This is a summary of episodes 11-12 of the doomed Survivor: Tonga project. And it is indeed a thrilling story, made up of twists and villains and nastiness galore. If you missed the past episodes, please go back and read them first. Trust me, this story is worth reading.

(Note: This was an online Survivor game played between the months of March and May, 2003. It was later written up as a fan fiction story. I am kind of assuming you followed the story when it originally came out, but if you are unfamiliar with the project, or the players, you can catch up on the backstory and all the player bios at the Official Tonga Website.)

EPISODE 11 - Mercy Killing

Pulotu Tribe: Anna, Isabella, Kathy, Marcy, Mario, Ronan




Isabella (confessional from day 31): "I swear I am living in the Tonga Looney Bin. First there was Lindsay, the pyromaniac who had to be removed from the facility. Over there is Wacky Kathy, who just kind of floats around in an airy daze. You can be in the middle of a conversation with her and she'll just drift off, mentally and literally; she just walks away mid-sentence. Then there's Roller-Coaster Marcy, who is like a box of mixed-up jelly beans, you never know which mood you'll get next. Next to him we have Anna, the Rain Woman. She can tell you the pythagorean theory while solving a Rubik's Cube while calculating a dodecagonal stucture's area, but she can't find her way to the latrine without getting lost. Over there talking to himself is Ronan the Recluse, who is always sitting off alone, mumbling, getting all his information from Roach. And that brings me to the King of the Loonies, Roachy, who just runs around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to pit all the other loonies against each other in a frenzied rush, his eyes bulging like they're about to pop out of his head. *sigh* Just another day in the asylum."

Lindsay was gone, and the game was down to six. And even though she had burned down the camp, the game still marched on. Anna, Marcy, Isabella and Mario now had a straight shot to the final four, if everything went well. All that stood in their way were two Anas, Ronan and Kathy, who were essentially powerless. The two of them could do very little to stop their fate, and everyone knew it. And now... the Tumus were getting VERY cocky.

Mario (confessional from day 31): "I think you are looking at a final 3 of Bella-Anna-Mario, and there's not much anyone can do to stop us. I have been feeding Ronan stories left and right, and he seems completely oblivious to what is going on, so I'm not worried. I can sit back and relax for a while. The Anas can hate me all they want, but they're gonna be doing it from the jury box soon enough. Don't matter to me."

And by now, the game was starting to get to people. Far more than thirty "game" days, the Tonga players had been immersed in this world for nearly three months now. They had been deeply involved in every aspect of the game, every strategy, and every relationship. And by now, some people were starting to act strangely. It was obvious that the stress of the game was beginning to get to some of them.

Isabella: "We all realized early on how immersive this game was. When we started, our host Rafe had promised us it would take no longer than ten minutes a day posting tasks and such. But within a week, no joke, we were staying online talking to each other not ten minutes, but more than ten HOURS a day. In our imaginations we pretty much actually WERE in Tonga playing with these fifteen other people."

Anna: "People wonder who would give up 6 to 10 hours a day for an online game? Certainly not NORMAL people. They must be slacker loser computer geeks with no friends or family. WRONG! We all had friends, family, obligations, commitments, work, school... but somewhere along the way, Tonga took over. It wasn't episode one, or episode two... or even episode three for most of us. But as the game started to get more intense, paranoia set in. You HAD to log in, and once logged in, you HAD to chat with people. Check on them. Make sure their plans hadn't changed. But you couldn't just log in, say, "Hey, we still tight?" and then log off. No... you had to ask them how their day has been, you had to find out about their family, their work, their, their LIFE. It was strategy. Do anything else, and you'd risk being seen as a 'schemer.'"

And with the pressures and time commitments of the game starting to really mount up, one person in particular was starting to act strangely. One player had started to worry people, because he finally decided he had just about had enough of it all.


~~ Marcy ~~


Marcy was the youngest player on Tumu. At 17, he had been fawned over by the girls of Tumutumu since day one. They all loved him, and treated him like a younger brother. Even the cutthroat Isabella went out of her way to say nice things about him, on more than one occasion.

Isabella (confessional from day 31): "Marcy is just adorable; I just love him. *sigh* I just want to give him a big hug and rub his pink hair and give him a kiss on his cheek and make him smile. He's the person who wants to be great, wants to be a mastermind, wants to be mean, but in the end, why? He can't do it; he's insecure, and he's torn between those feelings and the fact that he just wants people to like him, and that's a very strong conflict for him. He's scared that which ever one he chooses, people won't like him because he didn't do the other. He thinks if he doesn't scheme he'll be seen as a pussy and if he's not nice everyone will hate him. He's a very conflicted person."

But at this point in the game, Marcy was starting to lose it. He had been overwhelmed by the cutthroat nature, competitiveness, and general nastiness that seemed to permeate every day left in the game. Not to mention outside pressures like family, school, and work. He was starting to be overwhelmed by it all. Isabella noticed this, as did everybody, and there was a general feeling around camp that Marcy was ready to quit. He had threatened to many times before, and now it seemed like he was serious about it.

Isabella (confessional from day 31): "I'm holding up better than almost anyone out here. I'd say Coach and me are doing the best all-around. Marcy's about to have a breakdown, and has basically quit. Again. Ronan doesn't talk that much anymore, Kathy has kind of gone airy, and the game is just wearing down on Anna, I can tell. It's wearing down on all of them, but Roach and I definitely handle the stress of this game the best."

Mario: "Isabella and I probably fared the best because we were having the most fun with the game. We were having a blast, I think both of us really got off on the idea of being the uber-villain. Anna tried, and she had fun in her own way, but she is more of a control freak than I am. She tried to control more aspects of the game than I did. She talked to the Anas, she tried to stay in good with them, she tried to stay in touch with EVERYONE, and I just didn't. I talked to the people I wanted to, and that was it. So by now, I think she was going a bit batty."

