Survivor Heroes vs. Villians: anyone?

[Providence A's]

Anyone watching this? I know it's the 20th season or whatever, but it's been pretty good so far. I loved Boston Rob getting schooled. "You're not playing with the amateurs anymore" to Russel. Russel proceeds to **** block him from voting out Parvati by giving her the hidden immunity idol and then gets rid of him the next TC.

[DirtyKash]

My thoughts from last night: an all-time epic episode full of greatness and awesomeness! So giddy and so pumped up by this season. Up until this point in every season, this is without question one of my favorite seasons of all-time. The first 7 episodes have been as good as any other season. Remains to be seen how things play out from here on out, but so far, it's been amazing.

Reward challenge: No shocker here as Courtney sits out again. What was up with the producers going to this challenge again? This was essentially the same challenge that they had two episodes ago when they played the tackle basketball and James injured his leg. This time, the only difference was that it's played in water. The result is obviously not shocking; despite being on a losing streak, the Heroes manage to win a challenge that's pure strength, no puzzle. How hilarious, by the way, was Coach in this challenge? His shots were uglier than Ben Wallace free throws. Gawd! He was airballing everything. The first shot especially was turrrrible!

Immunity challenge: But wait! Boston Rob loses a challenge that has to do with a puzzle?! Whaaaaat?! I was as shocked by this as I've ever been. Not just that he lost, but Boston Rob was nowhere even close to being competitive in this challenge. Yeah, Courtney stumbled badly in the relay to get the bags (should have put her on the puzzle), but I thought for sure that Boston Rob could make up the time without problem. Amanda and J.T. actually get it done.

(As an aside, the Heroes side get another clue to a new hidden immunity idol, which they say they'll look for together as a tribe and only use against the Villains post-merge. I can't this happening. Who will hold on to the idol? Who will it belong to? Who gets to use it and when? Too many questions, too many temptations and too much selfishness for this to possibly work.)

We get to the good stuff... BOSTON ROB vs. RUSSELL! This is just awesome. The two heavyweights going at it. I love how Russell plays Survivor. He might have some flaws obviously (he has had to depend on Idols to save his butt in two seasons or else he'd have gone home since he's twice been on the short end of the numbers), but the moves that he pulls off and the ability to convince women to align themselves with him, both in Samoa and here, is just great to watch. Like Coach said, he had Jerri hook line and sinker. Jerri is buying everything that's coming out of Russell's mouth. Now does this mean that Russell is going to win the game or even if he's in good position to win the game? I don't think so. He's playing the same game he played last season, using everyone, bullying them around, and even targeting/insulting them to their faces! like he did with Courtney and Sandra. That kind of game is going to come back to destroy him in the endgame, which is why Parvati or even Danielle have good shots to win this game as it stands, probably moreso Danielle since Parvati already won.

In any case, now, we have a solid group of Russell/Parvati/Danielle with Jerri as the fourth vs. Courtney/Sandra who don't seem like they have much shot, and then we have Coach who doesn't want to break his word under any circumstances (seriously, he voted for Courtney? WTF) but I think he'll end up going with wherever Jerri goes. And the ultimate slap in the face, Coach standing up post-vote, trying to give Boston Rob a goodbye hug, only to get a "you're a little man" thrown in his face. Owned.

Next week, it looks like we get chaos at the Villains camp.

Amazing episode. Amazing season.

[Providence A's]

B-Rob's comment as he was leaving came across as sour grapes to me. That's what kills me about Survivor. People have no problem screwing over other people, but then some of those people get all upset when it happens to them. It's hilarious to me. Regardless, Rob got completely owned the last two weeks and that's why it seemed a little whiny to me.

I didn't care for Parvati the first time, but I'm warming up to her now... I had forgotten that Sandra won before. I find her quite annoying.

[DirtyKash]

It was especially because Coach always claims that he never lies and always plays with integrity. But by throwing out a random vote for Courtney (i.e. not voting for Russell, he's essentially voting for Boston Rob to leave, when he had given his word that he'd vote with Boston Rob). The big problem was the previous week; Boston Rob laid out a foolproof plan to split the vote 3-3 between Russell and Parvati, but Tyson switched his vote at the last second for no reason (again, credit to Russell for planting his seed), but there was no point in switching and I think that's what bothered Boston Rob the most.

Parvati is awesome. And dangerous.

[cjkalt]

Something tells me Russell is going to start flirting his power too much and the villians will revolt against him and knock him out.

