Exile Island (twist)

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Exile Island is a game-changing twist in seven Survivor seasons. Exile Island is a small campsite apart from the actual tribe camps where a single contestant will be left banished for a predetermined period of time. Though in seclusion, the banished castaway(s) will have a sort-of consolation prize such as a clue to the location of a Hidden Immunity Idol that may or not be hidden there or comforts. It has not been used since Survivor: Tocantins, but the Redemption Island twist is somewhat similar to Exile Island in premise.

Premise
The premise of Exile Island is simple: To force one (though still depending if there is another twist) castaway to live on his/her own on an uninhabited island. The logic is that the banished player will be separated from their tribe, unable to strategize and will be out of the loop until a predetermined period of time. This twist provides more emphasis on the social aspect of the game, for which players can have an open opportunity to gossip and/or to campaign the ouster of the exiled survivor. However, all these can backfire, as Exile Island provides clues to the whereabouts of a Hidden Immunity Idol, which may or may be not be hidden on the island. Clues will constantly be handed in every episode, though it does not guarantee the player truly finding the Idol (especially if the Idol had already been found by someone else). This will add more mystery in the game as suspicion would arise between the castaways regarding who really has the Idol.

Usually after winning a Reward Challenge, aside from the reward itself, the winning tribe (or individual, if merged) will also have the power to send one person from the losing team to Exile Island.

During Tribal phase, if division or switching of tribes is taken place with odd number of castaways. The player ended up not being selected by any tribe will be automanically banished to exile by the host (Jeff Probst). The player will rejoin the game after the following tribal council, as a member of the tribe which lose a member at that tribal council. As not being on any tribe, they cannot vote or being voted out at that respective Tribal Council.

Banished players will be given a machete, a pot, and a piece of flint to fend for themselves. They will be reunited with their team in time before the next Immunity Challenge, through there are exceptions.

Development
The concept of Exile Island was first introduced in Palau, when a single contestant was made to stay alone on a beach as an added stipulation for being the first bail out from an Immunity Challenge (Last Gasp). Janu Tornell was the very first exiled castaway in Survivor history. The incident was only a one-time twist. The twist later became an official part of the game in Panama (even meriting a subtitle in the season's logo) and a number of subsequent seasons.

Strategy
There have been strategies and other factors that can be considered in banishing a player over the course of the series:
 * The winning tribe can send the same person over and over again so that only that person receives the clues of the hiding place of the Hidden Immunity Idol (also potentially branding him/her a threat).
 * The winning team may potentially weaken the other tribe by sending either their strongest or weakest member.
 * Sending the losing tribe's resident food provider to exile, ensuing probable hunger and weakness to the tribe.
 * To further isolate a tribe member from its tribe so that he/she can be an easy target.
 * In the event of a combined Reward/Immunity Challenge, the winning tribe will grant individual immunity to one member of the losing tribe in the form of banishment to Exile Island. If a player that was sent there after such incident, that exiled survivor is allowed to skip Tribal Council. Whoever they send to exile can further affect the voting strategies of the losing tribe before they head to Tribal Council. Additional aftereffects of such incident are:
 * A player is spared because he/she is a former ally, likely an old tribemate transferred to the other team due to a tribe swap.
 * They send their weakest member so that the stronger players turn on each other and further weaken the tribe.
 * They may also send random people so that the more strategic contestants are most likely to be voted out of the competition (more effective if they send the player's closest ally/ies).
 * Sending a person to Exile Island can be also a perfect revenge plan (as seen in Cook Islands, where Candice Woodcock was sent by the Aitutaki tribe to Exile Island several consecutive times in revenge for mutinying).
 * Sending the most likable person to exile can also cause demoralization of the tribe.
 * Sending an ally, or in extreme case, sending him/herself to exile to allow them to access clues of hidden immunity idol (as seen in Fiji, where Yau-Man Chan send himself to exile in order to access clues for the second hidden immunity idol for his ally Earl Cole (as Yau-Man already had one).

Exile Island and the Hidden Immunity Idol
See: Hidden Immunity Idol

Though players may feel alone and uneasy during their banishment, there is a silver lining about staying on the dreaded island - a clue to the whereabouts of a Hidden Immunity Idol that may or may not be hidden somewhere on Exile Island. But recently, Exile Island was merely reduced as a decoy; with players discovering that the Idol is hidden back at his/her tribe's camp (if the game is still in its inter-tribal phase, players can safely assume that there are two Idols, one hidden at each camp).



