by Gina Scarpa

Tonight, on Survivor: Samoa, Evil Russell and Betsy have a conversation the morning after tribal council.  He confronts her for not trusting him and she seems to be set on her assessment of him.  Knowing that she could cause problems for him in this game, Russell decides to target her and get her out of the game (before she gets him).  He teams up with Jaison and openly admits to him that he’s going to start looking for the hidden immunity idol.

Let me just stop right there for a second because nobody has even said that there are idols hidden around camp yet.  Any good player who knows this game, though, should at least be checking around for such a thing.  Apparently, Russell’s the only one smart enough and without much effort, he finds it hidden in a tree.  I know he’s a schmuck… but he’s entertaining as hell to watch!  I know.  I feel like a jerk even admitting that.

Tonight’s competition is high stakes because it’s for both reward and immunity.  The reward is fishing gear… of course it is… complete with spears, flippers, and snorkel.  Tribes will enter a playing field in teams of three and attempt to grab a ball and throw it to three tribe members standing on a platform.  From there, those players will have to get the ball in the opposing tribe’s basket.  First team to three wins. 

Things get ugly right away.  People are slamming each other to the ground, hitting hard, and taking cheap shots.  When Galu is up 2-1, Jeff Probst stops the game and gives everyone a warning that if he sees one more cheap shot, that person will be ejected from the game.  No sooner does he say that when Ben kicks Nice Russell as hard as he can, knocking him to the ground.  Ben becomes the first player in Survivor history to be kicked out of a competition and he doesn’t even seem to care.  He proudly calls himself an “outlaw” while his fellow players roll their eyes at him, as did I.  Galu ends up winning, which was mostly Ben’s fault since his team was left one man down on the playing field.

Galu receives a note, saying they can send one member of their tribe to Foa Foa to observe all the way until it’s time to vote at tribal council.   They send Yasmin, who has a score to settle but more on that in a minute.  Back at the Foa Foa camp, Mike is suffering from some pretty serious health issues following that extremely physical competition.  The medical staff is brought in and they feel very concerned about his blood pressure, which seems to be dropping by the minute.  They deem him too unhealthy to continue and pull him from the game, which sucks.  That’s just the worst way to go out.

Back to Yasmin.  She goes at it with Ben because she feels that he tackled her as hard as he could in the competition and that’s disrespectful to women.  From there, I fought the urge to hit my mute button as the two of them traded insults and acted like two sixth graders.  Ben’s unpredictable attitude puts a target on his back and Foa Foa discusses getting rid of him.

At tribal council, Foa Foa agrees that they’re on the same page but Jeff isn’t so sure.  He asks Ben about being kicked out of the competition and he fires back that Jeff’s rules were “sissy”.  Oh yeah, he went there and my mouth hit the floor.  Sadly, I actually like Evil Russell about a hundred times more than this guy.  You’d think that he’d be the one going home – easy, right?  Not with Russell pullin’ the strings.  He gets everyone to vote out Betsy, who can’t seem to understand why she’s the one leaving.  I think we’re all asking ourselves the same question.

Survivor: Samoa airs Thursday nights at 8pm ET on CBS.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

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