Anna and Mario had already planned to take out Marcy at the next vote, just because they could. They were both tired of his lazy ways, and complaining, and Mario had more or less made it into his latest personal crusade. He was tired of Marcy trying to undercut him at every opportunity. Mario was ready to cut Marcy loose, the sooner the better.

Mario: "I just wanted him to realize I had kicked his ass, and I was very insistent about it. Marcy liked to talk about how played a lot of online Survivor games. He said he played a lot, and he ALWAYS ended up finishing 3rd. And by now, he knew he couldn't win Tonga, and fully expected to finish 3rd here too. So I said to myself, hey how about we surprise you? How about you finish in 6th instead of 3rd? Would you like that? Happy birthday."

Anna and Mario were all set to do it, but suddenly... Marcy stole their thunder. Because he decided that once and for all, he wanted out. Lindsay's burning of the camp (and angry Tribal Council speech) had more or less cemented it in his mind. He wasn't having fun any more. The game was too much and he wanted to be out of it for good.

Anna: "Marcy was just causing trouble. He was just, um, going kinda nutsoid. No one could figure out his strategy. He kept trying to make deals and alliances with everyone. He made about five final-2 deals within a day or so. He kept spreading Nick's identity around like it was his ticket to the final 2. He wasn't being subtle about all of this scheming, and worst of all, he seemed on the edge of depression the entire time. He had to go. Now."

Anna decided to have a chat with Marcy, one of her famous "counseling" sessions. But there was something more devious than just friendship at play here. This was also strategy. And Marcy suddenly let loose with ALL his complaints about the game, surprising Anna with just how miserable he was really feeling. He was angry that Lindsay had pointed HIM out as a troublemaker, and compared him to the hated Mario. He was angry that people were treating the game so seriously. And he was particularly angry that Isabella never seemed to take any heat at all. She seemed to escape unscathed from all the Tumu nastiness. So he poured all this out to Anna, and she was clever enough to just sit back and listen.

Marcy (excerpts from chat with Anna on day 31): "Why does Bella always avoid blame? I'm sick of this game. Why am I here? Do I deserve to be here? I should have been voted off weeks ago. And I'm still here, to take the fall. There's no way I can win this game. I will be hung up to dry. But that's my own fault ... I hope you win, Anna. What has Bella done to deserve this other than play the dumb little sweetheart? And Nick-- Nick. What more can I say? Ugh."

Anna commented that the game had been much dirtier than she had expected, and Marcy let loose some more of his pent up anger and frustration.

Marcy (more excerpts): "I really am beginning to hate this game. I hope I can still remain friends with everyone... even if we are at each others' throats in the game. Like... Nick... I'd love to keep talking to Mario outside the game. But in the game it's just.. ugh. Cause he's always full of shit."

Mario: "One of the things I decided early on was that I was going to ruin some people's reputations. I decided to go full out and just rip people apart, all the better to make me look good and as sympathetic as possible. I always wanted people to feel bad for me. So one of the early rumors I started was about Taylor. He was known to have a temper, so I told people that he was SO angry about being voted off that he called me at my house. I told people he threatened my family and I had to report it to Rafe. Well, this story worked a little TOO well, because it literally frightened some people. Marcy, for one, never forgot it. Even if it was 100% made up."

Marcy (more excerpts): "People just take things way too personally. Like, I can't believe Taylor called Nick at his house. Yeah, I'm serious. Apparently Taylor called Nick at his house because he was mad about being voted off."

Anna knew this was a lie, but she just went with it. She knew what was up. She was well aware Marcy was looking for an excuse to quit the game. And she basically coaxed him right into it.

Anna: "The whole chat started out because I wanted to tell him he was going. I just wanted to let him know beforehand, because I worried about him. So I started a conversation with him, trying to find a way to tell him without hurting his feelings. But, before I could work around to the subject, surprise surprise... he offered me a final two deal. Because he wanted Nick gone NOW. He hated Nick. And he hated Tonga. And he hated Nick and Tonga and Rafe. He was so worked up that I just tried to change the tone of the conversation. I asked him if the game was still fun. Instead of saying "yes" or "no", all he said was, "vote me off". My heart lept."

Marcy (more excerpts): "Just vote me off. Please. I'm going to be portrayed as a clueless idiot anyways, I'd like to just get it over with. Everyone is full of shit and backbiting, and I don't need this, I have enough to worry about as it is... Making it any farther is pointless anyways. I have a busy schedule this month. Graduation... no time for game. I just can't deal with it... I don't go online to get a reminder of how clueless I am, and to get cut down by others... it's supposed to be about escapism. And I KNOW I've been an arrogant little shit in this game from Day 1. At least Tonga showed me some reality... that I'm not as smart as I think I am, I'm not invincible, and I'm not better than the rest of the world. I just... now's a good time to get out."

Anna was overjoyed when she heard this. She knew that this solved everything. If Marcy wanted out, the rest of the game would simply be that much easier.

Anna: "I felt HORRIBLE about scheming against Marcy, but this was the solution to everything. He was supposed to go out at the next vote anyways, but here was his chance to do it on his terms. Plus, I could still keep his jury vote. So, I did everything in my power to encourage the decision without trying to look overeager."

Isabella wasn't surprised when she found out, but she was a bit disappointed. Here went one of her closest allies, as well as a potential final two opponent. Not to mention he was her friend. But what could she do to stop it? Marcy simply wanted out.

Isabella (confessional from day 31): "Marcy wants to quit. He said 'If I wanted to be around a roller-coaster I'd go to Disneyland, not Tonga.' He has tried to be very strategic throughout the game, but in the end he's a softy. He's made some good moves and got this far, but now he's disillusioned and giving up, which I don't approve of but I accept. You can tell he's one of the most depressed ones out here. He misses home, he misses his boyfriend, and he is convinced there is no way he can win."

