All-Star Survivor: Hawaii Episode #12 The Last Supper

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

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

DAY 34

It wasn't that Tina was unsympathetic. Far from it. Truth be told, Tina was actually incredibly sympathetic towards Gretchen's plight. After all, she saw the frustration in Gretchen's eyes. She understood the repeated pleas for assistance. She could feel the hopelessness. It was impossible not to feel a fair bit of sympathy for the woman.

The only problem was that helping Gretchen get out of her predicament, at this stage in the game, would pretty much be asking for trouble.

"Well you know why I came to you," Gretchen said, as she stood there with a pair of husked coconuts in her right hand. "I came to you because you can help me. You're the only person here who can help me make it further than Alicia."

That, indeed, had been the sole reason Gretchen had come to Tina so early on the morning of day 34. To ask for assistance. All Gretchen wanted at this stage of the game, the only goal she really had left available to her, was to make it to the final four. That was all she was asking. She only wanted to make it three more days. She had essentially given up all aspirations of winning, she had essentially given up all dreams that the Ahi Three could ever be taken down, and at this point of the game she was pretty much resigned to throwing herself on her sword in front of Tina and asking for mercy. This was what this game had reduced her to. By now, the once-proud survivalist was begging.

"Well you know I don't want Alicia here any more than Vee does," Tina confided, honestly. "She bothers both of us. I don't like her here at all."

This, of course, was the complete truth. The fact that Alicia Calaway was now considered an unofficial part of the "Ahi final four" was a little unsettling to someone like Tina. She had no idea where John was going with this particular side-alliance, she had no idea how deep or superficial it really was, and the uncertainty of the whole thing weighed heavily on her mind. It seemed to be very much bothering her.

"Well if you don't want Alicia around," shrugged Gretchen, "then why not get rid of her? You know as well as I do that she doesn't deserve it."

Tina just bowed her head, looking down at the ground, saying nothing. Because she knew the answer to this question. The answer, of course, was "no." The correct-- and complete-- answer to Gretchen's plea for assistance was, "No way in heck will I, or anyone in my alliance, do anything to let you get to the final four. Ever. No way. It would be completely ridiculous."

But of course Tina was far too diplomatic to actually word it that way.

"Well, I'll tell you what I can do," she answered, quietly.

Inwardly, Tina weighed the pros and cons of how far she really wanted to go with this. Across from her, Gretchen listened with an eager look on her face. It was clear she was hoping for a miracle.

"I'll talk to Vee," Tina explained, "And I'll talk to John. But that's all I can promise. I can just promise we'll talk."

"Hey, that's all I can ask."

"And off the record," Tina continued, "You know I have sympathy for your situation. I hope you know that. I really do."

"I know that," nodded Gretchen.

"I really would like to see you in the final four," smiled Tina, "Because I think you deserve it. You're easily one of the most positive people in this tribe. You work harder than anybody I've ever met. I think it would be a travesty if Alicia made it further than you."

"That's what I've been trying to explain to people," Gretchen grinned.

And that was when Tina paused. That was when the big "but" finally crept up into the next sentence. Gretchen heard it, and she anticipated it, because she had known it was coming. So much for a miracle.

"But..." Tina shrugged, "This is also a game of chess, Gretchen. I think you have to know that, too. And I don't think anybody here really wants to have to compete with you. You're way too dangerous to us."

Tina wished she could have couched it in a little more positive way, but unfortunately that was the crux of the situation they were facing here. Yes, they liked Gretchen, but so what? Like really had nothing to do with it. As hardcore Survivor strategists, the three Ahis were all trying to win.

"So you're saying I don't have much of a chance?" Gretchen looked crestfallen.

"Well I wouldn't go that far," Tina said. "There's always hope. But if I were you I'd probably want to rely on immunity."

Gretchen just nodded. She looked deflated. She looked down at the ground. After all that had happened to her in this game, after all the drama, after all the trials and tribulations, it appeared that this was probably her last stand in the game of Survivor. This was Gretchen's Last Stand. If she didn't make an immunity run from here on out, it looked like it was time for the jury box.

Gretchen lifted her head and looked over at Tina one last time. Her stringy, brown hair hung shaggily in her eyes. Her face was tinted earthen from assorted mud and island dirt. It had been a long time since Gretchen had looked like a preschool teacher out here. These days, she was looking more like a homeless woman.

"So then this is what it comes down to..." Gretchen now sighed, quietly. She looked off towards the rainforest. She looked resentful. "I've been busting my butt off for thirty-three days. I've been working like a freaking slave just to keep this camp going. I've done everything I can for you people. And now... what? Now I'm just supposed to await the inevitable?"

She turned and looked Tina directly in the eyes. She wanted her to hear this part.

"I'm serious, Tina. In the past six days, do you know what I've been reduced to?" Gretchen looked like she had tears in her eyes. "I've been reduced to figuring out who I want to lose to. That seems to be pretty much all I can do." She paused. "All I can think about right now, Tina, is do I want to lose to you? Or would I rather lose to John? Which one would hurt the least?" She paused again, and let out a long, dramatic, painful sigh. "Do you have any idea how helpless this feels?"

Tina nodded. She understood completely how helpless that would feel. After all, she had once been a slave to Queen Jerri. She had once been there herself.

So she leaned over and she gave her Keko rival a hug.

"I don't blame you at all for feeling helpless," Tina soothed her fellow mother. "In fact, I'd probably be doing the exact same thing as you if I were in your situation. I would probably be having this exact same conversation with somebody on Ahi right about now."

"But..." Gretchen laughed under her breath, half-heartedly.

"But," Tina laughed softly, "But you're right. If I put my neck on the line, just to get you into the final four, the two of them would murder me."

Gretchen took a step back and nodded. She understood. After all, that was the exact answer she had expected to get from Tina in this particular conversation. She had expected empathy, couched behind unwavering strategy. And that was exactly what she had gotten. That was Tina Wesson in a nutshell. She'd hit you full on in the face with a knockout punch, but she'd be sure to apologize first. She wanted you to know she really felt bad about it.

With Tina, just like Vecepia, you learned that empathy didn't much get in the way.

"Well no matter what happens," Gretchen shrugged, "I just want you to know that I appreciate this. And I hope you win." She smiled. "Off the record, I think you deserve it a hell of a lot more than the rest of them, and that's why I came to you. You're the only one out here with any integrity."

"Well thank you," Tina smiled, a little bit touched. "That's sweet."

Well, that was an awfully nice thing to hear from your mortal enemy in the game. From the player you had been trying to target since pretty much the very first minute of the merge. A compliment that high coming from someone like Gretchen? That you were the only deserving winner here? That was about as big a warm fuzzy as you could possibly get. Gretchen thought Tina should win? Wow. Tina couldn't help it. She was visibly touched.

The only problem was that Gretchen didn't mean it.

Gretchen didn't mean any of it.

Gretchen didn't want Tina to win All-Star Survivor. Gretchen wanted Gretchen to win All-Star Survivor. The only reason she'd had this conversation at all was to give Tina a chance to save herself. Which was something Tina had just failed to do. Gretchen had offered Tina a way to make the final four, but Tina had just failed it with flying colors. She had just failed the common sense self-preservation test.

And what that meant-- at this minute-- was that Tina was now officially on the chopping block..

"Well I should probably get back to camp," Gretchen nodded. She smiled, sweetly. "They're probably wondering where I am. Lord knows that if I didn't come back with some sort of breakfast, John wouldn't know what to do with himself. He would probably start cooking his foot."

Tina laughed. It was a pleasant laugh.

And Gretchen expected that it was probably going to be her final laugh.

After all, as Tina herself had famously said a couple of years ago... it was time for the games to begin.





^^

Under normal circumstances, Alicia would have been scared to death to see Gretchen walking over to come talk to her. After all, thanks to Alicia's shenanigans and double-dealing at the last vote, Gretchen and the Kekos had now effectively been decimated. They had been taken apart by the Ahis, they had been destroyed by much better and more hardcore players than themselves, and Alicia was well aware that Gretchen probably held her personally responsible for all of this. In the mind of Gretchen Cordy, Keko's death in this game was guaranteed to pretty much all be Alicia's fault.

The only problem with this logic was that Gretchen wasn't coming over to have it out with her at this particular moment.

Nope.

Alicia might have cringed when she saw her coming, she might have tensed up all over when she saw an angry and determined Gretchen coming over to talk to her, but she was about to find out that Gretchen wasn't over here for revenge. She wasn't here to get into a fight. This time, she was only coming for business.

"How badly do you want to win this game?"

Those were the first words that came out of Gretchen's mouth. Surprised, Alicia cocked an eyebrow and looked over at her.

"I'm serious, Alicia," Gretchen looked her right in the eyes. "How badly do you want to win this game? Did you come here to win, or did you come here to have fun?"

Alicia just chuckled softly under her breath. She said nothing. She wanted to proceed extremely cautiously with this. After all, she still wasn't entirely sure where Gretchen was trying to go with this question.

"I'm telling you right now," Gretchen said, "If you're in, I have a way to get both of us to the final four. It won't even be that hard. And... well..." she shrugged. "it's also sort of in your best interest too, so you'll probably want to hear about it."

"Go ahead. I'm listening," Alicia said, after a short pause. It was clear she was still incredibly skeptical. After all, as far as Alicia was concerned, she was pretty much already guaranteed a spot in the final four. Her final two blackmail deal with John had more or less cemented that. That happened to be one of the benefits of being in an ironclad final two deal with the guy who controlled the game. You knew you had oodles of job security.

"Well then here's my question," Gretchen now said, simply. "What happens to you guys at the final four?"

"What do you mean what happens?"

"I mean exactly what I'm asking," Gretchen retorted. "What happens at the final four? What happens after the four of you vote me out? Where do you go from there? What's your plan? Have you even thought about it?"

Alicia wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to respond to this. After all, giving Gretchen any sort of classified information at this point in the game would be an awfully risky proposition. There was no guarantee she wouldn't take whatever Alicia said and go running to Tina and Vecepia. In fact, that was pretty much what Gretchen was guaranteed to do. Alicia could feel it.

So, wisely, she decided to say nothing. For now, Alicia played the safe route and kept her mouth shut. At this point in the conversation, Gretchen didn't have to know anything that wasn't strategically necessary.

Gretchen, annoyed, just rolled her eyes in frustration.

"Look, Alicia," she sighed, "I get that you're trying to do the Vecepia thing. I get it. I know you think you're in a good position right now, and you're gonna float your way to the end, just by jumping wherever the best deal is. And I'm just telling you right now that isn't gonna work. Tina and Vee aren't gonna let it work."

"Maybe it will," Alicia shrugged, "Maybe it won't. You don't know that."

"You're right, I don't," Gretchen conceded. "But think about this. What happens if I win immunity tomorrow? Who do you think is going home? You know it's not gonna be Tina or Vecepia. Right?"

Alicia said nothing. Although, inwardly, she did wince a little bit.

Obviously Alicia had thought about this possible scenario. She had thought about it quite a bit. She would have had to have been an idiot not to have thought of it. But at the same time, hearing it said in plain English, by someone who was very much an predictable player, did hit her a little bit hard. She wouldn't deny it. After all, Alicia's strategy right now was a very delicate balancing act she had been willing to gamble on. If Gretchen did win immunity tomorrow, at the worst possible time in the game, it would turn out to be exceptionally bad.

"Look," said Gretchen, empathetically, "I know you probably have some sort of a side deal with John. You have to. You'd have to be an idiot not to."

Alicia smiled faintly, while still trying to maintain her traditional stone faced glare.

"But I'm telling you that it doesn't matter," Gretchen continued. "John could have promised you the world. And he might have even meant it, too. But if I win immunity tomorrow, you're dead meat." She paused, while trying to let these last words sink in. "And even if that doesn't happen, Alicia, even if you do vote me out tomorrow, and even if you do make it to the final four, you're still dead meat. You have absolutely zero chance of ever winning this game against Tina and Vee. The two of them are an unbreakable wall. You're never gonna stop them."

"Well they can't both win," Alicia pointed out.

"No, they can't. But they can sure as hell take each other to the final two. And then one of them has to win. Don't you think they have probably figured that out by now?"

Alicia just stood there and nodded, casually. Of course she had considered that.

"Well then here's what I propose," Gretchen finally got to the point. But before she said anything, she turned around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping. Luckily, the two of them seemed to be the only ones at camp at the moment. The Ahis, perhaps in a bit of arrogance, had decided to leave them alone.

Gretchen took a deep breath. After all, she had this pitch all worked out in her head. She had been working on it ever since last night. She wanted to make sure it came out perfect.

"I say that me, you, and John take out one of the former winners at the next vote," Gretchen finally proposed. "And we take them out for three reasons. A... because it's the only thing that saves my butt in this game, B... because it's the only thing that saves your butt in this game, and C... because... you know... for Pete's sake, it's about time one of them actually had an obstacle thrown in their way once in a while. I'd like to see them have to react for a change."

Gretchen finished her pitch and took a long, deep breath. She was done. Now the ball was officially in Alicia's court. It was all up to the black sheep of Keko as to if she really wanted to win.

"What do you mean 'saves my butt'?" was all that Alicia asked. "How does that save my butt?"

"Because you're dead meat if the two of them are still together!" Gretchen almost yelled. "My God, Alicia, can't you see that? Sure, you take me out at the next vote. And that's great. Rah rah, good job. You beat me and made it to the final four. But then what?"

"Then we..."

"No!" Gretchen just talked over her. "You do nothing! What happens is that Tina and Vee form this unbreakable voting bloc, and you're up crap creek without a paddle. You're in the final four with two people who will never... ever... vote for one another. And where do you think that leaves you? Where do you think that leaves John?" Gretchen just glared at her. Then she finished her argument. "It leaves the two of you in third and fourth place. That's it. And I'm sorry, but there's not much of a damn thing you will be able to do about it."

Alicia just stood there and took this all in. And Gretchen still had no idea if any of it was actually getting through or not. Man, Alicia could be a difficult one to talk to. Always had been. She just stood there and had the world's most unmovable poker face. Her arms remained tightly crossed across her chest. Her reactions simply gave away nothing.

"Am I even getting through to you?" Gretchen now asked, somewhat cautiously. "Are you hearing this, or...?"

"So then what do you suggest?" Alicia suddenly asked, quietly.

"Well you know what I suggest," Gretchen said, after an excited pause, "I suggest we take out one of the winners."

"Yeah, but which one?"

Alicia turned and locked eyes with Gretchen. And Gretchen could see that it was finally getting through to her. It was finally starting to sink into the girl's head. The trap, the logic, the dilemma, the inevitability, everything. Alicia was finally seeing it. If she was short-sighted enough to take out Gretchen at the next vote, just because the two of them had a history behind them, she was asking for trouble.

Alicia was finally getting this.

"Well I know which one I'd want to take out first," Gretchen quickly replied. "If things were up to me, I'd want to take out Vee. I think she's been coasting by for far too long, and I don't think she deserves it. I think she's been riding on coattails."

"Yeah but the problem is that John would never go for that," Alicia said. "You know it as well as I know it. He's too tight with her. Vee's his little strategy buddy."

"Exactly," Gretchen nodded. "John would never vote for Vee. And that means..."

Alicia nodded. She understood. She was even able to finish Gretchen's sentence.

"... That means it would have to be Tina."

And right there, there it was. The answer. The whole answer to unlocking this game. Gretchen was right, she hit the nail on the head. If the two of them wanted any chance in this game, if Alicia wanted any chance of getting past the final four, she had to convince John to get rid of Tina. She had to convince him to separate the winners, and she had to do it quickly. Because sure enough, without John's third vote in the mix, this plan was bound to go nowhere.

Again, Alicia finally understood this.

And that meant it was time to run this little idea by John, to see how he was going to react to it.





^^

For John Carroll, what was looking to be an uneventful morning in Survivor was suddenly about to become a whole lot more interesting. Because that was when Alicia came down to talk to him by the beach, and give him an update on the latest developments.

"I just had an interesting talk with Gretchen," she began, casually.

John, who was sitting down on the beach, shelling mussels with a knife, just looked over at her.

"Gretchen?" he asked, surprised. "What the hell were you talking to her for? I thought you didn't believe in making friends with the deceased."

"Yeah, I don't, but she sort of came over to me."

"Great. Well what did she say?" John turned his back to her and went back to his shellfish task as he spoke. "Wait, let me guess. 'Save me, save me?' Something like that?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Alicia paused and let out a deep breath before continuing to the next part of her little update. Because she knew that John wasn't going to like it. She knew from the bottom of her heart that it was very important how she worded the next sentence that was about to come out of her mouth.

John, perhaps sensing that this was a little bigger than a simple "tattle" conversation, suddenly stopped his shelling and looked over at her.

"Uh oh," he said, quietly, "That's a pause. I don't like pauses."

"Well," Alicia shrugged, "maybe you will this time, maybe you won't."

"Fuck," he cursed under his breath. "What happened?"

Now she had his full attention. And now she could feel herself starting to squirm under his gaze. Great. That was just perfect. Suddenly she wasn't Alicia Calaway the badass anymore. Now she was suddenly Alicia the shy little 10-year old schoolgirl who did her best not to get yelled at because she did something dumb. And she didn't like that. She didn't like the regression.

