BLOOD VS. WATER – Survivor Oz

Individual Immunity Necklace

Opening Sequence

Survivor: Blood vs. Water is the twenty-seventh season of Survivor.

This season featured the first time the Blood vs. Water twist came into play. The twist saw ten players return to the game alongside a loved one, pitting them against each other in an epic battle of blood and water. The ten returning players came from ten different seasons. The returnees were, Gervase Peterson, (Survivor: Borneo), Tina Wesson, (Survivor: The Australian Outback & All-Stars), Rupert Boneham, (Survivor: Pearl Islands, All-Stars & Heroes vs. Villains), Aras Baskauskas, (Survivor: Panama), Candice Cody (nee Woodcock), (Survivor: Cook Islands & Heroes vs. Villains), Tyson Apostol, (Survivor: Tocantins & Heroes vs. Villains), Laura Morett, (Survivor: Samoa) and Colton Cumbie, Monica Culpepper and Kat Edorsson, (Survivor: One World). The loved ones were Gervase’s niece, (Marissa), Tina’s daughter, (Katie), Rupert’s wife, (Laura B.), Aras’ brother, (Vytas), Candice’s husband, (John), Tyson’s girlfriend, (Rachel), Laura’s daughter, (Ciera), Colton’s fiancée, (Caleb), Monica’s husband, (Brad), and Kat’s boyfriend, (Hayden) – who was also the winner of Big Brother season twelve.

Survivor: Philippines castaway Roberta “R.C.” Saint-Amour and her father, Craig, were originally cast and traveled to the Philippines with the other castaways, but were pulled from the game the day before filming began due to Craig having high blood pressure. They were replaced by Candice and her husband, John. Other previous castaways who were considered for this season were Greg Buis, Jerri Manthey, Lex van den Berghe, Tom Buchannan, Rob and Amber Mariano, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Eliza Orlins, Bobby Jon Drinkard, Tom Westman, Jamie Newton, Shane Powers, Cirie Fields, Terry Deitz, Jonathan Penner, Parvati Shallow, Yau-Man Chan, Earl Cole, Marty Piombo, Jane Bright, Holly Hoffman, Ashley Underwood, Edna Ma, Troyzan Robertson and Chelsea Meissner.

Twenty contestants began the game divided into pairs of loved one’s on Day Zero. The following morning they were separated into tribes of returning players, (Galang – Filipino word for respect), and loved ones, (Tadhana – Filipino word for destiny). After a Tribe Switch on Day Fourteen, the remaining eleven contestants merged into one tribe, Kasama, (Filipino word for companion), on Day Nineteen.

The Hidden Immunity Idol and Redemption Island twists returned this season.

Survivor: Blood vs. Water was filmed in Palaui Island, Cagayan Valley, Philippines

Twists

Returning Players: In mid-May 2013, it was revealed that this season would feature returning players.

Blood vs. Water: Players were paired with a competing family member or loved one. Each castaway played individually, so they will remain in the game even if their family member is voted out. This season, the pairs will be comprised of returning players and their loved ones, where the returnees would be put in one tribe, while all of their loved ones would be put in another.

Day Zero: A day before the actual game starts, the ten pairs will be sent out at sunset to ten different locations to live by themselves for the night, under the notion that the pairs will be placed in the same tribe. They will then all meet up to be officially welcomed by host Jeff Probst and start the game the next morning.

First Impressions: Moments after meeting each other, each tribe had to vote one member off their tribe. They will be sent to Redemption Island.

Redemption Island: Anyone voted out will be sent there and will then compete in a three-person duel. The last place finisher in each duel is out of the game for good, while the top two remain. However, if someone’s loved one is on Redemption Island they can take their loved one’s place before a duel.

Hidden Immunity Idol: The person who finishes first in each duel will also get to give a clue to the location of a Hidden Immunity Idol to any person from either tribe that they choose. If a castaway wins a game-returning duel, the castaway could also keep the clue for themselves.

Tribe Switch: On Day Fourteen, the remaining castaways randomly drew for new tribes.

White Rock Tiebreaker: In the event of a deadlocked vote players draw rocks to break the tie. The immunity necklace bearer and the two players involved in the tie are exempt from drawing rocks. Everybody else will pick a rock from a bag, and the person who draws the white (formerly the purple) rock will be automatically eliminated from the game.

Episode Summaries

Episode One: Blood Is Thicker than Anything

Episode Two: Rule in Chaos

Episode Three: Opening Pandora’s Box

Episode Four: One Armed Dude and Three Moms

Episode Five: The Dead Can Still Talk

Episode Six: One-Man Wrecking Ball

Episode Seven: Swoop In for the Kill

Episode Eight: Skin of My Teeth

Episode Nine: My Brother’s Keeper

Episode Ten: Big Bad Wolf

Episode Eleven: Gloves Come Off

Episode Twelve: Rustle Features

Episode Thirteen: Out On a Limb

Episode Fourteen: It’s My Night

Season Summary

TBA

Castaways

Episode Guide*

Notes:

^1 – Combined Reward and Immunity Challenge

Trivia

– With the Day Zero twist, this season is the second longest season in terms of number of days, lasting thirty-nine and a half days, following Survivor: The Australian Outback, which was filmed in forty-two days instead of the standard thirty-nine.