Marcy (final excerpts to Anna): "I'm honored to be with y'all, seriously, this is an amazing cast. But I'm just not having fun. And I'm serious about the voting me off thing. I don't intend to change my mind this time."

And with that, Marcy quit the game.



~~ Endgame Plans ~~


With Marcy asking people to vote him out, the remaining five players started to make their endgame plans. They also started to assess the threat posed by one another, and tried to pick out just WHO would be their greatest threat to winning the game.

Anna (confessional from day 32): "Mario is my greatest threat right now because he's the one I have given complete power to stab me in the back, plus, even if things go according to plan, he could still beat me in the jury vote. And Bella? Well, I don't know if she's a threat or not. If I KNEW, I could deal with the threat. But it's so hard to figure out her strategy. For some reason, I can't believe that it's merely a simple under the radar strategy. I keep feeling like she's got something up her sleeve. She's kind of like the Matt of this season. The more you get to know her, the creepier she gets. I don't know, I guess "creepy" isn't an explainable word. There's just something very, um, maybe not right about her. I guess it's that I can't figure out if she's an idiot or a mastermind."

Mario (confessional from day 32): "I think I can beat all of them, if I play my cards right. Kathy will be easiest, she is a nobody. Bella I think can be beat because she does nothing strategically whatsoever. I know people have been upset with me, but I think in time that has faded, I think they are starting to respect me now, especially if I can somehow make it to the end. If I face Ronan I think I can win, because he does nothing just like Bella. And ironically, the one I intend to face in the final two, Anna, may be the hardest to beat! But I think I can beat any of them if I play it right."

But as cocky as Anna and Mario were, Isabella still fully intended to win this game. With or without them. And even though her best friend, Marcy, had just been removed from the picture, she was still feeling very confident. Even if she would have to change her plans up a little.

Isabella (confessional from day 32): "Of course Roachy and Anna didn't give Marcy too much thought; they still supposed we were a threesome (even though I knew I was the third wheel) and that we still would outnumber the Anas, so to them voting out Marcy was just a minor bump along the way. But to me, it was losing one of my F3 and a possible final two partner. It ruined my plans. What was I to do? As inconsistent as he was, I just didn't want Marcy to go."

But Isabella DID have a backup plan, and a very clever one at that. She had another friend in the game whose name wasn't Marcy. She had planned for something like this, just in case. And the beauty of it was, nobody knew that she and Ronan even SPOKE to one another.

Isabella: "It all started a few episodes before. Ronan and I were paired in a reward challenge that was tailored specifically for us to win. However, I didn't want him to be viewed as a threat, so I threw the challenge. I didn't want the others to vote him out. Well, Ronan was disappointed, so I decided to use it to my advantage. I suggested, why don't we make our own reward instead? So we went to a secluded area, we sat in imaginary hammocks, and ate imaginary sundaes while we watched the sun set. We fed each other, and then we watched our favorite old movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's and Casablanca on an imaginary movie theater screen. It really was a lot of fun, but the whole time I was thinking strategically and how much more this was getting me into his good graces should I ever need him."

Ronan and Isabella were fast becoming close friends, a fact that they were sure to hide from most everybody. Mario, for one, didn't have a clue that Ronan had ties to anyone in the game other than himself. He clearly considered Ronan to be an ally down the stretch. He thought Ronan was the third vote he needed to get himself to the end.

Mario (confessional from day 33): "I am keeping Ronan around because he does what I say. He's not that bright, he doesn't like making enemies, and he won't do anything to piss me off. Do I feel bad about using him? Of course not. If you play the game with me, I will use you. Ronan just happens to be my favorite plaything at the moment. And he's going to the final three with Anna and me, and that's where he will finish."

But Isabella clearly had other plans...

Isabella (confessional from day 33): "I've now decided I want to take Ronan to the Final 3. He's much more strategic than he lets on. I need to play to that soon so he'll respect me enough to take me to Final 2 if he wins Immunity. I am flirting with him for fun and for strategic reasons, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing it for exactly the same reasons. I don't like cartoons nearly as much as I tell him I do, but hey, it creates a bond. However, I do like Ronan as a person and would like him in the Final 3. Ronan is off alone a lot, but I don't think he's an unhappy person; he's not a sulker. Roach is feeding him all his information and telling him all kinds of things I'm sure, and I'm going to get in on it more very soon. Ronan is not a threat to my plans, I need him to make my plans work. He's my Trump card. I wouldn't mind sitting next to him in the Final 2. It would be a challenge and I believe I could beat him."


~~ Trash Talking ~~


The vote was going to be a no brainer, so this episode was particularly dull and boring. The players were simply bored. So just before Tribal Council, their confessionals started to become a bit more telling. Isabella REALLY started to dig into Mario, just as Anna and Mario more or less solidified their pact to the end, without Isabella. Even with the outcome of the vote not in question, things were REALLY starting to heat up in camp Pulotu.

Isabella: "During Marcy's last convo with me, he was nice enough to tell me everything Anna and Roachy thought about me. "They think you're an idiot." Of course he elaborated much more than that, telling me intimate details of names they'd called me. I didn't know if he was doing this to help me or just coming clean with everything (Marcy was often bothered by a heavy conscious), but it confirmed my suspicions. My strategy was working well, almost too well. They were buying who I was completely, and I couldn't wait to get to the Final 2 to tell them how wrong they'd been about me."

Anna (confessional from day 33): "Mario and I have the most in common, and have been together from the start. We share a similar sense of humor, which makes conversation and communication tons easier. Plus, as ironic as this sounds, I think he is being more honest with me at this time than anyone else. He is absolutely playing to win. There is no reason at all that he shouldn't get to the final 2, unless everyone turns on him. I want to take him to the final 2, because that's where I want to beat him. It's like a movie, you know? The little bad guys die in an unglamorous way a half hour before the movie ends, the cruel but stupid ones die in a horrific way 20 minutes before the end, but the mastermind is taken down by the hero in hand to hand combat in the second to last scene of the movie. (In the last scene, the hero gets the girl, but I don't think this show will end that way.) And so it shall be. I hope. He could still very easily win the jury vote. I could so take someone else and have an easier win, but why would I do that? It just isn't right. Many of the jury members have personally told me that they think he will win if he gets to the jury. Well, they're the jury; let them prove themselves right or wrong. But he and I are the final two, and no other options are acceptable. Both of us could easily still get to the final two even if we screwed the other one over, but that's not the goal. It's an alliance born out of respect and competition. A victory against any other just wouldn't be as sweet."

