SALT Alliance

**Highest Placing Member**:Danni (Runner-Up/24)

The SALT Alliance (also known as the *Sa'ula Alliance* or the *Ta'alo Alliance*) was an alliance from Survivor: Island of Secrets.

For the first time in *Survivor* history, two alliances from two different original tribes formed one large alliance during the tribe dissolve and into the merge. The alliance suffered from its large numbers, as they targeted each other during the merge in order to get their smaller alliances to the end.

## Members

     Elias (1-37)
     Declan (1-26)

## History

### Origins: Sa'ula

The green Sa'ula tribe was formed on Day 1 of *Survivor: Island of Secrets* originally containing castaways from the Eastern regions of the United States, including Julia from *The Amazon*. The five new players made a pact against Julia, to the point where they refused to include her in tribe decisions or send her to the Island of Secrets. Instead, Heather went to the Island of Secrets and won Tatianna's Legacy Advantage from *Millennials vs. Gen X*. At Sa'ula's first loss on Day 6, the newbies solidified their alliance by unanimously eliminating Julia.

After visiting the Island of Secrets on Day 10, Christopher decided to disturb the peace and harmony of the undefeated Laumei tribe. He used his mutiny advantage to force Anthony and Rahul from Laumei to switch tribes with him and Sneha on Sa'ula. At the Double Tribal Council on Day 12, Declan, Elias and Heather tried to throw the challenge to protect their allies who were in the minority. They were unsuccessful however, which meant that Christopher was voted out at Laumei's tribal council.

### Origins: Ta'alo

Meanwhile, the purple Ta'alo tribe was formed on Day 1 and contained castaways from the midwest of the United States. They were joined by J'Tia from *Kaôh Rōng*. Unlike Julia on Sa'ula, J'Tia was warmly welcomed as a member of the tribe. On Ta'alo, Doug found himself in two strong alliances; one with Danni and J'Tia, and another with Micah and Omar as older members of the tribe. On Day 8, Doug won Jayne's idol from *Millennials vs. Gen X*. At the tribes first loss on Day 10, Doug decided to work with the women in order to eliminate Lily because she was trying to form a coalition against J'Tia. When Ta'alo lost the Double Tribal Council challenge, the Ta'alo trio of Danni, Doug and J'Tia voted out Omar.

### The Switch: Sa'ula

At the tribe dissolve, Declan, Elias and J'Tia were switched to Sa'ula. The castaways from the original Manumalo (Imani and Shannon), Sa'ula (Declan and Elias) and Ta'alo (J'Tia and Micah) tribes worked together against Laumei, the only tribe which had yet to lose an original member. At the tribes first loss, this alliance of six split the votes between Jodie and Rahul to eliminate Rahul at the revote. This alliance continued to have the numbers when Sa'ula lost the following challenge, leading to Jodie's elimination.

### The Switch: Ta'alo

Meanwhile, Danni, Doug, Heather and Sneha were placed on Ta'alo. The tribe was plagued by the rivarly between Anthony from Laumei and Christian from Manumalo, which began on *David vs. Goliath*. Danni, Doug, Heather and Sneha worked with each other during this time period, with the intention of causing further rivalry between Anthony and Christian's alliances. This led to the eliminations of Davis, Leyla and Christian at the three tribal councils of Ta'alo.

### The Merge

On Day 21, the remaining thirteen castaways merged into the orange Manumalo tribe. The original Sa'ula and Ta'alo castaways reunited with each other, forming a super alliance when they came together at the merge. They also brought along the Laumei Alliance in order to ensure they had the numbers at the first merged tribal council. On Day 22, the SALT (deriving from *Sa'ula* and *Ta'alo*) Alliance and Laumei split the votes between Imani and Shannon. Without an advantage, Shannon was voted out. It appeared the SALT Alliance was going after Anthony next, but the Sa'ula castaways wanted to blindside J'Tia. This split decision gave the Laumei Alliance the numbers when they brought in Imani and Micah, which meant Sneha was blindsided.

Despite just losing one of their own, the SALT Alliance were incredibly confident with their positions in the game. They agreed to go after Harmony, but the Sa'ula allies were frustrated that the Laumei Alliance targeted them rather than Ta'alo. At tribal, the SALT Alliance was divided along original tribal lines, with Sa'ula voting for Doug and Ta'alo voting for Harmony as the original target. However, none of this mattered because Joshua played his idol for Harmony whilst Doug and Heather played their own idols. With the second null vote in *Survivor* history, Harmony used her sole vote to get rid of Declan. With the Sa'ula castaways turning their backs on Ta'alo at the last vote, the SALT Alliance began to mistrust each other. Sa'ula and Laumei decided to work together at the next tribal council, leading to J'Tia's unanimous elimination.

Prior to J'Tia's elimination, Elias won a Hidden Immunity Idol as the final advantage from the Island of Secrets. Though the SALT Alliance had faltered from each other the past few votes, they remained a united front because of their shared disdain for the Laumei Alliance. Over the new two tribal councils, the SALT Alliance worked together in order to eliminate Joshua and Micah. With only seven castaways remaining, Heather and Elias began thinking about who they wanted to sit next to at the Final Tribal Council. They felt comfortable keeping Danni, but felt like Doug's numerous advantages would make him a difficult opponent. The Sa'ula players decided to work with Laumei by voting for Doug and even though he played an idol, he was voted out because Harmony used her Idol Nullifier.

### The Endgame

With only six castaways remaining, the SALT Alliance had a 4-2 majority over Anthony and Harmony from the Laumei Alliance. It was agreed that the alliance would be voting for Harmony, but Heather used her Extra Vote to split the votes between Anthony and Harmony in case either player had an idol. Elias used his idol on Danni as a sign of trust, and the SALT Alliance had the numbers to eliminate Harmony at tribal council. It then appeared that the SALT Alliance would vote together in order to eliminate Anthony at the following vote. However, Danni and Imani had formed an all women's alliance with Heather. They were convinced that Elias was the biggest threat because he had won a string of individual immunity challenges. On Day 37, Heather was forced to turn on her ally Elias in order to prove her loyalty to the women. This proved to be her fatal error because the women then eliminated her the following tribal council for winning a number of advantages from the Island of Secrets.

Danni and Imani were the only members of the SALT Alliance to make it to the Final Three, and were sitting beside Anthony. Imani was largely ignored by the jury because they felt like she flipped too frequently between the SALT and Laumei alliances. Danni was praised for her social game and ability to keep the target off her back. However, they were more impressed by Anthony because he managed to make it to the end despite being a returning player who won no advantages from the Island of Secrets and who lost all his allies by the Final Six. In the end, Imani and Danni became the Second Runner-Up and Runner-Up of *Island of Secrets* respectively.

## Trivia

* The SALT Alliance holds the record for the alliance which successfully executed the most split vote plans in one season, with three.