Intrigue

20 of the most loved and most notorious players from the past nineteen seasons return to the South Pacific island of Samoa, some to seek revenge while others are looking for redemption. Some physical skirmishes at the reward challenge take their toll on the castaways.—Allister Coots

Welcome to the South Pacific, where many a score has been settled, for the 20th season of "Survivor," where it's "Heroes vs. Villains." Some of the most beloved and most notorious players in the show's history are back to compete for $1 million.

As helicopters brought the "Heroes" and "Villains" tribe to the location, we heard from some of the old favorites, including Rob who said the smartest thing any of the players could do was get rid of him, "but they won't -- they never do." Colby, who noted it's been nearly a decade since he first competed on the show, just wanted to see if he's "still got it."

Heroes: Colby, Stephenie, Tom, Amanda, Sugar, James, JT, Cirie, Rupert, and Candice.

Villains: Rob, Randy, Parvati, Tyson, Coach, Sandra, Courtney, Russell, Danielle, and Jerri.

As they approached, Rupert was getting into game mode, Coach talked about the energy surrounding him, and Russell tried to avoid being starstruck by the likes of Boston Rob and Parvati around him.

Jerri, who referred to herself as "the original villainness of 'Survivor,'" said she felt "like Mother Theresa" alongside some of the other villains. Tom was the first to talk strategy, saying no one would assume that everyone will stick to their "hero" or "villain" label in the game this time around.

Reward challenge: Just 14 minutes in, Jeff called out the first reward challenge. The reward was fire, and the challenge involved team members in pairs battling each other to dig a bag out of the sand and get it back to their mat while the opposing pair did everything they could stop them. The first team to score three times won. At one point during the first scuffle, Courtney shouted, "Break her shoulder." After the villains won the first duel, Stephenie came away with a dislocated shoulder.

After getting it popped back in (complete with a loud crack as a medic made the adjustment), Stephenie wondered aloud why the villains had to really act like jerks.

Next up, JT out-muscled and out-hustled Randy and Jerri to win a point for the Heroes. Tied, 1-1.

In the third round, Coach was getting dragged by Colby toward the Heroes' mat but turned the tables on Colby when he became tired. Coach quickly began pushing Colby toward the Villains' mat and eventually got close enough to score the point. Villains, 2-1.

In the fourth round, Sandra unsnapped Sugar's bra as they tussled for the bag, but Sugar let it (and them!) fly, picked up the bag and easily ran to her mat. Tied, 2-2.

In the fifth and final round, James fairly easily took possession of the bag and sidestepped Rob on his way to the mat for a third score, and the first reward challenge victory. Rupert came away with a broken toe. Injury count: Rupert's broken toe and Stephenie's dislocated shoulder.

Back to camp: The Villains began chatting each other up, while Russell talked about how he was going to be playing the "the mind game." He pulled Danielle aside and said he wanted to take her to the final two. Then he went to Parvati and said the same thing. She was on to him, but went along with him. Russell was out to prove he's the best player to ever play this game.

At the Heroes camp, spirits were high after the victory and they set out to build their shelter. Amanda talked about how "everything is going right" and "we have good karma." Tom spotted a rooster and some chickens. They grabbed a net and tossed it over the whole group, nabbing all four birds at once.

As night fell, the Villains joked about the Heroes' injuries, and Coach said he had mixed feelings about the challenge because he personally did well but the tribe lost. Jerri said she wanted to get to know Coach better. Coach said he was interested in Jerri, calling her "a different kind of girl."

The next morning, Russell told Coach not to step away from true love. Coach then admitted he was feeling a "connection" with Jerri, and the rest of the tribe saw romance blooming. When they got a moment alone, Jerri asked Coach to promise he'd let her know if she had anything to worry about. He told her not to worry about anything.

At Heroes camp, JT looked to align with James. In another corner, Colby told Candice to keep an eye on JT and James. They wondered about players who already have a history together. Meanwhile, Amanda and Cirie caught up and realized that they had to create some distance because people were going to be wondering about them working together. Stephenie and Tom, who played together in Palau, talked options. Tom told us he might want to sit next to another $1 million winner, and quickly started talking to JT. JT told us that people might mistakenly assume he's the same nice guy from Tocantins who stuck to his word, but that you must have a dark side to play this game.

