[Jeff Probst]

Well, your first night in Stranded!

What are your first impressions of your tribe and what do you make of the Refuge Twist? Have any official alliances formed or just close friendships so far?

[Mari]

First of all, where the hell is Turks and Caicos? At first I thought the theme of the season was people from Turkey vs. what sounds like cake in a foreign language! Thankfully that wasn't the case, because I'm not sure what being placed on the Cake Tribe would do to my self esteem xD

Anyways, to the game! We immediately get introduced to the Refuge twist and it's really just a round of immunity with the chance to make relationships on the other tribe which sounds perfect so why didn't I volunteer? These first days are crucial to building bonds/alliances and I've got my hard hat, high-vis jacket and toolbelt on tight because I've been building! Once I've got a steady enough alliance going on this tribe, I'll definitely try to become a Refugee especially if the opporutnity arises pre-swap so that way I'll have options once the tribes merge!

Taino tribe, more like Tai-yaaaaas tribe!! I feel like everyone who I've made the effort with so far has made the effort back and I feel good with those people but then there's a few people that I have no idea who they are. I've made this neat tribe ranking by effort, because normal rankings are so last season and I'm a gamechanger:

High Effort People: Zeke, Lucy
Good Effort People: Adam, Will
Little Effort People: Hannah
No Effort People: Chris, Jessica

Zeke was the first person to get straight into the game talk with me which was hghly appreciated and so I think if he is comfortable enough with talking game the second day in, I must be pretty high up in his ranking too. For reasons which I don't quite understand myself we will be calling ourselves the Loogie Alliance Yep, we'll cough and sneeze on everyone so bad that the bacterial infection will cause a mass medical evacuation resulting in an easy Final 2!

Lucy is great fun! I can definitely see myself working with her in the near future. When I was talking to Zeke, he didn't mention Lucy as someone who he wants to get in an immediate alliance with so if I can scoop Lucy up as secret side chick, she could be my ace in the hole! Adam and I got on really well the first night - any relationship born out of Mariah Carey fandom is bound to last! Will and I bonded a little due to us both being from the UK and so I hope our connection only grows from there.

I actually can't give the other three their own analysis because there's not much to say! Hannah is slightly above the other two because at least we had a conversation, even if it was about Dan Lembo whereas Chris and Jessica have been M.I.A. for now.

So if the game was as simple as find a majority of the tribe to run with, then I'd be set with the four I mentioned but in the game of Survivor, you never know when you might need somebody's help so I definitely need to step up my social game with the others.

...and that's the story in the life as Mari!

[Mari]

WOW our tribe sucked, that challenge was straight up Tainophobic! Zeke was the one who pulled through, albeit too late! We definitely need to keep him around for the tribal challenges and if he continues to perform as he did, he'll just be one of the biggest targets going into the merge so yeah Zeke, continue to kill it pls

As soon as the challenge ended, the scramble began! Well, less of a scramble and more of a light frying of the eggs. It was pretty striaghtforward - get the inactives out! We're all in agreement of that so tonight should see either Chris or Jessica be hit with the first boot shame. It might seem like its splitting hairs between the two, heck we could flip a coin and it wouldn't matter HOWEVER there's a little bit more to it and here's where it gets interesting.

A 5-person alliance consisting of myself, Lucy, Adam, Will and Zeke has been formed! Five's the magic number, its not too big and not too small - its exactly the majority and whilst I appreciate this solid group of individuals for now, the way the group was formed has got my spidey senses tingling. I'm fairly certain Adam and Zeke are a close duo, with maybe Will thrown in there too, because they always seem to say the same things to me when it comes to game talk almost as if they discussed beforehand as to what they should say to me. Just a working theory. Except Lucy sees it too! She's worried that her and I would be No. 4 and No. 5 on that totem pole and so we've decided to work on Hannah and bring her in closer to us than she might be with the others just in case we need her to bring about a flip! And this is why the target has landed on Chris rather than Jessica, she'll probably be more receptive working with Lucy and I than Chris would IF she ever shows up!(edited)

Hopefully, any prospect a flip from the 5 is still a few challenges away. Right now, I'm comfortable with the 5ive - Lucy told me I was her No. 1, #Adamari is a thing and Zeke/Will are good to me too but that's taken a lot of sucking up and being nice. The amount of <3's I sent last night was downright sickening. I can't wait for this stage of the game to be over so I can finally get to sink my teeth into the strategy and betrayals

...and that's the story in the life as Mari!