I think people who are playing the game of Survivor these days are thinking too soon about their endgame. There’s an interesting difference when you look at players like Jerri, Colby and even the lamented Boston Rob. They have a different sense about how the game is played.
In the early seasons, alliances were rarely formed on day one, and they almost never were utilized over strengthening the team during the early days. Weakening your tribe pre-merge is tantamount to challenge suicide, and yet that’s what both tribes have done this season, though the villains are proving themselves far more guilty of it.
That can be laid at the hands of Russell, though. The master of intratribal manipulation, he intentionally surrounds himself with weaker players than himself, building an alliance that he can easily dominate later in the game. But is it a wise strategy?
The elimination of Boston Rob left Russell and Coach as the last remaining men on the team. No disrespect to Danielle, Parvati, Jerry, Sandra and Courtney, but there’s no way they’re going to be able to go toe to toe with the likes of J.T., Rupert or Colby in a physical challenge. But the Villains keep thinking of that post-merge endgame.
They were so focused on the merge that they tore down their camp this week in anticipation of it; a futile effort as it turned out. There have been prior seasons where the merge didn’t come until very late in the game, and that could very well happen again this time around. As a fan, it’s certainly been fun watching this dramatic turnaround with these existing tribes.
With Rob running the show, and Russell holding back, the Villains just dominated everything in the early game. But once the Heroes got rid of James, due to injury, everything changed for them. Perhaps it was James’ aggressive frustration, or perhaps it was just a coincidental shift, but since then the Villains tribe has gotten weaker and weaker.
At this point, the Villains are hoping against hope for a merge, while the Heroes would love to keep their five strong and pick those Villains as low as they can. Tonight cemented that the Villains could give a rat’s ass about winning challenges as a tribe.
But, as an individual game, you have to give credit for Russell’s gamesmanship. As long as he can keep his girls loyal to him, he’s setting himself up as the perceived victim of a phantom all-girl alliance on the Villain tribe. It certainly looks that way, now that he’s the last man standing, and as we saw tonight, J.T. is certain that’s what’s going on.
I don’t suspect that Russell planned to put across that image to the Heroes, but when he saw that it was there, he certainly jumped on it. That said, one has to wonder if he knew Coach’s time was up and strategically did not vote for him, knowing Coach would be the first member of the jury. He certainly seemed sincere in wanting to keep him for the sake of the tribe’s strength.
It’s too early to say how this season will play out, but there’s no reason to believe Russell won’t find a way to weasel his way all the way to the end again. His technique hasn’t changed, and none of these players know him any better than the contestants last season did (that season hadn’t aired when this one was filmed so Russell was the only one there none of them knew — believe me, he would have been long gone by now if they had). The question is if his arrogance will cost him another million, should he make it there.
I have a feeling it will, though perhaps not in such a landslide. There were a lot of sour grapes and hurt feelings last season. While I’m sure there would be again if he makes it there in much the same way, these seasoned players are at least slightly more likely to respect the gameplay, and reward accordingly. That is, of course, unless he comes across like a cocky during the final tribal council, which is entirely possible.
But enough about what could happen later. Russell is set up either way. If they keep losing, he has plenty of girls to pick off, starting with Courtney and Sandra, and eventually that merge will come. I’m actually really looking forward to seeing how everyone interacts when it does.
On a side note, I know the Survivor cameras love Amanda and her body, but they’re really going overboard with crotch shots and butt shots this season, and particularly in this episode. I get it, she doesn’t look as Skeletor as Courtney, but this is a family show still, right?
Personally, I’m all for it, but you can’t help and laugh at how blatantly Survivor plays up the sexuality of their pretty contestants; and particularly the girls in their itsy bitsy teenie weenie must-be-filthy bikinis. I guess we’re not likely to see an “Over 50″ edition any time soon.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Apr 09, 2010 @ 09:29 EST5EDT
I was grossed out by the Amanda butt shot last night – we were watching with my best friend’s eleven and eight year olds who don’t need to see butt cheeks either- I said I couldn’t stand wearing my underwear like that. How in the world was that comfortable?
First of all – thanks a ton for writing this. Not being able to comment on Boston Rob when he was voted off really was a bummer for me. I know I could’ve written something myself but… whatever. I’m glad you wrote this, period :-)
I can offer a different perspective on why the Heroes started winning – they voted off Tom. In previous challenges the tribe was irritated because, as James pointed out, Tom didn’t shut up. He wanted to lead even though J.T. did a particular challenge before and was supposed to give the orders. All in all, the tribe was not acting as one. The other factor was James – he ALSO didn’t shut up, but in a different way. The whole time he was on the show he basically waited for others to “act up” or better do something he thought was stupid. More than once that was a single sentence from Tom which lead to him going into a tirade that “people won’t shut up”. And the tribe noticed. What I wanted to write when James was voted off was the still obvious stupidity on James’ part. He simply doesn’t get that there’s a certain courtesy you have to show. When they told him that “if you get a banana, you get one for the others as well” it wasn’t about him getting one for the others like a servant, it was the fact that everybody gets an EQUAL F*&%$ING AMOUNT of bananas! Amanda tried to justify his actions because “he’s a big guy” which is right but because he was so strong James just believed he had the _right_ to get more.
