The Importance Of Being Eldest

"The Importance of Being Eldest"	"The Importance of Being Eldest"
 	
Season 	Survivor: Thailand
Episode Number 	1/13 (053)
First Broadcast 	September 19, 2017
Episode Chronology 	Episode Chronology
Previous 	Ladies Night(previous season)
Next 	No Light At The End Of This Tunnel
The Importance Of Being Eldest is the season premiere of Survivor: Thailand.
==Story==
===Day 1===
The two separate boats; one carrying the men and the other carrying the women, arrive on the shore, where Jeff leads the contestants to a small area with two mats. Jeff informs the men and women to sit apart on different mats, before officially welcoming them to Survivor - Thailand. 
 
West smirks at Gypsy's introduction, but controls himself after he notices a disapproving look off Vince. Jeff then signals for the men to begin their introductions, starting with Ricardo.
Jeff then informs the group that in Thai culture it is common for the elders to be treated with the upmost respect by others in society, and following that tradition the two oldest cast members (Salma and Ricardo) will be tribe captains. Jeff reveals the two buffs, one purple and the other orange, informing Ricardo and Salma that they must each select a buff, not knowing anything other than both beaches having their own perks (one supplying easier shelter, and the other supplying easier access to a water source). Ricardo jokes that being a "man of the club scene" that he'll take the purple "sunset" buff, leaving Salma with the orange "sunrise" buff. 
Both leaders continue to select individuals, with Salma selecting Harper, Aaron and Rachel, whilst Ricardo selects Phillip, Kanda and Rick. 
Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn
Aaron 	Gypsy 	Harper 	Julius 	Rachel 	Salma 	Vince 	West
Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai
Estan 	Joan 	Kanda 	Karen 	Melissa 	Phillip 	Ricardo 	Rick
Both tribes push their respective boats out, and begin paddling in different directions to reach their new camps, all clearly excited to have begun the adventure of a lifetime.
===Chuay Gahn===
The Chuay Gahn tribe begin rowing towards their island, trying to row in unison in order to prevent the boat from unnecessarily turning left or right. Gypsy seems to be the one individual clearly struggling with the rowing, nearly losing her ore several times as she attempts to place it into the water.
The group seemingly become more and more frustrated with Gypsy's poor rowing, causing Salma to recommend that they swap places, leaving Gypsy to sit at the back of the boat to steer, whilst Salma takes over the more physical role of rowing.
The Chuay Gahn tribe arrive at their camp without any further issues, arriving on their beach and taking the time to experience a group hug and short introductions. The group spot a large cave behind their tribe flag, indicating that they will be the tribe who have an easier access to shelter.
Salma, Rachel and West walk through the cave, noticing snake tracks in the sand around them. West begins to question the safety of the cave.
The group get to work collecting soft plants from the jungle to use as bedding, with Vince, Aaron, Julius and Rachel getting to work to ensure the group has a comfortable first night. West stays in the cave, trying to get a fire going with the wood collected by Rachel. Elsewhere, Salma, Gypsy and Harper collect as much food as they can, knowing that the group will not be able to retrieve their water until the following morning.
The three girls collecting food arrive back to the cave, showing West what they managed to find whilst he failed to get a fire going.
Chuay Gahn all eat a small portion of the coconut retrieved by the three girls, drinking the milk to keep themselves hydrated. They manage to all get to sleep relatively quickly thanks to the comfort of their makeshift bedding, and the shelter of the cave around them.
===Sook Jai===
Unlike the Chuay Gahn tribe, Sook Jai has a much easier time rowing to their respective camp, with the group able to work together to get the boat moving at a speedy but steady pace. 
Sook Jai reach their camp, pulling their boat up alongside their tribe flag, before all hugging one another and screaming in excitement. Phillip decides to take control, instructing the group that they need to concentrate on building a shelter for their first night, even if it is a temporary one to keep them covered. The majority of the group agree with Phillip's decision, leading them to all make their way to the jungle in order to start collecting and cutting down building supplies.
Phillip, Melissa, Joan and Ricardo stand by the supplies, with the four of them taking on the task of building the shelter out of the material collected by the others. Phillip continues telling the group what should be done, uncaring as to how he may come across to them in his tone.