Mario (confessional from day 33): "I will do anything to win this game. Even if I have to smother the rest of them in their sleep. Okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far. *smile* Yeah, maybe I would... I will stop at NOTHING to win. But you NEED to trust someone in this game. You can be the biggest hardass in the world, and call yourself a lone wolf mercenary, but the fact remains that you NEED to have someone to help you along to the end. You can't do it alone, unless your name is Vecepia. And I have placed a good deal of trust in Anna. We have been very true to one another, as long as we have needed to, anyway."

Isabella (confessional from day 33): "Roach is too strategic; it hurts to watch sometimes. He's unpredictable, the most unpredictable person left in the game, and as much as I don't like him, I like that. He's the biggest threat to my plans, but also the one I want the most, since I want him in Final 2. And to top it off, he's just sleazy. He lies to people just for lying's sake. If you're gonna lie to win this game, don't lie any more than you feel is necessary. Not everything he's done was necessary, he just loves feeling superior and that he's bowling everyone over. Ugh, sometimes he just makes me wanna puke."

Anna (confessional from day 33): "Bella is, as always, a mystery. Taken at face value, she is tagging along with Mario and me, hoping that one of us takes her to the F2. I'm still not convinced she doesn't have some sort of plan to take one of us down earlier. But we both have alliances with her, and I think she'll realize that she is far better off sticking with us than defecting. Even if she were capable of such an act, I don't think she'll try it. But really, right now Bella just seems honestly enthusiastic that she's made it so far."

Mario (confessional from day 32): "It's called a Pagonging. It means the bigger tribe picks off the smaller tribe. And nothing is gonna happen to change it. Bella, Anna and I will be the final three. I don't care what the alternatives are, I knew Marcy wouldn't turn on us, because he has no balls. And I know Bella won't turn on us, because she sucks. The three of us know how to play this game, and we aren't stupid enough to go breaking up a sure thing. Okay, maybe Bella is, but that's HER issue, not ours. There are lots of medications available for conditions like that."

Isabella (confessional from day 32): "The funniest thing is after reading Mario's strategy in his column, I realize I'm doing it to a tee, even better than him. I realized he's been questioning me for a long time now. He thinks I'm not for real. He still does, but I know there's a gnawing at the back of his mind going "maybe she is for real" and that's what I work with. I also work with the knowledge that he thinks I'm likeable but might not win a jury vote, which is completely false. I'll beat anyone. The thing about Roach is that he wants to play a good strategy so much, but he just can't help himself to break out of it. He's like a little boy who knows he'll get an even bigger treat if he doesn't eat the candy in front of him, but not being able to resist eating that candy. He didn't tell us his real name because it was strategy or because he felt sorry for us, I don't care what he says. I know human nature too well. He told it because he wanted to brag. He'd lost hope and just couldn't hold it in anymore, he had to reveal his "masterfulness" so everyone could admire him. Bad boy, Roach, you got the candy but you're not going to be the one with the Big Treat. As for me, my candy is right in front of me, where's it's going to stay. I can wait."

Anna (confessional from day 33): "I can't tell how close Kathy and Ronan are, but my guess is not very close. We did a pretty thorough job of splitting the Anas into fractured bits, and the two who remain are about as far apart as any two we could have chosen. And Ronan is toast unless he goes on an immunity spree. He knows it, too. He doesn't put a lot of effort into communication anymore. He talks to no one, and he just does his thing. He still helps out around camp, and he tries his best in the challenges, but other than that, he's not really playing the game anymore. He has decided that if he's going to go, he's going to go with dignity, and almost everything he says or does feels like final words, his last chance to say or do the right thing."

Mario (confessional from day 32): "Bella could really care less about strategy, or just doesn't know what to do. This has been a 2-man game, and has been for some time. Anna has done a great job, alongside me. We have been a team. And I don't WANT to ever vote her out, because if I lose, it has to be against her. But if circumstances change, or issues come up, I will boot her. I will consider anything, I never close my mind to outside possibilities. The minute you close your mind in this game is the minute you stop adapting. And at that point, you are dead."

Isabella (confessional from day 32): "What more is there to say about Anna? She quirky, she's Anna. I really do like her; she grows on you. She plays more than she lets on, but she's still Anna. Anna is like clockwork, what plan she likes and thinks is best, she goes with and stays with it until it doesn't work any more. She's actually a good player because she's not naturally a social butterfly but she knows how to ingratiate herself with the people she needs to. But she's also been TOO vague recently and I don't like it. I'm sure she's a good schemer but she's just bad at carrying it out. Anna and Roach cannot both be in the F3 with me. She has been acting very fishy for quite a while now. Either she's a-confused, b-tired, or c-up to something that doesn't include me. I'll be watching."

Anna (confessional from day 31): "I've played this game the best I could. Are there decisions I second-guess? Of course there are. But I can't change them, so I go on from where I am, not where I wish I were. I think I have been intelligent and savvy, although sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have done it with a little bit more integrity. But people with too much integrity don't win Survivor. They rarely make the final 2, so maybe I just had to start playing the game. I dunno."

