Survivor: Redemption Island Episode 3 Thoughts

If any future Survivor player reads this blog, please take this one piece of advice: NEVER THROW AN IMMUNITY CHALLENGE! Throwing challenges ends up biting you in the ass, if not immediately, then at some point in the future. We can go back to Thailand, and Shook Jai throwing the challenge to vote out Robb. Low and behold, they end up going into the merge with one less person, and get Pagonged.

Here's a hint - if you want to get rid of somebody, do it when you have a large number advantage over the other tribe, whether that be before the merge or after it. You are allowed to vote somebody off post-merge, after all. I don't care how much you hate somebody, throwing immunity will not end up helping you ever. The Survivor Gods wreck havoc on those who dare to taunt them.

(Oh, and getting the Survivor producers on your bad side by giving them nothing to work with? Not a good plan either.)
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It was a historic show, as Russell Hantz was voted out of the game of Survivor for the first time ever. Cue the trumpets (and the unnecessary glee from Nicole Cesternino.) And while I congratulate his tribe for doing what no one had done before, I doubt they really thought anything through.

The biggest thing they did was concentrate on the bad that Russell brought in his previous seasons. They never looked at his positives:

• He is loyal to you if you do not cross him. Natalie White, Danielle DiLorenzo and Parvati Shallow can attest to this.


• He has never won because he rubs people the wrong way. If you think he is still as annoying, keep him until the end


• He has played this game successfully while at a disadvantage. This could be a valuable tool going forward.

With Boston Rob, he has some sort of charisma which might get people to give him the win in the end. He's also an individual immunity threat for any challenge. You have to be leary of taking him to the merge with you. Russell is not as much of a threat to win immunity, and people do not like him. He's also most likely to hold a grudge if he comes back into the game. Why you want to piss him off is beyond me.

You can already see the seeds of this season's story - Rob's game play leads his team to victory, Russell's destroys his. It's the overarching story of Heroes vs. Villains (and to a much lesser extent, All-Stars.) This is going to be the end of the Rob and Russell Survivor stories, and they're following straight forward storylines. The only question left is whether we're going to see Russell's redemption or whether this is his final failure.