Survivor: Tonga Summary

Episodes 5-7

Tumutumu Tribe: Anna, Isabella, Jayemel, Marcy, Mario(Nick), Taylor
Ana Tribe: CJ, Jamie, Kathy, Lindsay, Ronan, Tenzil

(Special note: This summary assumes that you read the first two episodes of Tonga. I didn't go into a whole lot of backstory. But if you are new to the project, you can catch up on the backstory and all the player bios at the Official Tonga Website.)

EPISODE 5

Tenzil: "When the Tumus booted Dave, we had been kind of surprised. And then when their second boot came around, We tried to figure out who they'd get rid of... and were surprised to see it was Jenne. She had been an MVP in two challenges and had never been less then solid. As it turned out, all the Tumu boots befuddled me. They never made any sense."


~~ TUMUTUMU ~~


Mario (confessional from day 13): "Getting rid of Jenne worked out exactly as planned. And to make it even better, Taylor voted with us! He completely made it possible for us to set him up now, and maybe have him take the fall for this. He made it easy, life is good! We also learned a valuable lesson last night, as to why I voted for Jenne. The answer, of course, is that I voted her out because I could. If I want someone to go, they will go. Simple as that."

With Jenne now removed from the picture, it appeared that the Tumu foursome would be set to the end. Marcy, Isabella, Mario and Jayemel all had plans to be the final four. They were now the powerhouse alliance, even if they didn't yet know what to call themselves.

Mario: "We were the 'Outcast Alliance.'

Isabella: "I called us 'Isabella and the Boys.'

But it was true that they had taken over the tribe. And now... just one last step remained. They now had to convince Anna to stay on board with them, and not take her head out of the game. It was in nobody's best interest to have Anna pissed off about it all. And as expected, Anna was not pleased at the moment.

Anna (confessional from day 13): "Jeff pulled the first two votes out, and I was expecting them. Both were for Jayemel. Then the next vote was for... Jenne??? What on earth? Oh well, I figured that was Jay's target, and that Jenne would get two votes. I was still trying to figure out why on earth he would go for Jenne when her second and third votes were read. Once I heard the third vote, I knew something was wrong. Very, very wrong. I knew she was gone. Then Jeff read the fourth vote, and I nearly choked. He stopped reading, and I realized that other than me and Jenne, the vote had been unanimous! That means that EVERYBODY was in on it except me!"

Mario: "No one had told her, and that was intentional, of course. And for a control freak leader-type like Anna, this was devastating. It was a big cold slap in the face, and she knew it. The inmates were now running the asylum, and she was yesterday's news."

Anna was mad, and all the members of Tumu knew that she was going to be trouble. So one by one, they went to her, to try to explain the reason for the Jenne boot. And immediately, it was clear what their true colors were, because everyone had a different story. Almost immediately, the solidarity of the "Tumu Four" fell apart.

Anna: "Believe me, I logged RIGHT onto IM as soon as "silence period" ended, and went after everyone. Well, everyone except Taylor. I had so little regard for him, that I didn't care at all what he had to say. And not surprisingly, everyone pointed fingers at someone else."

Isabella: "Anna was really confused but I gave her the whole story and I was the first one to do so. She was as blunt and honest as ever, saying she still liked me, but didn't know if she could trust me anymore. I knew it was going to be a hard sell. Luckily Nick was there to back up my story and say that he was in on it but Jay was the mastermind and she had been spared."

Jayemel explained that Jenne had been a threat, could not be trusted, and this had been a group decision.

Marcy apologized profusely, saying he had WANTED to tell Anna, but the rest of the alliance wouldn't let him. He truthfully said that he had no idea who was really calling the shots.

Isabella claimed that she was sent a threatening letter by Jayemel, which said 'Vote for Jenne or else.'

And Mario backed up the letter story, while also trying to paint himself as the good guy. He explained that he was the one who helped spare Anna at the last minute. He claimed that Jay and Marcy had wanted Anna gone... but Mario had persuaded them to pick Jenne instead.

Anna (confessional from day 13): "Jay said that he never ever intended to vote me off. Marcy said that I was 'safe,' Nick said I was 'spared,' Bella said 'does my hair look okay?' and Taylor said 'Me Taylor. Jenne gone. Ugh.'"

With Anna getting four versions of the same story, she was understandably confused. All of a sudden, EVERYBODY seemed to be against her. No one seemed to budge from their story, and she had no idea who to trust.

Anna: "And despite what they said, I knew I was next. Screw everyone else who said I wasn't. Everyone knows that if you have a 5-2 vote against someone, the other part of the "2" goes next. That's just common sense."

But out of all of them, Anna seemed to direct the majority of her anger at one person: Isabella. Isabella, the sweet, good natured girl who seemed to get along with everybody. Isabella, the only other female left in Tumu. And Isabella... the one who Anna THOUGHT had been her friend.

Anna (confessional from day 13): "Bella's vote stuck out. That hurt. She and I had been in an ALLIANCE. You generally aren't supposed to break those things without at least informing the other members. Kinda ruins the whole point, no? But she was supposed to be in this with me until the end. She was supposed to be the one I trusted. Tumutumu girls stick together, right? Well screw that and its frickin' mother. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Isabella is a lying sack of New York s**t."

So much for the 'love tribe' of Tonga. Anna had no idea who to believe, and none of their stories matched up. Tensions were high... and things were suddenly about to fall apart for everybody.