Mario (confessional from day 33): "I think Anna doesn't respect Bella much, but that could all be an act. They could be MUCH closer than they appear. And just for an insurance policy, I have Ronan's vote on my side. Trust me, I plan these things out ahead of time, I need someone to cover my back in the final four, and Ronan is the man. He is there to ENSURE that Bella and Anna don't gang up on me. Call it a pre-emptive strike if you will, but I always try to cover my butt. And obviously I consider Anna to be my greatest threat. No question. I think most of the others have given up (Ronan), are deaf mutes (Kathy) or are simply unable to play on their own (Bella). Anna is the only other one who works it on a daily basis. And honestly, if Anna or I do not win, this whole game will be a fraud. No one else has even come CLOSE to any winner potential. Only the two of us have worked it as the game should be played. So if anyone else wins, I hope the viewers watch 'Friends' instead. Ross porking Rachel will be a better payoff than any of the other three winning."

And as always... Isabella tended to win the confessional wars.

Isabella (confessional from day 33): "You know, the other day I learned that Roach feels free to call lots of us "dumbasses" in his confessionals, and he wanted to let us poor, stupid, sympathetic people know it because he couldn't help not telling us. Well, I'm speaking on behalf of all of us "dumbasses" in this confessional, and this one's just for you, Roach: Roach, you're a dumbass. Before you call someone else a dumb-ass, you should look in the mirror, dumb-ass. You're such a dumbass that your dumb ass couldn't even keep your one dumb-ass trump card a secret. Hey, dumbass, you just ruined your chances. If you're gonna have a dumb-ass "master" strategy, then stick to it and don't open your dumb-ass mouth and blab. You did a lot of dumbass things and I'm sure you'll continue to do a lot of dumbass things. You thought that your dumbass Mormon minister would be the star of the season, but I will personally make sure you're the dumbass of the season when I vote your dumb ass off. Dumbass."



~~ A Mercy Boot ~~



Despite all the confident confessionals, there was still the matter of Marcy. He still had to be booted out, so the six members of Pulotu hiked to Tribal Council. Anna was immune, having won her first individual challenge, and the vote looked to be a sure thing. Even if Anna and Isabella STILL felt bad about the circumstances of it all.

Anna (confessional from day 33): "I adore Marcy as a person, but as a player, his time is up. He sits around all day, whines about people not playing fairly, and then goes around making alliances with everybody he can find. I don't know what went wrong with him, but he is absolutely miserable. You can just sense that is he so unhappy... it borders on clinical depression. He is a genuine sweetheart, and I earnestly wish that things had turned out differently. I care about him and worry about him in a much deeper way than just what happens surrounding camp and the game. I wish I could protect him from what he's going through, but right now, the only way I can think of to help him is to get him off the island. Funny. Mercy boots are supposed to come in the first few episodes, but this one doesn't take place until Day 33."

Kathy (pre-vote confessional): "I'm voting for Marcy. He doesn't deserve to be here. The little leech with his whiny, sniveling "poor me" attitude has latched on to whatever he can to keep himself in the game. I'm sick of him and his lies."

And as expected, Marcy was voted out 5-1. Isabella had considered trying to get Mario out, just to mix things up, but in the end had decided to spare him. She knew Marcy wanted out. And besides, she knew she would someday get the chance to take down Mario down the road.

Isabella: "Again he'd been spared. I felt like a cat in hiding, watching the mouse scurry around below me, knowing I could kill it whenever I wanted, but thinking it much funner to watch it scurrying around all over the place. So instead of killing the scurrying mouse, I killed the one that was almost dead anyway. I suppose I did the humane thing. Whatever."

And with Marcy gone... the game was down to five.

Isabella (voting for Marcy): "Marcy, you are like a younger brother to me. I believe you are going to have an amazing and wonderful life, and I want nothing less for you. When you are in an hour of darkness, there will be an answer. There will be a light shining on you, and the wisdom is inside of you. Goodbye, Marce; I love you."

EPISODE 12 - Bullying Anna

Pulotu Tribe: Anna, Isabella, Kathy, Mario, Ronan

Isabella (confessional from day 34): "Everyone here has thought they were the only mastermind since Day 1, and now they're all shitting in their pants realizing everyone else here is trying for the same thing. And you know, I have one thing to say to them: Get over it! I mean, come on, Wasn't it obvious? Now they're all worried they'll look stupid because someone else was a better mastermind than them. Well, reality check- You will! There's only one winner here, not sixteen. Remember, playing Survivor is like having sex- like having one big orgy where only one person gets to have an orgasm at the end."

With Marcy gone, the game was down to five. Isabella, Mario and Anna called the shots, and poor Kathy and Ronan were drifting in the wind. The two of them were entirely at the mercy of the three Tumus and had little, if any, control over their fate at the moment.

Mario (confessional from day 34): "Now we're down to the final five. Just me, Anna, Bella, Ronan and Kathy. It should be a pretty simple march to the final two, with only immunity causing any problems. I still think it will be Anna and myself at the end, we just have to play it smart and not let people realize we are a team. We have done pretty well so far, now it's just a matter of riding this sucker all the way to the end.

Kathy appeared to be more or less resigned to her fate, as she didn't spend too much time strategizing. She didn't spend too much time even online, it appeared to the Tumus that she had given up. But that was NOTHING compared to Ronan, who had just simply disappeared. As it turned out, he wasn't even in the country at the moment.

Ronan: "I had to take a pair of international flights during this time period, so I wasn't even in the game. I was gone! But realistically, I know this was something that could work either for me or against me. It would be easy enough for them to target me when I was gone. They wouldn't think twice about it, and I knew Kathy wouldn't mind voting for me. But hopefully Coach would be able to do something to save me. So I just decided "to hell with it." Let’s just see if it works, and if it doesn’t there's not much I can do about it. So it was a gamble either way."

Mario: "Ronan just disappeared. And honestly, no one really noticed at first. He seldom talked to anyone, and was rarely around most of the time ANYWAY. So we just figured, oh well this is his new strategy. Just never log in. I suppose it says something about the guy when he doesn't show up for three days and people just assume it is something strategic. But dealing with Ronan meant learning to live without seeing him very often."



