An "Insider" Look at Survivor: Exile Island, Episode 11: Joy Mixed with Pain

I can’t tell you how happy I was when I saw Courtney taking that long walk away from Tribal Council. Until, of course, I realized that I’d have to recap her final speeches. Truly a fate worse than death.

Special thanks for Heathyr for filling in for me, doing her normal fantastic job. Why couldn’t I have chosen this week to be gone?

Bruce Feels Better: Whoah, this is unusual. Bruce gets his “Day After” clip after all! And I, for one, am happy! It sucked to see him taken out of the game (the second time in Survivor history it has happened, both times to one of my favorite players) and I’m glad he gets his say. Especially when I get to recap it.

Shane has had total culture shock, coming in from smoking three packs a day. Bruce doesn’t have much respect for people who smoke anyway, but he especially doesn’t like foul mouths, and Shane has the foulest mouth out there. He was the one Bruce wanted off first. But he came to be one of his favorite people out there. At first they didn’t talk much because Shane didn’t know how to interact with people. Once he got to know him, and found out why he blows off steam like he does, he started to respect Shane. He realized that Shane was a strong competitor, and if you didn’t watch him, he could go all the way. He’s not surprised that Terry and Shane are still in it.

After the reward, he just crawled to the shelter and tried to pass out. What he didn’t know was, after 12 days his colon was so impacted, he saw the x-rays, it looked like billiard balls all lined up all the way along his colon. Ouch. It expanded so that it cut off his urinary tract and trapped it. He hadn’t urinated in over 25 hours. It just kept expanding all across his abdomen. He felt like he was on fire, he couldn’t sit, he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t lay down.

He was lying in the shelter thinking, “please stop the pain.” And it kept doubling about every 15 minutes. It was the most excruciating pain in his life. He was bit by a rattlesnake and his leg felt like it was on fire for eight and a half days, he begged them to cut off his leg – this was worse. It was worse than being hit by the boulder, falling off the cliff, walking through the glass window, worse than getting hit by a car in Vienna, getting his head split open by a long board, almost drowning… all that combined did not match the pain of this. Either Bruce has had a very full life, or has the worst luck of anyone I’ve ever seen. Or is a huge klutz. Maybe all three.

Finally, when the medics came, it was pitch dark and he was screaming in pain. They wanted to give him an enema, but it was too unsanitary. It wouldn’t have worked anyway, because it was so impacted. It was a two-hour boat ride to the next boat, and he was screaming in pain. The waves were just crashing into them. They gave him some morphine, and it would wear off and the pain would just come right back. He couldn’t even cry, it hurt so much.

It was a five hour boat ride, total, and then he got to the hospital. The doctors at the San Fernando clinic were very good, very professional. He had an hour and a half enema, he says, laughing. I can’t summon the words to properly express myself here, but I’ll just say OUCH. It was non-stop – and that was just the first one!

It was about fourteen hours later when they took him to his room. He became sad. Indeed, he gets more and more upset as the clip goes on, ending in tears. He thought he let his teammates down, he let his family down. He trained for a year for this. It’s not fair. He’s tougher than this, but “some medical stupid reason,” not his mentality or physicality, knocked him out. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Courtney’s Final Words: She’s shocked. Her sisters turned on her, probably because they thought she was a threat to go to the final two (did she know she had no chance of winning?) She wishes she could have held on to the ropes longer, although she’s not sure she could have beaten Terry.

She’s still in shock, she had a great experience. She doesn’t resent them, because she was starting to team up with Terry against the rest of Casaya. That’s the way it goes. She’s short of words (hooray!) because she’s in shock. She was completely betrayed.

She wishes everyone the best of luck. Maybe she strategized too much, or was too open. She thought Danielle and Cirie were going to be on her side. She utterly shocked. She’s filled with acceptance (sounds like it) and it was an amazing experience. Too bad she didn’t have immunity today.

Courtney, the Day After: Only five minutes. You can do this, Mike. Bear down!

She is “nive” (I think she’s trying to say naive) and is not good at deception, which is bad, because the game is about deception toward the end. Deception is not a part of her soul. Except when she turns her back on Aras and aligns with Terry, of course.

Her goal was to expand and grow as a person. She wanted to play with integrity. Why can’t someone win the game with integrity. Because that’s NEVER happened before, has it, Ethan? She wants to contribute to the world in a positive way. Too bad THAT wasn’t a survey question, huh? “Who has contributed most to the tribe in a positive way?” At least that would have been one where the answer wouldn’t have been Courtney.