The Backstory: Season 8 of Survivor featured 17 returning All-Stars plus Amber. For the first time in the history of the game, the show had players come back to play again. They decided to split them not into 2 tribes of 8 per tradition, but instead divided the players into three teams of 6.

The three tribes were

Saboga

Mogo Mogo (The Avengers of Survivor: All Stars)

Chapera

With two tribes winning the immunity idol for each of the first four episodes, we saw Mogo Mogo and Chapera emerge as the stronger teams. Saboga was sent to tribal twice and were forced to live with that sinking Monday feeling everyday.

With 14 players in the game going into episode 5, production went forward with their own form of a tribe shuffle. The tribe that finished in last place during the next reward challenge would be dissolved. Fair enough. Saboga came in last place due to Rupert’s expert raft building skills and were split up.

“Fuck it, let’s build an underground shelter.”

Ethan and Jerri went to Mogo Mogo while Rupert and Jenna went over to Chapera. This left each tribe even at 7 vs 7.

The game continued forward with Mogo Mogo losing the next three immunity challenges.

“Bamboozled!”

Not full-tilt

“It’s strictly business.”

Chapera lost Sue Hawk when she quit the game after the very inappropriate incident with Richard Hatch on a balance beam.

We all remember her famous rant at Probst, which they probably deserved but I digress…

“I was violated, humiliated and totally spent Jeff!”

With that, Sue Hawk leaves the game and settles her dispute with SEG outside of the game.

Bye-Bye Denver Diva

That leaves Mogo Mogo with four players and Chapera with 6. Up until this point in Survivor history, the tribes usually merged at 10 with Thailand being the exception. The decision to not merge the tribes was not what this post is about, but what happens next is.

Production decides that the one thing these players need right now is a tribe swap. Why? Conspiracy theories range from wanting to help Boston Rob and Amber or to attempt to prevent an Amber victory. (Spoiler alert: It didn’t work)

We will never know, but what we do know is that it wasn’t really fair.

What Happened:

The 10 players drew random buffs out of the urn. Red sent them to Chapera and green to Mogo Mogo. Instead of honoring the old tribe numbers at 6 v 4, they decided to split the group of 10 into two equal teams of 5.

As it so happened, 5 players from Chapera moved over to Mogo Mogo while all four members of Mogo Mogo donned the red Chapera buffs.

Everyone switched over to the opposite tribe except for Amber. Yes Amber.

She hugged her friends Alicia and Jenna goodbye and had to painfully separate from her island lover, Boston Rob.

“I’ll never let go.”

At the next immunity challenge Chapera and Mogo Mogo faced off in a Survivor trivia challenge.

Despite the fact that Big Tom thought that his season was filmed in Uganda and not Kenya, the new Mogo Mogo tribe won immunity. *

* Butok and grubs should have both been acceptable answers. It’s bollocks and we all know it.

With Amber in danger, Boston Rob makes his famous plea to Lex to save his girlfriend.

Lex and Kathy confer about Boston Rob’s request due to their outside friendship. They weigh the pros and cons of the decision and ultimately decide to vote out Jerri.

“The bell boy is back for your bags Jerri.”

With their decision made, Lex and Kathy (Plus Shii-Ann) move onto the merge where they expected to work with Amber and Boston Rob.

What happened?

Boston Rob tells them at the new merged Chaboga Mogo tribe that he cannot turn on his alliance of the former members of Chapera. Lex and Kathy plead their case about how they saved Amber for him and he responds:

Come the immunity challenge, Boston Rob and Kathy win safety from the vote. With the original Chapera standing strong, Lex is voted out and is sent to the jury.

(The last time you see Lex smile on this season)

Kathy stumbles around for a bit trying to find an alliance to work with but it falls on deaf ears.

Boston Rob and Amber go on to run the season and live happily ever after. They end up getting married, have four girls and also get completely screwed over on The Amazing Race 7 finale but that’s for another blog.

How were they screwed?

This moment could have gone any other way. The fact remains that a twist in Survivor should be expected and it is true that after this swap the players were given the fair opportunity to scramble and play the game.

Conspiracies stem from this incident that they players were being split deliberately in order to create more drama.

Is it a fair twist? If done right, yes. Was it done right? Probably not.

“It’s not worth it!”

Jerri was voted out after the tribe shuffle. She didn’t appear to be bitter and respected the fact that Lex told her straight up that she was going to go home.

Jerri then spoke about the twist in an exit interview after the filming of All-Stars.

Question: When you selected buffs from the vase, were you allowed to take any one you wanted? Or did they instruct you to take the top one only?

Jerri: We were allowed to grab whatever buff we wanted to. It was a complete coincidence that it happened the way it did.

However, she has since said the opposite about the situation in an interview with Rob Cesternino on RHAP back during the airing of One World in 2012.

Jerri: The only difference that occurred from the tribe switch was Amber coming over to our side.

Rob: But nobody went from your tribe to the other tribe?

Jerri: No. Well you know I personally think it was a set up to be honest with you. Uh because the way it [Picking buffs] was done..Jeff..I’ll never forget this..cause we’re all on a beach having a picnic you know getting to know people from the other side…the next thing I know Jeff is like ‘Okay draw a buff’ and it was out of this little urn and the buffs were laid flat on top of each other inside this urn so when you reached in all you could pick was the top buff…And he made us stand in a very specific order.”

Rob: So it seems like that if what you’re saying is true that it seems like production wanted to get Amber out of the game.

Jerri: “They wanted Amber and Rob split up.”

Source: http://www.robhasawebsite.com/survivor-one-world-jerri-manthey/

The above section starts at around 1:20:00

But is that it? Nope! On the DVD bonus commentary track of the next episode Lex, Kathy & Shii-Ann mention this very same topic albeit in a much more jovial tone.

[Scene of the remaining 9 players about to pick the merge buffs out of a new urn]

Lex: This is where they give us a jar and we all pick different buffs and we’re all still on the same tribe.

Kathy: I think..I think the guy that put the buffs in the urn got fired..cause they were not stacked correctly!

Shii-Ann: Oh he totally got fired (laughs)

Scale of production twist: This one is low on the 1-10 scale due to the nature of the game. It registers at a 3.

However, if the buff stacking incident was confirmed to be a deliberate attempt to interfere with the outcome of the game it would have been rated much much higher. The only evidence from this incident stems from Jerri’s testimonial. Whether or not what she is saying is true remains a Survivor mystery.