Cool episode of Survivor on Thursday

Dude, I’m tellin ya……….

I really enjoyed this past Thursday’s episode of Survivor and it’s not just because Pretty Boy Probst didn’t show up until about 7:28 or so. At the very end, it made me think of the scene from Goodfellas where Joe Pesci walks into the bar and an old acquaintance breaks his balls about when he was a young shoeshine boy. After some verbal sparring, everything seems to be resolved and calm. Then the old-timer tells Pesci, “Now go get your fuckin’ shine box!”

The show started with Russell making some rather humorous comments about how he’ll be controlling the feeble minds of his three remaining tribemates when the inevitable merge happens. I have a growing respect for this guy. I don’t know why, but ever since I started watching pro wrestling—I always root for the bad guy. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Russell gives his all on challenges. When wusses like Jaison are running out of steam, this Texan is still on full throttle. However you feel about his personality, he made it to the final 4 of his own decimated tribe and is still cranking. And entering the episode, he still had an immunity idol tucked down his pants.

Nope…….he’s not just glad to see ya. That’s an immunity idol he’s got there.

Next thing ya know, Shambo and Laura are havin’ a good old fashioned cat fight at their camp. Jesus Christ. This sounded like Frank and Estelle Costanza going at it on a rerun of Seinfeld.  Talk about something scraping my nerves. It reminded me of when two tough guys are bitching at each other at work and someone says, “Girls….girls….please !!….”

Always good for a laugh in a macho place like a plant or a warehouse.

So finally the groups went to the alleged reward challenge and learned that the tribes were merging. They all received the new tribe headband and were rewarded with a feast. Perhaps the best part of the entire segment is that Probst wasn’t there. I don’t know…..somehow those minutes of the show were just better without him.

When the new, single tribe went back to the camp they’ll be staying at, Russell immediately went into recruitment mode. He approached both Laura and Monica and then eventually John. He revealed to basically everyone that he had the idol. His chief new ally turned out to be Shambo as they both cited their Southern background as a connection. This part of the show was entertaining and interesting as several scenarios developed as to who might be voted out later.

I have to admit that this is the first time in several shows that I really didn’t have a clue who would be going until it became much more apparent right before the Tribal Council. But it was decided that Laura would be going and most everyone seemed to be on-board. Then the picture got a little grayer.

They did an immunity challenge which was pretty damn basic and non-exciting, really. Each player got one, single chance to hit a ball off of a tee (like kids do before they play Little League). You had one swing to hit the ball into a scoring zone. To make things more fair, they did seperate the guys from the girls which I did think was smart and logical. As a result, two players would be receiving immunity. In the end, it turned out to be John winning the men’s division and Laura winning the women’s side.

Talk about saving your ass in a BIG-TIME way. Without that win, she was gone.

So then the maneuvering in camp started all over again. The entire plan that had been hatched was ruined. So several more scenarios developed—many of which were meant to lure Russell into playing his idol–even though he wasn’t going to be the one voted for. In the end, everyone basically decided on blindsiding Erik. Which they did.

Most of us who are fans of this show love a good blindside. Some cocky-ass sonofabitch thinks he’s in pretty good command of things and believes he’s in on a certain vote strategy and then……POW ! Right in the kisser !!! Any chance Erik had of luring any fence sitters his way at the last moment at Tribal Council went out the window when he started brazenly attacking people’s character. He came off as a real dick that hadn’t been so evident to that point. I smirked when he tried to give a final manly hand clasp to one of the male members of his tribe (Dave perhaps?) and he got a cold shoulder. He was definitley stunned by the vote. Awesome.

When I thought about it as his torch was being doused by the now-present Probst, I had chuckled a few times during previous episodes when this guy was huddled in his little tree nook. He’d peek out at the rain and he kind of looked like a sissy a few times. It took his ouster to make me recall that this guy was actually a little bit of a twitch.

So as he turned to leave and exit the Tribal Council area, my thoughts drifted to that scene from Goodfellas. I laughed to myself as I said,

“Now go crawl in your little fuckin’ tree nook! “

You little twitch.