Day 25: Best Storyline
Survivor 39-Day Challenge
Most people join Survivor because they love adventure and they are competitive by nature. So, for the most part, seeing these castaways lose at some point is heartbreaking especially when we root for them. Losing for a very long time, even harder to watch. But, it makes for a great narrative. The best storyline in all of Survivor is Ulong dwindling down and becoming A Tribe of One.
Palau (2005) started out with this horrible twist of a schoolyard pick to complete its starting tribes, Koror and Ulong. The catch, however, was that one man and one woman would not be selected and immediately be sent packing. Poor Jonathan and Wanda doing all the preparations to be on the show just to be cut on Day 2 without even attending tribal council.
The resulting tribes were interesting. Over on Koror, there were a lot of older people led by Tom; there were Willard and Caryn, too. The ladies were either voluptuous or small; not to mention skinny tall guy Ian. At first glance, Koror had the shorter end of the stick because over on Ulong, it was all about strength and endurance evident by everyone’s hard-rock abs and bulging biceps. They were the younger tribe, too, relative to Koror.
The first challenge encapsulated the key difference between Koror and Ulong: leadership.
Tom is going to be the leader of that tribe, whether he likes it or not, and however his tribemates mock him about it. There were also leadership skills shown by Ian and Gregg, but not minding not being in charge. It was harmony.
Ulong was the opposite. Everyone needed to be in charge. And, although there’s leadership skills, no one would ever back down. It was chaos. And, as proven by their storyline — Koror’s Domination / Ulong’s Decimation — winning isn’t always about age and strength.
Ulong’s lack of cohesion was also a factor. As the Ulong tribe dwindled down, Koror had to sit some of the people out of the succeeding tribal challenges. It was not quite worrisome when Ulong was losing with seven people left, or even six. It became mind-boggling when Ulong kept losing despite Koror sending out different combinations of people to have a go in the challenges. Ulong lost immunity challenges even when the perceived stronger people of Koror like Tom or Ian sat out.
One after the other, the Ulong tribe comprised every pre-merge vote out of the season (except one because of the double tribal twist).
By the time Ulong was down to three people, they were seriously down. I mean, at that time, Ulong was the human form of the word demoralized. There’s no doubt Koror was entering the merge with numbers, but the merge was still far ahead.
I actually thought Palau would merge at the Final 10 of the game. There’s no way they were going to let Ulong be decimated to a tribe of one, or even a tribe of no one, I thought. I was so wrong. When they had to do an immunity challenge with Ulong at 2 and Koror at 8, I was kinda hoping Ulong wins. But, of course, the Survivor gods had to let it happen. Squaring off in a fire-making challenge at tribal council, Stephenie and Bobby Jon had no choice but to leave their fate into their fire-making skills. In an ironic twist of fate even, Bobby Jon, who taught Stephenie how to make fire, lost. In the end, Stephenie became the only person in Survivor history to become a tribe of one.
The inevitable decimation of Ulong happened when Stephenie got voted out third after the merge. Being the outsider of the dominant Koror, Stephenie pretty much had a hard time penetrating the alliances. It’s also hard to ignore Steph as a threat. Her narrative of being the last person standing from Ulong would’ve been really strong in the finals had she made it, because that A Tribe of One storyline is simply the best.
Runners-up: The Original Villainess’s Three-Season Arc (did not choose this because I believe she’ll play again soon) & Denise Attending and Surviving Every Single Tribal Council
