Survivor - Samoa - Page 9

Nah, Russell can count:

Who's not voting for Russell: Russell, Shambo, Natalie, Jaison.

I think shambo will vote for russell. she even said during her last words that she respected how foa foa was loyal til the end. I think she will see russell played a good game.

I think he meant Shambo wasn't voting for him at last night's tribal council.  But Shambo's commets were very mature and I respected her for what she said.  I'm glad I will not have to watch her act like a child when the Jury speaks, I hate how they all think they are so smart but ask the most stupid, childish questions.

It is SO hard to tell with the way the show is edited, Steve...but I'd withhold judgment on Shambo's performance at the final tribal until it's done.  My impression of her has been all over the place during this season--to the point where they have almost made her seem bipolar.

I was actually wondering about that after her confessional last night:  which Shambo will show up for final tribal?    Unofrtunately, I think she could find it within herself to get goofy.

When Shambo said "you don't mess with perfection" in regards to her hair I almost choked on my own tongue. That's some funny shit.

That entire conversation, prompted by Probst, was hysterical.  I'm glad they decided to keep it off the cutting room floor. 

I'm actually wondering if the producers will actually let him keep the idol as a souvenir.

Shame Shambo went home.  While I know that nobody
really liked her, I did think she did a lot more for the
camp than Ashley.  In fact, looking at the remaining
survivors, I don't know why she is still there. None of
the judges were going to vote for Shambo anyway, so
why was she considered a threat?

So the final show is tonight.  My vote is for Russell .
Loved him talking about how Shambo hides food in
her hair.

Ron, by Ashley, I assume you mean Natalie.  And she's still there because she's Russell's right hand man.  

Shambo was not considered a threat -- in fact, it was probably Russell's best move to bring Shambo to the finals if he could swing it.  But the real threat was Brett -- a couple of more immunity wins, and he's in the finals and the winner of the $1 millon.  So they needed to keep Mick to challenge Brett for immunity since Shambo was absolutely useless in challenges.

Guess is spoilerized. 
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

 Whoops!  Sorry.

Argh.  I didn't realize the forum headers violate the spoiler block, so this is space to prevent that.. kind of makes the spoiler block worthless...

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

You know what, I should be angry right now but I'm not, while Russell was clearly the best player he blew it at the very end by coming off so arrogant to the jury, he played it far too abrasively IMO and hurt himself more than help.

Totally agree. Even though he was BY FAR the best player in the game(and one of the best in the show's 19 seasons) his ego became completely out of control. I thought he should win, but I can't say that I was upset when he didn't. 

More importantly, I couldn't get over how hot Monica looked in the finale. Good Lord, she was an absolute knockout! 

Russell's social game was horrible.

Mick is the male version of Amanda.

Sorry, but that's absurd. His social game wasn't horrible at all. There might not have been anything he could have done to sway the jury. He was facing a jury largely made up of passive non-players who got played by Russell and were too smug to admit he outplayed them. He wasn't getting their votes. Jaison was the biggest idiot during the reunion show talking about how there was honor in Natalie's game and how she was "positive" and not "negative" like Russell when all the while he was secretly trying to vote off his buddy Mick in the end, and Jaison himself got blindsided. Boo hoo. 

I like to compare the game of Survivor to poker. Russell was arguably the best player in Survivor history. The final jury scenario was the equivalent of playing poker in the final table with pocket Aces and some idiot called his all-in bet pre-flop with 7-2 off suit. Just because the flop comes 2-2-2 and he loses doesn't mean that the "winner" with the horrible hand and bad decision-making was the better player. 

I agree, in the end, Survivor never fails to disappoint. Russell played the best game in Survivor history, and it was just because of a bunch of bitter, sore loosers on the jury, that he was deprived of the title that he earned, and deserved.

Two things:

1) The jury was made up of some of the worst players in the history of the game (they squandered an 8-4 merge advantage -- need I say more?).  In that context, they could not in any way appreciate what Russell accomplished, they could only see what he did to them and reacted accordingly.  Russell's mistake (a mistake you could clearly hear when he incorrectly enumerated the votes he expected), was that he expected they would be impressed by his machinations.  He was almost completely wrong.  In this sense, he was terrible with his social game, as he simply expected the jury to be impressed enough with him to win the million and did nothing else to curry their votes.

2) There is nothing wrong with the way Natalie won -- riding coattails has been a valid Survivor strategy since season 2.  "Drafting" to the finals and then crossing the finish line first is a common strategy, and if it weren't, all winners would be strategic geniuses.  Don't forget that Natalie was the one who helped get Eric voted off (which was probably the most pivotal vote of all) and made connections with the Galu women while Russell was burning them.

3) Mick is the Amanda only in the jury performance fail.  Amanda is a far superior player.  Mick actually did less than Natalie.

