You probably already know all this, but.....

Sorry for the super late post. I moved. No computer for a whole bunch of days. Well, technically I did have one yesterday, but I spent the day at Home Depot and really didn't have a happy blog in me when I was done. But... I digress.

What you want to know (if you don't already) is what happened on Survivor. It was GREAT. Honestly, it was a bit of a slow start this season, non? I mean, the first episode was good, then a few dull ones, then it's been all awesomeness. If there was an episode awesomeness chart, it would look like the line graph above (see Graph - click on it & you can see it better). Agree?

So that darn Russell was on the team that won reward & got a clue to the hidden immunity idol. Everyone got to see that the idol was hidden under a rock. So they all scatter & look for it - rather, they all follow Russell while he looks for it. Hee. Then Russell loses 'em. Total cop-show-car-chase. And of course, Russell finds the idol. Man, he's clever! This time he doesn't tell the whole world that he's got it though.

Shambo, in a reasonably smart move, told John that she was voting Laura no matter what & put it in John's head that maybe he should consider flipping. Then she told Brett (who?), who looked like a puppy who's just been kicked (oh, that guy). Meanwhile, Jaison & Mick work on Monica saying that she should be the one to flip sides.

Mick won immunity (yay!) and Shambo could not hide her glee. She did a fist pump and said a loud, "Yeah!" when Laura lost, which was in pretty poor form, even if you hate Laura. I'm guessing Shambo's middle name is not Tact.

So, it looked to everyone that it was going to a tie-breaker. How exciting! Five people would vote for Laura and the other five would vote for Natalie. Some of the brainiacs in original team purple thought it would be a great idea to tell yellow that they were voting John. I guess they were trying to make it look like not everyone would vote for a yellow... try to get the votes off Laura and then all of them vote for Natalie... I think it was a stupid plan from the get-go. Russell didn't believe them & went straight to John. John finds out later that his tribe-mates did this & says he wouldn't have minded being included in the discussion. Heh heh. Said something like, "Voting for John isn't the best idea... if you're John." Heh. So essentially, team brainiac - by trying to make it SEEM like they were splintering, actually DID cause some splintering. Nice work guys.

So it was a tie. 5 votes Laura, 5 votes Natalie. Then they have to vote again, this time only for either Laura or Natalie. If that doesn't work, they have to draw rocks. No one (except Danger Dave...'cause he's dangerous, right?) wants to draw rocks. So they re-vote...we're all on the edge of our seats, it's very exciting... and....someone flips. AGAIN, the look on both Erik's and Danger's faces was amazing. Danger's eyes totally bugging out of his head (Dude kills me). Erik cheering away. Hee hee. Surviva-licious. Who flipped? John, of course. Monica's too stupid to vote against Laura & John knew which way the wind was blowing. They don't call it rocket science for nothing, folks. From having all the numbers (I think Erik said it best with "There goes the lead") to being on the wrong side of the numbers.... it's going to be lovely to watch Danger Dave, Monica & Brett start squirming.

Best. Episode. Ever.

I was on the couch clapping my hands and making squealy noises. It was the best episode EVER! You loved it, right? It was the best use EVER of the hidden immunity idol, and one of the best blindsides I've ever seen on this show. Loved it. And frankly, I'm happy to be rid of Kelly. Sorry if you had her in the pool, but she was dead weight. Not at all interesting, nowhere as good as Natalie, and come on... you just figured out who she is recently. Brett? Still no idea. Dude is either a complete "under-the-radar" genius or the most boring player ever to grace the show. Kelly = 2nd most boring. The only thing that saved her was her use of the word "jag-wire."

And back to Natalie. Tiny little blonde, southern belle... hungry.... can barely fill out her bikini (oh no!) and sees a cute little rat. Decides to bash said cute rat in the brains with a big stick. Seriously, most boys wouldn't have done it. But not our Natalie. To her, it looks yummy. She scoops it up with a coconut & hauls it back to camp. Wow. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do it. Even if I could kill it, I'm not sure I'd want to eat it. But eat it they did. "Tastes like chicken," says Natalie. Shudder.

