Vuku (originally David) is a tribe from Survivor: David vs. Goliath. Their tribe color is orange.
The Davids are defined as underdogs in life, having to earn their laurels from the bottom up, as opposed to their rival Goliaths. This description thematically reflected the tribe's overall performance throughout the game, overcoming a numbers disadvantage during the tribe switch and merge phases by capitalizing on the cracks within the Goliath ranks, and opportunely using multiple game advantages. Eventually, the tribe produced the season's Sole Survivor.
Members[]
Tribe History[]
As the "David" Tribe[]
As the castaways entered the barge, it would seem the "David" tribe would struggle going up against the "Goliath" tribe, with most of its members appearing less athletic and physically strong. After learning the theme of the season, the tribes competed in a Reward Challenge where the Goliaths chose Christian Hubicki and Lyrsa Torres to run the challenge for the Davids and Alison Raybould and John Hennigan for the Goliaths. In turn, the Davids chose the obstacle courses both tribes will traverse through. Christian and Lyrsa chose the relatively easier courses for themselves, while assigning the harder ones for Allison and John. In the end, Christian and Lyrsa won for the Davids, earning pre-cut wood to build shelter with.
Tensions ran high early as soon as the tribe hit the beach, with Pat Cusack's bossiness over the construction of the shelter annoyed the tribe while Nick Wilson was caught unabashedly making alliances. The tribe however made amends in the evening.
In the season's first Immunity Challenge on Day 3, the Davids put up a valiant effort against the Goliaths, but was outmatched in the last portion of the challenge which required much physical effort. The Davids however would not make it to Tribal Council as the tribe had a freak accident on their way back to camp. Their speedboat hit rough waters which severely injured Pat's back. Upon seeing that Pat, the burliest man on the tribe, writhing in pain, the medics decided to pull him from the game. Jeff Probst called off the Tribal Council and gave the David tribe their flint. With their strongest member gone, the Davids returned to camp dispirited.
The next few days saw different bonds between the Davids as Christian began bonding with Gabby and Nick, forming the Mason-Dixon alliance with the latter, Lyrsa befriended Elizabeth, and Carl made bonds with Davie, who found a Hidden Immunity Idol. Carl wanted to keep the Davids strong and began targeting Lyrsa, but Elizabeth warned the latter of the plans. The Davids would lose their second Immunity Challenge, and had to go to Tribal Council for real this time. The majority alliance decided to keep to the plan and vote Lyrsa off, but Gabby began to doubt her place in the alliance, especially when Bi and Jessica brushed off her attempts to talk. So, Gabby sided with Lyrsa and Elizabeth, and planned to vote off Jessica instead. As Christian and Nick were the swing votes for both alliances, they debated who they trusted more. In the end, the Mason-Dixon alliance joined the three outsiders in blindsiding Jessica 5-4, taking the other three off their guard.
The results of Jessica's blindside led to Bi targeting Gabby for orchestrating it, but the Davids would not need to worry about another Tribal Council as they won the third Immunity Challenge, along with some comfort items. Unfortunately, this victory came with a cost. During the challenge, Bi sprained her MCL during the rope portion of the challenge, but was cleared by the medical team to continue. However, after much debating, Bi made a public announcement on Day 10 that she was leaving the game, not wanting to risk injuring herself more and putting her athletic career in jeopardy. This left the Davids in a 7-9 disadvantage against the Goliaths.
As the Vuku Tribe[]
Immediately after Bi's departure, both tribes were swapped with a third tribe, Tiva, being created in the process. Now renamed Vuku, the tribe consisted of former David members Davie and Elizabeth, and former Goliath members Alec, Kara, and Natalia. The 2-3 against the former Davids put them in a tough spot, so they tried forming bonds with some of the Goliaths to see if one would flip. After losing their first Immunity Challenge as a new tribe, the three Goliaths banded together and agreed to vote one of the Davids. However, Davie's attempts to try and protect himself over Elizabeth caused Natalia to grow paranoid and rude to her tribemates, disgusting Alec. At Tribal Council, Alec flipped on his old Goliath alliance and joined the two Davids in blindsiding Natalia 3-1-1. As Natalia stormed off in anger, Carl, who was exiled for not receiving a buff during the tribe switch, joined Vuku as their newest member, giving the Davids a 3-2 advantage over Alec and Kara.
