All-Star Survivor: Hawaii Episode #11 Checkmate!

Manakai Tribe (white): Alicia Calaway, John Carroll, Gretchen Cordy, Colleen Haskell, Vecepia Towery, Tina Wesson

Click here to watch the All-Star Hawaii opening credits!

DAY 31

Although most important Survivor conversations tend to take place in the daytime, for Gretchen Cordy, daylight was not a luxury she necessarily had available to her at the moment. It happened to be about one o'clock in the morning on the rainiest night in Hawaii. The only things available to Gretchen at this moment were darkness, wetness, coldness, and a very reluctant pair of listening ears. But hell, that was enough for her. If nothing else, at least it was a start.

After all, if she was going to turn this game around, if she was ever going to put her idea into play, it simply had to be now. Here in the dark. There was no time to delay.

"And that's why I'm offering you a final three deal," she explained to Colleen, as the two women walked slowly along a path under the pitch black darkness.

"But I already told you no!" Colleen explained, a little bit agitated. How many times did she have to explain this? The answer was no. It had always been no!

The two women were standing about fifty yards away from the Tribal Council set, where the rest of their tribesmates had bedded down in warmth and security a couple of hours ago. But apparently not Gretchen. Apparently Gretchen had just been lying and waiting. She had been lying and waiting exactly for this moment. Colleen still had no idea why Gretchen had summoned her out here into the jungle at this ungodly hour-- after all, wasn't Gretchen supposed to be the logical one?-- but if it was simply to talk about a final three deal, this was going to be short. Colleen had been shooting down this very same proposition for a couple of weeks now.

"I love you, Gretchen," Colleen paraphrased a little more kindly, as the rain dripped down her face, "I really do. But I'm not going up against you in the final two. You'd slaughter me."

"But I'm not..."

"My alliance has been set since the first week of the game!" Colleen reiterated. "Me, John, Tina, and Vee. That's the way it has always been."

"Yeah but what happens at the final four?" Gretchen tried to interject.

Colleen just stood there and glared at her. Of course, since they were standing in pitch darkness, and rain happened to be pouring down on their heads, it was impossible to see this. But Colleen hoped that Gretchen could sense it. She hoped Gretchen could somehow pick up Colleen's eternal annoyance.

"At the final four, we just fight it out," Colleen said, softly.

Gretchen said nothing. She just stood there and let that comment hang in the air, awkwardly. Like an old stale fart. She wanted Colleen to know just how ridiculous it sounded to be saying that.

"I don't know," Colleen finally sighed, once again annoyed. "We'll worry about that when we get there."

"Will you?"

"Jeez, Gretchen, when did you turn into Vecepia all of a sudden? You're creeping me out."

Colleen laughed, somewhat bitterly. Although it was not without sympathy. After all, Gretchen Cordy happened to be in a world of hurt right now, and everyone knew it. Even if you were on the opposite side of the alliances right now, it was hard not to feel pity for her. The Kekos were outnumbered. The poor woman was screwed.

"Colleen, look," Gretchen tried to explain, patiently, as if explaining algebra to a child, "You don't want any part of those three when you get to the final four. You know it as well as I know it. They're gonna eat you alive."

"Yeah but maybe I have a trick up my sleeve. Did you ever think of that?"

"Oh cut the crap," Gretchen said, somewhat sternly.

Oops. She hoped that hadn't been a mistake.

"Excuse me?" Colleen said, raising her eyebrows in the darkness.

"We all know you don't have any tricks up your sleeve," Gretchen said. "If you did, you wouldn't be standing out here with me right now. You would have been too smart for that. You would be scared that someone would catch you."

Colleen continued to glare at her. She knew it was pointless, but it was all she could do. After all, how do you argue in the dark? It was impossible.

"Here's what's going to happen at the final four," Gretchen continued. "Tina and Vee are going to gang up on you, because it's all they can do. They need to face one another at the end. They can't beat anyone else."

"Yeah but me and John..."

"You and John what?" Gretchen just talked over her. "You think you have some wonderful plan to take over the game? You and your bestest friend? You don't think John doesn't want anything to do with you?" Gretchen laughed. "I mean, come on, grow up, Colleen. You can't be that stupid. You think John would want to face someone like you in the finals? You'd kill him!"

Colleen said nothing. She just stood there in the darkness, silently. And Gretchen realized that she might have just hurt the poor girl's feelings. Perhaps that had been a little too blunt of a comment.

"You don't have to call me stupid," Colleen now replied softly, almost inaudibly.

"I didn't mean to say you were stupid," Gretchen explained, motherly. "I just wanted to point out that you're walking into a trap."

"Well I'm just doing the best I can, you know?"

From the sound of it, Colleen appeared to be close to crying.

"I know you are," Gretchen said, as she reached out to give her young friend a hug. "And I'm not trying to put you down. I'm just... I'm just frustrated, you know? You guys have sort of got me cornered."

"Well I don't want to talk about this right now," Colleen said, as she reluctantly returned Gretchen's hug. Yuck. The woman was soaking wet. She smelled like a wet dog. Although, come to think of it, they pretty much both did. Rain plus Survivor hygiene was not a very nice combination.

"Well then, when?" said Gretchen, as she pulled back. "When would be a good time to talk about it?"

"Does never work for you?" Colleen asked, somewhat hopefully.

"How about after breakfast?" Gretchen said. "Wait until everyone eats, then meet me down by the lava rock. We'll talk about my idea."

Colleen sighed. God, this sucked.

"Oh yeah," grinned Gretchen, in the dark, "And if you stand me up, if you don't show up, then I turn the vote against you instead. I go to Tina and I tell her you've been feeding me info."

Colleen gasped. Gretchen!

"What the hell?" Colleen now asked, somewhat surprised. "Where the hell did that come from? Man, you really are a bitch when you're cornered. You weren't lying."

Gretchen just smiled and shrugged.

"I don't think I like the new Gretchen," Colleen giggled, still somewhat shocked. "She's creepy."

"Well, what is it you just said?" Gretchen asked. "That you're just trying to do your best? Well I'm trying to do my best too. The only problem is that I can't do anything without you."

"Fine," Colleen nodded.

The rain continued to pour down around them.

"Meet me by the lava rock after breakfast," Gretchen confirmed one last time. "And don't let anyone see you, or both of us are screwed."

"I think we're both pretty much screwed anyway," Colleen muttered.

"Nah, now you're just thinking like a Pagong," said Gretchen, as she turned to walk back to the Tiki Lodge. "It's time to get past that. You have to start thinking like a Tagi."

"Like what? Walk around naked all day? Start voting alphabetically?"

Gretchen laughed.

"No way," she said. "You just need to play hardball. Apparently nobody ever taught you that. Starting right now, you need to start playing this game like a winner."






^^

There sure were a lot of hours in the day between midnight and "shortly after breakfast." At least, that's what it felt like to Colleen Haskell. Because as Colleen sat here, eating John's latest bland breakfast creation, all she could do was think ahead to the conversation that Gretchen had promised to have with her in less than an hour. All she could do was speculate on what this oh-so-important final three offer was supposed to entail.

"How you doin' today, kiddo?" Vecepia said warmly, as she walked over and took a seat next to Colleen on their communal eating log.

Colleen looked up, somewhat surprised. Apparently her head had been lost in the clouds again, as it had been for most of the morning. Like usual, she hadn't even noticed that someone was coming to talk to her.

And it didn't surprise her at all that that someone turned out to be Vecepia.

"Oh I'm okay," Colleen murmured quietly, as she stirred her bamboo spoon into what appeared to be a bowl full of oatmeal. "Kind of sleepy, but otherwise pretty good."

Colleen had long ago made it a habit never to tell Vecepia more than she needed to know. Vee was pretty much always on a need-to-know basis with her. It wasn't because of anything personal, it was just-- well, it just seemed like good sense. For some reason Vecepia Towery creeped her out more than anyone ever had in two seasons in Survivor. And yes, that even included Richard Hatch. Colleen wasn't even all that sure why, but for some reason she had gone out of her way to avoid any sort of relationship with Vecepia like the plague.

"Well rumor has it that we have a challenge this morning," Vee said, as she dug into her breakfast mush. "My guess is that it's probably going to be the loved one challenge."

Colleen looked over at her, surprised.

Loved ones? Here, on the island? Since they hadn't done that during Borneo, she had sort of forgotten that was even an option out here. Back in Borneo, four seasons ago, all they had gotten were grainy images on a video.

"How do you know that?" Colleen asked, more eagerly than she would have liked. "Did somebody tip you off?"

"Nah, just check out all the extra camera crew today," Vee nodded with her head, subtly. She nodded in the direction of two men who stood waiting by the shoreline. Neither Vecepia nor Colleen had ever seen them before. The two men were clearly here for something special today.

"And check out the chick talking on the walkie-talkie," Vee continued. "Ever seen her before?"

Colleen looked. Nope. She was new too. How had Colleen missed her? Heck, half their camp was made up of strangers at the moment. Apparently Colleen was a little slow at picking up clues today.

She hoped this wasn't some sort of an omen.

"Man, what is this crap today?" Vee now asked, as she held up her spoon at eye level. A large hunk of grayish glop stuck to the end of it. She looked over at Colleen. "Did somebody piss John off last night? Since when we do have to eat finger paste?"

"Yeah I know, huh?" Colleen grinned, slightly. She pushed a small blob of her breakfast off the edge of her bowl. It fell into the sand with a plop.

Both Vecepia and Colleen started giggling.

"Oh great, so America's Sweetheart doesn't like my breakfast today?" John suddenly announced. Apparently he had been standing a few yards behind them. Again, something that the easily-distractible Colleen had failed to notice.

"It's not that I don't like it," Colleen said, "It's just that it sucks. You try to eat it."

John just put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes.

"Watch," he said, "This is where they insert a quote from Colleen about how bad my cooking is. This is where they make me look like an idiot on national TV. Watch. This is where the editors decide to bury me."

"Well you're usually a good cook," Colleen protested. "You just suck today."

"Oh, I'm sorry," John teased her, "Does America's Sweetheart require crepes suzette for breakfast? Does her royal highness require champagne in a crystal glass? Did I forget to put rose petals in your scrambled eggs?"

"Screw you," mumbled a not-really-in-the-mood-for-this Colleen. She turned away and turned her back to him.

"Uh oh, America's Sweetheart just said a derogatory term about someone," John turned and loudly announced to the production crew. "Someone better get that on film. We have to preserve this moment for our grandchildren."

Colleen said nothing. She just sat there with her back to him. Normally this would be fun. Normally she would turn around and give it back to him as good as he gave. But today her heart just wasn't really all that into this. Today, she just wanted to get breakfast over with, and go talk to Gretchen. She didn't want anything to do with John-- or more significantly, Vecepia-- until she knew what was up.

"Uh oh," John said now, a little more seriously. He realized he might have actually crossed the line for a change. "Did I hurt America's Sweetheart's feelings?"

"Well in Colleen's defense, this is pretty nasty," Vecepia piped up. She looked over at Colleen, concerned. Then she looked back at John. The look in her eyes said only one thing. Be careful. The last thing they wanted at this point in the game was a touchy Colleen.

"It's not nasty," John protested, "This is just midwestern food. This is an Omaha breakfast. Grow up."

His eyes locked with Vecepia's. And she could see the same consternation over this issue that she felt. What was suddenly up Colleen's butt today? Why was she acting so sullen all of a sudden?

No matter what the answer was to that question, this couldn't be good.

"Hey, you okay?" John came over and sat down behind her. Colleen closed her eyes tightly. Uh oh. She said a quick prayer under her breath. Please leave me alone. This isn't a good time for this. I don't want to talk about stuff right now. I have things on my mind.

Troubled by her silence, John now reached for her shoulders. He placed his hands there and started massaging, slowly. It was something he did a lot when he was concerned about her. And Colleen appreciated it. As always, she appreciated the genuine warmth she felt in her friend's touch.

She also felt a little bit bad, because of the ethics of what she was about to do to the guy.

"You feeling okay?" John asked her, quietly. He sounded concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Colleen said. "I'm just... you know. A lot of things on my mind. It's just hard."

"Why, because of the game?"

He continued to rub her shoulders, empathetically. He was very good at this. She closed her eyes in blissful relaxation. It was clear that this guy was a nurse for a reason.

"Well it's not so much the game as it is just sad when good people leave," Colleen turned her head and looked at him. "I mean, I liked Kathy a lot. It's just sort of sad that she isn't here anymore. I guess I am just feeling a little bit bummed by it all. It's just way too quiet around here."

"Awwwww," smiled John. "Come on. I love Kathy too, but that's just the way it had to be. You know the game. She had to go home."

"Yeah, I know," Colleen sighed.

She did know the game. Unfortunately she knew it all too well. And that's why she felt so bad that she had to lie to her friend at the moment. She felt horrible about it. But at the same tinme, she also knew that this was a lie they would probably buy. Even Vecepia wouldn't be able to call B.S. on you if you lamented over Kathy.

Unfortunately, Colleen Haskell was a much better poker player than anyone knew.

"Do you want us to leave you alone?" John asked, quietly.

"Yeah, if you could," Colleen smiled up at him, gratefully. She blinked her big doe eyes at him. It was guaranteed to work. Even though he was gay, John would still fall for the doe eyes. Men just had that particular gene in them. Always did, always would.

"Okay," John nodded. He gave her shoulders one final squeeze for support. Then he stood up.

Vecepia stood up as well. And Colleen could see not one tiny bit of suspicion in her eyes, either. Just like Colleen expected, her story had worked. She had even managed to pull the wool over the eyes of Vecepia.

"Just let me sit here and think about things for a while, okay?" Colleen asked. "I promise I'll be better by the challenge. I just sort of have to make peace with things."

"Take all the time you need," smiled John.

He left. Vecepia trailed after him.

Now Colleen was all alone.

Thinking, how much longer do I have to wait to have this stinking chat with Gretchen?





^^





Apparently, thirty minutes was all she had to wait.

Because once breakfast was over, and once all the players had scattered to do their morning chores, here came Gretchen walking down the path to the slippery lava rocks. As always, she wore her little tan safari hat, and as expected, she was walking alone. Colleen had sort of guessed that Alicia might be joining them for this particular conversation, but apparently Alicia wasn't supposed to be a part of this. At least, not yet.

"So here's the deal," Gretchen explained, as she cut right to the chase. "You, me, and Alicia to the final three."

Colleen just laughed.

"So what? So I can get third place?"

So much for thinking like a Tagi. Would Richard Hatch take this deal? Like hell he would. Richard Hatch would consider a final three trap to be particularly ludicrous.

"I didn't say you get third place," Gretchen smiled. "In fact, if all things go right, you will probably win."

"Hmmmm, let's see here," Colleen looked skywards, as if in mock concentration. "So I go to the final three with two women who will both kick the crap out of me in an immunity challenge. And who both started on the same tribe, and probably want nothing to do with me." She paused, as if thinking it over. "Gee, I don't know, Gretchen. Sounds awfully tempting..."

"Colleen," Gretchen smiled. "Shut up."

Colleen, as if on cue, clammed up. Damnit. Apparently Gretchen still had some of her old Pagong authority over her. Colleen didn't really like that. She really thought she had grown and matured since then.

"I don't want to win this game anymore," Gretchen slowly and deliberately explained. She looked Colleen directly in the eyes. "My only goal after last night is to make sure that one of the three of them doesn't win. So in effect, if you take this deal, I am probably handing you the key to a million dollars."

Colleen just stared at her, dumbstruck. Her mouth hung agape, as if in mid sentence.

Well that certainly wasn't what she had been expecting to hear.

"Again," Gretchen reiterated, "If you take this deal, you will probably go up against Alicia in the final two. Who, I might add, is one of the two people here you have a good chance to beat. None of the Ahis can stand Alicia. You've seen her yourself, she's a pain in the butt."

Colleen closed her mouth and searched for something to say. But no words came out. She really didn't know how she was supposed to respond to this.

"Um... why?" was all she finally managed to squeak.

