dolphinboy

This comes up every season, about how "hot" women on the show don't clean up well. My own opinion of this is that most women, especially naturally attractive one, NEVER look better all made up then they do without all the make-up and fancy makeovers they get.

While I agree Parvati looked beautiful on the reunion show, I think she looked even more beautiful on the island...even at the very end.

I can't believe "America" even selected Rubert as one of the 2 for the $100,000, so I'm very much relieved they have no say in who wins.

TwineTime

That had nothing to do with Sandra. It's a Survivor Reunion tradition to talk to the winner for about a minute and then spend the rest of the hour talking to everyone else. If anything, she got to say a lot more than most winners do.

Patman

Parvati had a lot of face fuzz during the plate/bowl balance challenge, HD is pretty unforgiving.

Sandra was ripping on Russell after she won, and she was funny about it.

cdollaz

I liked that also. My favorite was her "I hustle on Survivor, that's what I do" comment. As much as I would hate to have to live with her mouth, and she acts like a child alot (the hat burning was dumb), she is the only one who would actually stand up to Russell and call him out. Well, Parvati did it some also.

dolphinboy

If they were going to give an award for dumbest move in Survivor history, how about one for Mark Burnett for allowing Rubert to get a million dollars when he didn't win?

dino88

Who is more arrogant? Russell or you?

Cardsfan111

Pretty well sums up my feelings.

Patman

The hat burning was karma.

Her win vindicates Russell's bold declaration to Sandra and Courtney that either of them should go next (in the mid-section of the game) to their faces (that funny edit where the camera man just turns to the girls after he said it), when he was discussing strategy with one of the other villains. Russell doesn't even have the street smarts to see that sort of attitude burns jury votes down the line.

Goat3001

I actually had a similar idea a few seasons ago. Instead of having no tribe or two tribes to begin with, you would have "floating" tribes. Meaning that before every challenge, the group is separated into two for the challenge. The members of the winning group get immunity but everyone goes and votes at Tribal Council. This way the creators aren't bogged down with creating a bunch of individual immunity challenges and can still use tribe challenges. Also, it'll be a huge clusterfuck in the first few episodes when there are up to 19 people that can be voted out. However, everyone lives and works together through the whole season. Then when it's down to 10, you can begin the individual immunity challenges like before. It wouldn't be a drastic change to the game but IMO it's another way for them to keep it fresh after 10 years.

Patman

Not sure Probst is ready to count that many votes at the early tribal councils, but it would be the most democratic Survivor ever.

TwineTime

Russell. He's arrogant and WRONG. Terrible combo.

Look, at the end of the day, highly respected DVDTalk Legend Patman agrees with me on most points. That says it all.

dino, how about we set aside our differences and break bread (or Filet Mignon Pizza) at hip eatery Gigi's restaurant + lounge in Philadelphia?

mwbmis

First episode I actually watched since Tyson was voted out (I had some ass clown on the non-spoiler board at Sucks spoil the final 3 (and winner!) for me very early on...I purposefully didn't mention that b/c I figured by vocal dislike of Russell might have been a clue to people if I mentioned I had been spoiled). Part of the reason I quit watching alltogether is b/c I knew it would be Russell heavy the rest of the season (he's great you know...just ask him).

Happy with the result, and I think both Parvati and Sandra deserved to win, and I honestly think from what we saw that the jury would have been happy with voting for either one of them. Russell proved once at for all during the reunion that he has absolutely no understanding of the game whatsoever.

I'm also disappointed in several of the posts here about Russell being screwed and offering that his suggestions were good. Even in Big Brother the jury decides. And we don't get the Survivor "live feeds". Every Russell hugger out there was praising him to the sky about his "conning Tyson", and that's what the edited show gave us. However, if you read Tyson's interviews it was Parvati and Danielle that got him to do what he did. That just didn't fit there Russell dominate storyline.

The most fundamental thing about actually winning Survivor is getting people to want to give you a million dollars. Sandra played a great game. Did she fail at getting rid of Russell? Sure, b/c all the heroes were self destructive, and there really wasn't a great strategic brain among them (there BIGGEST mistake turned out to be getting rid of Tom instead of Colby...Amanda's ok, but she's too wishy washy so she needs a partner).

But Sandra survived, and she had Russell's dumb ass convinced that she was an easy win. Believe me when I read that she was in the final 3 I wondered who would be that stupid to bring her along. Oh...Russell. You're right Russell; she didn't do anything. Her being in vocal opposition to him throught the game made her a great choice to win. At a certain point she just had to roll with him b/c he gave her the best shot to win. I'm disappointed they didn't talk up her biggest move which was completely and totally playing his ego into thinking Coach was a threat. That move alone put her in a position to win.

Parvati played a great game...in some ways better than Sandra, b/c she's right she had a HUGE target on her back at the start. Almost certainly the biggest in the game. She got lucky with the moron Tyson vote (just like she got lucky with Penner getting hurt in Fans vs Favs). But she had Russell wrapped around her little finger. There was no Earthly reason to vote out Jerri over her. Not only did Russell take her he told her why so she could tell Jerri at the final tribal. Russell just had too big of a crush. I'm really respecting Parvati now (and I did not like her Cook Islands, and I didn't think she deserved to be in Fans vs Favs).

outcastja

I just finished watching the results here on the West coast. I think Parvati should have won this game. I said it last thread, but they should have voted off Sandra over Courtney when they had the chance.

wirefan

(except for the last part)

Sandra saying she 'chose' to be weak in challenges as a strategy rings a bit hollow when in front of the jury she said she gave it 110%. She makes it sound as if she could compete in challenges if she wanted to.

