All-Star Hawaii Author Notes - Episode 8 (Spy Games)
by Mario Lanza
Out of all the Hawaii episodes thus far, this one was easily the most memorable for me because it is the first
one that was entirely new for the rewrite. Seriously, almost every single scene in this episode was different than
the 2002 version, and that makes episode eight the official "starting point" of the new ending that I'm
planning for All-Star Survivor: Hawaii. Everything that is going to happen the rest of the story can be traced
back to this episode. To quote Mikey Walsh from the Goonies, "It all starts here."
By the way, for those of you who never read the 2002 version (or those of you who forgot), the original bootee
in episode eight was Boston Rob. The original storyline had seven members of Manakai teaming up to blindside Rob
since he was an alpha male and exceedingly obnoxious. It was mostly led by John Carroll (who obviously hated Rob),
and he teamed up with Alicia and Vecepia to lead the charge and take over the game. So John and his minions teamed
up to take out Rob, nobody thought to tell Colleen what was going to happen, and that set the stage for the very
important events that happened in the next episode (The Defiant One) which most of the 2002 readers will remember.
Does it sound like I'm giving away spoilers? Well I'm not. I'm just telling you how the original story went. John
was a lot bigger asshole in the original story, Rob was a lot less effective as a strategist, and Alicia was all
over the place in terms of whose side she was on. But as much as I liked the original storyline, I always knew
it had flaws. There were a few things I wanted to change. And when I sat down to plan out the rewrite back in the
summer of 2007, all along I knew that episode eight would be the one where I could make some corrections and alter
the story.
What are the major changes between the original and the rewrite? Well like I said, the biggest one is that John
Carroll isn't such a domineering villain this time around. In fact not only is he NOT a villain, I've decided to
go a different route with him and turn him into a Vecepia. He's just this shadowy lurking figure who wants to stay
out of the drama and stay away from all the attention. And even though I'm not 100% satisfied with where his character
is at this point in the story, I'm a lot more pleased than where he was in the original. In the original, you had
a pretty good idea he would never win because he was such a cardboard one-dimensional villain. But in the rewrite,
he sure looks like he has a pretty good chance, now doesn't he? In fact, out of all the characters, I think I'm
most curious to find out where his storyline is going to over anybody. I honestly have no idea what his future
holds in store for him, and as a writer, that can be awfully exciting.
So yeah John has undergone some huge, massive changes in the rewrite. I basically just obliterated his old character
and started from scratch this time around. In the original, he single-handedly brought down Lex because John wanted
to be the alpha. But in the rewrite the only reason John brought down Lex was because John felt like he had been
left out. I know it's the exact same result in the long run, but that simple little shift in rationale (John feeling
hurt and betrayed) changes the entire way you look at John the rest of the story. So if you're wondering why I
changed John's logic back in episode five, now you understand. I changed his rationale for voting out Lex for a
reason. I sent him on the twist feast with Colleen for a reason. I gave him a meaningful relationship with Gretchen,
Vecepia, and Colleen for a reason. All of that was to give John a more underdog side, and make him less of a villain.
Because if John has an important role down the road (which he may or may not) I want the readers to understand
why they should have been rooting for him.
Again, these aren't spoilers. I'm just throwing out some of the psychology behind how I write these stories. I
like to give myself lots of possible story arcs, and lots of open-ended storylines, so if the narrative starts
to turn in a certain direction I can go with it and won't have to fudge too many of the details. Like, for example,
say there's a perfect opportunity for Gretchen and John to make a F2 deal on day 37. All of a sudden, the story
pushes me in a direction where that would be a perfect storyline for a perfect situation. Well since I've established
that Gretchen and John have a good relationship, now I can do that. In the original, it wouldn't have been realistic
because I wasn't that careful a planner. But five years later, I'm much more sophisticated in the way I plot out
the characters, and I'm better at allowing that.
I'm also much better at plotting out multi-episode storyline arcs, which I hope you'll see in the next few episodes.
