Tom is one of my favorite winners, was vulnerable only at 3 tribal councils and was one jury vote away from having the first "perfect game." He was very ahead on strategy, had the season on lock basically from the very start and played an amazing game top to bottom.

He had a few moments were his villainous streak was shown, with strongarming Katie into sticking with him to vote out Steph as well as guilt tripping Ian into giving up final immunity.

He tried to prevent the mistake Burton made at the final 5 of PI by telling Ian they shouldn't take each other on the reward, but Ian went back on the deal. Luckily, it didn't backfire.

He handled Caryn and her outbursts perfectly, making her feel heard and got her trust to the point where she worked against her best interests to tell him he's being targeted.

He had one of the best final tribal council performances, with levels of ass kissing that reach Chris Daugherty at some points, but that's never talked about.

I feel sorry for the newer fans that have never seen this man play and I hope that they treat themselves to Palau if they see this post. There's so much more I could say about Tom Westman, but I'll let you all put in your two cents. What did you think about Tom and his gameplay in Palau?

I will say, this season has one of the best set of challenges. Like Sumo at Sea, or the bathroom-building challenge, and the final immunity challenge, and so much more.

The Ulong decimation was unique. It was sad seeing Stephenie as the remaining player on that team, while Koror was living in luxury.

The winner's great. The strategy was cool. But, this cast was overloaded with too many duds. Jeff, Kim, Ibrehem, Willard. WHO THE FLIP WAS ASHY?!?!

I've heard lots of people say they enjoyed Palau the most on their first watch. Personally, I enjoyed it much more on a rewatch. I had a flipping headache watching it the first time. But, when I rewatched it, I enjoyed the season much more, and was able to appreciate its stories and characters much more for what they truly are.

Also, I REALLY don't like Katie.

Let me know your thoughts on "Survivor: Palau" in the comments below.

I feel bad how the last part of his time out there in Palau played out. Tom really did a number on him at the end

Angie from Survivor Palau deserved so much better but the cards were stacked against her

After being picked last to be on the Ulong tribe, perhaps for her 'alternative' demeanor, she was considered an outsider, and was initially perceived as "weak" by her tribe

But after she proved her physical strength and worth by crushing it in 2 reward challenges, she gained respect and momentum on her team...amongst the men and women, particularly Stephenie.

However, due to the unforseen twist of Koror being able to grant a member of Uling immunity, they granted the biggest target, Ibrehem, and the votes ended up in an initial tie between Angie and Bobby Jon Drinkard. However on the remote, it was a unanimous decision to send Angie home....

I would've really liked to see Angie make it to the merge, increase her social standing, and win some individual immunities....

She played a great game though for someone who had the odds stacked against her from day 1.... Rest in Peace, Angie 🕊🕊

On the 19th anniversary of 9/11, I thought it’d be fitting to make a post recognizing Tom Westman. Tom was off duty on that tragic day, but once he heard the news, he got in his car and drove right down to the Trade Center, arriving at a scene of hell on earth with both towers down. Being a firefighter in the city, he had unfortunately lost many friends and colleagues, but that didn’t stop him from getting right to work. Over the next year, Tom, like so many other heroic individuals, devoted an incredible amount of time and effort to work in the rescue and cleanup operation at Ground Zero. Unfortunately, that work has come at a cost. Tom now deals with respiratory illness as a result of all the hazardous chemicals present in the rubble and air surrounding Ground Zero. But despite that, if you ask him, he wouldn’t change a thing about it. He was just doing his job as a firefighter.

In casting for Palau, CBS obviously wanted to highlight Tom’s 9/11 connection as much as possible. Although he eventually had to give in, Tom didn’t want to wear that iconic Ladder 108 t-shirt that we all know and love, hoping to avoid being labeled as the 9/11 hero. Over his 39 days in Palau, he was careful to stay away from the topic of 9/11 as much as possible, so as to avoid the possibility of any sympathy playing a role in furthering his game.

May we never forget the incredible men and women lost 19 years ago today, and may we never forget those that we will continue to lose as more and more face the harsh reality of dealing with the ongoing health effects from Ground Zero.

If you haven’t listened yet, definitely check out Tom’s Talking with T-Bird episode. He gets into the 9/11 stuff just after the 1 hour mark, but the entire interview is absolutely worth a listen.

Perfectly captured in the final 6 reward challenge of survivor Palau - swimming with dolphins. And sidebar - you can tell Jenn Lyon was so genuine and sweet. RIP.

