The Tagi Alliance (also known to some as the Tagi Four) holds the distinction as the very first Survivor voting alliance. The pact was formed by Richard Hatch by gathering three of his fellow Tagi tribemates. Not only did it ultimately award Richard the title of Sole Survivor, the creation of this alliance paved the way for how the game of Survivor was going to be played in future seasons.
History
Origin
During Day 10, thinking strategically, while everybody, whether from the Tagi or Pagong tribe, was more keen on merely literally surviving the island, Richard Hatch could not think of any other way to surely further himself in the game. With this, he flirted with the idea of making a voting bloc with people who he deemed as trustworthy.
The next day, Richard began to put his plan in motion by recruiting Kelly Wiglesworth and Susan Hawk to form the alliance, which both agreed. The three then invited Rudy Boesch to join them. Despite his reservations, the retired Navy SEAL joined the three. Any plotting was temporarily put on hold when the Tagi tribe won the subsequent Immunity Challenge.
As the four castaways teamed up, that left Dirk Been and Sean Kenniff as the only outsiders, putting them in danger. Sean was originally supposed to go, but Dirk got skinnier and skinnier. Fearing for his health, the Tagi Four voted him out.
In the next episode, the tribes were outnumbered with Tagi having five, and Pagong having six. The alliance realized that unless they won the next challenge, the other tribe could pick them off. Luckily, they had won the challenge, and entered the merge even.
Post-Merger Success
The Tagi Alliance planned in the merge to pick off the members of Pagong one by one. They started with Gretchen Cordy, who was supposedly the leader of Pagong. This was very successful, as it resulted in a 4-1-1-1-1-1-1 vote, with the others rendered powerless due to their scattered votes. After that, they decided to vote off Greg Buis, for his likability and strength at the challenges. This was also successful.
Later on, however, Kelly started to not feel right about joining an alliance. Also, Colleen Haskell realized Tagi was ganging up on them, so she aligned with Jenna Lewis and Gervase Peterson to vote off Richard, the ringleader. At the vote, Kelly didn't vote with the alliance, but not against Richard, either. Colleen, Jenna, and Gervase then voted for Richard. However, knowing Sean's "alphabet strategy" (which targeted Jenna next), Richard, Sue, and Rudy voted for Jenna, which saw enough votes to eliminate her. With that, the alliance stayed intact, voting off Gervase next.
Kelly had now completely defected and joined Colleen, but after Kelly won immunity, Colleen was voted out, making Pagong no more. Rich, Rudy, and Sue decided to vote off Kelly, but she won immunity again, so they voted off Sean.
Turning on Each Other
With now all castaways outside of the original alliance eliminated, the Tagi Four would now have to turn on each other. Richard and Rudy grew close, making a Final Two deal, where they decided to vote off Kelly, then Susan. However, Kelly won immunity once again and she and Sue voted against Richard, while Richard and Rudy voted against Sue. It was a tie and Kelly and Rudy had to vote again. Rudy still voted for Susan, staying true to his word. Kelly, putting much thought into it, voted against Sue as well.
In the Final Immunity Challenge, Richard knew that if Rudy won, he'd take him to the finals, like he said. Kelly likely would too, as everyone thought of Richard as a villain. Kelly won and, as expected, took Richard to the Final Two, where he was rewarded the title of Sole Survivor for his relatively simple - yet effective - strategies, which includes creating Survivor's first ever alliance.
Impact
The Tagi Alliance is the first ever voting bloc in the series. Whilst the original intention of the show was to vote out players who the individual thought had spent their time on the island, Richard Hatch took the leap to create a safety net that would later lay the foundations for future seasons.
Many viewers believed this voting bloc was unfair and unethical, as the other castaways did not think to make these pacts with one another. However, there were no rules stipulating that people cannot organize smaller social groups to vote out players. Since then, fans have embraced alliances which sometimes create predictable outcomes, or even further, "pagongings".
Trivia
- In Rob Has a Podcast, Rob Cesternino asked Richard Hatch what he would have named his alliance; Richard stated that he was against naming alliances, but then he jokingly suggested the name "Lost and Found".
- All four members of the alliance have played twice.
Gallery