"I have my reasons," Gretchen said. "I don't want to get into them all, but I will tell you I'm dead serious about this. I am not going to win this game, nor do I really intend to anymore. What I want is for you to win."

"Why?"

"Because you're the only person here who deserves it."

Colleen shut her mouth one more time. And her mind started racing with the possibilities. Because if Gretchen were indeed telling the truth-- and, again, when did Gretchen ever not tell the truth?-- then what she was offering here was an almost guaranteed ticket into the final two. If Colleen were to force a tie at the next vote, which was what Gretchen was almost surely asking her to do, then she could see in her head how it would probably go down.

Vecepia would never take a rock for anybody, so that meant that either John or Tina were gone at the next vote. Probably Tina. Which was good, because Tina was easily one of the most dangerous players left in this game. Even if she was a former winner, the woman still had a good chance to win.

After Tina, of course, would come Vee. Good riddance.

Then John. Bye bye Ahis.

And then, of course, Gretchen's implication was that she would throw the final immunity challenge. Why? Well because she simply no longer wanted to win. What Gretchen wanted right now was for Colleen to square off in the final two against Alicia, who was just about as easy an opponent as you could possibly get. Alicia was pretty much disliked by everyone. In other words, if Colleen took this deal, and it all worked out, a win might fall right in her lap.

To Colleen Haskell, this idea suddenly made All-Star Survivor just a little more interesting.

"You would really throw the final three challenge?" Colleen asked, a little suspiciously.

"Colleen, when have I ever lied to you?" Gretchen sighed. "Look, if someone comes up to you and offers you a million dollars, do you usually question them? Or do you just say yes?"

"I say yes."

"Good," smiled Gretchen. "Then say yes. Don't make it hard on yourself."

"But..." Colleen just stood there and tried to come up with a logical argument. But she found that she couldn't. There was literally no way she could possibly turn down this deal. It was as if God Himself had come down from Heaven and had handed her a winning lottery ticket. In fact, if Richard Hatch were standing next to her right now, he would probably smack her in the head for even debating this. Take the deal, you idiot! Think like a Tagi!

"Okay, I'm in," grinned Colleen, a little guiltily. She had thought that would be harder. So much for negotiating.

"Good," nodded Gretchen.

She and Colleen just stood there and stared at one another for a moment. Colleen had so much she wanted to ask, so many under-the-surface questions she wanted to bring up, but she could tell from Gretchen's face that it would have been pointless. Gretchen Cordy had clearly made up her mind that her number one goal in this game was that Tina, Vecepia, and John did not win All-Star Survivor. Above all else, that was all that she wanted. And if it took a promise of a self-sacrifice in the final three to get Colleen to go through with this, that was what she was going to do.

Colleen suddenly realized that, in her own way, Gretchen was as hardcore and as gritty a player as anyone here.

"Does Alicia know about this yet?" Colleen finally asked.

"She knows some of it," Gretchen admitted, "but not all of it. She knows that I'm going to get you to flip, but she doesn't know how. And as far as I'm concerned, that's all that she gets. Just tell her you're in and we're good."

"You don't like her, do you?" Colleen grinned.

Gretchen just smiled and shrugged. No need to stir up old demons anymore.

"Oh come on," Colleen laughed. "I can see it. You guys hate each other."

"Well hate's a strong word," Gretchen said. "But I doubt we'll be hanging around at the reunion show much. We're pretty different people."

Colleen nodded.

"Besides," Gretchen added, "I don't think she'd want to know what I promised you. I don't think she'd trust you to keep your mouth shut. She doesn't seem to have a whole lot of faith in you as an ally."

Colleen opened her mouth in offended surprise.

"Sorry," Gretchen shrugged. "But it's true. She doesn't really consider you to be much of a player."

"Whatever," Colleen snarked, somewhat offended. "Did she get to the final six last time? Not from what I heard."

Gretchen just giggled. Offended Colleen always made her laugh. It wasn't something you got to see all that often, but here it was. Colleen seemed to be legitimately pissed about this.

"Last time I played, I got further than anyone here," Colleen said. "Well, other than the winners, I mean. I sure as heck got further than Alicia."

Gretchen just nodded. Because this was actually true. Out of all the non-winners left, Colleen had a better placement the first time around than any of them. Why exactly was it that people didn't consider her much of a player again?

"All I'm sayin' is that bitch better watch her mouth," Colleen said, only half-jokingly, "Bitch better watch her mouth before she get smacked."

Gretchen started giggling. Apparently Colleen had lapsed into her mock urban accent again. As if she weren't just some debutante little schoolgirl from Miami. It amused Gretchen to no end whenever she started to do this. Yes, Colleen Haskell was about as urban and edgy as a newborn kitten. Just another reason why Gretchen loved the fact that she was going to win this thing.

"After you win," Gretchen laughed, "you have to do that at the reunion show. Do that voice. People will love it."

Colleen just shut her mouth and blushed. Oops. Perhaps she had forgotten that America's Sweetheart wasn't supposed to be doing things like that on national TV. Around Gretchen, she sometimes dropped her guard and let out a bit of her fun side. For the last few days of this game, she would have to be careful.

"So, what's the next step?" Colleen finally asked. "Do we tell Alicia?"

"Not yet," Gretchen nodded.

"Why not?"

"Well partly because she doesn't need to know yet," explained Gretchen. "But also partly because..." An odd, slow smile suddenly crept across her face. "Um. Well. Perhaps you might want to look behind you."

Colleen quickly whipped her head around.

Apparently she had missed yet another clue yet again.

Sailing on the ocean, heading directly towards their beach, was a boat. Standing at the bow of said boat was their fearless host, Jeff Probst. And right behind Jeff stood a man who looked oddly familiar to her. Colleen couldn't place him at first, what with his long, straggly beard, and his ragged-looking attire. But after about thirty seconds she eventually realized who it was. All he had to do was smile at her, and she recognized him instantly.

That wasn't a scruffy looking homeless man. That was her old Survivor buddy, Greg Buis. The favorite son of Pagong. Greg was headed towards the shores of Ni'ihau for today's reward challenge.

As you can imagine, both Colleen and Gretchen started screaming and jumping for joy.





^^

Jeff Probst welcomed the players to their day 31 reward challenge. And he did it with a little more flair than usual. After all, this was going to be an exciting challenge today. The sight of Greg Buis showing up on the island of Ni'ihau was only the beginning of it. There were far more surprises to come.

"We figured that life was probably getting a little tedious back at camp," smiled Jeff, as he faced the remaining six Manakais. "So today, we're going to try to break that up a little bit. Today, you guys are in for a bit of a treat."

"Woooooooo," cheered Colleen noisily, as she caught everyone off guard.

"Bring it on," laughed John.

"Alright, you got it," said Jeff. "Here's how it's gonna work. We're gonna be playing a version of chess today." He pointed to a large chessboard that had been constructed in the sand behind him. "It's a challenge that some of you have done before. In fact, Vecepia and John, I think it will look especially familiar to you."

"Hey I wasn't even in the game for that one," John protested. "Don't look at me. They had already voted my ass out. I was already gone."

Jeff just laughed, as he turned to Vecepia.

"Well what about you, Vee? Look familiar to you?"

Vee just nodded her head, looking somewhat embarrassed. Oh yes. She remembered this challenge particularly well. After all, this was the Marquesas family visit. This was the challenge where her friend, Sean, had sent her fiance, Leander, packing all the way back to Oregon. She would never forget that particular challenge for the rest of her life. Not being able to see her man, and so close to her birthday, had been like a dagger to her heart.

"So anyway, for the rest of you," Jeff continued, "here's how the challenge works. Each player on the gameboard will take one step at a time, in any direction you choose. The only catch is that when you step off a square, you have to flip it over. That square is no longer in play. And we keep on going until only one player is able to make a move. That player wins reward." He turned and looked at the six Manakais. "Everyone got that?"

The six players nodded. Everyone got it. This was a familiar challenge to most of them. After all, Jeff might have neglected to remember this, but this wasn't just a Marquesas challenge at all. Colleen had participated in this exact same challenge way back in Borneo.

"Oh yeah, and there's one small catch," Jeff now added, slowly, as he smirked underneath his trademark dimples. "You guys aren't going to be playing for yourselves today. Each of you is going to be paired with a partner."

On the far left of the line, Vecepia let out an audible gasp. Could it be? Was her man, Leander, actually coming out to play again? Was fate giving her a second chance at what had been taken from her oh-so-callously before?

Well, no, to be quite honest. This wasn't a loved ones challenge at all. This was actually a "returning favorites" challenge.

Unfortunately, the only two players who knew what was coming-- who had caught a glimpse of Greg Buis-- were Gretchen and Colleen.

"Let's bring 'em out!" called Jeff, as he turned his back to the players.

No sooner had the words come rolling out of Jeff's mouth, when Elisabeth Filarski came running at full speed from out of the jungle. With her arms outstretched, and her blonde hair flying in the wind, the one-time sweetheart of Australia was screaming excitedly at the top of her lungs.

"Tina," announced Jeff, "Your partner for this challenge will be your old friend from Australia, Elisabeth."

Tina didn't really know how she was supposed to respond to this. So she did what any excitable woman would do in such a situation. She screamed. She screamed her freaking head off. Elisabeth? Little Bessie herself on the island of Ni'ihau? Tina was so excited to see her that she almost couldn't contain herself. The two former Australians were soon locked in an excited embrace.

And right after Elisabeth came Greg Buis.

"Colleen," smiled Jeff, as he turned to the youngest player left in the game. "I'm sure you know who your partner is today. Say hello to your old friend from Pagong, Greg." He winked at her, softly. "Why don't you go give him a hug?"

Colleen called his name, as excited as can be. And sure enough, Greg did exactly what the producers knew he was going to do. After all, if there was one thing you could say about Greg, it was that he never broke character.

Greg stopped in his tracks. He looked frightened.

"I've never seen that girl before in my life," he screamed. "What are you people doing to me? Who is that??"

Colleen ran over to give her best Borneo friend a hug. Greg turned away from her and tried to run away.

"I want to go back to the boat!" he screamed. "Jeff, this is inhumane! You guys have to give me food and water. You promised! Please don't beat me anymore. I'm going crazy!"

Jeff just lowered his gaze to the ground and shook his head. God he hated Greg Buis. Always had, always would.

He just waited until Greg got tired of the game.

Pretty soon Colleen and Greg were locked in a tight embrace, as they were once again friends to the end. Greg whispered something into her ear. Colleen giggled. Once again, all seemed to be right with the world.

"You guys done?" Jeff asked, somewhat rudely, as the two of them trotted back to the players' mat. "Can we continue?"

"Aye aye, captain," Greg mock saluted him.

"Harrrr," Colleen growled a mock pirate acknowledgment.

She and Greg exchanged a look and another giggle. Ah, yes. Now Jeff remembered why he hated Pagong. He hoped that Greg would be out of this challenge and off this island in a hurry.

"Next up," Jeff turned back to the jungle, "We have a friend for you, Alicia. Come on out, mystery partner."

As expected, here came Alicia's best friend and number one partner in crime, Jeff Varner. Walking slowly, with his hands in the front of his jeans, Jeff grinned from ear to ear as he watched Alicia nearly burst out into tears. Oh how he loved when she broke down and actually got emotional once in a while. It amused him to no end, because now he had the right to rag on her mercilessly.

"What up, what up?" Jeff grinned, mischievously, as he and Alicia met up and embraced in a warm hug. Even after a month in Hawaii, he could still feel the strength in his Kucha buddy's arms. Even after thirty days without protein, Alicia was ripped.

And sure enough, Varner was already thinking strategy, because that's what he did.

"Who needs to go down?" he quickly whispered into her ear.

"What?" Alicia hadn't heard him correctly.

"Who do I take out?"

Not being prepared to be put on the spot so suddenly, and not expecting that Varner was here to work his magic so quickly, Alicia could only mumble the first name that sprung to her head. "Gretchen." She looked up at her friend. "Don't let Gretchen win."

Jeff just nodded. He had it. Just as the woman requested, Gretchen Cordy was now as good as dead. Alicia didn't have to ask twice. After all, that was why he was here.

After Jeff Varner, the next returning favorite to step out of the jungle was Tammy Leitner. John's number one sidekick from Marquesas grinned from ear to ear behind a pair of dark sunglasses. Like Tina, John had no idea how he was supposed to react to this. All he could was excitedly shout out her name.

"Come on over, Tammy," grinned Jeff, as the woman he once referred to as "pitbull" sauntered over to greet her old friend. She and John locked in a warm hug. John then whispered something into her left ear. Tammy simply nodded her head. She had it. That was all that she needed.

"I notice you aren't as emotional as some of the other visitors," Jeff commented, once Tammy had taken her place on the mat. "What's the deal? You aren't excited to see John?"

"Oh I'm totally stoked to see him," Tammy confirmed. "John's awesome. We always had a lot of fun together."

"But no screams? No tears?"

"No way," Tammy laughed. "John was always the crier. I don't do that shit. That was all him."

John just looked at her and mouthed some sort of an expletive under his breath. Tammy caught it and shot him one back. As always, they had a very playful relationship with one another. Jeff liked it a hell of a lot better than he liked the one between Greg and Colleen.

"Mystery guest number five," Jeff now turned and called. "Please reveal yourself. You have a very lonely friend out here who would like to see you."

Vecepia Towery knew exactly who was going to be running out of that jungle the moment Jeff had spoken those words. No, it wasn't going to be Leander. She would have loved it to be Leander. But there was at least one other person on this planet who was guaranteed to put a smile on her face.

And here he came.

"Girl, I'm comin'" yelled Sean Rector, as he walked triumphantly out of the jungle, with his arms raised in the air. "Say hello to the chessboard master. The rest of you candy-asses best be gettin' out of my way. This challenge is mine!"

Vecepia burst into tears. She couldn't help herself. Next to her, Jeff Probst just lowered his head and laughed.

"I see our resident big mouth is back in the game," he grinned, as Sean continued to trash talk the rest of the returning favorites. "It wouldn't be Survivor if we didn't have Sean."

"Yo, Jeff, you better tell these chumps to get off my beach," Sean announced, loudly. "'Cause I'm fixin' to put a hurt on some people today. Aint no way anyone's winning my girl's challenge today. This reward is hers. The rest of 'em just don't know it yet."

Sean had now reached his friend, Vecepia. The two of them embraced in a hug. Sean said something under his breath that appeared to put a smile on her face.

"Yo, Muhammad Ali, you done talking yet?" Jeff looked over and asked him.

"Oh I aint even warmed up yet," Sean smiled. "Just wait till I get started, Jeff. You'll see. Wait till I go off on these people. They won't know what hit 'em."

"I'm sure we'll be waiting on pins and needles," Jeff said, sarcastically. Then he turned back towards the jungle. After all, there was still one person back there left to run out. And as expected, it was a player that none of the All-Stars expected to see.

Jenna Lewis came screaming out of the Hawaiian jungle.

"Gretchen," announced Jeff, "Here's your old friend from Borneo, Jenna. Looks like we have another Pagong reunion."

Jenna, who of course was never one at a loss for energy, raised her fists in the air and met Gretchen halfway down the beach. She was screaming excitedly. The two women met in an embrace and Gretchen quickly whispered something into Jenna's left ear. Even while talking, Jenna was able to catch this, and she nodded, succinctly. The message had been passed.

Now all six Survivor returning favorites were here on the beach.

It was time for the challenge.





^^

Jeff let the six pairs of players share their mini-reunions on the beach. Then he explained today's rules.

"We tried to choose the players who you got along with best back in your respective seasons," he explained. "At least, among the ones who weren't castmembers in All-Stars. And like I said, today your returning castmember will be competing in this challenge for you."

A few players groaned. A few even cheered.

"Tammy, Greg, Sean, Elisabeth, Jenna, and Varner," singled out Jeff. "You six will be the only six players participating today. And you will be competing on the behalf of your former friend." Jeff grinned. "You have no knowledge of All-Star alliances, you have no knowledge of who is getting along with whom. Today your job is simply to win this challenge for your respective loved one."

