Survivor: Vanuatu Episode 8 MVP: Ladies’ Night

I have to say, I was just as surprised as Chad obviously was at the outcome of tribal council. Twila and Julie really had me convinced that they were going to stick with the men of Lopevi. Since the two of them provided the swing votes that made tribal council shake down the way it did, I think the MVP award this week should definitely go to one of them. Of the two of them, I think Twila was the MVP this week. Want to know why? Well keep reading, my friends.

Things could have been pretty shaky for Twila this time around. When her tribe met up with the Yasur tribe at the reward challenge, Scout made it very obvious that Twila was a close friend of hers and that she was thrilled to see Twila still in the game. When Scout started talking, I’m sure Twila was shaking under her cowboy hat. She was worried, as anyone would be, that the men in her Lopevi alliance (Sarge, Chris, and Chad) would think that she’d jump ship to rejoin the women as soon as the merge happened. But apparently, Twila made quite an impression with the guys in her time there – Chad said he wasn’t worried because Twila was too loyal to leave them. Apparently it never occurred to him that Twila might be so loyal that she’d stick with the women in her original tribe. That is a testament to how well Twila is playing the game so far.

Once the tribes merged, Twila still left no doubt with the Lopevi guys as to where her loyalties were. In the immunity challenge, she cheered Chris on. On the other hand, Julie seemed more than happy to be back with her old Yasur friends, letting Eliza pluck her eyebrows (and how she did that apparently with just her hands is a mystery to me) and kicking back while Ami painted elaborate designs on her torso. The men were worried about getting Julie away from Ami, but they never worried about Twila. Twila played things much cooler.

Twila (along with Julie) further made the men confident she’d stick with them by talking to them about the upcoming vote. The two women said that they wanted to vote out Rory first, then Ami. I believe that at that point, Twila and Julie hadn’t decided who they wanted to ally with and were feeling out their options. If the guys had said, “Sure, we’ll get rid of Rory first if you want to,” Twila and Julie would have felt more confident that the men wouldn’t stick with their own original alliance and vote out the two women once the other women were gone. Chad may have sealed his fate by telling them that they needed to hang on to Rory for a while longer. And Chris showed that he was completely snowed by saying that he thought Twila was just nervous and needed to be told whom to vote for.

Twila knew how to strategize. She successfully worked both sides of the alliance, kept the men from doubting her, and is now sitting pretty. For some very smart play, Twila deserves the MVP award this week.

Next week, I think Sarge will be scrambling to win immunity, since as both a physically strong player and a leader, he is a major threat to the women’s alliance. I’m not sure if the all-female alliance will last for long enough to vote out Sarge, Chris, and Chad, but it would be very interesting indeed if it did. We’ve seen an all female final three (in Survivor: Marquesas), but never an all female final four. I wonder if these women can pull it off. I’ll be watching!

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

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