Surviving The Early Show: The Final Four

The final four from Survivor: Exile Island all appeared on The Early Show Monday morning – with Aras there especially to pick up his million-dollar check and most likely to get another piece of advice to pay his taxes.

Aras is brought out alone first, and is chided by the host for not being excited enough. I suspect that’s because he probably hasn’t slept! He says it hasn’t sunk in and it’s hard to even fathom a million dollars since he lives with his dad and freeloads like he does. Heh. He and the host agree that his dad is probably as happy as he is!

Going into final Tribal Council, was he confident that he would beat her? He says he knew he had a chance, but he really had no idea. How were Courtney and Shane going to vote? Sally and Austin were question marks as well.

Did he push her too hard to take him? Terry was laid back about the decision, but Aras says he went with the hard sell and, looking back, he feels a little bad that he pressed so hard? Why? I wouldn’t! But he says you do what you gotta do when you’re out there and you can apologize later.

Aras and Terry had an incredible rivalry and sometimes, the host notes, she was surprised to hear some things come out of Aras’ mouth. After all, he teaches yoga and she figured he’d be all centered and everything. But Aras says he does not claim to be a yogi (hey, Boo Boo, let’s get us a pic-a-nic basket! Oh, sorry, wrong Yogi). He is competitive and wanted to beat Terry, and usually Terry beat him. One thing he learned was that an older guy like Terry could still whoop him pretty bad.

Where did the rival come from? Aras says they’re both really competitive and Terry was in a tough spot, not having the numbers on his side. And Aras was in a tough spot because he didn’t like getting beaten! But now they have a really great relationship. He’s honored to have been in a rivalry with Terry.

In the final immunity challenge, would he have jumped off the lily pad if he had known he wasn’t absolutely solid with Danielle? He says Danielle was going to beat him anyway. Had he known she was waffling, he would have tried harder, but the end result would have likely been the same.

At final Tribal Council, Shane took some pretty hard shots at both of them – the host wants to know why he was so angry. Uh, did she ever actually watch the show? Anyway, Aras says he got voted off and some people handle it well and some immaturely. He’ll let us decide which Shane did. Oooh, nice. But still, Shane is a pretty good guy.

What about the fall he took on the rocks? He says he never wears shoes on the rocks but he was that time, and he had a glass in his hand, so he doesn’t know what he was thinking. The host tries to imply the champagne had something to do with it, but he says they really didn’t even have a chance to drink much of it.

So he’s 24 years old and he’s about to get a check for a million bucks. But not yet! He’ll be back later.

Poof, just like that, we fast forward to Aras return, and he’s brought the rest of the final four with him as well. It’s raining in NYC, so the men are gallantly holding umbrellas for themselves and the women as they do their outdoor interviews. Julie Chen makes a smartass remark about how they shouldn’t be shivering if they are all Survivors.

Julie starts with Terry, saying she would have bet he was going to win. How surprised was he that Danielle didn’t pick him for the final two? He says it was a very difficult choice and he thinks she made the best one for her.

Was one of the reasons Danielle chose Aras because of the tough sell he’d given her about losing his vote and Cirie’s? Danielle essentially repeats what she told Jeff Probst at the reunion, saying she and Aras had burned some bridges together, while Terry didn’t have to vote anybody off and gained respect as things moved along. She felt she had a better shot with Aras, and she has no regrets. Either way, she figures she was destined to come in second.

Upon questioning, Aras acknowledges that he was really leaning on Danielle and was “super-manipulative” at the end, and he apologizes. But Danielle says hey, look what it got you!

Moving to Cirie, she agrees that her transformation was remarkable. She expected some kind of learning experience but had no idea how life-changing it would be for her. She’s off the couch and it’s been great. Oh, and she won a car!

Julie Chen says everybody who plays Survivor says it’s pretty much impossible to play with integrity. So, Terry, did Aras play with integrity and win? Terry says he played within his moral bounds and made choices according to situations that were in front of him, and Terry thinks he did a fine job. Danielle agrees, saying he played a pretty loyal game. Cirie says she loves Aras and thinks he played the game with “a whole lot of integrity.” He made some moves that he absolutely had to, he deserves the million and she’s happy for him.

How does Aras feel about the way he played? He says he came home and was really proud of himself. It’s difficult to not tell a lie. In 39 days, he told a couple, but he’s lied more to his mom since getting back in telling her that he didn’t get to the final two than he did to other people during his time in the game. He says it’s all a lesson. If you make a mistake, you get to see it on tape and learn from it.

What’s Aras going to do with his money? Wait, first they have to give him the check. They do so and make the obligatory comment about how he has to pay taxes. See, told ya. He says he started a company and he’ll invest in that. He points to the ridiculous-looking hat he’s wearing and gives a website for it, but I didn’t catch it. But he’s sticking with the yoga too.

With that, we say goodbye to the final four. But it won’t be goodbye for RealityNewsOnline, because we will have our own interviews with them – and I promise they will be better than the Early Show. So watch for those, and other articles, coming soon!

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

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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