Stranded in Suriname marks the first season to be dubbed a Redemption season. A Redemption season involves players that have played the game before (sometimes multiple seasons) but have yet to create a large enough impact to be labeled All-stars. It is the first season to feature a full “redemption” cast with 24 players all having played the game before. It would become one of the most entertaining and unpredictable seasons to date. The season featured players ranging from Season 1 all the way to the most current season. It featured two-time all-stars that hadn’t played the game in 9 years and players who had quit the game before it even began. Everyone had something to prove, forgotten players and new blood alike. The season began with four tribes of six: Pirai, Meku, Waiwai, and Kaikusi. The first two rounds of the game were double Tribal Councils seeing two tribes lose Immunity. Immediately the less-than-active members were weeded out of the game as Carl, Jim and Yau-Man were voted out. John joined them after being the odd man out of his tribe.

After this initial four-tribe phase, the game would quickly change as Jeff Probst asks everyone to “drop their buffs.” In doing so, he instructs everyone that all twenty of them will remain on challenge beach for the night and must find a partner before the next day. When the next day begins, the contestants have all been paired up. The new pairs then competed in an Immunity Challenge against all of the other partnerships. After Mookie and Liliana win Immunity, they are instructed to divide each partnership into separate tribes in a unique way. One of them will divide the tribes and the other will select which tribe they would like to join. They select Mookie to divide the tribes and after seemingly a short amount of time, Mookie quickly divides the pairs into new tribes. However, the controversy comes into play because Mookie placed all five remaining Pirai members on one tribe together. Everyone in the game begins to berate Mookie for this terrible decision and he instantly regrets it as Liliana chooses to join the other tribe and leaves Mookie on a tribe with the 5 Pirai members.

The game gets even more complicated after Jeff Probst announces a recurring twist for every challenge. Partnerships will be allowed to talk across tribal lines. In addition, before every Challenge, one partnership must swap tribes and in doing so will become Immune from the next Tribal Council. With both tribes heading to Tribal Council, it was time for the power dynamics to take place. On the new Kaikusi, Ozzy became the center of the alliances as he quietly brought together several groups. Marissa decided she would rather take out one of the original Kaikusi’s, Sandra, and began to push hard for her to leave. Meanwhile, Sandra is pushing hard for Ozzy to leave after viewing him as the leader of Waiwai. Unfortunately, the former Waiwai and Meku tribe members come together to vote off Sandra. On the new Waiwai tribe, an old rivalry between Diane and Kim P reared its head as Diane wanted the first boot to be Kim P. With Kim P being a member of the Pirai 5, this infuriated Sophie, their leader. Meanwhile, the tribe’s oldest veteran, Shane, has some chaos in store as he plans on flipping on his former Kaikusi tribe and joining up with the Pirai. With Shane and all of the Pirai against Diane, it was enough for her to become the first boot, but not before Shane and Kim P mock her on her way out of the game.

The next day the first partner swap took place and when no one volunteered, Jeff Probst selected a partnership at random. Marissa and Kim P switched tribes and earned Immunity for the round in doing so. Waiwai went on to win Immunity sending Kaikusi back to Council. There is a witch hunt on Kaikusi to find out who flipped and cast the mystery vote for Ozzy. Unbeknownst to the rest of the tribe, it was Kelly who promptly pushes the target onto Kristina. With everyone suspecting Kristina of the hinky vote, she is unanimously voted out. Heading into the next challenge, Mookie and Liliana volunteer to switch tribes thus claiming Individual Immunity. Kaikusi won Immunity sending Waiwai to Tribal Council. With the former Pirai firmly in power, Sean is the next boot.

At the next Immunity Challenge, Mookie and Liliana both volunteer to switch back to their original tribes and claim Individual Immunity. Waiwai would go on to win Immunity sending Kaikusi to Tribal Council. With Mookie rejoining Kaikusi, he informs Ozzy, Kimmi, Sugar, and David that the Pirai alliance is running Waiwai. He was able to convince everyone that they needed to get out Kim P while they still could. While Kaikusi was voting out Kim P, the tides began to turn against Pirai on Waiwai. Gabriel and Liliana had teamed up to target Sophie. When it leaked to Flicka that Sophie had targetted her, there was an all-out revolution.

