Outwit Outplay Outlast

So I spent three hours Sunday night watching the finale of Survivor: Panama Exile Island while pretending to look through my notes in preparation for my torts exam the next day. For those of you who have been living a rock or just didn't really care (and I can't say I totally blame you), the sole survivor was Aras, the yoga instructor from Santa Monica, CA. Yawn.

This season of Survivor had one thing going for it after the merge: Terry, the fighter pilot who managed to capture five consecutive immunity challenges and stay in the game while all his former La Mina tribemates were voted off one-by-one and the Casaya members had to turn on each other. I was hoping to see Terry pull off the impossible, and in a run reminiscent of Tom Brady and the 2001 New England Patriots, go undefeated in immunity challenges through the final tribal council and win the championship. Alas, or should I say Aras, Terry did his best impression of Peyton Manning and the 2005 Indianapolis Colts, choking when it counted the most and finding himself voted off the island in the final three.

(And yeah, I wanted the opportunity to post a gratuitous Tom Brady picture.)

Anyhow, I made it through this season of Survivor managing to catch every single episode. Therefore, in twelve seasons of the show, I have missed only four episodes. Two of them were from Season Two: The Australian Outback (Maralyn's and Mitchell's elimination), one was from Season Three: Africa (Linda's elimination), and one was from Season Ten: Palau (Stephenie's elimination). Doing some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations here, it means that I have heard Jeff Probst say "The tribe has spoken" on 166 separate occasions. Wow. Am I proud of myself or what?