Surprised JT won dumbest move in Survivor history. Not knowing Russell, it was pretty dumb, but I think it’s only dumbest with 20/20 hindsight knowing Russell. Really thought Erik was the dumbest, but I suppose people don’t remember him that well.
I was one of the first to cry bitter cakes last season, but I disagree this time. Russell didn’t play nearly as good of a game this time and Sandra played much better than Natalie did. The fact that she’s pretty much the only person to go against Russell and survive is good enough for me.
Although I think Parvati should have won just for that “Double Immunity Idol” move. That was bigger than anything Russell did.
I think he won because it was fresh in people’s minds. Wait a few years and Erik will win again.
Surprised Russell won America’s vote for Player of the Season. I assume people voted for Most Entertaining. Parvati should’ve won… ah well.
This. The only thing I can add is that Russell seems to blame everyone except himself. He lost, which means it was the game’s fault, the jury’s fault, his burnt hat’s fault, everybody’s fault except his own. That he got zero votes was extraordinarily fulfilling. You have to believe that that fact alone has to plant a seed of doubt in that peabrain of his.
Better him than Rupert again. Ugh. It may give him way too much validation, but I think it’s a vote for his entertainment value, which is superior than stroking Rupert’s indulgent ego.
Sandra’s burning of Russell’s hat was a very nice touch. Yes, I know, it was childish, and a bad, bad thing to do, but OMG I enjoyed it immensely.
I’m glad Sandra won, but I don’t think the jury gave Parv enough credit for all her excellent strategizing. But that’s probably because that Russell-stench mentioned by singular1 stuck to Parv just a bit too much.
Does anyone think Rupert’s gratitude speech to Sandra swayed any vote(s)?
Boooooooooooooooo!
I was rooting for Parvati all the way, and she played all the cards at the final TC I was hoping she would. But the Russell stink was too much with the jury; nobody so closely associated with him ever stood a chance.
Loved when Parvati referred to Russell as her “pet.”
I was stunned that Russell actually said he thought Parvati should win. WTF? By his logic he should have won. Was that an actual moment of clarity for him?
I thought he was saying that in response to just Parv or Sandra, taking him out of it.
I do wonder if Sandra actually benefited a ton from the Heroes not trusting her and taking out Russell. They all feel bad, thinking they should’ve gone with her… but at the same time, she doesn’t have to deal with the problem of potentially being the 6th man on the totem pole if the Heroes had started voting out the Villains one by one.
Oh it was absolutely weak sauce. Russell rightly pointed out that Sandra’s biggest strategic move was failing to oust Russell three times, which is hardly anything to crow about. And your point is 100% correct: had she succeeded, she probably would have been gone long before the final.
Parvati correctly pointed out that she had no choice in allying with Russell; the entire villians tribe except Russell wanted her gone from day 1, and even the Heroes wanted her out as evidenced by JT’s letter.
I really thought the longterm strategy of letting Russell take the heat was a respectable one, and when combined with bold strategic moves plus being a challenge monster she was a mortal lock. Now I’m left fervently hoping that Joanie’s dire prediction of Sandra clones doesn’t materialize.
Good lord, Sandra has never won an individual immunity challenge in either of her two seasons, sat out most of the villians’ challenges in the early part of this season, nobody ever wanted to vote her out because she was so pathetic, and that was the person the jury felt earned the million? Ugh.
Parvati should have won.
Russel had no social game. Sandra had no strategic or physical game.
Parvati was strong on strategy, social, physical.
The jury is stupid. What on earth did Sandra do to deserve the win?
Being able to roll with the punches and get to the end in an alliance of one is hard. Sandra did it and the Heroes rewarded that.
Parvati tried to distance herself from Russell, but while the pet comment was awesome, she needed to say more to show the jury that she was the one controlling him. We in TV-land saw it, but the jury didn’t.
I would argue that no punches needed dodging.
First, her ousting of Coach was a great move; mad props for that. (Though Courtney went home the next TC anyway.)
