no more sassy Courtney. At least Sandra lives another week to screw Russell’s plans. JT giving an idol to a “villain” needs to be one of the all-time dumb moves in Survivor history. I was glad to see it happen, because no hero deserves to win Survivor, they sealed their fate by giving the villains another advantage even with the same numbers going into a merge.
Russell can tell JT that Parvati had an idol, so he couldn’t get rid of her. Therefore, Courtney went.
I was just saying something like that to my better half - Russell can spin a story no matter what happens where he can say, “sorry I couldn’t play the idol because they weren’t voting for me, they went after one of the girl-alliance members for some reason, aw shucks.” etc. This will obviously not play well post-merge, but Russell has quite a few options even then. I’m picturing a post-merge scene where JT asks for the idol back and Russell tells him to suck eggs.
JT’s move was a pretty smart play, but hey, “fortune favors the bold” doesn’t mean that every bold move always works 100% of the time.
At this point I’m rooting for 6 people. I still hate Rupert and always want him gone next. Though I’m not rooting for them Sandra, Colby and Danielle are all growing on me. Everyone else I’m actively rooting for.
I’m rooting for Parvati most of all. She clearly has the most game and IMO the best chance to win it all based on merit. JT is a close second.
I’m a Rupert apologist, so I’m not exactly a reliable source here, but I actually think he’s less annoying than usual. I wish Jeff would stop bringing up the “two! broken! toes!” but I think Jeff has always been kind of a turd (which is why I want Cthulhu to eat him last, and most slowliest).
I love that, yet again some more, Sandra is going with the “throw my vote wherever to stick around” strategy – it’s what won her the game last time. I like consistency. But if she doesn’t do well this time, it’s good to know that she can always work as a shill for Outback Steakhouse.
And every time I see Parvati on my TV I want to punch her in the teeth. I can’t believe it’s only been 100 days that she’s been on Survivor. It feels like 100 years.
Well, what could they do? I think from a producer perspective, it just made sense to cast him since he was so popular/hated/notorious in the previous season, but they already had this one set to go only a few days after the last one.
It was either put him in the game like this, or they would have had Shane back in, which would have been more dull, even if you dislike Russell.
Jeff Probst gives his thoughts on the advantage of no one knowing Russell. This is from his blog about last night’s episode.
By the way, I really agree with Jeff that Survivor’s crew did an amazing job of highlighting the drama of JT giving the idol away and were able to show the whole process without revealing it to the players.
Russel needs to say he played the idol. He can just say he had to vote for Courtney instead of Parvati because P has the idol, and he was afraid she might play it. Or, he can make up some BS story about the dynamics of the girl alliance that they wouldn’t know about.
Maybe this should be in a seperate thread but I’ll do it here anyways. Lets list the bone head moves that have been done in the various series.
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JT (the Heroes) gives the idol to a member of the opposing tribe
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Little oriental guy (can’t remember his name or season) gives away a truck
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Someone (can’t remember his name again) gives away the idol only to be voted off during the same tribal council.
Any other stupid moves?
This was Erik in Fans vs. Favorites (Micronesia). He was (I think) the last surviving man in the game and KNEW that he needed to get immunity to survive, but he allowed himself to be wheedled into giving his immunity to Natalie during tribal. I really was uncomfortable watching that tribal…it’s like all the women turned into Mean Girls, with the big insincere smiles and sad eyes and poor, stupid, ice-cream scooper Erik fell for it like a great big trout flopping in the bottom of the boat.
The ironic thing is, this has the element of being true: Parvati does have an idol. Russell just doesn’t know it yet.
The villians would have been smarter to get rid of Sandra instead of Courtney – they should know from Sandra’s previous win that she won’t hesitate to throw her vote to a majority (heck she did it last night!). She’s the most likely to join up with the Heroes and try to pick off the Villians.
Even down 6-4 at the merge (with Sandra flipping), the Villians are in good shape having two idols. Thanks J.T.!
