Survivor: Exile Island, Episode 13 MVP – Quest For Fire

Oh, Mark Burnett, you diabolical genius! I can’t believe the last episode of Survivor ended on a cliffhanger. Now we fans will be counting the hours until Sunday night when we’ll find out who can make fire faster – Danielle or Cirie. I have my theory on what will happen, but first, we have some Most Valuable Player awards to give out.

As much as I love her, I can’t give the MVP award to Cirie this week. Once Aras won immunity, she ran out of options other than to do her darnedest to make fire at the tie breaker. She didn’t try to make deals with Danielle or Terry. It’s true, she didn’t have much to offer either of them. What’s she going to do, promise to take one of them to the final two? I think we all know that unless the challenge is “biggest non-fake boobs,” Cirie is not winning that last immunity challenge. She’s out of options, and I’ve got my fingers crossed for her, but sorry, Cirie – no MVP this week. Now go start that fire!

I am certainly not giving the MVP award to Terry this week. He ended his winning streak at the worst possible time, and his enemy Aras won immunity, thus thwarting his and Danielle’s plans. He really would have been smart to have given the hidden idol to Danielle. Everyone thought he had it, so nobody voted for him. His new ally Danielle would have been safe and Terry would have had an incredibly good shot at making it to the final two. But, as we’ve seen all season, he just didn’t have the guts to risk making a move with the idol.

And man, when did Terry become such a whiny little brat? He threw a fit when Cirie put her torch down somewhere other than a Terry approved place. When Aras won immunity, Aras gave Terry a “good game” pat on the back, which Terry did his best to ignore. But the absolute worst was his behavior at the reward challenge. Terry tattled to Jeff that Aras was looking at multiple stations. Terry, have you ever watched this show? Jeff is on it, baby. Nothing’s getting past my boy Probst, so do you really think he’s going to accidentally let Aras cheat? And then after Aras won, Terry demanded a judge’s ruling? Terry, you lost. And it wasn’t even an immunity challenge – just reward. Let it go, man.

And if you want to talk about following the rules, here’s one, from Wikipedia’s Survivor entry: “Except for the occasional challenges which involve wrestling or limited combat, any physical violence between players will result in immediate expulsion from the game.” I don’t recall Jeff saying that physical contact was acceptable, but I sure do remember Terry giving Aras a great big shove.

Then after he returned from Exile Island, Terry demanded an apology from Aras for the things Aras said to him after the reward challenge. It’s fine that Terry was upset, but he didn’t so much ask for an apology as he bullied his way into one. Really, through all of this, Terry seems to have missed the fact that he’s not just talking to Aras, somebody whose opinion he can dismiss because he’s only 24. He’s talking to Aras, someone who may well be on a jury to decide if Terry wins a million dollars. Not smart.

Danielle gets an honorable mention this week. Aras took Cirie to the reward, so it wasn’t hard for her to figure out that the two of them had a bond. Sure, she’s not president of the Terry Dietz Fan Club, but she was more than willing to work with him if it got her closer to the million. She worked out a great deal with him – if he won immunity at the challenge, he’d give her the hidden idol and they could get rid of the threatening Aras. Good plan.

Even better, when Aras screwed up that plan by winning, she tried to convince Terry to give her the idol anyway. It was a smart idea, and as I said before, Terry really should have done it. Everyone thought Terry had it, so no one would have voted for him. Danielle would have been saved. Good for her for coming up with the plan, and the only reason I didn’t give her the MVP award this week was that she couldn’t talk Terry into it.

That leaves Aras as this week’s Most Valuable Player. Terry has been a challenge-winning machine, and Aras really needed that immunity necklace this time around. He did a completely solid job on that immunity challenge and pulled through when he needed it most. Plus he got a cool reward! But beyond that, Aras, the one that Terry keeps deriding as being young and immature, was big enough to take the high road when Terry asked him to apologize. Aras was sincere and generous in apologizing to Terry. He also resisted what would have been a huge temptation for me to then ask Terry to apologize for being a bad sport. Unlike Terry, Aras sees that the end is in sight and knows better than to offend any potential jurors. So, well played, Aras, and enjoy the MVP.

Now, what’s going to happen on Sunday? Cirie and Danielle are battling in a quest for fire. It breaks my heart to say it, but Cirie is going to lose. All through this episode, she talked about how much she’s evolved, how content she is with her journey so far, and so on. That is what we, at Stately Wasser Manor, call LOSER TALK. You know that if you see a team on The Amazing Race say things like, “I really love my mom and am so proud of her,” that they are toast at the end of the episode. We saw far too much Loser Talk from Cirie this week, including her amazing and ironic new ability to make fire. I’m sad about it, but she is gone, daddy, gone.

That takes us to a final three of Terry, Aras, and Danielle. Danielle is a lock for the final two. Could Courtney have made it any more obvious how much she hates Danielle right now? You know Shane’s feeling the same way, so if you’re Terry or Aras, those are two jury votes in your favor right there. Who wins? Honestly, whoever’s sitting next to her. Terry has the easiest time of it- he’s got Sally and Austin in addition to Courtney and Shane, and that’s enough to win. Aras has Courtney and Shane, plus Cirie. If he can sway just one more juror- say Bruce- he’s got it in the bag.

Of course, I could be wrong. Like when I had it figured out that no way would Richard Hatch win, since everyone thought he was a big jerk. Same with Jenna in Amazon. But I feel good about this one and can’t wait to find out on Sunday night.

Help fill the time between now and Sunday’s finale by reading more Survivor articles right here on RNO!

• Surviving Exile Island, Episode 13: “I’m Not Here to Make Friends”
• Strategic Overview of Survivor, Episode 13: Told You So…

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She can be reached with any comments at Betsywasser@Gmail.com.

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