"Can we talk to them before the challenge?" asked Elisabeth.

"No. The only talking you can do is what you have done up to this point," Jeff explained. "In fact, at this point, I'd like the returning favorites to step over here, to this yellow mat. Because from this point on, the only way you two can communicate with one another is through the process of hand signals."

"Man, that's brutal," said John.

"Sorry," shrugged Jeff. "Those are the rules."

Jeff waited for the six favorites to be separated from the six remaining Manakais. He watched as a few futile hand signals appeared to be passed from one side to the other. As expected, this challenge was going to be a political minefield.

"Returning favorites," Jeff turned and addressed the yellow mat. "Want to know what reward you guys are competing for?"

Of course, they did.

"The reward for this challenge is twofold," Jeff explained. "First off, the winner of this challenge will immediately become 'The Spoiler', and will earn the right to sit one person out of tomorrow's immunity challenge."

"Sit them out??" asked Elisabeth. Her mouth opened in shock. She couldn't believe it.

"That's right," smiled Jeff. "Sit them out. You guys are playing for some heavy stakes today."

Sean Rector whistled appreciatively under his breath. Standing next to him, Jeff Varner just looked down at the sand. He appeared to be strategizing.

"The second part of this reward is lot less daunting," Jeff now explained. "The second part of the reward is that the winner of this challenge gets to come back to Manakai and spend twenty-four hours as a part of this tribe."

"We get to live here?" Jenna Lewis asked, excitedly.

A few players cheered.

"You got it," nodded Jeff. "The winner of this challenge not only wins The Spoiler reward for their particular loved one, you actually get to come back to Manakai and be a part of this game. So win or lose, you guys are playing for a lot today."

"Holy shit," whistled Jeff Varner, through his teeth.

He made quick eye contact with Alicia. And the message he saw in her eyes was unmistakable. She needed him to win this.

"You guys ready?" smiled Probst.






^^






The six returning favorites took their places on the game board, with their respective partners standing far behind them, out of the action. The mood in the air had turned quickly from frivolity to tension. All of a sudden, this wasn't just fun and games anymore. There was a lot riding on what was about to be played out.

As Jeff got ready to start the game, Jenna suddenly turned around and locked eyes with her partner, Gretchen. Gretchen appeared to be trying to mouth her a word.

"What?" Jenna mouthed back. She did it cautiously, trying to make sure that nobody saw her.

"Lose," Gretchen said again. "Lose this challenge."

Jenna thought she said, "lose," and it confused her. "Lose? Why?" What the hell? That wasn't like Gretchen. Gretchen never threw challenges. This was totally unlike her.

But Gretchen just nodded. Yes. Lose. Gretchen had no intention of being the Spoiler today. In fact, she had no intention of ever being the Spoiler again, ever. After all, it wasn't like she really needed immunity tomorrow. Since she effectively had Colleen in the back of her pocket, since Colleen had already flipped, unless something went drastically wrong, this challenge didn't even matter. No matter who won immunity tomorrow, no matter who won this ridiculous Spoiler reward, the Ahis were screwed.

Jenna simply acknowledged this with a shrug. Oookay. If that's what Gretchen wanted...

And with that, the challenge commenced.

Through random selection, Jeff Varner had been chosen to move first. It wasn't the way he preferred to start the game, but oh well, what can you do? He thought about his move for a second, and then he stepped one tile closer to Jenna. After all, his instructions from Alicia had been crystal clear. Take out Jenna. Take out Gretchen's loved one. Don't give Gretchen the slightest chance to win this reward.

After Jeff came Sean Rector.

Then Tammy.

Then Greg.

Then Jenna.

And finally, rounding out the order, came Elisabeth. Elisabeth moved last.

The players alternated moves, and squares, until about five minutes into the challenge. That was when, thanks to a complicated series of hand signals from the players behind the scenes, the game claimed its first victim. Greg Buis and Tammy Leitner teamed up to box Jeff Varner into a corner at the bottom of the board. Just like that, Alicia's trained assassin from Kucha had been removed from the game.

Just about everyone standing on this beach was incredibly surprised.

"Hey Varner," asked Jeff Probst, with his hands in the air. "What gives? I thought you were supposed to be good at this."

"I am good," Varner laughed. "They just double teamed me. Did you see what they did? They're meaner than I am!"

Varner turned his last tile over with a disgusted little plop. He looked embarrassed.

"Nice job, dumbass," Alicia teased him, jokingly, "You screwed me over. Go home."

"Oh I'm sorry," Jeff teased her back, "I must be woozy from all that foooooood they gave us on the way here. Maybe I just overate. Maybe it sapped my energy to compete."

"Hey Probst," Alicia quickly turned and addressed the host, "Can I kill him? Is that okay?"

"Not on camera."

Varner and Alicia got to say one final goodbye to one another before he was forced to leave the beach for good. He walked towards the jungle, turned one last time to wave to the eleven remaining players on the sand, and then he was gone. Varner was gone. Alicia Calaway had officially been eliminated from winning reward.

With the gameboard down to five players, the speed of the challenge increased. And within two minutes, the game suddenly claimed its second victim. All of a sudden, Tammy Leitner found herself unexpectedly boxed into a corner by Elisabeth and Greg. And she was surprised. She hadn't seen that trap coming for a second. She cursed under her breath.

"Hey Tammy," Jeff Probst called over to her, "I think you're..."

"Done?" she nodded. "Yep. That's it. Stick a fork in me."

Tammy turned her final tile over with a disgusted thud. She shot John a helpless little shrug. Oh well. So much for that. The two players were allowed to share one final hug. And that was when John whispered something important in her ear.

"Don't worry," he forgave her, "I'll make it up to you when I win the million."

"For real?" she looked impressed.

"Me against Vecepia," John whispered, conspiratorially. "Easy money. Watch it happen."

Tammy nodded her head and said her goodbyes to the remaining people on the beach. And just like that, she was gone. The pitbull of Marquesas disappeared into the jungle. The challenge was down to four.

Er, make that three.

Jenna Lewis was about to throw the challenge. Just like Gretchen had asked her to. Jenna "accidentally" made a stupid move and managed to box herself into a corner. Sean Rector saw it, took advantage of it, and quickly knocked her out of the game.

"Oh, I'm a fucking moron!" Jenna theatrically cursed herself out. "Damnit! I'm an idiot!"

Jenna put on her best disgusted face and walked over to Gretchen, apologizing repeatedly. Gretchen just gave her a hug and thanked her under her breath. She was quite thankful for what had just happened.

"You know, if anyone wants me to give them free moron lessons after this," Jenna joked to the rest of the players, "I'll be back in the hotel. At least, if I can figure out the room key. I feel like an idiot."

"Good bye, Jenna," Jeff smiled, politely.

"I know, I know," she laughed, self-consciously. "I talk too much, don't I? I bet you thought you were used to that."

Jeff just ignored her. Jenna eventually left.

"I sure do miss her," Greg deadpanned from his side of the board.

There were a few titters.

With the game down to three, that left just Sean Rector, Greg Buis, and Elisabeth Filarski. One of them was going to win the game for their particular loved one. And all of a sudden, poor Elisabeth saw herself at an important crossroads in the timeline of this game.

She looked at the board, and she realized she had to make a choice. Did she want to make her final run at Greg, or at Sean?

She had to go left or right. Which one should it be?

Concerned, she turned her head and looked back at Tina. She needed some guidance.

Tina, who of course was political as all hell when she needed to be, simply shrugged her shoulders in response. Sorry. This choice in on your shoulders, little girl. I'm not walking into this political deathtrap. I'm not choosing between Vecepia and Colleen. You are out on your own.

Frowning slightly, Elisabeth thought about it for a second, and then she took a step to her left. She headed towards Greg Buis.

Anguished, Greg let out the most primal scream of pain she had ever heard in her life.

"Nooooooooo!" he screamed, as if in anguish. "Why me?"

Elisabeth just giggled.

And just like that, Sean Rector was almost guaranteed to win this game. With Elisabeth and Greg now battling it out in one corner of the board, this challenge was essentially his. He now had an entire section of the board to himself. Through her decision, Elisabeth Filarski had just handed Vecepia Towery the win in this game. All they had to do now was play the rest of it out.

Greg moved one way. Elisabeth cornered him. Greg was out. Soon Elisabeth was out.

As expected, loudmouth Sean had just backed his way into the Spoiler reward challenge. He thrust his fists in the air and started whooping and hollering.

"Sean!" announced Jeff, excitedly, "And Vecepia! Win reward!"

Vecepia Towery, who had never expected to win a single challenge in this entire game, simply put her hands over her mouth in shock and screamed. Reward? She was officially the Spoiler? This was unbelievable.

And even better, Sean was now coming back to live with her at camp? What could be better than that?!

Sean ran over and picked Vee up in an excited embrace. All around them, the other players stood and applauded. Sure, they would have liked to have won this reward themselves, but to see how excited Sean and Vee were to be able to see one another, it was hard not to be a little bit touched. After all, Vecepia was literally crying at the moment. That wasn't something that you saw very much.

"Man, you guys look happy," said Jeff, as he came over at talk to a clearly teary-eyed Vecepia. "Are you excited to come back to play Survivor again, Sean?"

"Oh hell yeah," Sean said. "Hell yeah, Jeff. This is what it's all about. I've been waiting for this for months."

"Good," nodded Jeff. "Because for the next twenty-four hours, you are officially a member of Manakai."

He tossed Sean a white buff. The players cheered.

"I sure hope you still like eating troca shells," Jeff teased him.

Sean shot him a look. Troca shells? They had that shit here, too? What the fuck?

But Vecepia didn't care. Right now, all she cared about was how she could work Sean being here to the best of her advantage.

DAY 32

It was only 8:30 in the morning, and already the production camp a few miles from Camp Manakai was in turmoil.

Now, on most days, a little random chaos around base camp was something to be expected. After all, Survivor was an extremely unpredictable show. Players came and went, strategies came and went, weather conditions came and went, and the producers and cameramen were expected to adapt to basically all of it. Those sort of expectations pretty much came with the territory on this show. If you worked on Survivor, you learned to deal with changes.

But what the production crew was not used to adapting to was what Gretchen had done to Colleen about twelve hours ago. Gretchen had essentially altered the entire course of the game, she had basically handed a million dollar check to Colleen Haskell on a silver platter, and this development had so shocked the Survivor production camp that today things were essentially in turmoil. This morning, the producers were trying their best to adapt to a change that, for all intents and purposes, had probably affected the outcome of All-Star Survivor.

And so the morning went at Survivor base camp. It was basically your typical morning, what with the small trucks leaving to and from Camp Manakai every sixty minutes or so. Each truck carried a producer and a small camera crew, and headed towards Manakai Beach. This was part of the all-important rotating production team. And they had all been given implicit please-do-not-fail-to-understand-this instructions this morning. Much moreso than most mornings, today their instructions had been direct and specific.

Their only jobs today were to talk to Gretchen, and to talk to Colleen. That was it. Everything else could wait. Even the fact that Sean Rector was hanging around back at camp would have to take a backseat.

After all, they all knew that Gretchen's unexpected bit of Survivor martyrdom had been potentially huge.






^^





And so the latest truck headed off through the jungle towards Camp Manakai. It exited the base camp area, took a left onto a small marked dirt path, and disappeared into the trees. In fifteen minutes it would be at Camp Manakai. In fifteen minutes, the producers would begin their daily assault of morning interviews. In fifteen minutes, Gretchen Cordy's life was about to become an enormous pain in the ass.

As the truck exited base camp, a cluster of Survivor crewmembers gathered outside to have an impromptu discussion. After all, there was really only one thing to talk about when you lived out here in the jungle.

You talked about the game. You talked about the latest developments in the Manakai soap opera.

"The Ahis are screwed," grinned Marie, one of the female set designers. "Did you see the dailies from last night? Did you see the look on Gretchen's face? She knows she has them."

Gretchen Cordy, of course, had always been one of the favorite players among the Survivor production camp. They had loved her in Borneo, they loved her just as much here in Hawaii, it was as if nothing had changed. Although hell, why would it have changed? This was practically the exact same production crew that the show had had in Borneo. The same people cheering on Gretchen now had cheered her on the same way just two years before. It was like Hawaii was cosmic justification for what the very-much-hated Tagis had done to her the first time around.

As of two days ago, the unofficial consensus around base camp was that John Carroll was probably going to win All-Star Survivor. It was as simple as that. John was such an obvious pick, in fact, at 3:2 odds, that the guy who ran the unofficial "Survivor Sports Book", Gary, had recently refused to take any more bets on the guy. He had declared that John was too obvious a winner, so he had closed down the betting.

But that was before Gretchen had pulled off the ballsiest power play in the history of Survivor. Gretchen had essentially martyred herself just to keep any of the Ahis from winning.

And all of a sudden, the behind-the-scenes betting was about to get serious.

Marie, who was by far the biggest Gretchen fan behind the scenes, had just put up $500 on her favorite player to win. Five hundred big ones on Gretchen. It was the maximum bet allowed by camp rules. The rest of her fellow crewmembers were stunned.

"But Gretchen is going to give herself up at the final three," one of the many detractors countered. "She can't possibly win."

"Doesn't matter," said Marie, shaking her head. "She won't quit. Trust me. I know her."

"So she's going to screw Colleen at the final three?" a cameraman named Steve asked, incredulously. "You think she's going to do that? On camera?"

"I think she has to," Marie nodded. "She will never quit. It's not in her nature."

"Oh that is complete bullshit," a woman named Mo spat. "You really think she's going to do that? Gretchen is going to screw over Colleen? She's going to pull a fast one on America's Sweetheart?"

Marie just smiled and nodded. She said nothing. After all, she had already placed her $500 on Gretchen to win. At 20:1 odds. That pretty much said all she needed to say about this subject. Her bet had been placed.

"Well I'll take that bet," Mo said, as she reached back for her wallet. "I got twenty bucks on Colleen. And that's on top of the fifty I already put down on her. I don't think there's any way Colleen can lose."

So Mo's bet was in the books, and so was Marie's. That left just a few others who were standing here. Who were their favorites?

"Well my bet's still on John," smiled one the cameramen, Steve. "I don't think anything's changed. He's still the smartest one out there."

"What about the Gretchen deal?"

"Gretchen deal, nothing," grinned Steve. "She can talk all she wants, sure, but John's still the smartest one in this game. He has been since day one." Steve looked around at his fellow crewmembers, as if he were explaining the obvious. "Trust me, I'm out there every day. I have to sit out there and listen to all their bullshit every day. John is the only one who knows what he's doing."

"What about Vee?" asked one of the caterers.

"Vee's all talk," Steve laughed. "She's toast. Watch. She doesn't have a chance."

The rest of the crewmembers just stood there and stared at him, as if he were speaking some sort of a foreign language. John? John Carroll was still his favorite to win? How on Earth could that be possible? After all that had gone down with Gretchen over the past twenty-four hours? He was still picking John?

But Steve didn't care. Hell, he loved the fact that they were doubting him. He loved the fact that the odds against John had just suddenly shot up to 15:1.

Why?

Well because there was something that Steve knew that many of the other people in this circle didn't know. After all, he was a cameraman, he had been there. He had been there at camp. They hadn't. Only a cameraman would be able to know all the interpersonal dynamics.

Only someone who had been at Camp Manakai every day would know that Alicia was a variable that the Gretchen-heads seemed to be forgetting.

Alicia Calaway was going to blow it for both Gretchen and Colleen. It was obvious. She was going to sell them out. Any observant cameraman would be able to see it. Alicia's best option was with John and the Ahis, not with the Kekos. Alicia was about to blow it for all three of them. Alicia would never team up with Gretchen. He could feel it in his heart.

And that was the sole reason why he still had $500 on John Carroll to win.

^^

Back at camp, Sean Rector was hurting.

He had only been a member of Manakai for about twelve hours, but that was more than long enough to remember what he hated so much about island living. He hated the wetness. He hated the sleeping conditions. He hated the food. He hated the lack of sanitation. And most of all, above all else, he hated the bugs.