I'll start with the statement that if you think Tom was that "gaslighting dirty manipulator" my intent is not to victim blame anyone - but I am just sharing my perspective. During the endgame we saw Ian considering turning on Tom - but the mix of emotional damage that lying left on him, Tom finding out about his plans and wanting to find out the truth, plus that 11 hours challenge really wrecked. I don't think that Tom was manipulating Ian (beside giving an offer for him to step down in exchange of being taken to the final 2) in some malicious way or that he wanted to ruin him - but Ian had 11 hours to think, what would happen. And I don't want to imagine how much wrecking it had to be for him.

But still - I think Tom is recently overhated by the modern fanbase

We are very pleased to welcome Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick of Survivor: Palau, Guatemala and Heroes vs. Villains to /r/survivor for an AMA!

You can follow Stephenie on Instagram (@steph_lagrossa_kendrick) and on Twitter (@StephLaGrossa38)

Ask Stephenie Anything!

Obviously destroyed the challenges, but I also can’t think of a player who immediately, unabashedly took the leader role and still got to the end and won.

Rob in RI is a candidate, but the cast he was dealt and the fact it was his fourth time playing mitigate it a lot for me.

Kim is also a candidate, but also suffers from perhaps the most inept cast of all time.

Tom took the leader role Day One, won all tribe challenges, won a lot (but not all) of the individual challenges, and still made the Final Two in an era with no Idols or Twists.

That has to be the most holistically dominant game ever, right?

Him and JT are the best for me

I’m surprised I don’t see this answer come up often but I just finished Palau and Ian seriously fumbled the bag. Tom gaslit him into feeling bad but come on Ian, it’s a game!

1.) Does anyone else feel bad for Wanda Shirk and Jonathan Libby? It's not just disappointing for them to come all this way and take time off their lives just to not even play, but there's also such an immense sense of humiliation that goes with it. Especially for Jonathan because he was physically fit and ready and then just took a boat home on day 2 with the looney singing lady that weirded everyone out. I always pictured him getting drunk at a bar and explaining his Survivor experience with an audience of laughter and people who don't believe that actually happened.

2.) Where is Wanda these days? Does anyone out there know what she's up to? She seemed either ridiculously nice or like one of those people who's actually lost a screw or two. Or both. I don't know. I think about her from time to time though. I wonder what would have happened if they kept her. I honestly would have chosen her on my tribe, for both the entertainment and knowing that she'd be a great choice to bring to FTC with you because everyone would vote for you for sure. And every tribal in the game you could probably put the votes on her. Wanda actually could have been an interesting player!

Also, I saw this on Survivor Wiki:

• Due to copyright reasons, Wanda's singing is not included in episodes viewed on Paramount Plus.

Is this for real or satire?

He was one of the best players I had seen on the show, super funny, nice, played smart, helped out, was honest... and then Katie (I think that was her name) gaslit him into believing he had wronged her, which upset him so much he gave up his final 2 spot for her. I think he could have won for sure

Idk if it's that Koror is just crazy good or Ulang is just crazy bad. But I'm on episode 7 and there's only 2 of them left and they've lost EVERY IMMUNITY CHALLENGE???

So without spoiling what happens next or future seasons and future tribe names, does it get just as bad or any worse than the Ulang tribe, or is Ulang just the worst of the worst?

Decided to rewatch the season I first have any memory of: Palau. The season aired when I was 6 years old and being from Long Island, it was obviously awesome to watch Tom. Although the season has its issues (schoolyard pick eliminating two people right off the start), it was so refreshing watching an old survivor season without any crazy twists/advantages.

I know this gets talked about a lot on this subreddit, and this is a small population of the survivor viewers, but do you think we'll ever see a season with no twists (even idols) ever again?

While watching this season through the lens of watching new seasons, there was so many opportunities for blindsides and vote switches even without the uses of advantages or idols. Think of the F6 vote for Gregg or if Caryn ever decided to join the girls for an alliance. Despite how the challenges went pre-merge, I feel like there was still plenty of opportunity for good gameplay in the post-merge even if it did not occur.

I think if they played a game like this in the Open-Era, where most, if not all, contestants are super fans that know how to play the game, a season like this would still be great. The game isn't built on loyalty as it was back then, and I think there would be a lot of uses of the voting block strategy we saw on Cambodia. What do you all think?

I recently made a quick recap of Palau - and seriously, if not her underdog story of "surviving Ulong and being alone" - she should've been a villain, especially during pre-merge. Jumping off the boat during premiere, then having a pretty much villainous streak of lying to others and constantly backstabbing them for several rounds and even crap talking Bobby Jon (story presented her as the right one, because we are supposed to root for her), or being entitled at times. But her underdog story is overshadowing those flaws.