Survivor Vanuatu
Rory: Is He the New Nakomis?
Commentary By Alisa
December 10, 2004
What Happened to Change My Mind?
When Rory joined the Yasur tribe it looked as though his days were numbered. In fact, the women as much as told him that he would have been the evictee had not Bubba lost his cool and whispered something about the merge to Chris. Ami caught it and it was curtains for Bubba. Frankly, I was getting mighty tired of seeing him in that orange Bob Barker tee shirt. Did he not have a change of clothing with him?
Up until now I thought that Rory was a difficult person who was uncooperative and surly. That's how he behaved when he was part of the Lopevi tribe and was resented for it. Once he joined the women's tribe, he came into his own. When his pal Bubba was voted out, it came as no surprise to anyone. Bubba blew it! No question. Now Rory was on his own and he had to fight for his life.
He developed a cunning approach that really surprised me. I wonder if he had been in the military at one point because he sure knew how to do an "About face."
After the Yasur tribe had evicted the only other male, Rory worked his butt off and did most of the heavy lifting. He wanted to make sure that the women were aware of it, so he laced into them and put them on notice that he was not going to continue slaving away if he didn't have a chance to remain in the tribe. He wanted fair warning if they were going to boot him out.
The next day, he took on a much softer tone. He apologized for his behavior and gave them a speech which in his estimation was "cheesy" but it seemed to have the desired effect. "I can't push these ladies too far," Rory admitted, "I kinda got to balance it and push them just far enough to get myself a little bit of an opening." Creating that fissure as he called it was of paramount importance to break up the strong alliance the Yasur women had. It was probably not as strong as Rory suspected because there had been rifts between Eliza, Ami and Lisa as well as LeeAnn.
With his words and actions, Rory opened the door of opportunity. It worked so well that it absolutely floored me. He planned on creating a rift between the women and gaining a foothold in their midst so he could save himself. He kept on working hard and talked like a rational human being unlike the morose man who kept to himself in previous episodes.
The Challenges - Reward for Carnivores
During the "Pig Pen" reward challenge, Rory put himself out wrangling two pigs as quickly as he could to bring his tribe a victory. Bug-eyed Eliza dropped the ball when she made no effort to "play dirty" and catch a muddy, squealing pig and deposit it into a pen. She did not get a single pig and it appeared that she didn't want to get grungy. This frustrated the hell out of her tribe, and as the winning Lopevis were munching away on their delicious steaks and eggs, the Yasurs were thrown into a funk. Everyone patted Eliza, telling her not to worry but hating her on the inside.
Rory felt that he was pretty safe now, because Eliza had been so weak. Why would he be put on the block when she was the obvious candidate? He was strong and had done remarkably well only to be let down by Eliza's inability to get down with the piglets.
The Lopevis even pondered why Eliza was still around when she was so useless. Meanwhile, they enjoyed having the two new women around: Julie for eye candy (especially when she was doing some nude sunbathing and they were stealing covert glances at her), and straight shooting Twila who was a workhorse and hit it off with Sarge who not only regarded her as a friend, but would be willing to put a dress on her and take her to dinner because she was a lady. Obviously, he saw things in Twila that were not apparent to anyone else. Sarge admitted Twila into the alliance of the older guys to build their numbers, so it looked like she was sitting pretty.
The All-Important Immunity Challenge
This was one tough mother of a challenge and involved a lot of underwater swimming while maneuvering parts of a tiki god on ropes over and under obstacles. This was not for the faint-hearted. It was a very difficult and wearying challenge. Once all the tiki parts were on shore, they had to be assembled to complete the task. It was so grueling that the participants collapsed on the sand after having done their part.
Once again, Rory excelled, but not enough to save his team from their inevitable fate of having to vote someone off. This time LeeAnn was not up to the challenge because of her inability to stay underwater. She let her group down and this was the fourth immunity challenge that the Yasur tribe lost.
It looked as if Rory's chances were improving and either Eliza's or LeeAnn's ousting were inevitable. In a surprise move, it was Ami who decided that Lisa should be the one to leave because of a "trust" issue that she had. It seemed to me that it was much more a question of personal dislike on Ami's part, but the die was cast.
Tribal Council
Rory got two votes, one from Scout who seemed to appreciate Rory but refused to vote out Lisa, and the other one from Lisa herself. The other four got Lisa evicted. Rory, by playing intelligently was "in like Flynn."
If he keeps on playing the smart game and makes it to the merger, he might go far. However, the men have strengthened their alliance with the addition of Twila and frankly, no one was too fond of Rory, especially Mr. Head Honcho better known as Sarge.
Final Thoughts
This episode was one of the most exciting ones to date. I thought the challenges were great. Mark Burnett must have been reading my last diatribe. Just kidding, I know the show is filmed months in advance. I hope it keeps getting better and better because that's what we've come to expect as die-hard Survivor fans-nothing but the best!
Alisa loves the Ocean, granola and winemaking. When not busy with that, writing is her biggest thrill, well almost. She can be reached at california_girl100@yahoo.com
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