All-Star Hawaii Author Notes - Episode 11 (Checkmate!)
by Mario Lanza
Here's a little secret about writing Survivor fiction. When you write a Survivor story, the "final six"
episode is always the hardest episode to write. Easily. Hands down. It happens every single time I have
tried to write one of these things.
Why is the final six episode so hard to write?
Well because as a good friend of mine pointed out to me lo so many years ago, the final six in Survivor should
always wind up in a tie. There should always be a 3-3 tie, no matter what. Because if you're looking at
it from a realistic point of view, there should always be a three person "power" alliance, and a couple
of hangers-on, and the three hangers-on should be smart enough to band together to force a 3-3 tie, just to see
if they can shake the game up. As many Survivor analysts have pointed out over the years, the final six showdown
is the one that the alliance in power should always be wary of. A tie at the final six is pretty much inevitable.
So anyway, there you go. That was the dilemma that I was facing as we went into episode 11 of All-Star Hawaii.
How do I deal with the final 6 showdown that was potentially brewing, and how do I do it in a way so I don't have
to write a freaking purple rock episode (which I absolutely loathe doing because it's never particularly satisfying
to anyone)? How do I write a realistic episode in the slot that my stories have always tended to falter a little
bit? Because if you go back and look at my older stories, you will see that this is true. The final 6 episode is
one that I have historically struggled with. It's particularly noticeable in my Alaska story. In Alaska, I had
no idea what to do at the final six, so I just lamely wrote out the character that I had no idea what to do with
(Kelly W.) There's no particular reason why she was voted at the final six, I just remember thinking that
it seemed like a good idea at the time. But if you go back and read Alaska now, you will see that it's the one
episode that I think seems to be particularly weak. And you can trace that all back to the fact that the final
six episode is always the trickiest (and the most challenging) of the series to write.
And yes, the premiere and the finale are hard to write too. But for different reasons. We'll get to that when we
get to the Hawaii finale.
---- GRETCHEN VOLUNTEERS TO QUIT ----
So this was the dilemma I faced. How do I write a satisfying final six episode in Hawaii without a purple rock
tie, and most importantly, how do I do it realistically? How do I do it in a manner that is not only fair
to all six characters, but is also realistic as to their motivations, personalities, and individual storylines?
How do I write the best final six episode that has ever been featured in any of my stories?
The only way to delve into this was for me to start playing the "what if?" game.
Now obviously the focus of episode 11 needed to be Gretchen. After all, at the end of episode 10, she had just
lost her best friend in the game (Kathy), she was losing hope extremely rapidly, and she was facing a very dire
situation where she was powerless and her back was now pretty much completely to the wall. She literally had zero
options left. So I sat down at the start of episode 11, and I started brainstorming what Gretchen would try to
do about it. I sat there, and I tried to put myself in her shoes. I thought, if I were Gretchen, and if I knew
my game was in deep, deep trouble, how would I approach this? What is the first thing I would decide to do about
it?
Well if there are two things we know about Gretchen Cordy (at least in this story), they are that A) She is self-righteous
and stubborn, whenever she wants to be, and B) She does not like losing to alliances. She doesn't really think
that quote-unquote "alliances" are fair. Of course part of this is because she lost to the Tagis the
same way back in Borneo (which probably galled her), but another part of it is because she knows that Tina, Vee,
and John are really not the best of friends behind the scenes. She knows they don't really like one another. And
this, I believe, is the straw that really breaks her back about this whole situation. In Gretchen's mind, when
the Kekos banded together a couple of episode ago (Alicia, Gretchen, Kathy), it wasn't so much for strategic reasons,
as it was out of mutual respect. At one point, the three of them really did like one another. They got along,
they thought alike, and it was a natural friendship, so they decided to act as a team. They weren't an alliance
out of 100% strategy, they were an alliance because they were never going to vote for one another. You might call
Gretchen a hypocrite for thinking this way, and for separating alliance/non-alliance this way, but in her mind
I believe she thinks the three Kekos were never really a quote-unquote "alliance." They were simply
three women who had been thrown together against an enemy, and were determined to fight it.
