Death of an Alliance

Death of an Alliance
Episode Information
Version	United States
Season	Borneo
Episode Number	12/14 (012)
Original Release	August 16, 2000
Viewership (in Millions)	28.67
Ratings/Share (18-49)	12.7/38
Episode Chronology
Previous	"Long Hard Days"
Next	"The Final Four"
Subpages

Death of an Alliance is the penultimate episode of Survivor: Borneo.

Story

“	It's day 34, and the five remaining Survivors are all members of the original Tagi tribe.	”
—Episode Synopsis

Day 34

With Pagong no more, RIchard continues to plot and scheme. He says that the game is in his control. He and Rudy agree that Kelly should be the next to go.

	Richard	“	There's no such thing as…for me, a Tagi Tribe or a Rattana. That was the stupidest thing I ever heard. Or…or any other tribe. It-it never existed and it doesn't exist. It's a group of sixteen people, four of whom were in an alliance with me and a bunch of other ones.	”

	Sean	“	Yeah, everyone's hunky-dory and all friends, but they all come to me and they say bad things about Richard, or they say bad things about Rudy, and then they go to Rudy and they say bad things about me, and they go to Rich, they say bad things about Rudy and I.	”

Rudy says that his loyalty in the game is to Richard, and he will not break his word.

	Rudy	“	If somebody gave me their word that they are in this alliance with me, and I give my word, my word is good, and, uh, their word better be good. If they betray me, uh, I'll get even with them.	”

	Rudy	“	I mean, it's-it's a game, but it's worth a million dollars. Money talks.	”

	Kelly	“	Rich is a smart guy and he's really tricky, and, uh, I don't trust him one bit. I never really have.	”

	Richard	“	Whatever it takes to win here is the point. Yeah, it's a game, and call it Machiavellian, sure.	”

	Sean	“	This is the most conniving bunch of people I've ever met in my life. There's not an honest one in the bunch. Conniving, conniving, conniving. Things are falling apart here at Rattana beach.	”

On the beach, Sue Hawk and Kelly get into an argument about Kelly's abandoning the Tagi Alliance. Sue accuses Kelly of pandering to the Pagong jury members, but Kelly retorts that she dropped out of the alliance because she thought it was a conniving way to play the game.

	Susan	“	Kelly made all the rest of us look like a bunch of idiots. Then she made all the rest of us look like the bad guys and her the one good guy out of the whole five of us. That's what irritated me.	”

	Kelly	“	Sue said many times that she wasn't part of an alliance either. So, now all of a sudden I'm two-faced and I (expletive censor) her when she had approached me and said, 'Hey, Rich and I have formed an alliance to vote you off at the end, but I'm not going to do that. Let's you and I vote him off.'	”

	Richard	“	When Kelly said to me, um, 'Are you pissed off at me? It seems to me like you and Sue are pissed off at me.' Well, that was my opportunity to come in and smooth things, as opposed to be the one who upsets the applecart. So certainly that little tiff between Kelly and, uh, Sue has been coming and plays to my advantage, absolutely.	”

While fishing, Sue got stung by a stingray.

	Susan	“	Aw, it hurts. This is my second ray sting since I've been here. Oh, and trust me, they hurt. It's like an aching sting and it hurts from my knuckle down to about here, and it's constantly pounding and it aches and it hurts really bad. I might act like a tough girl, but they do hurt. They gouge me. Yeah, this one got me good. Notice the hand. The knuckles are still swollen from that ray bite. I seen that tail come in and just slice that. Ow, was I pissed.	”

Aside from that, all is quiet around camp. The castaways reflect upon how much they miss their families.

	Richard	“	Sixth day to the end. Desperate to go home. Really looking forward to enter reality. For me, this maintaining some kind of a thumb on ev…all of these different people's personalities that I care very little about, uh, is exhausting. I'm ready for the people in my life that I've brought into my life, throughout my life. And I'm looking forward to getting back to that with a vengeance.	”

	Sean	“	I've been wishing for home since the day I got here. I haven't been away from New York in this long ever. I miss my favorite restaurant. I miss the people at the restaurant. I miss my friends. I miss my family. You know, I miss all those things.	”

	Susan	“	I'm just looking forward to talking to my husband on the phone. I can't wait for that.	”

	Richard	“	The end of days is what I'm thinking about as I lay here on a raft in the middle of the South China Sea on a beach-- in my bed. Yeah, it's very pretty. It's a beautiful, beautiful night. Cloudy, but I like the clouds. I'm just looking at the clouds, thinking of going home. Waiting…waiting…with no watch. Having no idea what time it is. Just knowing that time is passing slowly.	”

Day 35

At the challenge, Jeff Probst promises a very unique reward: the winner will go to a bar with Jeff and watch the first five minutes of the first episode of Survivor. To win the challenge, they must roll around in a mud pit and transfer mud to a bucket using only their bodies. When the buckets are weighed, Kelly wins the reward.