Sweet Jesus Almighty, Sean Rector hated the bugs.

"How do you people live in this shit?" screamed Sean, laughingly, as he swatted away what was probably the five hundredth tropical mosquito from his face this morning. "You people are insane. These bastards are everywhere!"

Sean started swatting the ever-persistent buzzing cloud around his head with both hands now. It didn't work. He only succeeded in losing his balance and falling off the edge of the shelter. One minute he had been sitting there, happily eating breakfast, and the next minute-- PLOP. Butt down in the mud.

Tina and Colleen thought it was hilarious. They both started giggling.

"Oh yeah, sure," Sean joked, "Laugh at the brother. Laugh at the guy from Harlem. See where it gets you."

He tried to push himself up out of the mud. It took a while, and he was met with many giggles, but eventually he got himself up. It was then that he noticed he had managed to spill his bowl of rice in the process. It was scattered everywhere. Sean's face fell. Here he was, starving and muddy, and now the only food he had access to was scattered across half of Camp Manakai. This shit wasn't funny.

"Hey John, you got any seconds over there?" he turned and asked.

"Sorry, man. That's all we've got."

"Awww, man," Sean whined. "You people are brutal."

Off to his left, Colleen kept giggling. She couldn't help it. She thought Sean was funny. She had been laughing at him pretty much the entire time he had been here. The guy cracked her up.

"Yo, Hello Kitty, you think this is funny?"

That was Sean's nickname for Colleen. From the minute he had arrived at camp, he had been stunned to see that she had looked and had acted so young. It was amazing. To Sean, Colleen Haskell seemed like she was about twelve years old. So he had opened his mouth one time and out it came. Her new nickname, Hello Kitty. That was what he had been calling her ever since.

"I'm sorry," Colleen said, as she tried to hide her giggles. "It's just funny."

"What's funny? A brother falling on his ass?"

"No, you just have mud on your butt."

The minute it came out of her mouth, Colleen knew she was gone. She was lost. She was officially in the giggle zone. She tried to hide it by burying her face in Tina's shoulder, but it was no use. She started guffawing, a lot louder than she had expected. Sean just shook his head and turned back to the group.

"Yo, someone needs to get her a Barbie or somethin'," he stated. "Kitty's creepin' me out."

Sean looked once more time down at his empty rice bowl. He looked heartbroken.

"Well you can have my rice if you want," Tina offered. "You're our guest. You shouldn't have to starve."

"Nah, that's okay," said Sean, offering her a smile. "Y'all need it more than me. I was just playin'."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," nodded Sean. "I'll be fine. I'm not gonna take your rice. You can keep it."

"Okay."

"Besides," smiled Sean, "I'll be eatin' pizza in about four hours, so screw all of y'all. I don't need your pity rice. I'll be gettin' the good stuff. Y'all and the mosquitoes can all kiss my pampered black ass."

He put his hands on his hips and let out a loud, overly-dramatic MUHAHAHA laugh. It broke the tension. Typical Sean.

Vecepia and the others were always glad to have someone funny around.

"So what's the deal today?" Sean asked, as he reached down to wipe rice off of his shirt. "Are we doin' chores, or what? You need me to lift stuff?"

He looked up and looked around. None of the Manakais seemed to have any idea what he was talking about.

"Come on," he smiled, "I aint playin'. Put me to use. What do you want me to do? I'm only gonna be here for a couple more hours."

"Well, we sort of need to reinforce the bottom of our raft," Gretchen suggested, hopefully. She looked around the circle, to see if anyone had any better ideas. "Want to help me with that? I could sort of use some extra manpower."

"Hey, that's why I'm here," Sean shrugged. "No sooner said then done. Let's do it."

"Alright. Rock on."

Gretchen stood up, happily. Well wasn't this a pleasant surprise.

"Yo, John," Sean now joked, "I think the women are happy to have a man around camp for a change. Look at that smile I just put on her face. Maybe you should help them a little more. I think they could use you."

He turned and locked eyes with John. They exchanged a look.

It wasn't an entirely unpleasant look. It was just the look of two people who happened to have a history, and who happened to know each other a little too well. It was a look that said, "Watch yourself, Pots and Pans. I know you. I know your style. And I don't want you screwin' my girl, Vecepia. You just better be careful."

John, of course, knew exactly what Sean was trying to communicate. Not because he was psychic, but because they had already discussed this. He and Sean had had a serious discussion about this very subject around midnight last night.

Sean's card of Marquesas loyalty had already been played.

"Screw you, Rector," John now teased him. "I'm more man than you'll ever be. I don't have to prove shit to you."

"Yo, am I crazy?" Sean shot back. "'Cause, you know, I only see one gay dude on this beach. And as far as I can tell, it aint me."

"Yeah, whatever, Shaka. Go braid your hair."

Off to the side, Colleen continued giggling. Man, she was glad she hadn't been a castmember in Marquesas. She wasn't sure she would have made it. John? Rob? Kathy? Sean? These people were funny. They made her laugh until her stomach hurt.

"Well if anyone needs me later, I'll be down helpin' Gretchen with the boat," Sean grinned. "You know, if y'all need some manpower or anything. I just want y'all to know there's plenty of me to go around."

He pulled off his shirt. His ebony muscles glistened in the sun. Tina whistled.

"... or if you want, you can stay up here with the girls and help John with the cooking."

"Yeah, ha ha," said John. "Whatever, dude. You've got mud on your ass."

He and Sean exchanged a look. It was good times. It was like the two of them were still back on that beach, making fun of each other like they used to on Rotu.






^^






Sean spent about half an hour helping Gretchen down by the beach. It wasn't long enough for him to get a feel as to who she really was-- after all, Gretchen was notoriously closed when it came to meeting new people-- but it was long enough for him to realize that she was probably one of the major favorites to take home this game. Like just about everyone, Sean Rector was immediately impressed by Gretchen the first time he hung out with her.

"So you've been doin' all this on your own?" Sean asked. "You do all the repair work yourself?"

"Yeah." Gretchen nodded. "Kinda."

"How? These things are heavy."

"Well if I don't come down and do it, then who will?" Gretchen explained. She looked up at him through a sweaty forelock of hair. "It's not like leaks fix themselves. They have to be patched."

Sean just whistled through his teeth. This woman was hardcore. She reminded him of Tammy.

"Does Vee come down and help much?" he asked.

Gretchen just paused and looked up at him, amused. Because she knew that he knew the answer to that question as well as she did. Did Sean really want her to answer that?

"Alright, alright," Sean laughed. "I got it. You don't have to spell it out. Girlfriend's a slacker."

"It's not that she's a slacker," Gretchen rebutted. "It's just that she plays a different type of game than I do." She looked back towards camp. "I mean, I really do like Vee. She's just a different type of person than I am."

She looked at Sean, hoping he understood. Luckily, he seemed to know what she was talking about. After all, Sean had played this game with Vecepia before. He knew how maddening she could be when she went into stealth mode.

"Yeah, I got you," Sean said, softly. "I know. I know."

"Good."

"And I'll talk to her about comin' down here more often," Sean promised. "You shouldn't have to do this yourself. I'll see if I can talk to her."

Gretchen just shrugged.

After all, Sean was a nice guy and all, but he wasn't a miracle worker. She would have to see Vecepia down here patching leaks before she would ever believe it.






^^





After he left Gretchen, Sean continued his morning rounds at Camp Manakai. He went from player to player, chatting aimlessly, doing his best to discuss the important issues they all faced around camp.

And although he would swear he wasn't doing it on behalf of Vecepia, some of the Manakais refused to believe this. They didn't believe him at all. They didn't believe he was just walking around and just trying to be social. They knew there was an agenda behind this.

"Yo, Superfreak, need a hand with anything?"

That was Sean's nickname for Alicia Calaway. She didn't much like it. In fact, she didn't much like him. Since the minute he had gotten here, Alicia had found Sean Rector and his nonstop patter incredibly annoying. He simply talked too much for her tastes. He had only been here a couple of hours, and she was already tired of him.

"Did Vee send you down here?" Alicia turned and asked him, with a smirk on her face. "You just gathering information?"

"No way," shrugged Sean. "I was just seeing what was up."

"Mmm-hmmmm," Alicia nodded. She turned around and ignored him.

Yeah, whatever.

Sean just stood there with his hand on his hip, looking confused. What was that all about? Alicia hadn't said five words to him since the minute he had arrived here. What was up her butt all of a sudden?

Sean opened his mouth to say something, but that was when he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. Emerging from the jungle was his girl, Vecepia. She was motioning for him to come talk to her. And whatever it was, it looked like this could be incredibly important. She looked like she wanted him to hurry.

"Alright then," Sean turned and said to Alicia's back, loud enough for anyone nearby to hear it. "We'll chat later. You look busy. I don't want to get in your way."

"Bye, Sean," Alicia said, still not turning around to face him.

Sean just mumbled something derogatory under his breath.

Screw Alicia. He was tired of her, too.

^^

Sean met Vecepia on a trail leading to the Manakai watering hole. It was time to compare notes. After all, it was almost time for him to go home. He didn't have much time left to share his report.

"So what's the damage?" Vee asked, expectantly. "We still good?"

"Tina doesn't have any intentions of voting you out," Sean reported. "She said she pretty much has to go to the end with you, because you're the only other winner. She says her hands are tied."

"That's what she's been telling me too," Vee nodded. "And I think I kind of have to believe her."

Sean just shrugged. He didn't get the vibe that Tina was trying to play him, but at the same time Tina was one of the few people here who would make an excellent poker player. She was a hard one to read. All Sean knew was that he didn't entirely trust her. She was way too sweet and nice to be real.

"Well, what about John?" Vee asked next. Because John was clearly the big variable here. If John ever decided he didn't want Vecepia in the final three, she was screwed. She was putting a lot of her faith in the guy.

"I'm gettin' some weird vibes from John," Sean grimaced, slightly.

"Weird? How?"

"Well not weird bad. Just weird... weird." Sean didn't know how to explain it any better than that. John was just acting a lot different this time around. He had clearly changed his gameplay style since Marquesas. This time he was being a lot more sneaky and subtle. It was hard to put a finger on it.

"Do you think I'm in trouble with him?" Vee asked.

Sean weighed the odds in his head. How much did he really trust John? How much did he really trust his Marquesas brother to do the right thing by Vecepia? Was their final two pact really as tight as it seemed?

"Here's my take on John," Sean finally said. "No, he doesn't want you to win, but I think he sort of expects to beat you in the final two. So no, I don't think he's going to backstab you."

"No?"

Sean grimaced again. He knew he was asking for trouble vouching for the guy's character like this, but at the same time he just didn't see any reason John would bail on Vecepia. It just wouldn't make sense for him. There was no reason to backstab.

"I think you're good," he finally confirmed. "I think it'll be you, Tina and John in the final three. That seems to be what everyone wants."

Vee now sighed, audibly. She felt like a huge weight had been removed from her shoulders. Because if there was one person here she knew she could trust, it was Sean. Her Maraamu baby brother. He had done all the legwork for her. Just like she knew that he would.

"Thanks, Sean. You're the best." She reached over and hugged him. "Remind me that I owe you one."

"Hey, anything for my girl," Sean hugged her back. "I just want you to win." He pulled back and smiled at her. "Oh yeah, I forgot. Watch out for Alicia. She's kind of a bitch."

Vecepia just laughed.

Sometimes the easiest lessons were the ones you learned first, now weren't they?

"And hey, what's the deal with Colleen?" Sean now asked, curiously. "Is she for real? Is she really like that?"

"Like what?"

"All ten years old and shit?" Sean looked confused. "Is that an act? Or is she like that all the time? I can't figure her out."

"I don't think that's an act," Vee shook her head. "She's pretty much like that all the time."

Sean just whistled. Wow. And he thought that living with Sarah had been a challenge. If he had to spent 24/7 with someone as giggly as Colleen, he would probably put a bullet in his head. He wasn't sure how Vecepia had been able to put up with that.

"Colleen's not that bad," Vee explained. "You just have to learn not to take her seriously. She doesn't see herself as a grownup, so you just have to accept that."

"Is she much of a player?" Sean asked.

"Colleen?" Vee looked up, surprised.

"Yeah? What's her deal?"

Vecepia just shrugged. Come to think of it, she had never really thought of Colleen as anything. Not as a player or an adversary. Since day one, she had just sort of been seen as cutesy window dressing. Unlike just about every other player on this beach, Colleen Haskell had always been thought of as someone who was just happy to be here.

"I know she has been trying to play both sides," Vee admitted. "I've seen her talking to Gretchen. But as for is she a player or not..." She just shrugged.

Worrying about Colleen Haskell just wasn't something you did in this game. And why would you? There were much bigger threats. The Ahis could pretty much take Colleen out whenever they wanted to.

"Okay," nodded Sean. "Well just remember not to forget about her. Remember, she's pretty close to John. She's probably important to him."

"Yeah, but I'm important to him too," Vee said. "We've had a final two pact forever."

"As far as you know."

Vee just stopped and looked at him, curiously. She looked a little surprised. What the heck did he mean by that?

"I'm not sayin' nothin'," Sean added, quickly. He held his palms in the air, innocently. "I didn't hear anything, I'm just saying you want to keep an eye on Colleen. She's awfully close with John. And those quiet ones are sneaky. You're gonna want to be careful."

"Well yeah, but you forget," Vee grinned. "Colleen's not the quiet one. I am. I'm the sneaky one. The rest of them should be looking out for me."

Sean just laughed. Touche.

Then he and Vee tapped fists, one last time, for good luck.

He sure did like Vecepia better when he wasn't playing against her.





^^





It was lunchtime, and that meant it was just about time for Sean Rector to leave camp. He had spent nearly twenty-four hours with the Manakais, he had formed bonds with just about all of them (well, except Alicia), and with the upcoming immunity challenge approaching, that meant it was time for him to go.

But not before he had one last message for his former "brother" from Marquesas, John Carroll.

Sean wanted to be absolutely crystal clear about something before he took off.

"You know if you vote her out, it's gonna break her heart," explained Sean, as he pulled John aside, behind the Manakai shelter. He then put his arm around John's shoulder, almost a little bit threateningly. "It's gonna break her fucking heart, bro, and I don't wanna see that."

"I have no intention of voting Vee out." John protested, for probably the tenth time today. "I've already told you that!"

"I know," nodded Sean, "But I just wanted to remind you that if you did, I would be very upset. I don't want to see my girl get played like that. You get me?"

He just glared one last time into John's eyes. He wanted to make sure this message got through loud and clear. No funny stuff. Not this late in the game. Vecepia didn't deserve that.

"Look, I told you," John hissed, somewhat quietly, so that no one nearby could hear. "Vecepia has no chance to win this game. She can't beat anybody. You have to understand that."

"I do," nodded Sean. "It sucks, but I know that."

"And that's why I have every intention of taking her to the final two!" John practically shouted. "Sean, dude. Chill out. Why would I screw her over? It would be asinine. I would be cutting my own throat!"

Sean just stood there for a moment, and then he smiled.

Good. Now they were both on the same page. Now he was getting the picture. Sean released his arm from John's shoulder.

"Look, I know that Vee is gonna lose," Sean explained, somewhat more friendly now. "I know that, and I think she knows it too. I just want to make sure that she loses the right way. I don't want her to lose because of you."

"She won't."

"Good," nodded Sean. "Then we got nothing more to talk about."

He patted John one last time on the butt, good naturedly. Now they were friends. Just like before. As always, John found dealing with Sean and his quixotic temper a little bit maddening.

"You know," John said, with a grin on his face. "I wish you hadn't won that challenge. I wish that Elisabeth had won. Elisabeth would have been nicer. You suck."

"Yeah but nice don't get you out of the hood," Sean smiled. "You want to get shit done, sometimes you have to be an ass."

John just scoffed. Lovely. First Rob, and now Sean. His old favorites.

What was next? In three days, would he have to deal with Neleh?

