Survivor I, Episode 5 in Retrospect

As we move into the episode itself, we are reminded that the infamous Tagi alliance began in the previous episode. We see foreshadowing of who will be voted off when Kelly, Susan, and Rudy all give their opinions that Sean and Dirk are lazy and failing to accomplish anything. Later, the alliance is talking while Sean and Dirk are out "fishing" (otherwise known as lying around on a raft and not doing anything) and they indicate that Sean will be the first to go. This will not be the last time that they (intentionally or not) mislead the audience by saying that one person is going to be voted out and then tossing another instead. As we will eventually see when Colleen gets the boot nearer to the end of the series, it won't even be the last time they talk about voting off Sean and then don’t do it.

Also in Tagi, we see foreshadowing of a time when Richard will get extremely upset at Rudy for his cooking. Richard brought back an eel and Rudy overcooked it. While Richard kept his temper inside this time, it will get the best of him later and he will throw a fit about it in episodes to come.

Meanwhile, we witness the rejuvenation of Pagong when they win both the reward and immunity challenges of this episode. We also see more of the emergence of Greg as a leader (which, as noted in the retrospective of Epsiode 4, earlier, means he'll be targeted by the Tagi alliance) and also more of his "class clown" type of behavior. More importantly to some, this was the episode in which the whole Greg/Colleen love affair stories began, as they went off together into the jungle at night. Here was Colleen's famous sarcastic statement about their relationship being all about sex, something that would come back to haunt her in her post-Survivor life as interviewer after interviewer wanted to talk to her about nothing more than her love life and Greg. Of course, Greg said there was no such thing going on, but nobody really wanted to listen to him, because what she said was more interesting.

This episode was also memorable for Kelly having to eat a large helping of crow after the immunity challenge. As a professional raft guide, she compared herself to Gervase saying, "I can beat him any day of the week" in a rowing competition. She later added, "I'm a water all-star."

Alas, the water didn't know that, and her stars turned into tears as she forced to admit, "I got beat by a guy who can't even f***ing swim." We begin to see Kelly's bitter side, which will become a greater and greater player as time goes on. We also see how her arrogance is different than Richard's: He can back it up; she can't.

Speaking of which, this is also the first episode in which we see Richard bragging about his strategy and how he is bringing along the alliance. But, as noted, his bragging will eventually be borne out as fact.

But not before host Jeff Probst sticks his nose in where it shouldn't be and tries to meddle with the contestants. This episode is the first in which he asks about alliances at the Tribal Council, showing that he's not afraid to interfere with the game, as he will to even greater extent later. Here, Richard managed to deflect the question; later, after the tribes merge, we will see Susan and Kelly not being able to handle Probst's interference so easily.

And so the alliance decided to get rid of Dirk, who would be the last Tagi voted off until absolutely every Pagong member was removed from the game. Long live the alliance!

This episode ended with mini-interviews with Colleen and Greg, both of whom, for the millionth or so time, again said that nothing happened between them on the island. Oh, sure, like we believe that. Wink, wink; nudge, nudge.

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