Survivor: Exile Island, Episode 3 MVPs: Thinking Seat

Things were tough for our castaways this week. Poor Bruce got sent to Exile Island again. As he pointed out, he has now spent more time by his lonesome on the island than he’s spent on any tribe. And to make matters worse, this time around it rained so hard he said he didn’t have time to look for the immunity idol. The Casaya tribe hasn’t had much to eat and is suffering from lack of protein. La Mina is having trouble catching anything but puffer fish. Add to this one of the most physical immunity challenges we’ve seen on the show, and it looks like whoever wins at the end will really have earned their million dollars.

During this tough episode, players from each tribe emerged as the Most Valuable Players. Let’s see who went the extra mile for each tribe.

Let’s start with Casaya. Man, would I hate being part of this tribe. The four people who have agreed to go all the way together are bickering like kids. Shane was incredibly obnoxious to Courtney when she asked for his help in fixing the pot, not that she handled the situation especially well. And Shane came across as an absolute lunatic when it came to his “thinking seat.” At first, I’m sure he was kidding about not allowing anyone to touch his stump, but then all of a sudden he was having an absolute tantrum about not wanting to share. Those mood swings are going to make him awfully hard to be around. Of course, you never know – it might work to his advantage. Wouldn’t Shane make a fantastic final two partner? Yeah, he’d be a nightmare in the meantime, but for a million bucks, I might be able to put up with him.

Bruce pretty well awarded himself the MVP of the Casaya tribe. He was indeed a breath of fresh air for the tribe. They were all pretty worn out when he joined the tribe, so they were more than happy to let him take over and do more around camp. Bobby mentioned before the reward challenge how much he appreciated Bruce’s positive attitude. That’s certainly true, but I think Bruce overplayed his hand. Shane resented his know it all attitude, and Courtney wasn’t sold on his t-shirt water filtration system. The tribe made a big mistake by revealing how important Bruce was to him, since La Mina took advantage of that knowledge and exiled him. Overall, I think Bruce’s performance this week was good, but not quite MVP worthy.

The Casaya player who really impressed me was Cirie. Her head is on the chopping block and she knows it, since the nutballs were helpful enough to tell her last week. She really needed to prove her worth to the tribe, and she did a great job of it this week. Cirie was outstanding in the immunity challenge. She really used her size to her advantage, throwing Misty like a rag doll. If the tribe thought of Cirie as a weak link, they absolutely shouldn’t have after that challenge. It was just the boost Cirie needed to hang on for a little while longer, should Casaya go to tribal council next. Well played, Cirie, and congratulations on your MVP award.

The politics at La Mina this week were interesting. Austin and Nick were stuck between two potential alliances- one with Dan and Terry and one with Sally and Misty. I really thought that if La Mina went to tribal council, the two younger men would put off making a decision between the two factions for a little while longer by voting out Ruth-Marie. That didn’t happen – Nick and Austin made their choice and aligned with Dan and Terry. That was some deft manuvering on the part of those two men. Of the two, Terry especially stood out this week. He caught a fish for the tribe, for one thing. Yes, it was small, but as Austin said, they were still thrilled to have it. Terry also did an outstanding job in the reward challenge, catching four balls himself and giving Nick an assist for another. Of course, Terry’s general awesomeness of fish catching and challenge dominance could end up biting him in the butt a few episodes from now when he’s deemed a threat, but until then, Terry gets the MVP award, and well earned.

That’s it for another round of MVP awards. Congratulations to Cirie and Terry for great play this week. I can’t wait to see who shines in the next episode. See you then.

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. Just as Shane refuses to share his thinking seat, Betsy refuses to share her Kermit the Frog coffee mug. She can be reached with MVP nominations at Betsywasser@Gmail.com.

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