Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains

[AndThePickles]

Is JT dumb enough to give Russell a hidden immunity idol? I guess we'll find out tonight...

I hope not. However, this HAS been the most irritating/frustrating season ever in terms of dumb choices, so it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[RAMORE]

Crazy season so far I LOVE IT! The only way to top it is to get real celebrities to commit and do it that would be awesome.

 

[SuperT]

That's pretty much the only way a Celebrity version of Survivor would ever happen.

Mark Burnett, the producer of the show, said he would NEVER do a Celebrity version of Survivor unless they were able to get top celebrities to do it and not has beens. Which is funny since he also produces The Apprentice and they've had three celeb versions now with has-beens, but I guess Donald Trump runs that show now.

I think a cool idea would be if CBS did some shuffling between their three big reality contest shows - Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race. For example, put past Survivor players on The Amazing Race, past Amazing Race players on Big Brother, and past Big Brother players on Survivor.

That would be hilarious to watch.

 

[Marx]

...so JT is that stupid.

 

[SuperT]

Heroes = Dumbest.Tribe.Ever. I bet there wouldn't have been any of this crazy, stupid "Giving the idol away" BS if Cirie or Tom were still on their tribe. None of them are winning this - end of story. They're too stupid. Also, how embarrassing for Rupert, Colby, and Amanda that they got beat at the reward challenge by Courtney, Sandra, and Jerri?!?!?

Parvati - Reading JT's letter out loud = Priceless! Also, SMART SMART SMART not telling Russell that she found the idol. Clearly she's in charge of that alliance and not Russell. She's got Danielle in her back pocket.

Russell - Lucky him, he got another free idol but this could blow up in is face big time. We already see that he's promising the Heroes that he's with them, of course we all know Russell. If he just blows off the Heroes, which we already know he probably will, then that's four jury votes he just threw away. That's what I don't get about him and why he never will be able to win this game. Why promise things to people that you know you have no intention of following through with?!!

Sandra - Again, Sandra is being underestimated by her fellow players just like Burton and Jonny Fairplay underestimated her during Pearl Islands. She's going to rip these people a new one at the merge and cause utter chaos. Danielle was the only smart person when she said that Sandra would be hard to beat if he makes it the Final Tribal Council. Parvati and Russell made a big mistake tonight keeping Sandra and voting out Courtney. Oh well, I love Sandra so GOO GO GOOOO Sandra!

Courtney my love, I will miss you!! You should have at least made it further then Danielle!!!

 

[Iron_Stark]

How anyone can even like Sandra is beyond me. I wish they would have voted her out. And why did she put Courtney's name down?

Russell is a f'n moron. Paverti is playing him and he doesn't know it. I would've taken Courtney to the side told her everyone is voting her, here is the JT's idol, play it, vote Paverti. And bam, you have jury votes from the heroes, Courtney and Jerri.

Now the dummy is going to get screwed over by Paverti, Sandra is going to spill the beans and he'll be lucky if he makes it to the top 5.

 

[Ipodman]

To me, russell is both dumb and clever at the same time so...
Parviti wins! lol

 

[Dugath]

I think it was a mistake voting out Courtney. As much as I dislike her I think she would have been more loyal.. or perhaps not as much of a schemer as Sandra.

 

[SuperT]

How anyone can even like Sandra is beyond me. I wish they would have voted her out. And why did she put Courtney's name down?

Sandra is awesome because she is so loud, brash, and 100% honest about everything. In any normal Survivor situation, someone like her would be gone ASAP, but with Sandra she's know how to play so that people like and respect her upfrontness instead of getting rid of her as an annoyance or liability. Plus, I think she's hilarious. I love her!

Both Sandra and Parvati are infinitely better players than Russell. Parvati has the Hidden idol and Danielle in her back pocket and Russell doesn't even know it. Sandra has Rupert already AND her and Candice are friends as well from what I hear. Russell will be completely snowballed come merge with the Villain ladies. He'll think he's in charge, but he has no clue he's really in the passenger seat.

