I Love Her, I Love Her, I Love Her – Yes, I Mean Eliza!

Over past seasons, I’ve always come to have my favorites on Survivor. Some of those include Kelly from Borneo, Jan from Thailand, Dave from the Amazon, and Lil from the Pearl Islands. This season, it’s Eliza. Say what you want – I like her. Yes, sometimes she has panicked, but it has served her well! In fact, I want Eliza to be the winner of this season.

I love when people say “I hate Eliza!” Do you know her? Why do you hate her? Seriously, she has been pretty smart thus far. If you had your back against the wall, you would probably do the same things she has done. If anything, she has done exactly what this show wants you to do – survive!

This season, Eliza could have gone the second week. Dolly was flip-flopping on the issue of whom she was going to vote for, and Eliza knew that. Instead of just hoping that Dolly would side with her, Eliza took the initiative to side with the “older women” and take out Dolly. That was one of the smartest things I’ve ever seen done. The funniest part about the whole thing was that the younger girls bonded back with her right after it happened, and accepted her back to their side.

When Mia was voted out, Eliza voted to keep her around. Yeah, she made the wrong decision, but once again, after all was said and done, Eliza was still in a safe position. How many other people could pull that off? How many times did it seem like Eliza was getting the boot, and how many times did she wriggle her way out of that? I’ve never seen someone so versatile.

The merge is when I really started to like Eliza. We have all known people who don’t get along with others yet still act civil in a way to them. That is what Eliza did. She has had issues with Twila, Scout, Ami, and in a way, Leann. Instead of fighting with them, she has sided with them all on numerous occasions to vote out those who have targeted her. Yet you are going to tell me that she is not a smart player? I don’t get it! Maybe she is desperate, maybe she is lucky. I don’t really care. She has done what it takes to stay in the game. I would probably do the same thing. This girl has been very resourceful, and I hate when people won’t give credit where credit is due.

There really isn’t a whole lot left to say, but the one thing that I will say is that I hope Eliza wins. Of all the people this season, she is the one person who has used her head to think what would work in her best interest. She deserves to win the million dollars. Maybe she hasn’t had the most allies this season, and maybe she has gotten on some nerves, but I don’t really think that matters. What I do think matters is the fact that she is still there, and she is in the final four. I hope Eliza wins Survivor: Vanuatu, and shows that sometimes being paranoid and being skeptical is the best strategy. If she doesn’t pull it off – I won’t be mad, but I will be disappointed.

Finally, if Eliza doesn’t win, who do I hope does? Well, I guess that would be Chris. You have to admit, he has flip-flopped with the women to earn a place in the finals. It’s all the way for Eliza for me though. I hope her strategy works out in the end, and she proves that she deserves to win the money. I’ll be cheering for her here!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Survivor: Vanuatu Episode 13 articles:

Phil Kural is a recent graduate from Temple University, with a degree in journalism. You can reach him at pkural@gmail.com with any feedback that you may have.

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