Ami, the Queen Bee of Survivor: Vanuatu, was finally knocked off her throne. I really thought I’d be happier about this. I’ve been bitching about Ami and her controlling ways since the season began and yet the way she left the game truly saddened me. I had no idea she had such a close connection with Eliza, nor did I ever consider that someone might see Scout as a nasty character. This week presented a highly eventful episode, not only because a key player saw her torch snuffed but also because a lot of interesting things were revealed about the survivors’ personalities.
Except Julie’s. I saw her sullenly gazing into the fire a few times, but other than that, she was barely part of the show this week. That’s a bit surprising, since she was Ami’s only remaining ally, so I was expecting at least an interview clip with her observations about the situation. No dice. But it looks like she’ll be at the center of some conflict in the next show, so I’m looking forward to that. Not that Julie has been a particularly compelling presence on the show (with the exception of her sunbathing adventures), but since there are so few people left, I want to know what’s happening with all of them.
Fortunately, the other contestants provided plenty of drama to chew on. I’d first like to address the whole scandal about Twila making solemn oaths on her son’s name when she promised Julie, Leann, and Ami that she’d vote with them. Leann is now sitting on the jury, a fact that surely disappointed Ami, but she didn’t even bring that up when she told Twila off after tribal council. Ami was right to call Twila on the carpet for falsely swearing on her son’s life. That clearly struck a chord with Ami, who lost her own little brother and would take such a promise very seriously.
I watched Ami in an interview this week and she said that she had never watched the show before she played the game. Too bad, because Johnny Fairplay’s dead grandmother spoof in the Pearl Islands would have shown her just how meaningless such a promise can be in the scope of the game. I would credit Twila will more morals than young Jon Dalton for sure, but I applauded Ami’s heartfelt speech to Twila at tribal council about using what is most precious to her as a false security blanket in the game. Family relationships really are more valuable than money and I’m glad that Ami was able to get that across before her exit.
Not to say that Ami didn’t totally screw up this episode and fully deserve to go home. She knew that she was the next to go and aside from bonding with Eliza, which was something she was apparently already doing (although I never saw that), Ami didn’t do one thing to convince Twila, Scout, and Chris to vote differently than they did. In fact, with the way this episode was edited, it looked like she was going out of her way to be unpleasant to Twila and Scout, yelling things like, “Get your own damn blanket. That’s ours!” And when Scout suggested that there was enough manioc around camp, Ami’s response was very condescending. She wasn’t even trying to live peacefully with these people, let alone make a deal with them. Very foolish, in my opinion.
As was her painfully obvious hint-dropping when she dined with Chris and Eliza at their reward dinner. First Ami suggested that they get rid of Scout or Twila to break up that power threat, then she demurely excused herself for a few minutes. Although Ami appeared to be enjoying Chris’s company, I didn’t see her trying too hard to negotiate with him. Even Chris seemed puzzled as to why Ami was working it with him when he said, “We knocked her off of her high horse, thank God. At this stage she needs to dust herself off, climb back on, and pull something off.” I think Ami was just too damn mad to try to work a deal with Twila and Scout at that point. Her anger was larger than her desire to stay in the game.
I was very impressed with Eliza for voting out Ami even though she claimed to be such good friends with her. Although Eliza comes off as annoying, she’s actually quite level-headed when it comes to strategy and her decisions have paid off so far. However, barring a big ol’ winning streak at the immunity challenge, I don’t see many cards remaining to be played in her deck. She will go down in Survivor history as the first female to ever win a car on the show (sorry, Amber on All-Stars doesn’t count, as Rob won the actual challenge). Car winners never end up being the sole survivor. But then, men have always won the cars in the past and more women have won the game than men, so all of this speculation is neither here nor there.
But with another episode airing this Thursday and the finale scheduled for Sunday, my speculation will finally come to rest. It will be nice to get some sleep again.