Him taking the idol and then screwing over the Heroes at the merge = Five jury votes gone. He just doesn't know how to play this game to win it.

 

[Ipodman]

So those people who read the "spoilers" before this season aired... are the spoilers true so far?

 

[POWdER-man]

I don't usually read spoilers as I hate being spoiled but because I have been doing so well with Lost, I felt I needed an outlet so I chose Survivor.

Yep, every vote out has been correct (so far). They even labelled the winner and runner-ups, but from what I have seen each time the final vote is stated as pure speculation.

So YAY for Skeletor being voted out last night. One of the more worthless players in the game.

As for Sandra, I dislike her tremendously, always have. I think SuperT is the only one that even cares for her. I have never hit a woman but she makes me want to smack the smile off her face.

 

[Siby]

Sandra is awesome because she is so loud, brash, and 100% honest about everything. In any normal Survivor situation, someone like her would be gone ASAP, but with Sandra she's know how to play so that people like and respect her upfrontness instead of getting rid of her as an annoyance or liability. Plus, I think she's hilarious. I love her!

Both Sandra and Parvati are infinitely better players than Russell. Parvati has the Hidden idol and Danielle in her back pocket and Russell doesn't even know it. Sandra has Rupert already AND her and Candice are friends as well from what I hear. Russell will be completely snowballed come merge with the Villain ladies. He'll think he's in charge, but he has no clue he's really in the passenger seat.

Him taking the idol and then screwing over the Heroes at the merge = Five jury votes gone. He just doesn't know how to play this game to win it.

Umm, no. She flat out lied at tribal council when she said that she didn't listen to Rob in voting people out. She even said it on camera that she would vote the way anybody in power told her to vote.

Him taking the idol and then screwing over the Heroes at the merge = Five jury votes gone. He just doesn't know how to play this game to win it.

Why should this be the case? This Survivor is about Heroes and Villains. Those labels have an inherent definition on behavior and actions. Russell is a VILLAIN and by definition has behaved as such. Why should he be penalized for playing the role he was placed into for a Survivor with a specific premise.

 

[SuperT]

Why should this be the case? This Survivor is about Heroes and Villains. Those labels have an inherent definition on behavior and actions. Russell is a VILLAIN and by definition has behaved as such. Why should he be penalized for playing the role he was placed into for a Survivor with a specific premise.

Huh? This isn't a scripted show - it's a game show so there's no role that a certain person should or shouldn't be playing. It's about playing the game the best and winning - Russell is not doing that.

He has his allegience to the Villains and Parvati/Danielle/Jerri in particular, but now from the looks of the previews next week, he's now promised the Heroes that he's with them all the way too. That's not a very smart move, nor a move that's going to help his game in the end.

If you're playing to win, you don't set yourself up between two opposing alliances and have to choose. That's a pretty good position to be in pre-merge, but after the merge that's an AWFUL position to be in because you now need to make a choice on which side you choose to screw over and at this point everyone will be on the jury.

So Russell has a choice now - either screw over Jerri/Parvati/Danielle and lose their jury votes or he can screw over the Heroes and lose those jury votes. If he's getting penalized, it's for playing an awful game.

Umm, no. She flat out lied at tribal council when she said that she didn't listen to Rob in voting people out. She even said it on camera that she would vote the way anybody in power told her to vote.

No she didn't. She said Rob didn't tell her what to do with her own game. Sandra's game has always and probably will forever be "As long as it's not me." She's goes wherever she thinks the majority goes no matter whose getting voted out. She doesn't care about anyone other than keeping herself safe.

 

[Marx]

Russell made an incredibly stupid decision last night. As for Courtney and Sandra...I do believe Courtney would have been more loyal. She is the very definition of a floater...but it seems to work for her.

Judging from the previews, it looks like we're getting a merge next week!!