At the reward challenge, one team won a trip to a rock-slide lake & a fried chicken picnic. (heh heh... was it fried chicken? Really? Didn't see many rats around there, did you?) Russell's team did not win. Russell - not that he didn't try to win - didn't care that he didn't win. He saw it as an opportunity to go looking for the hidden immunity idol. Russell has watched the show before. Russell figured that if the idols were gone, there's probably another one kicking around & it's probably at camp. Meanwhile, the winning bunch (John, Kelly, Danger, Monica & another one I can't bother remembering... Laura maybe?) got the first 'clue' to its location. Hee. Before they could even get back & start looking, Russell had it in his hot little mitts. Do you love him? Seriously, you've got to love him. If he doesn't win the whole game, I'll be very sad.

Russell shares the fact that he has the idol with Shambo who for once says something super smart. They make a pact to vote out Laura, but discuss what would happen if Laura won immunity again. Russell is thinking Monica, but Shambo says that the purple boys don't really care for Monica anyways, but Kelly is strong and well-liked - therefore a bigger threat. I didn't know Shambo had any strategizing in her! Way to go!

Of course in the immunity challenge it was Mick and Shambo in the lead with Laura right behind them. There was a puzzle where you had to fit these different shaped blocks into the right hole, which would give you another block, etc, etc. Shambo just could not get it. It was delightful to watch her try while Russell stands there helplessly saying, "Just look at the block. Look at it. Look at the shape, Shambo." Hee hee. Laura won, of course.

So the plan fell into place. The purples would all vote Russell, he'd use the idol and his side would vote for Kelly. He walked by purple at one point though & heard them say Natalie's name & almost doubted his plan. It was pretty exciting because you didn't know.... would he play it? Did the other team know? Were they going to vote for Russell? Gah! I was on the edge of my seat! It was crazy. I was yelling at the TV... "Play the idol, Russell! Play it!" He did. Phew! And did you love Erik sitting in the jury totally cheering on Russell vs. his old teammates? I love when they're all sitting there saying how much better it is without Erik. Dudes, Erik is SITTING RIGHT THERE! He's on the jury. Duh. Might want to be a little more diplomatic. Just sayin'.

The look on Danger Dave's face said it all. Mouth wide open, eyes bugged out of his head. Heh heh. They did not see it coming. And they were so cocky. And now it's 5 on 5. On the previews for next week, the purples are chasing Russell around the forest, not letting him have a free minute to look for the next idol. Hee hee. What do you want to bet he manages to find it anyways. It's probably in Shambo's hair.

Blindside! Yellow team keeps on swinging for the fences.

SUCH a good episode, non? Like, the kind of episode where you think to yourself, "Now THAT is why I watch Survivor!"

OK, so where to start? THE MERGE! I always enjoy when the teams merge and they play all nice with each other for ten minutes while they drink wine and enjoy a lunch... heh heh. Team yellow was trying pretty hard to fit in and be all nicey-nice with team purple. But the beautiful one was Russell. Russell went hard at it. Started with Laura, who he'd made the relationship with previously. Laura tells him how it is, that no, in fact she is the one who holds all the cards. Quite rightly tells him that he can't be the one to decide who goes home & that it would probably be one of his people. Well. That is an attitude you just don't take with Russell. Right away he said, "Laura needs to go be the one to go home." Hee. Love it. I totally thought it would be a Russell-Laura alliance. Nope. They got me. Oh yeah, and I love that Brett's (Who? Right.) entire contribution in NINE episodes has been to come up with the new team name, "Aiga", 'cause our mystery man somehow knows Samoan. Really? Who ARE you? And why should we, at this point, even care?