Survivor: Panama
On its debut episode, all sixteen castaways were sent to the island, with the host telling them about the twist. Immediately after the revelation, the castaways were immersed into their first Reward Challenge. The losing tribe, Bayoneta, would then leave one of their own on the island. After a harrowing game of rock-paper-scissors, Misty Giles was forced to stay there. After the incident, Jeff then revealed the existence of the Hidden Immunity Idol.

On Breakdown, the four tribes were integrated into two new ones. Bayoneta and Viveros were abolished, while Casaya and La Mina will house the fifteen remaining players. Bruce Kanegai was left alone due to the odd number of players. After being scared by Jeff Probst that he will be eliminated from the game, Bruce was relieved that he would instead receive free immunity, though he had to stay on Exile Island for the rest of the episode, but he will rejoin the game by joining the tribe that loses a member after the subsequent Tribal Council (under the premise that the tribes will still be even with seven members each).

From Crazy Fights, Snake Dinners through For Cod's Sake, Jeff announced that the tribe that wins a Reward Challenge would also get the power to banish any member of the rival tribe to Exile Island. During this time period, La Mina's Terry Deitz would obtain the Hidden Immunity Idol.

During Salvation and Desertion, the tribes competed in a combined Reward/Immunity challenge, where it was revealed that not only would they win reward and immunity, but the winning tribe would then pick one person from the losing team and send him/her to Exile Island, giving that person free immunity (the banished player would skip Tribal Council) and denying the other tribe members' right to eliminate the said contestant. Sally Schumann (La Mina's last female member) was sent there, thus forcing the existent all-male alliance to turn on each other. Schumann rejoined the game by immediately going to the Casaya campsite, in time for the merge. On An Emerging Plan, nobody was sent to Exile Island due to the merger.

On The Power of the Idol, the tribe was divided into three groups of three for their next Reward Challenge. In a Survivor first, the winning tribe would send two people, one member from both teams to Exile Island. Sally, Bruce, and Aras Baskauskas won the challenge, and chose Danielle DiLorenzo and Austin Carty to stay on Exile Island. From Fight for Your Life or Eat up until Bamboozled, the same rules applied, though only one person was exiled per episode. In a precarious sitation, Terry was left alone unallied. Not only was his La Mina Alliance wiped out by the Casaya Alliance, but he was sent to Exile Island numerous times (though he still had the Idol as consolation).

In Call the Whambulence!, the winner of the Reward Challenge, Aras, will decide who will join him on his reward, in which he chose Cirie Fields. On the other hand, Terry and Danielle were exiled together. By the end of the episode, Terry chose not to use the Idol, thus wasting its powers.

In the season finale, The Final Showdown, Exile Island was retired, though the final three castaways (Aras, Danielle, and Terry) would revisit the island for the Rites of Passage ritual to celebrate their fallen tribemates, after which they headed to the venue of their final Immunity Challenge.

Survivor: Cook Islands
Worked the same way as it did in Survivor: Exile Island, Yul Kwon found the immunity idol.

Survivor: Fiji
The Two Tribes merged on Exile Island.

Survivor: Micronesia

 * Two people, one from each tribe, would go to Exile Island and had the option of looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol together, or separately.

Survivor: Gabon

 * When a person is exiled, he or she can choose to get a clue to the Hidden Imunity Idol or to stay in a shack with a bowl of fruit.

Survivor: Tocantins

 * Similar to Survivor: Micronesia, two contestants (one from each tribe) would be sent to Exile Island where they would choose between two urns. One contained a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol and the Mutiny offer, while the second contained nothing.

Trivia

 * Coach Wade is the last and most recent survivor to be banished to Exile Island, since the twist has not been used since The Martyr Approach in Survivor: Tocantins
 * Sugar Kiper has the record for the most Exile Island visits with 5.
 * Bruce Kanegai was the first castaway to be banished to Exile Island but be given free Immunity due to not being picked in the Schoolyard Pick Tribe Dissolve during Survivor: Panama.
 * However, Sally Schumann was the first castaway to be banished to Exile Island and not return back to her tribe for Tribal Council, due to a twist during the Day 15 Immunity Challenge in Survivor: Panama.
 * Both Redemption Island and Exile Island were first used as a season-long twist in a season ending in a "2"
 * Ozzy Lusth, Candice Cody, and Aras Baskauskas are the only castaways to experience both Exile and Redemption Island.