Survivor: Pearl Islands

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (November 2008)

Survivor: Pearl Islands
Filming location	Pearl Islands, Panama
Winner	Sandra Diaz-Twine (6-1)
Original run	September 18, 2003 – December 14, 2003
Filming dates	June 23, 2003 – July 31, 2003
No. of episodes	14
No. of days	39
No. of survivors	16
Tribes	Drake      Morgan      The Outcasts      Balboa
All-Stars	Rupert Boneham
Fans vs. Favorites	Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton
Season chronology
Previous	Survivor: The Amazon
Next	Survivor: All-Stars

Survivor: Pearl Islands (also broadcast as Survivor: Pearl Islands — Panama) was the seventh season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2003 and debuted in the United States on CBS on September 18, 2003.

The show takes place on the Pearl Islands, off the coast of Panama, and had a pirate culture theme. The two original tribes were Drake (named for Sir Francis Drake) and Morgan (named for Henry Morgan). Eventually the two were merged into the Balboa tribe (named after an injured snaked Rupert found and used as a mascot for the Drake tribe).

This season was the most watched since the second installment of Survivor, Survivor: The Australian Outback, in part to unique twists, including the controversial Outcast twist, and colorful, memorable contestants such as Rupert Boneham and Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton.^{[citation needed]}

Office clerk Sandra Diaz-Twine defeated Scout master Lillian "Lill" Morris in a landslide 6-1 vote.

Survivor: Pearl Islands was released on DVD on February 7, 2006.

This season is the only season thus far which has had two of its original contestants competing in two other seasons. Rupert Boneham returned in Survivor: All-Stars and made 4th place, then Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton played again in Survivor: Micronesia, and was the first person voted out that season. While neither won either of these seasons, Boneham did win $1,000,000 in Survivor: America's Tribal Council.

Gameplay

The start of the game was announced as a surprise to the contestants, who were told that they would be participating in the clothes on their backs, most believing they were getting publicity shots prior to the contest, and that no additional supplies would be given to them. The contestants were split into the two tribes, Morgan and Drake, and given their running shoes, a small bag of money and a map to a nearby village where they would could use the money to barter for what they believed were essential goods for survival as well as a boat trip to their beach, and were told to swim the rest of the way. Drake, thanks in part to Sandra's ability to speak Spanish and Rupert's idea to steal the abandoned shoes of Morgan and use them as bartering goods, was able to secure a large number of items, while Morgan did not plan as well. A twist revealed for this season sent one player from the tribe winning reward to steal one item from the other tribe's camp. Morgan lost most of the initial Reward and Immunity challenges, leaving them three players down and with fewer items to work with at camp. During this time, Osten, a member of Morgan, began to express his desire to quit the game.

With Drake apparently set to continue to win, Burton concocted a plan to throw the fourth Immunity challenge in order to get rid of the tribe's weaker players such as Trish and Christa. Though Rupert and others felt this was a bad idea, they went through with it anyway, purposely allowing Morgan to win. In a twist, Jeff Probst revealed that Morgan won the right to "kidnap" one Drake member through the next Reward challenge, and Morgan quickly selected Rupert. As a result, Burton was voted out at Drake's first tribal council. The shift in power lead to Morgan winning the next two Immunity challenges and leaving the tribes equal, five members a piece.

Upon arrival at their next challenge, the tribes found that another twist face them, as the six voted-off players were returned to the game as an "outcast tribe". In the subsequent challenge, the outcasts tribe beat out Morgan and Drake; both would be required to vote off a player at separate tribal councils, while the outcasts tribe would vote in two players to return to the game in their place. Osten used this opportunity to quit the game at tribal council. Jeff Probst expressed open disgust at Osten's decision to quit. The outcasts tribe selected the Lil and Burton to return to the game, both, by chance, returning to their original tribes but having immunity at the next tribal council. While Burton made up with his former tribe, Lil's return was resented by Andrew and other Morgan members.

The next day, the two tribes merged into Balboa, a name given to a sea snake that Rupert had found and tried to nurse back to health but failed. The tribe moved to Drake's beach. Burton and Rupert managed to gain individual immunities, and, along with Lil's resentment, helped to voted out former Morgan members Andrew and Ryan O., gaining the numbers for the former Drake. Jon and Burton began seeing Rupert as a physical threat for challenges, and conspired to vote him off, irking Rupert's alliance members Sandra and Christa. In the next reward challenge, where family and loved ones of the contestants were brought to the islands, Jon had conspired weeks before with his best friend to play the tale of a "dead grandmother", hoping to use it to gain sympathy. Though Sandra saw through the lie, Jon successfully convinced the other players, forcing them to give up the reward to Jon and then having to spend one night on Morgan's old beach while Jon and his friend hung out alone, celebrating the lie's success. Jon and Burton continued to conspire against the remaining women players, voting off Tijuana and Christine. With five players remaining, Burton won a car reward and took Jon with him away from camp. This allowed Sandra, Lil, and Darrah to hatch a plan to vote off Burton by having Sandra act as if the next vote was a foregone conclusion for her elimination. Burton and Jon dismissed the chance the woman were working against them, and to his surprise, Burton was voted off at the following tribal council, leaving Jon in a scramble to try to win back any of the women's favor. The following immunity challenge included yet another twist, as though it was a trivia contest, the current jury played as a fifth challenge, and effectively denied any of the remaining players immunity. Darrah was voted off, leaving Jon, Lil, and Sandra as the final three.

During the final immunity challenge, Sandra fell out early, allowing Jon to try to convince Lil to take him to the final two. Lil refused, and outlasted Jon, winning immunity. Lil struggled with her decision of who to take to the final tribal council but ultimately selected Sandra. During the final tribal council, Lil's behavior during the game was contrasted with what people expected of a scoutmaster, questions Lil could not easily answer. Sandra was voted the Sole Survivor on a vote of 6-1. In the subsequent reunion show, it was revealed that if Lil had taken Jon to the final two, she likely would have won.

Contestants

The Total Votes is the number of votes a castaway has received during Tribal Councils where the castaway is eligible to be voted out of the game. It does not include the votes received during the final Tribal Council.

The game

In the case of multiple tribes or castaways who win reward or immunity, they are listed in order of finish, or alphabetically where it was a team effort; where one castaway won and invited others, the invitees are in brackets.

Voting history

External links

• Official CBS Survivor Pearl Islands Website