Thailand

Survivor: Thailand · Season 5

Episode Guide

How Survivor: Thailand unfolded, week by week.

  1. 1“The Importance of Being Eldest”Sep 19, 2002For the first time, the tribes aren't pre-set: the two oldest castaways, Jake Billingsley and Jan Gentry, get to hand-pick their own tribes schoolyard-style, forming Sook Jai and Chuay Gahn. Chuay Gahn drops the opener, and John Raymond, a minister who'd tried to take spiritual command of the older tribe and rubbed people the wrong way, is voted out first, 6-1-1.
  2. 2“The Great Divide”Sep 26, 2002Sook Jai takes its turn at Tribal, and Tanya Vance, who'd been battling illness and struggling to keep pace, is the pragmatic cut. The tribe decides it can't afford to carry a weakened member this early and votes Tanya out.
  3. 3“Family Values”Oct 3, 2002Sook Jai is back at Tribal, and the young tribe sorts out its pecking order. Jed Hildebrand, caught angling a little too openly for his own spot, lands on the wrong side of the numbers and is voted out 5-3.
  4. 4“Gender Bender”Oct 10, 2002Chuay Gahn is rocked by an ugly incident: Ghandia Johnson accuses Ted Rogers of grinding against her while they slept, and the fallout splits the tribe. Ted apologizes, claiming he mistook her for his wife, and when Ghandia tries to rally a women's alliance in response, the tribe instead closes ranks around Ted. Ghandia is voted out 4-2, the conflict steering the vote.
  5. 5“The Ocean's Surprise”Oct 17, 2002Sook Jai keeps stumbling, and Stephanie Dill, short on allies as the young tribe's lines harden, is the next to go, voted out 5-2.
  6. 6“The Power of One”Oct 24, 2002Robb Zbacnik, the hot-headed young Sook Jai member whose temper and erratic behavior had unnerved his tribemates, becomes too much of a loose cannon to keep around. Sook Jai votes Robb out 5-1, choosing stability over his raw strength.
  7. 7“Assumptions”Oct 31, 2002The season's signature twist: the two tribes are told to move onto one beach, and everyone assumes they've merged. They haven't. Shii Ann Huang, certain the merge is real, starts working Chuay Gahn to flip on her own Sook Jai tribe, only to learn at the next challenge that it's still tribal. Sook Jai loses, and the exposed would-be traitor Shii Ann is voted out 4-1, just missing the jury.
  8. 8“Sleeping with the Enemy”Nov 7, 2002Living side by side but still split in two, Sook Jai keeps crumbling. Down to a handful, the tribe loses again and turns on Erin Collins, voted out 3-1 as the first member of the jury, with the real merge now looming and Chuay Gahn holding all the cards.
  9. 9“Desperate Measures”Nov 14, 2002The tribes finally merge for real into Chuay Jai, and Chuay Gahn strolls in with a five-to-three numbers edge. They press it without mercy, starting to pick off the stranded Sook Jai players, and Ken Stafford is voted out 5-3 to the jury.
  10. 10“While the Cats are Away”Nov 21, 2002The Pagonging of Sook Jai rolls on. Penny Ramsey, one of the last members of the old young tribe, can't find a crack in the Chuay Gahn wall and is voted out 4-2-1, the next to join the jury.
  11. 11“A Big Surprise... and Another”Dec 5, 2002Jake Billingsley, the genial older man who'd helped pick the tribes back on Day 1 and the last Sook Jai standing, makes his final push against the Chuay Gahn bloc. It's hopeless, and Jake is voted out 5-1, leaving the original Chuay Gahn five alone at the end.
  12. 12“The Tides are Turning”Dec 12, 2002With Sook Jai wiped out, Chuay Gahn has no one left to eat but itself, and Brian Heidik keeps pulling the strings. Ted Rogers, who'd weathered the season's biggest controversy to make it this far, is the first of the alliance to fall, voted out 4-1 and sent to the jury.
  13. 13“Slip Through Your Fingers”FinaleDec 19, 2002Finale night, and Brian Heidik closes out one of the coldest, most calculated games the show had yet seen. Helen Glover is voted out in fourth, and at the final three Jan Gentry is sent to the jury, leaving Brian and his loyal lieutenant Clay Jordan at the end, exactly the beatable goat Brian had wanted beside him. At Final Tribal, the jury weighs Brian's ruthless, controlling game against the gruff, blunt Clay, and they hand it to Brian 4-3, crowning the used-car salesman who'd manipulated his way through the whole season as the Sole Survivor.