~~ ANA ~~



Conversely, over at tribe Ana things were going quite smoothly. For the first time all game, the tribe was now working as a team. Tenzil had toned down his forcefulness somewhat, and was now proving to be an effective organizer. Maybe people had been wrong about him, maybe the guy really DID know what he was doing.

The rest of the team settled nicely into place as well. Jamie was happy and secure, quite comfortable with his place behind Tenzil. Ronan was still staying as low as humanly possible, trying to make people forget all about him. Lindsay wasn't the biggest Tenzil fan in the world, but she had proven her loyalty to him at the last vote, AND she was unstoppable in challenges, so she was perfectly safe. And CJ, of course, was the queen of Ana. She was more or less calling the shots on everything that happened around camp. With ties to everyone in the tribe, and Tenzil making puppy dog eyes at her, she was at the epicenter of power. And for the first time all game, the Anas were now a happy, healthy little family.

Jamie: "All in all, most of us didn't worry about our place in the tribe. One reason most of us felt secure was that we had the next boot all lined up, so no one had to fear leaving for at least one Tribal Council."

That boot was Kathy. The outsider.

Lindsay: "Kathy was next, and she knew it. I felt bad, too, since I had backstabbed her without word at the last vote. I felt kind of responsible for her position in the game now, but we still talked, of course. Neither of us ever mentioned my betrayal, she just seemed like the same old Kathy around me. But deep down, she knew she was gone."

Kathy was well aware that she was the next to go. She had no ties to anyone but Lindsay, and Lindsay had already thrown her hat in with Tenzil. Kathy was not the best liked member of the bunch, she wasn't around as much, and in her mind, the tribe had more or less told her on a daily basis that she wasn't one of them.

Simply put, she was dead meat.




~~ THE TWIST ~~



Most of the players were expecting a twist at some point in the game. And when it got down to six on each team, everyone had a pretty good idea it was coming.

Ronan: "We won the last reward feast, so all our strength and energy was back to maximum. We knew that we would definitely win the next challenge, so this seemed to be a little too good to be true. And when it was announced that the next reward challenge would be held live online, I knew it was going to be the twist. I knew I had to be there, no matter what."

People had tried to plan for a twist as best they could, and now it was here. And luckily, nobody was really caught off guard. But it was still clear that some people would be helped, and some people would be hurt. As for the twist itself... it was basically a speed-typing contest. The eldest members of each team, Mario and Tenzil, would stay on their original tribes. And then the remaining players in the game were all asked a simple question.

"Which team do you want to be on?"

Isabella: "The thing was, only the first four people to type could remain on the same team, so slow typers were screwed. And when I saw that Nick had to stay on Tumu and that there'd probably be 4 Tumus to 2 Anas left on Tumutumu, I wanted to stay there. Also, I was the searcher, and I knew that in food-scarce Tumu I was much more needed. Plus, I just didn't like the idea of having bat shit all over me like the Anas did. I was the first person to type anything. I think I pressed return like a millisecond after he said "go."

Ronan: "I’m not the fastest typist in the world so I got screwed, I got shafted. Here I was safe for the next Ana vote, finally. And now I'm going to Tumu. Now I'm part of the minority!"

CJ was not online, and Ronan was the slowest, so they were the only two Anas to switch teams. The two of them were now members of Tumutumu.

Marcy, also unable to be online, joined scapegoat Jayemel as the two Tumus to leave. They both came over to join the Anas.

And now, there were two completely new tribal setups:


Tumutumu: Anna, Isabella, Taylor, Mario, CJ, Ronan
Ana: Jamie, Lindsay, Tenzil, Kathy, Jayemel, Marcy


Mario: "I got REALLY lucky with that twist. I had been placing all the blame on Jay and Marcy, and now they were gone! It was unbelievable. If they had stuck around, they could have blown me out of the water. And since my strategy was to badmouth people when they couldn't defend themselves, I was now home free. I could say anything bad about Jay that I wanted, and he couldn't rebut anything anymore. Take care, Jay, enjoy your gangbanging!"

Jayemel: "The switch KILLED me. I wanted to yell out in frustration. Marcy and I got put into a 4-2 minority while Mario was given 2 new pawns I knew nothing about. I'm sure he was licking his lips to get to them. But then Jeff Probst changed it all. He told us that the two new tribe members would be immune for their first Tribal Council. My spirits skyrocketed immediately."

Sure enough, the new rule was in effect for both teams. As with in Tongan custom, a host was obliged to show hospitality to his guests. So the two "newcomers" to each tribe would be immune for their first Tribal Council.

That definitely threw a wrench into the works, for everybody.

Tenzil: "The switch. God, I hated it. First of all, Mario and I had no say whatsoever in where we went. We stayed put. But people who switched tribes got immunity from the first council. So if switching had a strategic value, the two of us didn’t get to use it! I also hated that it all but guaranteed the tribes would merge even. It was a sort of overt manipulation that I detested because it rendered the first six weeks of the game pointless."


~~ NEW TUMU AND NEW ANA ~~


Both teams awoke the next morning to a potentially dicey situation. All of a sudden, they had two new tribe members. Two tribe members who were IMMUNE and could not be voted off. And for the Anas, it was a less than welcome homecoming. Jay and Marcy never really fit in, from the moment they arrived.