"Besides, they weren't gonna beat me," Sean said, as he started his walk back to the beach. "They didn't have a chance. You know what they say."

"What's that?"

"If there's one thing a brother's good at," grinned Sean, "it's gonna be chess."






^^

A convoy of boats and crewpeople awaited Sean down by the beach. They were here to pick him up. It was time to go home. Although Gretchen knew exactly why there were so many more producers coming to get him than usual. It wasn't solely because he was Sean. She was savvy enough as a gamesplayer that she figured it out right away.

They were coming to get the interviews for the big Gretchen-Colleen turnaround. The producers were getting ready to invade Camp Manakai. They had waited until Sean had left camp, and now they all wanted the scoop.

It looked like Gretchen Cordy's privacy for the rest of the day was about to be ruined.

"Watch yourself," Gretchen quickly muttered to Colleen. "Producer central. They want to come talk to you."

Colleen simply nodded her head. She, too, had noticed the flotilla of crewmembers invading their beach. It made her sick to her stomach. Like Gretchen, she knew this day was going to be long.

Sean Rector said his goodbyes to the members of Manakai, and then he waded out to a small white boat that was his ride off the beach.

He waved his goodbyes. He blew a kiss to Vecepia. And then he was gone.

The game was back down to six.

And that was when the producers converged.

"Alright, Manakais, we've got some business to attend to," announced a woman in a black hat. Her name was Patty, and she was the pushiest of all the segment producers. The players had long ago grown to hate her. After all, when Patty came to camp, that meant it was time for business. It meant it was interview time. They would all be busy for the next few hours. Gretchen groaned under her breath.

"Brace yourself," she murmured to Colleen. "This is gonna get ugly."

"Yeah, but it will be even uglier tomorrow," Colleen grinned.

She shot a look at Gretchen. One last look of optimistic giddiness. And in that glance, in that one smile, Gretchen saw that Colleen wasn't actually dreading these interviews as much as she had predicted. Nope, not at all. Colleen actually looked like she was looking forward to this. She was actually looking forward to the interviews. And why wouldn't she? After all, tomorrow night's vote would probably decide this game. Why wouldn't Colleen want to sit down and talk about it? This was probably one of the highlights of her life!

This moment in time, day thirty-two, was Colleen Haskell's ultimate Survivor destiny. This was her moment. This was her interview. And Gretchen realized she was being selfish by standing here trying to damper it.

It was time for Gretchen to play the gracious loser. It was time to explain her decision. It was time to suck it up and go give them the soundbytes they wanted.

She gritted her teeth.

"Well this is your moment," Gretchen finally nodded, smiling to her friend. "So go get 'em Tiger. This is what you have been working for. Knock 'em dead."

Colleen turned and looked up at her, smiling.

Although she normally hated interviews, this was going to be fun.

^^

Interview time around Camp Manakai normally took about an hour and a half. Today it took nearly three. Today the questions were a lot more probing and pressing.

That meant that something was up.

"Okay, so which one of you scumbags decided to flip on us?" John asked, half-jokingly, as he met up with his Ahi conspirators immediately afterwards. The four of them were currently standing waist-deep in the warm Hawaiian water. John had his arms crossed across his bare chest. "Was it you, Vee? You been messing with us?"

John shot a look at his notoriously flip-floppy second-in-command. And even though he was trying to be all jokey about it, she could see the look of dead seriousness in his eyes. She had seen it several times before. John was slowly, but surely, edging his way into the paranoid zone. She knew it was time to be careful.

"I swear, I didn't say anything," shrugged Vee. "I don't know what that was all about."

"Well someone's been messing with us," John said. "I mean, come on. They don't ask you three hours of questions about a tie if there isn't some sort of a possibility. Who's been talking about it?"

John wanted to ask this question directly to Tina, who of course he had always been a little bit leery of in this particular alliance. But since Tina was just standing there with her hands on her hips, staring down at the water, looking perfectly innocent, he decided to let it drop.

After all, he knew full well that Tina had been trying to slowly edge him out of the power slot for a long time now. As good and as subtle a player as she was, she just wasn't that sneaky.

It's why her days in this alliance had always been numbered.

"Look John," said Vee, as she tried to diffuse what could very well turn into an incredibly tense situation, "we all got asked the same questions. We all got interviewed. It's not like they were picking on you."

"They asked me about a possible tie, too," shrugged Colleen. "I told them to shove it."

John shot her a wary-- and not entirely friendly, either-- look. And Colleen was a little surprised. That wasn't a look she saw from John very often. Generally he always treated her with kid gloves.

"John, my guess is that they were just trying to rile you up," Vee explained, as patiently as she could. "They know you have a habit of getting paranoid. I think they were just trying to mess with you."

John raised his eyes and looked over at Vee, one last time. She just nodded her head, reassuringly. Just let it drop. You don't have anything to worry about.

Oh, how he so wanted to believe that.

"Well if we're asking questions," Tina said, finally looking up, "If we're making accusations, John, then can I ask you something, too? Because there's something I'd like to know for myself."

John turned and looked at her. For a tiny little person, she looked surprisingly annoyed. Uh oh. That wasn't good.

"Go ahead," answered John. "I'm an open book."

"What's the deal between you and Alicia?"

John instinctively sucked in his breath. Ugh, wrong question. Tina wasn't supposed to know about that.

"Alicia is voting insurance," John explained.

"Insurance for who?"

"Insurance for all of us."

"How?" Tina asked. "How is Alicia insurance for me? How is Alicia insurance for Vecepia? How is Alicia insurance for Colleen? What is she going to do that we can't do ourselves?"

John just put his hand on his hip and started chuckling. He looked up at the sky. Okay, now who was being ridiculous?

"Look Tina," he finally said, "Alicia has no future in this game. Either in our alliance, or in the Keko alliance. People can't stand her. She's completely powerless."

"That doesn't answer my question."

John just rolled his eyes, slightly.

"The reason I have been buddying up with her-- Tina, since you asked," he emphasized her name perhaps a little too sarcastically, "is because I don't want Alicia to realize she is powerless. I don't want her getting pissed off, teaming up with Gretchen, and I sure as hell doesn't want her to be able to force a tie. I want her to think she still has a chance in this game."

Tina still looked dubious.

"I swear to God, Tina," John added, "Alicia means nothing to me. I've been stringing her along. She's just a donkey walking after a carrot. Nothing more, nothing less. She's gone right after we get rid of Gretchen."

Tina just stood there, hands folded across her chest, smirking slightly. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to believe this. After all, that sure wasn't what the Alicia-John bond looked like to her. It looked to her like Alicia might have been promised a little bit more than that.

"Screw Alicia," John now smiled. "Come on, does anybody think she can win All-Stars? Fat chance. The chick is an idiot. The viewers would riot."

Colleen and Vecepia snickered under their breath.

"Well I do know one thing," Tina finally smiled, softly.

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"If you think you are any different than Rob, you better think again. Because he did the exact same thing with Alicia. He gave her false hope too. And then he thought it was funny." She grinned. "And look at you, you're just continuing his legacy. You and Rob could be twins."

Standing next to him, Colleen started laughing out loud.

"Ohhhh, you did not just go there," John scoffed, trying his best to look offended. "Ohhhh, Tina. Ohhhh, Tiiiina."

Vecepia was even giggling now. Colleen was flat-out doubled over in laughter.

"Oh Tina," John laughed, "Oh, you bitch. Oh, that's terrible. You just made the list."

Tina just smiled and shrugged. Oh well. She supposed she was probably already on the list anyway. Not like it mattered. She had just thought that John probably needed to hear that. After all, sometimes the truth could be a little bit nasty.







^^







The Manakais received a tipoff that there was treemail waiting for them out in the jungle, in anticipation of tonight's big immunity challenge. Alicia volunteered to head out to retrieve it. She intended to go alone.

That wasn't going to be allowed to happen.

"Hey A, mind if I walk with you?"

Alicia was about a third of the way down the treemail path when she heard the telltale female voice from behind her. She didn't even have to turn around. Sure enough, just like she expected, she had been followed by Gretchen.

"Sure," said Alicia, not turning around. "But walk fast, it's gonna rain again. I don't want to get stuck out here if it's wet."

Gretchen jogged a bit to catch up. Pretty soon she was walking side-by-side with Alicia, the woman she had publicly told to "fuck off" in front of 50 million viewers less than forty-eight hours ago. Gretchen knew this conversation was bound to be awkward. She sure wished that Kathy were here. After all, Kathy had always been the Gretchen-Alicia diplomat. Kathy had been the all-important buffer and facilitator.

"So here's the idea I had..." Gretchen said abruptly, after about thirty seconds of awkward silence from her walking partner.

"I'm listening."

"I can get Colleen to force a tie tomorrow," Gretchen said, quickly.

"So you've said."

"No, I'm serious." Gretchen looked over at her shorter alliancemate. "I'm serious, A. She's in. She has already given me her word."

All of a sudden, Alicia just suddenly stopped walking. She just stopped in her tracks. She took a deep breath. As Gretchen expected, she looked a little annoyed.

"Why?" Alicia said, as she turned slowly towards Gretchen. "Why would she promise that?"

"Well I'm sure she has her own reasons..."

"Yeah sure she does. She probably wanted you to just shut up about it."

Alicia started walking again. And Gretchen, who hadn't intended to give away full disclosure this quickly in the process, was starting to realize that she maybe she would have to. Alicia wasn't the type of player who dealt well with half-truths and subtleties.

"Okay, so here's the deal," Gretchen finally admitted.

Alicia kept walking. She didn't even slow down. She didn't have time for this bullshit.

"Colleen forces a tie tomorrow," Gretchen said to her back. "We take out the Ahis. Then when we get down to three, I take myself out of the challenge. I basically quit the game so you and Colleen can waltz into the final two. I already gave her my word on this."

Alicia heard this and she stopped in her tracks. Just like that. And Gretchen smiled. Bingo.

Colleen was one of the few players that Alicia thought she could beat.

"Are you shitting me?" Alicia turned around and asked, a strange little half-smile on her face. "Are you serious? Because if you're just playing with me, Gretchen, this shit isn't funny."

"I'm completely serious," Gretchen confessed. "I already promised her."

"But... why?"

Alicia looked stunned.

"Hey," grinned Gretchen, "Maybe I have my reasons, too."

Alicia just stood there in the middle of the treemail path, slack-jawed. She had no idea how she was supposed to react to this. Because other than facing a former winner in the final two-- an increasingly unlikely prospect, by the way-- the next best thing would be to go against Colleen. The little girl who no one respected. The Neleh. Going against Neleh version 2.0 in front of this jury would be like winning the lottery.

"Well if you're really serious about this..." Alicia started, slowly.

"I am. It's a done deal. We just need you."

Alicia just stood there and shook her head, slowly. Not out of refusal, but out of sheer amazement. Holy crap. If Gretchen really was planning to go through with this, if she really was this stubborn and this stupid, then this game just suddenly got interesting. All of a sudden, John Carroll's stranglehold on the end of this game just got a little bit looser.

"So are you in?" Gretchen asked, hopefully.

She really didn't have to ask. The answer was yes. After all, Alicia's mother certainly didn't raise no dummy.

Gretchen Cordy had just effectively put the Ahis in checkmate.

^^

The day 32 immunity challenge was fairly unique in that it was one of the few Survivor challenges scheduled to take place after sunset. Most challenges, for obvious reasons, tended to happen during the day. After all, that's when the cameras could film them. But this challenge, for whatever reason, was going to be held at night. The Manakais had been a little bit baffled by this.

Although now that they were here, they understood why.

The six remaining players exited the large black helicopter that had flown them from Ni'ihau out to this small island about twenty minutes off the coast. Standing on the beach, all alone, and dressed in military fatigues, was Jeff Probst. He stood there with his hands behind his back, awaiting their arrival.

Jeff nodded at them, one by one, as they exited the helicopter and lined up on the player mat.

"Welcome guys," said their host. "Welcome to Ko'nu Island. You guys are in for a treat tonight." He smiled. "This challenge is one of my favorites."

Jeff retrieved the immunity talisman from Tina. She had been wearing it like a puka shell lei around her neck. She looked sad to see it go.

"Tonight's challenge," continued Jeff, "is a little bit different than the ones you have been used to in the past. Because in tonight's challenge we have no structure whatsoever. There are no rules, no puzzles, and no goals. It's pretty much going to be every single player for his or herself."

The players looked a little bit confused by this. So Jeff elaborated.

"We call this challenge 'Midnight Commando'." he explained.

He turned around and pointed to a large chain link fence behind him. It stood about two hundred feet from where they stood on the beach.

"The island you are standing on was used as a military outpost during World War II," Jeff continued. "And most of the buildings they used are still standing right behind me, on the other side of that fence." He turned back to face the players. "It's your job today to scale that fence, break into the military camp, and come back with this, the immunity idol."

He held up the flowered lei, the one that had been around Tina's neck up until a couple of minutes ago.

"The immunity idol will be hidden somewhere in the old, abandoned Army command center," Jeff continued. "So when I say 'no structure tonight', that's exactly what I mean." He smiled. "There are no rules for this challenge. All you have to do is break into the camp, search the buildings, find the command center, find the necklace, and bring it back to me. First person to do that wins immunity."

The six players all turned and looked towards the chain-link fence. They squinted their eyes, and tried to see the layout of the buildings behind it. But of course it was much too dark for that. They could barely see anything. The producers had held this challenge at night for a reason. They wanted this one to be nothing but chaos.

After all, it was dark, that fence was high, and none of the players had flashlights.

This was going to be a hard one to win.

"Oh yes, and finally..." Jeff smiled, "We also have the issue of our Spoiler." He turned to the player on his far left, Vecepia. "Vee, you're the lucky recipient tonight, correct?"

Vee just nodded, quietly.

"Then who is sitting out of tonight's challenge?"

Vecepia didn't even hesitate. "Gretchen."

"Any reason?"

Vecepia just shook her head, slowly. Nope. No reason at all. Business was business and Gretchen would understand. After all, they had already spoken about this subject just a couple of days ago. You did what you had to do to win this game. Gretchen had to be removed from the challenge. Nothing personal.

"You cool with that, Gretchen?" asked Jeff.

Gretchen just shrugged. "Hey, it's not my decision. I'll just have to deal with it."

"Okay, fair enough," nodded Jeff. "Gretchen, you sit with me. The rest of you, go get suited up. You have an Army base to invade."





^^

The remaining five players went to a wardrobe trailer and were fitted with camouflage jumpsuits, knit caps, and a special helmet with a camera and a light on the front. The players thought it was cheesy. Colleen asked if she had to wear this stuff. Jeff said he was sorry, but yes, she did. It was part of the challenge.

The players were also given the option to smear eye black and grease paint on their faces, to complete the illusion that they were real soldiers. Only two of them took Jeff up on this offer. Vecepia and Alicia were soon hidden behind facepaint.

Once again, Colleen refused. Just like before, she thought it looked cheesy.

With the wardrobe requirements out of the way, and the five Manakais looking like actual honest-to-God Army commandos, that meant the challenge was ready to begin. Jeff had them walk over and line up on the starting mat. He walked over to the sand and stood in front of them.

"This is for immunity!" Jeff announced, over the dull roar of the ocean nearby. "Inside that base, hidden somewhere, is the immunity necklace. First one to scale that fence and bring it back to me is safe from the vote."

He lifted his right arm in the air.

The players tensed.

"Commandos ready...." Jeff grinned. Then he dropped his arm. "GO!!!!!"

The five players took off at full speed, running across the sand towards the chainlink fence that surrounded the base. It took about two minutes to get there, and John Carroll was the first one to arrive. He was soon followed by Tina, and then by Alicia. All three of them started their ascension up the side of the fence.

Vecepia and Colleen were the last two to arrive.

"Let's go, Colleen and Vee," Jeff clapped from back at the starting line. "Pick it up! Big stakes tonight!"

Jeff watched from the sand as John Carroll was the first player to make it over the fence. The only remaining male in the game appeared to have no difficulty with the task whatsoever. He just climbed right up like Spider-Man and over he went. Now he was lost in the bowels of the military base. Now it was just up to dumb luck.

