Ulong

From Survivor Wiki

Ulong was a tribe on Survivor: Palau.

Ulong (named, ironically, for the island inhabited by rival tribe Koror) was one of two tribes of nine castaways that were chosen in a schoolyard pick'em in episode 1001. Ulong was only able to win three challenges out of fourteen (none immunity, though), and is considered to be the worst tribe in Survivor history. It was also the original tribe of fan favorites Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard, who would return to the game in Survivor: Guatemala. Ulong's tribe color was light blue.

Contents 1 Members of Ulong 1.1 Original Members 1.2 Additional Members 2 Tribe History 3 Ulong's Legacy 4 Trivia

[edit] Members of Ulong

[edit] Original Members

The Ulong tribe initially consisted of:

• Ashlee Ashby
• Bobby Jon Drinkard
• Angie Jakusz
• Jolanda Jones
• Stephenie LaGrossa
• James Miller
• Kim Mullen
• Ibrehem Rahman
• Jeff Wilson

[edit] Additional Members

• Ulong did not have any additional members.

[edit] Tribe History

Ulong started the game with what seemed like an unfair advantage: of the nine members of the tribe, only two were over thirty (by comparison, only three of Koror's nine members were in their twenties). The competition, with its harsh conditions and unusually physical challenges, seemed stacked in favor of a younger, more physically fit tribe. However, it was not a lack of physical prowess, but of teamwork, that was Ulong's undoing at the first immunity challenge.

When tasked with having to choose which of several heavily weighted crates bearing survival tools to carry to the end, Ulong waffled on the decision and took a long time to decide. The poor challenge performance was compounded by the fact that no one in the tribe seemed to be able to operate an outrigger canoe properly. Koror would win the first immunity challenge, and Ulong vowed not to repeat the debacle.

Many felt that blame for the defeat should fall on the shoulders of Jolanda Jones, the de facto leader of the tribe and one of the chief advocates of carrying as many of the crates as possible. However, Jolanda and her allies felt that her physical prowess would be an asset later in the game, and that the tribe should attempt to cut its dead weight: Angie Jakusz, who had been chosen last for the tribe and had, Jolanda felt, not yet proven herself physically.

In the end, Jolanda was voted out in a 6-3 decision. Ulong's willingness to sacrifice its leaders and inability to lead through consensus would become a trademark of the tribe's Survivor tenure.

Conscious of being a social outcast as well as the need to prove herself in challenges, Angie began what would become a series of impressive physical performances, earning the respect of her tribemates. One such performance came at the first reward challenge, in which Ulong decisively defeated Koror and were recipients of a Hawaiian sling and other miscellaneous fishing gear.

Ulong was unable to organize themselves at the next challenge, however, and suffered another defeat at the hands of the older Koror. Sentiment had seemingly turned against Kim Mullen, whom many felt had delivered a poor performance at the challenge. However, Kim and Jeff Wilson had struck a romantic bond, and Jeff was thus very inclined to lobby on her behalf. The tribe would instead vote out Ashlee Ashby, who was both ill and ill-equipped for the game.

After winning a sewing kit at the next reward challenge, Ulong hoped to propel itself to victory at the immunity challenge. The extremely physical challenge, in which contestants carried sandbags around a circular course in shallow water, seemed tailor-made for Ulong's younger, stronger group of castaways. However, misfortune struck Ulong as personal trainer Jeff injured his ankle on a coconut back at camp before the challenge. With one of their chief physical resources incapacitated, Ulong was a weakened tribe. The strain on Ulong's final three members -- prophetically, Stephenie LaGrossa, Bobby Jon Drinkard and Ibrehem Rahman were the last ones standing -- proved too much to bear. Koror won its third consecutive immunity.

The tribe was torn between disposing of Kim, who was viewed with increasing animosity due to her perceived lack of effort and work ethic, and Jeff, who had verbally asked to voted out of the game. In the end, the tribe honored Jeff's request and he was shown the door in a 4-2-1 vote.

