Rupert’s elimination in Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains Episode 13 has brought us down to the final five: Parvati Shallow, Russell Hantz, Jerri Manthey, Sandra Diaz, and Colby Donaldson. By the end of the night, one of them will be the Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains winner. Hopefully, we’ve got a two time winner in store.
Parvati came off as just a flirt her first time out in Cook Islands, but she became the mastermind of the awesome black widow alliance in Micronesia. Despite that fact that everybody on both islands deemed her the most dangerous player who needed to be eliminated, she stuck around and proved to be a dominant force once again.
Russell did the same thing he did last time, latching on to the women all the while making ridiculous and silly moves just to prove he could, getting people to listen to him when it made little to no sense to do so. Russell’s flaw is the same as it was last time: everybody hates him and won’t vote for him should he make it to the end. Unlike last season when it was a great big joke that he didn’t win due to the most bitter jury in history, this season he’s actually got real competition that deserves to beat him.
Speaking of Russell, from there we move on to Jerri. She voted along with him on more than one occasion when nobody could figure out why. This blind following of Russell demonstrated her own weakness, and left me confused what the heck her strategy is supposed to be.
Sandra was another early target but showed why she won in Pearl Islands. Her philosophy is simple: it doesn’t matter who goes home, as long as it’s not her.
Then we have the lone remaining hero, Colby. What happened to Superman? Colby’s been weak in challenges and even weaker in strategy, but nonetheless he is the only chance the Heroes have for pulling out a win.
Russell says that Sandra playing the idol rather than keeping it in her bra was a stupid move. While she didn’t need it, it would have been stupid if she’d gone home because she didn’t play it. Seems he’s mostly upset that she didn’t tell him that she had the idol, not that he told her about his idols. In addition, Parvati’s a liar because she didn’t tell him about the idol that she had no idea about. This is all good for Colby. At least Russell’s not targeting him, not at this minute anyway.
Russell says that Colby’s gotta go, but if Colby wins immunity, it’s time to set his sights on the biggest threat, Parvati.
For the challenge, they will balance ceramic dishes on a long wobbly balancing arm. They add a large plate, a large bowl, another large plate, and then some more dishes. They’re stacked 9 dishes high, and there’s some wobbling going on. At least Colby’s not the first one out. That would be Sandra. Jerri’s been wobbling for a while, and she is finally out at 14 dishes. The 16th dish takes out Russell. That brings us down to Parvati and Colby, perhaps the two people who need it most. The 17th dish takes out Colby. Parvati wins immunity.
Colby’s the easy target here. He’s the only person not from the Villains tribe, and he doesn’t have any enemies on the jury because he really hasn’t done anything. He asks for them to just enjoy day 37, and he’s not planning on scrambling. With that surrender speech out of the way, 30 minutes later, he makes one more attempt. He approaches Russell to see if they can team up with Jerri to get rid of Sandra, a move that would seem to weaken Parvati, the person everybody still is the most afraid of.
Votes
Colby
Sandra
Colby
Colby
With 4 votes, Colby has been voted off the island. Whoever wins, it will be on one of the Villains. Following their implosion midseason when they got rid of Boston Rob, things looked rocky, but the Villains have for the most part dominated the season.
Colby sure called Parvati out at tribal council. Jerri and Russell return to talking about how they have to get rid of her once they get back to camp.
Following the walk down memory lane, it’s the final immunity challenge. It’s a Survivor maze. They will each be blindfolded and will have to use their fingers to read the symbols to collect four necklaces. Russell grabs the first necklace, followed by Jerri and then Parvati. Sandra finally gets her first necklace after wandering around for a while. Russell has his second necklace and a good lead. Parvati has her second necklace, and so does Jerri. Jerri has taken the lead with her third necklace. Parvati has her third necklace. Sandra manages to get her second necklace. Russell seems to have dropped back but has grabbed his third necklace. Banging into each other, Parvati and Russell grab their fourth necklaces. As they make their way back to the center, Jerri has her fourth necklace. First one back wins. In a nailbiter, Russell wins immunity, beating the other two by seconds.
Jerri’s quite excited by the prospect of a Parvati elimination.
Russell says he’s keeping Sandra no matter what. His theory is she can’t get any votes, except maybe Courtney’s. Parvati views things differently. If Sandra’s up against them, she instantly gets Amanda, Candice, and Courtney.
He thinks he’s got this won no matter what but tells Parvati that his best move is to be up against Jerri and Sandra. However, if he gets rid of Jerri, he’s still got her vote, whereas he may not get Parvati’s vote.