But when she looks at Tina, John and Vee, she doesn't see that same thing at all. No way. She knows the
three of them will never be close friends outside the game. She knows it. And she knows that they are going to
screw poor Colleen the first chance they get. Colleen is dead meat at the final four, mainly because she's really
not much of a strategist. She's in way over her head. Gretchen sees this, and it makes her simultaneously feel
sad as well as a little bit angry. In fact, on a very deep level, it sort of pisses her off. How dare the Ahis
do that to innocent Colleen! That's awful. There's no way she's going to let her friend go down so pathetically
against three people she feels are playing the game a little too hardcore.
So this is where the first part of the "what if?" game came in. I sat there, and I thought, "If
I were Gretchen, and I were really ticked off about the way this game was headed, and if I really
wanted to just screw it up for everyone involved, how could I do this? What is the one way I could get Colleen
to turn on the Ahis, and force a tie?" Because remember, Gretchen had been asking Colleen to jump sides for
a long time now. Gretchen had been pursuing this line of strategy for several episodes now, and Colleen simply
wasn't gonna have any of it. So what card could Gretchen play to finally push Colleen into making the jump?
And it really wasn't that hard. I just thought, "Well Gretchen could volunteer to drop out of the game at
the final three."
And bam. That was the solution.
Because seriously, if she does this, if Gretchen truly volunteers to "quit" the game at the final three,
then Colleen really has no more reason not to switch. All the variables have now clicked firmly into place.
If Colleen forces a 3-3 tie against the Ahis, not only does Gretchen get what she wants (none of the Ahi Three
can win anymore), but Colleen also gets what she wants (she doesn't have to face Gretchen in the final two.)
Even though it means that Gretchen will now lose the game, at the very least she now gets to go out on her
terms (which is the underlying argument she is making all alone), which makes this pretty much a win-win opportunity
for both of them.
The minute I came up with the idea of Gretchen volunteering to drop out of the game, I knew I was going to use
it. I knew it would send a shockwave through just about every other single aspect of the story. Gretchen's decision
was going to change everything.
---- THE AHI RESPONSE ----
So now I had answered part 1 of the "what if?" game. What does Gretchen do? That part of the episode
was now set in stone.
Next, of course, I had to come up with part two. What do the Ahis do? Because that, in essence, was the
much more important question in this episode. Once the Ahis realize their backs are to the wall, how do they respond?
What do they do? Do they have a card they can play to counter Gretchen's attempt at checkmate?
So I sat down to think about this for a few days.
From the very start, I knew that the point man for the Ahis in this episode was going to have to be John. From
the very first minute I sat down to plan this episode, I knew that the entire rest of the storyline would all have
to go through him. After all, of the three Ahis (Vee/Tina/John), John was the only one who had any sort of relationship
with the other three players. Tina and Vee? Hell no. They were off on their own, planning their little "former
winner" final two pact. They had no interest in interacting with Gretchen or Alicia at this time. Gretchen
and Alicia, at this point, were little more than war casualties to them.
But John, now he was a much more intriguing variable in this whole little puzzle. Because John did have
a strong relationship with Colleen. And John did have a burgeoning relationship with Alicia. No, it certainly
wasn't what you would call a strong relationship, at least not yet. But it was there. I had smartly been building
it up in episodes 9 and 10, just for this particular reason.
What this really meant is that any sort of Gretchen counter-attack in this episode would obviously have to come
through John. I mean, come on. With solid ties to both Colleen and Alicia, he was the only chance the Ahis had
left.
So I sat down again, and I thought about John's possible counter-attack. I tried to put myself in his shoes. How
the hell would he react to this? How on earth could he sway Colleen back to the Ahis? What could he promise her?
Could he promise her anything? And if he couldn't, how could he at least sway Alicia not to partake in forcing
a tie? What kind of bargaining power does he have against a plan that is pretty much guaranteed to sabotage his
game?
