Costa Rica is the seventeenth season of Stranded and the beginning of a new age for the series. With eighteen contestants each adding their own individual storyline to the season, the stage was set for one of the best seasons of Stranded yet. Proving that the series was still going strong, the game started out with a bang. Split into two new tribes, Chorotega and Guatuso each had to vote on a leader which would make crucial decisions on behalf of the tribe. Chorotega chose the natural choice in Tom, an all around solid player… while Guatuso chose John. In a challenge where tribemates competed in pairs, Chorotega had the misfortune of relying on Caryn (the tribe’s resident curmudgeon) and Gregg. Forty-five minutes into the challenge, and forty-five minutes waiting on Caryn and Gregg to complete their portion of the puzzle, Gregg finally speaks up. Just when Chorotega thought the challenge was saved, Gregg asks the other tribe to throw the challenge.

After his tribe mates pleaded with him not to throw the challenge, he explained that he was colorblind (he wasn’t) and that it would be impossible. Meanwhile, on Guatuso, tribe leader John has taken an hour and fifteen minutes to assemble two pieces of the puzzle (incorrectly) making his tribe increasingly furious. After Ami pleads with John to relinquish leadership to her, he agrees and she finishes the puzzle for Guatuso. The next challenge saw the rise of Mia, a firecracker who soon became infamous for her challenge meltdowns and cries of rigging. When she took over the reigns as Guatuso’s third leader in three days, she became equally as infamous as John. Despite losing the challenge, Mia lucked out and the inactive Julie was booted. With Gregg and Mia obvious pariahs of their tribe, their days were numbered. That is until there was the earliest tribe swap in Stranded history.

On the new tribes, Gregg saw new life becoming the tribe’s mastermind. He single handedly called the shots on who went and when, dictating the entire course of Guatuso’s new pre-merge. Ami however, went from a solid position to being consistently hated on for seemingly no reason. While Mia finagled her way into the inner-circle of new Chorotega, new Guatuso continued to lose. Infact they lost every challenge. John, the snake in the grass, was a huge force in the premerge as well, but unfortunately for him flipper Gregg flipped back to bff’s Ibrehem and Jolanda. Just when it seemed as though the premerge was the craziest thing Stranded had seen in a long while, the merge came along. There, the game went from crazy to insane. Even though the merge saw the early departure of Gregg, a new flip-flopper took his place. Chad, who seemed to believe the last person to speak with him, sided with the outliers and caused havoc throughout the early stages of the merge. Ami persevered through all the unwarranted hatred to make it late into the merge.

Meanwhile, there was another snake in the grass that no one saw coming the entire game. Bobby Jon. Bobby Jon infamously took every opportunity he could pre-merge to get a Hidden Immunity Idol clue and punish the tribe as a result. It paid off and he was able to blindside everyone after they discovered he was lying to everyone. He played an idol, won immunity, and then played a second idol. He schemed his way to the final 3. With him was the likable but vanilla Lisa, and the under the radar threat Kim. Kim was labeled as boring early on, but eventually proved her worth by winning immunity challenges, calling players out and controlling several alliances. It was a game with a cast of characters that will not soon be forgotten. Kim won the game and the season was a breath of fresh air in the late stages of Stranded.