All-Star Hawaii Author Notes - Episode 6 (One Final Sacrifice)

by Mario Lanza

Ah yes, we’re finally here. We’ve finally reached my favorite part of writing a story.

We’ve officially reached the All-Star Hawaii merge.

To be quite honest, I’ve never really liked writing the first six episodes of a season. I’ve never really enjoyed the idea of writing two distinct stories, and having to infuse them somehow together. I’ve always found it to be a big pain in the butt, as well as just too much work. It’s always been far easier just writing one big story with one central storyline, and that’s why I’m always excited when we get to shift gears when we finally hit the merge.

Don’t get me wrong. I love how Hawaii has turned out so far, and I love how so many of the characters could now go in so many directions (especially when compared to the original). But I’d be kidding myself if I said that you’ve read the best part of the story. All you have read so far is just the obligatory filler to get you into the characters. My stories never truly begin until we get down to ten.

So anyway that’s where we stand on the eve of episode seven. Colby’s gone, the Kekos are devastated, and Mike now has a second chance in life to make Survivor count. Frankly, I can’t think of a better storyline that tribe could have had through the first six episodes. Every single one of the Kekos has a fully developed character, as well as a fully developed character arc, and it’s set things up nicely for where I’m expecting their story to go from here.

On Ahi, meanwhile, Boston Rob is fully in control of just about every single aspect of this tribe. Or so he thinks. He has no idea that John is plotting with Vecepia. He has no idea that Colleen is desperately trying to get back to a game that she likes. Boston Rob really has no idea what his underlings are up to. And do you know what I think? I don’t think that he’d care. What I like most about writing for Rob is that he just exudes this sleazy self-confidence, and it’s so close to charisma that you can’t really hate him. He’s so confident in his plans, and so eager just to pull strings and make things happen around him, that it’s almost impossible to write him as “the bad guy” in the traditional sense. Rob is having so much fun, he loves Survivor soooo much, that I wish he would have come off this way in the real All-Stars. The way I am writing Rob is much closer to the Marquesas version than the All-Stars version. The kid in this story, you might root for him to lose, but I think that you’d like him.

By the way, even though Rob’s ship is a lot leakier than he probably realizes, keep in mind that he’s also smart. He’s REALLY good. I know that most readers would love for him to take a fall, but I haven’t decided. Because there’s a reason he’s using Colleen, you know. He’s not doing it just to be evil. He’s got a bigger plan in his head, because that’s what Rob does.

Remember, any other author would have just written Rob as a hapless buffoon. They would have made him a Silas. But I’m not going to do that. I’m not that predictable. :)

THE FALL OF COLBY

You know, deep down, I’ve always thought that Colby was the biggest star that has ever come out of Survivor. To me, he’s always been the golden boy of the franchise. So it was especially hard giving him a suitable sendoff at the end of this episode.

Colby’s exit was always planned for the sixth episode. He was always supposed to be the last guy voted off before the merge, because I felt that was the most realistic. I didn’t think any All-Star Tribe would ever let him get to the merge, because then he’d be too dangerous. But they’d also never vote him out early, because you needed him to win all the challenges. So I was quite insistent all along that Colby would be gone either the last vote before the merge, or the first vote after the merge. I couldn’t see any possible other end to his story. It had to be here.

Colby has never been the most popular Survivor on the fan boards, and I’ve never really understood that. How can you not like him? Like I said, in my opinion he’s always been the golden boy of the Survivor franchise. I’ve always felt he was the biggest star they ever produced. And I’ve always felt he was the most well-rounded character they’ve ever produced. I literally could not say a bad thing about Colby even if I wanted to. In fact, out of all the players that came back to play in the real All-Stars, Colby was the one I thought was the biggest deal. How the producers managed to get him to come back, over all the other opportunities he has in his life, is beyond me.

So anyway keep that in mind if you go back and re-read episode six. Keep in mind that this was my sendoff to the guy who I think is the biggest star of them all. For four seasons of Survivor, Colby WAS the franchise. He was the most identifiable, the most respected, and (in my opinion) the most universally loved. If you don’t believe me, go back and watch the Marquesas reunion show. Go watch how excited Rosie O’Donnell was that she got to meet Colby. Go watch the excitement from the audience that Colby actually made a cameo.

I felt really bad that Colby had to be voted out, but it had to happen, and it had to be here.