Lindsay: "The Tribal switch sucked. We lost Ronan and CJ and gained the 'wonderful' company of Marcy and Jayemel. Marcy was a really fun guy, but he wasn't around much. And Jayemel was just... weird."

While on Tumu, it was clear that Anna had to be contained, and fast.

Mario: "Anna still didn't know who to believe about the Jenne vote. I had trashed Jayemel pretty badly, and now he wasn't here to defend himself, so I got lucky. Anna was pretty much forced to side with Isabella and me, simply because she had no choice. Anna couldn't STAND Taylor, so eventually she had to throw her hat in with us instead. She had been backed into a corner, but so had we."

Anna (confessional from day 13): "I like Jay, but now he's gone. And now, I'm stuck with Bella AND Taylor. Not really being able to stand either of them at the moment, I'm doing everything I can to get in good with Nick."

Anna was still upset, but realized that she had to suck it up and find some protection. And protection she found, in a brand new 3-person alliance.

Isabella: "So I was talking to Anna and talking to Nick. I wanted us to make a Final 3 pact but I wanted one of them to suggest it instead, so I figured Nick would be the most likely candidate. In all our talks I hinted and alluded to it and the fact that Anna would be very useful. Finally he did suggest an alliance, we got Anna in, and voila, the alliance of Isabella-Anna-Nick was born."


~~ IMMUNITY CHALLENGE ~~


New Tumu and New Ana went to the immunity challenge with a lot of uncertainty in the air. Things were tense. It was evident that the 2-person minority on either tribe could force a tie if they wanted to. If Marcy/Jayemel or Ronan/CJ wanted to stir up the pot, they could very easily cause some trouble at their first Tribal Council. And at the moment, they all fully intended to do so.

Jayemel: "I now had all this power and could tear Ana apart at the seams if I wanted to. It was great. People would be coming to ME because they NEEDED my vote. I was in control of the whole situation."

CJ: "I honestly wanted to throw the immunity challenge, just so the Tumus would have to vote out one of their own. But as it turned out, I couldn't have thrown it anyways."

In a close swimming contest, the Anas managed to eke out a victory. It was mainly due to the efforts of Kathy, who just KNEW she would be the first one off for Ana-- so she poured a maximum amount of energy into the challenge and won it almost single-handedly. And with Ana immune, it meant that Tumutumu would be attending their first Tribal Council as a new tribe. Now, it was time to see just how much damage CJ and Ronan could do to their new teammates. And more importantly, would they?



~~ NEW TUMU ~~


The Tumus had a new tribal makeup, and still did not know each other all that well. It was true that Anna, Mario, Isabella and Ttaylor would have to figure out CJ and Ronan, and what they were capable of, before any voting plans could really take place.

Isabella (confessional on day 14): "Ronan is definitely the type of person who likes to be told what to do by someone he respects, and he likes to follow orders. He seems genuinely nice, but I can tell he's being extra nice as well. And, as usual, I've got him thinking that we think along the same lines. As for CJ, she is very spunky and high-spirited. She instantly took to me. I realized right away she liked men a LOT, so I realized I was at a disadvantage with her not having a penis. She seems really nice....and horny."

Anna: "I took an immediate dislike to CJ. She was just too, err, exuberant for my tastes. I tend to the conservative, and she, was, just, um, NOT. But I didn't trust Ronan very much more. I did at first, because for
some reason I had it in my head that Ronan and Pete had been close friends. I felt sympathetic for him, because I knew what it was like to have a close friend voted out. Ronan played this up as well, trying to make himself appear like an outcast looking for alliances."

And as for the newcomers, they had no idea how to take their new tribe. Ronan and CJ were befuddled by this diverse group of teammates they had managed to obtain. They had no idea what to do, or who to trust.

Ronan: "Now here is where Nick started to play the youth minister act with me. He went into his whole 'I want the good guys to win' speech and I bought it, hook, line and sinker. I had no choice, really, because he told me that he coached baseball, he was a Mormon, and he was Neleh’s cousin. That pretty much sealed it. Whatever happened, in the game or out, I had to get in good with Coach, because I wanted to meet Neleh. Unbeknownst to me, he was lying."

Mario: "We wanted to vote out Taylor. We just couldn't STAND the guy anymore. So the three of us debated for a long time if we should tell Ronan and CJ what the plan was. Did we want to take the risk that they could go to Taylor and force a tie? And finally we decided that they HAD to know. I argued that CJ MIGHT try to force a tie, but I didn't think Ronan would. He wouldn't do that just to spite us. I didn't think he had the stones for that, he seemed like the type who didn't want to make enemies. So I just said, Ronan and CJ won't want to make enemies, not now. Let's just tell them what the plan is and ask them to vote along. Let's all play friends now and hopefully it will pay off later."

Ronan: "Coach, Bella and Anna told me that they were going to be voting for Taylor. I told CJ about their plan, and wanted her and me to talk to Taylor, so we could at least force a tie and make the game interesting. She told me that the best way to go was to vote with the Tumu block. I figured what the heck, we had stayed in the background this long, what could it hurt?"

CJ: "This was my contingency plan, just in case we didn't force a tie. I went with my backup plan instead, to make a temporary alliance with the enemy. I figured that if we went with the group for now, we could strike up a deal with one or two of them later, once they trusted us."

