Survivor: Thailand, Episode 7 MVPs: One Big Happy Family

This week on Survivor, it seemed as though the tribes had merged and become one big happy family. The situation ended up being everything except that. Many players made a move this week, though, that will have serious consequences. Shii Ann, for example, has already seen the results. It was not the smartest thing to go right over to the Chuay Gahn camp and let loose all of your Sook Jai hatreds. That can be saved for later in the game, when there is some kind of alliance in place that would save her. But there were several tribe members who did reach for the stars this week, and that makes them MVPs. Since no merge was formally made, I have decided to examine each tribe, and pick an MVP from each one, as I have done in the past. Let's see who had their game on.

Chuay Gahn this week was very lucky. They have the home field advantage right now, and they need to use this to the best of their ability. I am curious at this point to see if both tribes are going to eat the same food and sleep under the same shelter. If not, Chuay Gahn needs to keep it secret as to where some food can be found. Once again, we have Jan this week being the crazy old coot that she is. I'm sorry, but I love this woman. She is so crazy, and reminds me of one of my grandparents. They both have a ray of sunshine around them that just makes you smile. Jan is so sensitive, and you could tell how happy she was when she thought the tribes were merging (although that could also be due to the fact that she is next to go in her tribe.) Clay, for one of the first times in the game, did not get on my nerves this episode. He did a great job getting information from Shii Ann as well. Helen and Ted were not big players this week, but still hung around and did their part. Brian, however, finally emerged from the shadows and had an outstanding, and at times intoxicated, three days. I am going to go with my first instinct and pick Brian as the MVP of Chuay Gahn this week.

When the tribes had come together, Brian was right there making the Sook Jai tribe feel at home at their new camp. As he said, he likes to play host, and he realized that having the home advantage will come into play. Sook Jai is now on his turf. Although he had gotten a little drunk that night at the celebration of "two tribes living at one camp," he was still on his game and was talking strategy with Ted by the water. I found this to be odd. I know that if I was drunk and on the island, I would probably be running around naked (oh, the stories I have), but Brian was still on top of his game, and I commend that. It just goes to show you how focused this guy is. He paid the price later when the wine started getting to him, and it was time to wake up. I know from experience that wine leaves you with a horrible headache in the morning, and I can only wonder how Brian felt without the aid of anything to make it go away. When the immunity challenge had begun we saw Brian getting right in there, securing the branches together with the rope provided. Not only that, but he was the first one to retrieve a key. Brian did a great job this week playing host to the new tribe, and was a key factor in the immunity challenge (so to speak). I think at this point he is right in the middle of his tribe, and is respected by everyone, especially Ted. For these reasons, Brian is an MVP this week.

Over on Sook Jai this week, it was much tougher to choose someone as an MVP. On one side, we have Shii Ann, who was trying to make a deal with Chuay Gahn to oust Penny. Then we have Penny, who did her best to make it seem that her tribe was unified, and that there were no interior cracks. For almost the whole episode, I was going to pick Penny for the tribe MVP because she did not make a big scene about Shii Ann flip-flopping sides, and tried to remain on everyone's good side. She seemed like an outcast though, along with Erin, who chose to remain on the beach while everyone else was having fun in the water. That showed that there was a bit of hesitation when it came to mingling with the other tribe.