~~ Ronan or Kathy ~~


The next boot was going to be Ronan or Kathy, and everybody knew it. But there was one catch... the Tumus did not have a consensus over who needed to go first. All three of them had vested interests in keeping either Ronan OR Kathy around, and all for their own personal reasons.

Anna (confessional from day 35): "I want to keep Kathy around because she has earned this. Besides me, only Mario and Kathy both deserve to be here. Well, Mario more than Kathy. Kathy has now given up and isn't trying anymore. That is SO not Ultimate Survivor behavior. But she DID play really hard in the face of adversity for a long time. She deserves props for that, and I'd like to keep her here."

Mario (confessional from day 34): "At the next vote, I'm voting for Kathy. Because I just don't like her. The two of us have been at each other's throats since the merge, and I don't think it is possible for her to hate me any more than she already does. But she wants me out, and I want to kick her ass to the curb. So at least we're on the same wavelength. But really, there's more to it than that. By keeping Ronan around, I also keep around a person who will be loyal to me, which may pay off in the end. Besides, Kathy wants me gone too badly, and we simply can't have that.

Isabella: "I'd known for a long time I didn't want Anna and Roach with me at the end, so that meant there'd have to be an Ana in the final three. I'd have to get Roach and the Ana into the F3 with me, and make sure Roach could beat the Ana and take me to the F2 with him. Really, Kathy and Ronan were very weak and very low on will by this point and I had a feeling the final IC would be will-based. I knew Roach would beat either of them, so it was my choice. And really, Ronan was an easy choice to keep. We were close, I still hadn't had to use him yet, and he was still my trump card. So therefore the next two boots had to be Kathy and Anna."

Mario and Isabella wanted to keep Ronan around, for their own personal gain. Both of them were quite confident that he would be their "trump card" at the end. And now, it was just a matter of convincing Anna to boot Kathy instead, althought that was going to be a problem. You see, Anna didn't like Ronan. She didn't want him around, she knew he was a physical threat, and she was well aware that Ronan was close to Mario. Plus she just didn't respect his strategy. Anna thought it was tremendously unfair that a guy who never logged on should stay in the game. Her sense of fairness screamed that Ronan shouldn't be here, because at least Kathy TRIED. So it was going to be a hard sell. Mario and Isabella were going to have to bully her into voting out Kathy.

But they were going to try. Because they both expected that once Kathy was removed from the picture, they would have this game sewn up....



~~ Kathy's Reward ~~



Isabella: "I knew the reward challenge would be a good chance to build up a case against Kathy. The winner was going to get a huge reward and I could see that Kathy had a chance to win this one. It was all based on distributing points to your skills in a certain way to maximize your performance. And in a way, the winner would be determined by who figured out how best to distribute those points. I also knew that if she won, she'd be seen as the bigger threat. So being good at mathematics, I figured out the most beneficial way to distribute the points and I went straight to Kathy and told her. I made it look as if I was asking her what she thought the best way would be then saying, "Oh wait, I've got it! If you do it like this, it'll maximize your performance" as if I just figured it out as we were talking. She bought it without question and actually started talking to me more intimately thinking I'd really helped her out there."

Isabella helped Kathy win the reward challenge, knowing the ripple effect it was going to cause. Kathy was going to get a huge boost in energy and, even better, would get to bring someone along. And as luck would have it, Kathy chose her only friend left in the game, Anna. Kathy and Anna would be getting an energy boost together.

Isabella: "Things were going great. Now I was hoping Roach wouldn't be happy Kathy had taken Anna... and he would start to question any deal he had going with Anna. I kept hinting to him that Kathy and Anna are very close. At any rate, it made Kathy seem like much more of a threat than Ronan, and really with Roach I didn't have to do much work. I knew he wanted Kathy gone."

Mario: "Isabella came to me and started up with her case against Kathy and Anna. And really, it didn't matter to me. I wanted Kathy GONE anyway, so it was like reminding me to breathe air. Duh. But what Isabella failed to realize is that Anna and I were close. VERY close. Not only were we very close, we were ALSO planning on voting Isabella out next. So my conversations with Bella around this point started to take a different turn than she had expected. She had no idea I had such a sense of loyalty to Anna."

Isabella: "The plan now was simple. First vote Kathy out, which would be easy, and then get Anna out. All I had to do was ask Roach for a F2 pact and convince him how much of a threat Anna was. See, by this point it had become obvious to me how much a general threat Anna was in every way. She had saved up a bunch of will so she was a sure shot to win the last IC which I thought would be will-based, and if she got to the F2, she was very well respected by all of the Survivors. I thought unless Roach were an idiot, he'd want to go to the F2 with me."

Mario: "What surprised Isabella was that I suggested voting out Anna first. I was really just trying to throw off the fact that Anna and I were going to the final two, and I wanted to start putting ideas in Bella's mind that I didn't like Anna. Plus I just wanted to mess with her head. So before she had a chance to even bring it up, I just flat out asked her "Would you help me vote out Anna at the final four?'"

Isabella: "All I wanted was a F2 with Roach. Anna couldn't be there, and Ronan in the final two would be the most boring thing this side of watching the grass grow. It had to be Roach and me. It was destiny, and if nothing else we'd both make great tv in the finals. So I was planning to go to him to talk more about our F2 alliance soon. I had just been waiting to see if he'd come to me first. And he did. But things didn't go exactly as planned for either of us. In fact, for what we both had planned, things went terribly wrong- on both sides. I was actually a little surprised when he suggested voting Anna out. I was expecting him to talk to me about us going to the F2. But I had thought I'd have to convince him to vote Anna out at F4 over Ronan. Things went opposite to how I was thinking they'd go. He told me he was thinking of voting out Anna at F4, and that was only an option, and even so, after that, anything was possible."