Now on the minority, Kara feared she would be going next, but that never happened as Vuku came in first in the next Reward and Immunity Challenges. Although they would lose the next Reward Challenge, they came in second at the following Immunity Challenge just behind Tiva. On Day 18, Vuku moved to the old Tiva camp for the merge.
| Episode | Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out | Result | Eliminated (Vote) |
Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open | Reward | Bi, Carl, Davie, Elizabeth, Gabby, Jessica, Nick, Pat |
Won | Pat (no vote)1 |
Evacuated Day 3 |
| Matchbox 25 | Immunity | None | Lost | |||
| 2 | Another Brick in the Wall | Reward/Immunity | None | Lost | Jessica (5-4) |
1st Voted Out Day 6 |
| 3 | Tangled Up in Blue | Reward/Immunity | None | Won | Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Bi (no vote) |
Quit Day 10 | ||||
| Tribes Expanded, Day 10 | ||||||
| 4 | Blind Barrow | Reward/Immunity | None | Lost | Natalia (3-1-1)2 |
3rd Voted Out Day 11 |
| 5 | Ball-istic Missiles | Reward | None | 1st | Tribe Immune | |
| A Bridge You Must Cross | Immunity | None | 1st | |||
| 6 | Carry On | Reward | Kara | Lost | Tribe Immune | |
| Dishwalla | Immunity | Elizabeth | 2nd | |||
| Tribes Merged, Day 18 | ||||||
| Notes: ^1 Pat was evacuated from the game due to a freak accident on the tribe's boat escort back to camp after the Immunity Challenge. The scheduled Tribal Council was called off.
^2 Due to the odd number of players at the time of the tribe switch, Carl, the odd person out, was sent to Exile Island, and rejoined the game as a member of Vuku, replacing Natalia and evening the tribes at 5-5-5. | ||||||
| Original Tribes | Expanded Tribes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||
| Voted Out |  Pat |
 Jessica |
Tribe Immune |
 Bi |
 Natalia |
Tribe Immune |
Tribe Immune |
Tribes Merged | |
| Vote | No vote1 | 5-4 | — | No vote2 | 3-1-1 | — | — | ||
| ►► | Nick | — | Lyrsa | — | — | On Jabeni | |||
| ►► | Kara | On Goliath | Davie | — | — | ||||
| ►► | Davie | — | Lyrsa | — | — | Natalia | — | — | |
| ►► | Christian | — | Jessica | — | — | On Tiva | |||
| ►► | Gabby | — | Jessica | — | — | On Tiva | |||
| ►► | Carl | — | Lyrsa | — | — | Exiled3 | — | — | |
| ►► | Alec | On Goliath | Natalia | — | — | ||||
| ►► | Elizabeth | — | Jessica | — | — | Natalia | — | — | |
| ► | Lyrsa | — | Jessica | — | — | On Jabeni | |||
| ► | Natalia | On Goliath | Elizabeth | ||||||
| Bi | — | Lyrsa | — | Quit | |||||
| Jessica | — | Lyrsa | |||||||
| Pat | Evacuated | ||||||||
| Notes: ^1 Pat was evacuated from the game due to a freak accident on the tribe's boat escort back to camp after the Immunity Challenge. The scheduled Tribal Council was called off.
^2 Bi opted to leave the game due to a torn MCL she had from the previous Immunity Challenge. ^3 The odd player out from the tribe switch, Carl, was sent to Exile Island for the whole round and rejoined the game as a member of the tribe that lost the Immunity Challenge. Vuku received Carl to replace the player it voted out (Natalia) to even the three tribes at 5-5-5. | |||||||||
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- David/Vuku's camp was previously used as the camp site for Ikabula in Millennials vs. Gen X, Nuku in Game Changers, Levu in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, and Yanuya in Ghost Island.
- David is the only tribe to have an evacuee and a quitter.
- David is the first tribe to have a Tribal Council be cancelled after losing an Immunity Challenge. It would be followed by Tika and Yanu.
References[]