Boston Rob was my favorite survivor out there, but I gotta say now that Colby has survived the storm he's going to be in good shape as the merge has to be coming very very soon and he could be in good shape to work with the villans

Look for Russell to leave this week

[DirtyKash]

Tonight:

That was a weird tribal. The ones who voted for Coach were Parvati, Danielle, Sandra, Courtney; the ones who voted for Courtney were Coach, Russell, Jerri. Initially, or at least from what they edited to show us, Russell wanted to vote out Coach because of what Sandra planted in his head, and then he changed his mind to Courtney when Danielle suggested it. Sort of weird that Russell would vote differently from the others he's aligned with and differently from how he had wanted to vote in the first place.

Now we have Coach as the first member of the jury. Uh, what?! What bothers me about this is that they haven't even merged yet. Coach has no idea what the tribe dynamics over at the Heroes tribe are like. He's supposed to base a million dollar jury vote potentially on players he hasn't spent any time with? How does that make sense? (Not to mention that Coach isn't exactly the most rational voter in the first place.)

Reward challenge: Bowling. We saw that last season in Samoa. How lazy are the challenge creators? And on top of that, Coach makes the unilateral decision that Sandra and Courtney sit out. Yes, of a bowling challenge! Dumbass! That means that they have to participate in the immunity challenge, which was almost guaranteed to be a physical challenge. I shook my head immediately when Coach blurted out who was going to sit out. Terrrrrrrrrrrible.

Immunity challenge: Rupert covered in mud. It's scary.

Now we have no idea how the rest of the season plays out, but almost certainly J.T. sat at home tonight watching this episode regretting everything that happened. Between sneaking out to look for the hidden immunity idol only to pretend like it was no big deal because he was going to share it with the rest of the Heroes in the first place, to thinking out loud that there's a girl's alliance. Hooo boy. This is going to get good.

[DirtyKash]

Look for Russell to leave this week

Please. Let's be real here. He's Russell. He ain't going nowhere. At least not soon. He's very much in control.

[DirtyKash]

Mmm. Nevermind about that first point. Just watched the insider videos at CBS.com. Russell said when he cast his vote that "this is supposed to be a vote that I just throw off." Hence, his vote for Courtney. There's a lot at camp that we don't get to see.

[Providence A's]

A vote to throw people off? Is that what he means? How come they voted Coach off instead of Sandra or someone like that? I didn't get to catch the episode. Big shocker that Brob is Siege's favorite.

[DirtyKash]

The first of the four Coach at Ponderosa videos made me laugh. "I am man!"

[DirtyKash]

I want to see what happens if all of the votes are split between two players, and both of the players play hidden immunity idols. Are the idols discarded and there's a re-vote? What happens? Argh! This shit is kind of getting out of hand, to the point where there are too many idols and it's just taking over the game. And I'm board the Parvati and Russell bandwagon, but man, can we please have an idolless (and exileless) season?

Parvati is awesome and is in control of the game. Russell is equally amazing and even when he doesn't find idols, people give them to him. And it's not like Todd giving James an idol either, since Todd knew the dynamics. J.T. has no clue what's happening at the Villains camp and he still took the risk and got played! I can't believe this.

The worst part is the letter that J.T. wrote to Russell. Bwahahaha, are you serious here? Russell and Parvati sitting on the beach mocking the letter together is some of the funniest shit I've seen on this show. First off, where did J.T. even get the pad and pen to write this thing? No doubt the producers provided it to him to spice up the drama since they know he's about to make a fool of himself. God.

What I would have liked wanted is for Russell to have kept the idol to himself and not told Parvati, the same way Parvati didn't tell Russell about finding hers. But Russell is just too infatuated with Parvati, and I totally understand why, but at some point, you have to keep a few things to yourself. He thinks Parvati is Nathalie from last season where he can share everything and Parvati won't try any moves for herself.

As far as the show goes: the reward challenge is excellent and I loved this challenge when they played it in Tocantins with Coach dropping to his knees in pain, but I didn't like that they switched it up to one-on-one matchups. Not nearly as painful and demanding from everyone since you only have to beat one person and it didn't even go all the way because the first 3 matchups that ended were in favor of the Villains.

Outback Steakhouse. Is that place good? I've never eaten there. Looked good. And another good example of Survivor product placement pimpage, straight to the Hall of Fame with Sears, Charmin, Mountain Dew and Palm Pre.

Immunity challenge: The race through the water with the bags was good. But the puzzle was too easy.

Courtney said last week that she's happy that she finally doesn't have to live with Coach anymore. That makes me anxiously await the Ponderosa videos. Coach and Courtney, the only two jury members so far! Hahaha. And three days! She's going to lose her mind.

Next week: promo makes it obviously that it's the merge. Shit's going to get crazy with J.T. finding out that Parvati is still in the game. How's Russell going to explain this one should be fun to see, but we also see Sandra exposing the truth. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! This season is so awesome. MERGE! MERGE! MERGE!