	Susan	“	I wish I had a bigger chest to carry the mud.	”

	Rudy	“	I've been muddy, but not this kind.	”

	Kelly	“	It feels good to, you know, win something. I haven't won much of anything, but I won yesterday and I won today. I'd feel better if it was an Immunity that I won today, but, hopefully, I'm on a winning streak.	”

	Sean	“	Everybody was very pissy prior to the mud bath, myself included. I mean, things really changed here today. There was a fight, for the first time between Kelly and Sue, but, truthfully, this-this little shenanigan game at the mud bath thing, uh, really paid off, I think. And it did-- it rejuvenated us. And I think it rekindled, you know, just, like, friendships and laughing, and things like that.	”

	Susan	“	(laughs) Yeah, the mud game was a blast. I had a blast. Fun-- totally a lot of fun.	”

	Kelly	“	When we got back from the mud, we were washing, you know, helping each other get the mud off and things like that.	”

	Richard	“	It's bizarre to me how people do the things they do-- like how Sue and Kelly are washing each other's back and hair and, you know, laughing, and joking, and hugging, and picking each other's zits and all the rest of it right now, after what they went through yesterday.	”

	Susan	“	Doing the mud thing really wore a lot of energy out of us, so it did key us down quite a bit. And, uh, Kelly's the only other girl on the island with me, so we're going to hang together to the end.	”

One boat ride later, Kelly joins Jeff Probst for a visit to the "Survivor Bar", where they share a meal, beer, and conversation regarding the game. Jeff shows the footage of the very first Survivor episode, and Kelly enjoys seeing herself and her tribemates on television.

Day 36

When Kelly returns to camp, she quickly learns that Richard, Sue, and Rudy haven't included her in their Final Four plans. She realizes she's on her own.

	Kelly	“	There is four days left, and we're all still going to have to live together. And Sue and I, we kind of patched things up and, you know, she said, "Hey, look, this is a game. I'm going to have an alliance with Rich instead of you.' And I said, 'Fine, you know. That's cool. Play the game.'	”

	Kelly	“	I said, 'I think I deserve to get to the Four and I think I deserve to get to the Three.' She said, 'Well I'm not going to let you.' And it's the other way around— I'm not going to let her.	”

	Susan	“	We'll keep to an agreement that we'll treat each other civil till the time we leave here. No sense to make it hard on anybody.	”

	Richard	“	Check that out. Look at the road the ant highway, up on the, uh, ceiling of the, uh, hut here. The canvas. Two-lane highway. You can see the ants going in and out. Got a really great view from here.	”

	Sean	“	All I'm thinking now is "win." Do what I have to do. I'm going to have to win Immunity and I'll have to finagle. And I'm going to have to try to pick up the vibe on people. If, uh, you know, like right now, Sue and Kelly aren't getting along. There might be something I can exploit to my advantage. I might have to do stuff like that.	”

	Susan	“	Yeah, I have one more challenge. There's no rewards, and you know what? I'm not even thinking I'm going to win anymore. But I want to win the last one, like, oh, man, if I win any-- I'm praying, I'm praying that I win the very last Immunity-- if I'm here, if I make it through the next four, which I think I will.	”

At the Immunity Challenge, Jeff tells the group a story about Malaysian folklore. The castaways must then answer five questions about the story to retrieve five masks. It's a close contest—aside from Rudy, who answers "I don't know" to every question—but Kelly wins by a nose. The Tagi Alliance is annoyed that their voting plans have again gone up in smoke.

	Sean	“	I'm winning this thing. You know, it's going to be an uphill battle for me, but I'm winning this thing-- the whole show.	”

	Rudy	“	Myself and, uh, Rich are going right to the end. You know, we hope that it will be us two in the end where the jury picks one of us.	”

	Richard	“	The balance of power I don't believe has shifted from me to Kelly, but certainly I've lost some footing. Kelly wins Immunity, and all kinds of things have to change and shift quickly. So it's not as easy to remain a solid alliance in the midst of a lot of flux with so few people.	”

	Kelly	“	Rich has said-- since he knows that Sue was plotting an alliance against him-- he has had to rearrange his strategy. So, um, maybe they're not voting together. I don't know. To me, that just means game on.	”

Before Tribal Council, Sean Kenniff speculates that the votes will be split in several different directions.