"What. Did. You. Say. To her?" John reiterated, a little more forcefully.

It didn't help that he was holding a big knife in his hand.

"Well," Alicia stammered, a little nervously, "we were talking about immunity, and final four scenarios, and she brought up something that I thought was a good point. It was something I hadn't really thought of before."

John just continued to glower at her. She didn't like that look one bit.

"Gretchen's theory," Alicia finally continued, "Is that if we let Tina and Vee get to the final four, then they'll be unstoppable. They will never vote for one another. So no matter who gets to the final four... you, me, or whoever... we're screwed. There will be a 2-2 tie, no matter what."

"So then let me guess," John said loudly, somewhat mocking her, "Gretchen's plan is that we spare Gretchen at the next vote."

"Well yeah," Alicia shrugged, "I mean, not in so many words, but yeah."

"Damnit, Alicia," John sighed. Well that had been pointless. Now he turned back to his shelling again. "Come on, what else do you think she is going to say? She's trying to save her own ass. All Gretchen wants is for Gretchen to somehow sneak her way into the final four."

"Yeah but she makes a good point."

By this point, Alicia was tired of John repeatedly turning his back to her. It was annoying, not to mention a little pompous. So she stepped around in front of him and squatted down on the sand. Now she could look him directly in the face.

"What happens to me at the final four?" she asked, curiously. "That's something I'd really like to know, John. What happens to me?"

"What do you mean, what happens to you? I told you I'd take you to the final two. What more do you want?"

"Yeah, but how?"

John, exasperated, just shot her a look of annoyance. He looked put out. And why wouldn't he? He had simply come down here about half an hour ago to shell mussels. His head hadn't been in game mode at all. It had been in lunchtime mode. This was neither the time nor the place for this.

"Just leave that up to me," he answered. "I told you I'd do it, and I will. When it's time."

"Yeah but how?" Alicia persisted. She wasn't going to back down on this. "I mean, come on John, you have to see this from my perspective. Look at it from my angle. You'd be scared shitless."

Alicia suddenly took a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching them. And she was dismayed to see Vecepia standing there, within visual range, about five hundred feet away on the beach. Vee was much too far away to be able to hear what they were talking about, but she had apparently taken a keen interest in what Alicia and John were doing. She was far away, true, but she was staring right at them.

"Shit," Alicia now cursed under her breath. "Vee's watching us."

"Yeah I know," John said. "She was standing there the whole time. It's what I was trying to tell you."

Alicia looked incredibly embarrassed with herself. That had been rookie mistake number one. You never let Vee catch you strategizing. Ever. It was a recipe for disaster. You never spooked Vee. Alicia had learned that a long time ago.

"Oh lighten up," John quickly reassured her, "Vee can't hear us. She's way over there."

As if to prove this point, he quickly called out to her.

"Hey Vee," he called, loudly, "Sean is an idiot, Sarah's breasts were awesome, Jesus doesn't exist, and you didn't deserve to win Marquesas. I should have voted for Neleh. You got that?"

He waved a hand to her in the air, very friendly. Far off in the distance, the tiny figure of Vecepia waved back. John just nodded and smiled at Alicia. There. Point made? They didn't have to worry about Vee.

Alicia just shook her head and chuckled under her breath.

Well there was a reason she had gravitated to John, after all. Asshole or not, condescending dickhead or not, she still liked his style.

"Hey Vee," John called out again, playfully, "I'm going to vote you out at the final three. You cool with that? We team up to take out Tina at four, and then I backstab you at three and take Alicia to the end instead. Sound good?"

He waved again. Far off in the distance, tiny Vecepia waved back.

Now Alicia was giggling.

"See, don't worry about it," John was finally able to reassure her. "Yeah Tina and Vee think they're in a pact together, sure. But you forget. Vee is a moron. Tina is an idiot. If they wanted to put together a power play, they would have done it a long time ago."

He paused, and looked Alicia directly in the eyes.

"You don't have to worry about them," he added, "I've had Vecepia under control for a long time now. She won't be a problem. She has never been a problem."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Vecepia's a nobody."

Visibly relieved, Alicia let out a long, deep breath. Because now she suddenly felt better. She still had no idea if John was lying to her-- hell, you never knew when people were lying, especially at this stage of the game-- but on paper, his explanation made perfectly rational sense. He was controlling Vecepia's vote. He had always been controlling her vote. Of course. That was it. That was how they would prevent a 2-2 tie.

Now was this true? Was it really true? Or was this John just talking a good game and feeding her bullshit? Alicia didn't know. All she did know was that John was certainly aware of what would happen if she found out he were lying to her. If Alicia really was voted out of this game, if she really was screwed over at the final four, Johnny Baby would be in for a world of hurt at the final jury, and he was certainly aware of this. There was no way he wouldn't know that. After all, she had made it clear as crystal many times, and that felt incredibly good.

As always, Alicia found that blackmail was always a wonderful and effective weapon out here.

"So then, you feel better?" John asked. "We done here?"

"Yeah, we're done," Alicia nodded.

"Good. Tell Gretchen to go fuck herself. Tell her you don't need her. Tell her she's just causing trouble."

"I will."

Alicia put her hands on her thighs and she stood up. Her knees screamed in agony. Man, apparently she had been out here in Hawaii a long time. She was losing all sorts of tendon strength. This game, and all the walking on sand, and the complete lack of nutrition were slowly contributing to atrophy.

"Oh yeah," John said, before she could walk away, "and let me remind you of something, just in case Gretchen decides to come at you again."

"What's that?"

"Well remember the last person Gretchen tried to save? Remember the last person that Gretchen decided to 'help out', by offering them a last minute strategy option?"

"Yeah," Alicia nodded. "Colleen."

"Well just remember," John shot her a hard look, "Gretchen ended up getting her voted out. So watch what you say to her, and be careful what you promise her. The only thing she can offer you is trouble."

^^

So far, it had been a mostly undisturbed morning around Camp Manakai. Chores had been done, breakfast and lunch had been eaten, players had sat around the campfire and exchanged small talk. It had pretty much been exactly like every single other day on the shores of Hawaii. After all, when you spend thirty-three days living with the same people, day in and day out, you learn all of their patterns. Each and every morning around here was pretty much the same.

But that didn't mean Vecepia Towery wasn't feeling a little bit wary about things.

She couldn't quite put her finger on it, she didn't really know what it was, but there was something in the air that was bothering her this afternoon. Something odd. Something subtle. She wasn't quite sure what it was, she wasn't quite sure if it was a big deal or not, she couldn't quite identify why it was happening, but she knew that there was definintely a strange feeling in the air around camp today. Something weird was happening, and she wanted to talk about it. She hoped it was just nerves. She hoped she was just getting those "end of the game" last minute Survivor jitters, just like everyone else.

So she put together a little chat with her two fellow Ahi co-conspirators, just to go over the plans.

"So then, what's the deal with the next vote?" Vee asked, casually, as she John and Tina left for a lesisurely treemail walk about two o'clock in the afternoon.

The three Ahis walked aimlessly and effortlessly, in no hurry, as they traipsed through the dark, dank Hawaiian rainforest. After all, this wasn't really just a treemail walk. What this really was was a last-minute strategy talk. A "what to do with Alicia and Gretchen?" brainstorming session. The three Ahis were in no hurry to pick up today's treemail. Right now they had the luxury of walking as slow as they wanted.

"Well if you ask me," John shrugged, "I say we do what we've always wanted we'd do. We get rid of Gretchen."

Tina, who was walking with arms folded to his left, started nodding, insistently. Because this was the answer she had been waiting to hear. The "it's finally time to take out Gretchen" answer. Heck, Tina had been waiting to vote Gretchen out of this game going all the way back as the merge. She didn't want that particular jury threat living on this island for one more second. In fact, on a certain level, as much as Tina liked Gretchen-- as a person-- she had never really wanted her here. Not as a player, she didn't. The sooner that Gretchen's butt was out of this game, the sooner Tina could finally relax.

Yet, at the same time...

As obvious a threat as Gretchen was, it just wasn't that simple. It was never that simple. It was never as easy as "once Gretchen goes, we're all home free." And this was why Survivor was so inherently complicated. Because as dangerous as Gretchen was, as scary as she was as a potential opponent, Tina also knew that Gretchen wasn't the only troubling variable in this particular equation right now.

Nope. Gretchen wasn't the only Keko obstacle she and Vecepia currently faced.

"So then what happens after that?" Tina asked, innocently. "I mean, after we take out Gretchen?" She looked over at John. "What are your thoughts on the matter?"

"What are my thoughts?" John looked surprised. "I'll tell you my thoughts. Alicia can kiss my butt."

"So you haven't made any side deals with her...?" Tina now probed, cautiously. "You haven't promised her anything? There haven't been any alternative voting plans or anything that we need to be aware of...?"

Vecepia said nothing. She just walked along on the right, quietly listening and thinking.

"Well of course there have been side deals," John admitted, "I mean, come on. I had to get her to turn on the Kekos somehow. But they're not going to end very well for her. They're certainly not going to go anywhere. My allegiance has always been to the three of us."

This, of course, was the sticking point that Tina and Vecepia had always been worried about. Just how close was John to Alicia, and how honest was he really being when he proclaimed his Ahi loyalty? Just how set was Johnny Pots and Pans on going to the end with the two former winners? This was the all-important question that would likely be the key to this game.

"Look," John reiterated, "Yeah, I talk to Alicia. Yeah, I talk to her a lot. But for what? She offers me nothing. She's a stinking Keko."

"So you have no plans to team up with her?" Vee asked, quietly.

"Not a chance!" John spat. "Why? Tell me that, Vee. Why? Why would I want to take a Keko to the end? Why wouldn't I want to take my chances against a former winner?" He looked over at her, seemingly offended. "Hell, if I did that, if I took a Keko up against a Keko jury, they would laugh me out of the Survivor world. I would turn into Colby."

He quickly caught his mistake. Oops.

"No offense, Tina," he grinned. "But you know it's true. Colby screwed up."

Tina said nothing. Head down, and arms folded, she continued to walk.

"My only plan," John explained, "has been to lead Alicia along. And I've told you this over and over. She means nothing to me. She's a means to an end. If Gretchen wins immunity tomorrow, Alicia's butt is out of here so fast, she won't know what hit her."

"You promise?" Tina asked.

"Absolutely," John nodded. "Swear to God. Alicia's toast. It has always been the three of us."

Of course, deep down, John still wasn't entirely sure about this. He still wasn't one hundred percent sold that he really wanted to go to the end against an unbreakable former-winner alliance. Despite the earlier skepticism he had voiced to Alicia, this was still a subject that he was very much wary of. But did Tina or Vecepia need to know that? At this stage of the game?

Fat chance!

For now, he would just feed them whatever bullshit they wanted to hear. That's why they were getting essentially the same story that he just gave Alicia. The only difference in this version was that some of the names had been changed.

"Well I don't really like that Gretchen's here," Tina confessed, "And I really don't like that Alicia's here. The two of them make me nervous."

"Why?" John asked. "They hate each other."

"Well I know that," Tina shrugged, "But still. It doesn't feel right. Something isn't right about this. It should be easier than this."

"Nah, you're just being paranoid."

And that was when Vecepia finally piped in with the question that had been festering in the back of her head.

"What were you and Alicia talking about down by the beach?"

She turned and looked over at her male walking companion.

"A few hours ago," she continued, "Do you remember? Alicia was squatting down in the sand, and she was talking to you? You saw me watching, and you waved to me. What were the two of you talking about?"

John just chuckled under his breath. Yup, he knew this subject was bound to come up sooner or later. Vecepia was like Boston Rob, she never missed anything. Of course she had remembered that.

"Alicia was trying to get me to vote with her and Gretchen at the next vote," John answered, honestly. "She wants the three of us to vote out Tina."

Tina's head quickly shot up in surprise. What? And here all along she had been assuming that Vecepia would be the target of any potential Keko counter-offensive. After all, Vecepia was the one that nobody liked. Vecepia was the one that nobody wanted to win. And now they were making a play to vote out Tina instead of Vecepia?

What the heck was the angle??

"Why Tina?" Even Vee looked surprised. "I would have assumed it would be me."

"Yeah, well you know, I thought so too," John shrugged. "But Gretchen wants you gone, Tina, just as bad as you want her gone. And I don't think Alicia has ever forgiven you for turning on the Kekos. You're kind of her number one enemy right now."

Both Tina and Vecepia exchanged a quick, worried glance. Because if Tina really were the Keko target at the next vote, instead of Vecepia, then that meant this was a much dicier prospect than either of them had realized. Because Tina was in no way as close to John as Vecepia had ever been. Not even close. Tina had always pretty much been the outsider here.

And if John were somehow forced to choose between Alicia and Tina, with the game on the line?

Tina didn't especially like her chances in that.

"Well just so you know," John quickly added, "I told her no, no way, I'm not gonna do it, ever. So you don't have to worry about it." He looked over at Tina, and nodded, affirmatively. "I mean, yeah it's their plan, but there are only two of them. So even if you get two votes at Tribal Council, it's not gonna matter. They can't do anything without one of us helping them."

"Well I sure hope so," Tina muttered.

She debated the idea of adding an ominous "... because I wouldn't be very happy on the jury" Alicia-type threat at the end of that statement, but in the end, she quickly decided it wasn't necessary. At least, not yet. After all, Tina's method of playing Survivor was always that you could catch more flies with honey than you could with anything else. There was no need to start playing with blackmail if there were kinder, gentler options available. For now, she would just hope that John's sense of honor and fair play and friendship would be enough to guilt trip him into sticking with Ahi.

Vecepia, of course, did not agree. She happened to be a lot more cynical about human nature. Unlike Tina, she hadn't grown up rich in a giant house with her head in the clouds.

Guilt trip? Sense of fair play? Honor? Screw that. They were dealing with John. And this was Survivor. Vee knew exactly what she was dealing with here. She had dealt with him before.

Which is why she quickly mouthed a much more proactive suggestion to Tina, while the guy had has back turned.

"Make friends with him!" Vee mouthed to Tina, as subtly as she could. "Make friends with him fast!"

"What?"

"Cut him a final two deal!"

But there was no time for that now. That sort of thing would simply have to wait. Because the three Ahis had finally reached the tree mail box. There was something here.

It was time for the game's final reward challenge.

^^

"Well, well, well," smiled Jeff, as the final five players walked out of the trees and into a large, open area on the beach, "Look what we have here. Look at this motley crew."

He watched, patiently, as the five Manakais walked down the beach and took their assigned places on the starting mat. John, as the tallest, stood in the middle, and he ended up being flanked on either side by a pair of females. Gretchen and Vecepia on his left, Tina and Alicia on his right.

Dirty or not, ragged-looking or not, past reputation or not, these were the five best players in All-Star Survivor.

"Okay, you guys ready for your last reward challenge?" smiled Jeff. He paused, and then added, "You guys are gonna like this one. We came up with something special for you today."

The players were ready, of course, so Jeff walked them along the beach, showing them the four-part obstacle course in which they would soon be partaking.

"Part one," he explained, "is the dig."

He showed them how they would each be digging a hole in the sand. About five feet down under each player's flag was a small wooden box. And, well, once they had retrieved said box, it was time for the games to begin. Because they were given no further instructions as to how the rest of the challenge was going to play out.

"All I'm gonna tell you," smiled Jeff, "Is that there are four parts to this challenge, and they will test your brains, your strength, your coordination, and your overall survival skills. And you're going to want to win this challenge, because this one's for all the marbles."

"What are we playing for?" asked Gretchen.

"Interesting," joked Jeff. "Funny you should ask."

He turned around and made a motion to the air behind him. And that is when the players noticed a small black helicopter, silhouetted far away, against the blue backdrop of the sky. The pilot of the helicopter must have seen Jeff's motion, because here he came, flying down towards them. Within five minutes, he had landed on the beach.

"Part one of your reward," smiled Jeff, "Is a private helicopter tour of the island of Kauai."

The players oohed and aahed.

"As you all know," Jeff continued, "Kauai is the closest major island to Ni'ihau, and is one of the major tourist destinations in Hawaii. In fact, many visitors to Hawaii consider it to be the single most beautiful of the Hawaiian islands. If you haven't been there before, it's absolutely spectacular."

He paused and smiled at them.

"So anyway, that's part one. You'll have a one hour guided tour of Kauai, complete with a luau dinner at the end." He paused again. "Now part two of your reward, well that's a little more interesting. Because after your helicopter tour, you'll land in a small grass clearing outside a Hawaiian beach house. And inside this house is... well..."

He smiled, mischievously.

"The inside of this house," he continued, "is pretty much all yours. Because you are competing today... for your very own personal cottage... in Kauai, Hawaii."

And there it was. There was the All-Star Survivor bombshell.

They were playing for a house today.

"Holy shit," exclaimed Alicia. Like everyone else standing here, she was completely blown away by this.

"Yep," nodded Jeff, "That's the reaction I was waiting for."

"Our own house?" Gretchen asked, flabbergasted, "In Hawaii?"

Jeff nodded. Yep. Those were the stakes today.

"Unbelievable," murmured Tina, as she shook her head in disbelief.