Out in the jungle, the rest of the group continue collecting supplies, taking the time to speak among themselves to ensure they've bonded with some others in the camp. Kanda and Karen seem to bond well, laughing as they collect supplies together. Rick decides to quiz Estan as to why he would sign up for the game at such a young age, to which Estan tells him that he likes the idea of testing himself.
After all the supplies have been gathered up, the group all join together to build their temporary shelter, despite the concerns of Melissa, who feels that the group is wasting energy by not having an end goal in sight. Melissa decides to leave the building of the shelter, and begins to collect clams and oysters from a shallow area of the beach, placing them in the tribes canteen to eat. 
Joan becomes unsure as to what she should be doing after Phillip's comment, so begins collecting wood with Ricardo, beginning a futile attempt at starting a fire with the already damp wood.
The group continue working into the evening, finishing their poor attempt at a shelter by nightfall. The group crowd into the shelter, with several members eating the raw clams that Melissa had retrieved earlier on. Despite the water source being close, the group failed to go and look for it, feeling it wouldn't have much use until they are able to get a fire going.
===Day 2===
===Chuay Gahn===
The Chuay Gahn tribe awaken early in the day, agreeing as a group they must attempt to look for their tribe water source. Knowing that the water is far from their camp, the group agree for three of their members to go ahead on the boat, whilst the others swim along behind.
Julius, Salma, Rachel, Harper and Vince swim together as a group in the water, clearly tiring fast whilst the boat drifted off in the distance with the other three members aboard. Inside the boat, West, Gypsy and Aaron paddle together to reach the shore where they believe the water source to be.
 
The trio reach their intended destination, and begin walking up the slopes of the shore in order to arrive at the water source. After several minutes of looking, Aaron locates the well, celebrating with both West and Gypsy over the discovery. Meanwhile, the other five members of the tribe struggle coming around the final bend, seeing the tribe boat ahead with the other three members sat waiting for them.
Eventually the group reach the shore, collapsing as they get out of the water. Gypsy wastes no time encouraging the group to follow her up the slope in order to see the well, which annoys Vince, who tells Julius he's holding his tongue so as to not start an argument with her.
After several minutes of rest, the group head up to the water source, filling their canteens before loading it onto the boat. Aaron agrees to swim back this time alongside Salma, Rachel and Harper, leaving Gypsy, West, Julius and Vince to row back.
After collecting their water and getting it back to camp, the Chuay Gahn tribe continue their day as expected, making amendments to their camp to ensure they have a more comfortable evening, whilst some of their members go out to collect crabs and clams from the rocks to boil for their evening meal.
===Sook Jai===
The Sook Jai tribe spend their day dismantling their temporary shelter, all of which is disrupted by a heavy rainstorm over the camp. Joan and Karen both struggle with the rain, shivering as they find no relief from the constant downpour. Phillip, Estan, Rick and Kanda spend much of their time building the new shelter, but struggle to get it to hold together with the rain battering against it.
Melissa and Ricardo locate the tribes well with ease, and begin filling the canteen before walking it back to the main camp, joking about the condition of the tribe.
With their water collected, the Sook Jai tribe all band together to try and finish the shelter. After several hours of work, the group are left almost exactly where they started, with what some feel is a exact remake of their previous shelter, much to the annoyance of Melissa and Ricardo. 
The Sook Jai tribe take the rest of the day off, avoiding the rain in their once again poorly designed shelter, trying to keep themselves as dry as possible so as to be fit and ready for their first immunity challenge the following day.
===Day 3===
Both tribes receive tree mail informing them that they will be facing their first immunity challenge, with the losing tribe going to tribal council to vote the first person out of the game, an unfortunate distinction that none of the contestants wish to have on their record. 
Challenge: Flying Your Flag
The Survivors had to race around a small island by paddling a boat. Along the way they would have to visit several stations, where they would have to complete certain tasks or puzzles in order to receive a tribal flag. However, only one person from each tribe would be allowed to compete at each station. The first tribe to have successfully completed each puzzle, gather their flags and race back to the floating dock, would win immunity.
