Survivor: Vanuatu, Episode 2 MVPs: Respect Your Elders

I’m willing to bet that this week, if Survivor: Amazon contestant Christie was watching, she was screaming at her TV when Dolly wandered around her camp talking about how she was a swing vote and hadn’t decided what to do. Christie knows better than anyone the folly of that move, right? Dolly might have thought that, as a swing vote, she was the MVP for her tribe, but she learned at tribal council that wasn’t the case. But two players did prove themselves to be valuable to their tribes. Let’s give those lucky players the MVP awards, shall we?

Let’s start with Lopevi. As far as I’m concerned, there was one man who was by far the Most Valuable Player in his tribe – Sarge. Once again, the drill sergeant really made an impact on his tribe. He was an excellent choice as the “eyes” for the immunity challenge. He has a good, loud, strong voice, and gave very clear directions to the rest of the team. And when Rory made his job more difficult, he shut him down without hesitation. Thanks to Sarge’s leadership in that challenge, Lopevi won its first challenge. My only concern for Sarge would be that he might shine a little too brightly. If he emerges as the leader of the Lopevi tribe, he’ll be a target, either now, or right after the merge. But for now, he enjoys another MVP award.

On Friday morning, RNO Editor David Bloomberg emailed me with his nomination for MVP for the Yasur tribe. David encouraged me to give the MVP award to Ami, for good reason. Towards the beginning of the episode, she told us that the tribes were divided between the younger women – Mia, Eliza, Dolly, Julie, and Lisa – and the older women – South, Twila, Leann, and Ami herself. Ami undoubtedly did the math like the rest of us and saw that meant 5 younger women against 4 older women and bad news for Ami’s alliance. But Ami saw a way to solve her problem. She got Leann and Eliza together, told them that both of their heads were on the chopping block, and thus got Eliza to vote with them against Dolly. She created a majority alliance for the burly girls and got rid of the unpredictable Dolly. It was a smart move… but I’m not going to give Ami the MVP this week. I’ll happily hand her an honorable mention, but I think another player deserves the big award even more this week.

That player was Twila. Last week, I thought Twila was doomed for sure. She worked far more than most of the other players on the tribe, which set her apart. And her personality – at least from what we’ve seen in interviews – can be a little abrasive thanks to the blunt way she has of talking. And it turns out that my perceptions of that situation were right. Dolly told Twila that the bowheads were planning on voting her out first. But they determined that Twila’s work ethic made her so valuable to the tribe that they couldn’t possibly get rid of her yet. Yep, that’s right – valuable. The fact that Twila was talking to Dolly about the game also shows that she’s a canny player. Like Ami, she knew that the burly girls didn’t have enough votes on their side, so she was looking for a weakness. Dolly, by flip-flopping, showed that she was indeed a weak ally to the bowheads.

What’s more, in the beginning of the episode, Dolly started crying because the stress of living in camp was getting to her. Twila hugged and comforted her even though she later told the camera that she thought Dolly was being a wimp. Twila showed some diplomacy at tribal council as well. Jeff asked her who was doing the most work around camp. We’ve often seen players make the mistake of answering that question a little too honestly, causing resentment from the other players. But Twila played that one just right, acknowledging some of the hardest workers, but saying that everyone contributed in her own way. Twila is playing the game smart, and has shown that last week, she was the MVP of the Yasur tribe.

With the two tribes divided for the moment between older and younger players, so far the older players have been walking away with the MVP awards. Will any of the young men or bowheads rise to the occasion? We’ll find out soon!

Betsy is the Associate Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Survivor articles about Episode 2 that have already been posted:

• Surviving Vanuatu, Episode 2: Monkey in the Middle
• Strategic Overview of Survivor, Episode 2: Dolly Madness!
• Survivor: Vanuatu – Goodbye, Dolly, Was Your Ouster Folly?
• Survivor: Vanuatu – Why Dolly Lost
• Survivor: Vanuatu: Advice for the Remaining 16

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