Survivor: Borneo SE01 EP07 - "The Merger"

Episode Name: The Merger

Original Airdate: July 12, 2000

Below are the remaining contestants.

Tagi:

Sean - Doctor

Kelly - River guide

Rudy - Retired Navy Seal

Richard - Corporate trainer

Susan - Truck driver

Pagong:

Gervase - Youth basketball coach

Colleen - College student

Gretchen - Teacher

Greg - Recent Ivy League graduate

Jenna - College student

The Merge has come upon Pagong and Tagi, and first things first - they must choose what camp to live on. Pagong's ambassador Jenna is quite impressed with Tagi's camp. They have fish, they have organization, and they have a better structure around camp. Sean inspects Pagong's camp, and is less than enthused. Sean and Jenna meet on a strip of sand later that day, and are given the duty of coming up with a new tribe name, choose three items to take from the Pagong camp, and of course have a good night with food and wine.

Sean and Jenna

The Tagi Four are going strong, and are indeed ready for the merge. Susan states that if they can vote off two Pagong members within the first two tribal councils, they [the Tagi Four] can slide into home. Rudy's committed to this alliance, and Richard's still pretty much in control. They discuss who to vote off first, and names such as Greg and Sean come to mind. Though Sean's a Tagi, Susan let's us know that he's not in the Tagi Four, and the reason is that "Sean is dumb."

The Tagi Four (Rudy offscreen) discussing who to vote off

At Pagong, Gretchen asks Sean (before he heads off to meet Jenna) if Tagi will team up and vote off Pagong one-by-one, to which Sean replies they won't. According to Richard, Sean's ethically against voting alliances, and he's heard the same of Gretchen from Pagong - Richard doesn't quite understand this, as he finds himself incredibly ethical, and states that those who don't pursue voting alliances are idiotic. Rudy wasn't overly impressed with Jenna, annoyed that she wouldn't "shut up."

Richard's bemusement at those against alliances

Sean and Jenna arrive at Pagong's camp, telling them they have five minutes to gather up their things, and then they must move over to Tagi's camp (which was the idea of most Pagong members to begin with). Greg's annoyed by Jenna and Sean's enthusiastic tales of the food they had the night before. Still, it's a time of new beginnings, and as they leave the Pagong camp for the last time, many of the members react in a bittersweet way.

Gretchen explaining her time on Pagong

The new combined tribe of ten people named Rattana get along pretty well. Rudy doesn't really care for the additional members, but few thought he would. Richard outplays Gervase in many a card game, most of which Gervase had just taught him, and the women bond while fixing up the shelter (leading to a cave-in of the roof caused partially by Kelly). The first night, the tribe, sans Rudy, bond over sexual stories and other tales of personal nature, and learn more about each other. Overall, Rattana seems a happy tribe for now.

The first solo Immunity challenge is a simple one, divided into two portions. First, all ten members must dive down, holding their breaths, and the last three to rise go onto the second and last part. Gervase, Greg, and Sean were able to hold their breath the longest. The second portion is a combination of holding your breath and racing each other under water, releasing buoys as you go. Gervase, not being a great swimmer, was out of this pretty quickly, and it got down to the wire between Sean and Greg. By a split second, Greg was able to win, and hence, is safe from Rattana's first vote.

Greg with Immunity Talisman

From the Immunity challenge, we go straight to Tribal Council, though we do learn that Jenna's more interested in voting out who she thinks deserves it as opposed to someone on the opposite tribe. Greg's not interested in the idea of teaming up in an intra-tribe alliance and voting out others as a block, and would find that "boring." The questions at Tribal Council are rather mundane, but the voting isn't.

Rattana at Tribal Council

The vote count, with those who voted in brackets:

Gretchen: 4 [Kelly, Rudy, Richard, Susan]

Jenna: 1 [Greg]

Rudy: 1 [Gretchen]

Richard: 1 [Colleen]

Gervase: 1 [Jenna]

Colleen: 1 [Sean]

Susan: 1 [Gervase]

Gretchen's blindside

Tonight wasn't as busy an episode as one might think at first. With the tribes combining into one, there are new personal dynamics to look at, but truth be told, not a whole lot has changed from the end of last episode to where we are now. The Tagi Four seems to be a solid voting bloc, and simply no other voting bloc currently exists. Seven people got voted for at Tribal Council, and I'll briefly examine each one and their reasons.

