Survivor retro rewatch: Cook Islands (season 13) premiere

This time for our summer of Survivor retro rewatches, we’re looking at Cook Islands, the thirteenth season, and how it shaped the show.

Unlike Survivor: Borneo, which I had not seen since its original airing, I’ve actually rewatched Cook Islands within the past few years. However, I don’t quite think that I’ve gotten everything I could out of the season yet. I might have ranked it the lowest of the three Surviving Tribal experts on our season-by-season ranking, but 11th place is still very respectable, thank you very much.

So, here we are. The year was 2006. Jeff Probst was back on our screens to welcome us to a new location back when Survivor didn’t always film back-to-back in the same place. Welcome to Survivor: Cook Islands.

Things Survivor had not lost between its first season and its 13th: a sense of drama. Just as in Borneo, things started with Jeff Probst delivering a monologue even as people grabbed chickens, fruit, and everything. Probst also noted that there were four tribes, not just two, and here is where we get into our first Survivor controversy of the season! The four tribes were sorted by ethnicity. If you’d like to read more about how this all unfolded 11 years ago, here’s an opinion piece from the Today show on the matter.

Probst dubbed it, as he is wont to do, “a social experiment like no other.” However, he did emphasize that the “social element” meant something still, and then he said the words:

"“39 days, 20 people, one Survivor!”"

Ozzy had his first confessional of the season, saying he worried about clashing with his tribemates. Sundra came next, saying she “could care less” about the choice, dubbing it a “human effort.” Then, Yul gave it a mixed bag response. Finally, Parvati asked if it was “kosher” to do what Survivor had done.

Almost all of the confessionals and first camp life scenes involved further commentary on the divisions. Stereotypes, jokes, and words like “represent” got thrown around.

More from Surviving Tribal

But, in terms of narrative, here was what Survivor established:

Puka (Puka) had some generational issues with Cao Boi, to paraphrase Yul’s diplomatic commentary from day 1.
Stephannie felt left out on (Mani)Hiki between Sundra and Rebecca. Sekou didn’t “stay focused” per Stephanie.
Raro(tonga) lost the chickens on day 1. Jonathan Penner pointed out that Survivor was still happening. Adam and Candice started sleeping next to each other. Everyone noticed.
Finally, Aitu(taki) saw the rise of Ozzy and his general strength at, well, strength.

Survivor wrapped up reward and immunity all in one, and in the ensuing six years since Borneo, things had become more complicated … though the basic idea still involved getting fire. There was a puzzle boat to get fire, then four mini puzzles, then climbing up to light a fire barrel for flint (and a fire-making kit for the first-place tribe).

Coming off of Borneo, I have to say that it’s nice to have Jeff Probst telling me what’s happening during a challenge and offering sage advice like “work together” when Hiki had trouble. I don’t need it, but it’s reassuring.

Puka took first place, followed by Aitu, and then Raro managed to beat Hiki despite forgetting to put the mini compass puzzles in place originally. But Probst had more words to say: Hiki got to send someone to Exile Island … although it came with a transferable hidden immunity idol usable through the final four. Hiki sent Jonathan for his dubious acquisition of the chickens.

The concept of Exile in and of itself is not a bad one for Survivor. We’ll be talking about it more as the season continues because it does play a major role. For now, we’ll settle for pointing out that it adds in a separate storyline that does take some time, but it adds an element of social difficulty to the game.

Over on Hiki, with three women to two men, the ladies had all the power so long as they could agree on it. The men knew it too, but targeted Sundra all the same, trying to pull Stephannie over to their side.

Probst sat down with the five Hiki members, giving his normal speech. To contrast between Borneo and Cook Islands, his questions didn’t give away how much he probably watched footage. He let Rebecca bring up Sekou first, and then he followed the question up with Sekou. He also brought up the division issue again.

Sundra took two votes, but the women stuck together and voted Sekou out, 3-2. This is good because one of the big storylines would look a lot different without Sundra there.

Next: Retro Survivor rewatch: Borneo episode 1

But that’s not going to happen for a while yet. For now, Cook Islands has a continuing story to tell in episode 2: how people are having trouble fitting in.