So the plan was decided to vote out Taylor. And it hadn't been too hard of a choice, either. True, he WAS big and strong, but he wasn't particularly well liked by anybody. Taylor's dumb act and paranoia had worn out their welcome very early in the game, and he had been savagely mocked by his teammates almost since day one.

Isabella: "One thing we all did love to talk about was Taylor-and make fun of him. 'Me Taylor. Ugh. Me splash water. Me lawyer. Ugh ugh.' 'Jenne gone. Where Jenne go? Taylor want Jenne. Ugh' We were merciless. I was the first to start comparing him to a caveman, but Nick took the cake for being the meanest. Again, I found it odd a minister would make fun of someone so much, but I didn't think any more about it. I thought everyone had their own oddities and quirks, and that was one of Nick's."

Mario (confessional from day 15): "We love to make fun of his misspellings. He can't spell a damn word right, so it became a contest to see who could make up the funniest "Taylor spelling." I won when I said he probably misspelled "lol" by typing "oll." So anytime the three of us talk strategy, all we have to do is type "oll" and we know we were making fun of Taylor. Oh, and my new nickname for him is "f*ckhead." That pretty much sums up the mood around camp right now. *smile* He will be greatly missed."

Taylor tried his best to get in with CJ and Ronan, and he and CJ flirted up quite a storm. But in the end, it was a bit too little, too late, as the tribe voted unanimously to send him packing.

Taylor: "I really was clueless at this point in the game about what was going on with my tribe. I knew there had been some counter alliance that got Jenne out, and that I was not part of it, but other than that nothing. With the twist, I wanted to try and form an alliance with the two new tribe members, to last at least one vote. CJ and I were already really flirty with each other, and I thought she would talk to Ronan and they would want to vote with me and force a tie. But I only got to talk with Ronan once, and even then it was just short and sweet. So the alliance didn't come through and well neither did I."

Isabella: "I thought we had gained in Ronan and CJ a stupider straight version of Marcy and an even more nymphomaniac version of Jenne. But even though CJ had been all over Taylor, three times as much as Jenne could've ever been, she decided he should go. She voted with the majority. And with that decision, I could see she was a smart player not only playing with her libido."

Taylor was gone, and the New Tumu tribe was down to five.

Anna (voting for Taylor): "It's what everyone has wanted for a while."

EPISODE 6

Tenzil: "They voted out Taylor?? The strongest guy? That’s what we said. By now, we were convinced the Tumus were on crack."


~~ NEW TUMUTUMU~~


Anna (confessional from day 16): "This is definitely my lowest point in the game. Last night's vote against Taylor was a wish and a prayer for me. I knew it would be me or him, and I just HOPED that it was him. I can take NO credit for surviving this vote. It was the whim of fate and the fact that Taylor was SO irritating and annoying that not even Nick could stand him around another 3 days."

Mario: "I debated that choice for a long time afterwards. Did we really want to get rid of Taylor? Should we have chosen Anna instead? I mean, Taylor would have done whatever we said. He was too paranoid. Why did we keep Anna? I was worried that she might still hold a grudge against us. Plus she was sharp. What were we thinking?"

An interesting dynamic was starting to develop between Isabella, Mario and Anna. While it was true that they all NEEDED one another at the moment, no one really knew what to think of one another. And they were ALL starting to buy into misconceptions about one another.

Isabella: "Earlier in the game, I started to realize how well people were starting to trust me and like me and think I was the sweet innocent girl. I hadn't gone in planning to play this part; I had just gone in thinking I'd be whatever each person liked best. And it turned out that most people liked the sweet, innocent, slightly stupid girl. I was actually a little surprised that no one was suspecting me of anything, but I guess I was just too good."

Anna (confessional from day 16): "Bella tries hard, but I'm not buying it. Either she's an evil manipulating backstabbing traitor, or she really is the clueless airhead twit she's acting like. And I KNOW by now that Nick is probably capable of being a LOT more underhanded than he claims. I think he hides behind this "I'm a goody-goody youth minister" front, and in reality, he's capable of lying and backstabbing with the best of them. I know there's more to the Mormon than meets the eye."

Mario (confessional from day 16): "Bella is sweet and innocent and not the slightest bit strategic. If people didn't tell her to move her arms and legs in the water, she would drown. I like her but she is over her head. And Anna is... well... Anna. She's fun to talk to but she'd take revenge against us in a second. Plus she loves to talk about how smart she is. It's annoying."

Isabella (earlier confessional): "Nick is very straightforward and honest. He's great but a huge threat for final 2. But if he gave me his word, I'd trust it through and through. Until recently, he and I had always been amicable, but a bit uncomfortable around each other. He wouldn't suggest an alliance with me, and I wouldn't suggest one with him so we were at a standstill, even though we both trusted each other. But after we made the "Vote Jenne Out" Alliance, we softened up to each other, and I also saw he was sneakier than he wanted people to see. And I liked that."

With Taylor gone, that meant that Tumu was down to five, and CJ and Ronan were no longer safe. They were STILL in the minority, and all of a sudden they were quite vulnerable. So CJ decided to move in with her alliance plan, and see if it would pay off. After all, she had voted with the Tumus at the last vote, so why wouldn't they trust her now?

Just before the Taylor vote, CJ made an alliance offer to Isabella and Mario. She proposed a final four alliance, of CJ, Ronan, Isabella and Mario. And she specifically targeted Mario, as he was still perceived by all as the honest youth minister. So at this point, she went to him and promised him her loyalty to the end, if they would vote together.