During the next Immunity Challenge, after no one volunteered to switch, Sugar and Flicka were chosen at random to switch tribes. Kelly “accidentally” warns Waiwai to vote out Sophie, which caused a huge controversy. Kaikusi won the Tribal Immunity Challenge sending Waiwai back to Tribal. With Mookie back on Waiwai and Kelly having planted the seed, the writing is on the wall and the Pirai alliance is still four players strong with Sophie seen as the leader. However, when Rupert goes missing, Mookie takes the opportunity to strike. He rallies up Gabriel (per Liliana’s tip), Sugar, Marissa and attempted to flip Shane. Unfortunately, the coup plan was cut short. At Tribal Council, Jeff announced that Rupert has decided to leave the game due to personal issues. At the following Immunity Challenge, Flicka and Sugar swap tribes. During this all-important Immunity Challenge, the game is stopped short as there are allegations of cheating. Kaikusi is initially disqualified for helping each other. When it comes to the host’s attention that Waiwai has also been helping each other by using a Google Doc, both tribes’ disqualifications canceled each other out and the challenge continued as scheduled. Waiwai would go on to win Immunity. The tribe’s attention had turned to Kimmi after Kim P had suggested that she and Sophie have an inter-tribal alliance. 

While Kelly pushes hard for a Kimmi vote, Jenna is still annoyed at Ozzy for throwing her name out as a backup plan. Kimmi and Ozzy have their sights set on Liliana, but she finds a Hidden Immunity Idol after putting together two pieces from both tribes. During Tribal Council, the vote seems uncertain and as a result, Liliana plays her Hidden Immunity Idol. The votes come back with only 2 votes being canceled for Liliana, 1 vote for Jenna, 1 vote for Kimmi and 3 votes for Ozzy being enough.

Following Tribal Council, Jeff Probst announces to the tribes that they have both merged and the real game begins. With 13 people, there are 3 members from each of the original Waiwai, Kaikusi, and Pirai; and 4 members of the original Meku tribe in the merge. Immediately all eyes are on Sophie for being the leader of the majority Waiwai alliance. Meanwhile, Sophie and Liliana are having an all-out war attempting to get one another out. Liliana puts together a massive seven-person alliance in an attempt to take out Sophie. Meanwhile, Sophie puts together an eight-person alliance consisting of a lot of the same people targeting David. In the middle of both sides lies the Meku four which have reunited. At the start of the Immunity Challenge, Jeff Probst introduces a wrinkle to the game. Anyone could opt out of the challenge and go for a Public Immunity Idol. This idol works like a Hidden Immunity Idol, but it must be taken in the open for everyone to see. Instantly, Sophie grabs the Public Immunity Idol. Kelly goes on to win the first Individual Immunity Challenge. With Sophie being the main target and winning the PII, there is a mad scramble on who to vote for. When it comes time to tally the votes, Sophie takes a gamble and does not play her PII. When the votes are read, Sophie only receives two votes. Five votes are given to David and five votes to Kimmi resulting in a tie. Instantly, Liliana proclaims that everyone should vote for Kimmi. She then decides that Flicka and Artis are the obvious flippers (unaware that Flicka did not flip) and calls them out in front of everyone. Shane instantly tells her to “Calm her bitch ass down” and stop acting like the mob boss. Meanwhile, David is asking everyone to stop fighting. Shane then decides to call out Sophie proclaiming “fuck you too, Sophie, don’t pretend you’re not a huge threat.” When the revote came back, David was voted out seven to four.