Ok what I’m about to write now is kind of silly but still. Two weeks ago, right after I watched that (friday) I started a little self-experiment. I didn’t eat for two days because of the show. I just wanted to know how long it would take me to give up. I chewed about a pound of gum during the time and after two days I started to get serious headaches. I wasn’t able to stand up, I wasn’t able to think – I basically shut down completely. I know it’s a gimmick for writing about Survivor but in the end I felt stupid for doing it so ^^;
But in the end I was right to do it. It furthered my impression of the season. Boston Rob collapsed and now I absolutely know why. The lack of food and what it does to your body is extreme. I think a lot of people don’t understand how desperate these people were in Season 2 when Colby was on the last time. They ate so much rice until they ran out – and Colby lost his tarp-flag because of it, so they could get more. They thought they would simply get more food if they were just starving enough. The incidend with the other Russell on Season 19 clearly shows us that that is NOT going to happen anymore. The situation is absolutely extreme on this show, which makes me understand James more (lots of muscles, bigger impact) but on the other hand less (lots of muscle can be turned into calories as well which as I now know HAS to be painful but not understanding that others feel pain due to being hungry as well is baffling to me).
Anyway, with the two “knuckleheads” gone (I know Tom’s intelligent which we were shown in the previews again at the end of yesterday’s episode, but more about that later), the Heroes act as a unity and that’s why they started winning.
But let’s talk about Russell first. He made Boston Rob go home. Last time when I commented here I predicted that Russell was wise to look for the idol – only Sandra said “if you get it, you are marked” which again showed that the old players didn’t do their homework (both Sandra and Rob relied on the power of peer pressure not to search for the Idol and they were so wrong to expect Russell not to go for it). As you pointed out they play the old game without the idol (“When I played the game, there was no immunity Idol” – Boston Rob). They rely on their power of persuasion but didn’t expect the “maniac” Russell is. Which he isn’t. He is intelligent the way he plays the game as a Bully. But what really irritates me is the simple fact that he is basically playing the way Boston Rob did on his earlier Seasons. As a Bully, double-crossing people BUT with the added feature of just KNOWING what others want, expect and think. He’s not within HIS mind, he’s in other people’s heads and that’s what’s so interesting (I am not going to write “great” because I don’t want to praise this little canniving *expletive deleted*) about him.
But like you said:
“As long as he can keep his girls loyal to him”
Boston Rob was right. The guy is acting insane, and it works for him. But we also saw a crack in his armor in this episode. He’s not going to see the final five I bet he won’t.
a) because he was so desperate to win Season 19 and get the title (which just makes me KNOW he won’t be on another final tribal) and
b) because he got together a nice little band of women who are going to shred him to pieces once they have the chance.
Also he is easily threatened. On Season 19 he (to me) made an error when he voted off (insert name here, I’m to lazy to do the research about the situation when he voted someone off who was threatening him). It didn’t matter then because Season 19 had so many weak, non-thinking players. But Danielle showed that she IS thinking.
What really irritated me was the editing at the end of the episode. Russell, in a kind of staged show of “I think you are right” goes to Danielle and tells her that he agrees with voting Courtney off. They made it look as if there might be a rift between Danielle and Russell and that they don’t get their act together. The final votes then were
Coach: Danielle, Sandra, Courtney, Parvati
Courtney: Coach, Russell, Jerry
And Russel SIGNED his vote (!) I mean how extreme was that? He clearly showed that he wasn’t falling for Courtney’s scheme BUT Danielle voted for Coach like Russell wanted, going absolutely against what the cut of the episode made us believe – that she wasn’t going the way Russell wanted her to go.
So what gives about THAT? I mean I kind of feel manipulated by the people putting this show together.
Which brings me to the preview “What might easily top them all”. First of all Tom on his winning season talked Ian “off the pole” (he should do that for so many parents who lost their kids to the pole), which underlines who intelligent he is. He’s the only player to date who won on basis of being honest and trustworthy (as a firefighter no wonder, which AGAIN underlines what a stupid *** Jason is).
So J.T. (who worked against the tribe which showed how he won his season and how intelligent/Perceiving Amanda is comapred to the old-schoolers Rupert and Colby) is going to give Russell the idol. That’s pretty much a given, isn’t it? First of all I don’t see it as being THAT stupid. Second of all I didn’t feel Ian jumping off the pole was stupid. Back then I thought it showed integrity and if being integer is equaled with stupid then I get the urge to punch the editor of this show in the groin.
Because of the way they edited this episode I also think they are trying to make me believe things that aren’t there and I absolutely hate that. There is stuff going on between Russell and Danielle and Parvati (I HATE that woman god how much I hate her) that they are either not showing us or didn’t manage to get on camera which I seriously doubt.
So now I (!) feel manipulated by Survivor and I don’t like that at all. Still this season was largely entertaining as long as Rob was on the show. Now it turned into something else but still I don’t hate it as much as earlier seasons because of the players but rather because of the way the showrunners think they have to edit it because they think they have to keep me interested now that my “favorite” is gone. They don’t understand that I live and breathe this show (see above experiment) and that I don’t need a catch for tuning in next week.
Still, best reality show on TV for me (with TAR finishing at a close second. I mean how cool are the Cowboys this season – but again I feel as if the “non elimination legs” are decided upon right there on the spot by the showrunners who didn’t want to see those guys off. It’s as if some teams have a get-out-of-jail-free-card).
Oh and about Amanda: I agree. It’s getting tedious. I mean Rupert looked like “god” on the fith Star Trek movie. That was so awesome – and they rather showed women brushing mud off each other’s breasts. I mean… COME ON. If I were fifteen… honestly. Fire the editor.
Bill Simmons wnoder about it in one of his Survivor podcast, Why women wears bikini in Survivor? No one goes camping in bikini… Either the producer gives them incentives to wear bikinis or the woman just want to “outsexy” each other.