The Funny 115
#4. Eliza's Last Stand
Vanuatu - Episode 11
Ha ha. This is the last of my three "hidden gems" in the top
25, and it
is by far my favorite. It's
a moment that not everybody remembers, or even noticed in the first
place, but if you're looking for it, I guarantee
you'll appreciate it. In fact if I ever make a list of my all-time
favorite Survivor moments, this scene would
easily rank in my top ten. Easily.
The star of this entry is the much-maligned Eliza Orlins, who I bet a
lot of people would be surprised to find
on the Funny 115. Ha ha, I slipped a top ten moment past all of you.
And it's a moment starring Eliza, of all
people! How's that for a surprise?
Our hero
Right off the bat I have to say that I wasn't always an
Eliza fan. She
annoyed me as much as any character ever
through the first few episodes of Vanuatu. I couldn't stand her
mouthiness, I couldn't stand her self-centeredness,
and (like the rest of Yasur) I mainly just wanted her to go away.
But you know what? She actually started to grow on me after a while.
About midway through the season I started to appreciate Eliza a little
bit. And I suddenly realized she was a
really fun character to watch. Why did I suddenly do a flip-flop on her
as a character? Well it wasn't because
her personality changed all that much. No, the reason I started to like
Eliza in Vanuatu was because I suddenly
realized she was very plucky. And spunky. More than anything else,
midway through the season, Eliza Orlins somehow
turned into the plucky, spunky underdog of Camp Yasur. And I like
pluck. And I absolutely adore spunk*.
Eliza was hunted nearly every single episode of Vanuatu, yet she always ended up escaping by the skin of her teeth. The other girls wanted her gone. The guys had no use for her whatsoever. And what happened is Eliza became an alliance of one for the entire season. She never had a single ally at any point in the entire game. And because of this she was constantly hunted. Eliza had no friends, Eliza had no allies, and Eliza was dead meat nearly every single episode of Survivor: Vanuatu. But for whatever reason she kept on surviving. And it was this trait (the ability to escape death) that eventually turned Eliza into the unkillable cockroach of Vanuatu. Everybody wanted her dead, but nobody could actually kill her. Nobody could ever rub out this girl who didn't have a friend or an ally in the world. And as you can tell, after a while, I really started rooting for her to succeed. In fact, if Chris (my favorite player of all time) wouldn't have won the game, the person I most wanted to win would have been our young motormouth cockroach, Eliza. Somehow, miraculously, she ended up being my second favorite player in Survivor: Vanuatu.
So what is Eliza's famous scene that makes the #4
slot on the Funny
115? Well it happens during the 11th episode
of Vanuatu. I wish I had an actual video clip of this moment, because
you really can't appreciate it without seeing
it for yourself. But I'll do my best to show it using vidcaps. The fact
that this is the single biggest turning
point of the season certainly helps.
So anyway we're in episode eleven of Vanuatu, and the game is at a
pivotal point. We have six female players left,
against Chris, and things look bad for the man in the bright red
wifebeater. Especially when ice queen Ami is
running the show with a cruel and merciless iron fist.
The unstoppable Ami Cusack
At this point, logic says that the women should get rid of
Chris next.
After all, there are six of them,
and there's only one of him (well, okay, 1.5 if you want
to get mean). So if you go by simple gender breakdown,
Chris should obviously be the next person voted out of the game.
But this is where things start to get sticky for the women of Camp
Yasur. Because not only do some of them start
to feel bad for lone wolf Chris, they start to realize that they really
don't like having Eliza around. Even though
Eliza is a female (and thus, in the women's alliance), she's considered
expendable and useless by just about everybody. So Ami and the women
decide to "shake things up" at the next vote. Instead of taking out the
last man
in the game, Chris, they're going to blindside the annoying little
hanger-on, our friend, Miss Plucky Eliza. After all, she's loud. She's
expendable. She's annoying. And she's powerless. And that makes her an
easy target
for eviction at the next Tribal Council.
"Oh yeah?" says the completely unkillable Eliza Orlins
Well, the minute Ami decides to blindside Eliza, Twila and
Chris
realize that this is a major opportunity to flip
the game around. And it's a major chance to take down the ice princess.
So they send Chris to go warn Eliza,
and tell her that Ami has decided to backstab her at the very next
vote. And as you can imagine, Eliza isn't
the type of person who takes this type of news very happily.