Parvati sticks her foot in her mouth at tribal council. She’s been protecting Russell, or at least they’ve been protecting each other. Not a good thing to say to the guy who’s desperate to be in control of everything.
Votes
Parvati
Jerri
Jerri
Jerri
I wouldn’t want to be sitting up there against Parvati and Sandra if I were Russell, but with 3 votes, Jerri has been voted off the island. That said, this jury is presumably less likely to be as bitter as Russell’s last jury. He’s made some stupid, aggressive moves, but there’s no denying he’s controlled a lot of the game.
This final three consists of 3 of the 4 people to have made it to the end twice (the other being Amanda).
Russell says that this time his strategy has changed. He’s brought two people he believes the jury does not like.
Sandra has decided to burn Russell’s hat. A taste of his own medicine.
Sandra’s case is that she’s done this without an alliance and without immunity.
Russell says that he played hard. He apologizes if he’s done anything to offend anyone, but he played the game.
Parvati didn’t slay Russell the dragon. Instead, she kept him as her pet. She played the ultimate strategic, physical, and social game, despite being labelled a threat by everybody.
Colby asks Russell if he just said there was no luck involved in getting him there. Russell says he was strategic, to which Colby responds that Russell is delusional if he really thinks that. Luck is not controlling the game like Russell did. Luck is getting as far as Colby got in spite of himself. His question to Parvati is what strategic moves she made. She was the target, from day 1, but survived by fighting harder than anyone. One example of her strategic play is the awesome two idol move, which was risky but very smart move she made on her own.
Coach calls Parvati the charmer and manipulator, Russell the schemer, and Sandra the coattail rider. He respects that Parvati was a warrior in challenges, although the irony is that the day he trusted her, she turned on him.
Amanda asks Sandra how her strategy was better. She wishes it was better because she wanted to get rid of Russell, but none of the Heroes would budge, stupidly running back to Russell to report her disloyalty to him instead.
Courtney is very proud of Parvati and Sandra. Parvati was athletic, while Sandra was loyal.
JT asks whether Russell has done well with retaining the jury’s votes. He believes that everybody on the jury respects the game and, in turn, his gameplay. As for Parvati, she was a huge threat, whereas Sandra was a sleeper. Sandra wishes she could have intercepted the idol and given it right back to JT.
Danielle accuses Russell of lack of skill in his jury management, but he does not regret anything. If he didn’t play how he did, he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did. She’s desperate for him to admit he played wrong, no surprise seeing as he screwed her over, but that ain’t happening.
Jerri wants to know why Russell did not get rid of Parvati. His defense is that Jerri did not have any enemies on the jury, and she would have won. Parvati chimes in: Russell got rid of Jerri because he knew he was getting her vote if she were on the jury.
Candice tells Russell he told lies he didn’t need to tell, going too far, while Parvati was under Russell’s thumb.
Rupert calls Russell a manipulative, deceiving, lying person, which is taking the easy way out. He wishes he had talked more to Sandra, but he was swayed (outwitted) by Russell. Parvati was a strong player, but her alliance choice was terrible.
Jerri casts the first vote for Parvati. Candice made it clear she was voting for Sandra. Danielle obviously gives a vote to Parvati. The next obvious vote is Courtney’s for Sandra. Coach gives Parvati another vote. Then Rupert goes for Sandra. Once again, Russell gets nothing, which is why it would have been stupid to get rid of him like Sandra so desperately wanted to.
Votes
Parvati
Sandra
Parvati
Sandra
Parvati
Sandra
Sandra
Sandra
The Survivor: Heroes Vs. Villains winner is Sandra Diaz. Parvati should have won, but the Heroes weren’t about to let that happen because they’re still upset about their own stupidity. That said, if Parvati couldn’t win, I’ll take a Sandra win.
Russell’s argument against Sandra is she’s a lousy social player, the worst physical player ever, and failed in her only strategic move of trying to get rid of him. He thinks Parvati should have won.
There are 5 nominees for dumbest move ever: Tyson changing his vote and in turn getting himself voted out, JT giving his idol to the enemy, James getting voted out with an idol in each pocket, Colby for taking Tina in Australia, and Erik for giving his immunity necklace away to Parvati’s girls. JT is the winner. He defends his decision, saying he was going big because he was pretty sure his tribe was getting ready to get rid of him anyway.
Amber is in the audience with the first Survivor baby, Lucia Rose. That’s why she was not on this season, though I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her.
The Sprint player of the season, as voted by the public, has come down to two people: Rupert and Russell. Russell has won the vote and the $100,000 prize.
Continuing its run as a top 20 program, Survivor has already been renewed for season 21 (and 22). Survivor: Nicaragua is the fall 2010 edition.