It's finally here, Survivor 2. Or for namesake, Survivor: Panama.
12 brand new contestants (a little disappointed to see ITV cut the
number of contestants, but they need the ratings!, a brand new destination,
the islands of Bocas del Toro in Panama, with new tribes and a few
rules changes. But they are not important just yet, as SURVIVOR
IS BACK!!!
We
first see the 12 new contestants in a plane, with another new face
Mark Nicholas (a carbon copy of Mark Austin I might add), also a
cricket commentator on Channel 4), as they are flown to their destination
in Central America. Whereas in the first series we saw the survivors
straight into the action, we have a chance to get to know the new
batch, whilst watching them actually make it to islands. The new
survivors are:
ALISTAIR: 35 and from Motherwell. He is a managing director of
a fuel distirbution company. Alistair has curiously taken a frisbee
with him.
BRIDGET: 43 and from Oxon. Bridget is a mother of two and a shepardess/farmer.
She has taken Boules to the island as her luxury item.
DAVE: 55, a retired firefigheter, living in Newcastle with his wife.
Dave, like Meeta has taken a Reggie Kray book with him. DREW: 27,
and another firefighter, this time from Hereford in Wales. Drew
has taken a photo with her, of what is unclear though.
HELEN: The joint youngest of the group at 22, Helen is a barmaid
from Sheffield. She sensibly chose to take a hammock with her.
JOHN: 32 from Winchester, one of the shortest of the group at 5'5",
and a Barrister. He chose to take a picture of his girlfriend, Mary,
along with him.
JONNY: 31, the second scotsman, coming from Edinburgh, and he is
a Detective Constable. Jonny has chosen as his luxury item an inflatable
couch.
LEE: 25, from Essex, is an Area Aftersales manager, and has chosen
to take a lilo with him.
MEETA: 35, from Herts, she is Financial Planning Manager, whose
luxury item is a Reggie Kray book. Not the first though! SARAH:
22 and from London is a Broking asssitant and has taken Vaseline
with her.
SUSANNAH: 27 and also from London, is a Secondary School English
Teacher in Wimbledon. She has taken the complete works of Shakespeare
with her.
TAYFUN: Another 27 year old and another Londoner is a Latin American
Dancer, who has taken goggles as his luxury item.
The survivors depart off the plane and at the airport comes the
routine search. After Mick last year managed to sneak sausgaes on
the island, security has obviously been stepped, much to the disappointment
of Tayfun. When Mark asks if the survivors have any forbidden items,
silence at first insues, unti Tayfun gets up, and empties his pockets
of at least a couple dozen contraband, much to this amazement and
disbelief of the other 11 survivors, who look on in complete bewilderment.
After this, all the survivors are thoroughly searched for any belongings
they maybe hiding, knowing that if any are found, they return to
Britain. All pass security and travel on. After a ride in a truck
through the city of Bocas del Toro, the survivors reach the port
and the final leg of the journey.
They embark the boat for a three hour journey until they reach
their destination. But now, for the first time they are allowed
to speak with each other, and the conversation begins, and the excitement
builds. Upon reaching the destination, Mark gathers the survivors
to the centre of the deck, where the tribes are about to be revealed.
At the airport the survivors were given an envelope which they were
forbidden to open until now. The envelope contains the colour of
the tribe they belong to. The rather unimaginativly named tribes
North Island (red, and oddly enough, living on the northern of the
two islands), and South Island (blue, and on the southern isle),
are made known and all possesions are to be gathered by the new
tribes and thrown over board. Any possesions and any persons left
on board after 90 seconds, return home.
South
Island, consisting of Bridget, John, Jonny, Lee, Sarah and Susuannah,
succesfully collect all their belongings and head off to their island.
However, North Island (Alastair, Dave, Drew, Helen, Meeta and Tayfun)
are less successful. Tayfun seemed to believe that the machete they
were provided with would float, and promply threw it into the sea.