Ami decrees that the women will be
voting out Eliza tonight
Chris goes to tell Eliza the news
Eliza is stunned, and she almost does the Chad face
Chris continues his spiel...
...in his typical overly-dramatic way
And eventually, Eliza gets pissed
So does Eliza believe him? Does she believe that Ami is
actually going
to backstab her right out of the game? Well our first inclination is
that she doesn't. After all, Eliza has been warned and threatened repeatedly
throughout this game. Jeff has even gone so far as to call her "the
girl who cried wolf," because she
thinks she's going home at every single Tribal Council. So going into
Tribal Council, we're not entirely sure
if Eliza is going to go along with Chris and Twila's plan, or if she's
going to walk face-first into an Ami backstab. The editing doesn't tip
us off one way or another. And that's what makes the following scene so
absolutely perfect.
The fateful Tribal Council. Will Eliza flip on the women? Or
will she
be blindsided by her good friend Ami?
Like I said earlier, I'll go on record and say that this
scene is one
of the sweetest moments in Survivor history. Because not only does
Eliza flip the game around and shoo it away from boring predictability,
she also pulls off
the single funniest (yet subtle) face-off I've ever seen on Survivor.
Like I said, you really have to see this
video to truly appreciate it, but I'll do my best to give it to you in
pictures instead. Hope you enjoy.
Ami smiles somewhat smugly during Tribal Council. She knows
she's about
to blindside Eliza. And it's possible
she even feels a little bad about it.
Eliza tells Jeff how she's always in
danger, but she always seems to escape by the skin of her
teeth
Sure enough, the backstab is on. Eliza
isn't safe tonight. Ami is going to blindside her.
So Ami and her alliance of three all vote for Eliza.
Seemingly without
her knowledge, too. And this is where the
fun begins. Because Jeff returns to the podium with the ballot box, he
pulls out the very first vote for you-know-who,
and... well... watch the magic for yourself...
First vote. Eliza.
Eliza looks a little concerned
Furious, Eliza now turns to look at her
friend. And Ami gives her the most smug, most condescending
little nod imaginable. Ami just slowly nods her head twice, as if to
say, "I'm sorry, little one. It's
you."
Disgusted, Eliza just turns away.
But then the first Leann vote comes up.
Leann, who's second-in-command in the unstoppable Army
of Ami.
Leann can't believe it. A vote for me??
A second Leann vote comes up. And Eliza
just sits there, looking innocent. Ho hum, don't
worry about me. I'll just sit here and get blindsided. La de da.
A third vote comes up for Leann
And now
Ami's alliance realizes something is seriously wrong
And here's where we get the money shot. That's three votes for Leann, just one more to go, and Eliza knows she just can't resist. She knows she can't do this without sending a message. So she turns to look back at Ami, and she gives the exact same little condescending nod that Ami just did to her! Eliza totally mimics Ami, she just nods as if to say, "I'm sorry. But no." And it's one of the funniest (yet subtle) damn things I've ever seen on Survivor.
Eliza says... "gotcha!"
I absolutely love every single facial reaction during this
scene. Watch
as Ami's face turns from shock, to outright
disgust, once she realizes that Leann is gone, and her own women's
alliance (including Eliza) has somehow just
toppled her.
What the...?
That's not supposed to happen!
Outright disgust
How did Eliza just beat me?
Eliza can't believe she just overthrew
Ami
Chris gives a smug grin over to the jury
Sarge and Chad can't believe it
And the grand finale. Ami is pissed.
Eliza is thrilled. She and Chris exchange one last
congratulatory wink.
Ha ha ha. I swear, this is such a perfect moment
(at such a
perfect point in the game) that it absolutely deserves
its status as my favorite hidden gem on the Funny 115. I know a lot of
people won't agree with it ranked so
high at #4, but just trust me when I say you have to see this one to
really appreciate it.
Of course, being that 95% of online Survivor fans are Ami Cusack fans,
I know you're probably not going to agree
with me. But I swear I liked Ami too. She was an awesome character! I
just happen to think that this scene
is better than a single character. I'll take interesting plot twist
over interesting character any day. And
this scene is one of the all-time best.
Plucky defeats icy
Ami, you just got punk'd.
Eliza's "gotcha" stare remains one of my all-time favorite
Survivor
moments.
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