Sandra started off as the weakest player in a strong alliance. Her alliance was picked off one by one, from the top down. Her being the weakest (even weaker than Courtney!) meant she was going to be the last one ousted. But the merge happened before it came down to that, so now she was once again the weakest player in a strong alliance, with the Heroes getting picked off one by one with no deviation except for a single hiccup due to Russell throwing a tantrum.
Wow, I really thought Parvati was toast when she lost that final immunity challenge (by mere inches!) I wonder if Russell’s strategy was to take two winners to the final TC, thinking the jury wouldn’t give another million to either? I guess it wouldn’t have mattered. Once the final three was set, I really expected Parvati to easily win. So I was surprised that Sandra won, but not terribly disappointed. I was a fan of Sandra’s in her first season and I was really rooting for her in her efforts to get the Heros to join her in ousting Russell this season.
I guess the jury thought Parvati rode Russell’s coattails too much? It didn’t seem to me that she did, but we don’t have the same perspective that the jury does. If Russell had his way and the viewing audience got to vote, my vote would have definitely gone to Parvati.
I think the most telling moments about Russell during the last two seasons have occured during the “remembering the survivors” segment where they reminisce about all the players that were voted off. Both seasons, Russell seems to go out of his way to make nasty or belittling comments about these other players. The other survivors (in this case Parvati and Sandra) usually at least try to come up with something positive or at worst some neutral comment to say about their former opponents, but Russell just has to stroke his own ego by putting everyone down and pointing out how he got the better of them. He really must be a despicable person, not just in the game, but in real life.
Random thoughts about the reunion show:
- Loved the interaction between Rob and Russell
- Colby’s remarks were really interesting, about not being able to explore the jungle, and also something about not being able to go into the water as much. Anyone know what he’s referring to? Sounds like they were fairly restricted in what they were allowed to do. I hadn’t thought about it, but it does seem like they didn’t utilize the water as much in challenges this time.
- Coach is still a tool.
- Randy is just miserable.
- James won’t acknowledge what a bully he was this season. That’s one thing that bothers me about Amanda, actually. She always acts so sensitive and like she doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but she didn’t seem to have a problem with her BFF James bullying and talking trash about his own teammates–especially his unnecessarily mean comments about Colby.
- I hadn’t noticed before, but Colby (especially in the clips from the Australian season) looks a lot like a young Roger Staubach.
- I liked Tom’s assessment of playing Survivor: It’s 1/3 physical, 1/3 strategic & social, 1/3 luck, and whoever wins deserved to win.
- the “If They Mated” ultimate Survivor bit was pretty stupid
(shallow, eye-candy comments)
- Stephanie looked great, but plugging her restaurant was a :rolleyes: moment.
- Courtney is really pretty when she’s not starving in the jungle. She’s still stick-thin, but her face has a little more fullness to it. (I think I said pretty much the exact same thing at the China reunion show.)
- Amanda and Parvati, on the other hand, looked better in the jungle, with less makeup.
- Candace looks great and Danielle cleans up okay.
- Amber (Survivor All-Stars winner and Rob’s wife) was looking good, too.
- Sugar is always gorgeous, loved seeing the recap of her finishing that challenge topless and then giving the double-bird to the villains. Wish we could see an unblurred version.
- Jerri was wearing a shit-ton of makeup tonight.
Agreed. Well, I wasn’t surprised JT won (I figured he would because it was the most fresh in people’s minds), but I disagreed with it. I would actually say that JT’s move was the LEAST dumb of the five.
She gets naked in Sex and Death 101, as does Winona Ryder if only for a quick glimpse at the end. It’s actually not a terrible movie; the prurient interest is an added bonus.
I agree that Erik’s move was the dumbest, but JT’s one was definitely among the top. There was no sense in that move, whether or not Russell was on the outskirts of a female alliance or not. He gave the idol to someone he had barely spoken to, and who had been put in the villain tribe. That’s one major assumption to make.