With Sophie holding on to her Public Immunity Idol, she has instantly become everyone’s target. At the next Immunity Challenge, Sophie and Kimmi win Individual Immunity, making Sophie’s target even larger. As everyone decides between Sophie and Liliana’s alliances, sides are quickly being drawn. Liliana initially targets Artis for flipping on their alliance at the last Tribal Council. After comparing the votes, Kelly realizes that Artis did flip on the alliance and that he should be the one to go. Unfortunately, Liliana pulls a Hail Mary and decides to go after Shane at the last minute for ‘bullying her’. She begs everyone at the last minute to vote with her for Shane, but many of the players in her alliance already have deals with Shane. During Tribal Council, Shane and Liliana go at it again calling each other bullies. When questioned, Artis and Flicka claimed they were on Liliana’s side until she accused them of being flippers. When the votes come in, everyone had finally decided they had enough of Liliana’s erratic behavior and she became the second member of the jury. At the next Immunity Challenge, Kimmi wins her second Immunity in a row. With Sophie finally vulnerable, the question now becomes will she player her Public Immunity Idol? Kelly’s plan is to split votes between Sophie and Marissa (due to her inactivity and closeness with Sophie). The only problem remains Artis who has questionable loyalties. Depending on where his votes lie during the split, he could cause a tie between Sophie and Marissa or Flicka and Marissa. When the votes are being tallied, Jeff Probst asks if anyone wants to play an idol. When Sophie decides NOT to play her PII, the stage is set for an epic blindside. When the votes are read, they come back reading 4 votes for Marissa, 3 votes for Sophie, and 3 votes for Flicka. Becuase Artis did not vote, Marissa received the most votes and Sophie retained possession of the PII.

With everyone reeling and only 6 players remaining in the game, the finals are on everyone’s’ minds. Jenna, Flicka, and Shane make a final three alliance. In another close Immunity Challenge, Flicka and Sophie answer within 10 seconds of each other; however, Sophie wins Immunity yet again. With Sophie off the table, Jenna decides it’s finally time to take out Sugar. She tells her alliance to vote for Mookie in order to claim the move for herself. At Tribal Council, Flicka plays her Partner Talisman. Shane starts Tribal off with a bang calling out Sophie as a “piece of shit.” The rest of the tribe joins in on bashing her. “The reason I don’t talk to you and ignore you? I don’t fucking like you,” Shane continues. Sophie insists that she entered the merge in a minority alliance and had no choice but to win her way through the merge. With this being the last Council to play an idol, Mookie plays a Hidden Immunity Idol on himself. When the votes are read, Mookie’s three votes are nullified and Sugar is voted out with the remaining 3 votes. Having teamed up with Sophie for the last Tribal Council, Mookie is weighing working with her going forward. He currently views Flicka as his biggest threat. Meanwhile, Jenna is beginning to see Mookie as the biggest threat with his recent Idol play. When Sophie wins Immunity yet again Sophie and Mookie approach Jenna about voting off Flicka. Despite initially wanting Mookie out, Jenna agrees to go along with their plan and Flicka becomes the next member of the jury.

In the Final Immunity Challenge it was a close race between Jenna and Sophie, but in the end, Sophie did the unthinkable and won her way to the Final Three. With Jenna doing well in the challenge and being a crucial part of a lot of decisions, she was unanimously voted out and became the final member of the jury. In the Final Tribal Council were three very different players. Sophie has won her way to the finals being targetted since the early merge.

Mookie played a solid under the radar game before becoming a threat and playing a crucial Immunity Idol. Shane had never won a single challenge nor did he play any idols and yet persevered vulnerable and volatile. The jury argues back and forth against Mookie and Sophie. In a subtle nod to their earlier seasons, Sugar and Kelly give their votes to Shane. Kelly reasons that 8 years ago she cost him the win in All-stars with her jury vote, and this was her Second Chance to correct that mistake. The remaining jurors decide whether or not Sophie deserves to win for her ability to win her way to the end, or if Mookie deserves to win for being vulnerable a majority of the game. Both equally impressive, the vote comes back as a tie with 4 votes for Mookie, 4 votes for Sophie. Casting the predictable and poetic final Tie-breaking vote for the season… Shane votes for Mookie to win Stranded in Suriname.