I initially hated Russell, but my God the guy is the man!! I fell out of my seat when he found the immunity idol. I really hope manages to stick around at least until the final 5. I don't like the guy as a person, but he's playing one hell of a game and it makes very entertaining TV.

Not going to miss Kelly at all. She made absolutely no impression on me at all.

She's already with him. She said that she's been with Foa Foa for 2 weeks now (which was probably her first visit over there).

He's not playing for 2 weeks of safety, but trying to get to the end. He needs numbers on his side to get anywhere, so saving his "team" is just as important as saving himself right now.

How do we know how easy it was to find? There were 10 other people that had the same chance as him. He could have been looking for that for hours as far as we know. I doubt they're going to air a special 5-hour Survivor: "Russell looking for the idol."

Oh yeah, almost forgot.

Russell---best player is Survivor history. No matter if he wins or not.

A hotter version of Scarlet.

So was Shambo's voting for Russell to go home this week just her trying to convince her team she was still with them? I was working on the computer while the show was on so i might have missed them discussing it. I didnt pay attention to see if there were 7 Russell votes read and dismissed or not. I only know they showed 3 votes for the one going home.

Yeah, she voted for Russell. There was no reason for her to show her allegiance to Foa Foa when her vote wouldn't have mattered either way. This way they (Foa Foa) still have someone on the inside (kind of...they don't even speak to Shambo) and Shambo still has Galu if the plan doesn't work with Foa Foa.

Lats night's showing was amazing!

That was the best ACTUAL use of the Immunty Idol in Survivor history.

Russell has been my favorite player since day one and hasn't disappointed me yet

Laura, Monica & Kelley's reactions were priceless

PS. I love the endless close ups of Monica & Natalie's asses

Fantastic Tribal Council. They really should hide the idol better though. When I was a little kid a bunch of big kids hid a football somewhere in the neighborhood for us to find. We searched for hours, never finding it. It turned out to be at the top of a tree in a bird's nest. Clearly a cruel joke on us but that would be a challenge for the survivors if the idol was hidden way up in a tree somewhere. They'd have to climb it or shake it down. I would tie it to a branch so you'd have to climb.

Fucking awesome! Those reactions at TC (even after they speculated he could have it) were priceless.

"He stirred up a whole lot of hell." Gee, what are you going to do to him....vote him out again?

Plus, Russell was concerned at one point that they might split their votes and make it more difficult to ensure that he'd get enough votes. By having Shambo vote against him, he ensured he'd have enough votes while keeping her alliance with them hidden.

Jeff addresses this in his blog. In short, it's as hard as it's always been. Russell's just a scrapper.

This was the most exciting Survivor episode I've seen in quite some time! I love how Dave mentioned the possibility of Russell finding the HII and the Galu alliance came to the "concensus" that this was not possible. While I probably would have done the same thing, the TC sure made for some great reactions. I'm also excited to see the HII be used as it was intended, not that any of the other uses (i.e. I have it, don't bother trying to vote for me) are bad, but it really does shake the game up when it's such a surprise.

Next week should be interesting as there is now a 5-5 alliance split. If Laura does not win immunity I think that the Foa Foa alliance will try and get one of the Galu to flip on her. I am not sure this is possible, but as she has proven herself to be a major threat in challenges I can see it happening with John or more likely Dave. If Laura does win again, it's going to be a tough vote.

One more thought, is it possible for Russell to find the HII 3 times? As he has found it twice already without a clue, I wouldn't doubt it. Go Russell, Go!

Lol, she was so pissed. I love it when they think they have the game in the bag and get hit with a big suprise. Dave's jaw was on the floor. Last night is proof that even if you have numbers, there are no guarantees in this game.

Also, I can't wait for the finale with the jury. Erik looked so pissed and he was cheering for Russell. Erik is going to tear his tribe a new one when it's jury time.

Yeah, I thought that was hilarious. Also Russell is thinking very logically in figuring where the idol could be. I did not like him at the start but he is full on playing the game to the hilt. His whole team is just riding along with him.

Not to discredit Russell for finding 2 HIIs without clues, this season made it a bit easier imo. If it was one of the seasn with the HII in Exile island, it might have been tougher.

Or one of the times it's buried. I'm surprised they haven't done that.

wow, I just loved this episode. Can't believe that Russell found the other HII. My wife was a Russell hater, after last night wants to see him go all the way. I believe he's one of the best players ever. Hope to see him in the next all stars.

After the first episode I wrote how much my family and I hated Russell and wanted him gone. Last night we were all cheering and yelling for him. What a turnaround! Great, great episode. As someone else said, probably the best use of the immunity idol ever.

I think Russell got too cocky in the immunity challenge when it looked as if he thought he had it won when he hooked the bag, but then heard that Laura had it too. That split second cost him. However, someone else pointed out he may have lost that intentionally and I can see some logic to that. Didn't look like he was thinking of that though.

Just read Jeffs blog, and made me think about something with the reading of the votes. I know they always but the votes in order for the most suspense. But the put all Russells votes first before he played the idol. So if he didn't play it, we wouldn't have seen any votes for Kelly. You think they reordered the votes after he played it?

They were probably about 99% sure Russell would play the idol and ordered the votes on that assumption.

Actually it was Monica that brought up the idea that Russell might have found the idol. John was in agreement of the danger, but Dave pretty much dismissed it and said "we can't worry about that now". I was thinking Foa Foa should have gotten rid of Monica over Kelly. Obviously Monica is more strategic minded and seemingly a lot more intelligent than Kelly.

I watched the Ponderosa webisodes....really enjoy these!

I must be the only one who likes Laura.

I was thrilled when she won the immunity challenge, especially when Russell was all smug after hooking his second bag, but she got hers across the line first.

Then she destroyed the other 2 in the puzzle part of it after she finally untied the knots..

Well, Laura is my DVDTalk Survivor Game pick, so I've been watching her closely since the first episode. I had no idea I picked such a competitor. She's 39 and really is a good player on a couple fronts. What she has going against her right now in cyberspace is that she's the enemy of the most beloved player and an enemy of the underdogs. I think if anyone stood back and looked, they'd have to admit that she's one of the better players out there. She's played well socially and physically--far better than most the other players.

Of course, she's faced with making the prideful mistake her whole team is making, thinking they're in complete control. Anytime you think that on Survivor, you're in trouble.

That said, I myself can't help but hope Russell gets away with more of this. He's quite entertaining to watch!

To me, it looked like Jeff reached for the back of the box to pull out the Russell votes first. He just read them in reverse order for the required amount of drama. The producers were aware that Russell had the idol, so I'm sure Jeff knew and knew how to pull the votes out if Russell played it.