***THIS ENTRY IS FULL OF SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS WEEK’S EPISODE.***

It’s taken a couple of episodes, but I think we are finally in the thick of it. Russell is up to his old tricks again, and as usual, is makes for great TV. What makes it about a thousand times better is that Russell has met his match in Boston Rob. Rivals from the start, both of these Villains think they are in control. Both players are extremely smart and seem to anticipate the strategic moves of the other with uncanny accuracy. Is it great minds that think alike, or conniving minds?

This week, each tribe was forced to vote a member out. Individually immunity was granted to one member of each tribe after competing a typical Survivor rope course. Each player was clipped to a rope that twisted and looped through various obstacles. The survivors are forced throw themselves through these obstacles in order to advance in the course. For the Heroes, Candace won immunity and for the Villains it was Boston Rob.

For the Heroes, the choice seemed clear. Since Candace had won individual immunity, Colby knew he was on the chopping block. Rather than allow the tribe to scramble back and forth to try and switch the vote, Colby made a speech to the tribe saying he had accepted his fate and was fine with being voted off. What seemed like a done deal wasn’t so simple once a few of the Heroes began to question whether James would be able to compete in physical challenges or not. He had injured his knee during the previous immunity challenge. To bring this point to a close, the Heroes made James race JT down the beach. JT beat James, and with that, sealed his fate as the next Hero voted from the tribe.

The real sparks flew back at the Villains tribe. Everyone wanted to vote Pavarti from the tribe, but they wanted Russell to think he would be voted out as to flush out the hidden immunity idol he found. To throw a little bit of fear in his direction, Rob confronts Russell and tells him, “If you haven’t found the hidden immunity idol, you should go look for it now.” Russell sees through Rob’s threat and is certain that Rob is simply trying to flush out the idol and that Pavarti is the actual target. In an effort to take out Tyson, Russell tells Pavarti that she is the target and that he will let her play the hidden immunity idol provided they vote for Tyson.

Later, we see Rob starting to go through the “Survivor Math” and adds the votes up. He knows that Russell will probably be gunning for Tyson. He figures that if Russell plays the immunity idol for himself, Russell can convince two other plays to vote for Tyson. But, Rob decides that his alliance should split the votes – 3 for Russell and 3 for Pavarti, and 3 for Tyson. With the stronger alliance voting for whomever doesn’t play the idol, Tyson would be safe at a revote and this way, Russell or Pavarti goes home regardless of who plays the idol for whom.

Thinking the plan is sealed and that everyone knows their role, Russell stirs it up once last time. Russell pulls Tyson to the side and tells him he’s done the math and he knows he can’t save Pavarti and that he will vote for Pavarti, her fate is sealed. Tyson, uncomfortable with the idea of a tied vote and a re-vote, changes his vote for Pavarti as well – throwing all of Boston Rob’s “Survivor Math” out the window.

The Villains tribal council was the best. Other players called out the fact that Russell had an immunity idol. Pavarti said she knew she was on the chopping block, and everyone just smiled thinking they knew exactly how tribal council would go down. So, the votes are cast and Jeff asks if anyone would like to play a hidden immunity idol.

Russell – God love him – stands up, unwraps the idol, and says, “You know Jeff, I can’t do it like this.” He goes on about how he wants to the play game like a warrior, playing to Coach’s mentality of dragon slaying and playing the game with honor. He continues to tell the tribe how he said he would give Pavarti the idol and has decided to live up to his word – and he passes the immunity idol to Pavarti and Pavarti plays the idol. Therefore, no votes cast for Pavarti will count.

At this point, everybody is still relatively calm because they think they have divided the votes correctly. As Jeff reads the votes, everyone knows that there is supposed to be a 3 -3 – 3 tie. Imagine the look of surprise on all of their faces when Pavarti’s name is read aloud a 4th time.

Yes, Russell was able to shake Tyson. He didn’t want to have to go through the revote and he wrote Pavarti when he was supposed to write Russell. The votes were 4 for Pavarti, 3 for Tyson, and only 2 for Russell. Russell played them all! Tyson was voted out.

If Russell can make it through a couple more weeks, I think he has an outstanding chance of sticking around. This week should be marked as his pivotal moment. In one tribal council, he was able to blind side one alliance, gain the respect of Coach – a swing vote among the tribe, and guarantee loyalty from Pavarti. Whether you want to admit it or not – Russell knows how to play the game. It’s the social part he needs to work on.

So I finished with Survivor: Panama and I’m on to Survivor: Cook Island. First, I was disappointed OK with Aras winning Survivor: Panama. I was glad “Old Navy Boy” Terri didn’t win, and even though I knew Cirie didn’t win, I still found myself rooting for her.

Now, on to Cook Island. I forgot that this is the season that when it first aired was very controversial because the four tribes that start were divided by ethnicity or race. There is a white tribe, an African American tribe, an Asian tribe, and a Latino tribe. it’s funny to see who within their tribe plays into the stereotypes their tribe’s ethnicity carries with it. It will be interesting to see how the season plays out.

And, I was excited to see that this is the season that JP was in. JP is also famous for being a model on featured in the reality show Janice Dickinson’s Modeling Agency. JP is extremely good looking; let’s see if I think he has the brains to match the looks.

