The Villains go after million dollar pizza.
Survivor: Heroes vs. VillainsBlog: Episode 8
9th Elimination: Coach
Eight episodes in, Survivo: Heroes vs. Favorites has gotten into a bit of a rut. We had the Boston Rob vs. Russell showdown last week, which didn’t quite live up to the hype. Then this week, we basically had a bunch of moping and whining from the Villians who have pretty much mailed it in while awaiting a merge. Hopefully things will pick up again next week with a merge, but I’m not holding my breath. I’ll get to the reason why in a bit, but first, let’s run through the pertinent moments of this past episode.
#1 – The Hidden Idol
JT tried to make the selfish play and hunt down the “team” idol for himself, but thankfully Amanda sniffed him out. Like I mentioned in the past, JT completely ruined his reputation with all that flip-flopping early on. He may have been able to pull of this idol move had he kept his “trustworthy” cover intact. Unfortunately for him, nobody trusts him any more, and more importantly, even if he does make it to the end, nobody’s voting for him. He’s a marked man.
#2 – Don’t Sleep on Sandra
She’s bad at challenges. She’s got an even badder attitude. To look at her, you’d never think in a million years that she’s a former Survivor winner. (Well, unless you were a smart guy like me who actually picked her to win Survivor: Pearl Islands during the first episode.) Yet, though all those things may be true, the fact remains that Sandra is a PLAYER. I used to not even need one hand to count the number of times some one has played Russell. After this past week, I do, as one person finally managed to outsmart him. That person, is Sandra.
Russell has proven himself to be anything but predictable. However, if there’s one trait he’s held firm to throughout his entire Survivor career, it’s the fact that he’ll kill you in cold blood if he thinks you’re gunning for him. Sandra used that to her advantage by planting the seeds in Russell’s head that Coach was making a play to vote him off. Sure enough, Sandra’s deception turned an easy decision to pick of the physically challenged Courtney into a vote for Coach.
It’s rare to see Sandra, a notorious “go with the flow” type of strategist, make such a bold move, but her back was up against the wall. Do not, I repeat, do NOT sleep on Sandra down the stretch.
#3 – Food < $1,000,000
Granted, I have never known the level of starvation that the Survivor cast goes through, but it still boggles my mind how often people make decisions regarding food that ultimately cost them the game. Coach pushed hard to have Parvati and Danielle participate in the reward challenge to win pizza, thereby forcing the inept Sandra and Courtney to play in the immunity challenge. This was especially dumb considering that the reward challenge was Survivor Bowling and involved rolling a ball in a straight line. This was not sumo wrestling. I’m sure that Courtney and Sandra would have done just as well as Danielle and Parvati, who knocked down a total of ZERO pins combined in this challenge. So not only did the Villains lose out on pizza, but they got slaughtered in the immunity challenge. Their numbers lead is reduced to 6-5, and if a merge doesn’t happen soon, the surging Heroes may ultimately have the advantage.
And once again, let me just point out that while pizza would have been nice, Coach really could’ve used some immunity this week. I think I smell a Survivor Manifesto rule coming on…
Survivor Manifesto Rule #8 – No matter how hungry you are, or how safe you may feel, never jeopardize immunity for food. You never want to look back and realize you ate a million dollar meal.
#4 – Something fishy is going on…
For starters, the “Last time on… Survivor” recap this week was nauseatingly biased. It went on and on about how Boston Rob had turned from Villain to Hero while the “evil” Russell ended up taking him out. Last time I checked, neither of these two were applying for sainthood. Boston Rob is a Survivor villain through and through and the fact that Russell outplayed him in a battle of the baddies does not make him a hero. Let’s call a spade a spade.
Also, what’s up with the Heroes having a hidden immunity idol while the Villains do not? Never in the history of the hidden immunity idol has their not been symmetric placement in both camps. Now maybe the Villains just need to win a reward to get a clue, but from where I’m sitting, it looks like the producers planted an unfair advantage in the laps of the Heroes to help them catch up. They know where their bread is buttered and a JT/Amanda/Rupert/Colby final four is going to pull in a lot more people than a Sandra/Courtney/Danielle/Jeri final four.
If we don’t have a merge this week, and the Heroes are allowed to tie things up at 5-5, I’m calling shenanigans!
#5 – But maybe it doesn’t matter…
Because JT might be giving Russell the hidden immunity idol to protect him from the made up “all-girl alliance”????????
This may effectively kill Amanda’s chances, but seeing a horrifically stupid move like that go down would be totally worth it. I mean, it’s RUSSELL! The dirtiest player EVER! How many times do I have to write in all caps before SOMEBODY REALIZES THIS?
#6 – And just for the record…
No matter what they said in the previews for this week, even if JT does hand over the idol to Russell, it’s not the dumbest move ever. Erik will forever hold that title for giving up the immunity necklace in Fans vs. Favorites.
Ian in Palau let his emotions get the better of him. In China, James just got greedy with his two idols. When Jason found the “stick” idol in Micronesia, it didn’t have much consequence. Tyson didn’t think the numbers through when he voted for Parvati. JT would be making a desperate play based off of bad information.
Erik was just flat-out suckered. Erik should have know better. Erik is the King of Idiots.