[Providence A's]

Even if Russell didn't tell Parv about the idol, she probably would have found out at the merge anyway.

[DirtyKash]

Another all-time great episode in an all-time great season.

Parvati is quickly becoming one of the best players of all-time. She speaks to Amanda, who tells her that "she'd better play her idol tonight", and Parvati immediately knows that it's a bold-face lie. It's kind of obvious that the Heroes would flush it, and I applaud Parvati for being quick on the trigger and sniffing that shit out. I've rewatched this clip of Amanda a few times now. "Just play the idol, Parvati, trust me. Play it for yourself. If you don't hear from me, play the idol tonight. Oh this is confusing, my head hurts." Amanda is so pathetic.

The only question now is whether Sandra flips, because it's certainly possible. Either way, she'd be at the bottom of a 5-person alliance, but by flipping, she gets revenge on Russell, but it would likely cost her jury votes for sure, so there's no way she can win that way. I think Sandra's best shot would be to find the hidden immunity idol because who are we kidding, the producers are going to re-bury it, but she kind of sucks at finding shit like that.

How did it get to the point that Rupert is the smartest player on the Heroes tribe? RUPERT. He was the only one who sniffed Russell out. Things are looking bad for the Heroes.

Immunity challenge: Obviously Parvati and Danielle would dominate this challenge. It's pretty obvious that Parvati is an expert with the pole. Same for Danielle. Amazing implants, too.

Next week is going to be great because everything is out in the open. Russell knows that Parvati kept a secret from him. The Heroes know what's going on. It is on.

Loving this season so much.

By the way, it's crazy that J.T. won back in Tocantins. I need to go back and rewatch that season, because the guy got played hard. Guess the real brains of Tocantins was Stephen.

Rupert: "I dunno, I don't trust Russell."
JT: "See? I told you. He's solid, dude."
(20 mins later)
Jeff: "JT, the Tribe has spoken."

By the way, in case you don't watch the Ponderosa videos, I highly suggest them. This week was beyond epic.

JT: "You guys know where they got that second idol right?"
Coach: "No, where?"
JT: "Me. They voted me out with my own idol."
Coach:
Courtney: "Awww JTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT..."

And also, JT, Courtney and Coach have formed a rock band called "The Dragons" (of course) after they played some Rock Band on Xbox.

[Providence A's]

I just find Sandra annoying and if she flips, then they'll just pick off villains on by one....but like you said she won't win either way. And if she does flip, then they wasted two idols there because it's like one of the villains was voted out instead of one of the heroes.

Oh, and no one pointed out my type of villains...S3F is slacking.

[DirtyKash]

Candice sucks! Sure, Russell showed her that he had the idol, but she does nothing good by flipping. She really thought Russell would take her with him to the final 3? Dumb! She could have just stuck with the Heroes, and they would have voted out whoever they wanted, likely Parvati if they wanted to. Sandra had flipped for sure and was going to vote for whoever Candice wanted to, right up until Candice opened her big mouth and changed everything. Candice could've told Sandra to vote Parvati and they would have kicked Parvati out 5 to 4. ARGHHHHHH. Candice is dumb. I like Parvati and I'm happy that she's still around, but that was a terrible move to flip on Candice's part. Plus, now that she's flipped, she really has zero chance of winning. Even if she rips off a series of immunity challenge wins to get her to the Final 3, no one on the jury will vote for someone who betrayed them by flipped.

Amanda listening to Colby. Dumbass. She should have stuck to her guns, kept the clue to herself and fend off Horsielle. Colby was brutal, by the way. "Duh I dunno, I was busy watching the movie." Idiot! Pay attention and play the game.

I've said this before, but the idols really have gotten out of hand and it's not just that there are too many (a new one every episode and 6-8 of them per season now), but they're not even well hidden. Under a rock? That's it? Back on Survivor Exile Island, you had to search long and hard for them. You had one clue that led to another clue that led to a third clue and a fourth clue, etc. You had to dig really long and really hard. Now, they're just handing them out and I agree it defeats the purpose of Survivor as the social experiment. What's funny about this is Parvati thinking that Russell "wasted" an idol. Please, the producers will give Russell another one next episode before the first commercial break.

Reward challenge: Survivor Shuffleboard? Are you kidding me with this? I would take bowling or bocce ball at this point over that garbage. What the hell. This is supposed to be an all-star season. Have some all-star challenges. I know that the reward wasn't much (a movie and some popcorn, really?), but still, make them play something decent with some food thrown in.

Immunity challenge: Pretty decent. Not a physical challenge, but a solid puzzle that really tests you mentally. When you get a house of cards up to say 8-9 feet and it crumbles on you, there's nothing more disheartening.