Mario: "I was just making things up as I went along. I rarely planned stuff out ahead of time. I just happened to be bored that day and (as usual) decided to play around with someone. Plus I was kind of getting sick of Bella and wanted to toy with her. I had no idea she had any plans other than to coast along with Anna and me to the final two. I just wanted her to think I was her friend before we booted her."

Isabella: "Roach told me he had a F2 alliance with everyone but Kathy, but he wasn't sure which one he was going to honor. He said he wanted two people in the F3 who would both take him to F2. I asked him if he thought he could beat me in F2 and he said yes, but he was worried because I had too few enemies. I asked him if he wanted me there with him or not, and he said he hadn't decided; he wasn't sure."

Mario: "This was probably the only time in the game my quest for jury votes kind of got in the way. You see, every so often I would be nice to future jurors, just to try to win a vote or two at the end. And that's what I was doing here. I just didn't think I could say "Yes I will take you to the F2 for sure" when I knew I wouldn't. For whatever reason, that crossed some ethical boundary for me this late in the game. So I waffled too much and... I think I made her worry."

Isabella: "All I wanted was a guarantee of our F2. I hate indecision. It's for pussies. In my opinion, if he wasn't gonna take me, lie to me. If he was, tell me the truth. And if he was undecided, just pretend. But he didn't do that. He told me he wasn't sure who Anna woukd take, he wasn't sure who I'd take (even though I told him I'd take HIM!), and even though he was sure Ronan would take him to the F2, he knew Ronan couldn't win the final challenge no matter what it was. And I knew this as well. Roach would beat Ronan at almost ANY competition, especially will, so I wasn't worried. But I just never got my F2 promise. And he has since told me he was doing this to secure a jury vote. He wanted to come off as honest to me so I'd respect him later on. He's since learned it was the exact wrong thing to do. Because I just NEEDED a guarantee that he would take me to the final two. He was the only one I cared about since I knew he'd take me to the end over Ronan. But instead he basically told me that Anna probably wouldn't take me to the F2, he might not take me to the F2, and Ronan sure as hell wouldn't take me to the F2. And from the sound of it, one of his options was voting me off at F4. Well, that sure is reassuring. Thanks, Roachy Roach."

Mario: "I played this game as hard as I could, and as mean as I could, but every so often my conscience crept up on me and screwed me over. And really, as much as I hate to admit it, I just couldn't lie to Bella's face right before I canned her. She was usually so meek, and so sweet, and so innocent, that I just couldn't do it. So it hurts me to say this (and I'm sure looks horrible in hindsight), but I just didn't want to make her a promise this late that I knew I would break. The Bella I knew wouldn't be able to take that. Little did I know that she WASN'T the Bella we all knew. But at the time I figured, well I'll just tell her the truth. Since I have Ronan and Anna's vote anyway, what will it matter? She and Kathy can't possibly stop me."

But the damage had already been done.

Isabella (confessional from day 36): "Oh, Roachy, what does he think he's trying to play with me? I don't like indecision. It's for pussies. Didn't he watch Survivor 6? I was expecting him to make me a deal. Well, there are two options as to what he's doing; one is that he really is just indecisive and two is that he wants there to be confusion and mistrust. He could be setting me up to just become paranoid. Whichever option is correct, I have to protect myself. If Kathy goes tonight as planned, all hell's gonna break lose afterwards. I'm planning to tell Anna every single word of what he said and then some. Instead of saying we didn't decide, I'm gonna tell Anna he offered me the deal and I took it so he wouldn't be suspicious of me, and that he said he was going to also talk to her since he will. That way, once he talks to her, she won't believe him when he says we didn't make the deal yet; she'll think he's playing her too. If he's playing a game, I'll beat him at it. If not, then he's an idiot for not deciding sooner."


~~ Anna and Mario ~~


Isabella and Mario had already bullied Anna into voting for Kathy. Anna wasn't happy, but it was the majority opinion of her alliance, so she wasn't worried. Besides, Mario PROMISED her he had Ronan in his hip pocket. And she usually would defer to him if he pushed hard enough.

Isabella: "I could tell she didn't have a good feeling about it, but she was outnumbered. She didn't realize it at the time, but she was signing her death warrant. Besides, she didn't have any other choices anyway. Mario never would've voted out Ronan and, even though he didn't realize it, neither would I."

But now, Isabella was left to wonder about Anna and Mario. She already knew that Mario claimed Anna was next, but now she was beginning to wonder. She knew the two of them had a bond, and were close. But HOW close was the question.

Isabella: "My plan to get to the end with Roach always had some problems. First, Roach didn't know I wanted him there with me."

Mario: "Not only did I NOT want Bella in the finals, I just didn't think she belonged. I had started to grow more and more agitated in recent days that she had a chance to win this, simply by riding our coattails. As an author of these stories, I just kept thinking "Man, that sucks.' Bella's gonna be in the final three if we don't get rid of her. And she is just boring. I was offended by that as well. How can we let someone so boring get to the end?"

Isabella: "The second problem is that he and Anna were getting too close... even though they were trying to keep it secret. Because even if they didn't have an alliance, they DID have a bond. That was obvious."

Mario (chatting with Anna on day 35): "I always try to be funny in my confessionals. Either mean or funny, one way or another it has to be entertaining. And that's my job, it has to be. Because I don't think anyone else here is going for entertainment purposes. Certainly not Bella or Ronan anyway. *rolling my eyes*"

Anna (chatting with Mario on day 36): "We still need her vote going into the F4, although she won't see it coming when we boot her. But really... knowing her, she'll still be happy when she's booted. 'Oh, I'm just happy I made it to the Final 4. Tumutumu all the way! lol!'"

Isabella knew that Mario and Anna talked behind her back, and were friends, but she STILL believed that the two of them didn't trust one another. She really had no clue that Anna and Mario were in it to the end, for real.

