Cementing My Own Legacy

**Cementing My Own Legacy** is the season premiere of *Survivor: India - Blood vs. Water*.

## Story

### Day 1

On the first day of the game, the ten pairs of loved ones are each driven through the humid Indian jungle with their partner in a green or orange jeep. The returnees and their loved ones admire the natural beauty around them and chat about the impending start of the game as the jeeps converge on a jungle clearing where host Su Sangster waits for them eagerly.

Once the ten jeeps park in a half circle around Su, the loved one pairs emerge from their rides. Legends of the game, from historic runner-ups and winners, to those deserving a second shot at glory grin at seeing Su for their second time playing, while their loved ones seem to be bubbling over with excitement about their first day of *Survivor* to date. Su welcomes the twenty castaways to *Survivor:* *India - Blood vs. Water* to a chorus of clapping and shouts of happiness. They then instruct the loved ones to say their goodbyes for now, and for the returnees to go to the orange mat while the newbie relatives will go to the green mat. The castaways do as told, hugging their loved ones goodbye before going to their mats. Su throws the returnees their orange buffs and their map, telling them that their tribe name is Vaapas. Then they throw the newbies their green buffs and their map as well, informing them that they are the Taaza tribe. Su tells them that while there are no huge game-changing twists this season like Redemption Island or the Underworld, they are sure that this cast's caliber is great enough to produce a stunning season. They then congratulate the castaways on all coming to India, wishing them luck on their first day of *Survivor*'s fifteenth season. The tribes cheer once more before going in opposite directions into the jungle in order to find their campsites.

The Taaza tribe arrives at their campsite first, and the relatives quickly fall in line behind Londra. An esteemed politician, Londra has all the qualities of a successful leader, and she begins directing the others on how to construct camp. While some of the men are a little apprehensive to acquiesce to Londra's tough and dominant leadership, she quickly takes control of the campsite. She assigns Bryan, Will, Toby, Kahiau, and Ronan to the task of gathering bamboo and building the shelter, appointing Will to lead the construction efforts due to his craftiness. Meanwhile, Ama, Nathalie, Clair, and Choon Hee gather palm fronds and collect water, and Londra oversees the whole affair. By nightfall the tribe has built a shelter and got a fire going without flint due to techniques Kahiau learned from his father. Excited by these early successes, the relatives tribe is in a jubilant mood as they eat their evening rice and head to bed.

On the Vaapas tribe, there is no immediate leader that arises. All ten of the returning players have built a campsite before, and things naturally fall into place without a strict leader or hierarchy. Everyone works together to get the shelter built, with Kaiholo being the one in charge of the size and shape of the structure due to his infamously strong survival skill knowledge. Kaiholo is also able to build a fire for the tribe without flint just like his son, proving that the reward of flint will be useless for a season with the tribes containing Kapule men. The returnees tribe is not very fussy and they get their campsite in tip top shape by nightfall. However, there is an air of tension on the tribe, as they all know they are facing an incredibly high caliber of player on this tribe, and none of them want to be the first to make a move even though they all know the importance of early relationships and bonds. There is a content but tense truce on the Vaapas tribe as they all lay down in the shelter for their first night in India.

### Day 2

Londra wakes up before the rest of the tribe on the morning of Day 2, and as she goes to the well for water for morning rice, she tells the cameramen that today she plans to organize a core majority alliance of five on the tribe in order to put herself into a dominant position of power and to make sure she is insulated despite her age if the tribe goes to Tribal Council the following day. Once Londra returns from the well, the rest of her tribe is awake, and they have breakfast merrily. Then, Londra begins to approach each of the castaways she wishes to be in her alliance.

She first approaches Toby, the boyfriend of songwriter Dorian Gelletier. She tells him that she senses he is very intelligent and willing to play hard, and she wants someone like that to be her number one. Toby is down immediately, thrilled to be aligning closely with the leader of the tribe, and then they begin to plan who else to pull in. They agree that Kahiau and Choon Hee are necessary; the two younger castaways have been close since their first hour on the Taaza beach, and they are both huge assets. Kahiau carries his survival skills and comedic disposition, while Choon Hee is sweet but carries the legendary Kim family intelligence with her as well. They also decide to include Ama, who seems to be a bit ditzy at first but is incredibly fit and shows to be pretty sharp in one-on-one conversations. Londra and Toby amass this group of five on the night of Day 2, and they form a pact to work together moving forward, with all five members seeming to be extremely loyal to this brand new alliance.