Winner: Sook Jai
Information: During the challenge, the Sook Jai tribe took an early lead after Estan completed the maze with ease, whilst Julius took over a minute longer. The Chuay Gahn tribe continued to struggle, with Aaron failing to retrieve the second flag underwater, only moving on after Gypsy had managed to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Rick somewhat struggled to dive for Sook Jai, but managed to not take long enough so that Chuay Gahn would catch up. Despite Joan and Phillip also causing problems rowing for Sook Jai, the tribe managed to keep up a considerable lead, with Ricardo performing well on the final slide puzzle. Elsewhere, Chuay Gahn continued to struggle, with Harper and West rowing poorly under pressure, and Vince taking far too long on the final puzzle, causing the group to fall too far behind, ultimately losing them the challenge.
Immunity Challenge: Flying Your Flag	Immunity Challenge: Flying Your Flag	Immunity Challenge: Flying Your Flag
Result 	Tribe 	Competitors
Won 	Sook Jai 	Estan, Joan, Kanda, Karen, Melissa, Phillip, Ricardo, Rick
Lost 	Chuay Gahn 	Aaron, Gypsy, Harper, Julius, Rachel, Salma, Vince, West
===Chuay Gahn===
The Chuay Gahn tribe returns to camp having just lost the first immunity challenge, knowing that this means one of the eight of them will be the first individual to leave the game. Aaron publicly apologizes upon return for his poor performance, thanking Gypsy for stepping in and helping the tribe move on. 
Aaron, Gypsy and Rachel sit together in the cave going through their things. Gypsy decides to take the opportunity to speak to the pair, wanting to know where their votes will be going at the first tribal council. 
Over by the fire on the other side of the cave, West, Vince, Julius, Salma and Harper sit together. Gypsy walks over and decides to take on Aaron's advice, but rather than to subtly point out why West should go home, she ends up doing it in front of the entire group.
Gypsy remains somewhat speechless, confused as to how she should come back to what Vince has said, looking to the others for support. The group begin to disperse, with Salma pulling Gypsy to one side.
Gypsy hugs Salma, thankful to have one other person on side. The rest of the tribe begin to pack their belongings, getting ready to head to tribal council, with the general consensus being that the vote has come down to disruptive individuals Gypsy and West, with several members still floating in the middle, unsure as to where their loyalty will fall before they come to vote.
At tribal council, Jeff asks the group as to what went wrong, noting that compared to Sook Jai their camp life seems to have gone much better, with water, fire and shelter all achieved. Rachel states that the problems are likely down to the group not gelling well, exposing the friction between West and Gypsy, claiming that it has effected how the group is able to function. Julius agrees with this, feeling as though the tribe has great potential, if only they're able to remove an individual who is causing discomfort around camp. Salma goes against this view, feeling as though that the problems back at camp didn't effect challenge performance, but that they simply didn't have a good system in how they tried to tackle both the puzzles and the rowing. West and Gypsy begin to separately plead their cases, with West noting that Gypsy is physically weaker than him (although she questions this by pointing out her stronger challenge performance), and feeling that she has made things far too personal. Gypsy tries to claim that West wont be able to help the group as much as he claims, as well as feeling that he'll burn out quickly due to being too far out of his element, but West responds by pointing out she too is from an urban environment. As the group finish all they needed to say, Jeff commences the start of the voting, with each member going up and confidently writing down a name. Jeff returns with the urn, ready to break the news as to which of them will be the first to leave the game.
West stands shocked, having expected to have enough votes on his side to survive the night, looking over at a smiling Gypsy as he takes his torch over to Jeff. Vince looks visibly disappointed at the result, whilst Salma and Aaron try and hide their personal delight at seeing West leave. The group grab their things and leave the tribal council area, all with mixed feelings over the result, but universally pleased that it was not them to be the first voted off.
==Tribal Council==
Tribal Council 1:Chuay Gahn	Tribal Council 1:Chuay Gahn 	 	
VotedAgainst 	Voter 	 	
West (5 votes) 	Aaron, Gypsy, Harper,Rachel & Salma	 	
Gypsy (3 votes) 	Julius, Vince & West 	 	
VOTED OFF:West 	VOTED OFF:West 	VOTED OFF:West	VOTED OFF:West
===Voting Confessionals===
===Final Words===
===Still In The Running===
Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn	Chuay Gahn
Aaron 	Gypsy 	Harper 	Julius 	Rachel 	Salma 	Vince 	West
Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai 	Sook Jai
Estan 	Joan 	Kanda 	Karen 	Melissa 	Phillip 	Ricardo 	Rick