THE UNINTENTIONAL SPLITTING UP OF PAIRS

You know, all this talk about Colby has made me realize one other interesting aspect about this story.

Did you notice that every potential pre-game relationship how now been split up?

This wasn’t something I had expected back in 2002. I really had no idea I was even doing it until I hit the merge. But seriously, look at all the people that have been voted off, and how it affects the post-merge dynamics. Every potential cross-tribe alliance has been effectively ruined!

Remember Frank and Teresa back in Africa? They were really close, weren’t they? Remember how Teresa cried when she had to vote out her friend?

Well guess what. *buzz* T-Bird went home in episode one. So any potential alliance with Frank now just aint gonna happen.

Well okay. That was just one pair. But what about Lex and Ethan? They were sure close in Africa. Wouldn’t it be nice if the two of them could manage to pair up after the merge? Or, if they didn’t pair up, could they at least be some sort of rivals?

Nope. *buzz* and *buzz* They were gone in episode two and episode five. So there’s another interesting cross-tribe relationship effectively ruined.

Well, what about Richard and Sue? Wouldn’t you love to see how they’d match up on opposite tribes?

Again, nope. *buzz* and *buzz* Gone third and fourth. Sorry. I know you’d love to see where that dynamic would go, but it aint gonna happen.

As you can see, even though I wasn’t intending to do it, what I managed to do through the first five episodes of Hawaii is kill just about every interesting post-merge relationship that would have been fun. I took all these potentially great endgame partners, I gave them all interesting relationships with another previous endgame player, and then I screwed them all up by separating pairs and/or just voting both of them out.

Man, I suck!

The most interesting thing about All-Stars is that the players have to reconcile their past with how they’re playing now. In fact, that’s the entire POINT of All-Stars. It’s a new dynamic. Everyone has baggage and past relationship issues, and I threw all that away! What was I thinking??!

Which, of course, leads us to the most interesting dynamic between past players, that of Tina and Colby.

Are Tina and Colby close in real life? Would Tina have ever taken Colby to the final vote in Australia? Will they always get along? Will Tina always be a mother figure to Colby? Will he ever get it through his head that maybe she just used him to get to the top?

All of these are fascinating questions, and would have made for a fantastic storyline. And I’m sure that everyone (myself included) would have loved to see them play out in Hawaii. But guess what? Even though we came really really CLOSE to seeing Tina and Colby meet up again, the sad truth was that there was no way it was ever going to happen, no matter what. The Tina-Colby reunion (and possible partnership) would have easily been one of the most interesting post-merge dynamics in All-Star Hawaii. But sadly, I took another potentially interesting pair and I voted one of them out.

Crap!

So where does this leave us now? Are there ANY interesting cross-tribe relationships that could make things a little bit interesting?

Well, Colleen and Gretchen is certainly an interesting dynamic. Because the Pagongs were a little different breed of player, compared to the rest. Remember, sometimes a tribe mom will always be a tribe mom. And sometimes the tribe sweetheart will always be the tribe sweetheart. I didn’t really explore the Colleen/Gretchen reunion that much in the original, but I don’t intend to make the same mistake this time around. Because I’ve always wondered, what would happen if the Pagongs now knew what they were doing?

By the way, Exhibit A? Jenna Lewis. The second time around, she was a heartless assassin.

Another fascinating relationship that will develop now is the one between Kathy and Vecepia. Because even though people might not remember, they certainly have a past. Oh yes they do. Remember, Hawaii is written almost directly after Marquesas finished airing. And if you don’t remember Vecepia snaking Kathy, you’re forgetting one of the great screw jobs in Survivor history. Vecepia not only backstabbed Kathy, she practically raped her. She single-handedly cost Kathy the win in Marquesas, and Kathy aint the type to forget. So keep that in mind when you’re reading the second half of All-Star Hawaii. Vecepia has a good reason to fear Kathy. She’s not making that up, that's legit.

THE REWARD TWIST

Even though Survivor is chock full of twists, flips, and rule changes nowadays, the show really wasn’t like that back in 2002. So the idea of a challenge where “the reward is actually immunity” was actually incredibly risky. We faced a lot of backlash throwing in a twist like that back in 2002. The show just didn’t do stuff like that, so we were treading new ground.

And you know, I would love to say that I personally came up with that twist. I would love to sit here and tell you I was this amazing revolutionary thinker, and I came up with a twist that blew you away with its complexity. I would love to sit here and take credit for it. But I can’t, because it aint even close to the truth.

