Master of the Game

Russell Hantz is the greatest Survivor strategist EVER. We've said it before and man oh man did he PROVE IT AGAIN last night in a masterminded move so risky yet so extremely calculated it had us jumping up out of our seats and cheering for Russell the Man at one the greatest Tribal Councils in Survivor history! Another historic blindside - although blindsides are becoming super common these days.

Other bloggers are calling it "one of those most ingenious and indescribably joyous maneuvers in "Survivor" history." WE AGREE!!!

Last night was a double elimination episode so the immunity challenge wasn't between tribes but a contest within each tribe.


Heroes:
Colby, for some unknown reason, isn't able to DO anything physical this season, leading to some of the snarkiest and saddest comments ever. James lamenting his Heroes weakness said, "it's like Superman is wearing a girdle", amongst a few other gems (see Jeff's blog for the verbatim rundown). Well, sexism aside, James, you're right. Poor Colby was spiked with kryptonite or something. Get him Viagra STAT! The man is impotent and he admitted it, which, you know, made him even more of a man than James. It takes a man with self confidence to admit to the world that's he's fucking up and can't seem to do anything right. It took the wind right out of James' rant. Everyone likes Colby. For his trouble James got voted out. Sayonara, dude. Don't let the non-existent door hit you in your well-formed glutes on the way out!

Villains:
Boston Rob. End of story. Give the guy a puzzle and he's finished within seconds. He then went on the beat the Heroes winner, Candice in a race to see which tribe would have the privilege of hot dogs and the special treat of sitting in on the other tribe's council.

Russell and BR had words. "Watch your back" blah blah. BR wants Russell voted out so badly its starting to drive him crazy. Rob had a great plan to get Russell out whether or not Russell had the Immunity Idol or not. However, he's playing with RUSSELL who has a counter-plan for every move. So Russell put into play his riskiest move ever and it paid off!

At Villain council Russell stood up and instead of playing the idol for himself, he made a huge show of giving it to Parvati. Parvati got 4 votes, which were thrown away and then it was between Tyson and Russell. Tyson 4 - Russell 3 or 3-2 whatever. The stunned and shocked look on Rob's face and the smirky "got you" on Russell's was worth the price of admission. Awesome!

People are calling the BR/Russell feud the "Clash of the Titans" but, you know what, that's not our take. Here's what we see and what we say: Boston Rob welcome to Survivor, Professor Hantz will school you now.

This show is getting better every week. Now if they would only vote out Sandra!

Jeff Probst's EW Blog