Mario: "She told me she would go with me to the final two. If I would help spare her at the next vote, she would dump Ronan and the rest of the Anas, and would be with me to the end. I accepted, of course. You never turn down a deal like that. Even though I expected she probably made the same deal to Isabella. I didn't trust CJ for a second."

Isabella: "My goal now was to just talk to CJ and Ronan more and more. I took her deal, but I still wanted to vote her out if we lost again because I didn't trust her at all. Plus Ronan and I were developing quite a friendship when he was online. I could sense his strategy was to follow the leader, and I tried to keep that in mind since I never wanted myself viewed as the leader."

Both Isabella and Mario took CJ's deal, and she was elated. CJ was now sure she had this game in the palm of her hand. She had two new allies, a solid four person alliance, and at the merge she would be getting back with Tenzil, her boyfriend. Things were looking good.

Little did she know that fate was about to deal her a very cruel blow.



~~ NEW ANA ~~



At Ana, they were experiencing the same sort of strategic dilemna that Tumu had faced the day before. What should we tell Jay and Marcy, and when? And unlike Tumu, the Anas were having a hard time getting along with their new teammates. Jay and Marcy just had not fit in yet, and it didn't look like they were EVER going to.

Tenzil: "Jayemel and Marcy never fit in at all. When they came to us, their energy was SHOT and they sat on their asses a lot while we let them rest. A lot of resentment built up over this. Marcy annoyed us because we hardly saw him online. He then complained about being shunned a bit like it was our fault we didn’t want to stay up to all hours of the night on the off chance he might show up. Jayemel, though, got the brunt of our wrathful and acid-tongued remarks. See, he has a manner of conversing that seems charmingly eccentric in a normal setting. But in Survivor it came across as snotty and aloof and it made us all very distrustful. It really did seem like he would always manage to say something to piss off one of us. We wanted him GONE."

Jamie: "I liked Jay at first but I really think we are total opposites in this world. He's a smart guy but I just never found common ground with him. If I liked something, he hated it, and anything I said was dismissed. The real bastard was that he was immune. I knew he would try and throw the challenge, any challenge. And Marcy was gonna help him."

Tenzil (confessional from day 16): "He has done nothing in camp but sit around and cause trouble. So I have decided my new life ambition is to vote Jay off. I can die happy after that. I will not be out-witted by a half-wit."

Jayemel: "The moment Marcy and I arrived at Ana we were treated like dead meat. When it boils down to it we were just never given a chance. Trying to talk to Lindsay was like pulling teeth. I felt like I was back in high school and the pretty girls wouldn't acknowledge me. Jamie tried to prove his brilliance and suck information out of you. Tenzil was the commander, nothing more, nothing less. Kathy was nice but simply wasn't around. Well, to make a long story short, I was so mad at being treated poorly that I said 'FUCK STRATEGY' and vowed to throw the challenge just to spite them and tear them apart."

Sure enough, Jayemel DID plan to throw the immunity challenge. But much to his dismay, he found out that he couldn't. It would be out of his hands altogether.

Jayemel: "When we got the challenge I was so frustrated. It was a random chance challenge! We would be rolling dice, and there was no way I could throw it! As luck would have it though... we lost."

Now it was time for the shit to really hit the fan. Jayemel and Marcy were determined to force a tie at Tribal Council. They were simply that pissed off. No matter what Ana decided to do, they would find the outcast, and team up to make three votes. The wheels were in motion, and the two of them were now officially a team.

Marcy: "I found it funny that Jay and I more or less avoided each other at the beginning of the game, and didn't get along too well. But after the switch, the two of us became great friends and alliance partners. We simply had to be."

Jayemel sat back and waited, to see who would come to him first. He didn't yet know about the big Tenzil-Kathy rift, but it didn't take long before he found out.

Tenzil: "I knew I could vote Jamie out if I wanted to. I also suspected that Jayemel and Marcy would welcome the chance to vote out a huge athletic threat like him prior to the merge. My problem was that I didn’t trust Kathy to vote with us. I didn't trust her as far as I could throw her. And while I felt she would vote out Jamie to save her own neck, I didn’t think she would be reliable after the merge. So ultimately I decided to try and hold the alliance together and continue with the batting order. I wanted to boot Kathy."

Jayemel: "Predictably Tenzil came to me right away. He said he, Jamie, and Lindsay would be voting for Kathy and said he would appreciate if I would vote for Kathy too. I agreed and went forward with my plan. I waited for Kathy. I had to be the first one to speak to her. And I was. I told her what Tenzil said and offered her the 3-3 tie. She agreed."

Kathy had been waiting for this chance for quite a while. A chance to stick it to Tenzil, AND his team, all the while being strategically justified in doing so. She had been looking forward to this moment for a long time. It was going to be great.

Kathy (confessional from day 18): "I think the vote tonight is proving that Tenzil is still holding a grudge from the Pete incident. And if Tenzil goes, Lindsay won't pay for a while. But she will. She is going to eventually feel the sting. Revenge is a dish best eaten cold."

The New Ana tribe prepared for Tribal Council, and suddenly things were looking bad for the newfound unity of the team. Kathy, Jayemel and Marcy were going to vote for Tenzil, that much was certain. They had no reason not to. And in return, Tenzil was going to vote for Kathy.

