Survivor: Borneo Review

OLN is rerunning season one of Survivor, which took place in Borneo back in the summer of 2000. We watched it on its first run and enjoyed it, and it's pretty good this time, too.

When we first watched it, I felt like it was very clear that Rich was the only one who really understood what the game was about. He clearly had a firm grasp on how such a game is played and how to win it.

Watching this time gives some extra insight to all of the people and the game itself. In particular, I've noticed a few things that I didn't notice the first time, or just don't remember.

• In the first episode, after the Tagi tribe lands on the island, Rich wants to discuss what needs to be done and how to do it. He mentions that one of the things he wants do discuss is strategy, but those discussions never happened. How differently would the game have turned out if Rich discussed his strategy with the Tagi tribe? (And for that matter, what kind of strategy would he have discussed? Would he have set out to mislead the rest of the tribe from the start?)
• With the Pagong tribe and the merged Rattana tribe, Greg seems to have an idea of how the game is played, recognizing that relationships are more important than the survival apsect. He doesn't see a big enough piece of the puzzle, though, to recognize that things like alliances are what will win the game.
• At the first Tribal Council after the merger, the alliance of Rich, Sue, Kelly and Rudy all voted for Gretchen, who was elliminated. The interesting part was that the other six Rattana members all voted individually, and nobody received more than one vote. This is just another point to reinforce that nobody else really understood the game.
• In the End of the Line Immunity Challenge, Gervase won. But Sherree and I immediately noticed that both Rich and Sue were there to congratulate him. We rewound the challenge to watch again and both definitely started. Did they both just give up part way through--confident that their alliance would protect them at Tribal Council--or did they just happen to be that close, that a step or two put them on camera (which I doubt).

I had noticed a few other interesting things, too, but I can't remember them at the moment. It's exciting to see again, though.