The Taku Four is the majority alliance on the Taku tribe and, later, the dominant alliance on the Kula Kula tribe in Survivor 42.
Taking advantage of the other tribes' dysfunctions, the Taku Four integrated themselves with the Kula Kula majority to control the votes from behind the scenes. Their unity and general camaraderie allowed them to resist fractures and eventually make it to the final six, at which point they turned on themselves.
Members[]
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Affiliates[]
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History[]
Formation[]
The alliance started as a core three between Taku members Jonathan Young, Lindsay Dolashewich, and Omar Zaheer. Following Jackson Fox's evacuation on Day 3, the trio formed the majority on Taku. While they bonded well with Maryanne Oketch due to her gregarious nature, they felt that Marya Sherron offered stability and maturity, which Maryanne did not. When Taku lost the Immunity Challenge on Day 5, Jonathan, Lindsay, and Omar had to decide between which member would bring more to their tribe; they ultimately believed Maryanne had connected better with their tribe, and chose to target Marya. Even though the alliance's lack of subtlety alerted Marya to correctly play her Shot in the Dark, the play failed and Marya was successfully voted off.
After their first (and only) Tribal Council, Maryanne shared the Extra Vote she had won on the Day 2 Summit with her tribe, offering to use it as a fifth vote for the four-person alliance. The next morning, the alliance went on an idol hunt, and Maryanne found the Beware Advantage which she also shared with her tribe. Taku was such a tightly-knit unit that, after winning a Reward Challenge on Day 8, Jonathan proclaimed the foursome's unity to the rest of the castaways, much to his allies' chagrin.
While fractures emerged between Jonathan and Maryanne's clashing personalities, these cracks never came to test the alliance as Taku abstained from Tribal Council until the merge. The foursome saw that Jonathan provided a useful shield for the alliance and Maryanne's advantages offered valuable leverage for the alliance, thus agreeing to stick together as a united family despite their differences.
Merge[]
At the first Immunity Challenge, the merged tribe competed in teams; Jonathan and Maryanne ended up on the team that won immunity, and their team chose to share this with Lindsay, leaving Omar as the only alliance member vulnerable. When the merged tribe met for the first time, Jonathan brought Lindsay and Omar into an eight-person alliance. Here, Omar learned that he had lost his vote because Chanelle Howell had gone against her word during their summit together on Day 7, hence putting her in the crosshairs of the Taku Four.
However, when the Hourglass twist was introduced, it was Omar that ended up being safe, with Jonathan, Lindsay, and Maryanne becoming vulnerable after all three of them lost the individual Immunity Challenge. Of the five remaining castaways eligible to receive votes, Jonathan and Maryanne quickly emerged as targets; Jonathan for his challenge strength, and Maryanne for her idol. Hoping to save his main ally Jonathan, Omar decided to campaign against Lydia and proved successful in convincing the eight-person alliance to sacrifice her at the first post-merge Tribal Council, thus bringing all four members of the alliance into the jury phase.
On Day 16, Jonathan and Lindsay voted with the majority to eliminate Chanelle, while Maryanne and Omar voted against the secondary target Romeo Escobar.
Fractures[]
On Day 17, the Kula Kula tribe was split into two teams for the Double Elimination. Assigned to the orange team, Omar was separated from his allies, but was insulated due to his affiliation with the majority. Omar convinced Hai and Mike to take out Rocksroy Bailey that night.
The rest of the Taku four were assigned to the blue team. Jonathan suggested to Lindsay and Maryanne his plan to blindside Drea Wheeler to flush her idol, to which they agreed. However, both women grew frustrated with Jonathan's condescending and dismissive tone. At Tribal Council, Rocksroy's elimination prompted Drea and Maryanne to play their idols to prevent another person of color from being eliminated, foiling Jonathan's plan. Thus, the Takus changed plan to eliminate Tori Meehan. With this and Maryanne's Extra Vote in stow, the Takus formed the majority on the eight-person Kula Kula tribe.
After the Double Elimination, Maryanne found a new Hidden Immunity Idol the next morning with no strings attached. Meanwhile, Lindsay continued to be frustrated by Jonathan's poor play; she shared this with Omar, who agreed. At this point, Lindsay reassessed her alliance with Jonathan, deciding it might be time to blindside him. However, when Lindsay won the next Reward Challenge, she shared the reward with Omar and Mike Turner, and the three decided that Hai Giang would be another suitable target. Lindsay won the following Immunity Challenge, allowing her to keep her options open between Hai or Jonathan. The Takus decided to side with the majority against Hai, contributing to his blindside at the final eight.