Isabella: "I had thought they might already have a F2 pact, but I never would've thought both were intent on keeping it. I knew they had both thought I was stupid and considered me the odd man out, but I was thinking that would just make them BOTH want me in the final two all that more. See, at different times they had both already made me F2 pacts. Pretty much ever since Jay had left, I had had a F2 pact with every Tumu left. I had one with Marcy, I had one with Anna, I had one with Mario. However, neither Anna nor Mario ever talked to me much about our F2 pacts after they were made. Instead it was usually just "The three of us have to get to the F3."

Mario: "The fundamental thing about Anna and me that Isabella failed to grasp, and still probably DOESN'T grasp to this day, is that we only wanted to beat one another. In my mind, Bella didn't belong, neither did Ronan, and neither did Kathy. Bella was an easier win, but it would be pathetic if she was anywhere NEAR the final two. So I wasn't going for an easy win, I wanted nothing to do with Bella (or any of the rest) even having a chance to win. I wanted to beat Anna, or her to beat me. Case closed. That's the difference between Isabella and me that I still think she has never understood. And really, once I knew Ronan and Anna would be with me in the final four, we just started to treat Bella like shit. We stopped the nice act and just talked down to her. Believe me, we had wanted to do this for a LONG time. It was almost cathartic in a way."

Isabella: "This is around the time of the game Anna and Roach started getting actually mean with me on occasions. They'd both make derogatory comments right in front of me, and think I wasn't clever enough to pick them up. I would just smile and act as if I didn't notice. I wasn't surprised Roach did it, he did it to everyone. But I was a little surprised that Anna would do it, especially anything on matters of intelligence. I had played this naive, slightly stupid girl so well that Anna was actually annoyed with the way I acted. I now know she'd thought this way before, but I didn't pick up on it until around this time. But at the time, I STILL didn't know they had a F2 that they were both planning on honoring. I figured they had a deal, of course, since I had one with each of them. But I had no idea they intended to keep theirs."

But for now, Isabella assumed that either one of them would take her to the finals. She assumed that Anna and Mario didn't want to face each other at the end. And for perhaps the first time in the game, Isabella was WRONG.

Anna (confessional from day 36): "Mario and I are tight. Like I said earlier. it's too late in the game for loose alliances. Unless he thinks that I'm a sinking ship, he won't abandon me. As long as we CAN make it to F2 together, that's what we're going to do."

Isabella (confessional from day 36): "Anna and Roach are close but I know they don't trust each other. I am keeping the possibility open that they are closer than I think, but I have kept both of them here on purpose. It was a risk, but I knew and have known that Anna has been hoarding her will since day 1, and hopefully she won't get a chance to finally use it. All I had to do was get Roach to realize that as well, and I thought he might figure it out on his own anyway. The risk was that I knew they are both smart players, and that Roach really might want the toughest Final 2 opponent to see if he could beat her, and they could have a secret deal. But I took my chance and hopefully it will pay off. In the end, I don't think Roach wants to lose, which he would against Anna, and I think he knows that, so I think he'll want me (or possibly Ronan) there with him at the end. And if they didn't have a very secret deal, I knew Anna would want me there with her too, she'd think she could beat me possibly and she'd think she was taking the most deserving player along."



~~ The Final Four ~~



The vote was going to be no surprise, as Kathy was set to be eliminated. Mario, Isabella and a (begrudging) Anna had all decided to remove her from the game. Ronan had not been seen all week, so he was essentially along for the ride too. The final four was about to be determined.

Mario: "In my mind, Kathy was my last real enemy in the game. I had made it a point to pick out archrivals all along, and systematically get rid of them. Jenne, Jayemel, Jamie, Lindsay, Marcy, and now Kathy, all of them gone. With Kathy it was the easiest, because she really DID hate me. She hated me even before we ever met. First off, Marcy told her my real identity before I even met her, and then Isabella helped to trash me as well. And then Anna (in her quest to get Kathy to turn on CJ), told Kathy that I stored up willpower and that I was just a royal asshole as well. So Kathy hated my guts before I even met her! Believe me, I was going to vote her off with glee."

Anna (confessional before Tribal Council): "I'm voting for Kathy because Mario and Bella say she is the greater threat. While I agree, I still wish I could have bought her a few more days, because I owe her. She helped keep me here and helped us get out CJ. She deserves to stay more than Ronan does, but objectively, she DOES have more will and energy. I hate to watch her go, but that's what's going to happen."

Mario (confessional before Tribal Council): "Kathy picked a fight with me, and that's not nice. I ALWAYS win fights out here. Besides, she just got a huge boost in energy and willpower in the reward and for that, I'd like to reward her myself-- with a swift dumping to the curb. And of course, as always, you will notice that Bella will escape from this vote scot free. She NEVER gets votes against her. But that will change very soon..."

Isabella: "Just before she left, Kathy tried to get a girl's alliance of me, Anna and herself. She said the three of us deserved it the most, and wanted an all-girl Final 3. I know she was just using the tool she had, but why do girls always bring up all-girl stuff? I mean I want ME to win, and I'm a girl, but besides that I don't care. A person is a person. I humored her and promised her I was with her. Then I voted her out."

Despite the fact that he had not even spoken with anyone in nearly a week, Ronan was spared. He would be going to the final four.

Ronan: "Somehow my strategy worked. It was a gamble, but it paid off. I was now in the final four with three original Tumutumus."

Kathy was voted off, and the game had now reached its apex. Only four remained.

Isabella (voting for Kathy): "I admire your desire to help children and I suppose you are good at it. However, I am good at helping myself. You have nothing more to offer me. I have used you to my advantage, and now I don't need you anymore. Goodbye."

Mario (voting for Kathy): "And I will strike down upon thee with GREAT vengeance and FURIOUS anger those who would attempt to poison and DESTROY my brothers. And you will KNOW my name is the Lord when I lay my VENGEANCE upon thee."

Mario, Isabella, Anna and Ronan were the final four.

And there were just three more days to go.

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