An "Insider" Look at Survivor: Exile Island, Episode 12: Lots of Love

This is going to shock a lot of people, but I love Cirie. Not only did she bring her husband back to camp and make him work, she made him like it! It made good sense, because he’s strong and still has his energy, but it was still funny with Cirie and Aras sitting around like Boston Rob and Sean watching him work. Let’s hope Aras was able to make himself scarce for a little while.

Secondly, and I hate to say this as a positive, but I have never seen a better liar than Cirie. She looked Shane dead in the eye and told him he was safe. He didn’t have a clue, and if not for last episode, neither would we.

Shane’s Final Words: He got duped. Cirie swore on her children and Aras swore, and he took the bait. It’s an amazing experience, he’s disappointed in himself that he didn’t win. He thinks his performance is a portrait of how a man loves his son. Well, part of it, maybe. We’ll chalk up the rest to nicotine.

He was surprised. He thought they were locked in. He doesn’t know when they decided to cut him loose (when they didn’t tell you about last week’s vote, maybe?), but he’s proud that he played the game with integrity. He never lied to anyone, and he says maybe that’s why he’s in fifth! He thought he was in, he was wrong.

He’s proud of himself, even though he’s disappointed that he didn’t win. But Shane Powers had to go through a lot of things to exist in this game. Yeah, yeah, so did everyone else. He felt he had a nice little groove. He’s proud of himself for a bunch of reasons that he never thought he’d be proud of himself for. It’s the toughest thing he’s ever done, blah blah.

His arc in this game had a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning was his 20-year cigarette addiction, and starving. The middle was acceptance of his situation and fitting into the groove. The end just happened.

The two memories that will stick with him are getting to go to the fishing village for the BBQ, and of course having time with Boston. It’s the single greatest thing that happened. It will be fun for them to watch the show together. They’ll be home and do a lot of things soon. He tells Boston that he’s proud of himself, and he loves him.

If he were to go out, this is the time. There have been a lot of people he’s been mean to, and short with under duress. He needs to just sit with them and apologize, let them understand that, as a man, that’s not who he is. He hasn’t been in control for the last thirty days. He’s going to leave there and have a cigarette and a coffee. At least he’ll be able to make that decision himself, as an adult. That’s what’s going to feel really great.

He’s always knows what is most important to him. Survivor didn’t “shake anything out,” but he did learn a lot about himself.

Shane, the Day After: Which is the clip of Bruce from last week. I swear, lobotomized chimpanzees could do a better job with this stuff than CBS.com.

This is such a joke.

Second Chance: Reward challenge. I went and did the dishes during the challenge itself, knowing full well who was winning.

Since they don’t mention it in the other clips, I want to address Aras’ whining about only getting a hug from his mom. During the challenge, my fiancée and I agreed that the couples would automatically get first dibs. In fact, I would have invited Cirie and her husband back to the villa and send Shane and Boston back to camp, because the experience would probably have been cool for Boston.

When they were arguing back at camp about Terry not understanding that Aras and Danielle wanted to see their mothers too, I was in the process of saying, “when you have a wife, you’ll understand” seconds before Terry did. Because I’ve been on both sides. I don’t care who brought it up. Terry was acting smug, but Aras was bring what he’s been for a while – a sore loser. Remember when he was a bad winner?

Besides, Aras. You could have seen your mother. Next time, win the challenge.

Loved Ones: The loved ones come out, Terry chooses who spends time with who, and lot of tears result. It was all in the episode.

Danielle’s Vacation: This file is not found. Fine, I really didn’t want to see Danielle anyway. Supposedly she turns her time on Exile Island into a mini-vacation.

Kiss, Kiss, Eat, Eat: Terry and his wife Trish, along with Shane and Boston, arrive at the villa. Shane says that Boston loves pizza and offered to let Shane have it all. Shane cries and says that’s what he’s missing by being away.

Softer Side of Shane: At the villa, Shane is teary about knowing that Boston is nearby. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Boston says that the only thing that could go wrong is if one of his alliance-mates turns on him. But he trusts his dad’s judgement.

More Competitive than Terry?: The morning at the villa, Terry continues the conversation they had in the episode about joining forces with Shane. Shane says it’s a no-brainer because he’s sworn on Boston’s life.

After breakfast, Trisha tells Terry that Shane thinks he has five votes locked up. So she tells Terry that he has to “pull it out of your butt” and make them realize that he deserves to win. Because Terry does and Shane doesn’t. She says she’s the most competitive person, next to Terry. It was a great visit, but it was business. Well, not ALL business. She tells Terry that if he doesn’t win, she’ll be pissed.

Shane says the reward was unbelievable. They’ll never forget it. He’s more focused on the prize, and realizes why he came. He thinks if he and Terry were in the finals, he wins.

This is all nice, but did ANYTHING ELSE HAPPEN this episode? Geez.

Perch: The immunity challenge. I still can’t figure out how Shane was pouring water in the wrong hole. Or where said hole WAS.

Gitanos Smoke Shane: No, I didn’t write that, they did. Maybe if they worried about making sure their site worked rather than coming up with cute names, they wouldn’t be bigger jokes than any “clever” title.

Did they do the right thing? Really, they had no other choice. But what’s really odd about this episode is I actually started to like Shane a little bit. Maybe it was just that we finally saw him act like a human being for a change.

Aras votes for Shane: “Sorry, brother. You backstabbed me, dude, and I found out. Maybe we’ll get a coke afterwards.” Didn’t… ah, nevermind. It’s Aras, I don’t care.

Shane votes for Danielle: “Okay, I meant this week. This week.” Must have been a reference to the vote we DIDN’T SEE because CBS.com is run by morons.

Danielle votes for Shane: No comment, and she looks like she wants to puke.

Terry votes for Aras: “How many time do I have to say this – you’re still the number one threat.” Well, seeing as he can’t beat you, no matter how hard he tries…

Cirie votes for Shane: “You said that at some point, you’d have to start protecting yourself. It’s become an individual game. This is nothing personal, hopefully you don’t take it personal. The door is always open, I’m going to leave the ball in your field, ball in your court, I mean. Sorry.” She also looks like she is about to cry.

Mike DeGeorge is an Accountant from St. Louis and is also Associate Editor for RealityNewsOnline. You can reach Mike at rno.mike@gmail.com.

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