A beachfront cottage in Hawaii? Why, those could run nearly a million dollars on their own! At least, depending on the size and the location and all. As someone who had been to Hawaii many times in her life, Tina was aware of how valuable something like that would be. Heck, winning today's challenge would be like practically winning Survivor all by itself. You were talking some valuable property here.

"Oh yeah," nodded Jeff, "and one last thing. The winner of today's challenge also becomes the Spoiler for the very last time in the game. So like I said, if you're looking to win one challenge in this game, today's is the one you want to win. Spoiler plus a house. We're playing for some pretty big stakes here."

He grinned.

"We don't play for cars anymore, you guys," he added, "In All-Stars, we play for the big stuff."





^^





With high stakes on the line, and visions of a Hawaiian beach house dancing in their eyes, the remaining five Manakais lined up on the sand for the challenge. This one was going to be a big one. From Vecepia on the left, to Alicia on the right, they all wanted to win this.

"On my go," Jeff announced, "You're going to run to your flag and start digging. Dig down and, once you find your box, pull it out. There will be instructions inside. Just follow those instructions, and they'll allow you to complete the rest of the course."

The five players all nodded.

And with that, the challenge was ready to start.

"Survivors ready!" said Jeff, as he raised his left arm in the air.

The players tensed.

"This is for a house on Kauai, and a chance to be the last Spoiler in All-Star Survivor!"

The players were ready.

"Go!!!!!!!"

Jeff's arm dropped, and the five Manakais raced across the golden brown sand at top speed.

Thirty seconds later, John and Vecepia were the first two to reach their respective flags. John's was black. Vecepia's was orange. They both dropped to their knees and started to dig. They were soon joined by Alicia and Gretchen. Tina, the last player to reach her flag, was already bringing up the rear.

"Five players digging," Jeff announced, as he walked around the action in a slow circle, while narrating for the cameras. "Five people really want this reward. But which one wants it the most?"

All five players were now hard at work digging, as they threw great huge handfuls of sand out in a pile behind them. And for now, it appeared that John was in the lead. After all, as the only male left in the game, with probably the largest arms in the game, he was likely the strongest. His hands dug the fastest.

And that's when John finally hit his wooden box, about four feet down.

"John!" announced Jeff, excitedly, "The first person to reach his box! But can he get it out of his sand? Did he dig his hole big enough?"

"No, he did not," said John, frustrated, as he tried in vain to widen it. The box was clearly wider than he had been expecting it to be. His hole would have to be significantly larger before he would be able to dig it out.

By now, John wasn't the only one who had reached his box. Now Gretchen and Vecepia had reached theirs. In fact, Gretchen was already having a fair bit of success in getting hers out.

"You getting it?" Jeff came over and asked her.

"Almost," Gretchen panted, as she tugged as hard as she could with her entire body. Her feet planted on the sand on either side of the hole, she exerted every bit of energy she could to slide the dang thing out. But it was no use. Her hole was still too small. One corner of her box was still wedged in the sand.

And now, John had finally retrieved his box. He screamed out in triumph.

"John!" announced Jeff, "The first person to get his box out. Open it up!"

John took a nearby rock and started pounding it on the side of the box. Pretty soon, just like a sea otter eating clams, he had cracked it open. He quickly opened it up.

Inside were about twelve pieces of wood. Along with a handful of washers and screws.

"Part two of the obstacle course," Jeff announced, "Is to construct a pair of stilts. John, you've got the parts. The instructions are written on the inside of the box. So get to work."

John cursed, loudly.

Great. Building stilts. He was doomed.

John started reading the instructions on the inside of the box, and that was when Gretchen finally got her box out of the sand as well. Now two people were hard at work on deciphering instructions. And here came three and four, as Alicia yanked her box out of the sand with a loud grunt, and Vecepia slid hers out with graceful precision. Now everybody had their box out of the sand except for poor Tina.

"Let's go, Tina," teased Jeff, "What's up? You're lagging behind."

"I can't find it!" she laughed, somewhat embarrassed with herself. "I don't think you guys even put one in here!"





^^





The challenge was essentially down to a four-person race now. And, as expected, Gretchen had her stilts put together first. The biggest survivalist of the group had wasted no time in putting on her construction hat.

"Are these good?" she shouted, frantically, over her shoulder. "Jeff?! Can I move on?!"

Jeff came running over to check them.

"Yes!" he said, after a brief perusal. "Gretchen is moving on to stage three! The stilt walk!"

He pointed out a small, narrow path on the sand, where she would be expected to walk. It was forty feet between here and there, and if she fell or her stilts broke along the way, she would have to come back and start over.

Gretchen paused and took a deep breath, as she tried to build up her focus.

"Jeff! Are these good?"

It was Vecepia. One of the best stilt-walkers from Marquesas. She was the second player to have her stilts constructed. Now she just needed approval. Jeff ran over to check her.

"Jeff, mine are done!"

That was Alicia. Now three people had their stilts done. Now this was going to be a race.

Jeff confirmed that Vecepia and Alicia were ready to go. That left just Tina, who was still desperately trying to yank her box out of the sand, and John, who was having a hard time figuring out which piece was supposed to go where on his stilts. In fact John was now a litany of profanity on the sand, as he could feel his challenge win slowly slipping away.

"Let's go John," Jeff now teased him, playfully, "Step it up. The woman are beating you."

"I'm trying!" John shot back, somewhat angrily, "Who the hell do I look like, Gepetto?"

Jeff turned back to the stilts walk where, as expected, the three women were having an exceptionally very hard time of it. This didn't surprise Jeff or the producers at all. After all, if there was one thing they had learned last season in Marquesas, it was that stilt walking was hard. You either knew how to do it, or you didn't. Stilts tended to have an extraordinarily nasty learning curve out here.

Gretchen had already made four attempts, and she hadn't even come close.

"Let's go, ladies," clapped Jeff, as the women took turns trying to walk down the narrow path in the sand. One after another they were forced to take turns, since there was only room for one person at a time on the path. It was part of what made this such a stressful challenge. If you fell once, you had to go back to the end of the line.

Vecepia was currently making her third attempt, and she didn't make it more than five feet.

"Darnit!" she said, frustrated, as she toppled to the left and came crashing down to the sand.

Alicia came next. And she fell. Now they were back to Gretchen. The loop of futility continued.

Jeff stood there and watched the whole thing. Three minutes passed. Now John had his stilts built. Now Tina had her box out of the sand. The noose of intensity was tightening. Whoever the first person was to make it forty feet on stilts was likely going to win themselves a vacation house. And all of them knew it. You could feel the frustration in the air.

And now, they were back to the top in Gretchen Cordy.

She had had the most attempts of anyone by far, and was clearly getting better at this.

Jeff squatted down behind her, as she got ready to walk.

"Let's go, Gretchen," he encouraged her, just like he had encouraged pretty much all of them at one point or another. He was curious to see if that determined look in her eyes was going to finally pay off. It was obvious she clearly wanted to win this today.

Gretchen took a deep breath. She set her focus. She got up on her stilts. And for the tenth time today, she attempted to walk.

Five feet.

That was further than most of them had gotten.

Ten feet.

Not even a wobble.

Twenty feet.

She was halfway there.

Thirty feet!

And that, unfortunately, was when Gretchen heard a sound that was probably going to haunt her for the rest of her life. It was just one sound, and a very simple sound at that. But she heard it, and her stomach immediately dropped to her shoes.

"CRRRRAAAAAAACK."

Gretchen's homemade left stilt was cracking.

"Nooooo!!!!!" she screamed. In a valiant effort to make it to the end, she sped up her pace. And it was just enough of a loss of focus to make her wobble the tiniest little bit. That wobble, combined with the weak construction job she had done on the left stilt, caused Gretchen to spin sideways and come crashing to her side on the sand. But she had almost made it to the end before she fell. She now lay on the sand, halfway on the finish line marker, and halfway off. She immediately raised her head up and asked if she had made it.

Jeff came running over as fast as he could. After all, he was the judge, and he had to make a ruling here. How close had she come before she had fell? Had Gretchen completed the stilt walk?

Behind him, he could hear the four other players loudly protesting, "No!"

Jeff looked at Gretchen's position on the sand. He looked at the last divot that her stilt had made before it had cracked. He looked at where her stilts lay now. He looked at Gretchen's sand-covered, yet hopeful, face. It was basically a coin flip.

Yet at the same time, in the interest of fairness, he knew he had to do it. He had to enforce the rules on this one. He hated to do it, he hated to say Gretchen was about a foot and a half short, he hated to break her heart like that. But rules were rules, and they were playing for a vacation home. This was no time to play favorites.

"No!" he announced, loudly. "Gretchen did not make it! The challenge continues!"

"Whaaattt??" Gretchen shrieked, as loudly as she had ever shrieked in her life. She animatedly pointed to the spot in the sand where her leg had crossed the finish line. But Jeff rebutted this, saying she had hit the sand first. He asked her to remove her stilts from the path. With tears in her eyes, and heartbreak in the pit of her stomach, she knew she had no choice but to comply.

Gretchen picked up her broken stilts and trudged to the back of the line.

For her, she knew this challenge was over.

^^





With Gretchen's broken stilts all but disqualifying her from the rest of the challenge, that left the field wide open for one of the other players to swoop in and steal her Hawaiian vacation home.

Okay, it wasn't really stealing, at least not literally, but that was sure how Gretchen felt about it. She just sat back and sulked as the rest of the players slowly, but surely, got better and better at stilt walking right in front of her.

Finally, about ten minutes later, one of them finally made it across.

Surprisingly, it wasn't even one of the players Jeff or Gretchen thought would be good at stilt-walking. It wasn't Tina or Vecepia. It turned out to be Alicia.

On her eleventh try, Alicia used her powerful arms and legs to plow her way forty feet across the sand. She didn't even falter or wobble once. After ten minutes of practice, it looked like she had been stilt-walking for twenty years.

Alicia made it across the path, she screamed out in obvious delight, and she turned around excitedly to hear Jeff confirm that she had officially made it. Sure enough, he did. He announced that Alicia could now move on to the fourth, and final, stage of the final reward challenge.

"Stage four," he told her, "Is to swim out to that buoy in the ocean."

He pointed it out to her. It lay about three hundred feet out in the sea.

"Swim out to that buoy," he continued, "Disconnect one of the anchors that is attached to it, and bring it back to me on the beach." He nodded. "Bring an anchor back to me before anyone else does, and you just won yourself a vacation home."

Alicia, who was clearly giddy with delight over this unexpected development, started racing across the beach as fast as her short legs would allow. After all, even though she now had a huge lead over everybody else, she wasn't exactly what you would call the strongest swimmer on the face of the earth. In the water, she would need all the head start she could possibly get.

So Alicia ran, and she dove in the water.

It took her a while to make it all the way out to the buoy, but it didn't matter, because nobody else managed to actually make it across the stilt walking path. Oh sure, Tina finally made it across on stilts at the very end of the challenge, but was way too little, too late at that point. Because here came Alicia, hefting an anchor in her muscular arms, as she emerged out of the sea.

The diminutive weightlifter from New York City was about to win herself a brand new vacation home.

"Alicia!" announced Jeff, as the smiling-from-ear-to-ear woman dropped the rusty anchor at his feet, "Wins reward! Alicia, you're moving to Hawaii!"

Alicia collapsed, in obvious exhaustion.

A helicopter tour, and a vacation home? And the power to be the final Spoiler going into the final four? All in thirty minutes? She was basically in shock. She didn't know what to do with herself. This was a hell of a day!

^^

It took Alicia about ten minutes to recover from the shock of realizing what she had just won. That win had been completely unexpected.

And now, of course, came the even bigger opportunity. The political opportunity. The one they had all known had been coming.

It was now time for Alicia to choose who was going to accompany her.

"Because, after all," smiled Jeff, "What fun is a helicopter trip without a friend to come with you?"

Alicia just smirked when she heard these words. Then she crossed her arms across her chest and stared down at the sand, laughing softly to herself. My, now wasn't this a delightful little diplomatic landmine she was about to walk into. Wasn't this going to be a little bit interesting...

"Do I have to pick one?" she quickly looked up, jokingly.

"Yes you do," nodded Jeff. "One friend, and the two of you will be gone all day tomorrow. You'll be back the next day in time for the immunity challenge."

Alicia just leaned her head back and sighed.

Great.

"Take Gretchen," Vee helpfully piped up from behind her. "She probably would have won that challenge if her stilt hadn't broken."

Tina, recognizing a wonderful opportunity to keep John here on the beach, and out of Alicia's clutches for the next twenty-four hours, heard Vee's clever suggestion and immediately added her support to it.

"I think that's a fantastic idea," she said. "Because Vee's right, Alicia. Gretchen came closer than all of us."

"It's only fair," Vee shrugged, "The rest of us don't deserve to go."

Alicia turned around to face the other four players. Although she wouldn't make eye contact with them. Because it didn't matter what they were imploring her to do. It didn't matter how much Tina and Vecepia were currently talking out of their butt. Alicia had already made her decision. She had made it the moment she won this thing.

She quickly shot a look at her old Keko friend, Gretchen. Gretchen looked eager and hopeful. She clearly looked like she expected to be picked. Like the rest of them, she knew she deserved it.

And that's exactly why Alicia winced a little bit when she chose not to take her.

"You know what?" Alicia said, as if she had just made this decision on a whim, "I think I'll take John with me today."

"John?" asked Jeff, surprised.

On the far left of the Manakai line, John's face fell. Right to the ground. It happened so dramatically, and so obviously, it was almost comical. Alicia almost laughed out loud when she saw it.

"Why John?" asked Jeff.

"Well, you know," Alicia shrugged, "we made a promise a couple of weeks back. I said if I ever won a reward, I'd take him. And he said the same thing to me. We sort of made a deal with one another."

John quickly turned his head to Vecepia and gave it a quick shake. No way. Never said it. She's bullshitting.

But Vee didn't believe him. She didn't believe him at all.

On the inside, both she and Tina were already suspicious about this.

"Alright," nodded Jeff, "You ready to head off on a helicopter ride, John?" He turned to face the last remaining male in the game. "You two ready for the trip of a lifetime?"

"Oh yeah, this is gonna be awesome!" John smiled happily, while lying through his teeth.

He turned and gave one quick last glance to Vecepia before he left. It was meant to say, "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." But it wasn't going to matter. Because he took one look at the woman they were going to be stuck here with-- Gretchen-- and he knew it was inevitable.

The three scorned women were going to band together over the next twenty-four hours and they were going to talk about this. Without a doubt. And then they were going to agree to a chick alliance. Why? Well because that was what chicks did. They did it every time.

God damnit, Alicia. Why? Why now?

When three women were left alone in the game of Survivor, John knew it was usually trouble.

DAY 35

It sure was a lot different with only three people at camp.

That was the lesson that Gretchen Cordy was learning on this, her 35th day on the island of Ni'ihau. That was the message that she had been learning-- very well, mind you-- for the past twelve hours. When the game of Survivor gets down to three, when everybody else is gone except for you and two people who want no part of you being in this game, it can get a little bit lonely around camp.

By this point, it was perfectly obvious that Tina and Vecepia wanted absolutely no part of being in Gretchen's Survivor world right about now.

Oh, it wasn't that Tina and Vecepia were necessarily hurtful people. They weren't cold-hearted bitches, or anything like that. In fact, truth be told, Gretchen actually liked both of them on a personal level very much. Especially Tina. Gretchen was fully and completely aware that outside the game, when she and Tina would be able to sit down and be on the same side of the fence and talk about things other than Survivor, they would probably turn out to be best friends. They would probably be peas in a pod. After all, as Mad Dog had famously proclaimed a couple of years ago, Tina as a person was pretty much a constellation. As two similar mothers both from the state of Tennessee, how could they not be friends?

But inside the game? Well that was a different story.

Inside the game, when the chips were on the line, and when it all counted, Tina and Gretchen had pretty much turned out to be mortal enemies. Oh, they might have been enemies who liked and respected one another. They might have been enemies who had a great deal in common with one another. But in the end, it really didn't matter. They were still enemies. They were enemies because they pretty much had to be. After all, that's what happens in Survivor when two carbon copy players start the game on opposite tribes. One turns out to be "the good guy", and the other turns out to be "the bad guy." The only way to differentiate is to look at who is assigning the labels.

So, as expected, Gretchen was getting a pretty good case of the silent treatment today. She didn't like it. She didn't find it comfortable or relaxing at all. But at the same time, she understood it. She was getting the silent treatment because she was the last obstacle standing in Tina and Vecepia's way. Once Gretchen had been spoiled by Alicia at tomorrow's immunity challenge, once she was officially voted out of this game and out of their hair for good, then either Tina Wesson or Vecepia Towery would be crowned the winner of All-Star Survivor. It would all be official. Once Gretchen was out of the way, then the win would be theirs.

No wonder neither one of them wanted to interact with her. Why would they? After all, from their eyes, Gretchen was doomed. From Tina and Vecepia's eyes, she was simply "the bad guy."

Not much I can do at this point, Gretchen sighed, as she strolled down the dried lava rock to take in an early morning swim. This was something she often did when she was having a hard time dealing with the stress or the hardship in this game. She headed down to Manakai beach, which was about ten minutes away from camp, and she went for a swim. It seemed to be one of the few ways you could ever relax in this game. After all, there was just something about the Hawaiian air, just something about the Hawaiian water, that could work its magic on you. No matter how angry or how frustrated you ever got in this game, swimming always seemed to help. In fact, sometimes, if the cameras weren't nearby-- shh, don't tell-- she would even go in without clothes.

