Just finished a rewatch of #Survivor: Palau, a season that proves you can still have a truly great outing even without twisty bells & whistles, and with a super predictable boot order and winner. Some more thoughts in this THREAD on season 10…

First off, the bad news. It seems the show has cut out BOTH of Wanda’s songs from the premiere on streaming due to not wanting to pay music rights. Luckily, I still have the DVDs. Here’s her magnum opus

And here’s Wanda’s now deleted curtain call

I love the way the players started the game completely off balance on an island together with no instructions and no tribes. I wish the show would shake things up like that more at the outset to keep contestants off-balance.

Also, a lot of viewers and players felt it was really unfair to vote out two people on day 2 before tribes were even formed. I totally disagree. If you didn’t work hard enough to create early bonds to get picked, that’s on you.

Watching the schoolyard pick now is like a horror show knowing how the tribes (and results) would turn out. The funny thing is that Ulong looked STACKED during the pick, and this would be a season with very physical challenges.

Speaking of challenges, when Palau first aired it was hailed as the best challenge season yet. And that still holds with lots of classics, including the first time we saw the simple genius that is “Hot Pursuit.”

Some more challenge notes, including this full-on horror movie. I wish Survivor would go back to Palau if for no other reason than to restage this epic challenge.

Time to bring this challenge back as players have to pull a giant box along the ocean floor. Again, simple, but looks fantastic with all the underwater camerawork.

This is genius. A slide puzzle…in the water. Love it.

Balut. Every season should have Balut.

I wish they would do this more often to prevent cheating on puzzles. Instead, the show encourages it to allow for more big dramatic comebacks.

The infamous Howard Stern tribute.

Respect.

Lastly on challenges, this clip tells you everything you need to know about the late, great Jenn Lyon. She did not have a prayer of outmuscling Stephenie on this, but look how hard she battles. A true warrior who never surrendered.

One of the best creative decisions Survivor ever made was not panicking and reshuffling the tribes once Koror started dominating. Watching Ulong get decimated all the way down to a tribe of one was must see TV.

Speaking of James, it took me 15 years to figure this out, but he sounds just like Dana Carvey doing his Ross Perot impersonation on SNL. Tell me I’m wrong.

Subtlety in product placement…

Also, do Pringles Prints even exist anymore?

Totally forgot exec producer Jesse Jensen made a cameo this season to go sit on Koror’s toilet…

…Although, if we’re being honest, Ulong should have won the reward for this alone

Tom not only took down 19 other players, he also took out a freakin’ shark!

But as impressive as Tom’s accomplishments this season were, he will never ever live this glorious drunken buffoonery down. (I played this clip multiple times on the air every week back in my Survivor Live days).

The inspiration for Exile Island started back in season 10 with Janu. (I remember asking Probst on the finale red carpet if he was going to pressure Janu to quit the reunion show too. Kind of a dick move on my part.)

In the first ever Tribal fire-making challenge between Steph and Bobby Jon, they were actually given matches off the bat and had to light a torch as opposed to burning through a rope.

The rope was added later for Ian versus Jenn.

What’s this? David vs. Goliath as well as Brains and Brawn back in season 10? FORESHADOWING!

Then again, it seems Millennials vs. Gen X actually started way back in season 1 (with Gen X being the youngsters!)

Visiting Jellyfish Lake is one of the top 5 experiences of my entire life. It’s even more amazing than it looks on TV. GO THERE!

Ian’s decision to step off in the final immunity challenge if Tom promised to NOT take him to the final 2 is, in a way, even more shocking than Erk giving away immunity back in the very same place in season 16. Katie and Tom really did a number on his psyche.

It's awesome when a TV game show can actually inspire some amazing real-life change.

In conclusion, Palau is a season with a great cast (I’d bring back Jolanda, Coby, Katie, and Ian back in a heartbeat), great creative, great challenges, and a great locale. So yeah, it’s still great 15 years later.