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The thirteen episode of Survivor Heroes vs Villains
< read all 2 reviews"Are You With Me Or Are You Against Me?"--Survivor Heroes vs. Villains Episode 13
-
May 15, 2010
- by Pardolis
- posted in Reality Rehash
Rating:
+4
The 20th season of Survivor is going to come to a close very soon and we're now down to our final six contestants. Last episode, the Villains seemed to have a firm handle on things, but Russell's craziness and paranoia caused those plans to go up in smoke. Now everyone left in the game is trying to scramble in order to keep themselves safe from the next boot. First, Candice defected to the Villains in an attempt to stay safe, but was blindsided and sent home for her efforts. Shortly afterwards, there was a second tribal council where Russell turned on his partner Danielle and sent her packing. What other crazy warped plans does Russell have in store for the tribe on this penultimate episode of the season? Will Russell himself be the next one sent to the jury? Find out the answers to all this and more as we get on with this review.
This episode begins with the Yin Yang tribe returning from a very unpredictable tribal council. Parvati immediately goes up to Jerri and asks her what is going on. Jerri responds by saying that she had to change her vote to get rid of Danielle because Russell told her to and she doesn't want to go against what Russell says. Parvati then says that the logical thing that they should have done was to vote out one of the two remaining heroes because if they both make it to the end, one of them will surely win the game. Russell then interrupts the conversation and starts feeding lies to Parvati about how Russell had to vote out Danielle in order to protect Parvati from her. However, Parvati is not buying this and she is worried that she may be next. Even though Parvati is upset at Russell for what he did, she still wants to get rid of Colby and Rupert first because of the huge threat that they pose to her. One thing that is immediately obvious in this conversation is that Parvati is the clear headed logical one. While talking to both Russell and Jerri, she's making comments and observations that make perfect sense from a strategic standpoint. Her anger at Russell is justified, but she puts it to the side knowing that working with Russell will give her a better chance at winning. That's the sign of a true gamer right there. Despite her feelings, Parvati is always focused on the prize. Russell, however, has deterioriated and is now letting emotion guide him instead of logic. He is letting his own jealousy and ego guide his actions and that has caused serious damage to his gameplay. We'll see Russell lose his marbles even more as this episode continues.The next day, the Survivors receive an interesting bit of tree mail. They find a box with a sprint phone inside. On the phone, there are messages from their loved ones. They have come to the island and they will participate in the next reward challenge. Once the Survivors arrive for the challenge, Jeff brings out a family member for each Survivor one by one. Russell and Rupert get to see their wives. Colby and Jerri reunite with a sibling of theirs. Parvati hugs her daddy and Sandra is greeted by her uncle. After this intial embrace, Jeff informs everyone of how today's reward challenge will work. Each of the Survivors must run out into the ocean and fill a bucket full of water. They then must come back up to the beach and toss the water into another bucket which will be held by their loved one. The distance between the Survivor and the loved one is quite far, so the Survivor must toss the water very accurately in order for all or most of it to fall into their loved one's bucket. Once the loved one has caught the water in his or her bucket, that loved one must pour the water into a third bucket. The first loved one to fill the third bucket all the way to the top and have their flag raised will win this week's reward, which is a trip for two (the winning survivor and their loved one) to the blowholes of Samoa with a free lunch included. Not a bad reward at all. As the challenge gets underway, Colby gets extremely frustrated at his brother for not catching the water well enough. Hey, it's been over 30 days out in the wilderness, I can understand why Colby is a little grumpy here, lol. After it's all said and done, Jerri and her sister win the challenge and they both get to go on the trip. Jeff graciously allows Jerri to choose two more Survivors and their loved ones to go along with them on this trip. Jerri chooses to bring Parvati and Sandra along for the adventure. Russell is very mad at not being chosen, to put it lightly. Jeff sends the boys back to camp while the girls get to enjoy a wonderful reward with their family member. I enjoyed watching this game play out. I think we first saw this challenge in the Cook Islands season of Survivor (correct me if I'm wrong on that). It's nice to see this challenge make a comeback and it's nice to see the Survivor's family members come visit. The contestants need a short break from the craziness of the game and this is the perfect way to do it. :-)