So Gretchen traipsed daintily down the slippery wet lava rock towards the ocean.

Once she was at the edge of the water, she carefully looked around to see if anyone was nearby. Any cameramen? Any producers? Any helicopters? Any sign of Tina or Vecepia?

Nope. Not a soul. This entire beach was hers. It was just Gretchen and about 5,000 miles of Pacific Ocean.

She took a few steps forward, and she felt the warm ocean water slide around to engulf her ankles. Aaaaah, perfect. As always, the Hawaiian water was the perfect temperature, the perfect feel, the perfect texture, the perfect everything. No wonder people loved coming here. There was no way to understand what people meant by "room-temperature Hawaiian water" until you came out here and actually experienced it for yourself. Stepping into the ocean off Manakai was like sitting down in a bathtub.

And that's when Gretchen finally realized she wasn't alone out here.

"Oh hello there," she said, startled, as she noticed the large sea turtle that had beached itself about fifteen feet away from her. The turtle, or honu, as it was known in Hawaiian, was just sitting there on a rock, staring at her with it big, baleful eyes. It was clearly not threatened by her presence here in the slightest. It just stared at her with its big green eyes, as if seeing a preschool teacher from Tennessee on the beach of Ni'ihau was the most natural thing in the world.

"Wow, you aren't spooked by me at all," Gretchen said, laughingly, as she waded over and squatted down to take a closer look at her new friend. She was literally about four feet away from the turtle now. It hadn't moved this entire time. It just sat there and stared at her.

After thinking about it for a moment, Gretchen tentatively reached a hand out to touch its large, slimy green shell. She was amazed at how big it was. Why, this turtle must be nearly four feet across. She had seen honus swimming around their beach before. Heck, she and the rest of the Manakais had seen lots of them. But to actually see one resting up here on the beach, well that was something different. This was the first time she had ever seen one of the sacred honus up close, and it was amazing to actually get a chance to interact with it.

"Wow, it looks like we have a visitor."

Gretchen's head shot up. She knew that voice. That voice came from Tina.

Sure enough, there was Gretchen's Ahi adversary, all five feet tall of her. Tina was standing about ten feet away from her.

"Oh hey," said Gretchen, guiltily standing up. She wasn't sure what she was guilty of, but she felt like Tina had just caught her at something. It was a strange feeling. She wasn't used to being spied on.

"Wow, is that a honu?" Tina asked, in awe, as she walked over to meet their new Manakai visitor. She squatted down and stroked its shell. "And you found him just sitting here?"

"Her, I think," Gretchen said. She shrugged. "I think it's a girl."

"How can you tell?"

Gretchen pointed to a distinctive flap at the base of the turtle's shell. She explained how only the females had a certain type of 'V' mark there, because they were the ones that laid the eggs. Tina was impressed. As always, it seemed like Gretchen had done her homework before she came out here. Even when it came to sexing turtles, the woman was a natural.

Tina interacted with the turtle, lovingly, for about thirty seconds. She babied it. It was clear she was a good mommy. It was also clear she had a great fondness for animals.

And then, she finally launched right into the reason for why she had come down here.





^^





"I don't trust John," Tina admitted, softly, as she softly stroked the turtle's shell. She looked up at Gretchen. "And I don't trust Alicia either."

"Well, I wouldn't trust either one of them," Gretchen shrugged. "I don't blame you. The two of them are dangerous together."

Unfortunately, Tina neglected to follow up on that cryptically hopeful sentence. Gretchen stood there, and she waited for it. She waited for the follow up of "So why don't you help us take out Alicia tomorrow?" But it never came. Tina just let that little comment hang in the air, like the rainbow of hope.

"Well, you know..." Gretchen said, softly, after about two minutes of silent deliberation, "We can make this really easy tomorrow, if you want. I know a way that you wouldn't have to worry about either one of them."

Tina said nothing. She just squatted there and continued to interact with their new friend, the turtle. In fact, Gretchen wasn't entirely sure she was still even listening.

"If you wanted to make this really easy," Gretchen continued, tentatively, "we could just take out Alicia tomorrow at the next vote. It wouldn't be hard at all. Just bam -- one vote-- and we all make the Final Four."

Tina said nothing. She just continued to silently stroke the turtle's shell.

Although what was really going on was that she didn't want Gretchen to have any idea she was actually considering this.

"Well you know," shrugged Gretchen, "it's just a suggestion. You can do what you want. I mean, I know you don't want anything to do with me. But with Alicia, man..." she paused, while sighing quietly through her teeth. "I'd be sort of mad if she actually had a chance to win. Wouldn't you?"

And voila. There was the argument. The one argument that might actually have the slightest chance to work. The "Alicia hasn't worked as hard as we have" argument. Coming right now, just as Tina was clearly the most suspicious of her.

It was Gretchen's last gasp.

"Well you're right," Tina finally said, without looking up. "I mean, on that level. I don't think Alicia does deserve to be here. I have never thought that. I even told you that yesterday."

"She totally doesn't deserve it," Gretchen agreed, shaking her head.

But again, that was it. There was no follow-up. No counter offer. Nothing. Just silence. Tina, if she were indeed weighing this as an option in her head, was doing a wonderful job of covering it. She was simply offering up nothing.

"Well here's how I see it," said Gretchen, as she finally plopped her butt down in the sand. It was time to fuel these flames of rebellion the best that she could. "Alicia has done what in this game? Ridden coattails? Attached herself to stronger players? Attached herself to leaders?"

She looked over at Tina.

"Meanwhile, you have worked your ass off," Gretchen continued. "You and Vee, you guys have had the deck stacked against you since day one. Nobody was ever going to let a former winner win. That was never gonna happen. But here it is, day thirty whatever, and you guys have worked your butts off. You guys are in the final four. And you think that was an accident?" She scoffed. "No way! The two of you have worked harder than anybody."

Tina said nothing, but Gretchen could see a small smile reluctantly creep across her face. After all, whether this was complete butt-kissing or not, whether Gretchen was just trying to pull the wool over her eyes or not, Tina was still, after all, human. It was nice to see that somebody had actually acknowledged this.

"Yeah," Gretchen continued, "You two have worked your butts off. And me? You don't think I haven't had to face adversity? I've been a walking target since we merged. I've been your guys' number one target for about twenty days. And you don't think I've worked hard to find some way to get out of that?"

Gretchen let out a bitter little sarcastic laugh.

"Meanwhile, Alicia." she finished up. "She has done two things since the start of this game, Tina. She has attached herself to Kathy. And she has attached herself to John. And that's it. That is Alicia's entire argument as to why she should have a chance to win this game. The only reason she's here is because she knows who to attach to."

And there it was. That was Gretchen's final argument. Her very last chance to have a shot in this game.

"Oh yeah," she quickly added, somewhat mirthlessly, "and that Hawaiian house she's probably sitting in right now? Well that house probably costs more than you ever made in Australia. That house is worth more than the prize money and the reunion fee combined. At this point, Alicia has less right to win a million dollars than anyone."

And bam. That was the kicker.

There was no way Tina wouldn't respond to that.





^^





Unfortunately, Tina's response was there. It came rather quickly. The only problem was that it wasn't the right response.

"But we can't let you into the final four," Tina said quietly, after about five minutes of silent deliberation. "Gretchen, if you ever got into the final two, you would kill us. You would kill pretty much anybody."

"Yeah but don't you think I deserve that chance? Over someone like Alicia?"

This conversation was starting to sound disturbingly familiar to her.

"Well of course you deserve it," Tina admitted. "But deserving has never been the question here. The question here is do I want to do something that stupid? Something I know is so obviously wrong? Would I be able to live with myself?"

"Hey, you can just look at it as paying it forward," smiled Gretchen.

Okay, that one got a laugh. Tina let out a small giggle. Probably because 'paying it forward' was a concept that Tina Wesson very much believed in. Now... had Gretchen known that ahead of time? Or had that just been a lucky guess? Tina had no idea. She guessed that it was probably just a coincidence.

"All I know is that I want to win," Gretchen nodded, looking Tina right in the eyes. "I want to win bad. More than anything else I have ever wanted in my life."

"I understand that," Tina nodded, "But you have to understood that I want to win too."

"Yeah but you've already won."

And again, there was the logic that always confounded Tina. The Gretchen logic that always seemed to get in their way. The "you've already won" argument. Tina had heard some variant of this argument time and time again since they had gotten to Hawaii, and it always infuriated her. In fact, at times, like now, it legitimately sort of pissed her off.

"Why is it a problem that I've already won before?" Tina looked over and asked, somewhat defensively.

"Well because you don't need the money. You're already a millionaire."

"But Gretchen," Tina sighed, "can't you see that it isn't about the money? I don't care about the money. I'm not here for the money. Truth be told, if I did win again, I'd probably just donate it. I'm not even thinking about it."

Gretchen's face registered nothing but surprise.

Really?

"Oh come on!" Tina laughed. The laugh seemed to startle their turtle friend. It visibly jumped. "Gretchen, I thought you knew me better than that! I'm not here for the money. I'm here for the competition. I'm here because I love this game and because I love to compete."

Gretchen said nothing. She just stared down at the sand and listened to Tina's rebuttal.

"Look," Tina decided to lapse into a Tennessee sports analogy, "if Peyton Manning goes out there and he wins a Super Bowl, do you think he feels guilty about it the next year? Do you think he tells himself, 'Well, I don't deserve to win next year too? It wouldn't be fair to the other people?" Of course not!" She looked at Gretchen as if Gretchen were a stranger from Mars. "He goes out the next year and he tries even harder. Because that's what competitors do. They do it for the love of the sport."

Gretchen just sat there and she shook her head. It was clear that she didn't like this answer at all. But it didn't matter. After all, Tina was on a roll. This was something that absolutely, positively had to be said, because it had been pissing her off.

"If I were to let you into the final four," Tina said, as diplomatically as she could, "do you know what that would make me? It would effectively make me a quitter. Because that's what I would be doing. I would be sabotaging my own chances to win this game. And that's not a very good strategy."

"But that's wrong," Gretchen rebutted. "You wouldn't be sabotaging anything. You would just be letting me into the final four. Nobody says I would win from there."

"But you could."

"That's right," Gretchen said. "I could. And a plane could fall out of the sky and hit me on the head, too. It could happen. That doesn't mean that it will."

Tina just squatted there and shook her head. She still wasn't convinced about this.

"Look," Gretchen finally sighed, exasperated, "Do you want to break up Alicia and John, or do you want to let them square off with you two at the final four? What's your choice here? Because I don't really have time for this."

Tina looked over at her. She looked surprised. She hadn't expected Gretchen to actually get angry about this.

"You give me false hope," Gretchen continued, "You keep telling me you will 'think about it', and you 'don't trust Alicia', but then you pull the rug out from under me every time. You hint that you want me to be in the final four, but then you always say you can't let me. And it's getting annoying." She paused. "In fact, why did you even come down here?"

By now Vecepia had heard their little conversation. This wasn't going to be a two-person discussion for much longer. Tina's fellow winner and partner in crime was now gingerly stepping her way down the lava rock towards them, as carefully as she could.

"Hey Vecepia," Gretchen called out, once she had seen her, "Do you think Alicia deserves to be in the final four? Do you think she has worked as hard as you, me, Tina, or John? What's your answer? Yes or not?"

Vee said nothing. She just shot a look at Tina, as cautiously as she could. Uh oh, what was she walking into here? What had she missed?

"Come on," Gretchen baited her, "I don't need a consensus. I just want your opinion. Do you think Alicia deserves a spot in the final four? Yes or no?"

"Of course not," Vee admitted.

"Well good," smiled Gretchen, "Then there you go."

"There I go with what?"

"Well I just told Tina that we can make things easy tomorrow," Gretchen smiled. "The three of us team up to take out Alicia, the two of you don't have to ever worry about John and Alicia having some sort of a super secret pact to go to the final two, and we all go home happy. Everyone wins. What do you say?"

Gretchen smiled again. She looked incredibly pleased with herself. After all, she knew the logic behind this proposition was fundamentally sound. They should all band together. It would just be easier for everyone.

Vecepia, of course, said nothing. She just stood there and stared thoughtfully out from under her white buff. It was exactly the reaction that Gretchen had known she was going to get from her. The woman hardly ever said anything.

"You know, it's not a bad idea overall..." Vee finally admitted.

"Yeah I know," Gretchen sighed, "But you already have plans to vote me out, and yadda yadda. I know, I know. Alicia's going to spoil me for the challenge, and then I'm toast. I've already heard this."

Vee just shot Tina a quick look. Tina shrugged. Vee shrugged right back. It was clear that-- even though their choice had technically already been made-- they would still have to have some sort of talk about this. After all, there was still some danger with John teaming up with Alicia, and both of them knew it. Even though the choice appeared to have been made on paper, there still remained some delicate diplomacy here.

"Oh well," Gretchen sighed.

So that was it.

She squatted back down to play with the turtle. After all, if these really were her last two days in the game, as by all rights they certainly looked like they were, she might as well spend them doing something interesting. She might as well make friends with a honu turtle. No use getting in a debate with the wonder twins. Whatever the two of them decided to do, whatever direction they decided to go, it would all be on their shoulders from here on out. Gretchen had little or no hand in it. By this point, all she really cared about was that her objections had been raised.

Heck, if Tina and Vecepia wanted to walk into a potential death trap at the final four? Then more power to them. Let them face the music on their own. Let them face the consequences of their actions. Just like Alicia and John the day before, Gretchen would stop trying to help them.

"Hey, cool turtle," Vee finally noticed.

Well, okay, so much for seeing the obvious.

^^

Back on Ni'ihau, Gretchen was doing everything she could to claw her way back into this game. She was doing everything in the book, she was throwing every weapon in her arsenal at Vecepia and Tina, in a vain-- yet currently fruitless-- effort to get them to switch up the vote.

And this, of course, is exactly what John knew was going to happen the minute he was gone.

"You fucked me right up the ass with this," he whispered to Alicia, for perhaps the tenth time over the past twelve hours. "You know that, don't you? They're probably sitting back there at camp, making a final three pact right now."

John and Alicia were currently about 50 miles away from Ni'ihau, on the island of Kauai. They were in the middle of a Polynesian luau feast, which was being held on the lawn of Alicia's new Hawaiian vacation home. Dancers and fire eaters and singers were everywhere.

And even though the dancing and the spectacle were impressive, even though the pageantry was absolutely amazing, it still wasn't enough to take John's mind off the game of Survivor. He never stopped thinking about Survivor. Not even for five minutes. His mind had been stuck on what was going on back at camp throughout this entire performance.

"Just shut up and watch," Alicia implored, quietly. "We can't do anything about it now. Just sit back and we'll take care of it."

"But I can't!" he hissed. "We can't take care of it. We're screwed!"

Well no, okay, actually that wasn't quite true. It wasn't John that was screwed. It was Alicia. The minute she had taken John on her buddy trip, the minute she had exposed how close the two of them had grown over the past week and a half, she had essentially sealed her own fate. Because she had essentially left her mortal enemy in this game, Gretchen, alone for twenty four hours with two women who wanted no part of Alicia being here, and didn't want her remaining in this game for one more minute. Alicia had probably pushed the final button to send Tina and Vecepia into paranoia mode and over the edge.

In other words, there was no way Alicia was making it past Tribal Council tomorrow. Not with those three after her, she wasn't. And once Alicia was gone, well, John would pretty much be cast out in the ocean without a lifeline. He would be helpless. With Alicia out of the picture, Vee and Tina would easily hold all the power in this game. His big trump card would be gone.

Hmmm. Maybe he really was the one getting screwed here.

No wonder this luau was pissing him off.

"We need to talk," he leaned over and whispered to his seatmate.

Alicia turned and looked over at him. She looked unconcerned. Either she had no idea of the danger she had managed to open for the two of them, or she just didn't care. Or, worst case scenario, she was in cahoots with Tina and Vecepia and was trying to sabotage him. In any case, she didn't seem the least bit troubled by the things he was worried about, and it was freaking him out. He felt like he was turning back into a paranoia case. He didn't like it one bit.

"After this shit is over," John waved his hand, dismissively. "I say we go back to the house, and we crack open a bottle of wine. We need to go over some things."

"What is there to go over?"

Argggggh! John felt like his head was about to explode.

Why had she decided to take him away from his comfort zone? Why had he been kidnapped and taken to Kauai? Why did he have to be sitting on the front lawn of Alicia's crappy new tiki house right now? Why did he have this stupid crown of flowers on his head? Why, why, why, why, why?

He had been doing so well!





^^





Two hours later, the luau was over. The dancers were gone, the food had been eaten, and copious amounts of alcohol had been consumed. It was time for the all-important strategy talk.

"So this is the way I see it..." said John, as he sat across from Alicia at a bamboo table on her new front porch. He leaned back and crossed his feet upon the table. He looked like he was finally relaxed.

Alicia listened, and nodded.

"What's probably happening right now," John continued, "Is that Tina and Vee are freaking out, because now they know you're closer to me than I like to let on."

Alicia nodded again.