Well my first instinct in this situation was to have John promise Colleen the exact same thing that Gretchen just
promised her. I thought it would be fun if John said, "Well how about this, Colleen? How about you don't
force a tie tonight, and then when we get down to four or three, I'm the one to drop out of the game. How
about I drop out of the game instead of Gretchen? Then it will just be you against a former winner (either Tina
or Vecepia) in the final two. There's no way you'll get a better deal than that."
I thought about that, and I loved it. But eventually it just didn't strike me as something that John would realistically
do. I mean, it would have worked for the story, and it would have been a fun "double checkmate" moment
to write, but you have to remember, I'm trying to work around realistic character portrayals here. And John isn't
going to just flat out lie to Colleen like that. He would never do that. He's Johnny Pots and Pans, he's more into
honesty. If he tells Colleen he is going to drop out at the final three, well then that's exactly what he would
do. And I'm sorry, but John wouldn't do that. He doesn't want to drop out of this game. He wants to win.
He certainly wants to win a hell of a lot more than Gretchen does. So as enticing as it would be for John to pull
Colleen under his wing and promise her a "Gretchen-type deal" of his own, in the end I decided that it
really didn't fit his character.
Instead, I decided to go the other way with John, and just make him get pissed off.
You see, with John, you can realistically go one of two ways with his character at any particular time in the story.
You can either make him super strategic and super crafty (like he sees himself, as Richard Hatch). Or you can make
him super vindictive and super cold-hearted (like we saw him during the Gabriel incident in Marquesas). He can
go either way at any time, and they both make sense for his particular personality. And, well, in this particular
scenario, you can pretty much see which direction I decided to go with him. I suddenly saw the potential to have
a Gabriel Incident, part 2, and as you can guess, I decided to have fun with it. The minute John figured out his
good friend Colleen was going behind his back and working against him, I wanted John to be goddamned sure that
Colleen found out it was going to hurt. It was going to be Gabriel Redux. The Marquesas parallels were just way
too tempting to pass up.
So anyway, if you're curious, that's how I decided on the direction for this particular episode. There were a few
other factors and quirks and variables along the way, but in essence it was a game of "what if?" that
culminated in an homage to one of my favorite episodes of one of my favorite seasons (Marquesas).
A) Gretchen makes her deal with Colleen, which is great for Gretchen and Colleen, but maybe not so much for Alicia.
And it will work great, too, so long as Alicia doesn't quite put 2 and 2 together and figure it out.
B) Alicia puts 2 and 2 together. Her response? Crap. What now? Well, she pretty much only has one real friend in
the game at the moment. His name is John. Let's go talk to him about this and see what he thinks.
C) Alicia tips John off that there is likely going to be a 3-3 tie tonight. She thinks she is being super sneaky
and clever, but in essence she's really not. Alicia is really not a very good player. She never has been, either.
She is trying to feel John out, but in reality all she is doing is feeding him info. Pretty soon John has figured
out everything she is trying to insinuate.
D) John goes with his gut and tries to bully Alicia into not taking this deal. What are you, an idiot? No one
likes you! How could you beat Colleen? I will admit, I was sort of swayed by the real All-Stars when I was
writing this. I was thinking back to the whole "Alicia is the least deserving person in this cast" slam
book challenge. I was sort of basing this entire conversation off of that All-Stars moment, because I was picturing
in my head Alicia's "hurt yet proud" face as she heard the results of that challenge. I had the idea
that Alicia had thought she had been well-liked and well-respected up until this moment in Hawaii, but everything
she is hearing from John now is just slamming home the fact that she's just a patsy who people think they can beat.
And I was actually feeling a little bit bad for her here. In my mind, I was picturing that this whole conversation
(like the All-Stars slam book) was honestly hurting Alicia's feelings a little bit in this scene.
E) And this was the key moment in the entire episode. How does Alicia react when she realizes that she's seen as
a pushover by pretty much everyone here? How does she respond? After all, you're not talking about just your everyday
garden variety character here. You're not talking about someone like Teresa getting her feelings hurt. You're talking
about someone who not only sees herself as a badass, but actively tries to project herself out as a badass
to anyone nearby. You're talking about the self-proclaimed queen of the badasses. The fact that Alicia is being
pushed around as F2 goat bait is a little humiliating. And in my opinion, she wouldn't have seen that coming at
all. Up to this point, I'm guessing she had thought she had been playing the game well.
