I am still shaking with glee after watching this week’s episode of Survivor. This was one of the most well-put-together episodes in quite some time, with very little of what seemed to be obvious editing and scripting of situations. I remember last season thinking the entire show had been scripted and cobbled together from whatever footage they could find, because it was so boring. This week reminded me of the good old days of Survivor.
There was a nice build-up to the Redemption Island duel as Russell discovered that not only had his tribe thrown the challenge to get rid of him, but they had lied to him about Matt losing the last duel. Then we got to see Phillip and his undies making people crazy and disgusted and his promise to create a new persona to better fit in with his tribe. On Zapatera, Stephanie and Krista know they’re toast with Russell gone but they’re laying low … for the moment.
At Redemption Island, Phillip and Kristina from Ometepe, and Ralph and Sarita from Zapatera, got to witness the duel. This one was a little more complicated than the first duel, as Matt and Russell had to stack tiles like dominos along a track, knock them down and release a ball to break a tile (there is a lot of tile breaking this season). I’m telling you, this was one heart-stopping challenge. Not only were the tiles angled to fit on the track one certain way, but the course was rigged with trip lines that would knock over everything with the slip of a foot or the bump of a shoulder. Surprisingly, neither challenger hit one of the ropes. Matt finished his track first, but the tiles were too far apart midway through, giving Russell a chance to catch up and give it a shot. His tiles were too far apart at one point, too, so it was a nerve-wracking race to rebuild and relaunch and the ulitmate winner was … Matt!
Yes, the Survivor nightmare is finally over, and the hoped-for showdown between Rob and Russell will never happen (at least not this season, but Russell said this was his last appearance on the show — let’s see that he holds to that promise). Russell almost got me when he broke down, but then he snapped back to his old self and said he was just pissed about going out the way he did (the thown challenge). Face it, buddy, your tribe outwitted, outplayed and have not outlasted you. Buh-bye.
Phillip is still an odd duck, because I figured he would have wanted to let Rob think Russell was still in the game; bbut he related what had happened (and I loved that both sets of witnesses made it a point to include Russell’s tearful breakdown in their recountings of the duel) then wanted to sort of blackmail Rob into security by withholding certain information about what had happened after Russell’s loss. It was a pretty spectacular exit, as Russell and Ralph verbally sparred over the existence of the hidden immunity idol, Ralph nearly revealing that he had it, then saying he just played Russell (after Sarita whispered to him not to show it to the other tribe members). Phillip then used his powers of observation to declare that Ralph did have the idol, Russell saying Ometepe had all the secrets of the Zapatera tribe now and that he hopes they take out his former tribe members come the merge. Really, all of that was enough for a single episode!
But Phillip helped Ometepe fall behind at the immunity challenge, with his lack of sawing skills giving Zapatera the win (no bad karma on them for throwing the last challenge). He then continued to annoy everyone back at camp. This of course meant he would not be voted out, because Kristina — who claimed to be very intelligent at Tribal — started whispering around camp about someone probably finding a clue in their last reward and maybe having the immunity idol. Rob played it beautifully (after finding the idol) by throwing suspicion back on Kristina amongst his alliance, saying she was saying that because maybe she did have the idol but maybe not. His plan was to split the vote and get rid of Kristina, but Phillip still seemed to be a wild card, not believing Rob’s word. In the end, the vote was a little anti-climactic after the Redemption Island duel, but Phillip lives to annoy his tribe for another day — or three — while Kristina just dug herself a hole she could not escape from. I can’t imagine her beating Matt at the next duel, but stranger things have happened. I just don’t want to see Russell back in any way, shape or form until the reunion!
“I’ve never been this hungry in my life. I haven’t thought about sex in two weeks. All I’m thinking about is food.” – Mike
“When I come back from a loss, the very last thing I really want to have to endure is Phillip’s yammering.” – Kristina trying desperately to fit in with her tribe
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Mar 09, 2011 @ 22:49 EST5EDT
Man I am sitting here watching the episode and going into the Redemption Island duel I was so torn – do I root for the guy who’s obviously nuts and thinks he’s a gift from god – or do I root for Russell? ^^;
To be honest I think it’s awesome to see people who are actually competing back on the show. Russell is so dedicated to winning the game it’s a joy. On the other hand he thinks he’s this great player who can dominate them all – and that makes him kind of a douche, doesn’t it?
Watching them talk after he lost, seeing how all that pressure got released on camera – all the adrenaline draining from your body, that you have to admit you got defeated. He lost his virginity and it clearly showed. Finally he was beaten, for the first time. Now he can no longer go around claiming he never was voted off the island.
That was a great moment. And sure Russell was right, Ralph isn’t playing the game right. He’s dumb. But I think that’s just more salt in Russell’s wounds because he got defeated by stupid people and oh how he must hate that. Stupid people beating him… oh the humanity! Can’t they see that Boston Rob is going to dominate them, now that king Russell isn’t there anymore?
How sick and twisted do you have to be in your mind to believe that? I mean I know that I don’t see everything that’s going on in this game but this again showed to me that Russell never appreciated his other tribemembers on a single season. He’s like Hatch – thinking that they are all sheep who need guidance to win – and who are there to be plucked one after another only for him to remain. Finally this has bitten him in the ass. And good riddance.