 

[SuperT]

I agree, Marx. I think choosing Sandra over Courtney will come back to bite Russell and Parvati hard. Sandra is a way more aggressive player than Courtney. She will try to get whatever she wants at all costs, as evidenced during the Coach boot episode. Plus her strategy keeps all of her options open since she will vote for anyone at anytime, and won't care who goes.

Not saying that Courtney couldn't win with her strategy, but I could not see her being anything other than what she is, and she accepts that which is awesome. I mean, she played the exact same way in China and it got her second place over Amanda.

And yay @ the merge finally being here. This is what I hate about 20 player seasons. It takes FOREVER for the merge to get here.

 

[RAMORE]

So many dumb moves this episode it's staggering. JT is a moron and so is everyone on that team but the biggest might be Amanda (pains me to say that) for not saying anything when she knew better Although with editing you don't know if she did and they were all like shut up amanda.

Not voting sandra out super dumb.

Showing Poverty (mispelling intentional) the ido Russell was getting. He could kill this game but his hubris gets him. He should really switch the Heroes when they come because he could rule them.

Hope Sandra doesn't win.

 

[Iron_Stark]

Yeah that's what he needs to do, switch to the heroes and start picking off the girls, starting with Paverti and Sandra.

 

[Marx]

Also, congratulations to Amanda and Parvati for being the only two survivors to play the game for 100 days. No matter what your feelings about these two are, that is impressive.

 

[LEX]

Bless J.T. and his good heart; I could not stop cackling along with Parvati when she read the letter. The Villains have my full blessings to crush the Heroes totally, for their idiocy if nothing else. That is, of course, assuming that the Villains won’t turn on their own immediately after the merge à la Samoa.

Big mistake to keep Sandra around. I absolutely cannot stand the bint. Her “whatever” attitude was shrewd in the context of the game and tolerable in small doses, but with her now using it as a Get Out of Jail Free card for every time she is confronted with something, it seriously calls for an epic curb-stomp.

And finally, the merge is upon us! **** never fails to get stirred in the most epic of ways when tribes merge.

 

[Ipodman]

I think Amanda sensed something was stupid about JT giving the idol to mr russsell. She just didnt want to voice it out because they will be merging anyway

 

[Matt]

I hate two things about this year:

1) Final three: Just a lame way to go. I can't stand final threes

2) The way the jurors are being selected before the merge. It clears the heroes of any responsibility for the vote outs of Coach and Courtney. That is inherrently unfair if a hero makes final two.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

Huh? This isn't a scripted show - it's a game show so there's no role that a certain person should or shouldn't be playing. It's about playing the game the best and winning - Russell is not doing that.

He has his allegience to the Villains and Parvati/Danielle/Jerri in particular, but now from the looks of the previews next week, he's now promised the Heroes that he's with them all the way too. That's not a very smart move, nor a move that's going to help his game in the end.

If you're playing to win, you don't set yourself up between two opposing alliances and have to choose. That's a pretty good position to be in pre-merge, but after the merge that's an AWFUL position to be in because you now need to make a choice on which side you choose to screw over and at this point everyone will be on the jury.

So Russell has a choice now - either screw over Jerri/Parvati/Danielle and lose their jury votes or he can screw over the Heroes and lose those jury votes. If he's getting penalized, it's for playing an awful game.

No she didn't. She said Rob didn't tell her what to do with her own game. Sandra's game has always and probably will forever be "As long as it's not me." She's goes wherever she thinks the majority goes no matter whose getting voted out. She doesn't care about anyone other than keeping herself safe.

The thing is the Heroes put him in their alliance without him even asking by giving him the idol. So if he does make it to the end and has a jury full of bitter Heroes members he's screwed. I think he'll stick with Parvati and Danielle, it's really his best chance, make the Heroes pay for the mistake of giving away their idol and explain at the end he already had an alliance, it's not his fault the Heroes made the assumption of a girl's alliance.

