After returning from the reward trip, Crystal yelled at Matty for him questioning Crystal and Ken's loyalty to him. The yelling made Sugar change her opinion about Crystal and Ken. She told Matty that he would not be going home after the next Tribal Council and hatched a plan to take out Crystal and Ken. At the Immunity Challenge, Bob won immunity for the second time in a row and the fourth challenge in a row. Ken told Crystal, Matty, and Sugar that Bob would give him the immunity necklace if they all told Bob that they would be voting for Ken, so they should tell Bob that and then vote for Bob instead to blindside him. Sugar told Bob of Ken's plan, that she would not vote for him, and to vote for Crystal. At Tribal Council, Bob and Ken said that their agreement over the immunity necklace would be that Bob would give it to Ken if Bob felt that Ken was in danger of being voted out. Jeff stated that this Tribal Council would be the last Tribal Council where the Hidden Immunity Idol could be played. Sugar was openly wearing the Hidden Immunity Idol. Before the voting started, Jeff asked Bob if he was going to give up the Immunity necklace. Bob stated that he was not going to give up the necklace as he thought Ken was not going to go home. Before the votes were tallied, Sugar gave the Hidden Immunity Idol to Matty who then presented it to Jeff. The votes cast against Matty were negated, leaving only the votes against Crystal to count (even though she had already received four of the six votes). She was voted out with a vote of 4-0.
Episode 13: "Say Goodbye to Gabon"
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would have to dig a hole under a wall, cross a maze made out of planks, and untie a series of knots that would open a gate that led to a maze with 25 Gabonese huts. In three of the huts would be a bag of puzzle pieces. One puzzle bag at a time would need to be retrieved from the maze and dropped off at the finish platform. Once all three bags were retrieved, the first castaway to correctly assemble the puzzle would win.
Ken felt that Bob reneged on his deal to hand over the immunity necklace at the last Tribal Council. Sugar worked on re-establishing Ken's trust in her even as she plotted with Bob to vote out Susie and Ken next. At the Immunity Challenge, Bob narrowly beat Sugar, winning immunity for the third straight time and the fifth consecutive challenge. At Tribal Council, Ken felt confident going into Tribal Council that he would not be voted out, but that confidence was misplaced as he was voted out 4–1.
- Immunity Challenge: The castaways would be given 200 wooden tiles. The first castaway to use the tiles to build a house of cardsHouse of cardsA house of cards is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other. House of cards is also an expression which dates back to 1645 meaning; a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary element is removed...
10 feet (3 m) tall would win. If after 30 minutes, no castaway has built the house of cards to over 10 feet (3 m) tall, the castaway who builds the tallest house of cards at the end of the time limit would win.
Before the start of the final Immunity Challenge, the Final Four took the traditional journey honoring the castaways voted out before them. Susie broke Bob's challenge winning streak by having built the tallest house of cards after 30 minutes. Sugar thought about forcing a tie at the next Tribal Council due to her loyalty towards Bob for being a father figure
Father Figure
"Father Figure" is the U.S. number-one song written and performed by George Michael and released on Columbia Records in 1988 as the third single from the album Faith.-History:...
. Bob went off into the trees to practice starting a fire, anticipating a fire making tiebreaker challenge. At Tribal Council, Sugar did force a 2-2 tie between Bob and Matty. The tiebreaker challenge was fire making, which Bob won after resuscitating his initial fire; Matty did not manage to even get one started.
The Final Three spent their last day at camp eating the traditional feast and burning down one of the huts at the campsite. At the final Tribal Council, Charlie asked Sugar and Susie why they felt they should be voted at the "top of the totem pole" even though they were ranked the second lowest and lowest, respectively, among their tribes before the first tribal switch. He asked Bob if the "intimate cuddling and spooning all night long" was more enjoyable than he would liked to admit. Crystal asked no question of Susie, asked Bob to tell her something that Sugar didn't tell him to do, and asked Sugar why she voted her out. Ken asked Susie why she thought she deserved the million dollars and his vote, asked Sugar why she back stabbed him, and Bob about their deal over the immunity necklace. Corinne asked Susie if she would be willing to have her vocal cords removed if she were to win the million dollars. She asked Bob to show the nasty side of Bob and make her believe that he did not like Sugar. She did not ask a question to Sugar, but instead took the opportunity to insult her by making a callous comment about her deceased father, to which Sugar gave an obscene gesture
Finger (gesture)
In Western culture, the finger , also known as the middle finger, is an obscene hand gesture, often meaning the phrases "fuck off" , "fuck you" or "up yours"...