	Sean	“	I think I've always looked at it, the next Tribal Council, there'll be, you know, a lot of votes cast in different directions that were never previously cast before. I think the peop…three people that are likely to vote for Sue are me, Richard, and potentially Rudy. Rudy's kind of swinging. Rudy wants to…wanted me whacked about three weeks ago, so, you know…he's a good guy. We sleep together, but he's ready to slit my throat in this contest any minute now.	”

	Kelly	“	I'm going to vote for either Rich or Sue. Um…it's time to get dirty. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I…as I said, I don't know. It's every man for himself.	”

But in the end, the Tagi Four remain strong as the last alliance outsider Sean is booted in a unanimous 4-1 vote.

Challenges

• Reward
• Immunity

Challenge: Mud Pack
Under a time limit of five minutes, tribe members will dive into Pagong's old mud pit and cover their bodies with as much mud as they can, go back to the starting point and scrap all the mud off into a bucket. They may not carry mud in their arms or in their hands, only their body. The buckets will be then weighed, and the heaviest bucket wins.
Reward: The winner receives a bottle of cold Bud Light beer and will be sent to production camp to watch the first five minutes of the season.
Winner: Kelly Wiglesworth

Challenge: Witch Hunt
Before the challenge, Jeff Probst shares to the castaways a story about Malaysian folklore. At the challenge, the castaways will run to the woods to look for masks with questions written on them with a video camera to record their answers. The first person to get back to the start with all of the masks and the questions right on tape wins immunity.
Winner: Kelly Wiglesworth

Tribal Council

Tribal Council 12: Rattana
Voted Against	Voter
Sean (4 votes)	Kelly, Richard, Rudy, Susan
Susan (1 vote)	Sean
VOTED OUT: Sean Kenniff

Voting Confessionals

Kelly, Sean, and Richard's confessionals are only available on DVD.

	Richard	“	(voting for Sean) See ya, bud. It's time. I held ya here as long as I could, and uh…I'm only one man. I think you've stayed quite a while, Sean, given what people have been, uh…thinking about your strategy, et cetera. But it's uh…it's time. It's down to the nitty gritty here, and the wavering and, uh…offbeat strategy, it's not something that can be relied on…in these last few very, very important days. See you at home.	”

	Sean	“	(voting for Susan) I'm voting for Sue tonight. Not for any particular reason. She's a good friend of mine and will always be a good friend of mine, but it's a self- preservation maneuver and, uh, needed to be done.	”

	Kelly	“	(voting for Sean) Nothing personal. Just competition.	”

	Rudy	“	(voting for Sean) According to the master plan, he has to go.	”

	Susan	“	(voting for Sean) It was fun. Good luck, buddy.	”

Final Words

	Sean	“	I like to think I was the last good person down. I hope that's the way America remembers me. I conducted myself very well here. I mean, there are people I genuinely like on there, but there are some very um…callous, cold, and, uh, duplicitous people remaining in the contest. Good luck, guys. See you later, America. It's been a blast. Bye.	”

Still in the Running

Sonja 16th	B.B. 15th	Stacey 14th	Ramona 13th	Dirk 12th	Joel 11th	Gretchen 10th	Greg 9th
Jenna 8th	Gervase 7th	Colleen 6th	Sean 5th	Kelly Rattana	Richard Rattana	Rudy Rattana	Susan Rattana

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• According to both Mark Burnett's book (Survivor: The Ultimate Game) and Jeff Probst (on a special feature on the DVD for Borneo), the castaways initially had servings of beer as a reward. Angered by such an insignificant prize, the contestants threatened to quit the show, hence the producers' decision to bring the Reward Challenge winner, Kelly, to Base Camp and let her watch the first five minutes of the season.

Other

• This episode marked the first time a contestant was eliminated in a unanimous vote.
• This was the first time that the two tribes were split again. This time, the five remaining castaways were all from the Tagi tribe, while the yet-incomplete jury was entirely comprised of former Pagong members. This would happen again in Thailand.
• Oddly, Sean's torch went out even though there was no rain. Host Jeff Probst says to Sean when he formally uses the snuffer, "The jungle has spoken and the tribe has spoken". This is the second time that this has happened, following Stacey's elimination in "Quest for Food".
• Sean's elimination marked the first time, after a record 18-day gap, that an original Tagi member was voted out since Dirk on Day 18 in "Pulling Your Own Weight".