Jeff walked over to talk to Gretchen. After all, with the players now roaming around inside the dark military base, he might as well chat with somebody. And as far as he could tell, Gretchen was the only one standing here.

"So, does John win this challenge?" he asked her, curiously. He was always curious to hear Gretchen's take on matters like these. After all, she was generally a good predictor of things. Her instincts had a pretty good Nostradamus track record going up to this point.

"I think he wins it pretty easily," Gretchen nodded. "Him or Tina."

"Not Alicia?"

"Nah," Gretchen scoffed. "Alicia doesn't want it as much. She doesn't need it. Neither do Vecepia or Colleen. They're slacking off and saving energy. Watch."

Gretchen nodded towards the fence, where Colleen and Vecepia still appeared to be having trouble just getting over it. John, Alicia, and Tina had already managed to make it into the base. Vecepia and Colleen appeared to already be out of the challenge.

"Watch," Gretchen grinned. "John's gonna come back in about five minutes with the necklace."

Jeff looked over at her and smiled. "You're that sure of it?"

"Yup. I'm never wrong. Watch."

Jeff just laughed.

"Okay," he said, "Fine. Then what say we make a little bet on this? Let's say we make it interesting. After all, you can't be right all the time."

"Nah, I don't want to bet."

"Oh come on..."

"Fifty," Gretchen suddenly blurted out. "Fifty bucks John comes back first. Take it or leave it."

"You don't have fifty bucks," Jeff started.

"I don't need it. I'll just take yours."

Jeff started to laugh, but that was when he heard a loud thud from the other side of the fence. Someone had crashed into something and had knocked it over. And by the sound of profanity that followed it, it could only be one person. That had to be Alicia.

"Hang on," Jeff said to Gretchen, "Let me go check on them. They've been in there about ten minutes. I gotta make sure everyone's okay."

Jeff walked back towards the chain link fence that surrounded the base. As he got closer, he could see various figures rushing around in the darkness on the other side. All five Manakais were over there now, searching the base. Although from the looks of it, the only silhouette he could make out was that of Tina. She was easy to identify. After all, she was the smallest.

"You guys okay over there?" Jeff called to her.

"This challenge is impossible!" Tina called back, laughing. "We can't see anything! Jeff, you're evil!"

"Keep searching, you'll find it."

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than the sound of a loud, excited whoop filled the air. All of a sudden it sounded like the challenge had a winner. And from the sound of it, it couldn't have been John. Gretchen was going to lose this bet. That cheer had come from a female.

And Jeff was surprised. He had expected that this challenge would have taken a lot longer than that.

Jeff jogged back to his host position on the sand, and he awaited the eventual winner. He nodded to the camera and lighting crew to get ready. And here she came. Her small, sturdy form came running towards the fence from out of the shadows. And because of the camouflage greasepaint on her face, it took him a couple of seconds to identify who she was.

Alicia.

It seemed like Gretchen's instincts had seriously underestimated someone.

Alicia Calaway ran at the fence, scaled it in about five athletic hops, and bounded down onto the brown Hawaiian sand. Around her neck was the flowered immunity necklace. Plastered across her face was a smile that stretched from ear to ear. Alicia looked incredibly pleased with herself. And why wouldn't she? After all, she was about to waltz her way into the final five. It was time to enjoy this.

"Alicia!" announced Jeff, loudly, "Wins immunity!"

Alicia ran to the starting mat and fell down, exhausted. Gretchen walked over and helped her up, then congratulated her. Then the two women started whispering, excitedly.

Jeff walked over to inform the rest of the Manakais that the challenge was over.

"Come on, guys," he announced. "Pack it up. That was a short one. We've got a winner."

He walked up to the edge of the chainlink fence and repeated his message. After a couple of minutes, they started to trickle out. First came Colleen. Then Tina. Then Vecepia. Then, finally, John. One by one they scaled the face and came back to the beach. They all looked frustrated. That challenge had been quick.

"Well the good news is that Alicia is safe from the vote tomorrow," Jeff explained, once everybody was back on the starting mat. "The bad news is that one of the rest of you is going home. For one of you, this is going to be your last night on the island of Ni'ihau."

The players nodded. They understood.

Although that wasn't all the bad news.

At least for one of them, it wasn't.

For Gretchen Cordy, the extra bad news was that-- thanks to Alicia-- she also now owed Jeff Probst fifty dollars.

DAY 33

With the sun shining high above her head, and immunity nestled safely around her neck, this should have been the happiest time in Hawaii for Alicia Calaway. After all, at the moment, just about every single aspect of this game, on paper, appeared to be just about perfect.

Immunity from tonight's vote?Check. Alicia wasn't going anywhere tonight. Her win last night-- as one of the two remaining minority Kekos-- had pretty much been one of the single biggest Survivor immunity clutch wins of all time.

An easy final two opponent in Colleen Haskell? Check. A less strategic patsy would be hard to find. Colleen was Alicia's opponent, and Colleen was a nobody.

An idiot who had promised to drop out of the game at the final three, despite the fact that she would have destroyed pretty much anyone in a jury vote?

Alicia smiled when she thought of this last one, because of course, yep. Check. Gretchen had already effectively taken herself out of this game. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

On paper, everything seemed to be great for Alicia Calaway at the moment. On paper, this whole setup seemed to be absolutely perfect. After all, she had the talisman around her neck, an easy road to the final two, and an opponent she could beat at the end. What more could you want?

But still...

There was something odd in the way it had all gone down yesterday.

Alicia couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was bugging her about this deal today. Something subtle. She knew that it shouldn't, she knew that she shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth this close to the end of the game, but there was definitely something festering in the back of her brain this morning. There was just something wrong about this deal. She knew it. And it was something obvious. The only problem was that she couldn't quite place what exactly it was, and it was driving her crazy.

All she knew was that there was definitely something wrong with this plan. She knew it. Something was bugging her. She just didn't know what it was yet.

There was simply no way it should have gone down that easily.

^^





Still concerned that she might be overlooking something obvious, Alicia spent most of morning 33 in an interview session with a couple of producers. After all, the minute they realized that she was basically a lock for the final two, they were all over her. They came to camp, and they wanted to know everything. How she felt, what she thought, why she thought Gretchen had chosen her, etc. The past ninety minutes had basically been one big long interrogation session between her and the producers.

Although it wasn't until the end of the interview that Alicia finally figured out what was so inherently wrong about this.

"So you really think you're a lock against Colleen in the finals?" one of the segment producers had asked her, innocently. "You really don't think that the most popular player in Survivor history can win a jury vote?"

And that was when it finally clicked in Alicia's head. That was when the tumblers finally fell into place. Shit! What was she doing? What sort of a kamikaze deathtrap had Gretchen just baited her into?

"No, I don't think she can win," said Alicia, shaking her head, trying to show full bravado for the cameras, as always, "I mean, sure, she's America's Sweetheart, but what has she done for us lately? How many people here are impressed by her? I can tell you, it's not that many."

The comment came flowing out of her mouth as confident as ever. But it certainly wasn't shared by the confidence in her mind. Because as Alicia was saying these words out loud, she was silently trying to tally up jury votes in her head. She was suddenly trying to piece together exactly who the jurors would vote for at the end, either her or Colleen? Up to this moment in time, she had been pretty sure it was going to be a lock.

But all of a sudden, after the "most popular Survivor ever" comment, she wasn't feeling so sure.

"So you don't think past reputations will come into play at all in a final jury vote?" the producer continued to probe. "You don't think Colleen has a chance, even though, coming into this game, most of the All-Stars were fairly big fans of hers? You don't think that will be a factor?"

Alicia just stared at the ground. No, she hadn't thought would be a factor. At least... she hadn't thought so consciously. But now that she heard it out loud-- now that she heard it actually articulated-- it sounded a little more ominous. All of a sudden, she finally identified the variable she might have forgotten to consider. She had forgotten past reputation. Alicia's strategy had solely been focused on the here and the now. She had specifically been focusing on strategy. She had completely forgotten what Colleen in the final two was going to look like to the people who happened to be fans of hers.

And now she was madly trying to do jury vote projections in her head.

Uh oh. Could Colleen actually win a jury vote?

Was she actually an easy opponent at all?

"I really don't think that Colleen's reputation will be a factor," Alicia said to the cameras. "I really don't. I just don't think that people here have liked her all that much. When it comes to All-Stars, I would say she probably wore out her welcome a long time ago."

The words came tumbling out of her mouth, but they sounded hollow. They sounded like someone who didn't quite believe what she was saying. Alicia heard it, and she knew it. She knew she was lying. She also knew that she was going to have to do some major investigative work before she continued down this particular path.

Because, in her head, she had already tallied a couple of almost-guaranteed Colleen votes in this jury.

And she didn't like that.

^^






So what did Alicia do to assuage her fears?

Why she went to her only friend in the game, of course. She went over to her new Ahi buddy, John Carroll. Why John? Well not so much because the two of them already had a bit of a bond, although they did. No, the reason she chose John was because she didn't want to talk to someone who was just going to blow smoke up her ass. She wanted to talk to somebody who was brutally-- if not always diplomatically-- honest, like herself. In other words, Alicia didn't want bullshit answers. She just wanted the truth.

"I need to know something," she finally turned and asked John, once the small talk had officially been taken care of. "Do you think you can answer something for me? It's important."

"Yeah, shoot."

"If Colleen was in the final two, would you vote for her?"

John, who had been shelling a small black crab with his chef's knife, simply looked over at her.

"Colleen?" he looked surprised. "She won't be in the final two. Why?"

"Well what if she was?"

John just chuckled slightly, and turned back to focus on his work.

"If Colleen was in the final two," he said, not looking at her, "then something will have gone tragically fucking wrong with this game. Because there's no way that could ever happen."

"Why not?"

"Well because nobody would want to risk it." John explained. He dropped a large hunk of crab shell into a garbage pile. "Nobody would be that stupid."

Alicia's heart dropped to the ground. That was exactly the answer she hadn't wanted to hear.

"So who all would vote for Colleen in a jury?" Alicia asked. "I mean, hypothetically."

John just shot her a look. After all, he wasn't dumb. He didn't like where this question was going.

"Why?" he asked, suspiciously.

"I'll tell you after," Alicia promised. "Just... who would theoretically vote for Colleen?"

John put down his knife and slid the crabmeat into his large black cooking pot. Then he turned to Alicia and sighed. Fine, let's play make-believe. Let's play Survivor on paper. Let's see where this goes.

"Well first off," he explained, "Tina would be a lock for Colleen. She pretty much has to vote for her. Otherwise she knows that she'll come off as a bitch on national TV. And you know as well as I do that Tina would rather die."

Alicia nodded. She had figured Tina to be a pro-Colleen juror as well. That one was one of the easiest of the bunch. Tina would never vote for someone like Alicia over someone like Colleen. Not in a million years.

"And of course Roooobbb," John said, exaggerating the name slightly, just to show his distaste. "Obviously he's gonna vote for Colleen. The guy was practically boning her."

Alicia nodded again. Yup, she knew that one, too.

"And then of course there's Gretchen..." John said.

Shit. That was the one that Alicia had forgotten. She had sort of neglected to include Gretchen in her theoretical jury of seven. Why? Well probably because Gretchen was going to be the last one to join them. People always forgot about the seventh juror. And that was bad, because Gretchen was an extremely important variable here.

"So if Gretchen's on the jury, then Colleen has three votes for sure," Alicia summed up.

"Well four, actually, if you count me," John stated.

"You?" Alicia looked stunned. "Why? She hasn't done anything!"

"Well let's just put it this way," John said, flatly. "If I were to find out that a friend of mine screwed me over this late in the game, I wouldn't be all that happy about it." He stared Alicia directly in the eyes. "And if I found out they did it just because they thought they could beat America's Sweetheart in a jury vote, I would come to the conclusion that they were probably an idiot. And you know, I don't think an idiot deserves to win All-Star Survivor. I think an idiot winning would be a little embarrassing for all of us."

Alicia said nothing. She just looked away from his gaze and remained silent.

"If Colleen gets to the end, she gets my vote, flat out." John reiterated one last time. "Why? Because she must have done something right to get there. In fact, I say that if Colleen gets to the final two, she beats anyone."

"Even Gretchen?"

"I think so. Gretchen is overrated. She can be a pain in the ass."

Alicia continued to say nothing. Because she knew she was effectively trapped. John had obviously figured this out. He had already figured out what she was talking about. And he didn't look happy.

"Okay, let's go, killer," he said, calling her by one of his affectionate nicknames, "Spill it. What have they talked you into?"





^^





Alicia spilled her guts. She told him everything. And John was not so much surprised as he was a little impressed.

"This was Gretchen's plan?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "Wow."

"Yeah."

"And Colleen said yes?" John looked absolutely shocked.

"Absolutely," nodded Alicia. "She didn't even hesitate. She sold your ass out in a second."

"Well you know why Gretchen came up with this," John said, quickly. "You know why she picked you."

"Yeah, because she knows Colleen can beat me."

"Damn right. She'd slaughter you."

John folded his arms and leaned back against the wall of the shelter. He appeared to be thinking. Although there was definitely also a little undercurrent of anger in there. He was trying to hide it, but it was obvious that he was a little bothered that Colleen had turned on him that easily. John was not the type of person who tended to tolerate disloyalty. Never had.

"So what's your suggestion?" Alicia asked, curiously. "How do we handle this?"

"What do you mean how do we handle this?" John asked. "You tell them no. You tell Gretchen to go fuck off."

"Well yeah, but..." Alicia paused. She appeared to be thinking something over. She suddenly got a small glimmer in her eye.

John saw it and he didn't like it.

"What?" he asked, suspiciously.

"Before we discuss this any further," Alicia smirked, "There's something I want from you."

John nearly blew his stack. He knew exactly where she was going with this.

"Look," he glared at her, suddenly and angrily, "I don't think you're really in a position to be making demands here. I'm not the one who got myself into this. You are. You are the one who has managed to fuck yourself. Not me. I'm doing just fine."

Alicia wasn't dissuaded. "Yeah but I still want something from you."

"Okay," he said, cautiously, "But be careful where you go with this. Be careful what you ask for."

John continued to glare at her over his crossed arms. He knew exactly what was about to come out of her mouth, and he braced himself for it. This wasn't likely to be pretty.

"I want a final two deal," Alicia smiled. "I want you to promise to take me to the end."

And there it was. Now she had him.

"Fuck. No." John practically shouted. "Are you serious, Alicia? You want me to pick you over the Ahis?" He realized he was speaking a little loudly, so he lowered his voice to a near-whisper. "You want me to screw over everybody? I can't do that now. I can't do it this late. The jury would murder me!"

"Final two," Alicia smiled. "Or I force a tie tonight."

"So what? Force a tie! See where it gets you!"

But Alicia wasn't going down without a fight. She knew she had the leverage here. After all, she had immunity around her neck. She had complete power at the moment. John was pretty much powerless to stop this.

"Gretchen and Colleen are voting for you tonight," Alicia pointed out. "If you don't want me to vote with them, I need a final two deal. Because you know that's the only way you make it past tonight. Otherwise you take your chances with the purple rock and Vecepia."

Were Gretchen and Colleen really voting for him tonight? Hell, who knew? Alicia was simply using the only bluff she had in her limited aresenal. After all, the best way to handle a paranoid megalomaniac was to make him see enemies. The real John-- the player John-- saw enemies everywhere.

"You would seriously vote for me?" John now asked, surprised. "You would honestly go with Gretchen and Colleen?"

"Watch me."

"You can't beat them, you know. You can't beat either one of them."

"I don't need to."

John just shot her a look. What the fuck did that mean?

"I don't have any intention to go to the end with Gretchen or Colleen," Alicia explained, slowly. "I never have. You said it yourself, I can't beat either of them." She smiled. "What I would rather do-- my best case scenario-- would be to go up against a former winner. I'd rather try for Tina or Vecepia. Because all I want to do at this point is go up against someone I know I can beat."

