| Episode
1 |
| "This
Has Never Happened Before!" |
Filmed
November 1-3, 2004
Airs February 17, 2005 |
| Click
below for: |
| Arrival spoilers |
| IC speculation |
| Boot speculation |
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Episode
description
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| CBS: - "20
new castaways will be abandoned. From the beginning, the
game will be changed in a dramatic way. Everything the survivors
have come to expect will be wiped out in the first 10 minutes." |
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| ARRIVAL/
Transcript, spoilers |
Well,
we've all seen or heard the hype (see above) about a "dramatic" change
in the game, also known in CBS ads as "the biggest twist ever."
It's apparent now that this is little more than the cruel stunt
of having
two
extra
players
not
actually
make
it
into
the game. That and Probst's elliptic description of the game on
Day One.
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Thanks to a Probst
interview on Good
Day Live on 2/16, we have
video and audio of that departing message. It is, in its entirety:
"Just behind you... that beach is your new home. Waiting for you,
you will find: two machetes, one map to water. Along with the most
valuable thing in this game, immunity. There are two immunity necklaces,
one for the first woman, one for the first man who can get to shore
and claim them. You are all on your own, it is your choice. But
I suggest you make a decision, and start acting now, because this
game is on."
From the video, we can see the 20 contestants row to their beach.
Meanwhile, Probst jets in on his own private speedboat. He's roughing
it. As the Survivors reach shore and see the necklaces, Stephenie
dives in, followed by Jonathan. Soon the whole lot of them are
jumping ship. This culminates in a race to the beach, already featured
(for the women, at least) in CBS ads, with Jolanda barely
edging Jennifer. For the men, the winner must be Ian. We
know this because callmecrazee has
stated Jolanda and Ian are "team captains," who get to pick first
in the later tribal selection.
This is supported by vidcaps (above, right) showing both Ian and
Jolanda wearing the respective immunity necklaces (in Ian's case,
it's
attached
to his pants). Vidcaps of the arrival are below.
As far as we can tell, all of the footage released with the unveiling of
the cast on January 13th (see Early Show and other news
show vidcaps) came from the first day. Here's our rough sequencing
of the oh-so-exciting events of the first day. Eventually, Probst will
come back, take everyone on a hike, and hold a pick'em selection to make
two tribes. It's not clear whether they split up into separate tribes on
day one, day two,
or
what.
Late day one
would be our guess, if new camps need to be built:
| ARRIVAL
or DAY ONE, PRE-TRIBAL pictures/ Click on thumbnails
for larger version |
| Start: Castaways
are put in a life boat in their street
clothes. They row to the pre-tribal beach, jump
overboard and race to the necklaces. Ian & Jo win. |
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That
silliness out of the way, they set about fixing up a camp.
Finding water, building a crappy hit, the usual. |
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| Hut
built, coconuts gathered,
Ibrehem, Stephenie, et al. hack off their
long pants to make shorts. Relaxation ensues. |
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| Day
one/two (?): Probst
arrives, the 20 castaways follow him down the beach. Two
get dumped, the rest form
two tribes (blue, brown) |
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| TRIBAL
SEPARATION/ Two tribes - WANDA and JONATHAN eliminated |
So
who might those two unlucky contestants who fail to make it to
the first challenge be, and how are they weeded out? VolcanicGlass at Survivor
Phoenix reports two key spoilers here:
-
(1) The separation
into tribes will be done by picking new tribes: "We will
see a competition, though NOT a challenge. The competition should
yield
two winners who will begin a pick'em style chain selection for
members of each squad... oops, make that 'each tribe'. The last
two players remaining will be cut at this point ... oops, make
that 'eliminated'."
- (2) Wanda apparently is one of those two not
making the cut. The other is allegedly female. Maybe. Or not.
