Survivor: Pearl Islands, Episode 2 MVPs – Digging Deep

I don’t even know where to begin. There seemed to be so much shuffling around in this episode, it would take me forever to list everything. Actually, let me rephrase that: There was so much shuffling going on in the Morgan tribe that if I was to try and list everything, my head would probably spin. Ugh. Anyway, this week on Survivor we got to witness the Morgan tribe lose two more challenges. During the reward challenge, they were crushed, and Jeff made sure to mention that at Tribal Council. For the immunity challenge, they did pretty well, but still managed to be passed by Drake. When is this tribe going to get it together? As much as I want them to do well, I can’t seem to pity them either because they complain about everything. Let’s take a look at Drake first, and then I will get into Morgan, concerning MVPs.

Drake really has their act together. Besides the whole thing with Shawn losing the end of the fishing spear, they seemed to continue to be a very close knit tribe that knows how to live off the land. Although some of this can be attributed to the bartering they did last week to have so many supplies. Just like last week, I find myself looking at two people that could possibly be the MVP for the tribe. Like last week, I felt that Sandra did an amazing job. She did the right thing when going to pillage the other tribe’s camp site for the one item. Sandra went there, tried to be nice, and looked around for the water jug. When she couldn’t find one, she went right for the tarp. I don’t think that she was nasty when she asked for it, but I do think she was justified in the way she took it down, especially after the way the Morgan tribe treated her once she stated what she wanted. I mean, what did she have to choose from? It was either the tarp, that little water pan they use, or Lill’s Boy Scout uniform. It was definitely slim pickings. Just the fact that the Drake tribe chose Sandra to go shows that they trust her judgment. I’m going to give Sandra the honorable mention this week. She’s god spunk, and I love it.

As far as choosing an MVP for Drake, once again I’m going to choose Rupert. What can’t this guy do? In the beginning of the episode, we saw him tearing a tree apart as another tribe member had to climb up and hack it with a machete. Then, we are reminded once again about how good of a fisherman he is. I think it’s clear that he may well be carrying his tribe at this point. Not so much in the competitions, but when it comes to surviving off the land, I think Rupert is head and shoulders above the rest at this point. Besides that, everyone seems to like him. Even Shawn, who lost the end of the spear, seemed a little antsy when it happened because I don’t think he wanted to be frowned upon by Rupert. Rupert is the man, and definitely the MVP for the Drake tribe.

Poor Morgan. I really don’t even know what to say. It is hard to choose an MVP for this tribe and I actually had to ask other RNO writers what they thought about this episode, and if there even was an MVP for the Morgan tribe this episode. A few people threw out Andrew, but I think he’s a pretty crappy leader, for lack of a better term. He doesn’t seem to motivate the tribe and to me, it seems like he had already alienated Ryan S. and Lill. Although, alienating Skinny Ryan at this point didn’t really do him any harm. It could be argued that Lill could be the MVP. However, I really don’t think she did all the much this time around either. I was pretty impressed at how well she did during the challenges this week, but she did take a rather long time to unwrap the coordinates for the last part of the immunity challenge. Voting for Osten didn’t help either because if Morgan loses another challenge, you can bet that she will be the next to go. She was lucky that Skinny Ryan was weaker than she is and she got lucky when Nicole started running her mouth. That saved her twice. There won’t be another save unless Osten just packs up and leaves.

So you may be asking who is the MVP? Well, there is none. I’m not even sure if that has ever happened, but it has now. I just can’t seem to dig deep enough to find someone this week that I can peg as the MVP for the Morgan tribe. Granted, I had to dig pretty deep for one last week, but I did see some good traits in Osten. Well, whatever he had last week definitely faded into obscurity. I think he’s a good guy, but if he wasn’t sure how his body would handle it, I don’t think he should have even tried out. Any MVP status that he had last week is now gone, he really blew it. Thanks to all who emailed me saying that I probably made a mistake calling him an MVP, you were right.

There you have it folks. Rupert and nobody; they are your MVPs this week. I’m curious to see if Rupert can pull off a hat trick and walk away with the MVP for his tribe yet again next week. Oh please Morgan, do something spectacular, you’re definitely due for a big break. Hopefully a win in the reward challenge will raise some morale. I’ll be back next week to crown our next two (or maybe only one) MVPs.

Phil Kural is a senior at Temple University, and can be reached at pkural@temple.edu with any MVP suggestions.

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