:)
So anyway that's some of the backstory behind why I changed John's character in the rewrite. But of course he's
not the ONLY character who has changed. Because if I made John less villainous this time around, of course that
means I had to make someone else MORE villainous. After all, there's a certain amount of finite evil in a Survivor
storyline. If you drop one villain you have to pick up another. It's the yin-yang theory. There's no way you can
have a storyline without a menacing bad guy!
Obviously, the character I made into a villain in the rewrite was Boston Rob. Not that he wasn't a bad guy in the
original. He was. He just didn't happen to be very good at it. Rob was constantly trying to stir shit up in the
original, but because he was so young and immature, people would just roll their eyes and laugh at him. And as
fun a storyline as that was, I didn't think it added all that much to the story. In the original, Rob's storyline
was pretty much "Rob hooks up with Colleen", and then "Rob latches on to John and Vecepia's takeover
alliance" and then "Rob tries to take over the game and the Manakais laugh at him" and then "Rob
gets blindsided in episode eight."
Like I said, this was a decent character arc and all, but I thought I could do better. After all, with John's evil
being amped down quite a bit, I needed a new villain to step up. And of course Rob was in a perfect position to
take over. After all, there's no greater villain than a domineering boyfriend, right? Seriously. Take any movie
where a sweet young girl gets slapped around or knocked around by her husband/boyfriend, and you have an automatic
villain. That's, like, editing 101. If the sweetheart has a boyfriend who controls her, you're going to hate him.
Now of course I'm not saying that Boston Rob would physically slap Colleen around or anything, I'm just using that
analogy to prove a point. Because if you have an inherent sweetheart (Colleen) who is constantly told to do things
against her better nature, and break rules she doesn't want to break, what do you have? That's easy. A villain!
Boston Rob happens to be Colleen's unethical little sugar pimp mack daddy, and that makes him the easiest sell
ever as a fictional Survivor villain.
Of course, like I've said before, by making Rob into the bad guy I've come awfully close on several occasions to
ripping off "The Real All-Stars." But that's not intentional. I would have made Boston Rob into the bad
guy whether it happened on the real show or not. His storyline (combined with his relationship with Colleen, and
John's retreating back into the shadows) pretty much dictated it. Frankly, in this version of the story he couldn't
have NOT been the bad guy. So I don't really care if anybody accuses me of ripping off the real show. I can fully
justify everything Rob has done in Hawaii because it's realistic for his character. Besides, CBS and SEG have ripped
off so many of my stories over the years that I feel justified in saying they can blow me.
So anyway, yeah, that's the story of John (who used to be a menacing villain) and Rob (who is now a menacing villain).
They still hate each other, but at least in the rewrite, now their situations have been reversed. This time, Rob
is the guy you want to see taken down. But that's going to be awfully hard because-- as many characters have pointed
out-- he knows what he's doing. The fact that he's the villain won't specifically keep him from winning.
That's all I'm sayin'...
So we're left with an interesting dilemma at the end of episode eight. Frank has been blindsided out of the game
(an event which didn't happen until episode 10 in the original) and now Tina is a little bit steamed. But what
does she do? Does she run to the Kekos and force a tie out of spite? Or does she sit back, like Rob expects her
to do, and try to work some sort of a deal with the Ahi majority? After all, she's a complete free agent now. She
has no allies. The only people she ever had ties to were Lex, Colby, and Frank, and they're all history. So going
into episode nine, the person you really have to pay attention to is Tina. She can do anything she wants, she can
start making deal with anyone she wants, and for a player who has been dicked over in just about every single episode,
that's got to be a liberating feeling. Tina has been screwed over by just about every single player/event/vote
in this story, and you know by this point that she's a little bit mad. There's literally nothing stopping her from
doing anything and everything, and the smart players are going to know that.
Remember that great quote from Stephenie in Palau? "You thought I was threat? Now I'll show you how threatening
I am." I know that's just a paraphrase but that's pretty much Tina's mentality at this point in a nutshell.
If you've been pushed around too far you sometimes get to the point where you no longer give a crap. And that's
Tina. It's time to have fun.
