Top Ten Tribal Councils

Well, here we are at another top ten list of mine. Today we have what I consider to be the ten best tribal councils in the show’s history. There’s a lot to choose from, but what are the ten best? How to I decide what are the best? I’ll get to that shortly.

First, as always, I need to have some rules about this top ten. #1 No season can be represented more than once on this list. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem, although it will get rid of other great tribal councils from a season in focus of the best of all of them. #2 This isn’t so much of a rule as it is a problem: since nowadays, tribal councils are remembered as crazy due to things like hidden immunity idols and the like, you may see a lot less of earlier seasons on the list, although I will do my best to put some of them on the list. #3 Craziness is basically how you get on the list. Well, that and memorableness will get you on the list. I am putting things on the list based on how good I thought the tribal council was so it had to stand out in some way. #4 As usual, things are mentioned solely based on my own opinion. One can disagree if they want to. #5 I’m only judging how good the tribal council was and pretty much ignoring both the rest of the episode and the rest of the season, should it be considered negative. Now, on to the honorable mentions

The first merge tribal council in Australia was pretty crazy, but I feel that it wasn’t crazy enough compared to future ones. The final four in Marquesas brought us an unlikely elimination, but it happened far too quickly for it to mean much. The outcast tribal council was one of a kind, but it didn’t stand out enough in my mind. Dabu’s first tribal council was very crazy towards the end, but I’m not choosing it. Tyson’s elimination in Heroes versus Villains wasn’t as stand out to one who knew spoilers and even then, there’s still a better one that season. The second tribal council in Nicaragua lead to a whole bunch of craziness, but I don’t feel that it was good enough. Bum Puzzled is an episode that brought a bunch of weirdness, but I’m not sure the tribal council stands out enough. And there was a crazy one in Worlds Apart, but it didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. There might be another honorable mention that becomes forgettable on just the very next episode, so I won’t mention more of it since that would spoil one of my picks, if it hasn’t already. Now, on to the top ten

#10 From Philippines, we have the tribal council from the episode Dead Man Walking. If you don’t remember, this was at the final ten which had two different idols revealed. What made it good for this list is simply how crazy a moment it was. What makes it only number ten was how seemingly little it affected the overall game of the season.

#9 From Blood versus Water, we have the tribal council from the episode Rustle Feathers. If you don’t remember, this was the first episode since Marquesas in which a group of people have chosen to draw rocks to eliminate a player. It was very interesting seeing people ignore the fact that they didn’t have the numbers and still do what they wanted to in order to get ahead of the game. We’ve seen tons of moves before where people have avoided drawing rocks, but it was quite interesting seeing people intend to draw rocks again.

#8 From Borneo, we have the tribal council from the episode The Final Four. Which tribal council from that episode? It would have to be the first final tribal council, or the last tribal council from this episode. If you don’t remember this, then you probably haven’t seen it. In it, we see truly great moments. Whether it is the question that Greg asked to how Richard’s opening speech owned up to all his game play, we see some interesting Survivor moments that don’t typically occur nowadays. The Snakes and the Rats speech will forever go down as a great jury speech and still might be the best thing anyone on the jury has ever said or done. Plus, we get Richard Hatch winning at the end, a well deserved moment for him and everyone else.

#7 From Cagayan, we have the tribal council from the episode Head of the Snake. If you don’t remember, this is when the tribes have merged and we see a whole different set of moves going into play at once. There’s an idol played on one person who then plays their idol on the first person. Plus, somehow we have a blindside in the middle of it all. It’s hard to see many merge episodes besides this with as much craziness as it has.

#6 From San Juan del Sur, we have the tribal council from the episode This is Where We Build Trust. That is such an ironic name for the episode. If you don’t remember, this episode is known for its stick to the plan line and the first successful use of multiple idols. What an episode! I mean, you may not notice everything about it at first. But there is definitely a wonderful outcome to the whole thing.

#5 From Africa, we have the tribal council from the episode The gods Are Angry. If you don’t remember, this episode features the only appearance of the natural quiz tie-breaker challenge. There were two sides going into the vote: each with the same number of members. So we then have a deadlocked vote that can’t be resolved by previous votes against a person and a quiz is ultimately what determines who will get voted out. It is a crazy moment, the likes of which we’ll never see again. But it is proof that interesting moments at tribal council do occur sometimes in classic seasons.

#4 From Redemption Island, we have the tribal council from the episode You’re Looking at the New Leader of Your Tribe. I don’t think that ever before or since has the first episode of a season brought to us such a crazy tribal council. If you don’t remember, this episode is known for Ometepe’s first tribal council leading to Philip’s well known craziness and we also see a hidden immunity idol in play this early into the game. While it doesn’t actually get played yet, it does lead to so many crazy moments in just the very first episode of a season.

#3 From Heroes versus Villains, we have the tribal council from the episode Going Down in Flames. If you don’t remember, this was the first tribal council after the merge that season. This is quite an interesting moment watching the Villains take back the game that they might have never actually given up. They kept control of the game as multiple idols were used to save the members on the Villains tribe and they kept the majority afterwards. Watching the moment was pretty interesting and proves that villains on Survivor tend to do better than heroes, especially miscast heroes from this season.

#2 From Micronesia, we have the tribal council from the episode If It Smells Like a Rat, Give It Cheese. If you don’t remember, this episode featured one of the most memorable blindsides in Survivor history. Erik could have kept winning challenges and made it to the end. It’s very possible that he could have won. But he let various women talk him into redeeming himself by giving up his immunity necklace. It’s hard to believe that he actually feel for it after all the other contestants still in the game did what they had to in order to get ahead.

Now you might be wondering what I have as the best tribal council from every Survivor episode thus far. It is remembered by many as a great moment and great blindside. While it ultimately didn’t turn the game around the way it was intended to, it still produced a tribal council so crazy that they pretty much had to promote it just so we would know not to miss the episode.

#1 From Caramoan, we have the tribal council from the episode Zipping Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. If you don’t remember, this moment is when the Three Amigos, for one night at least, took control of the game. With one of them having won immunity and the other two possessing idols, we are then left with a moment where one of the main alliance will get voted out. The moment is so awesome and wonderful, even if it seems strange that certain circumstances lead to this that typically don’t happen beforehand. I still list it as the best tribal council.

Well, those are my thoughts on the top ten tribal councils in Survivor history. I hope that I didn’t miss any notable ones. I also hope that I didn’t include moments that didn’t belong. Should I have thought of more classic Survivor tribal councils to work for the list? It seems sad that I wasn’t able to think of many besides the two that are on the list. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.