Meanwhile, the rest of Taaza does little else, unaware of how the game has begun to progress behind their backs. The bros of Bryan, Ronan, and Will all begin to bond and hang out together a lot. Nathalie is struggling to cope with the harsh lifestyle required to survive in the Indian jungle, but her sunny personality helps keep her in people's good graces. Meanwhile, Clair is the most antisocial person on the tribe, struggling to connect with others due to her social anxiety despite her vast knowledge of how the game is played.

Over on the tribe of returnees, the game is moving at a much slower burn. With such a strong group of castaways, none of the returnees want to play too hard too fast by trying to create a binding majority alliance within the first days of the game. No one wants to be singled out as a ringleader or a shit-stirrer on a tribe with no weak links socially or strategically. Due to this, action on the tribe is much slower than on Taaza, although several groups of people begin to bond together.

Emerson, the sole winner on the cast and the only Sole Surivvor from the first nine seasons to miss out on competing in *All-Stars*, is determined on establishing a legacy for himself after being rated as one of the weakest winners by most fans. Aiming to copy a similar strategy of last time of bringing males close to him, Emerson works on bonding with the alpha males of the tribe: Brock, Kaiholo, and Zachary. These four begin to grow closer over the day as they fix up the shelter, especially with Emerson's prodding to keep them together.

Meanwhile, on the beach, the older ladies of the tribe can be seen working together to clean the tribe's pots from their meals. Soo Jung, Martina, and Nichole are all renowned for their strategic and social prowess despite being older and physically weaker than many other castaways, and they begin to bond over these common experiences. Soo Jung and Martina are gung ho about working together; Nichole is a little hesitant because she believes that working with an older group is inherently outcasting her while her usual strategy is integration with the younger castaways. However, she continues to bond with these women and they are gradually becoming seen as a trio.

The final major new relationship on the tribe is between Dorian and Lucia; these two unexpectedly become fast friends, bonding over their love of indie music and beauty products like makeup and clothes. Lively and comical, they get along with everyone on the tribe and seem to become the center of the social politics that are slowly materializing on Vaapas. The only person who seems to be gaining no close personal relationships is Carry; after her bombastic and villainous showing seven years ago in the very first season, *Swaziland*, Carry is determined to show how she has reigned in her anger issues and play an under the radar game. Thus, Carry has been keeping to herself and getting along nicely with everyone so far as is her strategy this time around instead of speaking her mind openly.

### Day 3

The tribes meet on the morning of Day 3 on a stretch of the long river that winds through the Indian jungle. Here, they will compete in their first challenge of the season, which will be a combined Reward and Immunity. Su explains the rules, and then reveals that the Reward is a firemaking kit. Neither tribe is exceptionally hyped about this due to the firemaking abilities of the Kapule men, but the kit will still be beneficial to camp life. Su then reveals the Immunity Idol; this season, it is made of sleek dark wood and is two carved figurines embracing each other in order to represent the theme of the season.

Once the rules are explained, both tribes chain themselves together, and then the challenge begins. Both tribes struggle immensely at first to work together. However, Kaiholo and Brock work together to shout orders and lead the Vaapas tribe through the course, allowing them to pull ahead of Taaza by several seconds as Londra struggles to get everyone to work hard and follow her lead. The Tarquin sisters are the two weakest links physically, with Nathalie and Nichole both floundering on the course. However, Vaapas begins to build on their lead and reaches the end of the course about thirty seconds ahead of Taaza. From here, the challenge is basically over; two aquatic beasts in Kaiholo and Zachary take off and complete the final leg of the challenge, claiming Reward and Immunity for the returnees and sending their newbie loved ones to the first Tribal Council of the season.

Upon returning to their campsite after their loss, the relatives tribe is incredibly shaken, as their morale and hopes had been high before the challenge. Confronted with the realities of the game, things become a lot more real for many of the castaways. With little interpersonal strife on the tribe and no major factions clashing yet, it becomes clear that instead of intense, difficult strategy, it is time to cut loose players who do not contribute to the strength of the tribe.