Unsurpisingly, it sank. After spending a bit of time talking to
the camera, he dives in after it, and emerges empty handed. The
first mistake of the game, goes to Tayfun.
Both tribes take a fair bit of time to reach their island and both
arrive after sundown. South Island seem to have the better of things,
and sleep easy (as possible in that situation), however, over on
North Island, Tayfun's mistake now means the tribe have to sleep
out in the open, as the mosquito nets they require are consealed
within the crate they are unable to open. South Island 1, North
Island 0
DAY 2 brings more problems for North Island. With the machete gone,
they resort to bashing the crate open with a log found on the beach.
They now have their crate open and are able to get to the supplies.
But now, they must overcome the task of building camp, with no tools.
Things seemed to be going relativly smoothly on South Island.
Camp was being built, and food was being hunted. Sarah however,
began to feel uneasy. "I wouldn’t know how to light a fire if you
put a gun to my head. I wouldn’t have a clue.". She was also very
surprised by the harshness of the environment, but then that was
to be expected from someone who prepared for the game by "lying
on a sunbed". Tayfun's was also beginning to feel very uneasy, but
for his survival in the game. "That was just plain stupidity". "I
wanted to sit back, seem incompetant. I would love to say that throwing
the machete in the water an expecting it float was just an act,
but it was a real mistake. Maybe a costly one". Dave, expressed
his digust and disappointment at Tayfun's error, by saying "We all
make mistakes. But that, that was a big one". Tayfun even confronted
Alastair about it, asking if he would be voted off for his accident.
Alastair replied by saying that he had placed himself in a very
bad position, but shouldn't be judged on first impressions.
South Island, seemed too have a much better day of it, successfully
creating camp, and gaining confidece about the up coming Immunity
Challenge, by bragging of their superiority. South Island 2, North
Island 0.
DAY 3, and the day of the Immunity Challenge brings forward many
surprises and fresh mistakes. Both tribes were called early to Red
Frog Beach, where they were greeted by Mr. Nicholas, ready for the
first Immunity Challenge. The loser would face Tribal Council the
next day, where they are forced to vote off one of their own. The
task was explained to them: All 6 members of each tribe to complete
an obstacle course, where they would pick up a 250lb chest along
the way, containg the waterproof matches they would need to light
their torch, and subsequenly light up the platform to win immunity.
Both tribes got under way with great pace, and the uphill run up
the island was soon completed where they were greeted by the obstacles.
The heat and the challenge was getting too much for Sarah who came
very close to collapsing, but struggled on.
North
Island didn't seem to work as well as South Island, as a team. Members
of NI were left in the obstacle course to fend for themselves, when
it was clear they had no chance of doing it without help. After
some problems with Susannah clearing the balancing beams, South
Island made it to the chest first, way ahead of North Island, and
proceeded in carrying it to the beach where the keys to open it
could be found. It was no surprise when John raced ahead for SI
to light the torch and win them Immunity. The challenge was over
and South Island were overjoyed. John, who vowed not to let himself
get too worked up until the results were final, was cheering and
celebrating with the rest of them. They
were called over by Mark, who after congratulating both tribes on
a good effort, had some bad news for South Island. Susannah failed
to climb over the fence after her long fight with the balancing
beams, and SI were diqualified, handing immunity to North Island.
Along with the waterproof matches in their chest, North Island also
found an axe which they had to keep now. South Island however, were
not allowed to keep their matches and axe. Back at camp, South Island
tried to look on the bright side. "I know we didn't win, but they
didn't seemed very gelled as a tribe, which could help us, quipped
Jonny. But this was no comfort to Susannah, who resorted to setting
up an alliance with John and Johnny, and also joining one with her
and Lee.
At North Island, the tribe was still overjoyed at winning immunity,
and now having an axe to replace the lost machete. They also created
a fire, which was visible from South Island, much to the annoyance
of the other tribe. South Island 2, North Island 1
DAY 4, and Tribal Council loomed over the head of South Island.
