Survivor Samoa - a mighty hit!

Wow. Just when you think it can't get any better, it does! This season has been really fun to watch, especially if you're like me and cheering for the old Foa Foa tribe. Evil Russ found his THIRD hidden immunity idol, but this amazing feat was overshadowed by the biggest drama of the episode - John switching his vote at tribal council. I'm not sure what this "numbers cruncher" guy was thinking... I guess that a 0% chance of being gone at that tribal was too tempting v. the 12.5% chance that would have resulted from pulling rocks out of a bag to see who would go home. I sympathize with this, but only because I've lost credit card roulette 100% of the time I've played it. Pulling things out of hats/bags has not been good to me. Maybe he has similar bad luck in that way, but in the long run this move will hurt him a lot. Since we're crunching numbers, I'd say that John has a 64% chance of being voted out in the next episode.

Here's how things stand...

Evil 'Box (72 pts):
1. Evil Russell (32 pts)
[2. Erik (32 pts)]
3. Shambo (8 pts)

Cutesiness (53 pts):
1. Monica (12 pts)
2. Mick (9 pts)
[3. Laura (32 pts)]

Pizza Place (35 points):
1. John (18 pts)
2. Brett (14 pts)
[3. Ashley (3 pts)]

Goody Two-Shoes (28 pts):
[1. Good Russell (5 pts)]
[2. Liz (3 pts)]
[3. Kelly (20 pts)]

Dachui (20 pts):
1. Jaison (3 pts)
2. Dave (12 pts)
3. Natalie (5 pts)


... and here's how I rank us:

1. Evil 'Box: Evil Russell continues to impress. Moon, this sort of episode is exactly why Bag's team got moved back to the #1 spot last week. Besides having a comfortable lead in the scores right now, he has one of the most innovative players who's ever been on Survivor. Pretty much every week at this point Russ is bringing in as many points as a jury seat is worth. That's hard to beat. Obviously Russell's dominance makes him a huge threat to everyone else, and they'll be gunning for him. But he's as hard to take down as a Cape Buffalo, especially with the hidden immunity idol warming itself in his pocket.

2. Cutesiness: Losing Laura hurt a lot - this dreg was Moon's #1 point earner. But Mick really stepped up in this episode. We saw him wheel and deal with Monica, win an immunity challenge, basically he actually did something! Hopefully he can continue to maintain a low profile while bringing in some points for Moon. Monica is useless, especially now that Laura is gone. She has no one watching her back, and she brings in very few points. On the positive side, these negative attributes will probably help her get deep into the game, so she may end up pulling in 2nd or 3rd place points, which would be huge. But for the most part, the future of this team rests on Mick Dreamy's shoulders. We'll see if he can handle the pressure.

3. Dachui: Dachui is the only team that still has all 3 of its players, and this last episode probably helped this team the most, but I don't know if the rooks can overcome their massive point deficit. I'm excited to see how old Foa Foa will handle being in control of the game - I hope they do a better job than old Galu did! I'm pulling for you Dachui, but it's going to be a steep uphill battle. And I must add that I was disappointed in Dave this episode - I thought one of his greatest strengths was his adaptability and ability to make friends across lines - the gender line and the tribal lines. But he's not thinking enough. Him going along with Laura's ridiculous "let's vote for Russell and if he has the idol so be it" scheme was the dumbest thing he's done in this game.

4. Pizza Place: John made a bad play and I think he'll be voted out soon. He's an easy target now - both sides can consider him untrustworthy, and since he's also competitive in challenges it seems like a no-brainer to make him the next to go. Once he's gone, all Pizza has left is the ghost Brett. We saw a little more of him this episode, but I gotta say that I wasn't impressed by what I saw. This guy seems content with not thinking or playing the game. He hasn't tried to make any other alliances besides what was set up on Day 1, and that will hurt him in the long run, especially since his Day 1 alliance has crumbled.

5. Lil old me: Technically I'm out of the match, but I still have more points than Dachui. That's my positive thought of the day. But really Dachui, you gotta step up your game. That's just plain sad.


Individual Power Rankings:
1. Evil Russell (3)
2. Jaison (6)
3. Dave (1)
4. Mick (7)
5. Natalie (5)
6. Brett (8)
7. John (4)
8. Monica (9)
9. Shambo (10)
10. Laura (2)