Puka Puka Three

**Highest Ranked**: Jack (Winner/20)

The Puka Puka Three was an alliance from Survivor: Cook Islands.

Despite constantly being in the minority during the pre-merge, this trio of veterans were able to overthrow the majority Raro Five and make it to the Final Tribal Council together.

## History

### Origins

When the Puka Puka tribe was formed on Day 1 of *Survivor: Cook Islands*, the three returning players (Jack, Rachel and William) on the tribe of five created a Final Three deal. When Puka Puka lost the first immunity challenge, the veterans had the numbers and Jenifer was voted out. Whilst Puka Puka won the following three immunity challenges, the veterans could sense a tribe switch approaching and decided to bring in outsider Marisa to create an alliance of four.

### The Switch: Raro

At the tribe dissolve, Jack and Marisa were placed on the blue Rarotonga tribe along with Carter and Lea from Manihiki, Brooklyn and Tommy from Aitutaki and Alexis and Liamm from the original Rarotonga tribe. Jack and Marisa remained aligned and began working with outsiders Lea and Tommy. At Rarotonga's first loss on Day 13, the rival Aitutaki tribe could kidnap one Raro castaway and prevent them from attending tribal council. This meant that they could not be voted out but were also ineligible to vote. Aitu chose Jack, which meant that his new alliance did not have the numbers against their rivals. Without the numbers, Jack's new allies (Marisa, Tommy and Lea) were voted out at the following three tribal councils.

On Day 20, the remaining twelve castaways had the opportunity to mutiny to the rival tribe. Alexis and Liamm from Jack's Raro tribe decided to mutiny to Aitu along with their original Raro tribe members. This moved upset the now abandoned Brooklyn and Carter because they were aligned with Alexis and Liamm. Jack seized this opportunity and quickly scooped up the pair, hoping to bring them into his original alliance with Rachel and William. Despite Raro now only containing Brooklyn, Carter and Jack, the tribe won the following two immunity challenges they had together.

### The Switch: Aitu

Meanwhile, Rachel and William were switched to the red Aitutaki tribe along with Charlie and Johanna from Manihiki, Katniss, Kayla and Leo from Rarotonga and Peeta from the original Aitu tribe. Rachel and William as a pair agreed it was strategically safest to work with another pair, which led them to work with Charlie and Johanna. At the tribes first loss on Day 18, the four voted for Peeta. At the revote, Charlie, Rachel and William still voted for Peeta and Katniss thankfully flipped on her *Redemption Island* ally to eliminate Peeta.

Following the mutiny on Day 20, Aitu was joined by original Raro castaways Alexis and Liamm. These new tribe members joined forces with the three original Raro castaways who were original on the outs of Aitu. When the tribe lost the following two immunity challenges, Rachel and William lost their Aitu allies Johanna and Charlie by the Raro Five.

### The Merge

At the merge on Day 25, Rachel and William reunited with their Puka Puka ally Jack. He also brought along Brooklyn and Carter who held a grudge against the Raro Five. On this tribe of ten, the Puka Puka led alliance voted for Liamm at the first merged tribal council whilst the Raro Five voted for William. At the revote, Kayla flipped and Liamm was voted out. It appeared that the Puka Puka Three had the majority and would vote for Leo. However, Alexis and Leo wanted to get rid of Carter and the Puka Puka Three voted with them to blindside him. This moved hurt the alliance because the two groups were again tied in the numbers. The Puka Puka Three and Brooklyn voted for Katniss, but she played a Hidden Immunity Idol and Brooklyn was voted out with the only votes that counted.

The Puka Puka Three felt like they were against a brick wall, but were thankful when Leo approached them to blindside Katniss. This plan worked, and the trio agreed they would no longer need to communicate with the remnants of the Raro Five in order to get to the end. At the following three tribal councils, the Puka Puka three had the numbers and Leo, Kayla and Alexis were consecutively voted out.

### Final Tribal Council

The Puka Puka Three made it to the Final Tribal Council and were faced by the jury. The Raro Five praised Jack for bringing in outsiders Brooklyn and Carter following the mutiny in order to force a tie at the merge. Brooklyn and Carter were also impressed with this move by Jack, but felt betrayed when he blindsided them at their respective tribal councils. In the end however, the Raro Five had the numbers on the jury and they all voted for Jack to win the title of Sole Survivor.