 

[SuperT]

No, I'm wasn't implying that he was in the wrong for taking advantage of the Heroes error, but I was implying is that he's making a mistake in promising the Heroes to their faces that he's with them 100% when he's not.

That's what will come back to bite him in the end. Promising someone something and then renigging on it always comes back to bite you at the FTC if Russell makes it there. Remember during the first All Stars when Rob made that unnecessary promise to Alicia about taking her to the final two and then just ended up voting her out two rounds later?! That's exactly what I see happening to Russell.

 

[Matt]

I've been reading Jeff Probst's blog. You know, I've been one of Russell's big supporters throughout the game. I maintain that he is one of the best strategic players in the game's history. Rich Hatch and Brian from Thailand are the only strategists I will say are definitively better than him. And the only other one I will even say is tied with him for third best strategist in the game's history is Rob Cesternino.

That said, Probst really hit the nail on the head about him in his blog.

It’s his ego. Pure ego. In this case, it’s that he can’t stand thinking Coach is having second thoughts about him. Nobody has second thoughts about Russell Hantz. “I’m Russell Hantz!”

With Parvati, it’s his ego that is leading him to believe she really likes him. She doesn’t. Parvati doesn’t like anybody. We all know that. We’ve watched her play this game three times now. She’s a flirt. A very good flirt. A million-dollar flirt. But she doesn’t like you, Russell.

When Parvati and Russell were talking about their plan, she said to Russell: “It’s all falling together perfectly…” Russell should have stopped and listened to his gut. His reply to Parvati — “You’ve done that before…” — tells you that he knew something wasn’t right, but he didn’t listen. The reason he didn’t listen? His ego. To admit to himself that Parvati might be playing him would mean he would have to admit that maybe Parvati wasn’t as “into him” as he wants to think she is. Ego is a powerful thing. Russell’s ego is so powerful that it overrode his usually spot-on strategic sense and has left him very vulnerable. At this moment in the game, Russell is in trouble. He doesn’t see it, but he is.

Russell made a huge error this game in jury selection. He should've stuck with Coach and Jerri. In a final three season, with a player who has virtually no social game, his one hope is that the jury will vote strategy over emotion. And his first juror is a player who is one of the game's most emotional. Meanwhile, Parvati is not very emotional. She takes her emotions out of the game. Backstabbing Parvati is the better bet than backstabbing Coach when it comes to jury spite. Plus, Coach is a player who is known to rub people the wrong way. Same with Jerri. Going to the final three with them gives the jurors no choice but to vote for the one who played the best game because frankly, the jury won't like any of them. But as Probst correctly identified, Russell's ego prevents him from seeing that. Despite having no social game, these jurors that he is backstabbing MUST realize he is playing the best game (which in all fairness, he is) and reward it. It is Samoa's jurors fault that he lost, not his lack of a social game.

When he struck up the alliance with Coach and Jerri I thought that he learned from his mistake, but clearly his ego has prevented that.

 

[SuperT]

But what does "Best game" even mean on Survivor?! There's no one set way to play Survivor. How can someone who lost be a better player than the winner? Winning essentially means that you played the best out of all your opponents.

How was Russell's way of making it to the Final Three any better than the way Natalie made it to the Final Three? They made the same alliance on day one, they lost as many challenges as each other, they went to the same amount of Tribal Councils, they even received the same amount of votes at the end of the game as each other.

Her game was just as impressive, moreso since she actually won, than his. She was the last woman standing from Foa Foa after they were all picked off, she convinced the Galu girls to turn on one of their own, she kept true to the same alliance from the first day, she voted out the exact same people as Russell at every Tribal Council yet they still liked her at the end. That is impressive.

I was reading Courtney's post show interviews and she made a great statement about Russell when asked if he ever talked to her. She said something to the effect that if you're not valuable to Russell's game he simply ignores you.

If that's doesn't explain why he didn't win last season or why he probably won't ever win, I don't know what will.