Survivor: Exile Island, Episode 4 MVPs – Best Week Ever

In addition to my very busy schedule of reality TV watching, I’m a fan of VH1’s show Best Week Ever. Where else can you keep up on the latest celebrity gossip, a smidgen of current events, and pop culture fun all in one short half hour? As I reviewed this week’s episode of Survivor, I quickly decided who should get the MVP awards. But I also decided that a third player is having, as the show would put it, the best week ever!

Let’s start with the MVP award for Casaya. Once again, I’ve got to give it to Cirie, who is amassing quite the collection of trophies. Every week, she impresses me more, especially considering that I thought they were crazy to not vote her out the first week. Cirie is really playing smart right now. She knows she’s on the outside of a strong alliance, but she absolutely hasn’t given up hope. She knows that the four allied people are driving each other nuts, and she’s just waiting back to see when she can fill in one of the many, many cracks. Her plan, she said, is to work hard, keep her head down, and stay out of the drama.

It’s a good plan. These four people are having a really hard time getting along. Maybe they should have known each other for more than two seconds before deciding to form an alliance. I know, it’s a crazy idea. And to her credit, at this point I don’t think Cirie cares who she allies with as long as it’s somebody. That flexibility will serve her well. Her hard work is also going to help her a lot. It’s not hard to see that Shane and Aras are getting frustrated that all Danielle and Courtney want to do is stand around (Daneille) and do yoga (Courtney).

With little comment, Cirie helped Shane and Aras move the fire pit. She managed, just barely, to suppress her glee when Shane started giving Danielle a hard time about not helping. Danielle, in fact, only helped after Shane criticized her in front of everyone, and even then, she only had one shoe on. I don’t want to fixate on that detail too much, but if you’re not even wearing two shoes, it’s pretty obvious that you’re not planning on doing any real work. Shane asked Cirie if she thought Danielle was doing her fair share. Cirie berated herself in her interview for not keeping her mouth shut, but I thought she actually handled it very well. She planted seeds of dissention, but she didn’t make it obvious that was what she was doing.

Cirie has been on shaky ground since the second episode, but on Survivor, all you really have to do is hang on for one more week. The game can always change. She’s doing a great job of hanging on, and she’s doing her best to make sure things change. Well played, Cirie, and congratulations on the MVP award for Casaya.

Now let’s look at La Mina. The winner from this tribe is none other than Sally. She knew very well that her head was on the chopping block, just as Cirie suspects hers is. Things didn’t look good for Sally when Dan asked Ruth-Marie to join their alliance as a fifth person. But Sally didn’t give up. She made an effort to work hard around camp, but even more importantly, she did a great job at the challenges. She was the first to get a puzzle piece for the reward challenge. While Bobby, who is undoubtedly bigger and stronger than she is, struggled to get his piece into the frame, Sally deftly swam under the frame and braced herself against it to pull the piece in. It worked really well – so well that all of the other players used that same technique. She also did an amazing job in the immunity challenge. She and her partner Austin whipped across those balance beams. They probably would have won if Austin had poured the water faster. It was an impressive effort.

Back at camp, Sally didn’t make a whole lot of big speeches. She went to Terry, the decision-maker, and sold him on her worth in challenges. There was some dissention in the tribe, but ultimately, the majority of the tribe agreed that they could use Sally’s strength. Sally did exactly what she had to do to stay in the game, and for that, she wins this week’s MVP award for La Mina.

Cirie and Sally may have won MVP awards, but guess who’s have the best week ever? That’s right- Terry. He got sent to Exile Island, and his tribe pretty much fell apart immediately. No one knew what to do with themselves with him away, and no one seemed to resent his leadership one bit. They pretty much just counted the hours until he came back. It’s a risky place to be in the long-term, but for now, it puts Terry in a good position indeed.

Even better, while Terry was on Exile Island, he found the immunity idol. It didn’t even look like it was that hard for him to do- he followed the clues, and there it was. Terry now has an ace in the hole in case things get tough for him. I was actually surprised that they showed him finding the idol, since that will take a little drama out of tribal council. But that’s a complaint for me, not for Terry. Congratulations, Terry, on having the best week ever.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She can be reached with feedback or MVP nominations at Betsywasser@Gmail.com.

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