If JT does give the idol and Russel votes out Parvati, then it’s 5 heroes vs 5 villains and Russell may or may not jump to the hero side. He’d still be making himself the 6th hero over 5th villain, so it’s not guaranteed that he would jump. It may end well for the heroes, but they may also end up still 5 vs 5 with no idol.
If JT does give the idol and Russell keeps it, it’s now 5 vs 5 and the villains have an extra idol. It’s a complete disaster for JT and the heroes.
If JT doesn’t give the idol and Russell gets voted off, it’s 5 vs 5 and the heroes still have an idol to use against the villains. Heroes have a good situation.
If JT doesn’t give the idol and Russell doesn’t get voted off, they know there is no female alliance and have more information about the villain tribe. They still have an idol to use against the other tribe. Heroes still have a good situation.
Not giving the idol away leaves you in a decent spot no matter what. Giving the idol away may or may not put you in a good spot, but can potentially end in disaster. Not knowing Russell had nothing to do with how dumb a decision it was. It was foolish to trust someone unknown on the villain side, when you had hardly anything to gain by it.
Erik’s was really the dumbest move, as he had nothing to gain by giving immunity away. At least James had a strong alliance backing him, and playing the idol then would have potentially put another one into play for their enemies to use. He still should have used it of course, but it’s not as dumb a move as Erik’s.
I agree totally. I think JT’s was the least dumb of the candidates. All the other moves looked dumb no matter what you knew; all of JT’s tribe thought there was a woman’s alliance and none of them knew Russell.
I think this finale should quiet the people who argued that Russell should have won last season. No, he shouldn’t have. He’s like a person who enters a triathalon and only focuses on biking and running. The fact that he nearly drowns because he hasn’t bothered to train in swimming doesn’t detract from his delusion that he SHOULD have won the race because he kicked ass in the other two parts. Triathalons don’t work that way and neither does Survivor. The SOCIAL part – knowing that your ousted teammates are eventually going to vote for the winner – is an integral part of the game. And those who don’t come to grips with that will lose.
What Russell also doesn’t realize is that the ONLY reason he survived as long as he did was because he acted so much like a dickhead that those that remained no longer saw him as a threat. Had he been a true threat – that is a “warrior” and a gentleman – Parvati would have gotten rid of him, end of story.
The fact that Rob wouldn’t shake his hand afterward speaks volumes about how they really felt about Russell. Boy, did he (Rob) put on some weight after the show! Congrats to him and Amber on their new baby.
Jeff’s comment to Coach that he only has 10 seconds because he knows that Coach would tell a story was hysterical.
It’s too bad that so much time was devoted to Candace that he didn’t get to ask her if she regretted her stupid move. Personally, I think her move (switching tribes to be fifth on the villains) was equally stupid to JT’s.
I was rooting for Sandra, but I think she should have been a tad more gracious at the finale. (I know, I know, it’s not her personality.) Clearly she had issues with Russell, but she beat him, so it would have been nice to see her out-class him, too.
I agree that Jerri looked scary with all that makeup on. She’s so much more attractive in her natural state.
Danielle is much more attractive when she’s not showing her scary cleavage.
It’s funny because as acerbic as Tyson and Courtney are on the show, both would probably be fun to hang out with off the show.
Once again, I will repeat my wish that they’d devote more time to the reunion show and less to the last two rounds. I find the reunion show much more interesting but man, it’s chock full of commercials, and then they do stupid things like the morphing of all the contestants into one image.
I wonder if the reason that they restricted the water challenges and the contestants spending time in the water was because of tsunami threats…
Russell really could have benefited by an ounce of humility. Just tell Jerri the truth - “I was really counting on her vote, and knew that Parvati and Sandra would swap votes because they’ve been close. I would have loved to give you a chance at the $100,000, but I had to look after my own interests first.”
It might not have worked, but if Jerri was truly torn three ways, he could have at least made an effort. Just TERRIBLE jury management.