I Will Survive, Finale

How frustrating is that?

The final four came down to Terry, Cirie, Aras, and Danielle. Cirie, the most likeable, went out on a tie breaker, which is too bad. The only honest player left, Terry, was pushed out by the two backstabbing twenty-somethings. Cest la vie.

This left Aras and Danielle. Unlikeable or lazy. Manipulative or untrustworthy. Insincere or undeserving. What a choice! The jury had to pick the lesser of two evils and later admitted that they would have voted for Terry if he was an option.

Oh, and Aras, if someone says pick a number between 1 and 1 million. The correct answer is always 500,000, not 4! If you pick four, your opponent picks 5 and has 999,995 numbers that are closer to them than you. Duh.

Aras, the yoga instructor who still lives with his parents, did have a moment of karma in the final episode. Though he claimed to play with integrity, he repeatedly lied and undercut the other players. After making the final two, he slips on the rocks, dropping the celebritory wine glass, which breaks, cutting his hand and leaving a shard of glass in his back. How appropriate, now he's truly stabbed every player in the back.

Before next season, I'm going to read a new book, Socrates Meets Machiavelli by Peter Kreeft. It's a critical examination of the dog-eat-dog, the-ends-justify-the-means type of behavior that many Survivor players adopt in an attempt to win. But not everyone does this. In this season only a few people actually had to lie or betray someone (although that did include the top two).