Two more important characters in the following episode are going to be Vecepia and Colleen. Vecepia will be important
because she is the only one who can salvage Tina's relationship with the Ahis. She is the only one who can walk
up to Tina and say something like, "Yeah Rob and Colleen are a bunch of assholes, but look at it this way.
If both you and I are in the finals, then they HAVE to vote for a previous winner. Do you think there's any other
way you or I could win? With people like Gretchen and Alicia on the jury? They'd never allow it!"
Would that logic work with Tina? I don't know. But it sure would be wise for Vee to start making a pitch like that.
As for Colleen, wow. She's certainly dug herself into quite a hole, now hasn't she? Remember the old Kim Bauer
corollary from the TV show 24? You can't really have Colleen without her being in peril. That's sort of why she
exists. In fact I specifically set it up this episode so she could pull herself out of peril, and then fall right
back into it even worse than before. Ha ha. Poor Colleen. I feel sorry for her. And I don't blame her for wanting
to give up and quit now that she realizes this game will never be fun.
Poor little kitten.
On the Survivor Sucks board, somebody made a very astute comment this week. They said, "I wish you were doing
more with Gretchen and Kathy. You've sort of forgotten about them."
As much I wish I could rebut this, the simple fact remains that it is true. I really have dropped them from the
story. But it's not because I don't like them as characters. Kathy and Gretchen happen to be two of my favorites.
The reason they have been dropped from the storyline is because their stories really have nowhere to go. Think
about it. Over the last three episodes, I've already established that the Kekos are not going to turn on one another.
They've said it over and over, ad nauseum, and at this point in the story I think you have to accept it as fact.
The Kekos are either sticking together or going down as one. As unexciting as that is, I think it's the direction
you have to go with them. They're all fairly unexciting players who stick with their friends.
So here's where the problem comes in. As a writer, once you've established that your characters will never do Y
as their strategy, what you've in effect done is condemned them to carry out X. There's only one thing they CAN
do. They're either going to sway some voters over, or they're toast. And I'm not being unfair to them as characters,
I'm just being realistic. There's only one route these players can take, and this is it.
So if you're wondering why Kathy and Gretchen have been largely forgotten the last two episodes, that's why. They
just have nowhere to go. Either the Ahis are going to fall apart around them, or they aren't. And I didn't feel
like writing 10 pages of Kathy and Gretchen comparing recipes around the firepit. Sorry. :)
Now... as for Alicia... she's a whole different type of character altogether. And that's why I've given her her
very own section in the episode notes.
Unfortunately, two of my Kekos have been negated in the story for a while. Not because they're boring characters,
but because it's no longer their narrative. The game is happening around them for the time being, and they're just
largely watching.
But there was NO way I was letting that happen with Alicia.
Why is Alicia such a special character for me? Well for starters because she was the winner in the original story.
I know, I know. Major spoiler. Blah blah blah. But she was, and most of the people reading this probably will have
already known that. Alicia was my original winner. And now all you old-timers can feel free to discuss.
The problem with Alicia winning my original story was that she never really DID much. Yeah she was there at the
end when it counted, but there really wasn't she did much along the way to cement her status in the readers minds
as "the winner." She was never really the best of the best. She was just the least objectionable of the
power players. She was the one who made the least crash-and-burn mistakes. So even though she won the original,
a lot of people felt it was tainted. They felt like I never really built Alicia up as much of an important character
along the way.
So if you're wondering why Alicia has had so many great "money scenes" (as I call them) in the rewrite,
that's why. She gets extra special attention in almost every episode. Why? Well not because she is going to win
again. I mean, maybe she WILL win, I don't know. I have no idea how this story is going to end. I know that if
she DOES win, it will be for different reasons this time around. There's no way that knowing Alicia won last time
will affect your enjoyment of the story. If she wins this time, she's going to earn it. It won't be a freebie.
So yeah, that's why Alicia has so many standout scenes this time. I'm doing it because I Want to give myself some
ammunition. If she wins, I want to be able to say, "Look, this is how she did it, and this is how she shaped
the game." I have no idea if it will work or not, I just wanted to avoid any potential fallout like I had
in 2002. This time, I want my winner to be controversy proof. And just for the record, I'm doing that with every
character, not just Alicia.