F) And this is where I came up with the denouement. How does Alicia react to being told that she's not only not
a badass, but is pretty much the walking definition of the opposite of a badass? Well she decides to remedy
that. She decided to become a badass. This is where she finally becomes (in her mind) what she thought she
had been seen as all along. After all, she knows she has just won immunity. She knows she's safe tonight. There's
no way the vote can possibly be turned against her. And she also knows she officially has John over the barrel.
After all, if she goes along with the Kekos tonight, and forces a tie, his chances of winning this game are effectively
over. Alicia's not the most gifted strategist in Survivor history, but she knows full well that she holds all of
the important cards at this particular moment. If she wants to, she can pretty much ruin the game for both of them.
G) So Alicia comes up with her blackmail deal. I'm powerless tonight, you're powerless tonight. But I also know
that you call most of the shots at Ahi. So here's my deal. Either you promise me a F2, or I take the whole
house of cards down with me and we both lose. I save your ass tonight, and you save my ass from your bitches at
the next vote. We're in this together now, and I want your promise on that. You and me. A Keko and an Ahi.
What is beautiful about this deal is that there is no way John can possibly turn it down.. He's screwed either
way. It's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Just like with Gretchen before, John now finds himself officially
in checkmate. It's SSDW. Same shit, different woman.
H) By the way, what is Alicia's motivation here? Well that's easy. It is "Fuck Gretchen. Fuck Colleen.
Fuck all of you. It's time for you people to start taking me seriously as a player." As Stephenie La Grossa
once said, "You think I'm a threat? Well now you'll see how threatening I am." If Alicia is going down,
much like Gretchen, she has decided she is only going down on her terms. She is going out in a blaze of triumph.
Apparently the two women are far more similar than they really know.
---- THE END OF COLLEEN ----
So that was how Colleen got eliminated. I was sad to see her go, I really was. There's no doubt about it, she was
easily one of my favorite players. But in my mind the benefits of her departure (and in particular, the way it
went down) far, far outweighed any of the negatives. Because if you look at it, the direction of this particular
episode pretty much opened up everything. Everything is now a little bit trickier going into the final five.
I mean, my goodness, just look at all the possible storylines I have waiting for me as we enter the next episode.
The possibilities are staggering!
Storyline 1: John is now completely screwed, as he is now caught in a total damned-if-he-does, damned-if-he-doesn't
relationship with Alicia. If he turns his back on him and screws her over, she'll kill him in the jury box. If
he takes her to the final two, everyone else will kill him. Oh yeah, and then on top of that, after the
game Sean Rector will likely hunt him down and beat the crap out of him for screwing over Vecepia. That's a lot
of pressure if you're someone like John. His game went from "really easy" to "really difficult"
in a virtual heartbeat.
Storyline 2: Alicia has suddenly realized that she is nowhere near as feared a badass as she originally
thought. She simply isn't respected by anyone here at all. So how does she react to this? What does a truly angry
Alicia really look like? Because you have to realize, all the anger she has ever shown before has pretty much been
a front. That has all been to maintain her image. What does Alicia look like now when people have really
started to get under her skin?
Storyline 3: What do Tina and Vecepia do once/if they realize that John might not be as solid an ally as
they had been led to believe? How much do they know about his deal with Alicia? Does this mean that Alicia suddenly
becomes the target instead of Gretchen? And here's a bigger question. Are the two "former winners" really
in as solid a spot as they have assumed up to this point in the game? Are they really both guaranteed to be in
the final four? Is there any way the two of them can ever be broken up? Do the other players even realize this?
Storyline 4: And, most importantly, here is the big storyline. This is the one that proved to be so irresistible
to me as I was writing this episode. What does Gretchen do now? I mean, she pretty much gave up last episode
and decided to throw in the towel. But it didn't work. In fact not only did it not work, she pretty much
wound up being single-handedly responsible for Colleen being eliminated. IT WAS ALL GRETCHEN'S FAULT! And
well, if you're Gretchen, how do you reconcile that in your head? Where do you go from here? How do you atone for
what you have just done?