For the next reward challenge, Ulong was asked to select a leader in order to create a bathroom for a reward challenge. After each member of the tribe balked at the responsibility, they all opted to go out fishing instead. When Jeff Probst arrived and the tribe still hadn't decided on a leader, the host chastised them for their disorganization and inability to come to a decision. The tribe ended up choosing James Miller as its leader, and he led them to defeat. Ulong's losing streak continued at the next immunity challenge, Sumo at Sea, where the men put on a particularly weak showing. In spite of her attempts to rally the women against the men, Kim was voted out unanimously at the next Tribal Council.

On day twelve, the two tribes were surprised by a double boot with a twist. Both tribes would compete in a reward challenge; the winning tribe would be given a reward of root beer and beef stew, as well as the right to sit in on the opposing tribe's Tribal Council. True to form, Ulong went on to lose the challenge. This time, the tribe felt Ibrehem was to blame, as his lack of swimming and diving prowess had wasted time and cost the team dearly. However, at Tribal Council, Jeff Probst surprised the castaways by announcing that Koror would be allowed to vote to give one member of Ulong immunity. Thanks to votes from Katie Gallagher, Jenn Lyon and Janu Tornell, Ibrehem was given immunity. With their original target protected and no opportunity to decide on a replacement, Ulong's votes were confused and scattered, resulting in a tie between Angie and Bobby Jon. In the end, Angie was forced to leave the game.

Ulong was able to make a brief comeback when they won the episode 806 reward challenge and were taken on a trip to nearby Jellyfish Lake. However, this would be the last challenge that Ulong would ever win, and a lackluster showing by James and Ibrehem at the next immunity challenge only accelerated their fate. Sent to Tribal Council for the sixth consecutive time, Stephenie forced a tie between James and Ibrehem. For reasons best known to herself, she later changed her vote, and James was sent home.

On day seventeen, the tribes were forced to build S.O.S. signals in order to win a reward. Ulong -- now dwindled to a paltry three members -- chose to burn its old shelter in order to create their visible distress sign. It wasn't enough, and Ulong was once again on the losing side of island life. After losing the next puzzle challenge due to their inability to choose an effective leader, tribe politics became heated. Bobby Jon and Stephenie had formed an alliance, but Bobby Jon began to waver due to his friendship with Ibrehem. Sensing things weren't going her way, Stephenie plotted a potential counter-alliance with Ibrehem to vote out Bobby Jon. However, it ended up being much ado about nothing, and Ibrehem was voted out 2-1 on night eighteen.

Ulong was now only two strong and consisted of Stephenie, known for her spirit and tenacity, and Bobby Jon, celebrated for his strong work ethic. At this point, both castaways became increasingly frustrated: Bobby Jon by repeatedly losing to Koror's Tom Westman, and Stephenie by losing in general. The fledgling pair would lose both the reward challenge and the immunity challenge. As the first ever tribe of two to attend Tribal Council, Ulong didn't know what to expect. The bootee was decided by a fire-making immunity challenge. Despite Bobby Jon's status as the camp's fire-builder, Stephenie won the challenge, and Bobby Jon was eliminated from the game. In a departure from his usual style, Jeff Probst noted that that night, the tribe had "definitely not spoken."

Left to fend for herself back at camp, Stephenie found even the most basic facets of camp life extremely difficult. Her suffering would come to an end on day twenty-two, when a Tree Mail informed her that Ulong had officially been conquered, and she would now become a member of the Koror tribe. It would be the first time a tribe had lost every single immunity challenge and thus been "conquered" by the opposing team.

