Survivor Panama - Exile Island: week 7

For my money, tonight was one of the best episodes so far this season although it was missing the medical emergency promised in the ad. That recap filler episode during the Easter ratings break must have gotten them all confused down at Channel Eddie.

We weren't let down on the promise of a "huge" challenge. What made it "huge" (aside from the amount of grassland mown down to assemble it) were the twists. The first was that it was a combined reward and immunity challenge. The reward part was a barbecue at a nearby Panamanian fishing village for the entire winning tribe. As usual the reward winners also got to send a member of the losing tribe to Exile Island, and the second twist was that they were effectively granting individual immunity to that person since the rest of the losing tribe would have to attend Tribal Council that night.

The event itself was essentially a variation on the previous day's immunity challenge. Some tribemates collected puzzle pieces and the rest tried to assemble them faster than the other team. They even recycled the bit where the puzzle pieces are shaped like skulls, so the key difference to the previous day was that it was played on land and some production costs were saved by using regular grade plywood instead of the usual marine grade.

La Mina led from very early on and looked like a certainty to win because they had Sally and Dan the NASA engineer assigned to solving the puzzle. As soon as the game started they were trying to calculate where each piece would go, so they looked certain to win. Twist number three was that when the first skull turned out not to fit the way he thought it would, Dan fell to pieces and let Cirie and Bruce canter to an easy victory for Casaya.

The decision to combine reward and immunity challenges coincidentally freed up a good seven extra minutes to linger on Shane's descent into madness and confusion. The episode opened at Casaya's camp in the hours after Bobby was voted off, with the tribe all in bed and almost asleep. Shane makes an announcement: "We made the wrong decision tonight…Danielle. And we made that decision because of your personal feelings. Period. And it's a bad, bad, bad thing. Bruce is falling apart. It's not his fault, but he's 58 and nervous." And yes, Bruce was lying there the whole time pretending to just ignore it all.

Shane went on (and on and on, including the following morning) to say that he wants out of the alliance with Danielle, Courtney and Aras because he doesn't want to be beholden to people who make decisions based on personal feelings (entirely irrational decisions are OK, just not person ones). He also claimed that he can't leave the alliance "unless you guys allow me to take my son's name back" (?!?!) This was a strange burst of morality and blame-storming from someone who a few hours earlier voted against Aras, a member of his own alliance, and who was the one to first put the idea in everyone's head that Bobby should be voted out. Danielle just wanted him to stop, on the grounds that, "I came here to enjoy myself, not to be demeaned." Of course you did, darl, now just tug that bikini top down a little further.

Cirie has been a source of constant delight to me, both for the way her voice goes up three octaves just before she laughs and for the quiet way she plays a very strategic background game. She could easily make the final three at this rate. At the barbecue reward she was also the only one to really take some non-food nourishment from the fresh human contact. Sorry, that's not strictly correct. Shane managed to scab a cigarette from one of the villagers, offering most of his clothes and all of his dignity in exchange. His fervent consumption of it – which was just revolting to watch - very much fell into the non-food nourishment category because the nicotine suddenly made him sane. He apologised to Danielle, who seemed to actually believe that he was sorry and wanted to stay with her and that he'd never abuse her again. If she was hoping for some higher self-esteem out of that breast augmentation surgery she must be sorely disappointed.

You may have missed some of the subtleties of this week's episode if you haven't read Tom Wolfe's classic book, The Right Stuff . (It's a fantastic read, and one I recommend so much that I'm supplying a link to the appropriate page on Amazon so you can buy it. Or just rent the DVD.)

Americans worship their astronauts the way Australians worship those who are good at sport. This week Dan confessed his true role in the Shuttle program to Nick, who instantly fell to fawning and adoration. Since that went so well the secret was also shared with Austin, for whom the fact that Dan has merely dined with Neil Armstrong makes him a "stud", let alone his three space missions, four spacewalks and two visits to the International Space Station.

This hero worship is one of the key themes in The Right Stuff. The other is that those with the Right Stuff genuinely are heroes who behave with dignity and do the right thing (well, most of the time at least). With Sally relishing the safety of Exile Island, the La Mina menfolk had to pick one of their own to vote out at Tribal Council. Hero or not, Dan's failure to solve the puzzle at the reward/immunity challenge was the freshest sin in everyone's memory. As Terry broke the news to Dan that he would be voted out, Dan nobly accepted his fate (cue inspirational Hollywood music) and accepted responsibility for his mistake, or "my bad" as he put it. He expressed hope that it might come to a tied vote with the outcome decided in some little on-the-spot competition at Tribal Council, but the decision had already been made. Just in case we'd missed it, Terry reminded us in his piece to camera that "Dan has the Right Stuff."

The Jerry Bruckheimer music continued all the way through the walk to Tribal Council, the interview with Jeff, Dan's pointed observation that two people stuffed up the challenge but one of them has immunity (yeah Sally, take that!), his gracious acceptance of his fate and the reading out of the inevitable vote result. Austin, Nick and Terry all stood up as Dan's torch was snuffed, Dan saluted them (seriously, I'm not kidding), they all kind of saluted back and he strode off into the dark in slow motion.

That leave ten Survivors, the point at which the tribes traditionally merge, and if the ad is to be believed it happens next week. Also Bruce gets hit in the face with a machete, which apparently his karate reflexes didn't help him avoid. More fence painting and car waxing for you, Mr Miyagi!