Whilst North Island enjoyed a lazy day of swimming, walking, investigation,
thoughts at SI were more grim. Susannah, worried about her position
in the game, contemplated over her two alliances. "Alliances are
interesting," she admitted. "I'd probably stay with John and Jonny,
it's more secure, and we get on so well. John’s a lawyer, Jonny’s
a policeman, I’m a teacher, we’re all professionals, we’re all on
the same level." And so to Tribal Council, where the game would
gain it's first victim. Mark had asked John how he felt after having
Immunity snatched away from him, whilst Jonny fained ignorance of
any alliances. And then, the votes began. Bridget voted SARAH. "She's
missing her mum" she reasoned. John voted SARAH, Jonny voted SARAH,
Lee voted SARAH, Sarah voted JOHN, and Susannah voted SARAH. The
results came as no surprise to anyone, though John did look a little
surprised when his name was read out. Sarah, who had been feeling
ill throughout the game, and had asked to leave, became the first
person to leave Panama. As she walked away, she offered the other
5 the best of luck, and faded away from South Island's view.
Whether losing Sarah was a plus or minus for South Island remains
to be seen, find out Wednesday night, ITV1.
We
first see the 12 new contestants in a plane, with another new face
Mark Nicholas (a carbon copy of Mark Austin I might add), also a
cricket commentator on Channel 4), as they are flown to their destination
in Central America. Whereas in the first series we saw the survivors
straight into the action, we have a chance to get to know the new
batch, whilst watching them actually make it to islands. The new
survivors are: 
South
Island, consisting of Bridget, John, Jonny, Lee, Sarah and Susuannah,
succesfully collect all their belongings and head off to their island.
However, North Island (Alastair, Dave, Drew, Helen, Meeta and Tayfun)
are less successful. Tayfun seemed to believe that the machete they
were provided with would float, and promply threw it into the sea.
Unsurpisingly, it sank. After spending a bit of time talking to
the camera, he dives in after it, and emerges empty handed. The
first mistake of the game, goes to Tayfun. 
Camp was being built, and food was being hunted. Sarah however,
began to feel uneasy. "I wouldn’t know how to light a fire if you
put a gun to my head. I wouldn’t have a clue.". She was also very
surprised by the harshness of the environment, but then that was
to be expected from someone who prepared for the game by "lying
on a sunbed". Tayfun's was also beginning to feel very uneasy, but
for his survival in the game. "That was just plain stupidity". "I
wanted to sit back, seem incompetant. I would love to say that throwing
the machete in the water an expecting it float was just an act,
but it was a real mistake. Maybe a costly one". Dave, expressed
his digust and disappointment at Tayfun's error, by saying "We all
make mistakes. But that, that was a big one". Tayfun even confronted
Alastair about it, asking if he would be voted off for his accident.
Alastair replied by saying that he had placed himself in a very
bad position, but shouldn't be judged on first impressions. 
North
Island didn't seem to work as well as South Island, as a team. Members
of NI were left in the obstacle course to fend for themselves, when
it was clear they had no chance of doing it without help. After
some problems with Susannah clearing the balancing beams, South
Island made it to the chest first, way ahead of North Island, and
proceeded in carrying it to the beach where the keys to open it
could be found. It was no surprise when John raced ahead for SI
to light the torch and win them Immunity. The challenge was over
and South Island were overjoyed. John, who vowed not to let himself
get too worked up until the results were final, was cheering and
celebrating with the rest of them. 
They
were called over by Mark, who after congratulating both tribes on
a good effort, had some bad news for South Island. Susannah failed
to climb over the fence after her long fight with the balancing
beams, and SI were diqualified, handing immunity to North Island.
Along with the waterproof matches in their chest, North Island also
found an axe which they had to keep now. South Island however, were
not allowed to keep their matches and axe. Back at camp, South Island
tried to look on the bright side. "I know we didn't win, but they
didn't seemed very gelled as a tribe, which could help us, quipped
Jonny. But this was no comfort to Susannah, who resorted to setting
up an alliance with John and Johnny, and also joining one with her
and Lee. 