Do or Die[]
Although Lindsay continued working towards her plan to get rid of Jonathan, this would be foiled when he won immunity at the final seven; as Lindsay was the only person competing against him, she was subjected to the Do or Die challenge that night with the possibility of either being eliminated automatically, or gaining immunity if she survived. During the afternoon scramble, the Takus decided to stick together and had to choose between going against Drea or Mike. Omar learned of Drea's Knowledge is Power advantage and her plan to steal Mike's idol, so Lindsay and Omar conspired to inform Mike of the advantage and take the idol from him before then blindsiding him to keep his idol. Meanwhile, Jonathan grew increasingly irritated with Drea's attitude towards him, while Maryanne saw merit in getting rid of a big threat in Drea.
At Tribal Council, Lindsay survived the Do or Die, thus a normal vote would commence. Drea played her advantage, but Mike had already given his idol to Omar. The Takus ended up siding with Mike, eliminating Drea in a 5-3 vote. On her way out, Drea exposed that Omar had double-crossed her, seeding doubt within the tribe towards his perceived trustworthiness.
Survivor Confident[]
After Tribal Council, Omar returned Mike his idol, and Lindsay celebrated that her Advantage Amulet had upgraded to the power of a Hidden Immunity Idol which would expire at the final six. Mike decided that Omar was becoming too big of a threat and proposed to Maryanne a plan to blindside him, which she considered. Meanwhile, Lindsay and Omar agreed that Jonathan's challenge prowess was becoming too great to ignore. Omar put in place a plan to split up Jonathan and Mike so that he could decide which person he would side with when it came to crunch time.
When Omar won the Reward Challenge, he shared his reward with Maryanne, Mike, and Romeo. Back at camp, Jonathan and Lindsay tried to pull the wool over each other's eyes, but Jonathan was aware that she was gunning for him. On the other hand, Lindsay believed that he was willing to vote against Mike. Lindsay realized that, if she could prevent Jonathan from winning immunity, then she and Omar would be able to successfully eliminate him at last. She also promised Omar that she would give him the idol if she felt that something was amiss.
At the Immunity Challenge, Lindsay pulled off a narrow victory against Jonathan. She and Omar agreed that he was safe, so she would hold onto the amulet so that another idol would not be introduced into the game. They continued to target Jonathan; meanwhile, Jonathan and Mike planned to vote against Romeo out of fear that Lindsay would play her idol for Omar. Maryanne decided that this was the time to make a big move, and attempted to rally Jonathan, Mike, and Romeo to go against Omar. Romeo was on board, but Jonathan and Mike were hesitant, still worried that the amulet would be played on Omar. Maryanne revealed her Extra Vote to Romeo and told him that the plan was still to get Omar out. In the end, Maryanne's plan came to fruition as Lindsay held onto her idol and she executed a 3-2-2 split, playing her Extra Vote to successfully blindside Omar, leaving Lindsay stunned and formally signalling the end of the Taku Four.
The Fighter[]
After Tribal Council, Lindsay confronted Jonathan for his betrayal of their alliance. Jonathan rebuffed her and said that she was gunning for him in the first place, aggravating her. Though Maryanne promised that she was on her side, Lindsay realized that she was on the bottom and had to win the next challenge to stay alive. Fortunately, she was able to find a Challenge Advantage at the new Kula Kula camp; however, she was unable to capitalize on this advantage as Mike won the challenge, leaving her in a vulnerable position. Mike promised Lindsay that he would play his idol for her, but Maryanne informed her that he made her the same promise.
Maryanne and Romeo considered voting together against Jonathan, while Maryanne debated playing her own idol for Lindsay at Tribal Council. In the end, they joined Jonathan and Mike in taking out Lindsay, who they considered the biggest remaining threat.
Metamorphosis[]
At the final four, the tribe appeared to be split into two pairs: one between Jonathan and Mike, and the other between the perennial underdogs Maryanne and Romeo. Romeo won the Final Immunity Challenge and decided to bring Maryanne into the Final Three, where they would be joined by Mike who defeated Jonathan in the fire-making challenge.
At Final Tribal Council, Maryanne impressed the jury with her eloquent defense of her strategic decisions. Though the jury entered with little regard for Maryanne's game and was leaning towards voting for Mike, her articulate delivery of her growth narrative earned her the title of Sole Survivor in a 7-1-0 vote over Mike and Romeo.
