Alain Merdel

Alain Merdel is a contestant from Koh-Lanta: Viêtnam.

Profile[]

Profile retrieved from tf1.fr^[1]

Passionné de chevaux et de taureaux, Alain, confiturier, vit dans un village gardois qu'il ne quitterait pour rien au monde: il est amoureux de sa région et ses traditions! Hyperactif, Alain est toujours à fond. Et sa force, il la puise aussi bien dans ses racines que dans sa famille! Père de trois enfants et grand-père depuis peu, le sensible Alain veut gagner Koh-Lanta pour lui et pour rendre fière sa famille!

Koh-Lanta[]

Before the contestants even got on the boat, Denis Brogniart informed them that they would have to immediately decide upon two among them to not join the rest on the boat. Believing that this was an elimination, Véronique Bègue and Boris Deltell sacrificed themselves for the other contestants. The other sixteen contestants said their goodbyes and got on the boat, which was headed to an island where they would be divided into two tribes the next day. When swimming to this island from the boat, Alain almost drowned, but Claude Dartois saved him and helped him get to the island. As the contestants trekked towards the north side of the island, Virginie Mercadal Pioli cut her upper eyelid by bumping into a branch. That night, Vivien Escouflaire and Alain found the island's watering hole and the sixteen contestants settled in for the night. The next day, they finished their trek and Denis Brogniart revealed that the two tribes would be divided by gender. Thus, Alain was assigned to the Do tribe and they immediately competed against the Vang tribe in their first Reward Challenge, which they lost. Upon arriving at their camp, they encountered Véronique, who had arrived there the day before by helicopter and who would be their sole female tribemate instead of being eliminated. Within the same hour, the Do tribe succeeded, in huge part thanks to Philippe Duron, in making fire. Meanwhile, Vivien seemed helpless throughout the day as he didn't contribute much around camp, he felt unwell due to fatigue and the heat, and he even got lost in the darkness when fetching water before the tribe went to sleep. The next day, the Do tribe won the first Immunity Challenge, earning them safety from Tribal Council.

The Do tribe won the second Reward Challenge and, in turn, selected Abdellah Akriche, Véronique, and Kunlé M'Babacéré Pakorona to purchase fruits for them from a Vietnamese market as part of the reward. Meanwhile, the remaining members of the Do tribe, with the exception of Vivien, resumed work on the shelter that they had started constructing the day before upon returning to camp. The next day, the Do tribe lost the second Immunity Challenge. Upon their victory, the Vang tribe was offered the right to exchange Boris for Véronique, however, they turned down this offer. Though Vivien knew that Tribal Council was looming and that he may be in danger, he remained withdrawn from doing camp chores. In spite of this, he woke up early the next morning and began to contribute more. At Tribal Council, Denis Brogniard commented that he had never seen a tribe as tight as the Do tribe before on Koh-Lanta. However, someone had to be eliminated and Vivien was voted out unanimously for his inactivity around camp and his weakness. The beginning of the next cycle worked out positively for the Do tribe as they won the third Reward Challenge, Blind Leading the Blind, against the Vang tribe and, in turn, won fishing equipment. Additionally, they were able to send Philippe and Jean-Pierre Pigato to go fishing for squid with some local fishermen. The next day, Claude, Philippe, and Kunlé formed an alliance and agreed to incorporate Alain and Jean-Pierre into the fold, with the common factor for the five being that they were the most active among their tribemates around camp, especially concerning the tribe's shelter.

When the two tribes arrived for the third Immunity Challenge, Denis Brogniart surprised them with a sudden tribe switch. With two tribes being formed with an equal number of men and women in each, Alain was selected by Jean-Pierre to be one of the four men of his tribe. Jennifer Lieutaud's tribe won the third Immunity Challenge and they were given the right to select which camp to return to. Without hesitation, they chose to return to the Do camp, making them the second Do tribe. Philippe, now one of the members of the second Vang tribe, was upset by this turn of events because he and his other three male tribemates were essentially forced to start fresh on a comparatively empty camp while relinquishing the results of their hard work to a mostly laidback second Do tribe. At the Vang camp, Virginie showed the tribe's new members around the camp and continued to work hyperactively. The newcomers were impressed with Virginie's work ethic, which seemed to juxtapose that of the majority of the original Vang tribe based on the state of the camp. The next morning, Alain was temporarily evacuated from the game due to a dizzy spell and was exempt from attending Tribal Council later that night. Meanwhile, the other men and Véronique planned to vote based on tribal lines, putting Aurélie Gasser, Virginie, and Marine Plissonneau on the chopping block since they were in the minority. Hoping that one or more of the men may flip to their side, the minority alliance voted against Véronique at Tribal Council for her challenge weakness. However, the majority alliance stayed strong and voted out Virginie who, in spite of her strong work ethic, they found difficult to talk to due to her hyperactivity. Unfortunately, the next day, the medics deemed that Alain needed more time to recover, which also meant that he would be permanently evacuated and eliminated from the game. His unorthodox elimination allowed for Virginie to return to the game in his place. On a positive note, Denis Brogniart returned to Alain a piece of bamboo that the latter had carved his family members' names in, but had left back at the Do camp.