Ted was the first one to find himself out of the Chuay Gahn tribe in Survivor: Thailand Episode 13, which brings us down to the final four: Brian Heidik, Clay Jordan, Helen Glover, and Jan Gentry.
They are given floats to be decorated in memory of their 12 eliminated tribemates. While doing this, Brian continues his mantra. It’s just a business trip.
The immunity challenge is called second chance, and it’s a chance to revisit aspects of previous challenges. They will dig up a wicker ball, carry it over the balancing beam, and head through the fishnet tubing. Then, they will work on a slide puzzle to release materials to build a pole and retrieve a key to get out of the jail cell. Lastly, they will sprint to the food table for a surprise treat. Clay is the first to grab the ball and retains the lead across the balance beam and past the tubing. Brian manages get across those obstacles pretty quickly and catches up to Clay on the puzzle. The other two are completely hopeless on the balance beam. Brian is the first to finish his puzzle. Helen and Jan finally get across the balance beam, but they’re out of it. Brian’s done escaping from jail before anybody else is even done with the puzzle. Then he lifts the lid. He’s going to have to eat a tarantula to win. Considering how big a lead he has, there is no drama, although they would like there to be. Brian wins immunity.
Brian thinks it’s time for Helen to go. The writing was on the ground. Helen and Ted plotting with each other first burned Ted, and now it’s time for her to get bit. Clay’s quickly onboard with that, but Jan is not sure what she wants to do. It’s either her or Helen. If she doesn’t go along with this plan, they can simply opt to vote her out instead. Unless she decides to force a tie with her and Helen and hope the tiebreaker goes down in her favor.
Votes
Helen
Helen
Jan
Helen
By a unanimous vote, Helen has been voted off the island. She blames Brian the most for her elimination, but she’s pretty much bitter at all of them, despite the fact that she started it.
Upon returning to camp, they’re immediately given one last krathong float to decorate. The next morning, Jeff arrives with a map and sends them paddling off into the river to set their floats adrift. Their ultimate destination is the final challenge site.
The cave they arrive at is about 105 degrees. The challenge is simple. Don’t let the money slip through your fingers. They put three coins inbetween their fingers in each hand and will stand in a traditional Thai stance for as long as they can keep holding at least one of the coins. Stranger things have happened, but the theory is that this is a battle between the boys, with Jan a non-issue. Around 12 minutes, Jeff tells them to stay in their game mentally. The image they put forth either gives the others power or takes it away. With that said, Jan quits. Clay, meanwhile, is visibly shaking and quits shortly thereafter. It’s obvious what he was waiting for. Brian wins immunity.
Brian’s got a choice. Take with him the grandma who everybody seems to like but who hasn’t done very much, or take the guy who nobody likes nor would vote for. In either case, it really shouldn’t matter because Brian has played a masterful game.
Vote
Jan
Jan has been voted off the island, leaving Brian and Clay as the final two, a stark contrast as compared with Marquesas, which had two equally useless contestants left standing. Regardless of how Clay may or may not have played the game, however, he has no friends on that jury, so he’s gonna have to fight to get votes. Although Brian played the role of everybody’s friend, he’s not so sure that the relationships he built were necessarily real. It’s just business.
Clay’s opening statement is that he’s lucky, but he promises that they would do what he did to get where he is. Brian says that his focus was to make sure that everybody felt comfortable and wants them to vote from their hearts and feel good about their decision.
Erin wants to know why they think the other person does not deserve the money. Brian says that Clay did not put forth the effort that he could have. Clay responds that Brian thought he was the leader at camp, although I’m not entirely sure what this response is supposed to mean.
Ken says that he wouldn’t do what Clay did. That’s why he couldn’t have gotten any further than he did and had no business playing this game. Then he asks Brian why he said that Ted had to go, which Brian denies saying. Although this conversation that Ken believes they had clearly sticks out in Ken’s mind, Brian is unsure what the heck Ken is babbling about, so he just responds that Ted is unable to gel with the group. This also is not an answer that Ken is happy with, and God will smite Brian for not knowing the answer to this question.
Penny asks Brian where she grew up, and who are her siblings. Brian does not know the answers. Clay, however, does know some things about her. What the heck this has to do with the vote I don’t know, but if she’s really going to vote along lines as pathetic as this, Clay just secured himself something.
Jake takes the opportunity to revisit the conversation about performance that Clay blasted him about. Clay’s answer is that he really was upset that Jake was trying to make an alliance with everybody. Brian, however, strokes Jake’s ego and says he was performing well.
Ted calls Brian a great car salesman. As for Clay, he just rode coattails and is just an ignorant southern redneck hillbilly. Bitter much? Ted’s question to Clay: how does he define a racist person? Oh, is this really necessary? Putz. (We later found out that Helen indicated to Ted that Clay had said something, which generated this line of inappropriate and completely irrelevant questioning.) The follow up question: why should he get his vote? Clay responds that he was fair with him. Brian disagrees.
Jan wants an explanation of Clay’s work on the island. Clay says that he did his fair share for the food, but Brian didn’t want any help with the water. Brian responds that he did water, food, and fire.
Bitter, part two. Helen claims she just wanted to be told that she was going home. She’s just mad she got beat. While she expected this from Clay, who she tried to get voted out more than once, she was surprised that Brian turned on her. Brian’s response is that she was plotting with Ted, which she was, but she’s not going to accept that answer. He answers her question again and again and again and again. It’s pretty obvious she does not want to hear anything. So Probst interrupts because they don’t have an hour and a half to sit and listen to this whining. Regardless, Brian does not feel that she should not vote for him over one him lying to her once. From Clay, she would like three ways he contributed to aiding people survive on that island. He did a little bit every day. That’s his only response. He’s not even going to try to satisfy the questions of a raving lunatic who cannot be satisfied.
In his vote, Ted denies that he was plotting against Brian. In truth, he was plotting against him, just not for the very next vote.
Votes
Clay (Penny)
Brian (Ted)
Brian (Helen)
Clay (Ken)
Clay (Erin)
Brian (Jan)
Brian (Jake)
The Survivor: Thailand winner is Brian Heidik. The sore losers from Sook Jai tried unsucessfully to derail him, but Brian was one of the more skilled players to win the game. Had he been up against anybody other than Clay, Brian may well have been in danger. It’s entirely possible these people would have voted for Jan over him out of spite.
Helen and Jan wish they would have forced a tie, a move that’s not any smarter but sounds better in hindsight.