24--O16--Palau

Rank: Original #16
Season # 10
Title:  Survivor: Palau

Location: Koror, Palau

Broadcast: Spring, 2005
New Players:  20
Returning Players: 0
Winner:  Tom Westman
Final Tribal Council:  2 Players 7 Jury
Initial Tribes:  None

Tribes Ulong, Koror

Merge: 9 Koror obtained final Ulong
Jury: at 9
Premise/Twists:  Initially started with no tribes.  Two immunity necklaces were on the beach one for men and one for Women.  Ian and Jolanda got to them first.   Two people were eliminated before they had tribes.  And one tribe became totally wiped out and the remaining member joined the other tribe, rather than have an official merge.

Everyone went to work setting up camp, finding water, trying to start fire--and creating alliances.  Tom and Stephenie made an alliance.  Coby tried to work everyone without actually making alliances. 

Ian and Jolanda as the immunity necklaces, chose tribes.  Immunity was granted only for the picking.  All but two players were selected, putting Wanda and Jonathan out of the game. The two tribes were named and remained on the same beach.

Ulong failed miserably at the first immunity challenge.  Koror won and chose the new beach rather than the first beach. On the way to the new beach their winnings fell into the water and sank. The first Tribal Council was a contest between Angie and Jolanda, as Jolando was ultimately picked.

Ulong recovered in the first reward challenge, and won fishing gear and their flint, they were successful in fishing to a certain degree.  . Koror went chasing after their crate with their fire supplies.  Ian eventually hooked it with a rope and it was pulled up and recovered. 

But in the next immunity challenge which required them to pull a footlocker 50 feet underwater, Ulong moved it only 10 feet before Koror got the footlocker and solved the puzzle.   Ashlee was sent home, followed by Jeff and Kimberlee in the next 2 Tribal Councils.  Ulong even lost the outhouse challenge 

On day 12, things changed.  Ulong lost again, but Koror had to go to Tribal Council before eating stew and watching Ulong's Tribal Council. Korer voted out Willard, and Ulong voted out Angie.    

After that Ulong lost the next three immunities, which left Stephenie as the only remaining member of Ulong.on day 21 after a fire challenge..  After spending a night alone, Stephenie was sent to the Korer camp in lieu of a formal merge. 

Koror had become annoyed with Coby, so he went before Stephenie. At the next tribal, Janu offered to leave to allow Stephenie to stay in the game. She was voted out, and Stephenie went next,  leaving 6 Koror to fight it out.  

Ian had made committments to Tom and Katie.early on, and the final four included all three of them along with Jen. Ian also broke a promise to Katie to take her on the reward, because as Ian said it involved a car and he had promised Tom to take him on that reward.  

This led to a lot of anguish and distrust by Katie of Ian down the stretch.  In the final four immunity. Tom and Ian made it to the final, with Tom winning Immunity by more or less the luck of the draw in trying combinations in different orders.  Tom had an agreement with Ian to go to the Final Immunity together, and they jettisoned Jenn..  Ian told Tom he's glad he didn't have to make that decison.  Tom then questioned it, and found out from Jenn, and then Ian, that he planeed to vote Tom out if he won.  This led them to going to Tribal Council late.  The first vote was 2-2. The revote was also deadlocked. Ian won fire eliminating Jenn. 

Tom then berated Ian about his lack of decision making, and Ian took it to heart.  He wrestled with whether he was wrong or not, but ultimately felt the result was what he wanted with the 3 of them in the final 3.  

On Day 38, one of the most interesting Final Immunity Challenges in Survivor history took place.  It was simple.  Stand on a pole on buoy on a small step.  Katie lasted just under 5 hours.  Night fell, 8 hours went by.  Tom offered Ian final two if he stepped down.  Over 3 hours later, Ian offered to step down to earn Tom's and Katie's friendship, by giving up the final 2.  11 Hours and 55 Minutes in, Ian jumped off, giving Tom immunity.   An instant Tribal Council was held, and Tom after giving Ian one more chance to change his mind, voted Ian out.  

Tom played a strong game from the beginning and his only real competition was Ian.  In a Final Tribal Council vote Tom won 6-1 only losing Coby's vote, who stated it was not for Katie but against Tom. 

This season was marked by two things. 1) A tribe was wiped out by never winning an Immunity challenge (0-9).  The Phillipines eliminated Matsing by losing their first four Immunities, allowing the other two to be sent to the other two tribes.  2) Someone dropped out of the final challenge to allow another person to get to the final.  The length of the Final Immunity required an impromptu Tribal Council out of sight of the jury.  

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