And the two stuck in the middle were Lindsay and Jamie.

Lindsay: "When we lost that last immunity, everyone wanted Tenzil gone! No one even approached me about it because they didn't want me to tattle or something. But I think it was Kathy who finally told me. So many things went through my head then, should I go with the majority and vote out Tenz? Or should I stick with him?"

Jamie: "Jay was smart and realized that he could break up any unity that we had going. Kathy knew it was coming and she tried to convince me that I should vote for Tenzil too. She told me that she had Jay and Marcy on her side, and that made up my mind for me. I made it seem like it was a really hard decision, but I basically saw that it was my best chance to finally get rid of Tenzil."

All of a sudden, Tenzil was doomed. His own alliance had crumbled beneath him, simply to avoid a tie. Jamie and Lindsay wanted no part of taking a bullet for their leader, and they were about to make a break for it.

Lindsay: "In the end I made the dumb move of voting for Tenzil."

Tenzil: "Jamie was always a very paranoid player. Always worried he was next. So he took the easy way out and agreed to vote me out. But at no time did he or Lindsay negotiate a deal with Kathy for after the merger. So all they really accomplished was to boot a firm alliance member in favor of someone who had no reason to feel trust or loyalty to them. They just assumed Ana would work together as they always had."

At Tribal Council, Tenzil could see the handwriting on the wall. He knew he was doomed, and knew that it was his own hand-picked alliance that had brought him down.

Tenzil: "The minute I saw the TC I knew I was gone. Lindsay and Jamie gave some lousy answers. I knew they were trying to be coy about me being the target but unfortunately their remarks didn’t really apply to Kathy half as well as they did to me. And I thought about voting for Lindsay or Jamie to fuck with their minds but I eventually decided against it. I wanted to show I was still loyal to the alliance, and make the two of them squirm a little when CJ and Ronan found out what had happened."

Kathy (voting for Tenzil): "Everybody's playing the game, but nobody's rules are the same. Nobody's on nobody's side, Tenzil, and it's time that you learned that. It's you or me tonight, and if I've played my cards right, it's you. Bye bye."

Tenzil was voted out 5-1, and now Ana was in shambles. Kathy had been spared, Jamie and Lindsay were lost at sea, and they had officially lost their leader. And in the corner sat Jayemel, the author of the destruction. He watched, silently, and laughed at what he had managed to achieve.

Jayemel: "The Ana tribe was easier to turn against itself than I had first imagined. They mostly did it to themselves!"

EPISODE 7

Isabella: I was just hoping that Marcy and Jay would get it together and try to force a tie, but it didn't happen. They had caused an upset vote, but it was still 5-1, which meant that however much they disliked the others, the remaining Anas had still all voted together.

Anna: For some reason, all the Tumutumus hated Lindsay. We had never met her, but we hated her. Sometimes things are just like that.

Tenzil was gone, and the Anas were in shambles. Meanwhile, CJ sat on the other tribe, unaware that her boyfriend had been shanghaied. But she would find out soon enough.

Because it was time to merge.

CJ thought she had a pretty good plan in mind. She had managed to talk Isabella and Mario into joining her and Ronan in a final four pact. She also knew that the two of them trash-talked Jayemel on a daily basis, trying to blame him for just about every bit of nastiness in the game. So her plan was simple. Once the teams merged up, she would go right back to Tenzil and the gang, with her two new allies, and they would all vote out Jay. CJ would then be in complete control of the game, and it would be an easy route for her to the finals.

Or so she thought.

Isabella: "CJ had come to me saying if there was a merge, we should vote off Jay. She tried to be really cool about it, like, 'Oh, it could be Jay or Lindsay or Kathy, but you know, Jay first makes the most sense for our alliance.' I was thinking, 'yeah right, bitch. Jay first makes the most sense for you and any original Ana in general.' But she never let up her act, and without formally agreeing to it, I said I didn't like Jay at all and was fine with voting him out at the merge."

All the players involved prepared for the merge, and plans were solidifed as to who would be the targets.

Mario: "At the start of the game I decided to pick out a rival, someone who could be my Lex Luthor. I would not be happy until this person was not only destroyed, but destroyed by my hand. And I chose Lindsay. She outran me in the first challenge and from day one I was piping her name into the ears of the Tumus. 'Vote out Lindsay when we merge. She is too strong.' Pre-twist, I don't think a day went by that I didn't mention this, and it eventually was decided that Lindsay would be the target. The Tumus would take her out at the merge."

But both Isabella and Mario promised that they would vote for Jayemel. They both gave their word, and now CJ and Ronan expected them to follow through.

Over at Ana, there were still some harsh feelings over last night's vote. Lindsay was still quite torn up about having to choose between Tenzil and Kathy, and was now deathy afraid that she had made a mistake.

Lindsay: "Voting out Tenzil was the one move that I regretted for the rest of the game. I missed him, and now I felt alone. I was afraid I had screwed myself for the rest of the game."

Jamie, for his part, was also torn up. He didn't like how Jayemel had bullied him into voting out Tenzil. He didn't like the way Jayemel played, and didn't trust him for a second in a merge. He was beginning to feel antsy, like the center had been torn out from his team. Would they be able to stick together in a merge? Would CJ be happy when she found out Kathy had taken over the team? What was CJ liable to do when she found out her boyfriend had been stabbed in the back?

