Well, since I’ve last written, we have had one regular episode of Exile Island and the recap episode.
I was hoping we were long past the days of recap episodes, but what can you do? March Madness truly is crazy, but once we get to the end of it, our schedule will be back to normal.
So, what happened last week on SURVIVOR: EXILE ISLAND? I always love it when there is some kind of twist to shake up the players, and this one was perfect. Making Exile Island a place of salvation instead of a place of punishment was great to see. Sally is definitely lucky Casaya chose her to go, because otherwise she definitely would have been voted out.
So, while we’re on this, let’s talk about La Mina. Last week, I discussed the differences between La Mina and Casaya, namely that La Mina was politically strong without many fractures, and yet their morale is very low because they keep losing AND are not doing all too great in camp life; on the flip-side, Casaya is a political mess, but they have some solid players on the tribe who allow them to pull together at challenges. So, one victory was not enough to keep La Mina going, and they lost once again.
And then they were faced with an interesting dilemma. Would it be 2 vs. 2, or would Terry jump ship on Dan and vote him out? Ultimately, there was no real suspense for the audience in terms of the answer to that question, because it was plainly obvious that Dan was going home. The more interesting question is whether or not Terry made the right decision, because ultimately, the decision did indeed come down to Terry.
No, he did not make the right decision. Terry is a strong physical player, but I think he’s a little too arrogant for his own good, and I only say that because, for the second time, it would appear that he has jumped the gun and made an impulsively strategic decision that was truly not the best decision at all.
The first time was Ruth Marie. Why vote her out when she’s a solid fifth wheel in your alliance no matter what, especially over Sally, who would jump ship in a second? Now we have Dan, who was a solid ally for him. In Survivor, two votes are better than one, and the goal should always be to find that one person who you can totally trust to back you up and help you make sure the votes always go your way. In that respect, you really could not do much better than Dan. He’s a nice guy who would not betray that trust with you, so why vote him out over Nick or Austin, who, in a merge situation could be physical threats AND jump ship and side with some of the younger girls? When you put it in perspective like that, it’s ludicrous: Dan wouldn’t have been a physical threat to anybody in the merge, and Terry will be. He may have the hidden Immunity Idol, but that trick will only work once. If I were him, I definitely would have risked the tie, especially since he had the Idol as a trump card if it was needed, in the interests of keeping such a tight ally.
But, now, the way I see it, the four La Mina people going into the merge are doomed. (Yes, I’m going on the assumption that they are merging next. They are at ten people, the usual time, and all previews point to a merger). However, the Casaya members are so fractured, I definitely think this is going to be one of those seasons where the merge is unpredictable and members from both tribes work together regardless of tribal lines to get to the end.
Well, since I have two more weeks to talk about this one episode, I’m going to leave it at that. Consider this week the “La Mina Discussion.” Next week, I’ll take a look at what happened over on Casaya in episode 6, and trust me, it’s a lot, I’m sure it will make for an interesting discussion! The week after that I’ll make some predictions for the merger, and then we’ll be back to our regular episode schedule! I can’t wait!
“See” you next week!
