Survivor retro rewatch: Borneo episode 9, “Old and New Bonds”

Who needs loyalty and an alliance when you’ve got someone openly proclaiming his vote every single time? Survivor: Borneo asked and answered that question.

Our summer of Survivor continues. We’re well past the halfway mark of the season, but even from the premiere onward, we’ve seen some shifts in how the show presented itself. What hasn’t changed is how it looked at the Tagi foursome. Let’s dive in to Borneo episode 9.

Seriously, how much do you think that Survivor relished the clips of Sue and Kelly saying an alliance didn’t exist after episode 8 of Borneo? They featured in the recap, and the alliance continued to take up a lot of screentime.

Of course, Sue and Richard both got the chance to say that not admitting anything to Probst was the smart move. And, at that point, it was. With eight players still in the game and able to vote, the other four could have banded together to force a tie and justify it not as an alliance but as an alliance buster. Of that opposite four, Colleen said she knew it had been a lie. But, however, Kelly had started having doubts about the … integrity … of playing in an alliance, shall we say.

The topic of Rich’s fishing also came up again, with Sean saying it was the reason he was around and pointing to Rich saying that at Tribal, and Rich casually counteracting that by saying (in a confessional):

"“I’m staying around ’cause I’m bright. It has nothing to do with catching fish. Catching fish makes people happy, but that’s not why they’re voting me here. They’re not voting me off because I’m not letting them.”"

That shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. He said in the premiere he had the check written out already. There’s an interpretation of that it was meant to make Richard look negative … or to make the case that his strategic game was going to let him win.

Of course he had a slight social misstep by being upset about the fish getting overcooked so verbally. Colleen, Sue, Kelly, and Jenna then compounded that by catching a fish of their own.

Not much came of it before the reward challenge, though. Survivor went back to the jungle for an early version of its multi-station rope obstacle, asking the players to collect 16 medallions without falling off. Jeff Probst actually started talking here and there, mostly offering encouragement, though the music still took precedence, and other subtitles showed who was ahead and behind.

Colleen won the reward of a barbecue cooked by Probst himself and letters from home. He also let her pick someone to share the reward, and she picked Jenna. This was also the birth of the reward challenge strategy session, where Colleen picked out Sean as the “swing vote”.

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Rich’s birthday fell on day 27, and he spent part of it in the nude, which was not really much of a surprise. Not everyone liked it, with Colleen getting vocal about it.

Back to the strategy talk, Sean openly said he would vote for Jenna, because he’d skipped Gervase since he’d won immunity. He also said he didn’t think he would be that “swing vote.” Put a pin in that one, because first, it’s immunity time! (Rich put his clothes back on.)

It was an eight-way tile game where you had to move once per turn onto a red square, flipping it over behind you. Diagonals were also okay. Everyone tried to tell Sean to move into Rudy’s territory, but he didn’t at the right time. Rudy ended up winning the challenge (with people advising him from the sidelines).

Colleen continued her last-ditch effort to resist the Tagi foursome, and it almost seemed that Kelly would leave the alliance, based on her friendships with Jenna and Colleen.

Probst introduced everyone to the idea of the jury before Rattana filed in to tribal council. He also got to bring up the alphabet plan, though Sean explicitly pointed out Pagong people came earlier on his list. Sue called him out on it.

And it all ended up coming down to the man who didn’t think he was a “swing vote.” Sean cast his vote for Jenna, and so did Rudy, Rich, and Sue, sending her home. Rich snagged three votes, and Kelly tossed her vote Sean’s way.

Next: Big Brother 19 episode 5 recap

In episode 10, we’ll look at an attempt to stop Rich’s march to the end of the game.