"So they're probably roping in Gretchen, and the three of them are planning to vote you out."

And there it was. There was the dilemma. In fact, in John's opinion, there really wasn't any "probably" about it. This was all pretty much a given now. After all, he knew Tina. He knew Vecepia. He knew their mindsets. He also knew how much they distrusted Alicia. There was no way this wasn't happening back at camp right now. In fact, to be honest, John knew it had all been probably agreed upon as early as yesterday. The only question that remained at this point was... what could he do about it?

"Well if they vote me out," Alicia shrugged, "Then they vote me out."

"And you're not worried about that?"

"No," Alicia grinned. "Because there's no way it's gonna happen. It can't."

John just shot her a quizzical look. What? Um, had she ever met Tina and Vecepia?

"What are the odds that either one of them would want Gretchen in the final four?" Alicia asked. "Do you think it's high? Don't you think they'd want to get rid of her as soon as they can?"

"Well yeah," John agreed, "but they have a slightly bigger problem here. They're worried about you and me teaming up against them in the final four."

"So you assume."

"No," John shook his head. "Assume, nothing. Shit, Alicia, that's a fact. They have already been asking about it."

Alicia said nothing.

"Come on, Alicia, I've told you that!" John continued, in disbelief. "I even said, don't do anything obvious. Don't give them a reason to worry about you." He looked at her, astonished. "So what do you do yesterday? You pretty much flipped them the bird on the way out of camp. You pretty much shoved it right in their faces."

"Yeah but there's no way they team up with Gretchen..."

"Why not?" John retorted, very loudly. "Tell me, Alicia. Why the fuck not? What's stopping them?"

"Because they're scared to death of her."

"Yeah but they're also scared to death of you. Don't you realize that?"

Alicia said nothing. With her white buff wrapped around her wrist, and her hair washed and smelling nice after her first shower in nearly a month, she just calmly sat back and took a sip of her wine. She still didn't seem all that unconcerned about this. She still thought it was extremely unlikely.

"Well then, okay," sighed John, switching gears, "Then what do you propose to do with the Spoiler tomorrow? You're at least still going to spoil Gretchen. Right?"

Alicia just sat there and smirked.

John didn't like that.

"Oh no," he murmured. "Oh no. No. Alicia, don't even give me that look."

"What look?" Another smirk.

"That look."

Alicia just calmly took another sip of her wine.

"You're going to spoil Tina, aren't you?" John asked. Although she didn't have to respond. He already knew the answer. Alicia had pretty much tipped her hand on this issue the day before. She wanted Tina out of the game. She was still dead set that she could somehow get John to vote against an Ahi tomorrow.

"I just think that we need to split them up," shrugged Alicia. "I think we need to get rid of one of them before the final four."

"Well, yes, in theory..." said John. "You're right. We do. But you don't have to worry about it. I already told you. I've got it under control."

"I don't believe you."

"Come on, Alicia! Look, I've told you! Everything's good. Tina goes at four!"

Alicia took another sip of her wine as she considered this. Outside, she could hear the ocean waves crash against a nearby rock wall. She still wasn't sure how much faith she had in John's ability to control the votes of the Ahis. She never had been. No matter how hard he tried to convince her of this.

"Look," persuaded John, "I've made you one promise in this game, right? I told you I've never going to vote for you. I told you it's you and me all the way to the final two. Correct?"

"You better."

"Well then here's my second promise," John paused to take a quick sip from his own glass of wine. "I promise that Tina goes home at the final four. I promise I can control Vecepia's vote."

"How can you promise that?"

"I just can! You just have to trust me on this."

Alicia eyed him, warily.

"The only thing I ask of you," John continued, "is to please, please, please, please spoil Gretchen tomorrow at the immunity challenge. Don't give her any chance to win." He paused. "And whatever you do, do not spoil Tina. Don't even look at her. Because the minute you spook her, the minute it looks like you have any power in this game, you're toast. The two of them will destroy you. Like I told you yesterday, the only thing that will happen is that you'll manage to get yourself voted out."

Alicia listened to this without saying a word.

"So we cool?" asked John, hesitantly. "Can you give me your word on that? You won't spoil Tina?"

Alicia continued to say nothing.

"Come on," John pleaded. "Work with me here. When we get back to camp, I'll go to Vee, and I'll go to Tina, and I'll try to undo any problems they might have caused while I was gone. I'll get them to turn the vote back around to Gretchen, instead of you. Basically, I'll go in there and I'll save your ass."

Alicia smirked softly.

"But you have to promise me," John continued, "You have to spoil Gretchen. You can't let her win immunity. Because if she wins immunity, you're in trouble. There will be at least two votes coming your way... maybe three... and I'm not sure I can help you."

Alicia just calmly sat back and took another sip of her wine.

Hmmmm. Choices, choices. What to do, what to do...?

"Alicia!" John was visibly rattled now. "Do not even think about this. Please just give me your promise. It's a no brainer. Promise me you'll spoil Gretchen."

"Fine," Alicia finally sighed. "You win. I promise."

"You'll spoil Gretchen?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

John sat back and took a deep breath. Whew. Crisis averted. He reached for the bottle to refill his glass of wine. He looked relieved. That meant it was back to the reward.

"Man, they gave you quite a spread here, didn't they?" he laughed, as he craned his neck back to take in the porch of Alicia's new tiki house. "This is quite a place."

"Yeah but that's bullshit to call it a beach house," Alicia laughed. "What are we, a mile from the beach? I mean, it's cool and all, but we're not on the beach. We're in the jungle. This is a jungle hut."

"Still," John smiled, "It's a free house. I mean, I never got a Hawaiian house. No one's ever given me anything. You should be happy with what you get."

"Oh I am," Alicia blinked. "It's just... I just don't want people calling it a beach house in front of Gretchen and Tina. I don't want to lose this game just because they think I'm now rich or something."

John nodded. A valid concern. Once you added "current bank account" into the equation on Survivor, you often got some weird results.

"Come on," Alicia laughed, "You've seen my paycheck. I make less than you do. At this point, this house is pretty much all I've got."

John just laughed.

Sitting there on the deck of Alicia's new house, sitting at a bamboo table she now owned, he leaned back in his chair, he drank his wine, and he relaxed. For the first time all day. He finally felt okay with this. After all, even though he knew that Gretchen and Tina were probably plotting some sort of counter-attack back at camp, even though he knew it was essentially a given by this point, he still had full confidence that it could be averted before the damage could be done. He still had full hope that he could avoid a disaster.

After all, John Carroll had been in control for nearly thirty-five consecutive days in the game of Survivor. He now had full confidence in his ability to sway.

He had pretty much been on cruise control, and in cruise control, since the minute they had gotten here.

And with that sort of track record behind him... how hard could the last four days be?

^^

It was dinnertime, and Gretchen had been trying to pull Tina and Vecepia on board into a last minute, final-three alliance all day.

Without any luck.

Up to this point, the only answer she had received all day was pretty much a "Thanks but no thanks." It was clear that the two of them felt that Gretchen's presence in the final four would cause far more problems than it would ever be worth. The big problem was that Tina, in particular, appeared to be terrified of her.

And so, as dinner came to Manakai Beach on the 35th day of the game, Gretchen found herself pretty much in the exact same situation she had been in at the start of the day. She now had 24 hours of life left in All-Star Survivor. Barring a miracle, or an act of God, or some other unexpected twist of fate, her time here was done. There was no way the two former winners were going to team up with her.

Gretchen, now resigned to her fate, had nothing to do the rest of the night but cook dinner for them.

"Hey Tina," she called over, as she stirred what was likely going to be the last pot of rice she ever had in this game, "You don't like the rice when it's sticky, right? You like it more watery?"

"Yes please," Tina nodded from far over near the shelter, "Please not pasty. I hate pasty."

Gretchen just laughed. "I bet John probably knows that by now, huh?"

"He better," Tina grinned, good naturedly. "I've been reminding him pretty much every day since we got here."

"Does he ever complain about it?" Gretchen looked over her shoulder. "I mean, that you're picky?"

"No. Well... at least not to my face. Behind my back I'm sure he calls me every name in the book."

The three women shared a laugh. Yeah, that sounded like John all right. Luckily Tina was the only one who was much of a picky eater out here. If there had been fifteen Tinas in this game, instead of one, John probably would have mutinied.

"And what about you, Vee?" Gretchen asked. "Watery rice okay?"

"Oh, I don't care," shrugged Vee. "Watery, sticky, it's the same to me. I'm just happy whenever the Lord puts food on my plate."

Hmmm. Was that a subtle dig at Tina? Was Vecepia trying to tell her something? Gretchen subtly glanced at her over her shoulder, to see if there was some sort of a "wink wink" signal that Vee was trying to pass to her. But alas. There wasn't. It was just an offhand religious comment that Vee had thrown out in the middle of a conversation, like usual. Vecepia was always doing things like that. And Gretchen kicked herself. Great. Now she was seeing opportunities for mutiny that she knew were simply not there.

So Gretchen went back to her rice. And she stirred. She made dinner in silence and solitude.

She knew this meal was bound to be awkward.

"Hey Gretchen?" Tina asked, suddenly, from behind her.

"Yeah?"

"Vee and I are gonna go for a walk down to the beach for a little while. Do you mind? We'll only be a short bit."

"Nah, I don't mind. Do whatever you want. I'll just yell down to you guys when it's ready."

Gretchen turned around and smiled at them. She looked perfectly calm. Although, inwardly, her heart had already started to do flip-flops in her chest. They were going to discuss things! They were going to talk about this! They still hadn't made peace with the idea of Alicia in the final four!

Tina leaned over to whisper something to Vee. Vecepia nodded. The two women then stood up and started walking down the path to their nearest beach.

"Hey, if you need any help down there," Gretchen called after them, "Just let me know. I'll be up here!"

She paused, and then realized she had to add something. She couldn't help it. After all, she was Gretchen. She was a muck-raker. She had to.

"... And remember, I don't have any allegiance to either John or Alicia!"





^^





Vecepia, of course, heard Gretchen's last bit of wisdom as she and Tina trailed a narrow path to the water. And of course this was fortuitous, as this was the one argument that Vee had been trying to use to sway Tina for most of the day. Gretchen had absolutely no ties to anyone left in this game at this point. None. That was a fact.

In Vecepia's mind, that was exactly why they should be thinking about aligning with her.

"But she's too dangerous!" Tina argued, for perhaps the twentieth time today. "Vee, come on. Do you really want to see her go on an immunity run? Do you really want to say you let Gretchen win, even when you knew she was unstoppable?"

"I've never said I wanted her to win," Vee countered. "I'm just saying... you know... that if either of us wants any chance to win, we have to get there together. And I'm worried about what's gonna happen at the final four."

Tina just stared down at the ground, arms crossed across her chest. She looked incredibly annoyed by this. But at the same time, she also looked incredibly stubborn. After all, even though she was just a tiny little person, Vecepia and the others knew what to expect from her. Tina Wesson wasn't just some delicate little southern flower who would blow away in the wind. She wasn't just some fragile little Amber who you could walk all over. Tina Wesson had the tenacity of iron. She was small, but she was strong. And she had already made it crystal clear to Vecepia that she was not going to budge on this.

Gretchen makes the final four? With our help? No way. Over my dead body, she does.

"Look," said Tina, "We're going to have trouble in the final four either way. Either we wind up facing John and Gretchen, or we wind up facing John and Alicia. It's going to be a problem either way. They all know we're together. In fact, I don't see any way that we won't have a tie."

"True," nodded Vee, "But wouldn't you rather see Alicia out of here? Aren't you a little more worried about her relationship with John, as opposed to Gretchen's? There's a reason that he's keeping her around, you know."

Tina just sighed.

Not because Vecepia was wrong, but because she was right, of course. Alicia was a definite danger to the two of them right now. Even a blind man could see it.

Why were there no more easy answers in this game??

"Look," said Vee, "I say we go back up there, we go up to Gretchen, and we tell her she's in."

"But then we're just lying to her!"

"Yeah, but..." Vecepia struggled a bit with her explanation. "If we don't promise her final three, then she pulls this exact same crap on Alicia and John the minute they get back to camp. It doesn't matter. If it doesn't work out with us, she does it with them."

"You really want to lie to her right before she goes on the jury?" Tina asked. "You're really ready to face the consequences of that? You know who you're dealing with there."

"Well yeah, but..." Vecepia shrugged. She looked unconcerned. "If I lie to her, then you're lying to her too. She'll be mad at both of us. So what's the problem? It's just what you do once in a while."

Tina just stared down at the ground and shook her head, one last time. She still looked incredibly annoyed.

Wonderful.

Here they were, thinking that the road to the final four would be so easy. So obvious. So obstacle-free. It was supposed to be so effortless. And now this.

Curse you, John, for getting so close to Alicia!

^^

In the end, Tina couldn't do it. She couldn't lie to Gretchen. There was no way she could walk up to a woman she respected that much, on such a personal level, and drop a false final three deal on her Keko counterpart, just for the sake of making things easier.

No way. She couldn't do that. She wasn't remorseless. She wasn't Vecepia.

"I mean, I hope you understand why," Tina explained, once she had dropped the news that Gretchen was pretty much dead meat tomorrow. "On a personal level, you know I would love to help you out. I've told you that. I would love to. I think you deserve this far more than someone like Alicia. But there's no way my brain will let me do that. I'm too much of a competitor."

Gretchen sighed loudly, as she heard the exact same speech from Tina for the third consecutive time now.

"I know," Gretchen replied, tersely. "And I knew it was coming. I understand."

"I mean, my gosh," Tina continued, animatedly, "If I went home and I told my kids that I let you win? They'd never forgive me! I hope you can see that. I have to be a bit of a role model here. I want to set a good example for Katie and Taylor. I've always told them, when you play a game, you play it to win."

"Yeah I know," Gretchen retorted, bitterly. "And I get you. I get the logic. I just don't have to like it."

"But you're okay with it?" Tina looked concerned.

"Well no, I'm not okay with it. But I understand it."

"Good," smiled Tina.

As Gretchen stared down at the ground, Tina took one sidelong glance over at Vecepia. Vee, of course, absolutely hated this decision. She was pretty much dead-set against it with every fiber of her being. But again, what could she do? Tina had said there was no way Gretchen was ever going to make it to the final four, and that was that. When push came to shove, there was no way to sway her. She was simply too adamant about this.

"Well you know what's going to happen tomorrow," Gretchen now looked up. "Right? You guys have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen tomorrow morning?"

"Well I think there's pretty much only one thing that can happen," said Tina.

Vecepia nodded.

"Alicia's going to spoil me," said Gretchen, "And then the four of you are going to vote me out. And then Alicia's going to walk right into the stupidest blindside in the history of the game at the final four. And that means that one of you two is going to win."

Tina just shrugged. Like Vecepia, she was smart enough not to give anything away. At least not to Gretchen.

But off the record? Yep, that was exactly what was going to happen. Right down to the end. Alicia was clearly not smart enough to be able to play her way out of this. Tina confirmed this by smiling about this.

"Man, what an idiot," Gretchen said, bitterly. She stirred the cooking rice pot one more time. "I wish I had started the game on Ahi. I mean, come on, you guys. Look at the crap I've had to put up with. Alicia gets to ruin it for everyone."

Off to the side, Vecepia chuckled.

"Well, still," Tina said, "At least we get to have this one last meal together. Just the three of us. Right? One last peaceful night in Hawaii?"

As always, she was clearly trying to keep things relatively positive. Even through all the drama around tomorrow's vote. After all, why wouldn't she? She was Tina. She was the mom of the tribe. It was her job to keep things positive around here.

Gretchen, of course, was little more realistic about things.

"Yep," she sighed, as she pulled the rice pot off of the fire and began to scoop it out into three coconut bowls. "One last supper. One last meal for your Keko prisoner."

"Oh come on," Tina laughed, "Don't be like that. Don't give me a guilt trip."

Gretchen just shrugged.

Then she paused, and looked off into the distance. She stared far off to the west, into the setting sun of the Hawaiian night sky. She said nothing. She just stared at the sunset. Meanwhile, Vecepia and Tina didn't even notice. They were already chowing down on rice. Gretchen was the only one who was watching the sunset. She watched it for a while, in solitude, and then she let out a wry smile.

Was this a last supper?

Of course it was. It was, and Gretchen knew it. She hadn't been lying about that. This was definitely a last supper.

The only good news was that it wasn't for her.

"So how's the rice?" she turned back and asked Tina. She smiled, very motherly. How's your final meal, deary? "Is it watery enough for you? Not pasty?"

"No, it's not pasty at all," Tina smiled. "It's perfect! Better than John's!"

"Yeah, it's good," nodded Vecepia, in between mouthfuls of rice. "Really good. Nice job."

Excellent.

Gretchen turned back to her rice, and she smiled. Done. Possum played. Mission accomplished. The two former winners had just told her too much. They hadn't realized it yet, but Tina had just dropped her guard for a fraction of a second a moment ago, and she had accidentally confirmed her plans to stick with Vecepia to the end of the game. She had essentially confirmed it. Up until this point, a Tina-Vecepia alliance had simply been implied by everyone else. But not anymore. Now it was fact. That smile had been too obvious. Tina had just accidentally ruined it for both of them.