Parv at least competed and played a role in the strategy.

The problem with the viewers voting is they only see a small edited portion of the game and CBS clearly edits it the way they want to drive ratings... this may not lead to the most balanced view of what is going on.

mwbmis

Absolutely...the show editing played a major part in how BB8 was decided, and in that case fans even had the live feeds as an option. The show editing is always going to skew things for storyline purposes. That's fine in a game where the people who actually play decide (b/c they lived it, and what they didn't see or was kept from them was part of the game).

I have no problems with how the Survivor jury system works. If you want to win...don't treat the jury like shit. They probably won't want to give you a million dollars if you do that, and all of these people who say Russell got screwed weren't out there playing with him having him treat them like shit. Besides, he didn't even play the best game this time. At least he got Shambo's vote so he hasn't been completely shut out.

I think the person who's game is most comparable to Russell right now is Sugar. It may be entertaining to watch (for some), but you don't have to live with them.

Patman

And if Russell is invited back for another all-stars edition, he might also get the Sugar treatment and get the boot the first time his tribe goes to tribal council.

wirefan

Is it just bad memory or does the jury seem to ask fewer and fewer questions and just feel the need to get up on their soapbox as the years go by? I thought the jury questions/sermons were largely useless. I think a final 3 instead of a final 2 also doesn't help in this regard.

The one person who seemed to stick out and ask legitimate questions was JT. Everyone else seemed to be grinding their axes, self promoting, or campaigning

EDIT - and as someone mentioned earlier in the thread, Survivor needs to get back to the actual survival aspect of the show... I'm sure some of it was de-emphasized in the all-star season to focus on strategy and personalities, but the conditions just didn't seem as harsh.

WillieTheShakes

I dunno... a week or so in the tropics with Sugar doesn't sound bad to me...

mwbmis

Apparently, she's not exactly easy to live with. That's one of the reasons they shipped her off to exile so often for the first two weeks. (Ace was protecting her, and they still wanted to appease him so she didn't get voted off entirely.)

Eric D.

Loved the fact that Sandra won. Russell is an arrogant and hypersensitive ass. While his buffoonery makes for entertaining TV, he does not deserve to win. With that said, he is good at making it to the end and skill is certainly involved, but he is an idiot to not realize how much the social aspect comes into it. Even when given a chance on the jury to make amends, he arrogantly decided not to. He needs to learn humility and how to vote people off without burning down the city in addition to the bridge. Until he changes that, he will never win the game.

On top of that, he's a gigantic sore loser. Not only was he rude to everyone at the Reunion, be he pisses on the game and calls it flawed just because he didn't win. It's pretty hilarious really. If he ever got voted out, he would be the first one to vote with his hurt feelings. There is no way in hell he would ever vote for someone who had wronged him.

From the edit he gets on the show and his behavior on both Reunion shows, it looks like the only way Russell would like you is if you were subservient to him and agreed with everything that he said. Why people stand behind that is beyond me. I didn't really hate him until I saw how he came across on this Reunion show. He's still good at the game, but if he ever wants to win he needs to work on his social aspect.

Edit: I also disagree with viewers getting a percentage of the vote. The day that happens is the day I stop watching the show. People seem to forget that the whole thing is edited and the producers shape stories out of the hours upon hours of footage. That means that they can easily sway viewers to like or dislike certain people. It's far too manipulative. I trust the people who had to live on the island 24/7 more than I do somebody who only tunes in once a week to make the correct decision.

BDB

Right? She is no a good looking brunette

WillieTheShakes

The crazy ones never are...

davidh777

Congrats to Sandra for her second win in two tries. Greatest player ever? Not in my book. I don't think you can be considered the greatest by sucking in challenges. She can say it's part of her strategy, but I don't think you can be great if you're not helping your team in the early rounds. Yes, you don't have the same target on your back as a strong player, but if your team is losing and you're not helping you need luck to survive. Sandra was lucky in that her team won a lot early.

I think Parvati might have emerged as the best ever for me, even though I don't like her.

Russell does some amazing things, but he's not a complete player. His remark that there's no luck involved was ridiculous.

Two of my favorite winners remain Tom and Yul, both strong and smart, and they won in different ways--one leading a domination and the other a comeback.

the big train

She's pregnant again.

DJariya

Fuck Russell. I've never seen such a disgusting whiny little bitch & sore loser. Boston Rob made a good point that Russell plays to get to the end, but is not a finisher. He played a great strategic game, but just pissed off way too many people along the way.

I sincerely hope this is the last we will see of Russell on the tube. I enjoyed his schtick last season and kind of rooted for him then. However, I was getting really annoyed with him toward the end and his behavior in the Reunion show was disgusting especially when he kept interrupting Jeff and pissed on the game.

Everytime he opened his mouth at the Reunion show, I wanted to throw a shoe at the TV. The guy just couldn't shut up. Accept defeat and go out with some class, which unfortunately is not one of his character traits.

Congrats to Sandra. I don't think she deserved it, yet she still made it to the end and that says something. Hope she enjoys the extra $1M

Agree with pretty much all the comments that Parv looked fantastic cleaned up.