Fang And Kota Tribes Did Not Merge On Survivor 17: Gabon
By: Mary Cavaliere

At the start of the show there four tribe members left on FANG (Crystal, Matty, Sugar, and Kenny) and they all talked about sticking together until the end.  By the same token there were six tribe members on KOTA (Corinne, Suzy, Bob, Randy, Charlie, and Marcus) and they also talked about sticking together until the end.  That’s because everyone was under the impression that they were headed for a merger, especially since they were brought to what they thought was a merger “feast” in lieu of a reward challenge.  But instead they were brought together to once again mix things up and create another new FANG and KOTA tribe. All I can say is, as a viewer, I have completely lost track of who started out on what tribe in the very beginning!

KOTA definitely had the advantage since the new tribes appeared to have a majority of KOTA members on both new tribes.   Crystal and Marcus found some common ground (or at least Marcus thought they did).  It turns out that in the real world Marcus is good friends with Crystal’s cousin.  That seemed to create a sort of allegiance on Marcus’ part towards Crystal.  Crystal went along with it on the exterior, but she felt no allegiance to Marcus in return.

At one point in the show Matty said that Randy was a good guy. You’ve GOT to be kidding me.  Am I seeing something he doesn’t see?  Obviously!!!!  Randy is and has been my LEAST favorite Survivor contestant this season.   Matty also made Sugar realize that Kenny had played her and that she made a huge mistake in voting Ace out last week because Ace had her back.  She felt pretty bad, as she probably should.

So with no reward challenge this week the only competition was the immunity challenge, which wasn’t an easy one.  With arms outstretched, each tribe member had to use the tops of their hands to hold two poles against an overhead board.  The slightest move would cause the configuration to crumble and the tribe who hung in the longest won tribal immunity.  It only took one second for Crystal to be out and another nine or ten seconds for Sugar to follow.  Suzie was out next leaving Corinne as the only woman left behind to fight it out.  But both her and Randy dropped out simultaneously followed shortly by Kenny.  Then it was two to two (Bob and Marcus for Kota and Charlie and Matty for Fang). Once Marcus and Charlie dropped out, it was a showdown between Matty and Bob.  Matty tried hard to psych Bob out by distracting him with noises and such.  Evidently it worked because Bob lost control and Matty was the new hero of Kota (for now anyway).

At tribal council there was a lot of bickering between Kenny and Marcus because they both knew their heads were on the chopping block with Suzy holding the swing vote.   When all was said and done Suzy made the decision that Marcus would be going home.  Only she forgot about one thing - Marcus is the first member of the jury so if Suzy does get to the final two, she won’t be getting HIS vote!

You can read more of Mary’s television blogs at www.myspace.com/italiangirl57