Do you want to know the reason why that twist is in this episode? Do you want to know the REAL reason Keko got screwed so badly by a twist in episode six?

Okay, brace yourself.

The reason that twist is here is because the guy who originally wrote this episode hated writing challenges. He thought they were pointless. So he made up a random twist on the spot so he didn’t have to write two of them in one episode.

That is completely 100% the truth. We never planned to have a twist in episode six. We never planned to have anything weird in this episode. The only instructions we gave to the guy who wrote episode six was that Ahi had to win immunity, and Keko had to vote out Colby at the end. That was it. And then he decided, on the spot, that even if it WAS his episode, he didn’t feel the need to write two challenges. So he made up this twist without consulting anyone else, and it stayed in the story.

Remember waaaay back in my episode one notes, when I said there was one writer in our original group who was a bit of a problem? Remember the guy who wouldn’t let us vote Kathy out in episode one, because he said it wouldn’t be fair? Well this was the same guy. The same guy who wouldn’t let us dump Kathy is the same guy who said he wasn’t going to write any more challenges. He didn’t think they were important, he didn’t think they were part of the story, and so he made up this twist.

As always, I ask you to remember that Hawaii was not a solo project when it originally came out. Back in 2002, at this point in the story it was still a four-person collaboration. The guy who wrote the episodes decided how the story was going to go. And if he made up a random twist in the middle of the episode, we didn’t have much authority to say it was wrong.

So anyway, that’s why there is that unconventional twist in the middle of this episode. It was all because one guy on our writing team hated writing challenges, and would go out of his way to avoid writing more than one if he could possibly help it. Of course, I COULD have cut out this twist in the rewrite. I mean, it’s five years later, and the rewrite is all mine, so it wouldn’t have mattered. But at the same time, even though the twist doesn’t really belong here, it actually does add a lot to the story. Because instead of Keko trying to win immunity and losing, now they have the comeback simply taken out of their hands, whether they like it or not. And whether you like the twist idea or not, in this version of the story, it does a lot of interesting drama for both Keko and Ahi.

And to answer your question, yes I decided to keep the twist in the rewrite. I didn’t like it, since it had never been written out of love in the first place, but in the end I thought I could use it. Even though the reward twist had been an illegitimate bastard birth back in 2002, at this point I think it works in the story.

WASHING IN SALT WATER

Oh yeah, remember the scene where Gretchen laughs at the fact that Colby was going to let salt water dry on the laundry, and how it would render all their clothing unwearable? Well that’s based on a conversation I had with one of the Survivors about one of my other stories. I believe I was talking to Tanya or Teresa one day (both of whom were big fans of these stories back in 2002-2004). They were talking about a scene in Greece where someone washes their clothes in the ocean, and they said that was unrealistic. I asked “Why?” and they said, “Well because you can’t wash your clothes in the ocean because the salt makes everything hard.” They said that was one of the first things you learned when you lived on the beach. You never, ever ever washed your clothes in the ocean.

So anyway, if you’re wondering why these stories seem so authentic most of the time, that’s why. I used to have a whole army of former Survivors who would help with the details.

And if you put a gun to my head, I would guess that Tanya was the person who told me.

MIKE’S SALVATION

What a wonderful storyline. The Keko Tribe gives Mike one more chance to make the merge, and to make this one count. I loved it.

This is EXACTLY why Mike should have been on the real All-Stars. I mean, my God, who wouldn’t want to see Mike get a second chance at Survivor? Who wouldn’t want to see the look on Mike’s face when he gets past day 18 and finally makes the first merge in his life? That would have been a memorable episode!

I’ve always felt that the Survivor producers really screwed up when they cut Mike from All-Stars. In fact not only did they screw up, I thought it was unforgivable. How on Earth was Mike Skupin not on All-Stars! Good lord. He should have been the first person cast, over even bigger name stars like Colby and Rich! Because Mike didn’t just have personality, he also had the potential of redemption! He was an obvious pick!

Even though I’ve always vowed that I would never criticize the producers for how they pick All-Stars, in the case of Mike Skupin I thought they were simply retarded. He should have been there. He should have been the FIRST one there. And I don’t care if he WAS cut because the producers caught him leaking out cast details (which is the rumor). Mike should have been forgiven for that, because he should have been cast.

Case closed.

Back to All-Star Hawaii, Episode Six (One Final Sacrifice)