Parvati, Sandra, Jerri, and their family members make their way to the blowholes of Samoa. Once there, they all have a good time watching the water spray out of the holes at top speed. An old man even teaches our Survivors how to throw a coconut into the hole right before it bursts out with water. The resulting gust of water sends the coconut high into the air. It was a very cool moment to watch on tv and I'm sure the Survivors that were actually there experiencing that had a blast as well. The Survivors also took pictures of themselves with the sprint phone while they were out there as well, allowing these memories to last forever. :-). Later, the three girls and their family members enjoy a picnic lunch out on the grass. Sandra is proud to be with her uncle and she loves him for being at her mother's side as she died. It's heartbreaking to hear that Sandra lost her mother and my deepest condolences go out to her. As the Survivors are enjoying this quality time with their loved ones, Jerri has other things on her mind. She is concerned that Russell will be mad at her for not taking him on the reward and feels that Russell might try and get her out next because of this. Parvati and Sandra both assure Jerri that she will not be the next person voted out and that they will protect her from Russell should he try anything on her. Once again, Jerri is being very submissive toward Russell and while it might have helped her get this far, it doesn't do much to help her self esteem. She needs to stand up to Russell and not be so fearful of what he'll do. I'm not staying that she should completely jeopardize her game and start yelling at the guy, but I just wish that her responses didn't center so much around "not offending Russell" and centered more around "I'm tolerating Russell because it helps my game". If this were the Jerri that we saw ten years ago, she would not have let Russell push her around emotionally like this. Unfortunately, she seems to have softened since then. Jerri is playing a pretty good game at the moment, but she also needs to realize that she has value as a human being also. If Russell can't accept that or if he is unwilling to go along with that, then threaten to send him home instead. Jerri needs to be more firm with Russell or else, he might continue to degrade her and that's not good at all.
Meanwhile, the boys are sulking back at camp. Russell is furious at Jerri for not taking him on the reward. He says that he carried Jerri this far and now, he's mad that Jerri didn't pay her back for it. He feels that Parvati would've done the same thing as well and thus concludes that he can't trust the girls anymore. In order to break up this "girl power" alliance, he decides to team up with Colby and Rupert to get them out. Russell tells both of them that he'd like to go to the final three with them and get rid of Parvati at the next tribal council. Colby and Rupert agree to this plan and now, we have a threesome guy alliance in the works. When I first saw this on tv, I thought to myself....RUSSELL, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?????? Wow, the guy has truly sunk to new lows of stupidity. First, he gets rid of his alliance buddy Danielle out of pure jealousy and now, he wants to team up with the two guys that he has no chance of winning against in a final jury vote? Is he insane??? This incident right here proves conclusively that Russell has lost it and is now basing all of his decisions on emotion and not gameplay. This is coming from the guy who overcame such huge odds at the beginning of the season with smart gameplay and good alliances. Russell can claim to be a smart guy all he wants, but in reality, he is an ego-driven maniac who makes moves not based on logic, but based on a deep need to dominate everyone and puff out his chest. I guarantee that this approach will NOT get him any jury votes to win this game at the end. He has offended too many people with this wreckless tactic. If he honestly thinks that a jury is going to award him for being rude, being a bully, and making grandiose moves that are illogical, then he is far more delusional and crazy than I intially thought. I said this in last week's review and I will reiterate it here one more time. Russell will not win this season of Survivor. At all. He has screwed himself big time with this behavior and I will enjoy seeing this "hobbit on crack" fall flat on his face when he loses this season. That's right, I said WHEN he loses, not "if". That's how confident I am that Russell will not take home the grand prize. He's done.Later that night, the girls return back to their camp after spending a long day with their loved ones. All three of them are pretty tired, so they decide to lay down in the shelter and get some sleep for the evening. As they are trying to get some shut eye, Rupert stays up late into the night and proceeds to make loud noise by breaking branches and smashing coconuts and rocks into the ground. This annoys Jerri to no end and I don't blame her for feeling this way. Jerri has a history of being extremely frustrated with Rupert. Back on the All Stars Season in 2004, Rupert built an underground shelter in the beach that got washed out due to the tide coming in and heavy rain. As a result, Rupert's entire tribe (which included Jerri at the time) had to sleep out in the stormy wet elements for the evening. Jerri has gone on record to say that sleeping out there in that weather was the worst night of her life and that she could never forgive Rupert for putting her in that situation by building a crappy shelter to begin with. I'm sure Jerri was having thoughts of that shelter and that night while Rupert was keeping her up with his antics in this episode. It's a hard thing to forget and I'm sure Jerri will always hold some sort of animosity toward Rupert and his propensity to create chaotic scenarios. The dynamic between these two will be interesting to look at further should these two make it all the way to the finals this season.