But with questions hanging in the air, it was now time to merge. The moment was here.

Isabella: "It happened very fast, right after the last Tribal Council. We were informed we had all merged and were having a feast on a new beach and that we had to make up a new tribe name and pick a camp location."

The ten players met for a feast, where everyone was introduced to everyone else. It was a happy time, a time for people to drop the game and make some new friends. All ten players spent a day together as a new tribe, and immediately some important conversations began to take place.

Tenzil: "CJ was furious with the Anas, of course. She couldn't believe they had voted me out. She questioned both Lindsay and Jamie at length about the backstabbing. She tried to really make them squirm, with all their lame answers. She also got a big kick hearing how they started to wonder if Kathy could be trusted..."

CJ: "It not only hurt me personally that Tenzil was voted out, but that incident definitely caused me to have a vendetta against the rest of them. I was furious with Kathy, Jay and Marcy. Unfortunately, I probably could have used their allegiance later in the game, but I was pretty blind with rage so it wasn't a consideration."

With the Tumus, Anna and Jayemel finally met up, and had a chance to discuss the Jenne vote. Jayemel had explained his side to her before, but now, he took the chance to again reiterate that he had not been the mastermind behind it.

Jayemel: "I did what I knew I had to do. I beelined it right to Anna, and spilled my guts about Jenne again. Told her the same exact story so she knew I wasn't lying. If you can tell the same exact story twice, they know it's not a lie. Then I moved in. I talked about Nick with her and set him up. She told me how he had been setting ME up, making me look like a jerk. So I did it. I got a final two alliance with her. I now had a final two alliance with all the original Tumutumu left in the game and the only one I had to worry about was Nick."

[Insert confessional from Anna about Nick.]

Isabella: "The reunion with Jay was really odd. By this time we were both very wary of each other. We trusted each other about as much as a mouse trusts a cat. And as far as Marcy was concerned, he just seemed out of it. I tried to cheer him up but he just seemed ready to quit."

But despite all the side dealings, and suspicions, this was now a merged tribe. But it wouldn't be merged for long...

Mario: "We got set up. And people fell for it... hard."

Isabella: "While we were enjoying this feast and getting to talk to everyone, a second twist occured. Suddenly, we found out we'd be competing in a challenge for God knows what, and we'd be competing in pairs. It would be with our original canoe partners. I was with Nick, Jay with Marcy, the Anas were with whomever, and the two left-overs, Anna and Ronan, were paired up. We'd be in canoes again, just like the start, doing a water-based challenge."

It was a canoe race, and the team of Anna and Ronan won easily. But they were stunned by what they had managed to win.

Ronan: "When Anna and I were paired at the reward challenge, and had a chance of winning the 'special reward,' I thought it would be a paired immunity necklace. It wasn’t. We were chosen as captains, to pick new teams. We would be selecting our new tribe members."

Anna and Ronan were terrified to be put on the spot. But on the spot they were. Anna was chosen to select the first member of her team, and she was WELL aware that this choice was fraught with political landmines.

Isabella: "First of all, Anna chose Jay right away. I was dumbfounded. I thought she'd pick me, or at least Nick, first. Right away I figured that Jay and Anna had much more going on than I had realized."

Mario: "Oh God, you want to talk about being pissed off. The minute I saw Jay's name called, I knew my time here was over. Anna believed Jay's side over mine. Since my entire strategy revolved around Jay being hated, I was screwed. That was it, my game was over."

But both Isabella and Mario had badly misjudged the motives of their brainy teammate.

Anna: "I took Jayemel first because he was talking non-stop. And I trusted him. I trust people who can't shut up."

Ronan: "When I had to pick, my choices were based on three principles. 'Strength, Trust, and Disposability.' I ended up with Lindsay, Coach (Nick) and Marcy. Guess who belongs where? I also ended up with my ally CJ, and we had a pretty good team."

Mario: "Ronan took me with his second pick. He had always bought in to my youth minister act, moreso than anyone else. He wanted me around, and he trusted me. He thought I was in an alliance with CJ and himself. Sucker."

After the completion of the draft, there were now two completely new teams:

New Ana Tribe: Anna, Jayemel, Isabella, Kathy, Jamie
New Tumu Tribe: Ronan, Lindsay, Mario, CJ, Marcy

And now, EVERYBODY was scrambling. People hadn't been ready for this twist, so plans were changed. People were scared. Jamie started kissing up to Anna and Isabella, his new Ana tribemates. Ronan stepped up more as the leader of the new Tumus, and finally started laying out some plans.

Mario: "I helped my case with Ronan when I started trashing Anna now. I was legitimately mad that she had snubbed me over Jay, and I basically told him so. Look, I don't care if I win anymore. I don't care. As of now, I just want to make sure that Anna does NOT win. So if I get voted out, do what you can to take her out, okay? Don't let her get away with this. Destroy her. I think I made Rafe blush when he read my confessional that day, it was the meanest, most vitriolic confessional I ever gave. I wanted Anna DEAD."

Both teams quickly adjusted to their new setups, and now it was time for the big immunity challenge. Both teams were instructed to prepare for both the challenge AND for Tribal Council, as one would immediately follow the other. There would be no time to discuss voting in between, and this last instruction struck a few people as odd.

Isabella: "The merge twist just didn't make sense to me. Why would they switch us again and have a late merge? It just sounded like too much and bad tv. I thought that maybe they would surprise us by the immunity challenge being individual, but I wasn't assuming anything. And when the challenge came, as I'd suspected, it was individual."