And the best thing was? Neither one of them seemed to have realized this yet. Both Tina and Vecepia just sat there and ate their rice, happily. They didn't seem to realize they had just royally screwed up.

So Gretchen dug into her rice, and she chuckled to herself. She chuckled very quietly.

They probably should have lied to me.

Tina Wesson's unfortunate insistence on honesty was about to cost her the game.

DAY 36

The helicopter ride from Kauai to Ni'ihau took about thirty minutes. Which was nice. Because, luckily, there were two pairs of headphones aboard if you didn't want to be bothered.

Alicia casually slipped hers on the moment she sat down on board.

Oh, it wasn't that Alicia necessarily didn't want to talk to John. It wasn't that she was particularly sick of the guy's company. It wasn't like that at all. Truth be told, she had actually had a wonderful time with him at her new house on Kauai. The past twenty-four hours had pretty much been one big laugh after the next, plus alcohol. As Colleen had discovered much earlier in the game, reward trips with John Carroll were always a blast.

The big problem, Alicia was now discovering, was that the Manakais had an immunity challenge in about two hours. Followed by Tribal Council immediately afterwards. And if there was one thing Alicia had learned about John, if there was one thing that was starting to get on her nerves, day after day, it was this. John was incredibly paranoid. He could never sit still. And it made him an incredible pain in the ass to be around on Tribal Council days.

Every single minute of the day, he expected that something would go wrong.

"So we're still good tonight?" John asked Alicia, as the two of them settled into the backseat of their blue sightseeing helicopter. "No surprises? The vote is still for Gretchen?"

Alicia turned to him and motioned that she couldn't hear him. After all, she had the headphones on. Between that, and the rotors whirring loudly above then, it was impossible to understand.

"Gretchen?" John asked again, loudly, over the cacophony. "You're still spoiling Gretchen?"

Alicia tried to read his lips, then silently shrugged. Nope. Couldn't hear. Didn't get it. She pointed to her headphones, hoping he would get the hint. Let's not talk for a while, okay, honey?

But unfortunately, John was not going to be so easily dissuaded. Because he was no fool. He knew there was a microphone in each pair of headphones. After all, that was the only way the pilot could talk to you during a sightseeing trip. You had to press a button and then you could speak to every one else in their headphones. It was the only you could understand anyone over the noise of the rotors.

So John slipped on his headphones and he pushed the little black microphone button.

"Alicia? We need to talk about the immunity challenge."

Alicia heard this, of course, but she didn't react in the slightest. She just sat back and ignored him. She really didn't want to get into this right now. Not during the ride back to camp. She just wanted to sit here and relax and enjoy the Hawaiian scenery for a while.

"Alicia?"

No response.

By now the helicopter was rising off the ground. The pilot in the front seat slowly pulled back on the throttle, and they rose into the air. Now they were hovering about fifty feet off the island of Kauai.

"Alicia? Can you hear me?"

Alicia turned now and she saw John speaking loudly into his microphone. She shrugged, as if her headphones weren't working and she couldn't hear him. She made a helpless gesture with her hands. Sorry, man, can't help it. They're broken.

And she had to stifle a laugh when she heard his response.

"Shit."





^^





John and Alicia's helicopter returned to Ni'ihau around 11:00 in the morning.

It had been a nice ride, it had been a scenic ride, and, for one of them at least, it had been a quiet and relaxing ride... but now, as their pilot slowly brought them down onto the lava rock just south of Camp Manakai, they knew it was time to get back into game mode.

Because standing there, waving, about a hundred feet away, were three smiling people who were very eager to catch up with them.

"Welcome back, guys!" chirped Tina over the noise of the helicopter, as she walked over and embraced John in a big hug. "How was it? How was the house? Did you guys have fun?"

"Yeah, it was a blast," said John, nodding happily.

"Was the house nice?" asked Vecepia.

John reached over and he encircled her in a hug, too. And then quickly, as subtly as he could, he leaned over and whispered something into her ear. After all, he knew she had been worried during the trip. She had to be. After all, she was Vecepia. She was an alliance-jumper. It was time to reassure her.

"Nothing happened," he whispered discretely into her left ear. "Nothing at all. We're still good."

Vecepia said nothing. She just pulled back from the hug and nodded, once. Then she smiled, faintly. Message received. Message understood. Message appreciated.

"So what was the house like?" asked Gretchen.

By now, the helicopter had taken off back for Kauai. It was currently about five hundred feet out over the ocean, which meant it was far enough away to allow for normal conversation. The players no longer had to try to yell over it.

"Well it wasn't really a beach house," Alicia explained. "It was actually a lot smaller than that. Plus it wasn't really even on the beach."

"Aw man," empathized Vecepia, "That stinks."

Alicia just shrugged. "Hey, it's better than my apartment."

No one said anything after that. The five players just stood there in a small circle for a moment, smiling awkwardly. It was clear that there were some updates under the surface that were dying to take place. After all, John's whispered message to Vecepia was the only one that had been passed thus far.

"So..." After twenty seconds, Tina did her best to finally break the ice. "You guys want to come back up to camp? Want to see what we've done with the place?"

"Yeah," nodded John. Then he suddenly brightened. "Oh yeah, hey. We brought some food for you guys. I forgot." He reached down for a thermos in his backpack. "Hang on, if you're lucky it's probably still warm."

"Oh cool," smiled Gretchen, "You guys rock!"

She smiled. Tina smiled. Vecepia smiled. Even Alicia smiled.

For the next five minutes, it looked like everyone standing here was destined to be best friends in the world.





^^





The friendship didn't last long.

Tribal Council was in less than ten hours.

It was time for some action.

"Okay Alicia," said Gretchen, once she had finally had a chance to speak with her former Keko ally, alone, "Here's what happened while you were away. It's important."

The two women were currently walking down a path in the jungle, slowly, as they went off to retrieve treemail.

Of course, Gretchen wasn't all that thrilled about the idea of spending time alone in the jungle with Alicia. This was the last thing she would have chosen to do with her time if it had been entirely up to her. After all, over the past few days, the relationship between the two former allies had been nothing but icy. At times it had been downright frigid. At this point in the game, other than their little chat two days, Gretchen and Alicia pretty much tried to stay away from one another.

But do you know what? Gretchen had decided she wasn't like that anymore. She didn't care that she didn't like the woman. Not anymore. Not on day thirty-six she didn't. Gretchen was turning into a much more savvy Survivor player than her opponents had imagined.

Alicia hadn't wanted Gretchen to come along, but come along she had.

Although Gretchen was about to be stunned to find out that this conversation was unnecessary.

"Look, I already decided that I'm not going to spoil you," Alicia said, as she cut Gretchen off, mid-sentence. "You don't have to sweet talk me today. I'm gonna spoil Tina. I want that bitch gone."

Gretchen was so flabbergasted by this answer that she didn't know what to say. She just walked along next to Alicia, mouth nearly agape. She had thought this would be harder.

"You were right," Alicia explained, as she walked slowly through the jungle trees. "I can't face Tina and Vee in the final four. It's suicide. John will team up with them and I'm dead meat."

"See?" Gretchen smiled.

"Yeah but you didn't have to tell me that," Alicia retorted, somewhat snippily. "I already knew. I saw it coming for a while now."

The two women just walked next to one another, awkwardly, for the next five minutes. They didn't say a word. Frankly, Gretchen didn't know what she was supposed to say. She had expected there to be more begging on her part.

"So the key, of course," Gretchen finally added, "Is getting John to go along with this."

Alicia said nothing. She just continued to walk, head down, as if thinking this over. Because Gretchen was correct. Miss "I don't know anything about strategy" had just blindly wandered into the biggest question that was currently standing in their way now. The one Alicia had been silently debating in her head for most of the past two days. How on Earth was she going to get John to go along with this? How could she make John see that it was in his best interest that Tina was gone too? How was she going to be able to convince him of that?

"Well I don't care," Gretchen smiled. "All I care about right now is that Tina isn't going to be immune tonight. That's all that matters to me. All I care about is that now I get a chance to actually save myself."

She sighed a happy sigh of relief.

It wasn't over yet. She wasn't safe yet, but at least there was a chance.

Sometimes the most wonderful gifts came in the most unlikely packages from the most unlikely people.






^^





"Come on in, guys," said Jeff, as the five Manakais lined up on their assigned mat on the edge of the beach. "Immunity time. Time to see who makes the final four."

He smiled.

The name of today's challenge was "Hanging In There." And as the players stood there on the edge of the sand, it was fairly obvious what type of contest they were going to be competing in. Because sitting out in the water, visible to all five of them, was a large gymnastics-looking apparatus. It stood about ten feet above the ocean, it had a large wooden beam stretching across the top of it, and hanging down from said beam were eight identical chains ending in iron rings.

The players would be holding onto those chains for as long as they could. They would be hanging on rings.

They would be dangling for immunity.

"Okay Alicia," motioned Jeff, "Give it up. Hand over the necklace."

Alicia smiled softly, then she removed the flowered lei from around her neck. She handed it over to him. As always, immunity was now officially back up for grabs.

Jeff pointed out to the rings over the ocean, and he explained the rules that pretty much all five players had already figured out. They would be holding onto those rings for as long as they could. They would just be dangling there, slack-armed, over the ocean, as gravity pulled down on them.

"It's a simple challenge," Jeff explained, "Who really wants to make the final four the most? Who will be able to withstand excruciating shoulder pain the longest? Because I'm not gonna lie to you. This challenge will be short, and it is going to hurt. Unless you're a gymnast, you're going to be using muscles you aren't used to using." He grinned. "Last one to drop into the water makes the final four."

And there it was. The gold at the end of the rainbow.

Put up with a little shoulder pain, and you're guaranteed at least one more day in All-Star Survivor.





^^





With the rules now explained, and the rings clearly visible about a hundred feet away from them, that meant it was time for the final bit of preamble before the big immunity challenge. It was time for the Spoiler.

For both John and Gretchen, it was time to wait with baited breath to see if Alicia was going to do exactly what she had promised them.

"So, Alicia," nodded Jeff, "This is the last Spoiler of the game. And I imagine you've probably thought about it quite a bit."

"Yeah, I have."

"And what's your decision?"

Jeff asked the question, and then just stood there and let it hang in the air. They all waited. No one said anything. There was a moment of silence.

Off to the left, Gretchen closed her eyes and said a desperate prayer.

"My decision..." said Alicia.

She paused. She bit her lip. It was clear she was still debating if she really wanted to go through with this.

"... is... "

John saw her deliberating. He knew what she was debating in her head. And suddenly worry started to creep its way into his heart. Without any warning whatsoever, he could feel his palms starting to sweat.

He quickly shot a glance at Tina. Then back at Alicia.

Crap.

She was going to be an idiot. He could tell. She just had that look in her eye. That look she always had. She was planning on doing something ballsy again. It was almost like a disease with her.

"Don't you even..." John silently thought to himself. "Don't get yourself voted out tonight. I warned you."

And then it came out of her mouth. That one word. Just like John had been worried about.

"Tina."

John closed his eyes, looked down at the ground, and mouthed the f-word. Great. Well, so much for diplomacy. Way to bite the hand that's trying to feed you, you idiot.

"You're going to spoil Tina?" Jeff asked, looking for a confirmation.

"Yeah," nodded Alicia.

"Any reason?"

"Nope."

Off to the right of the group, Tina was clearly a little surprised. She glanced over at Vecepia, and looked worried. Her? Well that was something she hadn't expected. After all, all along, John and Vecepia had sworn to her it was going to be Gretchen. In fact, just about thirty minutes ago, John had practically promised her!

She shot him an angry look.

John just shrugged his shoulders in response. He did his best to look helpless. Mostly because he really was helpless. She told me she'd pick Gretchen!

But alas, that was that. Nobody else had any say in the matter. It was Alicia's choice, and Tina was now sitting out of the final five immunity challenge. Just like Alicia wanted. All she'd had to do was take one look at the type of challenge they were competing in, and the choice had been as clear as crystal. Nobody ever wanted to go up against Tina when it came to an endurance challenge. When it came down to willpower and stubbornness, the woman was virtually unstoppable.

"Well, I'm sorry, Tina," shrugged Jeff, as he pointed out where she was supposed to go sit on the beach, "Those are the rules. You're out of the challenge."

"It's okay," she smiled, not meaning it. "That's life. That's just what happens."

She wanted to stare daggers at Alicia and John. She wanted to turn around and give them the look of death right now. But she knew she couldn't. After all, she was Tina. She was a mom. She was one of the good guys. She knew there would still be time left after the challenge to react with diplomacy.

Without incident, she took her seat on the beach.

"Alright guys," said Jeff, clapping his hands, "The other four of you, come on out with me to the platform. It's time to hook you up. You've got a challenge to compete in."





^^





Without question, this was now Alicia Calaway's challenge to lose.

No question, no way, without a doubt. With Tina out of the picture, and the challenge being totally dependent on arm strength and willpower, there was no way these other three people were going to be able to defeat her. Not a chance. After all, Alicia was the lightest player in the challenge. She had the shoulders. She had the guns. This challenge was essentially designed for her. Hell, she could do a flex arm hang for nearly thirty minutes if she really wanted to. For a woman who was built like Alicia, this one would be easy.

And this, of course, was a fact that John gently reminded her of as he climbed up to his platform.

"If you don't win immunity tonight," he informed her, softly, "They're going to be gunning for you. You just screwed up. I hope that you know that."

"Don't worry," she reassured him, "I know what I'm doing."

"You better."

He paused, and then added, "I told you you were going to get yourself voted out tonight."

Alicia said nothing. She just licked her lips and tried to mentally prepare herself for the battle at hand. After all, she knew the stakes. She was now in a full-on full-fledged battle for Survivor survival. There were no more surprises here. It was now Alicia against Vecepia and Tina, and everyone knew it. If she wanted any chance at winning this game, it had to come now.

The four Survivors were now lined up in position, and ready to go. They all stood with either hand in one of the iron rings. They looked like gymnasts. In five seconds, the board they were standing on would be cut away, and they would hanging on for their lives.

Jeff began the countdown.

"Five!"

Alicia looked over to her left. John Carroll stood there, arms flexed, eves closed, ready for the challenge of his life. Although he knew this one was going to be a bastard for him. After all, as the only male in the challenge, he was easily the heaviest.

"Four!"

Alicia looked to her right. There stood Gretchen. With arms tensed, and eyes closed, her former Keko ally looked like she was doing some sort of deep-breathing exercise.

"Three!"

Alicia looked to the far left, to take a look at Vecepia. Vee, who was probably Alicia's biggest competition in this challenge, due to the fact that she was wiry strong, athletic, and skinny, had her eyes closed and was saying some sort of a prayer under her breath, as she generally did before every challenge. She looked like she was ready to go.

"Two!"

Alicia closed her eyes and flexed her shoulders. She was strong. She was ready.

"One!"

It was time to do battle.





^^





With a machete, Jeff cut away the wooden board that was under everyone's feet. And just like that, the game was on. Four players were now dangling, supported only by their own shoulder strength, over the blue Pacific Ocean. Faces were scrunched. Teeth were clenched. They were hanging on for immunity.

"And now we see who wants it the most," smiled Jeff.

He waded back to shore and took a seat on the sand next to Tina. After all, he had no idea how long this challenge was going to last. He figured the least he could do was come back here, grab some figurative popcorn, sit down, and enjoy it.

"John's not going to last very long," was the first thing Tina observed. "Take a look at him. He's twisting."

Sure enough, John was already visibly struggling.

With his arms yanked high above his head, and his eyes clenched in mortal pain, it was clear that John wasn't going to be hanging up there for very much longer. Because sure enough, Tina was right. He was already caught in a death rattle. Once a player starts to twist from side to side in a challenge like this, it is essentially over.

And just like that, John's childhood gymnastics experience proved to be all for naught. That had been a long time ago, he was much older now, and he was simply too weak and too malnourished after thirty-six days to have the shoulder strength to be able to hang with these women.

About fifty seconds into the challenge, he screamed and dropped into the water.

"And we're down to three," smiled Jeff.

Massaging his ravaged shoulders and wrists as he walked, a wet John Carroll waded back to the shore and took a seat on the sand next to Tina. He looked dejected. After all, he knew exactly what was coming. This was the last place he would like to be sitting right now.

"So did you know about this?" Tina asked him. She peered over at him, suspiciously. "Did Alicia tell you she was sitting me?"

"I had no idea," John said, honestly. He shrugged at her, as baffled as he could appear. "She told me Gretchen. She flat out lied to me."

Tina just stared at him for a second. She didn't know what to say.

She would like to believe that, but at the same time, she wasn't quite sure...

And then, without warning, the challenge suddenly got interesting.





^^




Alicia had expected to hear a cry of pain to her right. She had expected the next one to come from Gretchen.

But about five minutes into the challenge, after five of the most excruciating and painful minutes of her life, Alicia did hear a cry of pain, but from the other side. That cry hadn't come from her right. It had come from her left. All of a sudden, it looked like her most threatening challenger, Vecepia, was having some problems.

Vecepia was very much in pain, and was visibly crying.

Her arms yanked high in the air, and her hands nearly turning white from the strain of hanging onto the rings, Vecepia's whole body was beginning to shake. She was clearly in her last gasp of arm strength. She was just about done.