Immediately, two castaways are singled out as the weakest. Nathalie is the obvious outlier; the oldest castaway on the tribe by a decent amount, she is also the weakest in challenges and dragged everyone behind on the obstacle course. However, Nathalie does her best to be kind and ingratiating, while the other target is Clair, who has struggled to make any social bonds during the first three days of the game. She makes desperate pleas to the rest of the tribe, eloquently stating her case about being smarter and more useful than Nathalie despite her social anxiety. Despite Nathalie's friendly appeals, it seems her weaknesses and Clair's sharp strategic pitches will make sure that the embroiderer will be the first person voted off from the season.

However, after hearing Clair's pitch and understanding how intelligent she is, Londra immediately becomes worried by the woman, seeing her as a potential usurper to her position on the tribe. She gathers her core five and discusses changing the target to Clair over Nathalie, saying how she is the only person who is intelligent enough to discover their alliance and is not a very big challenge asset. Choon Hee, Kahiau, Toby, and Ama all agree with Londra's points and set out to convince the rest of the tribe.

Londra and Ama covertly tell Nathalie to put her vote on Clair for sure at the well, giving the woman hope. Meanwhile, Toby and Kahiau go to the other guys of the tribe to convince them to shift targets to Clair. Ronan, Will, and Bryan are all going with the flow so far, belieivng no alliances have formed and just wanting to keep the tribe strong. Toby and Kahiau are able to convince Ronan and Will that Clair's sharp intellect and lack of connections to their tribe is threatening, but Bryan insists boldly that he will vote Nathalie no matter what since she is the physically weakest, and it is his strategy to vote out the physically weakest. The other guys leave it up in the air around Bryan, as he is upset by the idea of voting out Clair over Nathalie, but Will and Ronan seem to be okay with the plan in separate conversations, making it seem as if Nathalie might be saved by Londra's meddling. However, Bryan goes to Clair and tells her that people are thinking of voting her out over Nathalie still. Worried, Clair tries to convince as many people as possible to put their votes on Nathalie as the biggest physical liability, while Nathalie continues to be kind and lay low in hopes that attention will shift to Clair.

That night, the ten relatives arrive at their first Tribal Council and light their torches before sitting down. Su asks Will how their tribe has been faring; he says that he thinks they are doing very well, and that camp life is great and morale was pretty high before their loss. Su asks what went wrong at the challenge; Kahiau says that their tribe just couldn't stack up, and tonight they need to cut tribemates who are holding them back. Su asks Nathalie if she is nervous as she obviously struggled in the challenge. Nathalie says she is incredibly worried, but hopes that her positive attitude and willingness to persevere despite her physical limitations and lack of survival experience will convince people to keep her around. Clair cuts into to say that while Nathalie is very sweet, it is clear that she is the one dragging the tribe down most, and Bryan agrees with Clair boldly, saying anyone who doesn't vote out Nathalie is sabotaging the tribe. Su asks Londra what she makes of these remarks; she coolly replies that whatever the tribe decides will be the best decision for the most people. With that, the castaways go to vote, with Toby being the first to go into the voting hut.

Choon Hee is the last one to return from voting, and then Su grabs the urn. They ask if anyone would like to play an idol; all eyes go to Nathalie and Clair, but neither moves, so Su begins to read the votes. While Bryan has stuck true and voted off Nathalie with Clair, seeing her as the weakest link, Londra's plot to take out a potential threat to her absolute control of the Taaza tribe has succeeded. The other eight castaways have all put their votes on the intelligent but socially inept Clair, making her the first boot of the season. Bryan is outraged at this event, angrily throwing his hands in the air and glaring at his tribemates, while Nathalie looks immensely relieved. Clair just sighs and brings her torch to be snuffed by Su before departing the Tribal Council area, shoulders slumped in defeat.

## Challenges

**Reward/Immunity Challenge:** *Blood in the Water*

The tribes will all be linked together on a chain, and they must swim as a group through several obstacles while staying linked together. Once they reach the end of the obstacle course, they will retrieve a key there to unlock their chain and free them as well as a tribe banner. Then, two members of the tribe must work together to swim back to the start carrying their banner. The first tribe to get their banner back to the river bank will win this opening Reward and Immunity.

**Reward:** Firemaking kit

**Winner:** Vaapas

## Tribal Council

### Voting Confessionals

*Londra's vote was not shown during her confessional.*

### Next Time on Survivor...

Bryan is furious over Clair's vote out on Taaza...

...while old relationships rekindle on the Vaapas tribe.

## Trivia

The episode title was said by Londra Pelaez when talking about how she was playing hard right of the gate in order to prove she was just as strong of a player as her twin sister.