Survivor Samoa Episode 1

Survivor Samoa started off like many other seasons have, with the tribemates arriving on the island by boat. They had already been divided up into individual tribes when they arrived. Ten Survivors were placed on the purple tribe, Galu. The remaining ten Survivors were on the yellow tribe, Foa Foa. The first order of business for everyone was to choose a leader, based on looks and body language alone. They hadn't had a chance to speak to each other yet, so they had to write down descriptions of who they wanted to be the leader on a piece of paper.

Galu chose a black man with dreadlocks, Russell S., to be their leader. Half of the tribe thought he looked like a leader. Shambo, a blonde female with a mullet, received a third of the votes. Foa Foa chose Mick, a clean cut man in a nice suit, to be their leader with four votes. The preppy-looking black man, Jaison, was close behind, with three votes. Russell H., a tough looking, bald-headed white guy, and Marisa, a young brunette, mutually voted for each other.

In a confessional after the vote, Ben wasn't surprised that he hadn't received any votes for leadership, although he was a country boy with a lot of skills. He added that he thought that "a lot of these people are candy-a**es."

After choosing the tribal leader, the leader of each tribe had to choose the Survivor that he thought was the best swimmer, was the strongest, was the most agile, and was the smartest. Mick thought Jaison was the strongest swimmer (which was just his luck, as Jaison used to play on the US national water polo team). Russell H. was chosen as the strongest, Marisa was picked as most agile, and Liz was deemed the smartest (she attended three Ivy League schools, so he might not be too far off the mark. Russell S. picked John as the swimmer, Erik as the strongest, Yasmin as the most agile, and Shambo as the smartest. After being picked as the smartest, Shambo remarked that she was smart with the ways of the world, but was not as smart when it came to education.

The swimmer had to swim out to a buoy to retrieve a key. The strong person had to use the key to release heavy bundles of logs, then they had to carry them to form a stairway. The agile person had to take climb the log stairs, then unwind a new key through a rope wrapped around a balance beam. The key would then be given to the smart person, who would then unlock puzzle pieces and complete a puzzle. The reward was fire in the form of flint.

Jaison naturally took Foa Foa into the lead in the swimming portion of the challenge. Russell H. unlocked the bundle of logs quickly, but started to have trouble with the second bundle of logs. Nevertheless, he carried the logs over to the balance beam first. Yasmin started to catch up while Marisa was on the balance beam, but Marisa still finished the balance beam first for Foa Foa. Shambo started to catch up, but she was too far behind. Liz finished the puzzle first, giving the reward of fire to Foa Foa.

After the reward challenge, Ben started to take control over the building of the shelter at Foa Foa. Meanwhile, Russell H. started to make secret, individual alliances with all the "dumb girls". He called it his "dumb-a** girl's alliance". He also made an alliance with the "old lady," Betsy, although she didn't trust him.

Over at Galu, Russell S. started to take control, while the guys were discussing the technical aspects of building the shelter. After working hard on the shelter, all of the tribemates went for a swim, except Shambo. Although many people seem to like her, it probably isn't a good idea to sit out from group activities, especially in the beginning.

That night in the shelter, Russell H. at Foa Foa started telling everybody about how he survived Katrina. He had to go upstairs to his attic, and then had to break through the roof with an ax (as a firefighter, he knew to bring a way to escape when going into a dangerous situation). He lost his dog, a German Shepherd named Rocky, in the process. He was stuck up on the roof for two days. The only problem with his story was that he had never been a firefighter, had never owned a German Shepherd, and he had never lived in New Orleans. Ashley was sad about the dog. Marisa said in confessional that she thought that Katrina was true, but that he had been scrambling too much, and that she didn't trust him.

Russell H. decided to purposely make life a living hell for his tribemates. While the Survivors were sleeping, he emptied all the canteens and burned someone's sock. He told the confessional that he was only here "to show people how easy it is to win this game." Never before in Survivor history has there ever been a Survivor with such evil intentions. Although Johnny Fairplay was a liar, he never intentionally destroyed people's property or purposely made them feel bad for the hell of it.

When Foa Foa woke up the next day, they realized that their canteens were empty, and were barking at each other as a result. Jaison woke up to realize that his socks were gone, and his feet were starting to blister.

At the immunity challenge, six of the Survivors were to climb over a series of three A-frames while carrying three coils of rope. The remaining four Survivors then had to tie all the ropes together, then they used the ropes to pull a heavy crate over a track. Galu worked together and beat Foa Foa, winning the first immunity challenge.

Back at camp, Survivors discussed who they wanted to go. Mike wanted weakest, Ashley, to go. He was 62 years old, so he probably wanted to divert attention away from himself.

Marisa was wary because she had seen Russell H. talking to everybody. After he talked to her about the vote, he thought that she threatened him, so he wanted to get rid of her. He started telling everybody to vote Marisa out.

When asked how she felt about the vote at Tribal Council, Ashley was sad that someone had to go back, but "it is what it is." Betsy said that she thought Ashley was the weak link. Ashley retorted that she worked out "tons at home" and that she was physically fit. Marisa added that there were different types of weaknesses. Russell H. said he liked everybody except Marisa. He said he didn't like her because she was starting to worry about him. In the end, Russell's connivance got Marisa kicked out. While some have their doubts about his trustworthiness, nobody seems to realize yet that they have been placed on a tribe with the most evil Survivor ever.