Greg apparently doesn't like Jenna. He voted for Jenna once before, and did so again. Why this is isn't really explained. Quite possibly, it is just a game to him - he feels absolutely no emotional connection to any of the other players (though he stated that he did deeply respect Richard, and believes him to be playing a long game). Or maybe Jenna rubbed him the wrong way by talking about the great food and wine she had after she and Sean came back from their night on a strip of sand. Whatever the reason, without collusion of other players, he cast another vote her way.

Why Gervase voted for Susan is unclear. Perhaps, and I think this is most likely, he just didn't really jibe with her. They're two totally different people, and I can imagine plenty of ways that a workaholic like Susan would annoy a lazy guy like Gervase. Amusing note: he actually wrote Greg's name in first, but crossed it out after realizing that Greg was immune. Why he would vote for Greg to begin with, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever.

Rudy got Gretchen's vote because, as she says, though she respects Rudy the most, he's the last person she wants to play the game against. Colleen votes for Richard because she believes him to be over-confident. Jenna's still angry about the comment Gervase made days back, and cast her vote for him. She probably still thinks Gervase voted for her, which likely doesn't help either. And Sean's vote for Colleen?

Let's just say that Jenna's not-so-great reason beats the hell out of this one. Here is Sean's voting confessional verbatim:

Sean: I am not really employing any strategy. Though I am voting for Colleen today, I love her, she's cute, adorable, and nice to look at, and fun to have around. But she's the first in a long list of alphabetical order, and, uh, she won't get another vote from me unless she pisses me off or something, but it's her turn today being the first in alphabetical order.

If this is actually Sean's plan, and he keeps it a secret, it might not be a terrible one. Divorcing emotions from the vote would certainly make it easier for an ethical person like Sean to vote people off. My concern is that he'll be open with others and share his strategy. Gervase, Greg, and Jenna, if they get wind of this, would likely be pretty pissed, and rightly so. And if the Tagi Four heard of this plan? Then their votes write themselves. Because the next three members alphabetically are Pagong, and though it might not be in Richard's preferred order, they could piggyback on Sean's vote and take out Pagong that way, leaving only Colleen, who at that point would have no way to save herself.

That's assuming that Sean would be idiotic enough to not see this, but to be completely honest, I have almost no faith in him. Despite not knowing it, Sean has a lot of power in this game, and if he does unwillingly vote alongside Tagi Four's lines, then Pagong is done.

Pagong might be done anyway, though, to be completely honest. They had no unity at all in their Tribal Council votes. Not even accidental unity. What happened to Joel's plan of coming together and picking off Tagi one-by-one? I know that Gretchen wasn't with that idea, but according to Joel, everyone else said they were. It could have just been a way to get Joel to shut up, which is entirely possible, or perhaps he severely misread the situation. Regardless, Joel's already gone. He can't help now.

And boy, does it look like the tribe formerly known as Pagong needs help.

Gretchen and Greg both, it seemed, were the pillars of the tribe. Gretchen's gone - blindsided completely - and you could tell she looked heartbroken at this unexpected turn of events. Where does this leave Colleen, Gervase, Jenna, and Greg? Not in a great place. It's not like they're positively done for. They could get Sean to vote with the four of them and pick off the Tagi Four. But do they know exactly that it's Richard, Susan, Kelly, and Rudy that are in the voting bloc in question? They might suspect, but I doubt they fully know. In fact, ask Sean, and he would probably tell you that there's no alliance.

If Sean is the last hope that former Pagong members have, then it's very possible their days are numbered.

Richard and Susan have a stranglehold on the game. If they can manage to get the Tagi Four to the Final Four, then it'll be an all-out bloodbath. Could Rudy come out the victor? It doesn't really seem likely. He's not that savvy. We've not heard too much from Kelly yet, but something definitely doesn't feel right about her either. Susan and Richard are the competitors, it seems. Gervase competing against Richard? Just save time and give Richard the money now. Colleen going against Susan? I love Colleen, but she'd get her ass handed to her.

The Tagi Four are in a powerful place despite not being the majority. But since there are no other voting blocs, not even a bloc of two, right now, I don't think they have anything to worry about.


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