Tribal Council Voting

The tribe grants Chet his wish. They cast their votes and send him home.

Chet (Erik): Erik, you're a class act. Don't ever change, and I'm proud to know ya.

Ami (Chet with a heart): Chet, sorry to see you go, but your body couldn't take it anymore. Bye. (kisses folded-up paper)

Erik (Chet): I'm voting for Chet. That's what he wanted.

Cirie (Chet): You asked me to vote you out. I hope you take care of yourself and get better. It's been a pleasure meeting you. Hopefully I'll see you outside of the game. Take care.

Ozzy ("Chettington V"): Thanks for letting us use you to vote out Joel, and I hope your foot gets better.

Tracy (Erik): Erik, thank you for giving me permission to write your name, because I vowed never to vote for Chet. This means nothing. Just a vote.

Amanda (Chet with a heart): Chet, I think you're a great guy, I hope you feel better. (?) So take care of yourself.

Chet Secret Scene

Chet finds comfort from home while tending to Malakal's chickens.

Chet (leaning over the chicken coop): Too early yet, huh? You'll start singing soon.

Chet (solo): I've always liked chickens. I've had a special bond with chickens pretty much all my life.

Chet (to the chickens): You've got food, you've got water. Did you get wet last night?

Chet (different solo interview): Just hearing the sounds is very soothing to me. Just knowing they're over there. Taking care of their food and their water. It's something I would be doing back home if I were back there.

Chet: I'll clean your coop out later. It's kind of nice, a little bit of home here on the island. It's kind of like a visitor or a loved one.

With a free day, the tribe encourages Penner to take it easy and give his wounded knee a chance to heal. Will it be enough to keep him in the game?

Parvati: What do you want to do?

James: I don't know. What do ya'll want to do?

Parvati: I guess go clean up the cave. We're gonna go make it nice.

Alexis: I'm down for anything.

(Parvati and Alexis tell Jonathan he doesn't have to do anything, he can just lay in the shelter and have a free day; Jonathan says his leg is more flexible today)

Jonathan (solo): I think everyone's being very cool about the injury. They're concerned.

James: Bend you knee. You can do exercises.

Jonathan (solo): I always overcontributed around camp. It's nice for me to be the one they can take care of. I actually thinks it puts me in a nice position with them. They feel they can take care of me and believe I've been appreciative of it. That's actually been fine.

(Jonathan tries to stand up)

Alexis: Do you want me to do some stretches with you?

(Jonathan says it's a lot better)

Jonathan (solo): The last thing I can afford to have is a septic situation or an infection in my knee. I'm hobbling around like a real gimp. It's gonna go either way. Either my knee is gonna start to feel a lot better, or I probably will have to leave the game.

Amanda on the new Malakal

Amanda describes the frustration of working side-by-side with the rookies in the tribe.

"I miss my old tribe. Even though we had some people we didn't get along with, like Jonathan and Eliza, at least everyone wanted to be there and everyone contributed. It was like a well-oiled machine. Even though there was a little bit of separation. Right now it's like having amateurs and experienced players. It's hard. It's hard to mesh that. It's like skiing with a professional skiier if you've never been on skis before. It's hard to ski with that person. It's a hard thing. We have to figure out a way either to get rid of certain people or change something where we can act like a team in challenges so we can start winning. We've lost three in a row. I've never lost three in a row before, and it's not a good thing, it's not a good feeling. We're definitely not used to it, and we definitely don't like it. Something has to change."

(cut)

"The new Malakal tribe is pretty much fans v favorites. It's very much segregated. It's kind of because the favorites out here know what they're doing. They expect certain things I guess from the fans that we're just not seeing. The work ethic's not there. It kinda seems like we're doing all the work and they're just walking around, they don't know what to do. They're not asking any questions either. It's frustrating."

(cut)

"You can kind of tell how more competitive the favorites are then the fans and how much more aggressive the favorites are then the fans. It's definitely kind of something that's separating us in the tribe. Honestly I'm having doubts we'll be a team, because we're having a hard time connecting in challenges."

(cut)

"Even though we've been blended, there's very much a difference. There's very much, I don't think it has to be fans v favorites, I want to be a solid unit, a team, but just because we've been through this before and they haven't, it's put an automatic separation between us. I definitely think if they were more aggressive or just got in there and tried to communicate more with the group...I mean, there's ways. We're not gonna go out of our way to make them feel comfortable every single second. I'm not gonna sit there and hold Tracy's hand and say, 'It's OK, we like you.' She needs to be a little aggressive and get in there. If she wants to separate herself, which she's doing, she can, or she can like fit in with everyone. It's definitely an individual decision they're making."

(cut)

"I honestly think Chet has avoided getting out of the game by putting the target on someone else. I think that's one thing he's good at in camp is seeing where differences lie and trying to save his butt at the last minute. He's definitely not here because he's athletic and he's definitely not here because he's good at challenges. He doesn't do much around camp either. He's here by luck."

(cut)

"In a team, you're only as strong as your weakest link. Malakal is only as strong as our weakest link, and right now it's pretty evident that's Chet and Tracy. Their attitudes towards the game, just their overall energy, is not what you need to win challenges. Chet could step it up if he wanted, it's not in him to do that. It's not gonna help us."

(cut)

"If I came into this game as a fan with people who played this game before, and they had a switch like this, the first thing I would think is I need to prove myself to these people that I deserve to be there, that I deserve to be playing with them. That's what I would think. I would try my hardest in camp, I would try my hardest in challenges. I just don't feel like they're doing that, and I just don't get it. That's the strategy I would be playing as a fan. That makes the most sense to me. If you think about on the other side, you can kind of think about what you would expect. It doesn't make sense. I don't feel like they're using common sense in this game strategically."