So Russell starts putting his plan into action. Tells his team to vote for Laura. Starts working the other team. Talks to Shambo, who's totally on board with voting for Laura 'cause they hate each other. Talks to Monica & shows her the idol. No luck there. Goes to John & shows him the idol. John is more receptive & open to the idea of voting for Laura. Likes breaking up the strong girl alliance. Did you love how every time someone asked Russell if they'd seen the idol, he said, "Nobody." Hee. Then he tells us that he's just being like Babe Ruth (appropriate the day after the Yankees won the world series, non?). Tells us that Babe Ruth may have struck out more than any other player, but he also hit more home runs... so Russell figures you've "just got to keep on swinging." So true, Russell, so true!

I love Russell. I have decided that I don't even care about the Katrina story and the burning of the socks. I think he's funny, smart and a brilliant player. Thoughts?

Anyway, I digress. Comes time for the immunity challenge. Turns out that one guy will win and one girl. It's T-ball. (Tee ball? Whatever.) Best part is when Danger Dave comes up to bat & Jeff asks, "Is this your game, Danger Dave?" "No," replies Danger, "it's making love." I just about spit out my drink. The Jeff asks something about whether he gets to play enough & Danger says something like not as much as I'd like. Ha! Anyway, John wins for the men. And yep, we all knew it would happen.... Laura wins for the ladies. Russell's and Shambo's faces just about fall off. Dang it! Now what? GAH!

Russell's thinking Monica & convincing John that he can still split up the girl alliance. John tells Erik. Meanwhile, Erik comes over & tells Natalie, Jaison & Mick that "if they know what's good for them" they'll vote for Monica & not tell Russell. Jaison doesn't like Erik & doesn't like being told what to do. He figures, hey, let's vote for Erik instead & see what happens. Then Natalie (are you following so far?) zips on over to the mean girls (Laura, Monica & Kelly) and tells them that Erik is trying to vote out Monica. Which... delightfully, wasn't even Eriks idea in the first place. Natalie convinces the girls that their side will still have the numbers but they can get rid of a huge threat by getting rid of Erik now. The girls buy in. They tell Shambo that they are planning to vote for Erik. I kid you not... her response, "Erik? Who's Erik? OH. OUR Erik?" Hee hee. Shambo has no clue. And there are SO many wild cards. What will the boys do? Will Erik and/or Russell play their immunity idols? Gah! It's craziness. Even Russell admits it's the first time he's nervous.

At Tribal Council, Erik mouths off to the whole yellow team. Tells Russell he respects how he's playing but that he's desperate (Oh no he didn't!) and then tells Jaison how he's got so much wasted potential. Right, so never mind that he's right (we all think that, non? How Jaison is so smart and so athletic, but can't seem to do anything right....) but Jaison takes it super personal & goes on this rant about how he's had to overcome so much and all the hurdles and the adversity and blah blah blah.... I loved it. Just made Erik madder (is madder a word?) and just made everyone else want to vote Erik off even more. Lovely. And they did! But not before Russell played his idol. On one hand, smart, right? Everyone knew he had it. He didn't have to stick to his "promises" any more to give it to anyone. And the purple team could have easily been gunning for him to force him to play it. Right? On the other hand, and in hindsight, he will sure need that idol in the future and maybe it would have been a good risk? I don't know. I think he was smart to play it when he did... buuuuuut, it looks like next week he's in the doghouse & will need to win some serious immunity. One last thing... the looks on the faces when Jeff read the votes were precious. The smirks on Jaison's and Russell's faces... and the shock on Erik's face. Oh la! Love the blindside!! One more last thing... Erik is the first member of the jury, and note that there will be a lot more purple jurors than yellow ones. Oh yeah, and last-last thing... Shambo was the only one (aside from Erik) who didn't vote for Erik. Even having been TOLD the plan, she did not believe that was actually the plan, and will therefore be cranky next episode that she was again left out of the loop. Way to go, Shambo. Maybe try to learn the names.