Oh yeah and the whole Rob/Alicia spy games relationship was made up just for the rewrite. NONE of that was in the
original. In fact I'm not sure they ever even shared a scene in the original. Alicia just seemed like a natural
choice for a Keko defector (who else could it be??), and I loved giving Rob a stubborn foil in contrast to Colleen.
With Colleen, Rob can just tell her to jump and she'll ask, "How high?" But with Alicia, if Rob asks
her to jump, first she'll demand to know what's in it for her. And I thought that would be a fun relationship.
In fact, you'll note that at times they almost sound like they are flirting.
Oh yeah, here's a quick trivia note. In the original story (2002) John Carroll teamed up with Alicia because "she
reminded him of Tammy." He loved the fact that she was cutthroat and didn't take shit from people, so they
were a natural match. But in the rewrite, this time it's Rob who teams up with her. Why? Same reason. "Because
she reminds him of Tammy." I loved the Alicia/Tammy parallel so much that I had to reuse it. And if you ever
saw how much fun I had writing for Tammy in Alaska, you'll understand why Alicia is one of my favorites. She's
basically just a mouthier Tammy.
Poor Frank.
You know, if you go back to my earlier notes you'll remember that I didn't even want to use Frank. He wasn't supposed
to be in this story. Hell he wasn't supposed to be an All-Star. He was the guy that one of the other authors "forced"
into the story at the beginning, and I hated writing for him every single minute of the way in the original version.
But something strange happened along the way.
As I started working on the Hawaii rewrite, I started to realize that Frank was actually quite a standout character
in his own way. I mean, no he wasn't an All-Star. Nor was he really the greatest strategist. But he brought a few
things to the game that NONE of the other characters possessed. For one, Frank was loyal. If he said he had your
back, he had your back. And as boring as that was, it also made for a fantastically flawed character. Because I
KNEW that Frank's loyalty had to be his downfall. There was no question about it. His protectiveness over Tina
HAD to cost him the game. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He had to be the crucial victim in this episode.
There's no way I would have been satisfied if it had been anyone else. It had to be Frank.
But aside from being loyal, the thing I most came to appreciate about Frank was that he just wasn't a very good
player. I know that sounds like a slam, but in truth I'm actually complimenting him. He was a terrible player.
And it made him such a wonderful character for a story that I came to appreciate him.
I've always said before that the least interesting people to write in a story are the ones who are really good
players. Because people who are Survivor experts can just adapt to anything. They never make mistakes. And they
are B-O-R-I-N-G!
The only time I enjoy writing strategists is when they are trying to outwit and undercut other great strategists.
For example, witness Rob and Vecepia. On their own, I think their machinations and deviousness would be boring
as hell. But when they're trying to one-up each other (and subtly, I might add), I think it makes for an interesting
story. Because basically you now have the Survivor version of the Cold War, where two countries are "arming"
for war, but not really fighting. Everything Rob and Vecepia do is a subtle attempt to counter what the other person
is going to do. It keeps things interesting.
And then we come back to Frank.
Frank Garrison was never really much of a Survivor player. In fact I would guess he was easily the weakest strategist
in this game. But I didn't mind. In fact, I think it just made him all that more lovable. Because he brought something
to this game that no other character could bring: He brought futile loyalty. Frank's demise had to be the catalyst
for the Tina fireworks in episode nine, and it just worked out perfectly.
So thank you, Susan Schechter, for forcing him upon our story back in 2002.
Frank Garrison eventually turned into one of my favorites.
P.S. My favorite line from this episode? "What's Frank gonna do? Stab us with his deer antlers?" Ha ha
ha. Anybody else remember that scene from the Africa recap episode? Remember Frank making his antlers play-fight
one another? That was hilarious. Frank may have been legitimately insane. He may have actually been the original
Von Ertfelda.
Episode nine coming soon! Its title is "The Defiant One" but that could change. Hell I might even change
who "the defiant one" is in the first place. ;)