Survivor: Heros versus Villains "Survivor History" 4/15/2010

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You can just as easily make the claim that Russell being unkown was a disadvantage to him. I'm still surprised he wasn't voted out by now simply because he is unpredictable (being unknown). All the other villain tribe members know everything about each other's gameplay. They've watched each other's seasons...and some have even played together before so they know who is trustworthy and who is not. Russell is the first person they should have been threatened by because he is unpredictable. They know what to expect with eachother...but not with Russell.

 

I agree.

She kind of lucked into her position, but she's playing it very well.

 

The story of her life, I imagine.

 

Not only that, but out of ALL the villians in past seasons, he's one of the top 5 male villians chosen for the show. Sure, an argument can be made that perhaps someone declined to return (Crazy Shawn Powers) or was unable to (Machiavellian Richard Hatch), but to give up an idol on the assumption that you've telegraphed to them by talking about it loudly and openly during challenges directly to them is pretty dumb.

I understand the idea, but here's what I don't get. Why?

The Heroes have an idol that the Villians don't know about. They might assume that the Heroes have gotten a second clue, but every one of the Heroes can confirm independently that Tom found and played their idol.

The assumption is that there will be a merge and that you'll go to that merge with 5 vs. 5 if the Heroes win the immunity challenge (they did).

Colby flips or Candice flips, but I would think that the better flipper would be Amanda by approaching Parvati and Danielle asking for room in their alliance with herself and Candice. She finds out who the Villians are going to vote for (likely either JT, Rupert, or Colby) and report back. That person uses the Heroes' idol and unless the Villians play their idol, one of them goes home (likely either Parvati or Russell).

The trouble will be is if the Heroes don't believe Sandra (who, by her vindictive nature knows that she's on the bottom of the Villians totem pole and REALLY wants to stick it to Russell and Parvati for voting out her protection (Coach and Courtney)) and Sandra gets fed a lie about who the Villians are voting for, reports that to the Heroes, the Heroes use their idol, and are now down and out for the count while the Parvati retains her unknown idol.

JT is now, in my opinion, the title holder of "Stupidest Survivor Move Ever" surpassing Eric. Eric knew the situation and still gave up the idol. JT can only guess about the situation and have up a hidden idol.

I don't know why the Heroes were so keen on making sure Russell stayed in the game. Again, they had their own hidden unknown-to-the-Villians Idol. If there IS a womens' alliance, how difficult would it be/have seemed for Amanda and Candice to jump to that ship and vote off the remaining guys. Easy easy, all the while knowing they've got an ace up their sleeve because the Villian's woman alliance doesn't know the man they'll be voting for will play a hidden immunity idol.

I know JT found the idol, but why didn't someone try and convince him much harder to keep the idol for the entire group at the merge instead of use it on an assumption.

Dumbest.Move.Ever.

 

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Well, then Amanda and Parvati with 100 days of play have an even more pronounced advantage. The game is simple. Use what you brought into the game to play. That includes what you know and what they don't know. It's entirely possible, in fact, likely that players who played one way before will act in completely different and unknown ways a second or third time. I don't really see that as a huge advantage. To me, the single best advantage is more time in the game. That means Amanda and Parvati have the biggest advantage but you still have no idea how that will play out.

 

Under the assumption that Sandra makes the jury, that right there makes 3 members voting against Russell. Sandra because she's vindictive and mean, Courtney for the same reasons, and Coach because he feels as if he was betrayed after pledging his fealty to King Russell. Continuing with the assumption, Rupert and Colby will certainly be angry that Russell didn't join them, and won't "respect" that kind of play. That's 3 solid against and 2 likely against. Russell is a long shot to win this game.

 

Before they brought Russell back, the producers told him that because there was no "record" of him, he would very likely be treated with extreme prejudice by the Villians, be one of the first ones voted out. He said he was fine with those odds. The returning Heroes & Villians were simply told that he was one of the top 5 male Villians of all time.

That Russell was able to get Randy out before him (through strategic play of hiding the machete and subtlely blaming Randy for it) is a testament to his gameplay and ability to read and manipulate people.

The Villians should have made him the first person off their tribe based solely on the fact that none of them knew him and that none of them knew what he did to get there in the first place. They failed to see that and have paid the price.

 

They said he was one of the top five since 5 guys were selected for the villain tribe. If you look at it like that, Coach was selected and he isn't devious at all. Randy wasn't either. He was just a dick. However, I agree JT should have realized he was picked as a villain for some reason and shouldn't trust him for that simple fact.

 

Up until this episode, JT has been flip flopping on which of his own tribe to throw under the bus.

Frank

 

Courtney is vindictive? I don't think so. Sure she can be a smart mouth, but that's about as far as it goes. All bark and no bite. She even said in her exit interview that she doesn't really hate anybody on the tribe and she wishes them all the best of luck.

 

Why would you look at it like that when Jeff explicitly said in his blog, "We told everybody at the start of the show that they should read a lot into the fact that while they hadn’t seen Russell play, Russell was selected as one of the 5 most notorious male villains of all time." ?

 

I'm not one that buys into the fact that Russell had a huge advantage. But what Jeff said doesn't really carry much weight either. The Villains tribe was made up of five men and five women. Therefore, each of the five men on the Villains tribe could be considered "one of the five most notorious male villains of all time." All that means is that Russell is on par with Tyson and Coach and Randy. Not really all that villainous, if you ask me. If they're selecting those people as notorious male villains, then I consider their judgment to be clouded and then I have to wonder how villainous Russell really is.

Now if Jeff had qualified that statement, by saying something like, "He's one of the five most notorious male villains to ever play Survivor, and that includes many players who are not part of this Villains tribe for a number of reasons, then that gives it much more credibility, IMO. But I don't think anyone attached to the show is going to admit that there were much more villainous possibilities out there who got left at home because the fans didn't like them, or because they needed equal numbers of men and women, or because they were in jail, or because they didn't want to play the game again, etc.

 

At Ponderosa, Courtney told Coach that Parvati was the one that wanted him gone and Russel did not vote to send him home...

 

Not to mention that Russell signed his vote for Courtney.

 

There is no such thing as a sure vote in this game. We've often seen people put the personal vindictive feelings aside and vote for who "played the best game". If Courtney is going to be vindictive, then she won't vote for Sandra either since Sandra voted to evict her. And Russell didn't vote for Coach...everyone else did.

 

Oh, yeah. Russell is being promoted favorably so that people like him, and they are doing it by showing us clips of him burning people's socks, emptying the canteens, burying the machete, insulting all of the players of his previous season, etc. Right?

 

Bahh bahh, I'm a sheep!

 

the Russell haters (and me, the Barfarti hater) need to take note: while I think the Heroes have the upper hand and should breeze through the Villains, I don't think that will happen...

be prepared for Russell to turn the tables (and for Barfarti to be right there with him taking the credit) and make a game of it...

the heroes are too dumb to take advantage of their good fortune...

 

Right now its five heroes and five villains left: Rupert, Colby, JT, Amanda and Candace vs. Russell, Pavarti, Danielle, Jerri, and Sandra. The Russell/Parvati/Danielle alliance looks pretty solid, and they have two II's. Sandra will flip to the heroes in a second, and Jerri will probably be right behind them. Let's assume those idols will be put to good use, and Russell's alliance survives two votes: then its either five to three (if Jerri flips) or four to four (if she sticks with the villains.) Its going to be very interesting to see how this plays out.