And then just like that, without a warning, splash, down she went. Six minutes into the challenge, and Vecepia was gone.

Two Ahis down. Two Kekos left.

Now it was just down to Gretchen and Alicia.

The two women watched as Vecepia waded through chest-deep water back towards the beach. They watched her sit down. They waited until everyone else was far away, and out of hearing distance. And with only two of them remaining, with no prying ears around to listen in, that meant, for Gretchen, it was time to negotiate.

"Okay Alicia, look..." she started.

"No," Alicia cut her off. "No deals."

Gretchen grimaced in pain. She looked up at her hands. Her wrists flared. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to deal with this. This torture was agonizing.

"You're going to win immunity," Gretchen said, "Look, I can't beat you at this. I won't even pretend. So here's what we do."

"No."

"Alicia!" Gretchen screamed at her. She was now visibly panicked. She started to twist. She knew her time out here was short. "Win immunity, and then give it to me at Tribal Council."

"No."

"Come on!"

"Why would I give you immunity?"

"Because I know you have a final two deal with John!"

Alicia said nothing. She just stared off into space. How the hell did Gretchen know that? Who had tipped her off? How did she know that John and Alicia had vowed never to vote for one another? That was supposed to be the biggest secret in the game!

"Well I don't know it," Gretchen answered the unasked question, "But you kind of have to, right? I mean, why else would he keep you around? He's obviously promised you something."

"I don't have a deal with John," Alicia lied.

"Damnit, Alicia!" Gretchen twisted again, somewhat flailingly. It felt like her arms were about to be pulled out of their sockets. She let out a small cry of pain. "Will John vote for you tonight, or not? How sure are you about that?"

Alicia said nothing.

Frantic now, and nearly out of breath, Gretchen desperately changed her tactics.

"Alicia, let go," she implored her muscular teammate. "Just drop right now. Give me immunity." She panted to take labored breaths in between each of her sentences. "Because if you don't do that... then the three of them will vote me out tonight... and then you're back to being screwed."

Alicia said nothing. She just turned and stared icily at Gretchen, and shook her head. No way. No deal.

Gretchen's left hand slipped momentarily out of its ring. She screamed, and then she quickly recovered. Back to the shoulder agony. Far off, sitting on the beach, she could see the three Ahis perk up and start to whisper excitedly.

"Okay Alicia, I swear to you," Gretchen said, in her last death rattle of verbal coherency, "I'll take you to the final two. I promise... You and me... To the end... I promise.... Please just drop."

And just like that, she had it. The deal. That was what Alicia wanted. An ironclad guarantee to be in the final two against just about anybody. She had a guarantee to go to the end against John. And now she also had a guarantee to go to the end against Gretchen. And as to anybody who thought Alicia didn't deserve to be here? Who thought she didn't belong in All-Star Survivor? Well fuck them. They would learn to stop underestimating her now.

Good bye, Tina. Catch ya later, Miss Sunshine.

John's hand was about to be forced.

Alicia let go and she dropped into the ocean.





^^




Gretchen Cordy closed her eyes, tensed her muscles, and awaited the inevitable. She waited for her arms to simply give out and drop her to Survivor doom.

But it never happened.

Because that was when she heard an unexpected splash somewhere beneath her.

"Gretchen!" called Jeff, from way over on Manakai Beach, "Wins immunity!"

"WHAT???!" Gretchen shrieked in disbelief, as she opened her eyes, absolutely shocked. Alicia had actually been smart about this? That last speech had actually worked??

Gretchen was so surprised that she unexpectedly let go, dropped ten feet to the water, and violently twisted her knee on the ground. Ouch. But it didn't matter. Pain was only temporary. She had just won immunity. She was in the final four now!

Gretchen and Alicia waded back to meet the rest of the players. But not before Alicia quietly reminded Gretchen of what had just transpired up there. She wanted to remind Gretchen that that hadn't been a freebie. That immunity win had not come without a price. This one was going to be expensive.

It was the exact same deal Alicia had with John, only now with Gretchen. It was blackmail all over again.

"You will never vote for me the rest of the game," Alicia summarized. "If you don't win against me, you don't win against anyone, period. Got that?"

"Absolutely," Gretchen nodded, not really realizing what she was getting into here. She clearly hadn't thought through the ramifications of this decision yet. "No problem. No problem. Just..." she smiled. "Thank you for doing that."

Alicia nodded once, curtly.

Then she walked back to the beach, smiling.

She smiled at all of them. She smiled at Tina. She smiled at Vecepia.

She even winked at John.

After all, if John Carroll had any hopes of ever winning this game, she wanted him to know it was now time to pay up.

^^

An hour and a half later, the Manakais were back at camp. They were back to the stability of their beach. It was back to the game.

And if Alicia was expecting some sort of angry outburst from John, she was in for a surprise.

"So," she smiled, once she had cornered John alone behind the firepit. "what do you think?" She gave him a smug little grin. She knew that she had officially outsmarted him. "Interesting challenge, huh?"

"Heh," John snorted. Then he shrugged once, dismissively. He said nothing else. He really didn't appear to be all that broken up over this.

And, as you can guess, Alicia was a little worried about that.

After all, she knew John. She knew how he thought. She knew how much of a micromanager he was. She had definitely expected some sort of fireworks right now.

Suspicious, she shot him a wary look.

"Did you plan that?" John turned and asked her, suddenly. "Was all that shit planned?"

"Was what planned?"

"Giving immunity to Gretchen."

"I didn't give immunity to Gretchen." Alicia protested. "I slipped. My hands slipped."

"Yeah, what the fuck ever."

Alicia expected there to be more to this. She expected this to be followed by an angry tirade. A Sue Hawk speech about honor and loyalty. She expected him to come down on her with the almighty wrath of God, like he had done with Colleen.

But, strangely, he didn't.

He just stared at Alicia with a strange little smile on his face.

She wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond to that.

"So you didn't plan that?" he asked again, that odd little smirk touching his lips. "Come on, Alicia, fess up. You didn't coincidentally force me to choose between you and the Ahis? That was an accident? That wasn't just a little deliberate?"

"Well..." Okay, Alicia couldn't help it. She had to grin. She couldn't resist. She was a little too proud of herself. "Yeah, okay. It was planned. Kinda."

John just nodded his head. He chuckled softly. Then, to Alicia's surprise, he clapped his hands together softly twice, as if in obvious approval.

It seemed that not only had Alicia not managed to piss him off, she had actually impressed him.

"Pretty cool, huh?" she asked, grinning.

"Well as they say in Merry Olde England..." John smiled. Then he mock-bowed. "I doff my cap, my lady. Nicely played."

Alicia couldn't help it. She giggled.

"That was incredibly ballsy," John admired, "And I like ballsy. You're a hell of an adversary. That was fun to watch."

Alicia just grinned from ear to ear, still giggling.

"Yeah okay," John said, quickly switching moods from gushing to serious. His tone changed. His face suddenly turned ice cold. "It was ballsy, sure... but then here's the problem."

John only made it halfway through that sentence before Alicia's heart nearly fell down to her feet. She stopped, mid-giggle. She felt her stomach tense up. Oh no. Don't even bring up the word "problem", John. We had a deal.

"No, no, no," she said, shaking her head, visibly annoyed.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," John said, overriding her. He stared her right in the eyes. "Look, Alicia, I was not ready to be put into this position. Not now. I was not planning for this tonight."

"Well you're in it now."

"No," John looked at her, coldly. "That's incorrect. I'm not. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you are in it now."

He just glared down at her.

Alicia felt her cockiness suddenly turn to anger.

"No way," Alicia crossed her arms and said, defensively. "You wouldn't dare vote me out tonight. I don't believe you."

"Watch me."

Alicia stared at him and matched him, glare for glare.

"You would really vote me out?" Alicia asked, surprised, "Really? After I saved your ass at the last vote? After I went to you and told you what Gretchen was doing? You don't think I deserve to be rewarded for that?"

"Well yeah," John nodded, "You do. Of course you do. But here's the deal."

Alicia was already shaking her head, in denial.

"I already had a alliance that I would never vote out either Tina or Vee," explained John. "And I made that promise a hell of a lot earlier than I ever promised you anything. I was with Tina and Vee for nearly three weeks before I even met you." He stood there and shrugged his shoulders. "So put yourself in my shoes, Alicia. Look what you did. Look what position you've put me in. You've officially fucked me."

Alicia couldn't believe her ears. She looked flabbergasted.

"But you said you were impressed," she protested, "You said you liked it!"

"Oh I did like it," John explained, honestly. "That was one of the ballsiest things I've ever seen. I wasn't lying. That was the move of the game. But does it mean you're safe from the vote tonight? Does Gretchen being safe spare your ass at Tribal Council?" He looked down at her. "No, it doesn't. Ballsy or not, I still have to think about it."

He just shrugged at her again. He didn't even look angry anymore. Now he appeared to be saying he was sorry. He looked like he was already apologizing.

And Alicia felt that old familiar fire start to rage in her gut.

"Now look here, asshole..." she started.

John just shrugged his shoulders. Again, he couldn't promise her anything.

"I saved your ass last time," Alicia countered, "You would be dead if it wasn't for me. They had you in their sights."

"Maybe they did, maybe they didn't."

Alicia couldn't believe she was hearing this!

"So you're telling me you want me on that jury," she now asked, arms crossed across her chest. "That's what you're saying? That you want me, as pissed off as I am, sitting across from you in the final two? That's what you're willing to do at this point?"

John said nothing. Again, he just shrugged, dismissively. After all, what did he have to lose at this point? He knew he was screwed either way.

"I will murder you on that jury," Alicia vowed, coldly. "You won't have a chance."

"Yeah, so you say."

Alicia heard this, paused, and just grinned at him, coldly. She thought for a moment. Then she held up an index finger. She wanted to make sure he was aware of this.

"Kathy," she grinned. "I can turn Kathy against you, John. We were best friends. She'll believe anything I say about you."

"That's only one vote."

"Colleen," grinned Alicia, holding up a second finger. "Colleen hates your guts. You stomped her little heart right into the ground. You think she'll ever even speak to you again?"

John just stared at Alicia now. He was no longer responding.

"And then me," said Alicia. "That's three votes. Three votes you'll never get. No matter what you do, you won't be able to win any of them."

"Yeah but that's only three."

"Well I only need one more."

Alicia just glared at John. John just met her glare with a silent stoicism of his own. They both stood there in silence. Because they both knew who she was talking about. Alicia was clearly thinking about John's mortal enemy in this game, the anti-John, borderline homophobic bad boy of Marquesas, Boston Rob.

Boston Rob was also on that jury.

And Alicia had a well-known connection with him.

John knew this, and could only stand there and sigh.

"Alicia," his shoulders slumped, "you know you're the biggest bitch I have ever met. You know that, don't you? I mean, it's not even close."

Alicia just smiled, sweetly.

"John, honey," she grinned. "I'm not a bitch. Welcome to the real world. Sometimes a girl has to play the bitch if she wants to get to the top."

She let out a laugh. But John knew she wasn't kidding. She wasn't being mirthful at all. That laugh never touched her eyes for a second. She really wasn't kidding about what she'd do in that jury box. She had never been bluffing. She had him by the nuts. This had all been for real.

"Fine," he now sighed, looking defeated, "I'll vote for an Ahi tonight. You got me. I'll do what you want."

"Good," Alicia grinned. "Let's take out Vecepia."

She knew full well that John would never go for this. No way. He was way too close to Vecepia, and not close to Tina at all. He would never get rid of Vecepia. Alicia knew this, she knew it was a no-brainer, yet she wanted to test him. She just wanted to see how sharp he was thinking right now. Although deep down, she knew he would have to be an idiot to go along with this.

And of course, trapped or not, John was clearly no idiot.

"No way," he countered, "Not Vee. Tina. Tina or nobody. That's my final offer."

Alicia heard this and she shrugged. Oh well, can't blame a girl for trying. Tina it was going to be. Vecepia Towery would just have to meet her fate another day.

"Fine," said Alicia.

And with that, the all-important conversation was done.

Relieved that the decision had finally been made -- well, actually, forced upon him would be more like it -- John let out a deep breath and leaned back against the wall of the shelter. He looked absolutely bewildered. What the hell was he doing tonight? What sort of game was he playing? Was it even his game anymore? Did he have any more control over the vote at this point?

He just looked and Alicia, and he shook his head. Out of what? Amazement? Shock? Disbelief? Admiration? He couldn't tell. All he knew was that right now, she officially owned him.

"Oh it's not that bad," Alicia smiled. She walked over and put her arms around his torso. She gave him a hug. "I just want to get us to the final two."

"Yeah but..."

He didn't know how he was supposed to respond to that. He didn't know what to say. He had never played with anyone as hardcore as Alicia Calaway before, and it was freaking him out.

And here he thought Tammy had been competitive. Compared to Alicia, Tammy Leitner was practically a girl scout.

"Well you know that this is in your best interest, too," Alicia explained, reassuringly. She was still hugging him. "You know those two would have slaughtered you. They never would have voted for one another."

"Yeah but in the end I could have..."

Oops. John quickly caught himself.

Yikes. In his bewilderment, right there, he almost gave away his super secret final two deal with Vecepia. The one that Alicia had no idea about. The one that nobody knew about. The one that could still be his all-important trump card against her. Yikes, that had been close. He almost spilled his big secret.

Luckily, he had managed to catch himself before he explained that Vecepia would always be loyal to him.

And-- even more luckily-- Alicia didn't seem to have noticed this.

"Well you just be careful," Alicia said, finally releasing him from her affectionate hug. "Tina and Vee are gonna be all over you tonight. They're gonna be mercenaries." She looked him in the eyes. "But just remember, all they want is your vote. Don't. Listen. To them."

John just shook his head. No way.

From here on out, he would do whatever Alicia wanted. Just to stay on her good side. That was all that was important. Just stay on her good side. At least, until the hammer came down on her head. Which, at some point, was simply destined to happen.

After all, sure she had him now. Sure. But Alicia wasn't dealing with a nobody here. She wasn't dealing with a Keko. She was dealing with an Ahi. She was dealing with the king of the Ahis. She was dealing with Johnny Pots and Pans himself.

Sure, Alicia might have him under her thumb now, but just wait.

Because the minute she didn't see the hammer coming, the minute they got to the final four, the minute he would able to control it again...

John smiled.

At a certain point in the future, Her Majesty the Mighty Enforcer just might want to watch out.





^^





As expected, Tina and Vecepia were understandably a little bit nervous about the big vote tonight.

Okay, let's make that a lot nervous.

Tina's plan to had been to get in good with John Carroll, but she had never had time.

"That reward trip messed up everything," she lamented to Vee, as the two former winners made a beeline to cut a last minute deal with Gretchen. "John should have been here. We should have been able to talk about this."

Tina didn't have empirical proof of this or anything, she didn't know for a fact that the vote was going to be coming against her tonight. But it was something she was definitely wary of. After all, all the signals were there. The red flags were all over the place. The stormclouds were brewing.

John should have been reassuring her by now. Tina was absolutely certain about this. He should have been standing here the minute they got back from the immunity challenge, and he should have reassured her over and over that he was never going to vote for Tina, and that Alicia's decision to spoil her had been nothing but a random coincidence. He should have been reassuring her over and over that the vote was going to go against Alicia tonight, just like the three Ahis had originally planned.

But one problem. John wasn't here. At this moment, about two hours before Tribal Council, John and his new little Keko girlfriend were simply nowhere to be found.

Again, Tina could see the red flags all over the place. The buzzards were circling. Gretchen was immune. It looked like this was bound to end poorly.

And so here they were, Tina and Vee, trying to desperately find Gretchen about two hours before the fateful vote. They only had about two hours if they wanted to save themselves. It was now fourth and goal. The defense was lined up on the line of scrimmage. John was nowhere to be found. Tina was trailing, 3-2. The only thing that would save her at this point was a last minute touchdown pass.

This was a position that Tina had never expected to find herself in, but now it looked to be here.

And, luckily, there she was.

Gretchen Cordy. Sitting all alone. With the immunity talisman around her neck.

Tina smiled.

It was time for one last Mom-to-Mom honesty talk.

If this didn't work, she was toast.





^^

Vecepia offered to come and sit with Tina on her last-ditch "please save me" chat with Gretchen. But Tina had simply shaken her head, dismissively. No way. She would have to do this one on her own.

After all, Vecepia being anywhere near this conversation could only be problematic.

For obvious reasons.

"... And that's why I'm offering you a final two deal," Tina summarized, honestly, once the pleasantries and the niceties were out of the way. "You and me, Gretchen, in the final two. I give you my word. The two moms at the end. And you know I'd never lie to you."

Gretchen, who had been sitting in the sand, staring out at the ocean all by herself, simply looked over at her. She looked amused. Um, wasn't it a little bit late for this?

"Now come on, Tina. That's ridiculous. Yesterday you didn't want anything to do with me."

"Yes but I always said you deserved to be here."

"Yeah but since when has deserved actually been a part of the equation? Isn't that what you actually said to me?"

Tina turned her head, angrily, and she looked out at the ocean. She looked like she was going to cry. Heck, she felt like she was going to cry. After all, she had never been voted out of Survivor before. Ever. She had never experienced this before. She didn't like what helplessness felt like out here.

