Rewatch: Survivor: Borneo "Too Little, Too Late" (Episode 4)

Episode 4: "Too Little, Too Late"
Original Airdate: July 21st, 2000
American Ratings: 24.2 million viewers

Day 10

You want to vote me off, fine. But we've got to organize this.

Everyone is feeling miserable at Pagong. The violent thunderstorm of the night before and their inadequate shelter made for a long and cold night, made even worse by the fact that the castaways were soaking wet.

Though she was unable to prevail upon B. B. to change its initial location, Gretchen wants to move the shelter away from the beach. She insists that she will not sleep another night in there. Gretchen's speech, compounded with the fact that no one wishes to live through another terrible night like the one before, provide the collective kick in the butt the rest of the tribe needed to get to work and move the shelter into the nearby woods.

With his funny sense of humor and great work ethic, Greg is gradually setting himself up as a power player within the Pagong tribe. "In his own way, Greg's a leader," says Gretchen.

At the Tagi beach, Sean and some of the less active castaways feel that Sue works too much. They wish she'd slow down a bit. Obviously, Sean has a much different set of priorities than Susan.

I had this vision and I thought I'd build myself a bowling alley right about here. That's what I'm doing here, slaving away.

For a guy with a Ph.D., Sean has emerged as the resident dumbass in the Tagi camp. While some of his teammates are starving and struggling to survive the harsh conditions of the island, this doctor spent hours putting together a fishing pole that has yet to catch a single fish, and now he spends half a day building himself a bowling alley! Hard to believe Sean wasn't invited to participate in Survivor: All-Stars. . . If that's not all-star calibre, I don't know what is!

Interestingly enough, Sean is doing all this while Sue and Kelly are searching for food. Apparently, he told them that looking for nuts was a waste of time. As expected, that crap did not fly too high with Sue, who is tired of feeding lazy people spending their days doing nothing productive.

For the reward challenge, each tribe must build a distress signal on their beach. A plane will fly two hours past sunrise to inspect both distress signals, and the winning tribe will be awarded a crate full of creature comforts such as pillows, hammocks, soap, and more.

At Tagi, there is a conflict of ideas regarding their distress signal. Dirk clash with Sue when she makes fun of him and he takes exception with what he considers to be "classless" ideas.

I think I'm going to handle this by beginning to develop alliances with some folks to insure that I move into the next round.

Realizing that tensions are appearing within the tribe and that friction is inevitable, Richard begins to plot the scheme that will see him go all the way to the end.

Meanwhile at the Pagong camp, work on the new shelter progresses. And yet, more and more it becomes evident that Ramona cannot handle the toll the island is taking on her mind, body, and spirit. Gervase, Jenna, and Greg realize that she's so out of her element as to become a liability.

Day 11

Both tribes are at work on their distress signals before the break of dawn. Feeling better that morning, Ramona works harder and is more helpful than she has ever been. As the Pagong tribesmates busy themselves putting together their distress signal, Greg is hilarious with his coconut phone.

Aboard the plane, Jeff and a couple of experts assess the quality of both distress signals. Pagong fashioned a giant smiling face, while Tagi set up a sign saying, "SOS: Tagi is groggy." And the addition of colorful moving human beings wins them the reward. The coveted crate is parachuted in the sea before their beach. While the mood is disappointed on the Pagong camp, the Tagi tribe is ecstatic.

The whole idea of an alliance is to make sure we're all voting the same way.

One would think that such a positive mood would be cause for celebration, but little did the rest of the Tagi tribe know that Richard, Kelly, and Sue would use this opportunity to seal the deal on the first and one of the most infamous alliances in Survivor history.

"We really could control our fate," claims Richard. "If we stick together." Though he was approached by Richard, Rudy is not getting with the program yet. Considering the number of votes cast against him during the tribe's two appearances at tribal council, this is a little odd. But Rudy marches to the beat of his own drum, after all. . .

Back at Pagong, Jenna's personality makes her appreciated by her fellow teammates. Ramona continues to put in the effort, redeeming herself in the eyes of Gervase at least. "I'm feeling good about being part of the group," says Ramona. But Jenna feels that it could be a case of "too little, too late."

Day 12

Pagong feels that they truly need to win the immunity challenge. Although they feel the pressure, the think they're the best tribe.

The immunity is a 5-leg relay: The castaways must swim out and dive to retrieve a map. Then they must run to a boat, paddle back to the beach, and finally use the map to locate their treasure chest.

Colleen was cocky prior to the challenge, but she loses a lot of time retrieving the bottle containing the map to the treasure chest. But Joel makes up a lot of it paddling the boat back. Unfortunately, Gervase completely runs out of steam during the jungle run, costing his team a lot of time. Richard and Rudy dig for the chest for Tagi, and the former Navy Seal brings it back to their crate first, earning his tribe the win.

We're all friends, and then you boot someone.

With tribal council looming, the Pagong tribe is dreading voting another member off the island. "I'm going not knowing what's going to happen. and I'm nervous," confides Colleen, feeling the heat for her weak performance that afternoon.

They arrive at tribal council wearing face-painting again. Jeff Probst really works the tribe for the first time, forcing them to open up and elaborate on the voting process. He's slowly growing into his role as the host of this show. Good-naturedly, Jeff rips into Gervase when he claims to have nothing to worry about during this council.

I feel guilty. I feel bad. Well, I'm going to have to put somebody's name down that I really respect and came to really like. It's like taking a piece of our family away.

It's obvious this was Pagong's most difficult vote yet. The main theme appears to have been about keeping the tribe as strong as possible. As a matter of course, opinions on the subject vary.

In the end, Jennna garners one vote, while two votes are cast against Colleen. Racking up four votes, Ramona is sent home.

To purchase the Survivor: Borneo DVD boxset: Canada, USA, Europe.