At the Villains camp, Rob was annoyed that no one wanted to do anything like build a fire or build shelter. Randy told Rob to give up on trying to start a fire without flint. But Randy came around and helped Rob rub two sticks together and, lo and behold, fire. Rob later told us he's grown a lot since the last time he played the game. Coach started sucking up to Rob, and Russell got annoyed, telling us he was still the king of the mountain.

Rupert was struggling, unable to catch fish and unable to start a fire with the flint. He walked away and Colby was able to get some fire going. Rupert was worried that he wouldn't be able to keep himself in the game on a bum toe.

At Villains camp, Rob and Tyson were trying to climb a coconut tree to get to the fronds at the top. Rob decided not to go through with anything stupid, so he sent Coach up the tree. Rob watched with Sandra, and made a $1 bet as to whether Coach would make it or not. Coach bowed out before getting to the top, opting not to risk injury by falling, costing Rob a dollar.

Sugar spent the night looking for "a protector," stalking Colby in his sleep to the point of really getting on his nerves.

The Heroes wondered whether to eat the rooster or a chicken. JT took care of the rooster old school, breaking its neck and putting it in a pot of boiling water.

Immunity challenge: The Villains set out to make a point in the immunity challenge. Would they?

The tribes had to build a boat, get a torch, solve a puzzle, build a ladder and get to the top of a platform to light a torch and claim victory.

The Heroes took an early in assembling their boat and finished it first, heading out to get their torch before the Villains were done putting their boat together. The Heroes paddled strong back to shore with their torch while the Villains finally set out to retrieve their fire. The Heroes made it to the puzzle with a big lead.

The Heroes -- with Amanda, Cirie and Sugar doing the work -- fell apart while trying to put the puzzle together, giving up the lead to the Villains, who had Rob and Sandra doing the work. The Villains finished first and set out to build their ladder. The Villains climbed to the top of the platform and lit their fire to claim victory.

Sugar cried, "right on cue," as Jeff put it.

Colby said in a testimonial that if Sugar was breaking down on Day 3, she shouldn't be out there. "Losing her, we're going to miss..." he said, trailing off, before finishing with, "Yeah, I don't think we're gonna miss much."

Back at camp: The Villains were quite pleased with themselves after the win and settled in for a nice, relaxing evening. They were downright giddy, with Russell and Coach playing a makeshift seesaw and the rest of the group working to improve their shelter.

At Heroes camp, Rupert hoped the loss wouldn't hurt their momentum. Sugar, Cirie and JT chatted and Sugar said she thought "Amanda should just go." Cirie and JT said they agreed. She figured they should break up Amanda and James. JT went and talked to Colby about Sugar and he agreed. Most others seemed to agree to vote off Sugar, but Tom tossed out the option of voted out Cirie, because he perceived her as more of a threat than Sugar.

Cirie, Amanda and Candice wondered about taking out Tom or Stephenie.

Tribal Council: Jeff immediately asked Tom about prior relationships and how big of a factor they are. Tom said he thought everyone worried about it at first, but pushed it aside. Sugar thought previous experience was a factor, but there was no one on her tribe that she'd already known.

Jeff asked Amanda about previous success, given that she's been to the final twice. She said she made good alliances, but she hasn't won because she isn't good at Tribal Council. She pointed out that there were "people in this game that have won."

Stephenie said she was going to vote for the weakest player to keep the team as strong as possible in order to not have to come back to Tribal. Sugar said she was crying after the challenge because she was worried she'd go because she failed to put the puzzle together.

With Jeff saying "there's a legitimate reason to vote anyone out," the ballots were cast.

We saw no votes as they were written.

The vote: Four votes went for Sugar, before one came out for Amanda. Another two votes for Sugar made her the first person voted out of "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains."

Sugar's parting words: "I think they did probably make the right decision voting me off, because I am, I'd say, the weakest link, although I did give it my all. But I can't wait to get some clothes on."

The votes revealed: The vote was unanimous, with Sugar casting the one vote for Amanda.