CBS
Spoilers for the finale of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains coming up after the jump:
Can we finally retire the idea that there is such a thing as “the most deserving” Survivor player losing a season? I wish, but clearly not, judging by Russell’s pissy comments after not getting a single vote from the jury in his second attempt at the game.
So we might as well give a little discussion to Russell’s charge at the post-vote reunion: “If [Sandra] can win the game twice, there’s a flaw in the game.” First, I have to note that Russell has no problem with “flaws in the game” when said flaws enable him to get hidden immunity idols without clues, simply by digging around the camp.
The fact is, Russell’s entire strategy, however great he or anyone thinks it is, is predicated on exploiting the design of the game as it is played. And he is not unaware that the game, as it is played, is one that ends on a jury vote. If he can’t allow for that and design a strategy that wins it, then he simply is not the best player, QED. He has not figured the game out. Period. (For what it’s worth, I was rooting for Parvati over both Russell and Sandra, but she didn’t win; oh, well.)
But there’s a subtext to Russell’s frustrated venting that deserves some attention, and which may have been the thing that really irritated Jeff Probst: Is the endgame of Survivor flawed as TV?
When Russell suggested that America should get a say in who wins Survivor, he was obviously whining out of self-interest. But there is an implicit criticism of the TV show here. Namely, there are two part of the game, the week-by-week immunity element of the game, and the jury-vote element of the game. The latter is at least as important; but we spent 98% of our time watching the former.
So while I don’t think Russell has any legitimate reason to feel cheated, I can understand (even if I don’t agree with) the fans who think that the finales are often non-sequiturs. By design, the very behavior that we’ve seen rewarded the entire season often gets punished in the end. That’s the game, but it is a little whiplash-y.
But give America a vote? The last thing Survivor needs is to become Big Brother. What say you? Does Survivor need a rules change, or does Russell need to quit his whining?