I thought Jaison was a complete tool to be so pissy about being voted off, when he secretly was voting off Mick!  What a tool.  Even six months later he was still a tool at the reunion night.  Most of the time the people act like morons at the jury, but after time to reflect and watchign the show they change their attitude and say there are no hard feelings at reunion.  Jaison is too smart to act like a bitchy four year old.

The jury's questions were pathetic......again.  Once again you have people that are claiming some moral high ground, but when you really think about it they are just pissed off they didn't get the chance to lie and deceive (IN A GAME) to get the money.  Do they forget they are in a game?  I would think just looking around and seeing cameras everywhere, producers, set directors, helicopters flying over head, instructions for when to enter the scene, where to stand, etc, would be a minute by minute reminder that this is in fact....just a game. 

Even better, the morons of Galu would never admit it, but if they had not squandered the lead and voted off the 4 foa foa's, then we would of watched as the 8 of them then had to lie, cheat, deceive all of their 'friends'.  Hypocrites.

Patrick, I would say that Mick is not the male Amanda for the reasons I stated in a previous post, but rather the male Becky from Cook Islands -- didn't do anything, was worthless during jury questioning, and got zero votes for his inaction.

But yeah, that was a terrible jury.  They basically turned on Russell for the game he played and Eric had the chuzpah to elevate Natalie's passive game when, as Russell tried to point out, that whatever it was that he did, he was fully supported and cheered on by Natalie.  So it's not like her hands were clean.  I can see why one would rather vote for Smithers instead of Montgomery Burns to win, but they're both corrupt the same way -- Eric contention that Natalie played a "nice" game is pure BS.
 

But wasn't that final immunity challenge the tensest challenge ever?  I was getting so worked up that I contemplated fast forwarding because the tension was killing me.  My hairs were standing on end and I could feel this buzzing at the base of my skull.  I almost started shaking each time Brett and Russell had to correct themselves.  The jury segment was an incredible letdown after that.

Russell may have played the most strategic game in Survivor history, but as was mentioned he did little to curry favor with the jury. If I was on the jury I may have even voted for him, but I'm not sorry to see Natalie win.

I didn't watch the entire reunion show - so I wonder how Shambo still felt about Russell after seeing all of the nasty things he said about her behind her back? 

Yep - and I was surprised Brett lost it, the way Russell's arms were starting to shake. That right there cost him a million dollars. I think Brett would have been a shoo-in.

That was never brought up.

I think it's a shame Russell lost, but I understand the dynamics behind Natalie's win.  Contrast to the other Russell winning SYTYCD -- now that was almost a crime.

I'm actually excited for Heroes versus Villains, but everytime I see the abbreviation HvV, I read it as HIV.

The final jury vote ended as I expected it to.  Russell played a brilliant game and deserved to win, but deserved just doesn't matter.  If Survivor were just a single elimination contest to the last man standing, then Russell wins it in a walk.  But the genius and frustration of the show, is that while you're voting people out, you need to curry their favor to win the million.  Otherwise you are just playing for second place.  Russell made no attempt to generate good will, friendship, or real loyalty from anyone.  His arrogant cock-of-the-walk attitude grated everyone, even his allies.  You can still win doing that but you must bring someone more despised than you to jury, which is why his critical mistake was ditching Shambo.  Had he ousted Natalie (a clearly attractive, likable player with no enemies in the game) he could have won with Shambo and Nick or Jaison.  It was his only serious tactical mistake but it cost him the million.     

What a disappointing end. One of the least-deserving winners ever.

Totally agree. I didn't really care for him over the course of the game anyway, but in the final tribal council and at the reunion he was like a bitchy little kid. I about fell out of my seat when Russell threw those socks in the fire.

 Here's a good take on the finale.  I may not agree with 100% of it, but it does do a good job of validating Natalie's win:  

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/12/survivor_crowns_a_winner_offen.html

It is very important to keep in mind that editing plays a huge role in the way the game and the contestants are perceived.  That said, Galu is still one of the worst tribes ever.

Having faulted Russell for his own demise, I must admit that the jury was the biggest bunch of self-righteous cry-babies I've ever seen.  They seemed more interested in venting their hurt feelings than picking a winner.  Jaison was one of the worst offenders.

I was hoping someone would have brought up Russell using Katrina to garner sympathy in the beginning of the game. But I guess only Jaison would have been in position to do that since the rest of Foa Foa was sitting across from the jury.

What many people never realize is that Survivor is the purest social game on TV, and if you exhibit arrogance, even with brilliant moves within the game, you make it so much harder for the jury to vote for you. Who you take to final tribal is also a key component to positioning yourself for being viewed as a more sympathetic and suitable choice for the jury's vote. Russell did screw that calculation up when his arrogance clouded his judgment by sticking with Natalie and Mick, rather than Jaison and Shambo. Never in a million years did Russell think the jury would vote for Natalie over him in a vote, but then he realized he had screwed up towards the end of the questioning when he answered Dave's question on his chances. It shows that the "bull in a china shop" approach seldom wins Survivor for you, and that's the game that Russell ultimately played, and proudly so, to his eventual detriment.