The ten players in the game were now OFFICIALLY a merged tribe. Pulotu was their name (selected by Isabella) and today's challenge would be for individual immunity. It would also be based solely on willpower. All ten players would be holding a "fire stick" as a flame burned down it, nearer and nearer to their hands. The person who could withstand the heat, and hold on to their stick the longest, would win immunity.

Ten players lined up, ready to take the next step in the game. The five Tumus knew their target would be Lindsay, and the five Anas knew their target would be Jayamel. It was just time now to see who would be safe from that first vote.

Isabella: "I had spent a lot of time talking to Marcy, and had been bothered by how depressed he seemed to be. I knew he wanted out, and I was worried he'd lose the challenge and then let himself be voted off, leaving us Tumus outnumbered. So, since I knew he wanted to be on the jury and I wanted him on the jury, I did something devious. I mouthed to him at the challenge when no one else was looking "Win this" and "Jury". But I didn't realize that this would totally freak Marcy out. I guess he had recovered from his depression and wanted to play again, and with the words I mouthed he thought he was a target, so he decided to announce to everyone..."

Marcy (spoken during the challenge): "I wanna let y'all know that Tribal loyalty is the easiest way to win this thing. *cough* Lindsay *cough*. If you jump ship and vote with the other tribe, you'll be pagonged after the rest of us, and don't think otherwise."

All of a sudden, the contest became much tenser. Suddenly, the Tribal lines were put right out on display, for all to see. Lindsay, admittedly, was terrified.

Lindsay: "That was quite a surprise for me. Marcy just came right out and said that he was voting for me. BAM! That hit me so hard. Even though I obviously performed well in challenges, I never thought that I'd be a target right away."

But in the end, it came down to who thought they needed it the most. Mario and Ronan were the final two, with Mario finally pulling out the victory. He would be safe for the first Ana-Tumu showdown.

Mario: "Damn right I won it. I poured so many will points into that challenge, I knew I HAD to. I had so many enemies in the game by now, it wasn't funny. Jayemel hated me, Marcy and Anna too more than likely. So I just wanted to make it past this vote, and at least make the jury. So what the heck, pour all my willpower into it, what do I care?"

The ten players went to Tribal Council and, after a very tense evening, were greeted with a 5-5 tie. Jayemel and Lindsay, the original targets. Despite all the twists and switches, NOBODY had broken tribal lines.

Jamie: "I knew that it was probably gonna be a tie, but hoped that CJ had swung one of the Tumus. I hoped she had pulled Nick or Isabella over to our side."

Isabella: "A tie did occur, which actually surprised us. Us original Tumus just weren't sure those bumblefuck Anas could get it together and all vote together."

Most everyone had expected a tie... all of them, that is, except for two people. CJ and Ronan were FURIOUS over the tie vote. You see, they had been promised. Nick and Isabella had given their word that they would vote for Jay. And when a youth minister promised you something, you expected him to follow through on it. So both CJ and Ronan went on a tirade before the revote, each of them delivering their own angry speech, directed right at Isabella and Mario.

CJ: "I thought there was a chance this might happen. Unfortunately, I don't know who voted for who so I can't direct this to any one person or people. I made promises to a couple of people throughout the course of this game thus far and if you switch your vote, I swear to you those promises will be upheld. I won't screw you. If you stick with your vote, you will be screwed over by people you think you can trust."

Ronan: "I just want to say something. Most of you, I've met and we had the oppurtunity to get to know each other. And I have had the utmost respect for each and every one. But obviously some people deemed it necessary to not stick to one's word. Regardless, that's your prerogative and I can't do anything about that. You might say that this is only a game, an online game in fact, but still it shows how important one's character is, one's integrity. A tribemate told me that 'honesty and one's value' is the most important thing and I believe that and I will continue to believe that. I just hope that whoever gave their word but didn't intend to keep that word, should be able to live with what they've said and done. Because others can't do that for you."

Mario: "I was the one who fed Ronan the line about 'honesty and value,' so I knew he was speaking to me. But I wasn't the slightest bit moved. If anything, it just made me more stubborn. After all, I was immune, I wasn't going anywhere tonight. So I walked up and gleefully cast a second vote for Lindsay, just like before. My rationale was more or less 'Yeah, take that Ronan. Blow me.' But I knew it had better work. If Lindsay didn't go tonight, I was digging my own grave."

Tensions were high as the revote came, and once again there was no change. No one crossed tribal lines. Five to five.

It was time to do a random tiebreaker.

One by one, the nine vulnerable castaways walked up and placed their hand into a hole on a box. Inside were nine pieces of coral. If your hole held the red coral, you were eliminated. It was a very tense moment as players walked up... one by one... and each rabbed a piece of coral...

Lindsay: "No one would change their vote, so then came the dreaded purple rock. And for once, luck was on my side and I was saved. God bless the rock."

Jayemel stood with a piece of red coral in his hand. A stunned look on his face, he had been eliminated by random chance. Jayemel was now out of the game. One of the best players in Tonga had become a surprise pre-jury boot.

Marcy: "Jay was a great player. If he wasn't taken out by the damn coral he would have done alright."

The Anas were now up, 5-4. And it looked like the Tumutumus were now doomed.

Back to Main Menu