I have a pretty good idea what Gretchen is going to do, but I'll keep it a surprise for now. You'll have
to wait until episode 12 to read it. Suffice it to say, I have spent a long time mulling over the next episode
as I was driving across the country over the past two weeks, and I have to say that there indeed may be a few surprises
left in store for this story.
One day, episode 11 may be called little more than the "setup" chapter.
---- THE RETURNING FAVORITES ----
Oh yeah, before I go, I have to say two things about the "returning favorites" scene during the reward
challenge.
1. For years, I have said that Sean Rector was the one character I never wanted to write in a story. I don't
know why, but he was always the character that scared me to death to try to write. It was just something about
the way he talks. Just something about how brash and funny and race-oriented he is in the way he speaks. I knew
that if I ever tried to capture him in print, I would probably fail, and it would sound ridiculous. In fact, I
even talked about this in a bunch of my past story commentaries. I said it over and over again. Even though I should
have used Sean in my Alaska story, I didn't. I planned never to use him. More than just about anyone, he was the
one character I avoided like the plague in any of my stories.
So of course then we come to the returning favorites challenge in episode 11.
Now keep in mind that in the original version of this story (the 2002 version), Vecepia had been long voted out
by this episode. She wasn't in the story anymore at the final six. So she didn't need a returning favorite. But
in the 2008 version, it turns out she was still here. The story had changed. And that meant that... gulp... who
was going to be her returning favorite? Duh. No doubt about it, it had to be Sean. Unfortunately it looked like
I was now going to have to suck up my reservations and write a couple of lines of Sean dialogue for the reward
challenge. I didn't like it at all, but it looked like there was no way around it. There was no one else that could
have been Vecepia's "loved one."
And then of course who goes on to win the random selection for my episode 11 reward challenge winner? Great. Of
course Vecepia's name had to come up. Thanks, fate. Love you too.
So I was forced to use Sean. I was forced to give him ten whole pages of dialogue in his scenes back at camp. Ugh.
Anyone who has followed my stories at all over the past seven years would know how much I wasn't looking forward
to this.
But do you know what?
I thought they turned out great!
After all my reservations, after all my trepidation, after seven years of being worried sick over writing a character
like Sean, he turned out to be way more fun and much easier to write than I ever imagined. I had a blast writing
him. In fact, I have now decided that if I ever do another All-Star story, you can bet your butt that I
will finally use Sean Rector as one of my contestants. He was easily one of the most interesting and nuanced characters
I have ever written for in my life. I wish I had been forced to write for him sooner.
I love my Hawaii Sean!
---- JENNA LEWIS ----
Oh yeah, what's the other thing I wanted to mention in my returning favorites scene?
Well you know how all of Jenna Lewis' jokes bombed in Hawaii, and how she just talked way too much during her scene
on the island? You remember how all of the other players seemed a little bit annoyed by her presence there? Well
there's an inside joke behind that.
In the summer of 2003, I appeared as a featured guest on Rob Cesternino and Jenna Lewis' internet talk show at
thefishbowl.com. Rob was interested in talking to me because he was a big fan of my All-Star stories, so he invited
me on as a guest on two different occasions. And I have to say, even though I had fun, and even though we shared
some good stories, there is one thing I will always remember about being on that talk show. I will always remember
how Rob's co-host, Jenna, WOULD. NEVER. SHUT. UP. Seriously. Even though I was the guest, she would just
talk right over me. It was ridiculous. I am a soft speaker in general, and I have a hard enough time speaking in
public as it is. And as you can guess, I found it almost impossible to get a word in when Jenna was hosting the
show. She would just steamroll over everyone. She would even steamroll over Rob.
So anyway, that's the reason Jenna just goes on and on in this episode and annoys everyone else. That was my cathartic
revenge. You see, this time, I get the last word in. The writer always wins. Thanks for playing. Enjoy your
parting gifts.
As Mel Brooks once said... it's good to be the king.
Talk to you again after episode 12.
No, I don't have a title yet.