Survivor Thailand: Most memorable moments from season five

Fake merge

The lasting legacy that Survivor: Thailand left behind is without a doubt, the fake merge. For those who don’t remember, I’ll remind you what the fake merge entailed (even though it’s pretty self-explanatory).

In the first four seasons of the show, it was traditional to merge when the game got down to ten people. It made sense that when Jeff gathered the two tribes and told them they’d be living together on one beach, the ten remaining castaways would assume they had merged.

Forget the fact that they didn’t have new buffs, a new flag, a new tribe name, and that Jeff never uttered the words “merge” when he explained this new twist to them.

When the ten players arrived for what they thought would be their first individual Immunity Challenge, Jeff was quick to correct Erin when she mentioned the merge by telling them he never said that and they’re still very much two tribes competing against each other.

Sneaky, sneaky Jeff.

This was awful news for Shii Ann, who had been strategizing and plotting with different people on Chuay Gahn to try to get Penny out. It backfired on Shii Ann, who was voted off once Sook Jai lost and had to go to Tribal Council.

The two tribes didn’t officially merge until episode nine, which by that point gave Chuay Gahn the advantage at 5-3. Chuay Gahn went on to pick off the remaining three Sook Jai members, which made the post-merge on this season extraordinarily predictable and boring.