Ua is a tribe from Survivor 41. Their tribe color is green.
Due to poor tribal dynamics and a string of devastating Immunity Challenge losses, the Ua beach was a particularly treacherous environment, with its tribe members forced into a constant state of mistrust. The tribe was commandeered by its pair of surviving members, Ricard Foyé and Shan Smith, who tricked their tribemates into yielding the advantages they acquired before entering the merge.
Members[]
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Tribe History[]
Ua started the game in what would become uncharacteristic fashion by winning the first Reward Challenge. Unburdened by the need to slog through a physical or mental challenge to get flint, two of its members, Ricard Foyé and Shan Smith, formed an early bond with each other. The pair linked with Sara Wilson to form a triad. In the meantime, Shan sought out relationships with each of the other Ua members, but ultimately none would prove as fruitful as her bond with Ricard.
Ua failed to win the first Immunity Challenge and attended the Double Tribal Council on Day 3. As Sara and Shan were in charge of the puzzle, the tribe's attention was immediately turned onto them. However, as JD Robinson had previously attended the Summit on Day 2, suspicion was also cast on him when he failed to provide a convincing recount of his journey. In the end, Ricard and Shan sided with the majority and decided to let Sara go.
Ua would then win the next Immunity Challenge, providing them what would turn out to be their only reprieve from Tribal Council in the pre-merge. During this time, Brad Reese managed to find two Beware Advantages, including one Vote Steal that he received at the summit on Night 6. However, Brad's hyperactive gameplay led him to eavesdrop on a conversation between JD and Ricard, which Brad then relayed to Shan. As Ricard's number-one ally, Shan was alarmed by Brad's skittish behavior, but was placated when Brad shared information about his advantages with her.
When Ua lost the Day 7 Immunity Challenge, Ricard and Shan became the deciding votes. They made plans with Brad and Genie Chen, as well as another plan with JD based on Shan's existing connection with him. Shan valued Brad's loyalty, but worried that he would come to use his advantages against her. On the other hand, Shan lost trust in JD when he accidentally revealed the Extra Vote he had concealed from his tribe, and contemplated voting him out despite JD giving her the advantage as a show of trust. In the end, Ricard and Shan chose to side with JD, resulting in Brad's blindside and leaving Genie as the outcast on Ua.
Genie returned to camp furious by the blindside. Shan revealed Brad's advantage that he had hidden from Genie to placate her, upsetting JD in the process because of what he perceived to be a double standard. Shan then returned the Extra Vote to JD as promised. When the dust settled, Ua managed to place first in the following Reward Challenge, receiving a local survival expert to guide them on how to survive with what they had on the beach.
However, on Day 9, Ua would proceed to lose yet another Immunity Challenge; this loss was blamed on JD's overconfident but distracted performance at the ring toss. Ricard and Shan had to grapple with the possibility of Genie playing her Shot in the Dark. At the same time, they saw a need to neutralize the possibility of Genie and JD working together against them. Shan played up her paranoia in what proved to be a successful attempt to take JD's Extra Vote away from him. Ricard and Shan then aligned with Genie, resulting in JD's blindside that night. Shan managed to hold on to the Extra Vote.
On Day 10, Genie found the re-hidden Beware Advantage on Ua, and relayed this to Ricard and Shan. Ricard and Shan plotted to keep the advantage for themselves. First, Shan yielded her Extra Vote to Ricard to circumvent losing her vote in the event the advantage remained unactivated. Next, they hatched an elaborate lie to Genie that the advantage would remain where it was until after the Immunity Challenge. Finally, Ricard and Shan would activate the idol for themselves at that Immunity Challenge, which worked. Unfortunately, Ua lost that challenge and the tribe of three was soon to become a tribe of two. Worse, Shan was separated from her tribe for the whole afternoon when Yase sent her and Liana Wallace to the Summit, where Shan would protect her vote. At camp, Genie and Ricard played up the idea of working together to avoid a Shot in the Dark play, but each intended to work with Shan to eliminate the other.
When Shan returned, Ricard promised her that he would vote with her, but expressed a hesitance to return her Extra Vote until after Tribal Council as collateral against a blindside. Ricard and Shan bickered about the rightful ownership of the vote and what the argument revealed about their shaky relationship. Shan was also fearful that Genie and Ricard had indeed paired up against her in the afternoon. At Tribal Council, Shan was faced with a decision between staying with the loyalist in Genie or going forward with the strategist in Ricard. Ricard and Shan's relationship pulled through as they became the two survivors of Ua's decimation. Ricard ended up returning Shan her advantage, and the pair would enter the merge the next day on Day 12.
Merge[]
At the merge, Shan founded the All-Black Alliance, of which Ricard became a willing affiliate. The alliance controlled the majority, with the friction between Ricard and Shan mostly transferring to friction between Shan and Deshawn Radden based on strategic differences.
Though their working relationship continued into the early merge, Ricard eventually decided to turn on Shan on Day 19, blindsiding her with an idol in her pocket. Afterwards, Ricard was left with the biggest target on Viakana until he was eventually eliminated on Day 24, finishing in fifth place.
| Episode | Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out | Result | Eliminated (Vote) |
Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marooning | Reward | None | Won | Sara (4-1-1) |
2nd Voted Out Day 3 |
| Bonus Track | Immunity | None | Lost | |||
| 2 | Water Sports | Reward/Immunity | None | 2nd | Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Victory in the Bag | Reward/Immunity | Genie | Lost | Brad (3-1) |
4th Voted Out Day 7 |
| 4 | Running Down a Dream | Reward | None | 1st | JD (3-1) |
5th Voted Out Day 9 |
| Kenny Log-Ins | Immunity | None | Lost | |||
| 5 | Ramplified | Reward/Immunity | None | Lost | Genie (2-1) |
6th Voted Out Day 11 |
| Tribes Disbanded, Day 12 | ||||||
| Original Tribes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Voted Out |  Sara |
Tribe Immune |
 Brad |
 JD |
 Genie |
Tribes Disbanded | |
| Vote | 4-1-1 | — | 3-1 | 3-1 | 2-1 | ||
| ► | Ricard | Sara | — | Brad | JD | Genie | |
| ► | Shan | Sara | — | Brad | JD | Genie | |
| Genie | Ricard | — | JD | JD | Ricard | ||
| JD | Sara | — | Brad | Genie | |||
| Brad | Sara | — | None1 | ||||
| Sara | Brad | ||||||
| Notes: ^1 This castaway found the Beware Advantage containing the Hidden Immunity Idol, and until all of the Hidden Immunity Idols were found, they were barred from voting.
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- With two letters and two syllables, "Ua" is the shortest tribe name to date.
- Ua is the third starting tribe to go down to two players before the merge, following Ulong and Matsing.
- Ua is the only one of the three tribes to win a tribal Immunity Challenge.
- Ua is the first three-person tribe since Solarrion to vote off a member.
- Ua is the first green starting tribe and non-auxiliary tribe since Ta Keo.
- Ua is the first green starting tribe to not be involved in a tribe switch since Ogakor.
- On Day 9, after JD was voted out, Ua became the first tribe to have more LGBT members (Ricard and Genie) than not (Shan). It would be followed by Vati.
- According to post-show interviews, Lindsay Dolashewich was planned to be on Ua before she caught COVID-19 before flying to Fiji. She was initially replaced by alternate Tiffany Seely, before being switched with Shan to balance the tribes.[2]
References[]