Now we get to this week's immunity challenge, which is a rehash of a challenge from Survivor Gabon. With their arms outstretched, each of the contestants must use the back of their hands to hold two poles against an overhead board. If a contestant drops one of the poles onto the ground, that person is eliminated from the challenge The person who can hold up the two poles for the longest amount of time will win individual immunity and be safe at the next tribal council. As the challenge gets underway, Colby immediately loses his grip on one of the poles and is eliminated (seriously, Colby is doing terrible at the challenges this season. Back in the day, this guy won every type of competition you could think of and now, he's just cannon fodder. What has happened to this guy, lol). Sandra quickly follows suit and is out of the running. Later, Russell and Jerri loose their poles as well. It comes down to Parvati and Rupert (these two seem to do very well at endurance competitions. These two were the finalists in the colored water immunity challenge last week and now, they are once again the final two in a challenge. They're both certainly strong challenge performers, that's for sure). Both of them start shaking and losing focus, but eventually, Rupert loses his grip and his pole comes crashing to the ground. Parvati wins individual immunity for the second time this season and is safe from the vote at the next tribal council. Everyone else is at risk. I enjoyed watching this challenge again. It was fun to witness back on the Gabon season and I'm glad we got to see it again here. Even though some people may be put off by the simplistic nature of the challenge, I still like it because it shows the survivors enduring in one position for as long as they can. These straight forward challenges may look simple to perform, but after living in the wilderness for 30-something days, these simple tasks can become very challenging, let me tell you.
After the immunity challenge comes to a close, the tribe returns to camp. Russell is frustrated because his plan to get Parvati out of the game is now up in smoke due to Parvati winning immunity. Russell now has no choice but to stay aligned with the girls and get rid of one of the only two heroes left standing. However, he begins to think twice about doing this when Rupert gives him a new piece of information. Apparently, Sandra wants to team up with the Heroes to vote Russell out and Rupert wants to stir things up by telling this to Russell. This causes Russell to go up to Sandra and ask her point blank "Are you with me or are you against me?". Sandra says that she's against him and Russell says that if that's the case, she's going home next. They continue to argue for a bit and then Russell finally walks away. He talks with Rupert, Colby, and Jerri in private telling each of them that he wants Sandra out of the game next. However, Sandra is reassured by both Parvati and Jerri that she's not going anywhere and that Rupert is going home, which puts Sandra at ease. But just in case things start to change, Sandra still has the hidden immunity idol she found last episode if she wants to use it in order to save herself. It's become pretty obvious that either Rupert or Sandra is getting kicked out of the game next. Who will it be? At tribal council, we find out. The votes are cast and Jeff asks the players if any of them have the hidden immunity idol and would like to play it. Sandra immediately stands up and hands her idol to Jeff. All votes cast against Sandra will not count. The votes are then read to the contestants. Colby and Rupert cast their votes for Sandra, which do not count. Russell, Parvati, Jerri, and Sandra all cast their votes for........Rupert when it's all said and done. Rupert is the 15th person voted out of Survivor Heroes vs. Villains and he is also the seventh member of the jury. For a third time, the tie-dyed wonder could not pull off a victory on Survivor.