. Marcus asked no questions of Susie, what Sugar would do to honor her deceased father if she were to win, and for Bob to give one example of a situation were he was responsible for his decisions. Randy asked Susie to elaborate on the time that Susie said she felt sorry for him and Sugar and Bob if they considered the consequences of putting him on the jury when they gave him the fake Hidden Immunity Idol. Matty asked Susie to tell him why Bob and Sugar were less deserving that she was of the million dollars, Sugar to reveal something that she felt that she did was evil, and Bob why Sugar and Susie were more deserving of the million dollar prize than he was. In the end, the jury voted Bob the Sole Survivor with a vote of 4-3-0 over Susie.
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Sugar was sent to Exile Island after not being chosen in the tribal switch picks of Episode Four. She joined the tribe that lost the Immunity Challenge, Fang.
U.S. Nielsen ratings
| Episode | Rating | Share | Rating/Share Nielsen Ratings Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States... 18–49 |
Viewers (millions) |
Weekly Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Want to See the Elephant Dung?" (Part 1) | 7.7 | 12 | 4.4/11 | 13.06 | #13 |
| "Want to See the Elephant Dung?" (Part 2) | 4.5/10 | 12.78 | |||
| "She Is Obviously Post-Op!" | 7.7 | 12 | 4.3/12 | 13.08 | #12 |
| "It Was Like Christmas Morning!" | 7.7 | 12 | 4.3/12 | 13.28 | #12 |
| "This Camp Is Cursed!" | 7.8 | 13 | 4.2/12 | 12.81 | #12 |
| "He's a Snake, But He's My Snake!" | 7.8 | 12 | 4.4/12 | 13.31 | #14 |
| "It All Depends On the Pin-Up Girl" | 7.7 | 13 | 4.1/12 | 13.02 | #15 |
| "Apple in The Garden of Eden" | 7.2 | 11 | 3.8/10 | 12.01 | #15 |
| "The Brains Behind Everything" | 7.6 | 12 | 4.1/11 | 12.89 | #15 |
| "Nothing Tastes Better than Five Hundred Dollars" | 7.5 | 12 | 4.0/11 | 12.50 | #14 |
| "I Was Put On The Planet For This Show" | 4.9 | 10 | 2.3/7 | 8.31 | |
| "The Good Things in Life Aren’t Easy" | 7.5 | 12 | 4.0/11 | 12.73 | #11 |
| "The Good Guys Should Win in the End" | 7.7 | 12 | 4.1/11 | 13.05 | #14 |
| "Say Goodbye to Gabon" | 7.8 | 12 | 13.77 | #9 | |
| Reunion | 7.0 | 12 | 11.74 | #15 |
DVR Ratings
The show ranked number ten in DVRDigital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
playback (2.33 million viewers), according to Nielsen prime DVR lift data
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
from September 22, 2008 – November 23, 2008.
Controversy
Survivor: Gabon received criticism from the Parents Television CouncilParents Television Council
The Parents Television Council is a U.S. based advocacy group founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995 using the National Legion of Decency as a model...
for a brief, uncensored glimpse of Marcus's genitals when the tip
Glans penis
The glans penis is the sensitive bulbous structure at the distal end of the penis. The glans penis is anatomically homologous to the clitoral glans of the female...
was partially exposed through the fly
Fly (clothing)
A fly on clothing is a covering over an opening join concealing the mechanism, such as a zip, velcro or buttons, used to join the opening. The term is most frequently applied to a short opening over the groin in trousers, shorts and other garments, which makes them easier to put on or take off and...
of his boxer shorts
Boxer shorts
Boxer shorts are a type of undergarment worn by men. The term has been used in English since 1944 for all-around-elastic shorts, so named after the shorts worn by boxers, for whom unhindered leg movement is very important.Reasons for a preference for boxers can be attributed to their variety of...
. The exposure occurred on the season opener during the second Immunity Challenge while Marcus raced alongside fellow contestants.