Survivor Panama: The day after the day after the day after the finale

Well, here's the round up after a couple of days of reflection(*).

First, I think that I was too hard on Danielle for her decision to take Aras over Terry after giving Terry her word. Choosing to face Aras or Terry is a tough one, as both seem to have a distinct advantage over Danielle. So, Danielle could piss Terry off and throw away his vote, or she could piss Aras off and throw away his vote. She had to do the math and say "Terry wins if I face him, but there is an off chance I could beat Aras". So she made the right decision, even if she shouldn't have been in that position in the first place. Why make the agreement with Aras to win when (a) Aras is struggling to survive and (b) You know that it will lead you to betraying someone.

THe most interesting thing post show. This tidbit from da man himself, Dalton Ross:

Danielle thought she was going to win. She would only admit to thinking she had won back in December, when the game ended, but it was clear that right up to the point the votes were read, she believed she was going home a millionaire. She appeared shell-shocked during the entire reunion show and even all the way through Monday's Survivor Live taping. I don't think I've ever seen someone so bummed to have just won $100,000.

(BTW, keep going to EW.com every Wednesday to read Dalton's column. He is a fun writer.)

The only reason I could see Danielle believing this is because of how the jury went. Aras really didn't do anything to help himself, and fumbled some of his answers. Danielle stayed on message and might have actually gotten Shane's vote. (I think Shane might have taken one from Kelly Goldsmith's playbook and just used a question as a ruse to make the choice he really wanted to make.) But obviously she didn't underestimated everybody's respect for Aras' game.

As for the rest of the season, there were a fair number of memorable castaways: Shane, Cirie, Terry, Dan, Courtney, Bruce, and Danielle's cleavage will all be talked about for the years to come. But I would only want to see Terry in an all-star edition of Survivor - everybody else is a one-note act.

Which leads me to a list of things that help to comprise a good season of Survivor:

- Memorable castaways. Ultimately, if you have boring characters, your season will sink before they swim. Survivor: Vanuatu is the ultimate example of this. I can name Chris, because he won the game, and Julie because she is living with Jeff Probst. Beyond that, I had to look up a lot of the other players. They were just that forgettable.

- A sense of intrigue. Survivor: Thailand was painful to watch until the Final Four. Why? Because you knew that barring a run of immunity challenges (which wasn't going to happen), the final five was going to be the one tribe. Compare that to this season, where Terry was dead man walking, but he was (a) a machine at the immunity challenges and (b) the bearer of the hidden immunity idol. And the split of Casaya was going to be interesting because Casaya was splintered into a lot of smaller factions where the final four alliance was never really set in stone. You had the intrigue of whether this was the week that Terry would have to use the idol, or once it was Terry vs Casaya, whether that would be the week that Casaya had to turn on itself.

- A compelling storyline with resolution. In this series, it was Terry vs. Casaya (morphing to Terry vs. Aras after Terry beat Casaya but couldn't beat Aras). In Survivor Amazon, it was Rob C.'s masterful game play, always bettering his position while not becoming a target. Survivor Marquesas was the first time a final four alliance was brought down.

- Likable castaways. You want to be able to root for somebody to win. Survivor: Panama Islands brought us the beloved Rupert, who won us over with a simple act of pirating. This year we had Terry and Cirie.

This season had all of these, and it worked out well.

Before I go, a quick comment on Exile Island. Though the immunity idol did not come into play directly, it did come into play indirectly. I would expect to see it come into play directly next season, as players have the opportunity to come up with winning strategies for them.

September can't come quick enough!

(*): Where reflection=laziness.