Jonathan Aligns with the Fans

Jonathan tests the waters at Airai, looking for possible new alliances.

Jonathan (laying on the ground): Do you think Parvati and Natalie are getting close at all?

Alexis: Not with Nat. She's not going anywhere, as far as loyalty goes.

Jonathan: Cause Parvati has a way of, she's brilliant at it, she's great at it, she plays a social game. Everything's like a cocktail party, I don't know.

Alexis: It's a big threat to everybody, cause she can play the guys just as well as she can play the girls.

Jonathan: I think you're right. I think it's great. I think you, Natalie, Eliza and me, I think we could do very, very well.

Alexis: I think it's solid. (bends down to shake his hand)

Jonathan (solo): I actually think I can work with all four of the fans and Eliza. I shook Alexis' hand, I said I'm glad I found someone who wants to talk about the game and strategy. She's at least said she understands where I'm coming from. We move against Parvati and that makes me feel satisfied there are people who are ready to start playing the next phase of the game.

Chet Secret Scene

Chet finds comfort from home while tending to Malakal's chickens.

Chet (leaning over the chicken coop): Too early yet, huh? You'll start singing soon.

Chet (solo): I've always liked chickens. I've had a special bond with chickens pretty much all my life.

Chet (to the chickens): You've got food, you've got water. Did you get wet last night?

Chet (different solo interview): Just hearing the sounds is very soothing to me. Just knowing they're over there. Taking care of their food and their water. It's something I would be doing back home if I were back there.

Chet: I'll clean your coop out later. It's kind of nice, a little bit of home here on the island. It's kind of like a visitor or a loved one.

Proud to play the game, Chet is comforted knowing he outlasted the people who were against him since the beginning.

"I am so honored to be part of the Survivor family forever. I'm even more honored to be part of my family and friends because without them to help me and support me I wouldn't be here today sharing this magnificent experience. Thank you and I love you."

Chet got a shot at his dream: play for a million dollars and forever be a part of the Survivor Family. But when the dream proved to be harder than it seemed, was it worth it?

"I was thrilled to death when I found out it was fans v favorites. I've always been a fan of Survivor. People I've admired. I've watched from season one on. Of course there's people you relate to, people you would hope to meet, whatever. Getting here and realizing first off I'm one of ten chosen to play as fans, literally playing one on one with ten favorites I've admired through the years, what more could you ask for? First to realize your dream of getting to play on Survivor is realized, then to know that you're only one of ten and you're playing against these people. It was incredible."

Jonathan the Day After

His first time around, he found himself leaving the game labeled a 'villain'; this time he left respectfully, without feelings of animosity towards him.

"Leaving the game for medical reasons means I was able to leave the game with my head held high. No animosity towards anyone or I think towards me, so in that sense it was a much better way to leave. I have no regrets about the way I played, about what happened in the game."

(cut)

"Leaving the Cook Islands the way I did, getting voted out, I got votes damn near every Tribal. Finally voted off with a tremendous amount of animosity held towards me, and spent the better part of a year thinking about that, was it the best way to play. I had a chance to come back and play a different way. I really did learn from that experience and tried to apply it this time. Then I got hit with some bad luck. Nothing I did personally, nothing anyone did to me, so I have no regrets about coming back here or the way I played the game."

"The gameplay itself, the manipulating and scheming and plotting and conniving and all of that Survivor stuff, I really enjoyed. I played as hard and fast as I could and did not really take into account the other players quite honestly, and their feelings, and how I was affecting them. I asked them constantly to see it as a game, to not take it personally, that nothing I was doing was personal, even if at times I didn't like them or liked them less than some other players, I was there to play the game and have that experience. Naively, arrogantly, I didn't understand why they were not having that same experience, could not see the experience through my eyes, why they were not here to do the same thing. That was my own lack of empathy, really. I learned that, saw that, embraced that, and really game here this time feeling more empathetic, feeling more Zen, really playing less to play and experience than to win. I saw this as a much more social game, a much longer game. I really played hard and fast and realized there was no way I was going to win the game."

(cut)

"The first time I went in and played hard and fast and wanted to stay ahead of the game. That's not the way you can win. You can't sprint for 39 days, you just can't. I played an end game in the middle and the midgame in the begging and it caught up with me at Cooks. Here I tried to make a big move early in the game, tried to hold on, and it blew up in my face. I got into a big shouting match with Cirie quite early in the game. Actually I think it was early enough in the game that it didn't hurt me. It might have helped me if I'd stayed in the game, put me in a good position. a better position than Cirie. We'll have to see how that plays out. It was just different. I was determined to play a different game this time. I know the way I played the first time was what I intended to do, had a great time doing it, hurt some people, hurt my reputation in some ways, somehow walked out of the game with the reputation as the bad guy of that season, the villain of that season, for some people, certainly the antagonist, which I never intended. In hindsight I could see of course how that happened and why people felt that way. I didn't go in and say I'm not going to be an antagonist, I'm not going to antagonize anybody, I just went in intending to play a very different game, so I would make at least the final five. I think I would have done that. I had a lot of daylight ahead of me before I was blown out of the game."

(cut)

"When the doctor pulled me out of the game I was upset of course, more disappointed than anything. I think she made the right call. Within hours when I got to the hospital and found out just how serious my condition was and how potentially serious it could have become, my bad luck really turned into good luck. I said my God how lucky am I that the injury wasn't worse, the infection didn't spread faster, that the stick did not get into my joint, the infection did not get into my joint. I should have a 100% recovery eventually. The fact is it could have been much much worse. Bad luck is good luck if you turn it on its head."