– The US Survivor franchise is the second version to adapt a couples format, following the Philippine version, which had pairs of celebrities, each with a pre-existing relationship.

– Instead of revealing the location during the previous season’s Reunion Show, Jeff showed a clue, which was a short clip of blood spreading in water. The second clue was the same as the first, only with the season logo shown for a split second afterwards.

– This is the first time Survivor has filmed three consecutive seasons in the same country, with Survivor: Philippines, Survivor: Caramoan and Blood vs Water all being shot in the Philippines.

– This is the second season that is filmed in another location within a previous host country. Survivor: The Amazon and Survivor: Tocantins were both filmed in Brazil, albeit in different locations; namely, Rio Negro and Rio Novo, respectively.

– This is the ninth season to feature returning players.

– This is the third season in a row to feature returning players. This is the longest consecutive streak of seasons with returning players.

– This is also the third season in a row to feature returning players who were eliminated before the Merge/Jury phase.

– This is the first time to have two back-to-back seasons with half (ten contestants out of twenty total) the castaways being returning players.

– Like Micronesia and Caramoan, the game was won by a Returning Player. Also, like Micronesia, the Final Two/Three was made up entirely of returning players.

– It was revealed in a Survivor Oz interview with Ashley Underwood that all participants had a partner, and a back-up partner.

– This is the first season to feature returning Sole Survivors but not have four returning Sole Survivors. Other seasons to feature Sole Survivors are Survivor: All-Stars and Survivor: Heroes vs Villains each had four former Sole Survivors competing.

– This is also the first time that former Sole Survivors are competing in a season with new players.

– This season marks the return of Redemption Island, which had been absent since Survivor: South Pacific.

– This is also the first season to feature Redemption Island and female returning players.

– This is the first season to feature bothRedemption Island and returning players but have more than two returning players.

– This is the first season to feature Redemption Island in a twenty-castaway format.

– This is the first season to feature Redemption Island with a Tribe Switch involved.

– This is the first season to feature Redemption Island with more than one male losing a duel pre-merge while there was only one male who lost a duel pre-merge in Survivor: Redemption Island and Survivor: South Pacific, respectively.

– This season has the most castaways return to the game after being voted out, with three castaways returning to the game. (Laura B., Laura M. and Tina

– This season marks the only time Rupert Boneham and Candice Cody didn’t make the Merge or Jury phase.

– This is also the only time Candice didn’t place eighth.

– This is the first season with Redemption Island in which a male castaway was the first person eliminated.

– This is the second season where the first two castaways eliminated from the game were eliminated by means other than being voted out. The first was Survivor: Palau. Also after Palau, this is the second season where the first two castaways eliminated from the game had no votes cast against them. However, while Palau had this as an intentional twist, this was purely coincidental.

– This is the second season where the first two people eliminated from the game were male. The first was Survivor: Cook Islands.

– This is the first season ever to have three players eliminated (Rupert, Colton Cumbie and Candice) without any of them ever attending Tribal Council.

– This is the first season where three people were eliminated without getting voted off (Rupert, Colton and Katie Collins), and none of them were evacuated.

– The font used for the tribe names this season is Totally Glyphic.

– This is the first season to not have the entire opening sequence shown in any of the episodes.

– This is the second season to see the Rock Drawing tiebreaker being utilised. The first season using said tiebreaker was Survivor: Marquesas.

– This is the first season since Survivor: One World to have a Second Runner-Up, since Lisa Whelchel & Michael Skupin and Dawn Meehan& Sherri Biethman ended up tie for Runners-Up in Philippines and Caramoan.

– This is the first season of returning players versus new players to have only returning players remaining at the Final Four.

– This is the first season to feature a returning player win for the second time in a row, with Tyson Apostol winning this season after John Cochran won Caramoan.

– This is the first season where two castaways entered the Merge with only one challenge win.

– This season had more players survive at least one Redemption Island duel than any other Redemption Island season with seven -Candice, Marissa, John, Brad, Laura M., Vytas, and Tina.

– Coincidentally, the highest ranking returnees were paired with the three lowest ranking loved ones.

– The Reunion Show saw the return of having all castaways present on stage after Caramoan forced the pre-jurors to sit in the audience. However, they were not seated from winner on the bottom right to first boot on the top left. Instead, they were seated as pairs in order of rank, with the higher-ranking of the two sitting on the right

– This is the first season with new castaways to have a Final Tribal Council of three with the three all being returning players.

– Tyson Apostol, Monica Culpepper, Gervase Peterson and Laura Morett are the only returning players to place higher than they did in their original seasons. Out of the four, Morett was the only one to not reach the Final Tribal Council.

Season Statistics

Tribe Challenge Statistics

Individual Challenge Statistics

Redemption Island Duel Statistics

Voting History*

Notes:

^1 – Ciera, Katie and Tyson participated in the Rock Drawing tiebreaker after a deadlock vote and the tribe not being able to reach a consensus on who to vote out. Katie drew the rock that would eliminate her from the game.

^2 – Gervase played a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating the two votes cast against him.

Redemption Island Duel History*

Notes:

– Each Duel on Redemption Island this season saw three person Duels, with the first two castaways who finished staying alive in the game.

Confessional Count

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* – Credit Survivor Wikia.