Footage aired on E! News on 2/15 clearly
showed the two tribes, and their respective compositions. The two
people missing are Jonathan and Wanda (well
done, VG). As Sucks poster callmecrazee has
alleged, Ian and Jolanda lead
the picking of the two tribes, having won "immunity necklaces" by
being the first of their respective genders to reach the pre-tribal
flag (a system supported by a CBS press release). Finally, a Canadian
TV Guide story posted by Ultimatesurvivor5 confirms
the two tribes are named Ulong and Koror. Ulong
consists of Angie, Ashlee, Jolanda, Kim, Stephenie, Bobby Jon,
Ibrehem, James and Jeff. Koror is Caryn, Janu, Jennifer, Katie,
Coby, Gregg, Ian, Tom and Willard.
| TRIBAL
SEPARATION pictures/ Click on thumbnails below for larger
version |
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| IMMUNITY
CHALLENGE/ Lengthy obstacle course - Koror wins |
From
a scan of a Canadian TV Guide page, posted by UltimateSurvivor5 at
Sucks, we learn: "This challenge is nothing compared to Palau's
first immunity challenge, which we observe for real the next day.
It's an incredibly difficult half-mile obstacle course that involves
climbing over, under and through many wooden barriers.... For a
challenge that will last two or three minutes on TV, this one takes
the winning team 20 minutes to complete!"
Footage from this challenge was shown during a Mark Burnett interview
on E! News, which aired 2/15 (vidcaps below).
In it, we see both tribes pre-challenge, as Probst explains the
course (although he hasn't unveiled the immunity idol at that point).
Later, we see Probst rushing ahead to keep up with the Koror tribe,
who are attempting to cross a stream. Willard, Tom, Coby, Ian and
Katie are lugging a stretcher holding a box (ammo box?) with the
Koror name stenciled on the side. Images in the US TV Guide print
edition of Janu and Gregg going through a barrier are likely from
this challenge as well (we're too azy to scan them, see them here).
Finally, we see all nine Korors (Willard is sitting at the bottom
of the
canoe)
cheering
as they
row back to camp, all dressed as they were in the challenge
(and not, we should point out, as they were at tribal selection).
Finally, in a Probst interview aired 2/16, E!
News showed both
tribes in their respective canoes, apparently leaving the first
IC. Ulong is just shown with their backs to the camera, paddling
away, but we see Koror getting into their canoe. Ian is fiddling
with the tribe's flag, which he appears to be sticking through
a brownish object. It has a face... we think it's the Immunity
Idol. Together, we're reasonably confident that Koror
wins the first immunity.
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| IMMUNITY
CHALLENGE pictures/ Click on thumbnails above for larger
version |
Here we see the very excited
Ulong tribe.
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Just
carryin' our box. Ho hum. |
Hello Mr. Idol, mind if I poke you with my pole? |
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| BOOT/
Jolanda? |
Jeff
Probst seems to be hinting strongly that the first boot, and perhaps
many early boots on one tribe, is a physically strong player: "The
message that they (the players) are going to find out is if you
vote out your strong simply because they are strong… go
ahead… but odds are, you will back at Tribal Council," he
said in a recent interview, as described in Jam!
Showbiz. Probst repeated the same spiel on "Good Day Live"
on 2/16. Going on the (perhaps erroneous) assumption that Ulong
will be heading
to
tribal
council
first,
we'd list
Jolanda as the prime target, with Ibrehem, Jeff and Bobby Jon as
less likely possibilities.
- Jolanda is
a world-class athlete, who Probst describes as "imposing" and "intimidating" (at
least until she disarms you with a smile). The difference between
Jolanda and the strong men of Ulong is that CBS has played up the
flirting/sex appeal intentions of the men (Bobby Jon, Ibrehem and
Jeff), which should keep them around. Jolanda is older, and a mom
(albeit a single one). We doubt she'd be too interested in the raging
hormones of her tribemates, thus keeping her out of the loop, and
making her a target. Furthermore, callmecrazee at Sucks strongly
hints that Jolanda is indeed the first boot. We'll go with that.
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