Well the season of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains has come to a close and I am happy to report that I predicted the final 3 and winner here on this blog, several weeks ago.
As suspected, with Colby's loss at the immunity challenge proved to be the final nail in his coffin and I loved his I'm resigned to going speech, then a little bit later he tries to work on Russell. Finally nice to see Colby actually play the game. He made it farther than I expected him to and it was also good to see that the animosity between him and Jerri, that existed in the All-Star season, seems to have disappeared.
I always enjoy the Fallen Comrades portion of the final episode and leading up to the final immunity challenge. This challenge was awesome and as Jeff said, it was the closest challenge in history, especially for a final immunity challenge. I'm glad Russell got the immunity, but would have been ok if Parvati got it as well. Actually it would have been interesting if Parvati would have got it to see if she would have gotten rid of Russell and kept Jerri. I thought Parvati was going to get it there when she was walking right down the middle, right towards it, and Russell and Jerri were going along the rope.
Jerri gets voted out, which was the correct move, from Russell's perspective. If he would have voted out Parvati, instead of Jerri, then he would have looked even worse than he did, at least to the Jury.
In the final tribal council, I thought that all three opening comments were good, but I thought that Russell and Sandra's were a little better than Parvati's. I thought the Jury's questions/comments pretty much sucked. Once again we had a bunch of jury members going on and on about morals and playing the game with integrity. While each person has to make that decision for themselves, this game is about manipulating and deceiving. I really expected more out of an all star jury, since they should have realized that.
With that said, did they get the vote wrong? It is hard to say.
Sandra didn't have the strategic game that Parvati and Russell had, but she did try to get the Heroes to get out Russell, but they were too stupid to listen to her. I think that by her pointing that out, that swayed several to vote for her. Sandra is a great talker and her game was similar to her game in Pearl Islands.
Russell once again lacked the social game necessary to win. As Rob pointed out and Russell just about admitted, he only plays to get to the end and not to win. That reason alone prevents Russell from being called the best player to ever play the game. By his logic, he played twice and made it to the end twice, yet didn't win, but he can't be the best because Sandra did the same thing, but won twice. Russell really needs to pay attention, should he be asked back again for another all star season.
Parvati played as good of a strategic game as Russell, but had the benefit of playing a great social game as well. She is also good in challenges, which helps to save your butt sometimes. In my mind Parvati deserved to win this season and I still believe that Parvati is the best player to ever play the game. I think the reason why she didn't win is that she really didn't do that great at answering the questions, which surprised me, and Sandra did a great job of answering the questions. I'm not so sure that her being in an alliance with Russell hurt her, but I also don't think it helped.
All in all this was the best season to date. It would have been really fun to see this cast play each other as complete strangers, just to see how different it would have turned out, because I think it would have been completely different.
The reunion show was good as always, at least since Jeff started doing them, and while I was happy Russell won the America's vote over Rupert, I disagree with America's vote for dumbest move. Here were the scenarios:
Colby taking Tina to the finals - While this was dumb from an economic standpoint, Colby did stay true to alliance, so I don't think it was that dumb.
Tyson flipping to vote out Parvati - This was a pretty dumb move, especially since his side had the numbers, but he was trying to make a move and it would have been brilliant had it worked. So definitely not the dumbest move.
James getting voted out with two idols - This was not the dumbest move, although it was dumb. It is more that it was being naive, not dumb. It has happened to others since as well.
J.T. giving Russell the idol - As Jeff said, this was a great move in theory, should Russell had actually been in trouble, but he wasn't. This is similar to the move Tyson made, trying to make a move in the game, so definitely not the dumbest move. Also J.T.'s move didn't cost him immediately.
The dumbest move by far is Erik giving up the immunity idol and getting voted out at that tribal council. When you are at the end of the game, you never give up your necklace, unless you know 100% that you are safe and are controlling the game. This rarely happens and it is much better to give up a hidden immunity idol, which is done after the vote, than to give up a necklace before the vote. So America missed the mark on this one and Erik still holds the dumbest move distinction, in my mind.
So now we have some time to ponder the past 20 seasons, before the next season begins. So look for my blogs once and a while and I'll definitely will be back in full force for season 21.
Until next time... The Tribe has spoken.
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