[edit] Ulong's Legacy

Ulong is frequently referenced as the worst tribe in Survivor history, and was the only tribe to never win a single immunity challenge until Ravu during Survivor: Fiji. There is much debate as to exactly why Ulong failed so often, although the proposed reasons are often derived from a common list:

• A lack of leadership. After Jolanda Jones was voted out on day three, the tribe was either unwilling or incapable of selecting a leader. As a result, the group floundered and often wasted time on pointless pursuits. The two subsequent times a leader was needed (the episode 1004 reward challenge and the episode 1007 immunity challenge), the tribe chose poorly and lost as a result: last-minute choice James Miller lead the tribe to defeat, while Bobby Jon Drinkard was unable to navigate the floating sea star puzzle and had to be switched out halfway through the challenge for Stephenie LaGrossa, wasting time.

• Inability to make a decision. This led to Ulong's downfall at several challenges, including the episode 1001 immunity challenge and the episode 1004 reward challenge, for which Ulong was unable to select a leader until chastised by Jeff Probst. The indecisive attitude of the Ulongs was exemplified in their Tribal Council votes: Ulong is tied with Africa's Samburu tribe for the most tie votes of any Survivor tribe. Samburu always stuck to their votes and moved to a tiebreaker. Ulong's ties were always broken by one or more members changing their vote.

• Overconfidence. The younger, stronger tribe went in with an air of cockiness and the notion that Koror would be easy to defeat. In addition, many members of Ulong were competitive athletes and thus unaccustomed to losing to an apparently weaker foe.

• Inability to complete puzzles. Bobby Jon often noted that while Ulong worked stronger, Koror worked smarter. By the end of Ulong's tenure as a Survivor tribe, it had become apparent that even the mildest of puzzles was almost completely unnavigable for the blue team. During the final tribal immunity challenge, Stephenie even admitted to shamelessly cheating off of Koror's word search board in order to win.

• The strength of Koror. The opposing team's strength, and in particular that of Tom Westman, is often cited as a reason for Ulong's repeated defeat. However, episode 1004 marked the last time Tom competed in a tribal immunity challenge, and Ulong would go on to lose three more. In addition, Ulong would lose repeatedly to various combinations of Koror, including:
  • Katie Gallagher, Jenn Lyon, Ian Rosenberger and Janu Tornell (the episode 1006 immunity challenge).
  • Katie, Gregg Carey and Caryn Groedel (the episode 1007 reward challenge).
  • Jenn, Janu and Coby Archa (the episode 1007 immunity challenge).

Regardless of why Ulong lost, its name remains synonymous with failure. It has, like Pagong, achieved status in Survivor lore as a verb: a tribe that has been "Ulonged" is one that has been soundly and repeatedly defeated in challenges. Examples of other Ulonged tribes may include Maraamu of Marquesas and "Raro" of Cook Islands, although it should be noted that both tribes won at least one immunity challenge in contrast to Ulong's zero. Fiji's Ravu tribe had an even worse win-loss record than Ulong, but was also subject to a tribal switch halfway through the season.

[edit] Trivia

• In the opening credits of the show, Jonathan is included as a member of Ulong. This is most likely because if the pick'em continued, Ulong's final choice would have been Jonathan, the final male.
• The order that the castaways were selected to be a part of Ulong is as follows:
  • Jolanda chose Bobby Jon.
  • Bobby Jon chose Stephenie.
  • Stephenie chose Jeff.
  • Jeff chose Kim.
  • Kim chose James.
  • James chose Ashlee.
  • Ashlee chose Ibrehem.
  • Ibrehem chose Angie.
• Near the beginning of the show's televised run, Mersaydeez released a spoiler that revealed the castaways that would be booted up until the tribes merged. Many treated Mersaydeez with disbelief and incredulity because it seemed highly unlikely that the much-stronger Ulong would go on such an unprecedented losing streak.
• Ulong's seeming misnomer is easily explained. When the tribes were named, both tribes lived on the island Macharchar. The winners of the immunity challenge were given the opportunity to inhabit the island Ulong -- Koror chose to do so, and so became the inhabitants of Ulong, while the Ulong tribe remained on Macharchar.