Survivor: Micronesia - Season Summary

Season Summary

The two tribes were pre-selected before the start of the show: ten returning Survivor contestants and ten fans of the show. In their first challenge, each tribe competed within themselves to be first at a distance island and retrieve a hidden immunity idol that would only be good for that tribe's first visit to Tribal Council; these were claimed by Yau-Man and Kathy. In the pre-merge reward challenges, the winning tribe selected both a member of the losing tribe and a member of their own tribe to go to Exile Island where a series of clues would lead to a hidden immunity idol. Ozzy managed to follow the clues to claim the idol, and following Yau-Man's strategy from Survivor: Fiji, left a fake idol in its place. Jason would later find this idol, believing it to be real.

After 11 days, with the tribes still at equal numbers, the tribes were swapped through a schoolyard pick. Despite the separate tribes, the favorites worked within their new tribes to eliminate the fans, who succumbed to infighting. Before and through the merge, three people had to be removed from the game; Jonathan, who suffered an infection on his knee; Kathy, who wanted to quit after suffering psychological trauma; and James, who had an infected finger - James remained part of the jury though had to use an IV drip during Tribal Council.

After the merge, the remaining fans attempted to form alliances with the favorites that held the majority. A core alliance of Amanda, Parvati and Cirie worked with the other female fans, Natalie and Alexis, to push through several upsets. First, Eliza attempted to work with Jason to use his idol to trick the majority, but her planned failed when she realized Jason's idol was fake. After luring Ozzy to believe they would be voting off Jason, they were able to eliminate Ozzy without him playing the idol. Jason was next sent to Exile Island and found the relocated idol but he too was lured into not playing it, and was quickly eliminated. After James' evacuation, the remaining fans (Alexis, Erik, and Natalie) convinced Cirie to betray Amanda, but Amanda had been to Exile since Jason's elimination and had retrieved the idol, playing it to protect her and eliminate Alexis. Finally, the remaining women convinced Erik he was safe at the next vote regardless if he won individual immunity; Erik, having won this immunity, gave it to Natalie to engender her trust, allowing the women to vote him off.

After eliminating the last fan, Natalie, and realizing that there would not be three contestants in the final tribal council, Amanda and Parvati both saw Cirie as the likely winner against either of them, and through her immunity win, Amanda voted Cirie off, opting to go to the final with Parvati. The jury grilled both players, with Parvati ultimately winning in a 5–3 vote.