Returning for its fifth season, Survivor makes its way to Thailand. The 16 contestants who make up the Survivor: Thailand cast are:
Brian Heidik
Clay Jordan
Eric Collins
Ghandia Johnson
Helen Glover
Jake Billingsley
Jan Gentry
Jed Hildebrand
John Raymond
Ken Stafford
Penny Ramsey
Robb Zbacnik
Shii Ann Huang
Stephanie Dill
Tanya Vince
Ted Rogers Jr
The Survivors start off in a small fishing village on the coast of southern Thailand. From there, they head to their island, where they will be greeted by the monsoon season (frequent torrential rains) and may see the world’s longest snake (the reticulated python).
Jeff asks the two oldest contestants to step forward because the elders are revered there. One beach will present difficulties as far as shelter, while the other beach will present difficulties as far as getting water. All Jeff can tell them at this point is one beach has sunrise, while the other has sunset. Jake picks sunset, leaving him with the purple tribe Sook Jai. Jan gets sunrise, which leaves her with the red tribe Chuay Gahn. Everybody’s assuming they have tribes divided into men and women, which is wrong. The two oldest people are the captains, and they will pick their tribes.
Chuay Gahn: Jan, Ted, Helen, John, Ghandia, Brian, Tanya, Clay
Sook Jai: Jake, Stephanie, Ken, Penny, Jed, Shii Ann, Robb, Erin
Robb’s already getting obnoxiously loud just in the team picking. Clay’s unsurprisingly the last one. He insists he’s a diamond in the rough. Erin, however, is bit more of a surprise to have been picked last.
Jake’s picks were based on athleticism and the look in people’s eyes. Ted realizes that Jan has picked all older people, but he hopes the other tribe will be surprised by what they can do.
Their first objective is to figure out how to paddle a boat. On the ride over, Tanya already notices that she’s on the group that she can’t really relate to, a bunch of people who are all much older than she is. Sook Jai, meanwhile, paddles their boat backwards.
Sook Jai goes wild upon arrival. They’re all off in different directions, with no plan. Jake realizes he’s got a group that’s enthusiastic and ready to go, but they know nothing.
Used car salesman Brian is on a business trip. He’s there for the check at the end, nothing more.
Chuay Gahn gets a cave, which means premade shelter that they don’t have to worry about. Unlike any shelter they could make, it should also keep them dry in any amount of rain. Their next order of business is to find food, which includes a bucket full of shellfish.
The first night, Stephanie is already skinny dipping. That didn’t take any encouraging. Shii Ann promises nobody will be getting a glimpse at her tatas. This is national TV. At least try to have a little respect.
Having wasted so much of the way, Sook Jai build half a shelter that they know they’re going to tear down the next day anyway.
Tanya is sick and throwing up already the second morning, which they assume is because she is dehydrated. They decide to go find their water source, which will be somewhat difficult since they’ve lucked out with their easy shelter. After much searching, they realize they have to paddle about a mile with their boat to get to their water. Gandhia and Clay, who were among the people stupid enough to swim over, get upset that the others didn’t come back for them with the boat.
The other tribe’s water is about 100 yards away from their camp. Jed wants to find some food, but everybody else wants to build shelter. Shii Ann agrees they need food. Robb is angry because his hands are beat up from building the shelter and doing nothing but building the shelter, which has been his own decision. Shii Ann’s done being screamed at by this fool.
Treemail tells them they’ll need brains and brawn. Jake is confident they’ve got the brawn. He’ll have to wait for somebody to bring them the brains.
The immunity challenge will be their first challenge in the middle of a downpour, and probably not their last. It’s a race around the island. They will paddle out to find a rope maze to release a flag. The next station is to unhook a flag 10 feet under the water. The last station is a traditional Thai puzzle. Chuay Gahn is off to an early lead in the rowing. Jan solves the rope maze for her team to extend their lead. The second station is fairly simple, and Brian dives down for his team, which has a lead that doesn’t look like it can be erased. As Ghandia starts to work on the puzzle, Jake’s just starting the dive down, one station behind. Jed will work on the puzzle for Sook Jai, hoping to catch up, which he does. Ghandia manages to solve the puzzle, but it’s way too late, as she already threw away the challenge. Sook Jai returns to Jeff first and wins immunity.
After that loss, the logical choice is to kick Ghandia out, who probably won’t contribute in physical challenges and clearly failed them in the mental challenge as well.
Her hope is that the sickly Tanya will be voted out instead.
A third option is presented. John took an early leadership role and has rubbed some people the wrong way. But does that make him a better choice than the other two? No. Stranger things have happened in this game before, though.
Votes
Ghandia
Clay
John
John
John
John
With 6 votes, John has been voted off the island. Considering the alteratives, this vote does not make a lot of sense. John voted for Ghandia, while Helen voted for Clay. A clean sweep against John otherwise. Their goal was to eliminate tension in the tribe. Just wait a few episodes, and it will be clear that one person who remains is a much larger source of tension, however.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Thailand Episode 2 The Great Divide.
where can i watch old episodes?