King Arthur’s Journey Has Ended

I hate Russell Hantz. Not in a love to hate kind of way like some of his Villains brethren, but I hate him to the point that I wish he had never been cast on Survivor. After dominating the screen time last season by sabotaging his own tribe last season, he was back for another go around and weaseled his way to the end yet again thanks mostly for being on the receiving end of two of the top four dumbest moves ever in the history of Survivor (and this does not even incude the dumb move Amanda made by giving the Idol hint back to Danielle). Tyson changing his vote for no apparent reason, which would have sent Russell packing, instead Tyson gets his torch snuffed out. Then J.T. for some bizarre reason gives his Immunity Idol to Russell for no logical reason and promptly gets voted out at the hands of his own Idol. Keep in mind that J.T. didn’t make the dumbest move in Survivor history, Erick deserved that (dis)honor.

And Russell is wrong when he says there is a flaw in Survivor. No, Russell, you are the flaw and deserve the title as dumbest player in Survivor history because you are too dumb to understand the rules as they are presented to you. Just because you can bully your tribe mates to get yourself way to the final vote doesn’t mean you can bully Jeff Probst into changing the rule. There is a reason Big Brother quickly changed its rule after one season from America voting to the housemates, people vote are among our dumbest America has to offer (look at how some of our political elections have gone for the last couple decades). Russell put up two of the most pathetic final tribal councils and walked out of them with a paltry two votes in total.

Besides that, Heroes vs. Villains was surprisingly entertaining after the big dud of the first All-Stars season (with Fans vs. Favorites being not that much better). That was thanks to the players this time around actually acting strategically, not just spitefully voting out all the winners the first time they got. In fact this time around three of the four previous winners here made it to at least the jury with two at the final tribal.

And if Russell put himself in the discussion of the dumbest player in Survivor history, Sandra should be discussed as one of the best ever (and I didn’t even have her in my top twenty-five Greatest Survivor Contestants Ever list that I published right before the season). In her two wins, she has received twelve of the sixteen total votes cast at her final tribal councils. And Parvati shouldn’t be too far behind because she was the clear mastermind behind her and Russell’s alliance and still played in a way they managed her a few votes on the jury.

As Survivor has wrapped up the most recent All-Star season, I have a suggestion for their next one: Winners vs. Losers. You can take this idea a couple different ways, if you can get 8-10 (depending on how big they want the cast to be) former winners to take another go at it, have two tribes with the other being the greatest players to have never actually won (like your Rob’s Boston and Cesternino) or go big with the losers tribe and have everyone be someone that was voted out first (or second) their season. Or if you can only get around five winners, go four tribes: Winners, People who lost the final Tribal, a tribe of people who made it as far as the jury, and finally a rejects tribe of people who never saw a merge their season. No matter which way you choose, just do not bring back Russell.

Survivor: Heroes vs Villains gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.