"So you would really vote me out over Alicia?" Tina asked, baffled. "You really want her in the final four?"

"No, not at all. God, no. If it were up to me, Tina, I'd rather just toss her off a cliff."

Tina let out a laugh. An exasperated laugh, sure, but still a laugh. It seemed like they all felt that way about Alicia. They all hated her. It was good to see that she and Gretchen were at least starting on the approximate same page here.

"If Alicia wins," Gretchen continued, "I will happily go the reunion show, and I will happily kiss her butt like it has never been kissed. You just watch me. I'll do it on live TV."

Tina nodded.

"But Alicia is not going to win," Gretchen continued. "She's not going to win. I am."

Tina looked over at Gretchen. And she could see that Gretchen totally, with all honesty, one hundred percent believed that. She knew she was going to win. Without a shred of doubt in her eyes. Gretchen knew that she had them. She had all of the Ahis. She was no longer a preschool teacher. She was now officially a mercenary.

"You know what?" said Tina, nodding. "I think you're probably right."

"I know I'm right."

And with that, Tina sighed. Because she now knew that her time here in All-Star Survivor was over. She was done. There would be no miracles tonight. Gretchen and-- ugh-- Alicia had managed to outwit her. It was time to experience Survivor defeat for a change.

Tina grimaced

Good God... how she officially hated the sound of that.

"Hey, can I ask you for a favor though?" Gretchen turned and asked. "One last favor before you go? Mom to mom?"

Tina just laughed.

"I thought the prisoner was supposed to be getting the last request," she teased Gretchen, playfully, repeating Gretchen's words from last night. "You're getting awfully big for your britches for a Keko. Why should I help you with anything?"

"Well I just want a promise from you."

Tina sighed. Oh well. Not like she didn't know what was coming. Might as well make it official.

"I want you to promise," Gretchen asked, "that you'll vote for me in the final jury."

Tina paused, and mulled this request over, thoughtfully.

"Well it sort of depends who you're up against," she finally answered, after a short delay. "It's not that easy." She paused again. "I mean, if you're up against Vecepia, I don't know if I could do that. She's worked as hard out here as anybody."

"Please just promise me."

Tina stopped mid-sentence, and she turned and looked into Gretchen's eyes. For perhaps the first time all game. And she could see the goodness there. Finally. She could see the Tina-ness. For the first time in thirty-six days, Tina could finally see that she and Gretchen were pretty much one and the same. There wasn't a good guy and a bad guy sitting here on this beach. There was no Ahi and Keko. There was just Gretchen and Tina. The two of them could practically be sisters.

"You've already got your win," Gretchen added, quietly, "Now give me mine." She paused, and then smiled in an uncharacteristically bashful way. In a way, she looked almost childlike. "Pay it forward, Tina. Please. You know that you want to. Help me win this game."

She paused, and turned back to the ocean.

And just like that, Gretchen was about to have a very powerful ally on the Manakai jury.

^^

As the five Manakais sat down for Tribal Council, the mood in the now-familiar tiki hut was surprisingly subdued. There appeared to be much less energy among the players tonight than Jeff was used to. There seemed to be far less adversity than in past nights. Jeff could sense it the moment they had all walked through those palm fronds. There was a lot less going on with this group at the moment.

The reason for this particular lack of energy tonight?

Well Jeff didn't know it yet, but the reason was obvious. They were subdued because they all knew who was going home tonight. It was going to be Tina. John had even pulled Vecepia aside along the way, just to give her a heads up.

In two hours, Vecepia Towery was going to be the only former winner left in this game.

What did she think about this?

Well, as expected, Vee didn't like it. At all. She hated it. She hated the very idea of it. She wanted Tina sitting next to her in the final two! But then again, at the same time, what could she really do about it? Tina's fate had been decided. John had already informed her of this. There were three solid votes against Tina in that urn tonight. That was a fact. No matter what Vecepia did, or who she voted for in retalistion, it was pretty much all a done deal.

The only thing Vee could really do at this point was learn how to adapt.

And so the players settled into their assigned seats at Tribal Council, just like usual. Five of them. The final five. They waited a few moments for the jurors to fill in slowly across from them, one after another, and now they were ready.

The jurors were watching. The players were seated. Jeff was here. The cameras were rolling.

It was time for the formalities.




^^




As expected, most of Jeff's questions tonight centered around Gretchen, and her interesting experiences over the past three days. This surprised nobody. They had all known it was coming. After all, as the rest of the players had figured out a long time ago, Jeff Probst clearly had a bit of a boner when talking about Gretchen Cordy in the game of Survivor. Not much had changed in the last two years. Gretchen was still clearly his favorite.

"So Gretchen," Jeff asked, with a pleasant smile on his face, "Tell me what it felt like to come that close to winning a Hawaiian dream house, and then have your stilts break. How much did that kill you?

"Oh it was horrible," Gretchen answered. "That might have been the worst feeling I've ever had in my life."

"How long did it take you to get over it?"

"I don't think I'll ever get over it," she grimaced. "I mean, come on, Jeff. That was a Hawaiian beach house. How many people actually get one of those? That was the reward of a lifetime." She shook her head, sadly. "And I came within about six inches of it."

"John," Jeff turned his attention towards the last remaining male in the game, "What did you think about the reward challenge? Did you think it was fair?"

"Did I think what was fair?"

"That Alicia picked you to go with her over Gretchen?"

John just sat there and blinked at the question, incredulously. Fair? What did fair have to do with anything? Since when was this only the Gretchen show?

"Well obviously Alicia could have chosen any way she wanted," he finally said. "I mean, it's not like I had a gun to her head. She could have picked anyone."

Jeff nodded and turned to Alicia.

"So Alicia," he began, "What was your thought process on that beach? Why John?"

"Why not John?" Alicia asked, defensively.

"Well I was just curious," Jeff shrugged, "I mean, as far as I know, you and John didn't start on the same tribe. And I haven't seen you being all that close. So I was standing there thinking, did I miss something? Why did she pick him?"

"Well I told you at the time," Alicia slowly repeated her earlier lie, in a strange, flat voice, "I had promised John I would take him on a reward if I ever won one. So I was just living up to my part of the bargain." She stared directly at Jeff. "And he would have done the exact same thing, if he had won. He would have taken me too."

"Is that true, John?" Jeff turned back towards him. "I mean, I'm not being accusatory. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this. Is that how it really went down?"

"Pretty much."

"You would have taken Alicia?"

John smirked. "It would have been my pleasure."

Jeff stood back from his podium and took a deep breath. Okay, so much for that. He turned towards Tina. Time to move on to some other opinions about this.

"So what about you, Tina?" he asked, "What did you think of Alicia's decision? Did it worry you a little bit? Knowing that she and John were going to be away from camp for a while?"

"It didn't worry me at all," Tina replied, simply. "I knew the game, Jeff. I knew that's what she had to do."

"And what about you, Vee? Alicia's decision bother you at all?"

Vecepia just shrugged, emotionlessly. She wasn't really in the mood to give long, wordy answers to Jeff at Tribal Council tonight. She really wasn't in the mood to talk at all. She was still reeling about the sudden strategic turnaround in this game, and how fast it had happened. After all, she had only heard about the vote against Tina about thirty minutes ago. It was too soon to be wordy. Her mind was still trying to process this.

At this point in time, all Vecepia was thinking about was how she was going to get out of this.

"Well I have to say one thing," Jeff said, grinning, "I have to say that watching you guys in that immunity challenge was pretty impressive. Because it was clear that a few of you did not want to lose. A few of you were holding on for dear life out there."

And, as expected, there went his attention. There went his questions, directed right at Gretchen. Right back to Gretchen, our hero.

John saw it coming a mile away, and he was just about ready to complain about this.

"Gretchen, what was it like?" Jeff was asking, "Hanging on for dear life, knowing you were probably dead meat if you fell. What did that feel like?"

"Well yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head," Gretchen nodded. "I knew that if I fell, I was gone. So yeah, that was exactly what was going on in my head. I knew that I needed it."

"And I bet you probably can't move your arms right about now," Jeff joked.

Gretchen just put her head down and laughed. Again, guilty as charged. Jeff was absolutely right. By this point, her arms were pretty much useless. They were limp noodles. She really hoped that tomorrow's immunity challenge wasn't going to be arm-strength based...

"John," Jeff turned back to his go-to answer guy, "What did you think of Gretchen's performance in today's immunity challenge? Was it impressive to you? Or did it sort of muddle things up?"

And that was it. That was the last straw. Right here, right now, John knew he could hold his tongue no longer. It simply had to be said.

"You know, Jeff..." John let out a big, long exasperated sigh. His shoulders slumped.

Sitting behind him, Vecepia suddenly perked up. So did Kathy and Rob in the Manakai jury. After all, they knew John. They knew his temper. They knew that sigh. It meant he was pissed off about something. They all knew that... no matter what came out of his mouth in the next ten seconds... it was going to be good.

"What's up?" Jeff asked, his interest piqued.

"You know, Jeff," John repeated, "I don't mean this as an insult to you, or to anyone. And I certainly don't mean it as an insult to Gretchen, but I'm sort of tired of you always turning this into the Gretchen show."

Jeff looked surprised. "The Gretchen show?"

"Yeah," nodded John. He turned around and glanced at the other players around him. He appeared to be looking for support. Then he turned back to Jeff. "I mean, like I said, I don't mean to be bashing anyone, but Gretchen isn't the only one who has had a hard time in this game. We've all had hard times. We've all been the underdog. She's not the only deserving winner here."

"I never said she was," Jeff explained.

"Yeah but that's the insinuation," John retorted. Then he turned to Gretchen. He looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Gretchen, I don't mean to be a dick about this. I don't mean to make it personal..."

"No, don't worry about it..."

"But it's true," John turned back to the host. "I mean, look at me, Jeff. The first time I played this game, I was humiliated. I was made to look like an idiot on national TV. And you don't think that causes some sort of hardship? You don't think I don't want to win Survivor more than anything else in my life now?"

Now John turned towards Alicia.

"Alicia barely even made the merge last time," he added. "She barely even got to play. And I think that means she has as much a right to be here as anyone. She's worked just as hard to get here as any of us."

Sitting next to him, Alicia remained silent. She just stared down at the ground. But it was obvious she was grateful. You could see the gratitude right there on her face. She almost looked like she were about to start crying.

Jeff, for his part, said nothing. He just stood there and let the speech hang in the air. After all, even though he didn't appreciate the accusatory tone of John's remarks, he was still the host of an award-winning television show. He had been doing this for three years. He knew this was going to make some awesome TV. So he just stood there and took it.

"And Tina and Vee?" John concluded, "I mean yeah they're former winners, but think about it. How hard would you have to play to get to the final five? If you came into this game as a former winner, how much harder would it be for you compared to anyone? You'd have a giant target on your back right from the start!"

Vee said nothing. She just kept her head bowed down humbly to the ground. But Tina, of course, couldn't help it. She leaned over to John and she kissed him on the shoulder. He hadn't had to do that. That speech had been sweet.

"So then what's your point, John?" Jeff finally asked, once he knew the moment was over. "You think I'm favoring Gretchen?"

"I don't know," John just shook his head, confused. "No. Yes. I don't know." He struggled for a response. "It's been a long day. Forget I said anything."

"But you think I should stop it?"

"Well you can stop it if you want," John finally said. "It's your show. Do what you want. But please, if you can..." he paused. "I'd rather just think of us as five Survivor players. I'd rather think of as all as equals."

John sat there, looking pained for a moment.

And then he finally let out the sentence he'd been wanting to say.

"I don't want to think of myself as some helpless pawn in the Gretchen Survivor show," he added. "Because you know, Jeff, I've worked hard too. And I went through a hell of a lot just to get here. I think pretty much all of us have."

And that was it. No one said anything in response. The five of them just sat there in quiet silence.

Although if you looked closely, it was possible to see Vecepia softly nodding her head. It was clear she agreed with this speech. This adventure never had been, nor would it ever be, Gretchen's story. She was just a bit player. Probst was way off the mark on this one.

And with that, Jeff smiled.

As always, awkward silence meant it was time to go vote.





^^




One by one, the players rose up out of their seats, they walked past the jury, they slowly walked up to the voting confessional, and they uncapped the pen. One by one, they voted the last player out of the game prior to reaching the final four.

As expected, eighty percent of those casting votes wound up casting them for Tina.

Two of them for personal and strategic reasons, two of them because they pretty much had to.

"This was not my intention tonight, Tina," said Vee, as she held up a very, very, very reluctant ballot. She appeared to be crestfallen. And why wouldn't she be? After all, Vee was still wrapping her mind around how she was supposed to now deal with this. She was still brainstorming on where she was supposed to go from here. As expected, her mission to win now with Tina appeared to be practically impossible.

Vee stuffed the ballot into the box, shrugged helplessly, and went back to her seat.

Out of the five players who cast votes tonight, the only person who showed any real animation during their voting confessional was John Carroll. He was the only one who seemed to be worked up about this. And coming right off the heels of his big anti-Gretchen speech, this was of little surprise.

Vecepia? She was still pretty much emotionless. She was too devastated to be able to say much. And Gretchen and Alicia? They were pretty much just going about their business tonight. They were only doing what they had wanted to do for a long time now.

Tina? She was pretty much resigned to her fate. Her bags were already packed. One look at her, and you could tell she basically already had one foot out the door.

But John? Well, he was another type of beast altogether. Because he hadn't wanted this to happen tonight. He hadn't wanted it at all. And as the evening grew longer, and his annoyance over this and the Gretchen favoritism situation grew, he was growing more and more pissed off about the way it had been forced upon him.

In fact, as he stood here at the podium, considering his vote-- don't tell Alicia-- he was actually debating this.

He stood here, and he looked down at the parchment in front of him.

And he visualized the name "Alicia" across the front of it.

Oh, how nice that would feel.

John paused, and he ran his hand across his chin. And then he let out a small chuckle. Man, it was awfully tempting, wasn't it? To write down Alicia's name? Right after he promised he wouldn't? Damn, that would be the sweetest feeling in the world. It would be the ultimate blindside. Alicia's head would probably explode. In fact the exploding head image alone almost made him tempted to do it.

So John paused.

And he paused again.

And then, after about two minutes of silent deliberation, he lifted his arm, and he wrote down the name he hadn't wanted to write. He wrote down the name he had never expected to write. He wrote down "Tina."

Damn you, Alicia. I hate you. I wish you were dead. But I'm not into suicide.

John sighed.

Oh well. So that was that.

Not like it would have mattered. After all, Vecepia had probably already voted for Tina. She had voted before him. So there were probably three Tina votes in that urn already. Any vote against Alicia at this point would have been purely symbolic.

No, this had been the correct decision. This had been the smart decision.

John felt like a pussy. He knew he had been bullied into this vote tonight. But who cares? You have to work through that shit. After all, Survivor isn't about pride. It is about thinking with your head. It is about thinking like a strategist, even when your emotions don't let you.

John hated Alicia. That was true. He hated her right now with the depths of his heart. But for now, he would go with the consensus.

Revenge, in whatever satisfying form it took, would just have to come later.





^^






Tina Wesson had, of course, hoped for some sort of a last minute miracle tonight. She had hoped that John would have walked up to that podium, would have had a last minute change of heart, and would have decided to spare her and vote out Alicia instead.

But sadly, that wasn't to be.

The sunshine of the Ahi tribe had officially had her last meal. And about five minutes short of the final four, too. So close!

This was so frustrating for a competitor like Tina that it almost made her want to swear.

Ten minutes later, Jeff hold up the third "Tina" ballot. And that was it. Three votes for Tina, one vote for Alicia. No need to read the last vote. And, unless you were a member of the jury, this was not a surprise.

The final four in All-Star Hawaii had officially been chosen.

"Tina," said Jeff, sympathetically, "I'm sorry. That's three votes, that's enough. It's time for you to go." He nodded towards her. "Please bring me your torch."

Tina Wesson turned around and she reached for her torch.

It was an odd feeling. After all, she had never done this before. She had never brought up her torch before anybody. It was more surreal than she had ever expected.

Tina grabbed her torch, she stood up, and she said her final goodbyes. Then one quick sad wave to Frank in the jury. As expected, he looked heartbroken. Luckily, he didn't seem to realize she would be joining him soon.

Then she was standing in front of Jeff Probst. For the first time ever.

She was here.

It was time for that moment.

"Tina," nodded the host, dramatically. He looked her directly in the eyes. Then he lowered the snuffer. "The tribe has spoken."

For the first time in Tina Wesson's life, it was time to go home.

Tina turned, and she gave a final wave to the four remaining players in the game. The final four. She wished them luck.

And then, because she was Tina, she couldn't resist adding something else. Something small. She simply had to say it. She didn't really want to, but she had to. Because she knew these people. And she knew these dynamics. And she knew how ugly this was about to become.

Also, she happened to be a huge Survivor fan.

"Play fair," she smiled, repeating a very familiar mantra they all recognized. "And be nice. You guys be nice to each other."

One last word of wisdom from Tina, and then she was gone.

Sitting up in the Manakai jury, Colleen let out a giggle.

Play fair? Be nice?

With these people?

- Read Tina Wesson's final words

- Read Mario's Episode 12 commentary notes

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