Survivor Finale

I'm looking forward to tonight's Survivor Finale. I'm pretty sure based on a slow-mo review of the preview footage that CBS has aired, that Cerie, Aras, & Terry are the final three. It looked to me like Cerie's fire was much higher than Danielle's fire was in the brief clip they showed. Although CBS was very careful to avoid showing anyone but Aras and Terry competing in the climbing up portion of the challenge which seems to involve a slanted red/yellow board, they did show Cerie sliding down such a board at the end of the commercial.

I'm rooting for Terry to win. He reminds me of Fireman Tom. I'm predisposed to favor anyone with a military background being the child of a naval serviceman. Also, I generally like the underdog in Survivor just because the biggest group so often acts like a bully. Even my favorite player ever, Stephanie from last season, let being a part of the big group sway her thinking. It's simply not right to lord it over other players just because you have the numbers. Be in control of the game, sure, but do it with dignity. This season, Shane seemed to delight in telling Terry that if he didn't win immunity he was gone. Amusingly, Terry believed him and won immunity! LOL Woohoo Terry! Sending Terry to exile island again and again also offended my sense of fair-play. Finally, I see Terry and think of Top Gun. Frankly, he's hot. Thus, if I was voting I would stuff the ballot box for Terry.

I really rooted for Terry to win the relatives reward because if he hadn't, he would have gotten nada from the other players. As it was, it garnered (hopefully) some goodwill when he gave Shane and Cerie visits with their loved-ones. Aras' mini tantrum after the event about how his mom was as important to him as a wife or a husband was ridiculous. Off the subject slightly, one nice thing I will say about Aras, he did apologize for implying that Terry disdains women.

In the jury, I think Terry actually has an edge to win if he can just get into the finals. I calculate that the following players may vote for Terry for a variety of reasons: Sally, Austin, Bruce, Shane, Danielle & Courtney. The other finalist (Aras or Cerie) would get a vote from either Cerie or Aras. This voting pattern would primarily be Terry's former tribemates voting for him, Bruce voting for him because of their early experience together on the older guy's tribe and Shane, Courtney and Danielle voting for him because they were stabbed in the back by Aras and Cerie. In a second scenario it is conceivable that Aras or Cerie could get the majority vote because of tribe loyalty and personal affability.

Terry's win would break the curse of "winning the car" which would be cool. Funny how the fact that Terry won a car hasn't been mentioned much. Do the majority even know he won it? Wasn't that competition held after everyone but the people in the reward went back to camp? Did the producers tell the contestants that it was a secret? Hopefully we'll learn about that in the reunion show.