Survivor: Cook Islands, Episode 2 MVP – I Love You

There sure was some great comedy on TV Thursday night. The premieres of The Office and My Name is Earl were great, but I think I laughed the longest and hardest when Billy declared at tribal council that he was playing for a greater prize, the love of Candice. Of course, it wasn’t exactly an MVP moment for poor Billy. Not only did he wind up embarrassed, but also voted out. Who did play better? Why that would be this week’s MVPs, of course!

Let’s start with Aitu, Billy’s tribe. In the beginning of the episode, Aitu was pretty much rocking things. They caught all kinds of fish and had a major feast. Then they successfully trapped a chicken. Things seemed really comfortable and almost civilized. Ozzy was looking like a major contender for the MVP, thanks to his prowess at getting food for the tribe. But then the tribe made what, in my opinion, is never a good decision. They opted to throw the challenge.

I’ll be the first to say that if Billy were on my tribe, he’d annoy the heck out of me. Everybody else is working, and he’s just relaxing and eating the food I just worked so hard to get? I’d be ready to get rid of him. But you just can’t go wrong with numbers on your side. You never know when the game might change and when it might be best to have numbers on your side. Besides, if Billy was so bad that they’d lose challenges because of him, well, then they’d go to tribal council and vote him out, no drama.

So, who handled this situation the best? I can’t congratulate Cristina and Cecilia on this one, because they went along with the bad idea to throw the challenge. As for Ozzy, the whole thing nearly blew up in his face, with Cristina seeming to consider Billy’s suggestion that they vote him out instead. No, the person who gets the MVP award for Aitu this week is J.P. J.P. was the one who initially brought up the idea of throwing the challenge, but Ozzy took all of the heat for it. I don’t know how he pulled that off, but he positioned himself pretty comfortably in the whole mess. Kind of by default, Aitu’s MVP is J.P. this week.

Over on Hiki, Rebecca scored some major points by finally starting a fire. She succeeded where Nate failed, and I’m sure the tribe was grateful for finally being able to drink water. Dehydration can really kick your butt in challenges, so this should really help Hiki in the future. Nicely done, Rebecca.

As for Raro, we’re seeing a classic Survivor conflict: the lazy people clashing with the ones who want to work. Jonathan probably misfired when he came back from Exile Island and immediately had everyone get to work on the shelter. I too would have been pretty disappointed to see no work had been done while I was away, but he should have waited to see which way the wind was blowing. Adam was completely inappropriate when he tried to set up a debate about whether or not to build the shelter. Candice was the only one who handled the conflict at all well. She’s already aligned herself with Adam, and she was smart to take him aside and tell him not to make enemies. Let’s hope he listens to her. Until then, well done, Candice, on both winning the MVP award and Billy’s heart!

It’s pretty easy to choose the MVP for Puka. Yul was amazing this week. The tribe’s successful chicken trap seems to have been his brainchild. He made an alliance with Becky. And he performed extremely well in the challenge. He performed so well, in fact, that Aitu pegged him as the strongest member of the tribe and sent him to Exile Island to weaken him. Too bad it takes more than that to weaken Yul. Yul went to Exile Island and, with just two clues, promptly found the hidden immunity idol. Impressive! You may recall that last week I didn’t give an MVP award to anyone on Puka. Well, this week, Yul can go ahead and take two of them. He was just that awesome. I look forward to seeing how he uses the idol.

All four MVP winners this week did slightly different things. J.P. played the political game best. Rebecca helped make life a lot more comfortable for her tribe. Candice did her best to keep relationships strong. And Yul was just all-around amazing. I look forward to seeing what our MVPs do next.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Cook Islands articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online and loves each and every one of her readers. You can declare your love for Betsy at Betsywasser@Gmail.com.

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