But then you see the “Federal Agent” and “The Hick” duking it out at who’s more gullible. It’s such a shame that Russell indeed is kind of right. Ralph doesn’t know how to play the game, laying all cards on the table. And Philip couldn’t be more annoying at pretending he knows anything about this game. I seriously can’t believe that ten years in these people don’t know what you can and what you can’t do on “Survivor”. I was already pissed last time when TWO contestants left the game on the same day, people who don’t really want to compete but rather chose to dillydally twenty days and then just leave. I’d take Russell over Nee’Onka any day, any time. It’s great to have someone to hate and you can hate them both equally but at least Russell never quit and you have to hand it to him that with his body structure and the obvious need for food he never showed a smidgeon of weakness in the three seasons he was on the show.
You are right, this was a great episode. Let’s just hope that with voting off one of the most interesting contestants the rest of the season will be just as interesting.
Nicely put Sebastian. I will only add that seeing the raw emotion in Russell’s face gave me so much compassion for him as a person. It’s kind of like a wildlife show, when the grey back gets defeated and goes off alone to die, it does not matter how much of a arrogant ape he was, one just looks on and mourns the dwindle of strength.
Russell did more for his image with those tears than he could possibly know.
I know what you mean. Problem is that I have listened to a couple of radio shows about psychology and saw a couple TV shows about it. It’s just that psychopaths think about the world in other terms than we do. They think that people are weak and that it’s their own fault when they get deceived. And I am on the fence about Russell when it comes to judging whether he’s just a fierce competitor, if he defines himself by winning, or if he’s just a psychopath who thinks using people is just part of nature. Eat or be eaten. And if his emotions were just a result of self-pity and adrenaline. That’s why I think Probst asking Russell about losing and the way he did it was great. I think Probst is trying to find this out himself.
I too get soft when I see people cry. I sincerely hope that there’s hope for him, that he has real feelings and that he cares about people. You know. Some people. And that his actions on the game are just that – the game. Problem is that I think they said in the past that he’s made millions in the oil business and then I have to start asking myself the question how he made those millions. I doubt it was dumb luck. It’s the same with some of those realtors who got out of the housing market early enough to have made millions with those sandcastles. They think they deserve that money even if it came from the 401k money from other people – those people were basically stupid to buy those houses and that’s that. And I think Russell works this way. He sees his own good and all that counts in the end is that he won – no matter how he got there. Everything he did was awesome because, duh, he won. Or at least he thinks he did because I still don’t get why he thinks he’s such a great player when he never won and only made it to final tribal. That’s per definition NOT winning and with that he’s not a winner. He just doesn’t see it that way. And you have to me some kind of delusional when you keep thinking that.
And again you have to question whether he cried out of regret or sorrow or out of anger because “them other players are stupid” and because he’s now “not a winner anymore”.
We’ll have to wait for the Reunion I guess to find out. At least he’s delusional in an interesting fashion, not like Coach or Philip or Ne’Onka who think they are great without having ANY reason to think so ^^;
*POST AUTHOR*
Russell nearly got to me when he broke down because it was an amazing moment. Then, like Sarita said, he turned around and pulled out the Russell-ness in him and pretty much ruined his own moment of humanity by then attacking his tribe as a bunch of idiots simply for the fact that they outwitted, outplayed and outlasted “the king.” We all thought that we were going to see the real, humbled Russell right there, but all we really saw was a sore loser. And then in his little exit interview, he sounded more like a spoiled brat who didn’t get what he wanted when he said he would never play the game again, which sounded more like a threat (“If I can’t play to the end, I’m not playing anymore. Waaaaaah!”).
The only part of the game Russell was good at was manipulating people who didn’t know him. No one knew him on his first season, and only the viewers knew him on his second season because they were filmed back to back and the first season hadn’t aired yet. Everyone knew him this time and they knew his game, it didn’t change one iota, and they knew he had to be dealt with before he took them all out. I don’t think the tribe was stupid at all because anytime they lost, someone besides Russell would have gone home. If you’re playing for a million dollars, you have to take out your biggest threat if you can’t form an alliance with him and those six Zapatera tribe members would have all been on the jury had Russell stayed … and then he would have lost without a single vote again and been bitter about the “idiots” who don’t see how brilliant he is, all the while never once realizing that for all of his strategy he still has no idea how to actually play the game properly and at least give the appearance of being social with the tribe. He couldn’t have known on his second season that that is why he lost since the winner hadn’t been announced when they started filming. He’s had plenty of time to hone his social skills since then, watch the shows and see where he made his mistakes, but he didn’t, he played as the same old dog with no new tricks, and that was his downfall. So, good riddance. I wonder if he’ll try to “buy” the title of Sole Survivor again.
I can’t pretend to know the contents of a man’s heart, but I know for sure he cried because he’s a human being. He also did say something surprisingly non self serving. “If this was the real world, I would be rooting for Matt….” that tells me he’s at least somewhat aware that his behavior is boorish. This is the best he’s ever come off to my mind.
*POST AUTHOR*
The only reason he respected Matt was because he beat Russell fair-and-square, but Russell still didn’t accept that he was in that position because his “flock of sheep” turned on him. Russell proved he was still a sore loser by exposing everything about his tribe to the Ometepe tribe members and saying he hopes someone from that tribe wins now because his own team outsmarted him. The only reason for his breakdown was because Russell didn’t go out of the game on Russell’s terms.
Yup, he’s human, capable of the full range of emotions. That’s good. I really did not know if he was capable.
To be fair, lots and lots of them are sore losers. In fact, as I consider myself, I think I have been a sore loser (albeit less vocal) almost as much as I’ve been gracious.
Either way, it makes for good Survivor.
I agree. At least he DID cry.
But still… you have to wonder if he cried because his precious was thrown into the lava…
Great episode. Great moment. Loved how Matt cried with him, great scene. Matt seems to be a great guy, I hope he beats Kristina.
It burnnnnesssssth it freeeeeeezzezzzzzth! :)