I walked away from my television set after the finale of SURVIVOR: PANAMA—EXILE ISLAND with only one feeling: satisfaction.
I am absolutely thrilled for Aras and his victory. There is no question he deserves it. I may not have been his biggest fan in the very beginning, and he didn’t play a perfect game, but he worked and played hard, and he grew on me more and more as the season progressed, and shortly after the beginning of the merge, he was my second favorite, after Cirie.
Last week, I made my Final Four predictions and guessed where they’d land. I had Aras fourth, Cirie third, Danielle second, and Terry first. For once, I am ecstatic to be wrong. Because I hated that order, but logically, it was the only thing I could see at the time.
But what an exciting final two episodes! I was so happy to finally see the Challenge King thrown off his crown. Aras finally beat Terry, and thus thankfully threw my original layout into chaos (thank you Aras!) The fire challenge between Cirie and Danielle was even more exciting than the Bobby Jon/Stephenie one in Palau, and that determined who went back to camp alone! First Cirie had it, then Danielle, and it was a cycle of dominance, but in the end, Danielle pulled out (much to my chagrin) and Cirie left. My disappointment was lessened by the fact that I knew Cirie, despite playing undoubtedly the best social game out there, would probably not be able to win the game just based alone on the physical factor of winning challenges. However, if she had won the fire challenge, and gone to the Final Three with Terry and Aras, I think she could have won because Aras likely would win the final challenge and would have taken Cirie to the Final Two and she would have won. But whatever, that’s all water under the bridge.
I’d like to give each of the Final Four a little paragraph of comments, in the order they were eliminated:
CIRIE—No question one of my favorite people to ever play this game. Kathy Vavrick-O’Brien is my #1 favorite, but Cirie is definitely one of the top. As I said before, even though she didn’t win, there is no question she played the best social game out there. Beyond even that, it was simply remarkable and wonderful to watch her journey from the woman who was afraid of the leaves to the woman who caught the biggest fish and started her first fire and now is able to believe in herself in a way like never before. That is the kind of stuff that money can’t buy, and now she has a new car to show it all off in! I’d love to buy her now-up-for-sale couch.
TERRY—I have given Terry a lot of crap this season, and I will not lie, I am still not the biggest fan and was thrilled that he did not win all the challenges and that he was third place. I was absolutely ecstatic when Jeff turned that vote around and it said “Terry” and I knew that, despite all his challenge glory, would not be able to take the ultimate prize and run away with the whole thing. I do need to give credit where credit is due, though. It’s quite a feat to come into the merge without the numbers, to spend the entire time virtually alone and surrounded by people who want you to lose, and then be safe at every single Tribal Council from the merge until the Final Three. The first Tribal Council after the merge that he was vulnerable at was the one in which he was voted out. He was not a strong strategic player, but he was able to dominate physically, the rivalry between him and Aras was fun to watch, and he was able to psyche the other Casaya members out, not only because he was dominant, but also because he had the Idol. After all of that, he still walked away with their respect. I’m glad he didn’t win, but I also give him props for being so strong.
DANIELLE—When Cirie lost the fire challenge and we had the Final Three of Aras, Terry, and Danielle, two things quickly became apparent to me: 1) Danielle was going to the Final Two since Aras and Terry would never take the other with them, and 2) She was going to come in second place. This made the final Tribal Council a little anticlimactic, because I knew that Aras had the votes and she simply didn’t. The same was true for Terry, however, Terry was more of a slam dunk. With two of his former tribe members and bitter Casaya people, she would have been a fool to take Terry to the Final Two with her. So in that regard, she made the right decision to take Aras to the Final Two. She played a very quiet game, and made a lot of strategic mistakes throughout the game that we have all pointed out throughout the season, so no need to rehash them here, but kudos on winning the final challenge, making the best decision she possibly could in the Final Three Tribal Council, and for making it to the Final Two in one of the toughest games you can play.
ARAS—As I said in the opening of this column, I absolutely love the fact that Aras won. At the beginning of this game, he was not one of the ones I would have chosen to last long term. Come merge, I figured that his days were numbered since if Terry ever used that Idol, since he kept voting for Aras, Aras would be gone. So the thought of an Aras victory never really crossed my mind. He played a great game with respect to the fact that he was not the physically dominant person, he was not the socially dominant person, and yet he clearly was physically strong and he was also one of the clear leaders of the Casaya alliance that lasted for so long. I know everyone hates the word “integrity” to be thrown around in Survivor, but integrity in real life is different from integrity in Survivor, and I think Aras played a great, righteous game, he was true to himself, and while he certainly wasn’t always perfect, he can hold his head up high. I am completely happy with an Aras victory and am glad he got the last laugh over Terry: Terry may have beaten him in more challenges, but Aras got the ultimate prize. And since Aras covered a lot of different bases, and had strengths and weaknesses in each one, such as strategic, social, camp-life, and challenges, Terry’s only shining quality in the game was the challenges. In the overall scope of the game, and all its perspectives, Aras is clearly the one who outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted and undoubtedly deserves to be called the Sole Survivor. Congratulations, Aras!
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And, just like that, another season of Survivor comes to a close. This one was really enjoyable. A great cast, awesome new twists, an exciting finale, and an awesome and deserving winner. What more can you ask for? This is definitely one of my top seasons, and I can’t wait to see what Survivor has in store for us in the future!
This will be my last column here; after writing for six seasons I have decided to “retire” from writing. I greatly appreciate all of you who have been supportive of me and my column through the seasons, taking the time to read and write to discuss Survivor with me! I appreciate all of you, thanks a lot!
“See” you around!