Rupert played a semi-ok game this time around. Out of all three of his attempts at playing Survivor, this is probably his best showing from a strategic standpoint. On his first two seasons, he wasn't the greatest strategist. The first time he played, he got completely blindsided by Jonny Fairplay. The second time, he made it to the final four, but was out of luck because he was too stupid to realize that he had to get Rob out early on if he wanted to have any shot at making the final two. This time, Rupert did have some good strategic moments at least. He was the only hero to realize that Russell was lying early on about the girls alliance, but that was mainly due to Sandra telling him and not his own intution. But still, it was good that he trusted her and tried to strategically get Russell out because of that. Rupert also came up with the idea to put a fake rock in his pocket and play it off as if he had a real immunity idol in there. This was a good move because it allowed for the possibility of people to vote someone else out and take the target off of him since people thought that he had the idol. Again, Rupert will never be crowned a "master strategist" by any stretch of the imagination, but he played well and hung in there for as long as he could. Did the tribe make the right decision in voting Rupert out? I say yes. Rupert is still very good at immunity challenges and if he had stayed, he could've easily won the last couple of immunities and taken himself into the final three. Also, Rupert would've been a hard person to defeat in front of a jury because he's too likable. For both of those reasons, Rupert had to go. It was smart for the four remaining Villains to take him out because he was the biggest threat to anyone else's chances of winning this game, plain and simple. I've never been a big Rupert fan, but I will credit him for improving his game this season. The big pirate has shown that he can still play and hang in there with the best of them. Good job. :-)
Well, the next episode is the season finale and I am very much looking forward to what happens. We have five people left and only one thing is for certain. Russell will not win. It's impossible. He'll most likely make it to the final tribal council, but there is no way that a jury will award him a million dollars. He is the least likely of the final five contestants to win the grand prize. Parvati is the second least likely to win since she is hated by most of the people that were in the game. Even though she has made some brilliant game moves this season, I don't believe it will be enough to give her the win. Jerri has a mediocre chance of winning. Her odds are about 50/50 depending on who she's up against and what criteria the jury will use to base their decision when it comes to voting. If she's labeled as a coattail rider, she won't win, but if she's labeled as the least objectionable person there, she may pull off a victory. Next is Colby. If he makes it to the finals, he'll have a great chance of winning since he's very likable and has friends on the jury. However, his lackluster performances in the challenges may hurt him in the eyes of the jury. Add on to that the fact that the villains might vote him out before the final three (or two) and this lessens Colby's chances. Colby's got a good shot at getting the million, but I don't think he'll get there to have that chance. The person who stands the best chance of winning at the moment is Sandra. She has not offended anyone on the jury, she's played strategically throughout the whole game, and she is the most likable and relatable out of all five finalists. I've been getting the feeling for the past few weeks that the editors have been setting us up for a Sandra win. She's the lovable underdog that everyone is rooting for. She's the one with a heart and soul (again, this is the story the editors are pushing here. Everyone else here has a heart and soul also for the most part, lol). She's the one who seems like the least capable of anything out there, but that is why I think she'll get the win. Her ability to stay in the background and keep the target off of her might make people hate everyone else so much that they'll have to get her the money. Sandra is my pick to win this game now. She won once before and I think she'll be the first Survivor in history to do it twice. I can't wait to see what happens.Well, that ends this review. The next episode will be the season finale. Who will win? It's anybody's guess, but it'll be interesting to see how the 20th season of Survivor comes to a close. I can't wait. Till next time. :-)
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Source: http://www.realityrehash.com/survivor/surviv...ero-bites-the-dust.html It's a sad day when it's the last Thursday episode of Survivor and with Heroes vs Villains coming to an end on Sunday we only have one more episode to go. It's been reality tv gold so far and I really do hope the finale puts the icing on the cake. After the last Tribal Council where Danielle left, Russell had some explaining to do. Parvati was immediately worried as she talked to Jerri about the vote. … more
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Pardolis
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I'm a 29 year oldwhoenjoys reviewing certainreality tv shows and scifi programming. I also post reviews on other topics every now and then as well. I enjoy being here on Lunch and interacting with … more
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It's down to the final six as a visit from family members send some to a nice getaway, leaving three left to form a new bond. But when the one who everyone wants gone gets the immunity, it's a scramble to see who should really go home as the end is near on Survivor Heroes vs Villains.
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