JP Calderone of Survivor: Cook Island & Janice Dickinson's Modeling Agency

With this season’s edition of Survivor focusing on Heroes and Villains, I realized how many seasons of Survivor I have missed for one reason or another. I can remember watching most of the first season of Survivor. Richard Hatch made great TV. I then remember watching the premiere of Season 2 of Survivor after the Superbowl. I was instantly enamored with Colby. He was physically attractive and seemed quite friendly in that first episode, the only episode I ever watched of Season 2. After that, Survivor fell of my TV map for many years; the next season I remember had Sugar on it or when JT won, or are those the same season – I don’t remember.

Curious to learn more about this season’s players and with an abundance of television time available to me, I thought it might be fun to revisit previous seasons of survivor. To date, you can purchase previous versions of Survivor from iTunes for as little as $8.99. They have seasons dating all the way back to Season 9 – Vanuatu. For me, that was as good a place as any to start.

While I won’t bore you with a play by play of each season, but I’m sure my I’ll have some entries over the next couple of weeks about the different strategies or specific things I liked or disliked about these older versions of Survivor. I’ve made it through Season 9 – Vanuatul; Season 10 – Palau; Season 11 – Guatemala; and I’m currently on episode 3 of Season 12 – Panama. I’ll get back to Season 12 – Panama in a moment. Let me just make a few comments about seasons 9 – 11, even if they are 4 or 5 years too late.

Season 9 – Vanuatul had great challenges. This was a fun season to watch.

Season 10 – Palau had some interesting characters on it. I fell in love with Stephanie. I thought she was a hard worker, a competitive person, and she should have gone much further than she did. I can see why she was, at the time, one of the most popular players of the game. I was very disappointed that Tom won the million dollar prize in this season.

Season 11 – I can’t tell you how excited I was to see Stephanie return to this season. I was very happy she made it to the final two. This season played out quite well. I do think that Cindy should have given up her 1 car so the other 4 could have had cars. I don’t know that this would have escalated her to the final two, but I think it would have been a smart move and good for life long karma. I also wish I would have seen this season as it aired - Cindy was from Naples, FL where I grew up. I found this out only yesterday. It just would have been nice to route for somebody from your own hometown.

Now, the main catalyst for this entry has been some of the changes to the game made in Season 12 – Panama. I like how the season started off separated into four tribes – older men; older women; young men; young women. I also like the concept of Exile Island and a hidden immunity idol, a feature I definitely remember in seasons to come.

My all-time favorite change to the game so far is that in this season of Survivor, the hidden immunity idol can be used AFTER the votes have been read. This is definitely a mind blowing change to the game. Personally, ever since I’ve known of hidden immunity idols in the future seasons, I always thought that this is how immunity idols SHOULD be played. Let the players cast their votes and then play any idols! The next highest voted person is then eliminated. I love this concept. I am only on episode 3 of season 12, so will see how it actually plays out.

One other thing that has impressed me about season 12 so far one of the four person alliances that has formed during episode 2. Of the Casaya tribe, Shane, Courtney, Daniel and Aras formed an alliance of four. Aras made the alliance very public and started informing the other players about the alliance and of the supposed order in which the others would be forced to leave. I personally think this is a pretty good strategy – provided everyone is on board with the alliance being public. The mistake that Aras made was that he blabbed his mouth without first telling anyone he was doing so. It made a lot of other people uncomfortable, and I feel that alone with be the demise of this alliance.  We’ll have to wait and see.

What I hate about the the entry I just wrote is that I was trying to provide hyperlinks to some of the players from season 12 and I’ve stumbled on a spoiler indicating who won already. It sucks, because I didn’t know who won this season until now – but it will still be fun to see how it plays out. I suppose for my future Survivor – Seasons Past entries, I’ll have to take good viewing notes and make hyperlinks later.

*WARNING – the last paragraph states who was eliminated from the race. If you do not want to know, don’t read the last paragraph.

After watching episode 3 of The Amazing Race today, I am cheering for cowboy brothers Jet and Cord (hereby dubbed Team Cowboy) to win the race. Hopefully I’m not jinxing them publicly stating my support. Aside from their obvious likability factor, I think they are able to read people pretty well – I believe their disdain for Team Lesbian, Carol and Brandy, is shared by many of the viewers as well.

Episode 3 was pretty tame in comparison to the previous week. Nobody was kicked in the head by a farm animal. The challenges didn’t even involve any interaction with animals this week. I wonder if this was what was originally planned or more of a ‘lessons learned’ afterthought. I’m sure the producers and their insurance carrier must have been pretty concerned about the number of animal related injuries from last week.

But this week’s episode was not without health related drama. Team Model, Brent and Caite, began the show with a trip to the ER from what was supposedly dehydration or food poisoning, it was never clearly stated. I think the ER doctors should have checked their knuckles for bruising, as their fatigue may have been more ‘forced vomiting’ induced than dehydration. We all know how the models keep the weight off, right? (I’m just sayin’!)

Despite their constant calls to Jesus, I was sad to see Team Mommy, Monique and Shawn, eliminated from the race. They seemed like a good team that was communicating and encouraging each other well. I thought they would have made it further than episode 3.

Rather than focus on the negatives, I’ve tried to create a video blog entry about the positives. Winter Party is only 5 days away, I’ll be home (for good) soon, and I’ve caught up on my reality TV.