John opened his mouth to protest, but Alicia cut him off.

"The only way I'm not doing that," she continued, "is if you promise me a final two deal. So if you want any chance to win this game, I need a promise. Right now." She looked him directly in the eyes. "Otherwise we take you out tonight, and then I turn around and I take out Gretchen and Colleen next. And then it's just me and two former winners in the final three."

John said nothing. Because just like Alicia, he could see that she had him. After all, she held all the power here. Immunity had changed everything. She pretty much had him in checkmate.

"Let me think about it," he said, softly.

Damnit.

John Carroll was well aware he was now a little bit screwed.






^^






In the end, John finally promised Alicia he would take her to the final two. He hated to do it, he hated everything about it, but due to circumstances involved he pretty much had to. She had him by the nuts. The bitch had gone Garry Kasaparov on him.

"I'll do it," he said, "but only with one caveat."

"What's that?"

John let out a deep sigh.

"I've got a pretty good idea that if I screw you over before we get to the end, I'm never going to win this game," he looked at her, curiously. "Should I assume that to be correct? If I screw you over, you'll turn the jury against me?"

Alicia just smiled. She didn't have to answer that. John already knew the answer.

"Well okay... then... here's the deal," John continued. "If you screw me, then consider your chances to be dead as well. Because I can do just as much damage as you can. And I'm not fucking around here. You screw me over before the final two, I'll make your life miserable."

Alicia just smiled up at him. She wasn't concerned. In fact, she actually sort of enjoyed his feeble little attempt at strong-arming. That was exactly why she had chosen him as her final two partner. She did it because the two of them were very much alike. Alicia and John both had tempers. They both held grudges. They both understood the type of stakes they were dealing with here.

"If you don't beat me," John reiterated, "You don't beat anybody. And I want your word on that."

"But we already made a final two pact!" Alicia protested.

"No no no," John shook his head. "This is bigger than that. This isn't final two."

"What is it, then?"

"Look, if you're gonna play hardball then I'm gonna play hardball too." John grinned, somewhat coldly. "Because you have to understand, I can be a bitch too. I can be a bigger bitch than you, if I really wanted to be."

Alicia just stared at him, blankly, a small smirk on her face.

"Fine," she said, after a short pause, "What do you need?"

"I get to pick who goes first."





^^

John Carroll's illuminating chat with Alicia-- which he would later refer to as "emotional blackmail"-- took about an hour. It also completely changed his vision of All-Star Survivor. All of a sudden, he knew he had to act fast. The game was about to slip out of his hands.

"We need to talk," he said to Vee.

Vecepia Towery, who had been just sitting here, quietly mending a rip in the Manakai flag with a sewing needle, looked up, surprised. She hadn't heard John approaching. That was odd. He wasn't known to be stealthy.

"Why?" she said, "What's up?"

"Trouble."

John sat Vee down and he explained everything. He explained how Gretchen had gotten Colleen to flip on the Ahis. He explained how the two of them had essentially promised Alicia a final two berth against Colleen. He explained how he, himself, had now officially been blackmailed. And he explained that if they didn't go along with Alicia's demands tonight, they were facing a tie.

And John, more than anybody, was aware that a tie would be bad.

"See, I told you," said Vee, looking agitated. "I knew Colleen was up to something. What did I tell you about her? The girl has been playing us."

"I know, I know," said John, distractedly. He ran a hand through his beard stubble. He looked frazzled. He also looked sweaty. It was clear this whole situation was bothering him. He wasn't the type of player who appreciated the game being out of his control. "Vee, you were right. I know. I should have listened to you."

Vee said nothing. She just continued to concentrate on her sewing.

"Well I know what I would do if I were you," she finally said, softly.

"Kill Alicia?"

Vee just laughed. Okay, well that was an option, too. It was one of them, anyway.

"We need to get Colleen back," said Vee. "You get her back, you take away Alicia's bargaining power. Cut her off at the knees."

"But it's too late!" John said. "We've got Tribal Council in a couple of hours!"

"So?" Vee shrugged. "A couple of hours is a couple of hours. Just promise her a final two deal."

Agitated, John just put his hands on his hips and looked up at the sky. He couldn't believe it. Because as good as Vecepia was at the game of Survivor-- and she was good-- there was one thing she had never figured out, and that was how to deal with Colleen. With Colleen you needed patience and time. You needed subtle friendship. You needed to manipulate her into action slowly, like John had been doing. The last thing in the world you wanted to do was push her into a decision. John knew that if he went up to Colleen and started playing Richard Hatch three hours before Tribal Council, the game was pretty much over for all of them.

John laughed now, somewhat bitterly. No wonder Vecepia had no relationship with the girl. When it came to dealing with Colleen Haskell, the woman was clueless.

"Well I'm sorry to tell you, but I think Colleen is a closed door," John said. "It's too late. We need a Plan B. And we need it quick."

"Well as near as I can tell, we already have a Plan B," Vee said, absent-mindedly.

She looked up at him.

"Plan B," she explained, "Is where Alicia forces a tie, and you have to rely on both Tina and me to stand behind you. You have to count on both of us being willing to face a purple rock for you."

She smiled at him, faintly.

"Do you like that plan?" she asked.

John just rolled his eyes at her.

"No, not particularly," he said.

"Well then how about Plan C?" Vee offered, helpfully. "How about we do something different? How about we just take out the troublemaker?"

"Who? Gretchen?"

"No, not Gretchen."

Vee just sighed. Poor John. Was he always this short sighted? Didn't he ever see the big picture?

"Forget Gretchen," she said. "Alicia will never team up with Gretchen. Gretchen offers her nothing."

"Well then who?"

Vee just looked at him, blankly. Hadn't he figured it out yet? Did she really have to spell it out for him? After all, wasn't there a particular traitor in their alliance they could no longer rely on?

"If you really want control of this game," she said softly, "I say we take out Colleen."





^^

For the past forty-eight hours, Tina Wesson had been under the distinct impression that Gretchen was going to be the player going home tonight. After all, why wouldn't it be Gretchen? She was the leader of the Kekos. She was an incredibly dangerous player. She knew what she was doing out here in the wild. She was nearly unbeatable in the final two. Why wouldn't the Ahis want to get rid of her? When a player like Gretchen shows up at Tribal Council without immunity, the simple logic is that you have to get rid of her.

The only problem was that Gretchen wasn't going anywhere tonight. John and Vecepia had decided to switch up the plans.

And Tina, as you can imagine, was not very happy about this.

"But we already talked about this!" Tina hissed to Vee, frustrated, under her breath. "We get rid of Kathy, then we get rid of Gretchen. You guys already promised me!"

Vecepia, who unfortunately had known exactly how Tina was going to react to this, just stood there with hands on her hips, looking down. She said nothing. She knew why Tina was mad. But at the same time she also knew there was very little that Tina would be able to do about this. The wheels were in motion. Colleen was toast. At this point, Tina was effectively just along for the ride.

"Did we or did we not already agree it was going to be Gretchen?" Tina now asked. She looked Vee directly in the eyes. "Please tell me I'm not crazy. Didn't we already agree on this?"

"Yeah, we did," Vecepia nodded.

"So then what changed?" Tina looked incredibly frustrated. "Why are we saving her?"

"Well, it appears that..." Vecepia spoke slowly, as she tried to choose her words carefully. "It appears that certain information has come up about a certain member of our alliance. In particular, a younger one."

Tina said nothing. But she already knew where this was going. Colleen had been playing both sides of the fence and had apparently been caught. It was something Tina had seen coming down the road at least a couple of days ago. Colleen's two-timing had been anything but subtle.

"It looks like Colleen and Gretchen have been putting together a little surprise for Tribal Council tonight," Vee confirmed.

"And?"

"And John found out. Now he's pissed."

Tina heard this and she winced. Ah yes. Now that would explain why the plans had suddenly changed. Once John found out you were his enemy, you were as good as dead. Especially here towards the end of the game, when he was starting to get jumpy. It was why Tina had tried to be especially cautious around the guy. It looked like Colleen-- John's former sidekick, Colleen, mind you-- had picked an exceptionally bad time to announce herself as his enemy.

"So what was the plan?" Tina asked. "Alicia, Gretchen, and Colleen force a tie?"

Vee nodded. Then she filled in all the details. Pretty soon Tina was completely up to speed.

"Wow. That would have worked, too," Tina sighed.

"Worked?" Vee raised her eyebrows.

"Well, not for us. I mean for them. If Alicia had forced a tie tonight, the three of us would have been in trouble."

Vecepia just shrugged.

Tina opened her mouth to continue this line of discussion, but all of a sudden here came a familiar figure strolling down to the beach to join them. Here came John. He was walking fast. He looked like he had something he wanted to tell them.

"I was just updating Tina about Colleengate," Vee grinned, as John finally walked within earshot.

John just nodded once, curtly. He didn't appear to be in much of a laughing mood. Whereas Vecepia's joke might have gotten at least a courteous smile a couple of hours ago, it was now way too late to be joking around. It was now way too close to Tribal Council. John was now way too entrenched in game mode. He didn't even crack a smile. This time, he had simply come down here for business.

"It's real," he confirmed.

"What's real?" asked Tina.

"The plan," John nodded. "Gretchen's plan. It's real. Alicia wasn't exaggerating."

"How do you know?"

John went on to relate a little chat he had just had with Colleen up by the firepit. It wasn't a groundbreaking chat, there certainly weren't any giant revelations that came out of it, but towards the end of the conversation John had noticed that Colleen was starting to get a little bit nervous. It wasn't anything major, just maybe a little extra fidgeting here and there, but John knew his little sidekick well enough to know most of her little tics. And the ones he saw weren't her normal ones. Colleen was obviously feeling guilty about something.

"Did she admit anything?" Vee asked, curiously.

"She didn't, but she didn't really have to," John said, flatly. "She has the worst poker face I've ever seen in my life. The girl can't lie about anything."

Tina and Vee exchanged a quick glance. Well they certainly knew where this was going. Once John made an enemy, it became a crusade. Colleen was now officially in harm's way. She had been branded a traitor. All that was left at this point were the details.

"So you wouldn't have a problem voting for Colleen tonight?" Vee now asked him, curiously. "You'd still really want to go through with it?"

"Of course I would. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well I mean you two are friends and all. Sean even pointed it out to me when he was here. You and Colleen are all buddy buddy."

"Not anymore we aren't." John said flatly. "I can't trust her anymore."

And that was the phrase that Vecepia had been waiting to hear. The "I can't trust her anymore" phrase. That was the money shot. Vecepia had seen it before. It didn't matter how good a friend you were with John. It didn't matter how tight the two of you were before. All that mattered was that the first time you crossed him, you were officially his enemy.

It looked like Colleen Haskell was about to get Gabrieled.






^^






John said that he had to go talk to Alicia to work out a couple of details, so he bid the ladies farewell and retreated up the beach. That left the two of them alone. Tina simply turned to Vecepia and raised her eyebrows.

"Wow," Tina said, almost in awe. "The guy is a psychopath!"

"See, told you."

"He's even worse than Mike!" Tina had to stifle a laugh.

Tina just stood there with mouth agape. She had never seen anything like that. One minute John was Colleen's bestest big brother in the world, and the next minute she was pretty much dead to him. Colleen was already being spoken of in the past tense. Wow. She knew John had a bit of a knee-jerk temper, but actually seeing it in action, well that was another thing altogether.. Who knew the guy took things so personally? It reminded her of playing with Lex!

"So then what's the deal?" she finally sighed. Resigned, she turned to face Vee. Her shoulders slumped. "There's no chance Gretchen is going anywhere tonight, is there?"

Vee just shook her head. Not with John on the rampage, there wasn't.

"Well she has to be next," Tina said. "I mean, come on, Vee. I've been working with you all game. You have to throw me a bone every once in a while."

"I don't have a problem with Gretchen going," Vee shrugged. "I don't have a problem with anyone going."

"Well yeah," Tina sighed, "But come on. Gretchen shouldn't even be here."

Vecepia said nothing in response. She just stared out over the Pacific horizon. With her white buff tied tightly around her head, and her khaki shirt blowing softly in the breeze, she just gazed serenely out at the ocean, saying nothing. And Tina, who normally could read her final two partner fairly well, found it a little unnerving.

Why was she unnerved? Well because at the moment, she had absolutely no idea what was going on in that woman's head. Not a single thing at all. It was the same thing that had always creeped Colleen out about her. Vecepia had that wonderful ability to suddenly turn off all emotions and apparently shift into autopilot. It was like Tina was suddenly standing here all alone, trying to talk to a tree.

"Um, Vee?" Tina now asked, somewhat hesitantly.

"Hmmm?" Vee looked over, distracted.

"You had something to do with this, didn't you?" Tina looked over at her, still a little bit warily.

"Something to do with what?"

"With John targeting Colleen. You sort of steered him in her direction, didn't you?"

Vee just chuckled. She said nothing. All she could do was shrug.

"Wow," Tina whistled, "Well, just remind me never to get on your bad side, okay? I'm glad we're both in this together."

"We have to be together," Vee confirmed, softly. "Neither of us can beat anyone else."

"Yeah I know that, but..." Tina struggled for just the right words. "Just remind yourself of that fact if you ever start to get greedy. Just remind yourself that Tina has always been good to you."

Tina grinned. And after a second, Vecepia did too.

She suddenly realized it was about time to fess up.

"I have a final two deal with John, you know," Vee now admitted softly, after looking around to make sure no one was within earshot. "We made it a long time ago."

"Well of course you do," Tina laughed. "I'm not an idiot."

Vee appeared to be a little taken aback. She hadn't expected Tina to know about that.

"Well the problem is that I don't want to face him in the final two," Vee eventually continued. "I need your help in getting him out of here. I need him gone. And the first step in doing that is getting rid of Colleen."

Ah ha, and there it was. Vecepia's admission. Tina had known it. Vecepia had specifically wanted to take out John-- and Tina's-- hidden ace in the hole. She had finally admitted it.

"Okay," Tina nodded, understanding. "Then what's next? Where does Alicia fit in?"

"Alicia?"

"Yeah," nodded Tina. "I mean in your plans. You know she's gonna be bound to John at the hip after this vote. She pretty much has to. She's put all her eggs in his basket."

"Yeah, sure, but I wouldn't worry too much about Alicia," Vee shrugged. "I don't have any plans for her. Alicia's Alicia."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that Alicia's made it perfectly clear that she'll be happy with fifth."





^^

It wasn't until just around dinnertime that Colleen could tell that the vibe around camp had turned a little bit different. And it wasn't anything obvious that tipped her off, either. There was just something a little bit different in the air at the moment. Something weird. Her tribesmates all seemed a little bit colder. People were saying less than they usually were. The signs were all there. It was a funky vibe.

It was making her nervous.

"Hey Tina, is there something I don't know about tonight?" the youngest Ahi finally walked over and asked.

Tina, who had been drying out her hiking boots on a clothesline, simply looked at over, surprised. Deep down, she had sort of hoped this plan was going to go off with a hitch tonight. She had hoped it would turn out to be just another unemotional, uncomplicated blindside. Like the Amber one. But it looked like Colleen was a little more perceptive than they had liked to believe.

"Going on?" asked Tina.

"Yeah," said Colleen. "Something's up. Why is everyone so quiet right now?"

Colleen turned and nodded her head at John, who was stirring the dinner pot. John, who was normally the most gregarious and friendly of the Manakais, hadn't said a word in the past thirty minutes. He had been just standing there and stirring. It was incredibly odd. John didn't look like that very often. He was usually smiling.

"I just think John's a little bit worried about the vote," Tina said, truthfully.

She looked over and scanned Colleen's face for any sign of recognition. Any sign of guilt. But there was none. Colleen, apparently, had a better game face than she liked to let on. She was still playing the part of the loyal alliance member.

"Well I just think it's weird," Colleen shuddered. "I don't like it when it gets so quiet right before the vote. It makes me nervous."