The only person I kinda feel bad for is Jeri. I was liking her this time around, but she is the fourth wheel in her own alliance and she’s not a good candidate to switch sides – she’d probably rather go home than ally with Coldby or Rupert; and even if she did she’d end up being seventh in an alliance of seven instead of fourth in an alliance of four.
And Amanda is going with her patented “make no moves and try to blend into the background, all the while pouting about how unfair the game is” strategy.
Pretty sure that was Amanda, not Parvati. At least Parvati plays the damn game without crying about it.
To add to the blunders list would have to be James going home with two immunity idols in his pocket (and only a few times he even could have used one). There was also at least one guy that fell for an obviously fake idol (and one that fell for a pretty good imitation one, IIRC).
Also, Danielle’s boobs. That is all.
There was James, who had 2 immunity idols, and only 3 councils remaining where the idols could be played, who didn’t play one and got voted out. Remember he was a challenge monster, so he really could have counted on winning at least one of the following 2 immunity challenges.
Amanda hit 100 days at the reward challenge. At Tribal, Jeff said Parvati will hit 100 days tomorrow.
I really think J.T. made a dumb, dumb, play, even given the limited info he had. If it was 7V-4H, maybe I’d give him some credit. But he knew it would be 5-5 after they won the challenge, so why give away a huge advantage to yourself and your team, just to keep around one guy who may or may not be on your side afterwards? It seems like a huge risk for little reward. If they merge at 5-5, then you can deal with the women’s alliance. If they don’t merge, and Russell is gone, you really, really have to like the Heroes chances at the next immunity challenge, leading to a 5H-4V merge, and the women’s alliance is meaningless.
I do like thar James doesn’t take himself too seriously = when they showed the heroes’ luxery items, his was his two unused idols.
Ah, thanks. My DVR cut out before the tribal, but since it was pretty damn obvious to me who was going home I haven’t tried to watch it yet. Figures that Parvati would be pretty close behind Amanda in total days played.
I thought this too, but then looked back and think it might have come down to JT not feeling good about his tribe staying together. Why would he trust Candice to not switch over to a girl’s alliance to get rid of the remaining guys? Or Amanda for that matter? I think JT (and Colby and Rupert as well) felt like even going in 5v5 they were a minority alliance, and needed at least one more on their side.
If you look at it as a desperation move by a guy that knows he’s likely the first one targeted at the merge (for many reasons: found the idol, won before, strong individual immunity threat), it’s not quite as dumb. Still not smart (especially with what we know) but not as dumb as it seems from the sofa.
The guy that fell for the fake immunity idol that was just a stick with a smiley face scratched in it. Greatest television moment in history, ranks up there with the moon landing.
“It’s a fucking stick!”
My favorite thing about fake immunity idols is when Jeff says “This, however, is not a Hidden Immunity Idol” then throws it in the fire. Why not just cock-punch the player too?
That was Yao-Man, who gave the truck to that genuinely dumb idiot dude with the weird nicknames. He traded it to get an idol, which the idiot did not give him due to lack of honor.
Where did you see that? That’s awesome. 
No, it’s definitely Parvati. I don’t like Parvati. No real reason why, except … I just don’t. Can’t fault her gameplay, I will give her that much.
Not sure why Amanda doesn’t bother me, but she doesn’t. I am not rational in these things.
Don’t feel bad for Jerri. If you do, then the terrorists win. Or something. If she’d really rather go home then throw her lot in with Colby or Rupert, after she’s already been allied with Coach and Russell, then that’s her own damn stupid problem. You could seriously do worse than aligning with Colby.
I am starting to remember why I hate these seasons of Survivor, when all the players have done this before: everybody is pretty much the same as they ever were. Nobody does anything differently, really, and … I am weary. Same strategies, same talking points, even the same outcomes of the same challenges. I mean, every season is getting to be pretty much the same, anyway, so can’t we have new, different people to heckle from the cheap seats?
And yet I watch anyway, because Burnett owns the part of my soul that doesn’t already belong to Bruckheimer and Mountain Dew.