She turned her head to the left and there sat Gretchen, stoking the fire. Just like the rest of them, Gretchen hadn't said much in the past hour or so. She appeared to be lost in thought.

And as for Alicia and Vecepia, God knew where the two of them had walked off to.

"Tina... are you sure that nothing funny's going on tonight?" Colleen turned and asked again. "It's just. I don't know. Something's up. For some reason, I'm having a very bad feeling about this."

And that was when she got the look from Tina that she hadn't wanted to see. Tina shot her the disapproving mother look. It was very quick, and it was subtle as hell if you weren't looking for it, but Colleen knew Tina well enough to know what it meant.

A chill suddenly ran down her spine.

The Ahis all knew.

^^

"Um, John, can I talk to you?"

It was Colleen. She had come over to her best friend to do damage control. It was obvious she was a little bit rattled.

But John said nothing. He just glanced over at her once, and shrugged his shoulders. The look said go ahead and talk. I'm listening.

"Look, I don't know what you've heard," Colleen said quickly, "I don't know who you've been talking to, or what you've been told, but it's not true. I don't want you to get the wrong opinion of me. I haven't been doing anything against you."

John said nothing. He just continued to stir the dinner pot. He wouldn't even look at her.

"John!" Colleen said. "Talk to me!"

But it was no use. Now she was near tears. Because she knew what had happened. Alicia had probably squealed on them. Alicia had gone out and ruined the attempt at an overthrow. Alicia had deliberately gone out and ruined things for all of them.

"You were always a part of the four," John finally said, emotionlessly. He wouldn't even turn and look at her. "You know that, don't you? There were never any plans to ever get rid of you. You were always supposed to go to the final four with us."

"I know! And I never intended to go through with this!"

"Well, hey, that's life," John shrugged, "Shit happens. Weird things happen sometimes when people get greedy."

Colleen didn't know what to say. She felt helpless. It was apparent that John had known about this for a while now. It was clear he was pissed.

"Well if you guys vote for me tonight, then you're making a big mistake," she finally stammered. "You're making a mistake because I haven't done anything. You're voting me out for no reason at all."

And that was when John finally lost it with her. He knew he probably shouldn't. He knew he was likely endangering a jury vote. But he couldn't help it, he had the Irish temper. He snapped when he was pissed off at someone. Especially when they were a friend who had decided to betray him.

"Colleen?" he said, flatly.

"Yeah?"

"You screwed up. We don't need you anymore. You're done."

And with that, went the end of the friendship.






^^

The Manakais arrived at Tribal Council just as a warm breeze was beginning to blanket the eastern shore of the island. It was nearly 9:00 at night, yet there wasn't a hint of cold in the air. It was just as nice as it had been at noontime. It was about eighty degrees.

To an outsider, this weather would have been called perfect. To most people, this would be considered a perfect, ideal Hawaiian tropical evening.

But not Colleen. To Colleen, she felt more like the perfect weather was mocking her.

Colleen Haskell was the last of the six Manakais to enter the thatched tiki hut. She was also the last one to take her seat. And there she sat, the youngest and most helpless of the six players left in this game. She sat back in the corner, as far as she could get from just about anyone. It was clear from her tear-streaked face that this had already been a very bad night for her.

"So what's going on back there, Colleen?" Jeff asked, once the players were seated and he had launched into his questions. As usual, Jeff didn't miss anything. When it came to spotting weakness, he was sharp as a tack. "You look upset. Why the long face?"

"Let's just say it was a hard day today," said Colleen, quietly, as she looked down at the ground. She didn't really feel like looking or speaking with anyone right now. She wouldn't even look up.

"Hard meaning what?" Jeff looked confused. "Did something happen around camp? Something bad? Is there something I need to know about?"

Colleen answered again, but this time her answer was more or less inaudible. She just continued to look down at the ground as she spoke.

Quickly, Jeff shot a troubled look at a nearby cameraman. From the cameraman's reaction, it was clear that there was no way the microphones were going to be able to pick this up.

"Colleen, you're gonna have to speak up a little bit," Jeff said, lowering his voice, as sensitively as he could. "The cameras aren't going to get this."

Colleen said nothing. She just continued to look down at the ground. She made eye contact with nobody.

Over in the jury box, the jurors suddenly perked up and looked interested. Well this was interesting. Why had Colleen suddenly turned into a basket case? Boston Rob exchanged a glance with Kathy, while raising his eyebrows. What the hell had happened in the last three days at Camp Manakai? Something big was definitely happening here.

"Colleen," asked Jeff, somewhat nurturingly, "Do you just not want to talk about this right now?"

Colleen, still looking down, just mumbled something in response. Again, it was basically inaudible.

"Could you just leave her alone for now, Jeff?" Gretchen suddenly piped in. "She really doesn't want to talk about this. Can't you see she's crying?"

Jeff could, and he did. He wasn't an idiot. But at the same time, tears weren't necessarily a reason to lay off someone at Tribal Council. In fact, normally, if someone was crying, that was simply all the more reason to talk to them. That was pretty much Jeff Probst Tribal Council Strategy 101. You made a beeline for the crying ones.

"If you want to know what's going on," Gretchen continued, "you can ask me. Lay off Colleen. She's had enough."

"Fine," nodded Jeff, a little put off, "Then what's going on? Why is the mood so funky in this tribe right now? What did I miss?"

"The Ahis had a little blowout with Colleen this afternoon."

"Blowout? Meaning what?"

"Meaning they pretty much sat her down and they yelled at her."

Gretchen didn't even get that complete sentence out of her mouth before Tina's hand had already shot up into the air, in protest. She wanted to respond to this. As you can imagine, she had a serious objection to Gretchen's accusation. No way was anyone going to imply that Tina Wesson was bully.

"Yes, Tina?" asked Jeff.

"We didn't sit down and yell at her, that's totally false."

"Well then what's your take on it?"

"What happened..." said Tina, as she paused to choose her words very, very carefully, "is that we found out earlier today that Colleen had made a deal with Gretchen to turn on the Ahis. The only problem was that we found out a little sooner than Colleen had probably expected us to. We sort of caught her with her hand in the cookie jar."

"And?"

"And that was pretty much it," Tina confirmed. "There was no yelling. No one confronted her."

Jeff paused. He shot a glance at Colleen, who still very much appeared not to want to be here. Then he looked back at Tina. The pieces didn't match. A variable was missing here.

"Well I look at Colleen," he said, "and I don't know, Tina. I see someone who looks like they've had a hard time today. I'm looking at someone in tears. How do you account for that?"

"I think she's crying because she knows she got caught," Tina said, flatly.

"Plain and simple?" Jeff asked.

"Well, I mean, I love Colleen with all of my heart," explained Tina. "You have to realize, she's one of my favorite people in the world. You have to know that. I'd do anything for that girl." She turned and shot Colleen a sympathetic smile. Then she turned back to Jeff. "But as for why she's crying, I think it's because she's probably feeling guilty about everything. We pretty much caught her in the act."

"Who caught her?" Jeff asked, quickly. "Was it you?"

"No, sir."

Jeff waited for Tina to finger the culprit. But Tina, of course, was smart enough not to do it. After all, she had played the diplomacy game before. You don't name names in Survivor. Not if you're smart, you don't. Instead, she said nothing.

So Jeff turned to the group and waited for someone to fess up.

It didn't take long.

"Do you want to know the real story of what happened today, Jeff?" Alicia piped up.

"I'd be enthralled."

"Well here's the deal." Alicia paused and took a deep breath. Then she waited for a moment, silently debating. She wasn't sure just how deep she wanted to go into this.

"Yesterday morning," Alicia began, "Gretchen came to me with an offer."

"Which was?"

"She said she had convinced Colleen to turn on the Ahis, and that the three of us could force a tie tonight at Tribal Council. She said it would be an easy way to take out Tina or John."

Sitting next to Alicia, Colleen started shaking her head, vehemently. Jeff saw this, and of course he had to comment on it.

"Colleen," he said, "You don't agree with that?"

"Well I agree that it happened," she finally said, now looking up. "Gretchen made the offer, yeah. But it doesn't mean I ever would have gone through with it."

Alicia just turned her head towards the jury and started shaking her head, theatrically. She wanted them to be perfectly aware that Colleen was lying about this. The deal had been made. A tie had been in the bag.

"So what happened next?" Jeff turned back to Alicia. "You obviously didn't like the idea, so what? You ran to the Ahis?"

"Absolutely. I went and I told John all about it."

"Why?"

Alicia just shot him a baffled look. Was the guy a moron?

Over in the jury, Boston Rob saw this and started giggling.

"Why would I want to be in an alliance with Gretchen and Colleen?" Alicia asked, a shocked look of amazement on her face. "What do I look like, a fucking idiot? Why would I want to face either one of them in the final two? I wouldn't have a chance against either one of them! No one would!"

Sitting in the lower front row of the player box, a small, angry frown suddenly crossed Gretchen's face. Now she knew how everything had fallen apart. Now it all made sense. It had all been on account of Alicia. The girl had ruined everything.

"So you don't think that Gretchen or Colleen are beatable, so you sell them out," Jeff summarized.

"That's not selling them out," Alicia rebutted. "That's saving your own ass. That's just common sense. Anyone in my position would have done the exact same thing."

"Gretchen, do you agree with that?" Jeff turned and looked at her. "What's your take on this?"

"I don't have anything to say about this," Gretchen said, coldly. "Other than I don't appreciate the way Alicia handled it at all."

Over in the jury box, she could see Kathy shoot her an anguished look. Because Kathy was stunned. She had known that Alicia and Gretchen didn't really get along, but she'd had no idea it would ever turn out to be this bad. How had the downfall of Keko turned so ugly? Just look at Alicia and Gretchen now. The two of them would barely even look at one another. It was ridiculous. And why? For what? The three of them were supposed to have been friends to the end!

"Jeff?" Colleen suddenly piped in.

"Yes?"

"Can I say something about this?"

"Absolutely."

"Well I just want to say that yes, I took Gretchen's deal. But at no point did I ever intend to ever go through with it." She turned and shot an angry look at John. "I feel like I have been totally set up."

"You never planned to go through with this?"

"No! Never!"

"Complete bullshit," Alicia retorted, as she simply talked over her.

Frustrated, Colleen just raised her hands in the air, as if completely helpless. She turned to face Alicia. Because how was she, a meek person, supposed to save herself tonight? There was no way she could out-argue Alicia. Alicia was simply too forceful. These people were practically railroading her.

"If they vote me out tonight," Colleen finally said, "then they're making a big mistake. They're making the biggest mistake of the game. Because I never turned on anybody. They're condemning me based on something they heard."

She turned and shot another look at John. Then she looked at Tina. Then she looked at Vecepia. She implored the three of her alliancemates to believe her.

Tina was the only one who would return her gaze.

That was bad.

"Well we're just about ready to vote," said Jeff, once he realized he could potentially lose control of this thing. After all, at the rate they were going now, things were bound to turn ugly. Half the players here didn't even want to speak to one another. And that meant it was time to get moving. "Colleen, anything else you want to say before we vote?"

"I just want to reiterate that if they vote me out tonight, they're making a huge mistake. Because I won't be very happy. I didn't do anything."

"You have been an Ahi all the way?"

"Yes." Colleen now turned and shot yet another angry look at her former friends. In particular, she directed it at her former best friend, John. She wanted him to hear this. "I have always been an Ahi. I have never done anything."

She let the words hang in the room. Especially now. Here, in the warm Hawaiian air of the Tribal Council lodge, she wanted them to have resonance. The rest of the Ahis needed to know this.

"Jeff," Alicia piped up, "Can I say something before we vote, too?"

"Go ahead."

"Well I only have one thing to say," said Alicia, with a small, mischievous smirk on her face.

Before she said it, she glanced to her left and shot Boston Rob a look in the jury box. He was grinning and shaking his head. It was if he knew exactly what she was going to say. It was if he was trying to warn her to have the good sense not to. But he couldn't. Because she was going to say it, like it or not. He simply knew her too well. She always went for the jugular.

"I just want to point out," Alicia continued, calmly, "that Colleen has lied to pretty much every single person in this game over the past twenty four hours. She has been trying to play everyone. And now she's even lying to Gretchen. Now she's lying to Gretchen, and telling her she never made a deal that she actually made."

Colleen raised her hands again, helplessly, and looked towards the ceiling.. How was she supposed to fight this?

"What are you getting at?" asked Jeff.

"I'm just saying that remember how I said that Colleen was unbeatable in the final two?" smiled Alicia. "Well guess what? After tonight, I think that might have changed. After tonight, I think she would probably be totally beatable."

She sat back in her seat and shrugged, almost imperceptibly.

"Who knows?" she finished, "Maybe I made the wrong choice. Maybe, in the end, I should have taken their deal."

^^

One by one, the Manakais walked up to the podium and cast their votes. One by one, they came back and took their seats. Colleen sat all by herself in the back of the group, head still down. She looked pissed off beyond all recognition. She knew exactly what was coming. The Ahis weren't subtle.

"When I read the votes," Jeff explained, "the person voted out will be asked the leave the Tribal Council area immediately." He nodded. "I'll read the votes."

And with that, he reached into the ballot box.

"First vote," he said. He pulled out the first slip of parchment. He turned it around in a dramatic reveal.

"Gretchen," it read.

That was Colleen's vote. She had voted for Gretchen. Just like the Ahis had planned. Just like they had always planned. Just like she had promised them. In fact, to affirm the fact that she had always been loyal to Ahi, she had even added the words "See?" underneath Gretchen's name in big, bold black letters. She definitely wanted the rest of them to feel bad about this.

"Second vote," said Jeff, as he reached into the urn.

He pulled it out.

He revealed.

"John."

That one was from Gretchen. It meant nothing. It was purely symbolic. Gretchen just didn't want John to win this game, that was all that it said.

And then came the first Colleen vote.

"Colleen," said Jeff, as he held up Alicia's ballot. That was one.

Jeff reached into the urn. Out came number two. Out came John's.

"Colleen."

And then, of course, came the death blow. The third vote. Just like they had all known it would. Symbolically, or perhaps more fittingly, it had come from Vecepia. And why wouldn't it? After all, Vee was the one who had most wanted this.

Jeff now held the fateful ballot in his hands. Colleen knew it was coming.

"... The eleventh person voted out of the game," said Jeff, "and the fourth member of our All-Star jury..."

He slowly turned the ballot around.

There was Vecepia's flowery handwriting.


"Colleen."


If the players had expected some sort of a lightning crash or other heavenly sign of displeasure at the ousting of America's Sweetheart, they never got it. In fact, they got absolutely nothing. Colleen said nothing to anybody. She simply held her head high, reached back to grab her torch, and brought it up to stand before Jeff. She didn't look back at anyone. She just didn't feel like it.

"Colleen, I'm sorry," Jeff said softly. He nodded his head, "But the tribe has spoken."

And just like that -- SNUFF -- America's Sweetheart was done.

She said nothing.

She stoically left.

The game was now down to five.

Jeff sighed, and then turned sideways to face the remaining five players, He really didn't know what he was supposed to say about this. After all, it wasn't every day that you snuffed out your most popular Survivor alum.

He wasn't really sure how he was supposed to follow that.

"You know, guys," he started, "I'd love to stand here and tell you that the look on Colleen's face pretty much said everything..." he paused, "but I think you have all probably figured that out by now. I think you all have a pretty good idea of the stakes you are dealing with now."

He turned to look them all in the face, one by one. He started with Alicia. He ended with Gretchen. Gretchen, the woman who had inadvertently gotten her friend Colleen kicked out of this game. Gretchen, whose plan to turn this game around had backfired so horribly and so tragically.

Gretchen, who, understandably, now looked a little bit pissed.

"Well anyway," Jeff shrugged, "That's all I've got for you tonight. Good luck tomorrow, and good luck in the hike back to camp. I'll see you soon."

He sent them off, out into the warm Hawaiian night sky.

Back to the game.

Where an embittered Gretchen Cordy had pretty much decided that it was time to get nasty.

- Read Colleen Haskell's final words

- Read Mario's Episode 11 commentary notes

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